PLEASE HELP: RTN-66U w/374.39 noob

[jontalk]

I upgraded from a Netgear single channel router to the Asus RTN-66U which I bought on Ebay with Merlin v 3.0.0.4.374.39 installed. It set up fine but I was actually getting faster LAN/WAN speed on the Netgear where I had set up primary and secondary Open DNS settings.

I have logged into the Asus>WAN>Disable auto DNS. Then entered the primary and secondary DNS settings ( 208.67.220.220, 208.67.222.222) for better speed. However when I run namebench utility it does not show the DNS settings other than the standard 192.168.1.1 and after running it suggests Open DNS.

Is there some other change I need to make in settings in order to get the router to connect with the primary and secondary DNS? And are there any other tweaks I can make to improve wired speed? I have 3 other devices on a wired network so I'd like to optimize the speed if possible. Thanks.

 

[RMerlin]

DNS servers have next to zero impact on network performance. Your client software will issue one DNS query to obtain a server's IP, and after that it won't ask it again since it will be locally cached. So at best, you save a few milliseconds on the initial query of a single download that can last minutes, for example.

In fact, using OpenDNS will typically negatively impact performance, as it will point you to remote servers that might not be close to you. For example, many ISPs will point you to a local Youtube cache when querying for the address of a Youtube server, while OpenDNS might point you to a server in a completely different country. Maybe you will get that IP a few milliseconds faster than with your ISP, but you might end up having buffering issues making it impossible to stream high definition streams on Youtube.

Namebench is useless as a performance improvement tool. Doing changes based on its result will most of the time lead in worse global performance.

Your clients will always report using your router as their DNS server because the router acts as the local resolver. It will forward queries to whichever DNS servers are configured on its WAN settings, and it will cache those results for faster resolution if you query for the same hostname again. So, this is normal behaviour.

 

[4Leaf]

I upgraded from a Netgear single channel router to the Asus RTN-66U which I bought on Ebay with Merlin v 3.0.0.4.374.39 installed. It set up fine but I was actually getting faster LAN/WAN speed on the Netgear where I had set up primary and secondary Open DNS settings.

I have logged into the Asus>WAN>Disable auto DNS. Then entered the primary and secondary DNS settings ( 208.67.220.220, 208.67.222.222) for better speed. However when I run namebench utility it does not show the DNS settings other than the standard 192.168.1.1 and after running it suggests Open DNS.

Is there some other change I need to make in settings in order to get the router to connect with the primary and secondary DNS? And are there any other tweaks I can make to improve wired speed? I have 3 other devices on a wired network so I'd like to optimize the speed if possible. Thanks.

I recommend to just use the DNS servers that are provided by your ISP. In other words, don't mess with any of your DNS settings on your router and leave them at their defaults unchanged.

 

[gamewarden3006]

If you do feel inclined to change your DNS server here is a decent tool to find the best ones to use.

I used this and found ones that actually perform better than my ISP ones. Although as stated above youtube performance is not quiet as good. I don't do a lot of Youtube so I can live with it. I would rather have the faster lookups

https://www.grc.com/dns/benchmark.htm

 

[jontalk]

Interestingly enough, I purchased this factory refurbished RTN-66R from an Ebay seller. After only 3 days up time, it wouldn't hold the connection from my NEW Motorola SB-6141 modem. In all my years using routers I've NEVER seen this happen. Needless to say I've shipped it back to the seller and don't think I'll ever bother with an Asus router again.

The other thing I noticed right away after setting up the Asus was that it was extremely warm to the touch mounted on the stand. Also, with the same auto DNS settings on my Comcast 100 mbps connection, my 7 year old Netgear N300 gigabit clocks 125 mbps down. The Asus never got over 94 mbps, which is quite a difference. I suspect there are hardware issues going on with the Asus I just returned.

 

[RMerlin]

Interestingly enough, I purchased this factory refurbished RTN-66R from an Ebay seller. After only 3 days up time, it wouldn't hold the connection from my NEW Motorola SB-6141 modem. In all my years using routers I've NEVER seen this happen. Needless to say I've shipped it back to the seller and don't think I'll ever bother with an Asus router again.

The other thing I noticed right away after setting up the Asus was that it was extremely warm to the touch mounted on the stand. Also, with the same auto DNS settings on my Comcast 100 mbps connection, my 7 year old Netgear N300 gigabit clocks 125 mbps down. The Asus never got over 94 mbps, which is quite a difference. I suspect there are hardware issues going on with the Asus I just returned.

You can't judge the quality of a product based on a Factory refurbished device. That indicates a device that was already known to be defective, and may or may not have been properly repaired.

Asus routers are well capable of hitting close to a gigabit of speed. Some people with gigabit-capable ISPs reported speeds over 800-900 Mbps. If yours had issue hitting above 94 Mbps, then the issue isn't with the router itself, but with the configuration. Most likely culprit was that you had HW acceleration disabled due to the use of an incompatible feature.

 

[cofetym]

Try updating the firmware or different builds. You've got it now so you might as well mess with it.
I've tried Netgear, Linksys and now Asus. I've personally found the build quality is great on the Asus products and very difficult to brick.
Nothing wrong with refurbished, so long as you get a reasonable warranty. I've purchased a couple of Linksys refurbished and they are performing well.

Have fun and welcome to the forum.

 

[Pierino]

He doesn't have it anymore. He is returning it to the seller. Me. Lol