Having Problem With RT-AC68U

[djtech2k]

Sorry, you lost me there. My point is basically that I am paying for "1000" but do not get anything over "300" really.

As of now, computers wired to my Asus have been getting around 250-300. Wireless 5ghz is getting 120-150. Cable drops in different places in my house get lower speeds, so I need to get the cabling checked/measured to see if there is an issue with the cables. I do not think that is related to the main issue we have been discussing.

 

[dlandiss]

Sorry, you lost me there. My point is

My point was that it is much easier to follow technical discussions, and there is a much smaller chance of misunderstanding, if correct name and unit abbreviations are used. It gets especially confusing when B (Bytes) and b (bits) are interchanged.

 

[djtech2k]

Ok, point taken.

So I have comcast come to look at my install. Of course the guy had no idea. He said the line looked good and signal was good. So he replaced the modem. By default, it is in full router mode. When it was activated and in full router mode, I ran a speed test and got over 900Mbps. It was MUCH higher than I had ever seen. Now I do not use their device in router mode because I use my Asus with the Merlin build to do more advanced or custom stuff. So I flipped the modem to "bridge" mode. Everything rebooted.

Now I ran a test with an ethernet cable plugged into my Asus router. I get 200-300Mbps max. I tried connecting ethernet to any switch and it is about the same. So this looks like square one again.

My comcast modem has 2 RJ45 ports. My Asus router is plugged into 1 of them. I tried plugging my laptop into the 2nd port, but when the comcast device is in bridge mode, it is very difficult to get an IP, so I am not able to test that way. I know its strange, but the previous modem that he replaced was the same way. When in bridge mode, it is very hard to get an IP and I have never gotten 2 IP's for 2 devices.

So I am a bit stuck. When the comcast device is in router mode, I can plug directly in and get almost 1000Mbps. When I put it in bridge mode and connect directly to my Asus router, then I cannot get more than 200-300Mbps.

Any ideas?

 

[CaptainSTX]

As an experiment leave your Comcast provided modem in router mode and then double NAT your ASUS router behind it and see what the results are. Double NATing won't reduce your speed. Also when you are in the double NAT setup reset your ASUS router to factory defaults to see if some setting is causing your problem.

 

[ColinTaylor]

If your Asus is only getting 200-300Mbps over a wired connection that would be consistent with hardware acceleration being disabled on that model. You can check it's status at Tools > System Information > Network. It should also tell you what feature you have enabled that has disabled hardware acceleration, probably QoS or IPTraffic.

 

[djtech2k]

If your Asus is only getting 200-300Mbps over a wired connection that would be consistent with hardware acceleration being disabled on that model. You can check it's status at Tools > System Information > Network. It should also tell you what feature you have enabled that has disabled hardware acceleration, probably QoS or IPTraffic.

Thanks.

I just checked that setting and it is enabled. Here is the value: Enabled (CTF only).

I did do the above-mentioned test also. I put the modem in router mode, so essentially double NAT'ing. The speeds never got anywhere near the 900Mbps+. They stayed in the 200-300 range.

So when the modem is a router and I plug a laptop into it, I can get 900Mbps+. When I put on bridge mode, the best I can get is around 300, no matter what I do. One troubling thing is that when in bridge mode, I am not able to plugin and get an IP from the modem. After a couple reboots, my Asus will get an IP, but I am unable to get a laptop to get an IP from the modem when I plug them directly into the modem. That's strange, but it makes it hard to test for sure. Its like it will only hand an IP to my Asus router when its in bridge mode.

 

[djtech2k]

I just validated that the Asus is set to Level 1 and Jumbo Frame Disabled. I tried changing it to level 2 and enabled jumbo frames but I did not see any change. I am testing on a computer that is plugged into a 1Gb switch sitting right next to the Asus. So its not plugged directly into the Asus, but its plugged into a switch that is plugged into the Asus. Of course I can plug it directly in, but I figured I should see the changes if it were fixed.

 

[ColinTaylor]

One troubling thing is that when in bridge mode, I am not able to plugin and get an IP from the modem. After a couple reboots, my Asus will get an IP, but I am unable to get a laptop to get an IP from the modem when I plug them directly into the modem. That's strange, but it makes it hard to test for sure. Its like it will only hand an IP to my Asus router when its in bridge mode.

In bridge mode it's not uncommon to have to completely power off the modem and the device connected to it for about 5 minutes. Then power on the modem, wait for it to fully initialise and then power on the connected device. Because the MAC address seen by your ISP's equipment has changed, as a consequence your device will get a different IP address. Note also that some client devices can be fairly stubborn in refusing to except a different IP address than they previously had.

I think if I were you I'd install an up to date firmware, the version you're running is ancient. It also has multiple known security vulnerabilities that have been actively exploited. So you definitely don't want to be connecting it to the internet when your modem in bridge mode.

 

[djtech2k]

In bridge mode it's not uncommon to have to completely power off the modem and the device connected to it for about 5 minutes. Then power on the modem, wait for it to fully initialise and then power on the connected device. Because the MAC address seen by your ISP's equipment has changed, as a consequence your device will get a different IP address. Note also that some client devices can be fairly stubborn in refusing to except a different IP address than they previously had.

I think if I were you I'd install an up to date firmware, the version you're running is ancient. It also has multiple known security vulnerabilities that have been actively exploited. So you definitely don't want to be connecting it to the internet when your modem in bridge mode.

What you said about bridge mode makes sense. That is almost how I have gotten it to finally work. I did just read on a forum somewhere on comcast that when in bridge mode, only 1 port is active, so my results would make sense if that's true. Again, makes me wonder if my own modem would fix this issue or not.

Ugh...I definitely don't want to do the upgrade. I have config in the Asus from years past that I do not even remember. For example, I have a usb drive plugged in so I have that optware or whatever installed so I can use the drive for storage. I don't remember how I did any of that, so redoing it all will be a big pain. I wish there was a way to export config, upgrade, and then import the config. Someone on the forums here suggested a list of things to do and it was quite long and sounded like I would have to redo everything manually.

 

[djtech2k]

Has anyone here been able to validate that the 68U with Merlin can do anything close to 1Gbps? Just trying to make sure that there isn't a limitation of the Asus.

 

[dlandiss]

Has anyone here been able to validate that the 68U with Merlin can do anything close to 1Gbps? Just trying to make sure that there isn't a limitation of the Asus.

https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/tools/charts/router/search/1235-asus-rtac68u

then click "Click to see Performance Benchmark Summary"

 

[djtech2k]

Ok. Hmm. So I guess there could be something with my Asus, or the version of the firmware, or something with my modem.

I am looking into the firmware upgrade again, but frankly its scares me. Seems like a lot can go wrong and I just don't remember a lot of what I put into this thing.

 

[Zonkd]

Why scared? I would recommend just temporarily using the ISP modem/router for your home devices wifi internet access. That gives you all the time you need to reset and work on the ASUS following our guides. Basically what’s involved is holding a button to factory reset it, you’d then methodically flash the major firmware releases to bring it up-to-date, once it’s on the latest then you’d factory reset it one last time and configure it with our recommended settings, and do some trial and error to see if that fixes your wifi issues. Once happy you’d plug in the HDD and enable SMB to do file sharing. If desired you can reinstall opt and scripts like skynet and diversion onto your USB flash drive. You’d only need to plug it, follow my guide to erase it, then run the AMTM script (easy) to automatically install opt and the scripts. It’s all menu based and user friendly. Really you just need to find the patience and the spare time to work through it. By the end it becomes easy.

 

[djtech2k]

I have another thread trying to figure out the upgrade process now. I just am not sure about a lot of it.

For example, what versions do I need to upgrade?

How can I figure out what is installed, like ipsets, scripts, etc, so that I can try to redo it all.

With the USB and everything that is installed, will I be able to plug it in on a new build and it work with all the scripts and such?

What is the guide you mention and the AMTM script?

Definitely seems like a lot to do and flying a bit blind. I never thought this would happen as I thought there would be easy upgrade paths.

 

[preacher65]

Edit: Saw a reply in your other thread from the man himself saying it's a lot easier than I thought , I'll leave this post here though.

Assuming you have installed various scripts in the past, but just can't remember which ones, you're probably going to have to do a bit of detective work to figure out what they are.
You probably can't just plug the USB drive in and expect them to work, though, they'll need to be re-installed.

To start off with, if you have a USB drive you probably have Entware installed onto it. Open up ssh command prompt and type

opkg list-installed

This will show you all entware packages installed and give you a starting point. However there won't be a direct match between the entware package names and the names of scripts from this forum - the entware packages are just the components some scripts use to do their thing.

You can also look through the content of any files in /jffs/scripts to see what's there, most of the scripts here will either add their own script to this directory, or modify standard scripts and add a comment at the end of any lines they add such as "# Added by Diversion".
Also you could have a look through your syslog after a reboot, many scripts start on boot and will write to the log as they do so.
Also look in /jffs/configs to see if there are any files in there, see the wiki for an overview of what those are for: https://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin/wiki/Custom-config-files

amtm is a manager for some of the more popular scripts and makes it pretty easy to install them. Just search the forum for threads with "amtm" in the title. Other scripts will likely have their own installation instructions in their respective threads.
@Zonkd has a good guide to formating USBs here: https://www.snbforums.com/threads/e...ptions-on-the-router.48302/page-2#post-455723

Once you've worked out which scripts and extra bits you have installed, then unless you customised the scripts after installing them, or have personal data stored on the USB drive, it's probably better to just start from scratch. It's really easy to just reformat the USB drive, install amtm and then use that to install several other scripts. (Or if you have a spare USB drive, use that and keep the old one to refer back to, or in case you need to roll back.)

I'm still relatively new to this firmware myself so hopefully others will point out any ways to check what you have installed that I may have missed.

(Also - without meaning to come over as condescending - make sure you document what you install in case you ever have to go through this again. )

One last thing - in the other thread you mention the "jffs usb" but as I understand things /jffs is usually mounted on internal storage not on a USB drive. You can run

df -h

to check where yours is.

 

[djtech2k]

I looked back through my posts and I am pretty sure that I installed optware. I tried the opkg command from ssh and the command isn't there, so I assume I do not have entware installed.

 

[balcy24]

I don't know if this will help but I was having slow speed issues with my Spectrum internet and RT-AC68U. Spectrum upgraded their service to 200/11 months ago but I never saw anything above 99/2. Turns out it was my Bandwidth Setting under Adaptive QoS/QoS in my router. I moved it up to 250/20 and now I am getting the full speed available. It was driving me crazy!