Merlin/Asus fw noob: help wiht setting up RT-AC1900P with (AC68 fw).

[amd7674]

Hi Guys,

Thank you Merlin for all your hard work and excellent firmware.

A little background:
I'm coming from N66U (which run shibby's tomato, I guess you can say I'm a tomato guy ). My household is fully wired cat5e/cat6 and I don't rely much on wifi... other than kids ipads, cell phones to check email/browse the net. I guess I'm a dinosaur

I bought AC1900P router to help with WAN-TO-LAN speeds on my new 1GB internet service. With N66U tomato (NAT acceleration) disabled I was maxing at 150mb. With Merlin/Asus fw NAT enabled from my understanding I could get 200mb-250mb max.

I did flash the new router with the latest AC68 fw without any issues.
I started populating the settings last night (run out time to finish it) I really like the options Merlin fw offers, however it is a little different from shibby's tomato. I still need to make some changes. I love what AI Protection offers for my 2 kids with laptops and ipads.

Since I'll be doing one for one router swap, I have to wait till all family goes to sleep for any sort of testing. LOL

I have few questions.
- ssid for 2.4ghz and 5ghz networks, different or the same? I see mixed opinions... BTW... I was using only 2.4ghz on my to-be-retired N66U.. Should I even bother with 5Ghz if I was happy with 2.4Ghz.
- for guest network, should I create two 2.4ghz and 5ghz variants or one 2.4ghz is good enough?
- for guest network, should I bother with MAC filtering?
- is there a way to turn off wifi radio for specific period of time? (shabby tomato - had it under access restrictions)

I will revisit all the options again tonight to make sure I haven't missed anything.

Thanks in advance for your input and help !

Martin

 

[RMerlin]

ssid for 2.4ghz and 5ghz networks, different or the same? I see mixed opinions... BTW... I was using only 2.4ghz on my to-be-retired N66U.. Should I even bother with 5Ghz if I was happy with 2.4Ghz.

Up to you, it's a matter of personal preferences. I like having separate SSIDs so I am in complete control as to what device connect to which band, rather than letting the device decide itself. I like keeping the slow devices (anything 802.11n) on the 2.4 GHz band, but my fast devices (anything 802.11ac) on the 5 GHz band.

for guest network, should I create two 2.4ghz and 5ghz variants or one 2.4ghz is good enough?

Depends on your needs. In general, there's no real reason to have multiple guest networks at home. A single one per band would be enough if you want to allow guest visitor to get Internet access while isolating them from the rest of the LAN. Also easier to regularly change that password than that of the main wifi.

for guest network, should I bother with MAC filtering?

In general no, MAC filtering is of limited use as a security measure as it can be bypassed, unless you just want to block non-technical oriented users with it. Once again it depends on your needs.

is there a way to turn off wifi radio for specific period of time? (shabby tomato - had it under access restrictions)

Radio scheduler is under Wireless -> Professional.

 

[L&LD]

Martin, before you start configuring your new router (congratulations, btw), you did do a full and proper reset to factory defaults, right?

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/no...l-and-manual-configuration.27115/#post-205573

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/rt-ac66u-slow-wan-to-lan.12973/page-3#post-269410

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/faq-nvram-and-factory-default-reset.22822/


After you have performed the above steps, entered all your settings and verified they are working correctly, use the following utility to make a backup of your current settings (also keep a zipped copy of the firmware the settings are for too).

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/faq-nvram-and-factory-default-reset.22822/

The biggest help this utility offers is a human readable output of all your settings (even if it might not be able to be used to restore the settings in any future build for you).

 

[amd7674]

Thank you Merlin and L&LD for your very useful information.

I only flashed 'virgin' router with Merlin's latest FW. However I like your idea (to be on the safe side) to DO IT right from the beginning. I like the idea of using backup/restore utility. From you said the settings backed up file is only good for firmware the settings were used for. Therefore I would have redo my settings each time I update fw? ... or I can update the fw to the newer one (I assume it would preserve the settings) and run utility to write a new backup file for the current fw?

Thanks again...for very useful links ... If not tonight I will get back here in the next few days with my results

 

[L&LD]

There is no such thing as a 'virgin' router.

A reset to factory defaults is needed when moving from 'official' firmware to 'third-party' firmware 'always'.

You may not need to redo the settings from scratch each time a new firmware came out though if you stay with the same fork (read the changelog though, it may still be required from time to time). But, that is the first thing to do if/when an issue or bug appears which seems that nobody else has, or is otherwise untrackable.

When you flash new/different firmware to a router, the old settings carry over. However, if the firmware that was flashed varied significantly (enough) from the previously installed version with regards to where settings were stored or which variables or variable names were used, then resetting to factory defaults will bring the router to a good/known state for the firmware that is now installed and give you the best chance to evaluate or just use the latest firmware.

I wouldn't make a backup (using john9527's utility) of the settings after flashing new firmware though. I do that only if I fully reset the router after flashing the firmware I want to run.

A backup is created when a minimal and manual install has been performed and I can now trust the settings to be accurately applied and used by the firmware version they were made on. Keep a zipped copy of the actual firmware itself in a safe place too. If you only have the settings, it may not be enough to give you a stable router on the firmware you do have access to at that time.

 

[amd7674]

Thank you very much......

Cheers,
Martin

 

[amd7674]

Thanks GUYS AGAIN !!!!...



Now I have to play with options/settings... etc...