Newer RT-N66U firmwares are slower?

[binarydad]

I have two laptops running in 5GHZ: an intel 6235N and intel 5100. I remember buying this router and everything seemed way faster than my old linksys wrt610n. The asus came with one of the older firmwares.

I updated to the firmware before the latest (the one where they fixed the centrino 5ghz issue) and it seemed that speeds have gotten slower. I can't really pinpoint the issue, but both my laptops no longer seem to have the same speed and snappy feeling they used to on the 5ghz band.

Has anyone else noticed anything similar? I sort of want to resort to an older firmware to see if this is true. Does anyone know where I can find an older/stock firmware for this router? Thanks.

 

[joegreat]

Does anyone know where I can find an older/stock firmware for this router? Thanks.

Hi,

You can go for Merlin's version of the Asus firmware and install the last 372 version to test if the older drivers are better for you...

Details are discussed on older version here: Asuswrt-Merlin 3.0.0.4.372.31 is out

With kind regards
Joe

 

[jlake]

I have two laptops running in 5GHZ: an intel 6235N and intel 5100. I remember buying this router and everything seemed way faster than my old linksys wrt610n. The asus came with one of the older firmwares.

I updated to the firmware before the latest (the one where they fixed the centrino 5ghz issue) and it seemed that speeds have gotten slower. I can't really pinpoint the issue, but both my laptops no longer seem to have the same speed and snappy feeling they used to on the 5ghz band.

Has anyone else noticed anything similar? I sort of want to resort to an older firmware to see if this is true. Does anyone know where I can find an older/stock firmware for this router? Thanks.

Yes, the new firmware is broken for many people. Asus has known about the problem since March. And now here it is September.

You can install stock asus .276 which is on the Asus firmware website. Or you can use Merlin.

So no, you're not imagining anything.

To my knowledge, Asus stock .276 has security vulnerabilities, so Merlin's .32 firmware might be a better choice.

 

[binarydad]

Yes, the new firmware is broken for many people. Asus has known about the problem since March. And now here it is September.

You can install stock asus .276 which is on the Asus firmware website. Or you can use Merlin.

So no, you're not imagining anything.

To my knowledge, Asus stock .276 has security vulnerabilities, so Merlin's .32 firmware might be a better choice.

Thank you. I'll try to revert to the original firmware before trying merlin's.

Do you know exactly what the known issue is? Is it just limited to wireless or are there other performance issues? For example, I noticed when transferring large files at a rate of only about 30 MB/s between two wired servers, it seems to kill my wireless for everyone.

 

[jlake]

Thank you. I'll try to revert to the original firmware before trying merlin's.

Do you know exactly what the known issue is? Is it just limited to wireless or are there other performance issues? For example, I noticed when transferring large files at a rate of only about 30 MB/s between two wired servers, it seems to kill my wireless for everyone.

Merlin can probably give you more details on samba priority etc..

I wouldn't spend too much time on it.

For 374.257 you have to make sure you reset the router to factory defaults and reconfigure from scratch (don't try to restore your old backed up settings). Also, you have to delete all your old wireless profiles from computers, tablets, phones etc. Some people just give the router new ssid's.

If you're going to experiment with different firmware, my advice would be to reset to factory defaults and reconfigure from scratch, and remove profiles every time.

But again, there's known compatibility issues with the new stock Asus firmware and many adapters, including intel, Broadcom, Ralink, and atheros.

 

[binarydad]

Merlin can probably give you more details on samba priority etc..

I wouldn't spend too much time on it.

For 374.257 you have to make sure you reset the router to factory defaults and reconfigure from scratch (don't try to restore your old backed up settings). Also, you have to delete all your old wireless profiles from computers, tablets, phones etc. Some people just give the router new ssid's.

If you're going to experiment with different firmware, my advice would be to reset to factory defaults and reconfigure from scratch, and remove profiles every time.

But again, there's known compatibility issues with the new stock Asus firmware and many adapters, including intel, Broadcom, Ralink, and atheros.

I did a reset after going from one of the older ones to a one before latest (200 => 300?) and still noticed odd issues.

So, I decided to give merlin's latest a try. If I still see issues, I'll roll back to the oldest one on ASUS's site is. I'm completely new to merlin's FW (I used to use dd-wrt back in the day on my linksys). I can only imagine it's more stable from what I've been reading.

 

[binarydad]

Ah, I noticed that the latest merlin FW is still using the old driver from 270. Hoping this will fix my 5ghz issues (as it says). I guess I'm not so crazy after all. Thanks!

 

[binarydad]

Actually, one last thing. Do we know if the Centrino issues in the latest 3.0.0.4.374.257 stock build are actually fixed? THIS is what I was using and still noticed odd issues. I can't seem to find anything on this site that talks specifically about that. Maybe I'll start a new thread?

 

[RMerlin]

Actually, one last thing. Do we know if the Centrino issues in the latest 3.0.0.4.374.257 stock build are actually fixed? THIS is what I was using and still noticed odd issues. I can't seem to find anything on this site that talks specifically about that. Maybe I'll start a new thread?

The Centrino issues were fixed with 374.257, however various other devices are still experiencing connectivity issues.

 

[jlake]

Actually, one last thing. Do we know if the Centrino issues in the latest 3.0.0.4.374.257 stock build are actually fixed? THIS is what I was using and still noticed odd issues. I can't seem to find anything on this site that talks specifically about that. Maybe I'll start a new thread?

A couple people still reported centrino issues in this thread:

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=12325

 

[Deleted member 22229]

I believe the sercurity issues with the 2xx firmware was acloud and no ipv6 firewall.

 

[RMerlin]

I believe the sercurity issues with the 2xx firmware was acloud and no ipv6 firewall.

There's also a security issue involving Samba. I won't go over the details because Asus hasn't released a fixed version yet (tho they did fix it internally). I also fixed it in the 374.32 release of my FW.

That one is only exploitable LAN-side however.