(NOOB) Definition of "minimal and manual configuration"

[Boogieman]

If you use an 'old' SSID, you may never see any issues. When your router otherwise seems to work as much as you can check the usual suspects, then using a new SSID with 8 characters and without any spaces, special characters, punctuation or smiley faces is almost the equivalent of 'resetting network settings' on all your devices and doing a reboot on them too.

The reason this works is that the router and the client device will negotiate what microcode to enable for the connection. If/when you upgrade/update the router to a newer firmware and/or different defaults as will happen with newer firmware, the client devices continue to use the old settings which the newly setup router may not support anymore, or worse, enable other settings than expected.

For any customer that I set up a router for, I make sure to do this so that I don't need to come back for random glitches related to non-sanitized network setup that may only save a few minutes of actual time vs. the alternative which can easily add up to hours or more.

Oh, I did not think of the clients that have way.
I thought every time they connected they negotiated network settings (as it evens says so upon connecting from i.e. a mobile phone) and updated them accordningly.
And since the router is rebooted after doing all settings, the network connection needs to be reconnceted which I also thought meant renegotiated (and updated according to changes in router).
Im not a network expert, so I thank You for the feedback. I really did not think that network clients were that "stupid"

 

[martinr]

If you use an 'old' SSID, you may never see any issues. When your router otherwise seems to work as much as you can check the usual suspects, then using a new SSID with 8 characters and without any spaces, special characters, punctuation or smiley faces is almost the equivalent of 'resetting network settings' on all your devices and doing a reboot on them too.

The reason this works is that the router and the client device will negotiate what microcode to enable for the connection. If/when you upgrade/update the router to a newer firmware and/or different defaults as will happen with newer firmware, the client devices continue to use the old settings which the newly setup router may not support anymore, or worse, enable other settings than expected.

For any customer that I set up a router for, I make sure to do this so that I don't need to come back for random glitches related to non-sanitized network setup that may only save a few minutes of actual time vs. the alternative which can easily add up to hours or more.

I think I knew not to use special characters in the SSIDs but I didn’t know about the 8 characters.

So could you possibly incorporate this info:

a new SSID with 8 characters and without any spaces, special characters, punctuation or smiley faces

into the guide on Page 1 where you have:

• Use new ssid's for all bands and radio's (most likely easier to do after the wizard completes for dual 5GHz band radio's capable routers). You can reuse the old passwords though.

Many thanks.

 

[Boogieman]

I think I knew not to use special characters in the SSIDs but I didn’t know about the 8 characters.

So could you possibly incorporate this info:

a new SSID with 8 characters and without any spaces, special characters, punctuation or smiley faces

into the guide on Page 1 where you have:

• Use new ssid's for all bands and radio's (most likely easier to do after the wizard completes for dual 5GHz band radio's capable routers). You can reuse the old passwords though.

Many thanks.

Is
underscore _
Considered a special character?

I have used that instead of space since draft N was introduced and never knew that this could cause issues

 

[L&LD]

Is
underscore _
Considered a special character?

I have used that instead of space since draft N was introduced and never knew that this could cause issues

If you're testing for a particularly wily bug, it is.

 

[martinr]

Is
underscore _
Considered a special character?

I have used that instead of space since draft N was introduced and never knew that this could cause issues

I have them in my SSIDs without problem, but next time I factory reset, following L&LD’s guide, I won’t be using them again.

 

[edsyl]

When you say disable Network Share I assume you mean the SAMBA share? I ask because I cannot get the router to be the master browser without it being enabled? Kinda makes sense, but wanted to make sure. My rationale for this is that I want the router to be the center of all things and not have multiple master browsers on my internal network.
Thanks Exorcist.

Ed

 

[L&LD]

When you say disable Network Share I assume you mean the SAMBA share? I ask because I cannot get the router to be the master browser without it being enabled? Kinda makes sense, but wanted to make sure. My rationale for this is that I want the router to be the center of all things and not have multiple master browsers on my internal network.
Thanks Exorcist.

Ed

This behavior may have changed from 2015.

Use the mode/option that works for you, but keep notes of any differences past recommended defaults for easier troubleshooting.

Btw, you did test that by rebooting the router after making that change, correct?

 

[edsyl]

This behavior may have changed from 2015.

Use the mode/option that works for you, but keep notes of any differences past recommended defaults for easier troubleshooting.

Btw, you did test that by rebooting the router after making that change, correct?

Yes, I reboot after making any setting change.
I did not see any useful search results for other master browser recommended defaults other than the one: your note on it as per this thread.

 

[royarcher]

B

It means exactly what it says. Nothing more, nothing less. Only enable options that you need. And disable the options you don't need.

This is what I consider a base line.


Before flashing new firmware.

• Make a backup cfg file and label it with the firmware version currently running on the router. (I save this with the associated trx firmware file in a safe place, along with the next item, if needed).
• Save any custom settings to the jffs partition in a safe place.
• Remove all USB devices from the router.
• Reboot via the gui and let it settle for 5 minutes after it comes up again.

Flash new (or existing) firmware.

• Flash new firmware (and in some cases, re-flash the existing firmware if any random, unexplained glitches are still causing issues).
• Reset to factory defaults via the gui.
• After the router has rebooted (point above), do a hard reboot (pull the power plug), wait a couple of minutes and then power it up again.

After new firmware loaded.

• Use the wizard to connect to your ISP.
• Use new ssid's for all bands and radio's (most likely easier to do after the wizard completes for dual 5GHz band radio's capable routers). You can reuse the old passwords though.
• Disable media server.
• Disable network share.
• Disable NFSD.
• Disable FTP.
• Change device name (if needed), set Force as Master Browser and indicate the Work Group name (these steps are optional for some home users).
• Disable WPS.
• Disable WDS.
• Uncheck Xbox and B/G protection (Both bands).
• Wireless Mode: Auto (default).
• Control Channel: set manually after testing each channel.
• Preamble Type: Short.
• Spanning Tree Protocol: Disabled.
• IPv6: Disabled.
• Enable DoS protection: Disabled.
• Set time zone to your area.
• Format JFFS partition at next boot: Yes.

• Any other options not specified above is left at it's default setting following the above reset to factory defaults above.

At this point, reboot the router (via gui) twice, waiting 5 minutes before the second reboot (this allows the JFFS partition to be formatted and then available).

Now, if needed, Enable JFFS custom scripts and configs. Reboot and wait 5 minutes after the router comes up.

This is where I would create another cfg backup and name it with the firmware version just installed. Save this as the 'base default' (but remember that if you use it to use new ssid's and to format the JFFS partition again too).

At this point I will test different channels for each band (and /or radio) to find the best for that specific environment.

After finding the best channel and if things are stable at this point for an extended period (at least a week), other available router options may be introduced one at a time and added to as (and if) they prove stable.

Brilliant it takes a while but it seems to have stopped my router losing connections and I tried everything else first e.g. reflashing merlin firmware,hard and soft resets ect ect thankyou thankyou thankyou

 

[L-ight]

I stumbled here searching for slow wireless speeds with my Asus AC3100 on my Fiber 1000/1000 connection. Wired speeds are great (995mbps dn/990mbps up). Before I installed Merlin I was getting wireless speeds (5ghz) of 500-600mbps dn/400-500mbps up. Now I am lucky to barely get above 200mbps. My setup is nothing fancy either. No QoS enabled, use mainly 5ghz for all my devices that use it and 2ghz for those that don't use 5ghz. I have around 28 devices that are connected wireless. From reading it seems I will have to manually reconnect each device after doing a factory reset/re-flash/reboot 2x? Though, before I do this I read about HW acceleration needs to be enabled. I am not sure that it is and I will def check this before I go the fresh route. As of now I have the latest Merlin firmware installed on my router. If my HW accel is turned off would this be my problem for getting slow wifi speeds? If not and I have to go with a fresh install is there anyway to not have to manually reconnect all my wifi devices? Another thing I wanted to mention was the SSID name. I have a special character in it. NEON | LIGHTS is the actual name for the 2ghz channel and NEON | LIGHTENING is for the 5ghz channel. Should I change this to something more basic and without special characters? I was unclear on why this was mentioned above. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Kingp1n]

These settings won't work for everyone. I have some older game devices and the following settings are necessary to use them and keep a performant network:
-Long preamble
-b/g protection
For some newer devices such as Xbox One to get reliable open connection, I also require:
-IPV6

Other than those few exceptions, this is exactly what I do. Great guide!

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

I game alot on Xbox and use FreshJR script which doesn't work well with IPv6 at this time

 

[martinr]

I stumbled here searching for slow wireless speeds with my Asus AC3100 on my Fiber 1000/1000 connection. Wired speeds are great (995mbps dn/990mbps up). Before I installed Merlin I was getting wireless speeds (5ghz) of 500-600mbps dn/400-500mbps up. Now I am lucky to barely get above 200mbps. My setup is nothing fancy either. No QoS enabled, use mainly 5ghz for all my devices that use it and 2ghz for those that don't use 5ghz. I have around 28 devices that are connected wireless. From reading it seems I will have to manually reconnect each device after doing a factory reset/re-flash/reboot 2x? Though, before I do this I read about HW acceleration needs to be enabled. I am not sure that it is and I will def check this before I go the fresh route. As of now I have the latest Merlin firmware installed on my router. If my HW accel is turned off would this be my problem for getting slow wifi speeds? If not and I have to go with a fresh install is there anyway to not have to manually reconnect all my wifi devices? Another thing I wanted to mention was the SSID name. I have a special character in it. NEON | LIGHTS is the actual name for the 2ghz channel and NEON | LIGHTENING is for the 5ghz channel. Should I change this to something more basic and without special characters? I was unclear on why this was mentioned above. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Welcome to the forum.

You have 2 special characters in your SSID: the space and the vertical bar . I don’t expect they’d be responsible for a slow wireless speed: they’d either break something or they wouldn’t. Problem is when they don’t break anything just now but at some future date they do cause something to break. But, because, you got away with it for so long, it never dawns on you - until someone asks you - that the special characters are the problem


https://www.snbforums.com/threads/f...names-ssid-passwords-hostnames-domains.31273/


And as for the reason why a new SSID is used on the factory reset, you’ve obviously seen L&LD’s reasoning a few posts back:



https://www.snbforums.com/threads/n...manual-configuration.27115/page-2#post-487792

L&LD quite rightly doesn’t want to be recalled after resetting a customer’s router. So again, you could keep your old SSID and get away with it and get a little complacent, and then get caught out when perhaps an update contains changes to wireless code, and you end up wasting hours troubleshooting and posting to this forum. It is good practice, and maybe time-saving in the long run, to get into the routine of following L&LD’s guide to the letter. That’s not to say you must reset every time you upgrade, but when you do reset the router, you do it following a strict checklist.

And as you already have 2 special characters that could cause problems, now is a good time to fix the SSID.

Reading between the lines I get the impression you installed Merlin’s firmware and did not carry out a reset to factory default settings AFTERWARDS. Is that correct? If so, you need to reset and bring the router to a known good state otherwise you will waste time troubleshooting, and getting nowhere, and still end up resetting in the end.

As for HW acceleration, I have no experience; however, I believe the consensus is to leave it off.

 

[dave14305]

As for HW acceleration, I have no experience; however, I believe the consensus is to leave it off.

To get high speeds that @L-ight subscribes to, hardware acceleration should be enabled. It won’t affect WiFi speeds, but will affect WAN speeds (a nitpicking distinction by me).

 

[Justinh]

• Change device name (if needed), set Force as Master Browser and indicate the Work Group name (these steps are optional for some home users).

How/where is "Force as Master Browser" done?

 

[L&LD]

@Justinh go to USB Application, Servers Center and then Network Place (Samba).

Note that in many current os', this setting is being rapidly depreciated. But I still set it out of habit.

 

[Justinh]

@Justinh go to USB Application, Servers Center and then Network Place (Samba).

Note that in many current os', this setting is being rapidly depreciated. But I still set it out of habit.

On that page there is nothing about 'master browser'.
There is a note saying ASUS is lack in their security and is still using SMBv1.
There is a switch for enabling shares and guest logins, and fields for device name and workgroup.

Thanks.

 

[ColinTaylor]

On that page there is nothing about 'master browser'.

Are you using Merlin's firmware? That option isn't there in stock Asus firmware.

 

[L&LD]

@Justinh, I may have missed it, but what router do you have?

 

[JohnD5000]

What does ""Force as Master Browser" do? I see here you recommend setting it to "Yes" but state that it is optional for some home users. I'm trying to figure out if I should set it to Yes. I have 2 hard drives attached to the 2 USB ports on my RT-AC86U.

Also, "Spanning Tree Protocol" set to disabled. What does this do? Why switch it from default enabled?


Thanks

 

[L&LD]

https://www.google.com/search?sourc...hUKEwi7p6zsy4PnAhWDJjQIHSx_B1gQ4dUDCAg&uact=5

You can try a similar search for 'Spanning Tree Protocol'.