Noob wanting to flash AC68u to Merlin

[Drivium]

I've searched around here for a tutorial (preferably with screenshots), but no success so far. I'm interested in Merlin in an attempt to get my USB drive to sleep. Reading through the forums, it sounds like this may be the solution. Also, came across mention of an adblocker that runs on the server. That sounds awesome as well...

Can someone point me in the right direction on these topics? Also, anything I should be aware of or consider prior to flashing to Merlin?

 

[TonyH]

Hi,
I used to have ASUS routers but no more. You just reset the router, flash with Merlin's f/w.
If the f/w is zipped, unzip it first. When done, reset again and configure... done. I believe hard drive spin down is more of a matter of drive firmware. Good luck.

 

[Drivium]

Going to try this for my sleeping issue (its a Seagate drive):

http://knowledge.seagate.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/004316en?language=en_US

Onslaught of questions...
1. What is FORK?
2. Here's a dumb question - can I flash to Merlin and maintain my settings? I have many... Ports set for GGPO.net, shared usb drive admin/user settings, mac address filtering (about 20 addresses)... or, will I have to recreate all of these settings?
2a. Or is there a way to backup my config and redeploy once new FW is installed?
3. Can I restore original FW if I need to?

So many questions... TIA