Pros and cons moving to 384

[jappish84]

I'm sorry if this has been discussed earlier. I've searched for a thread discussing the move to the new codebase, but haven't found any active discussions other than what RMerlin has written about the new codebase.

I'm no dev, nor do I have any knowledge in networking worth mentioning, but I would still like to hear your opinions on the pros and cons of moving over to the new codebase, and I say cons mainly because more and more things have moved to closed source. How will this affect future dev/new/custom features

If I understand it correctly, moving to the new code would make it impossible to switch back to old FW if Asus decides to lock down even more.

I'd love to hear your thoughts

 

[PDinDetroit]

As I really, really like what RMerlin has put together, I moved to 384. As more and more vulnerabilities are discovered, I want to make sure that I have the ability to patch or mitigate quicker than not.

 

[thelonelycoder]

I'm sorry if this has been discussed earlier. I've searched for a thread discussing the move to the new codebase, but haven't found any active discussions other than what RMerlin has written about the new codebase.

I'm no dev, nor do I have any knowledge in networking worth mentioning, but I would still like to hear your opinions on the pros and cons of moving over to the new codebase, and I say cons mainly because more and more things have moved to closed source. How will this affect future dev/new/custom features

If I understand it correctly, moving to the new code would make it impossible to switch back to old FW if Asus decides to lock down even more.

I'd love to hear your thoughts

There's no need for a pro/contra discussion of the merits of running 380 vs 384 firmware.
Asus and RMerlin will drop support for the 380 branch, at least for the newer ARM based models. MIPS models may get updates for some time but likely only for stock fw. And if you want to stay on pre 384 code, john's fork will be up-to date with patches as long as he is willing to maintain it.

 

[jappish84]

As I really, really like what RMerlin has put together, I moved to 384. As more and more vulnerabilities are discovered, I want to make sure that I have the ability to patch or mitigate quicker than not.

Yeah, no doubt about it. I dare to say that everybody agrees that RMerlin has done some great work here. And the security security aspect of it makes a lot of sense

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[jappish84]

There's no need for a pro/contra discussion of the merits of running 380 vs 384 firmware.
Asus and RMerlin will drop support for the 380 branch, at least for the newer ARM based models. MIPS models may get updates for some time but likely only for stock fw. And if you want to stay on pre 384 code, john's fork will be up-to date with patches as long as he is willing to maintain it.

I'll definitely take a closer look at John's version.

Well, there can't be any harm in having a discussion I think. What if Asus decides to lock up even more of the code, is there no possibility RMerlin and John could work together and create a FW thats stable, feature rich and looks great? Idk..

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[thelonelycoder]

I'll definitely take a closer look at John's version.

Well, there can't be any harm in having a discussion I think. What if Asus decides to lock up even more of the code, is there no possibility RMerlin and John could work together and create a FW thats stable, feature rich and looks great? Idk..

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I meant it more like that reasons for the 382/384 switch are because Asus moves on and rmerlin logically follows on the same branch.
These are upstream decisions and rmerlin generally doesn't not discuss his intentions. His decision to move along with the new code is not up to discussion and we should respect that.
Hence, a discussion of variants, backports of new code or an entirely rmerlin/john fork of Asus firmware is moot.
It will not happen.

 

[jrmwvu04]

Well, there can't be any harm in having a discussion I think.

What @thelonelycoder is trying to say, I think, is that your “options” are to keep your firmware up to date (in which case you have no choice in what code it’s based on) or to use outdated firmware (in which case the con of “security risks as time passes” outweighs whatever pros you could conjure). So.. discussion concluded, basically.

The only nuance is that depending on your router model, you have the lts fork available.

 

[FreshJR]

Pros: Security

 

[unsynaps]

Discus what? Asus is moving forward with new code. it is you know... what you do. Move forward. This is needed to add new features. To support new hardware.

Its not like choosing a black car over a red one.

 

[jappish84]

Discus what? Asus is moving forward with new code. it is you know... what you do. Move forward. This is needed to add new features. To support new hardware.

Its not like choosing a black car over a red one.

Yeah, I guess that's one way to think of it. I'm however not convinced that Asus has plans to make my "old" RT-AC3200 better or more feature rich. I would think they are focusing on new router releases and building code for these models so they can sell new routers. And yeah, I agree, it's not like choosing the color of you car, because in this case, you can't switch back, and that's why I'm in no hurry to update.

If I understand it correctly, you won't even be able to switch to John's fork if you decide to see where the 834 road leads us?

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[ColinTaylor]

If I understand it correctly, you won't even be able to switch to John's fork if you decide to see where the 834 road leads us?

AFAIK You can, but you need to use recovery mode to load the older firmwares.

 

[RMerlin]

The RT-AC3200 is a special case. You cannot downgrade from 382 to 380 on that model because of the nvram upgrade to 128KB.

 

[heysoundude]

Discus what? Asus is moving forward with new code. it is you know... what you do. Move forward. This is needed to add new features. To support new hardware.

Its not like choosing a black car over a red one.

maybe it's more like climbing a rope - one hand over the other pulls you up to the top. sometimes the rope wears out, and other times you look for a new rope at the end of the old one. But yes, the point of "evolve or die" is valid

 

[jerry6]

Yeah, I guess that's one way to think of it. I'm however not convinced that Asus has plans to make my "old" RT-AC3200 better or more feature rich. I would think they are focusing on new router releases and building code for these models so they can sell new routers. And yeah, I agree, it's not like choosing the color of you car, because in this case, you can't switch back, and that's why I'm in no hurry to update.

If I understand it correctly, you won't even be able to switch to John's fork if you decide to see where the 834 road leads us?

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384 works really well on the 3200 , at least it has on mine . Got a boost in transfer speed and has been super stable . I held off for a while , but no regrets making the switch

 

[jappish84]

384 works really well on the 3200 , at least it has on mine . Got a boost in transfer speed and has been super stable . I held off for a while , but no regrets making the switch

That's good to hear. I have been having stability issues, especially on the 2.4 Ghz band, and some odd behavior with OpenVPN clients turning off and complaining about wrong authentication. Not sure if I can blame it on the router though because I have been lazy and should have done a factory reset a long time ago.

 

[jerry6]

That's good to hear. I have been having stability issues, especially on the 2.4 Ghz band, and some odd behavior with OpenVPN clients turning off and complaining about wrong authentication. Not sure if I can blame it on the router though because I have been lazy and should have done a factory reset a long time ago.

I had those problems as well , has gone since using latest 384.4beta3 , no more vpn client disconnects , or happens very rarely now . 2days no disconnects .
And moving to 384 a factory reset is mandatory

 

[AndreiV]

Johns firmware is not supported on an AC3200 so your choice is Asus or Merlin.

My Ac3200 is using Merlin's 384.4 beta3 and it is working flawlessly.

 

[cmkelley]

I wish I could say the same about my 3200. My 3200 with 384 can't seem to get the IP through the cable modem (it's in bridge mode). I hooked a laptop directly to the cable modem in the same port the 3200 plugs into and it gets the public IP address no problem. The problem is, I don't know if it's 384 (doesn't seem likely) or something has gone wrong with the router (I'm at a loss to explain what could go wrong that could possibly cause that but the router still work). Unfortunately the 3200 is the ONE router you can't go back to pre-384 with.

The thing is, just before I tried 384, my 3200 mysteriously came up with the gui language set to Korean. I'm wondering if one of our cats sat on it and overheated something - we've shooed them off it before. In the grand tradition of changing two things at once, I "fixed" the language problem by doing a factor reset and immediately flashing 384, so I don't know if was working after the mysterious language change - I do know it was working superbly before that.

I've factory reset both the modem and the router many times. I've tried both 384.3 and 384.4 beta 3. When I get home tonight I'm going to try flashing stock ASUS firmware and see if there's a difference. I'm on the verge of plunking down for an 86U since it stands upright so cats can't sit on it for warmth (and it seems to be a great router), but I was hoping to hold out for a new router until either 802.11ad or ax settles as the next standard.

 

[jappish84]

]

Great to hear @jerry6 and @AndreiV

@cmkelley

That happened to me a couple of weeks back, but I just can't seem to remember how I fixed it. Pretty sure I searched and found the solution here on the forums though

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[jappish84]

BTW, have there been any changes in 384 compared to 380.xx to FTPS or nfs?

Are they configured as before?

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