[Release 382] Asuswrt-Merlin 382.1 is now available

[RMerlin]

In terms of 382.1_2 running on a RT-AC88U the only odd thing that I've noticed so far is that my SSH sessions to the router seem to break every so often.

Asus recently added a timeout value for idling sessions, this is configurable on the Administration -> System page.

I am interested in extending the UI to support a wider range of configuration options for the RA messages and pushing them into Merlin (with the hope that ASUS might uptake those as well). What would I need to do in order to submit those changes for inclusion into future versions of Merlin?

I prefer not to touch IPv6 support unless addressing actual bugs, since I have no way of properly testing it, and every ISPs out there seems to handle it differently (with some of them flat out ignoring established RFCs). Too easy to break things with some of these ISPs. Last time I started merging someone else's IPv6 enhancements, I had to ditch all of them when Asus completely changed the internal structure, and there was no way I could re-engineer that other developer's changes.

 

[E Karlson]

Asus recently added a timeout value for idling sessions, this is configurable on the Administration -> System page.



I prefer not to touch IPv6 support unless addressing actual bugs, since I have no way of properly testing it, and every ISPs out there seems to handle it differently (with some of them flat out ignoring established RFCs). Too easy to break things with some of these ISPs. Last time I started merging someone else's IPv6 enhancements, I had to ditch all of them when Asus completely changed the internal structure, and there was no way I could re-engineer that other developer's changes.

Being an old-time developer myself, I understand the philosophy of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". However, in this case, I would make the following arguments:

1) The changes are limited to configuring the RA that is multicast on the LAN and are not impacted by the ISP configuration, nor to they impact how the router acquires its IPv6 configuration from the ISP. So whatever currently works or does not work in terms of inter-operating with a given ISP's IPv6 configuration will not change.

2) The current behavior of the router has aspects that I would certainly consider to be bugs - namely:

2a) The router advertises *itself* as being the DNS server for the LAN, and this behavior cannot be changed (via the RDNSS parameter in the RA). This is incorrect when the LAN has its own DNS server for supporting configurations such as an internal sub-domain. I have also seen this lead to DNS failures when the router is busy with heavy traffic (such as a client pulling down the Merlin source code via a "git clone" command - DNS queries being directed to the router failed while the transfer was occurring). Another problem is that the DNS service provided by the router is a caching-only DNS server - but there are no provisions for inspecting/managing the cached DNS responses. So, for example, if the router picks up a stale DNS response there is no way to clear it short of rebooting the router (or manually logging into the router via SSH and killing/restarting the dnsmasq service).

2b) The router has no facility for advertising the DOMAIN SEARCH parameter (the DNSSL parameter in the RA), which again causes problems when there is a local sub-domain on one's LAN

2c) Even when configured for "Stateless" IPv6 address assignment on one's LAN, the router still fires up a DHCPv6 server which will respond to DHCPv6 inquiries. This can cause interference when one already has a DHCPv6 server running on one's LAN.

All of these issues can be fixed by simply having a slightly more sophisticated logic for the generation of the dnsmasq.conf file. I believe that anyone using the ASUS routers in an IPv6 environment would find these to be very useful changes.

Your website mentions that some of the changes made in Merlin were adopted by ASUS. If you are still uncomfortable with the idea of these changes in Merlin, and if you have a contact at ASUS who has adopted some of the Merlin extensions, perhaps you could point me at that contact. I could always create a private fork of Merlin and send the patches to ASUS. Providing them with working code is probably the fastest and surest way to encourage them to incorporate the changes.

 

[Tom Jo-Jo Junior Shabadoo]

Hi Merlin,

Was happy to see that you revolved the limitation on entries in the "Manually Assigned IP around the DHCP list" on the latest update on the ASUS' RT-AC86U.
The same limitation seems to apply to the "Virtual Server / Port Forwarding" list. And it fills up fast when you add CloudFlares IP ranges. Any change this limitation can also be resolved with a workaround ?

Brgds
Tom

 

[Vimes]

I have a RT-AC86U running 382.1_2.
I had notice that most of the times I click on "Reboot", the router ends "shutting down".
I have to manually turn it back on.

Am I the only one?

Mine is just the same. I was a little worried at first.

I thought that it was just taking its time to reboot but instead it completely shuts down.

Thankfully I remembered reading your post and so power cycling it with the switch on the back brought it back to life.

Same revision of firmware on the RT-AC86U.

 

[DAVIZINHO]

hello.
I restore to defaults to test this firmware because if i not restore i have little problems with wifi

The results now are correct. speed test of 300/300 in wifi 5ghz. VERY VERY HAPPY

but i have a little problem. When i view the tv (i have movistar triple vlan profile) the speed over wifi are only 70/150.
any idea??

 

[RussellInCincinnati]

hello.
I restore to defaults to test this firmware because if i not restore i have little problems with wifi

The results now are correct. speed test of 300/300 in wifi 5ghz. VERY VERY HAPPY

but i have a little problem. When i view the tv (i have movistar triple vlan profile) the speed over wifi are only 70/150.
any idea??

Has this client (your tv) shown a higher connect speed with other routers at the same distance from the tv, or shown higher connect speeds with other versions of software on the same router at the same connect distance? Unless your tv has shown higher connect speeds with some other router and/or software, at the same distance between the tv and the router, it does not seem like a good idea for anyone to spend time on this issue.

 

[RMerlin]

Hi Merlin,

Was happy to see that you revolved the limitation on entries in the "Manually Assigned IP around the DHCP list" on the latest update on the ASUS' RT-AC86U.
The same limitation seems to apply to the "Virtual Server / Port Forwarding" list. And it fills up fast when you add CloudFlares IP ranges. Any change this limitation can also be resolved with a workaround ?

Brgds
Tom

Note that I didn't remove the limitation, I merely extended it a bit, by no longer storing the extra hostname field in that variable.

The port forward is harder to fix. In the DHCP list case, I simply removed the extra hostname field from it, so the closed source parts can still access a complete lease list through the original variable, while the dnsmasq config part uses the extended, split version of it.

If I split the port forward list, it means that any closed source component relying on that variable will no longer be able to access it. So, making that change will require more planification to determine if any of the closed source components need to access it. If there are, then I can't change it.

 

[DAVIZINHO]

Has this client (your tv) shown a higher connect speed with other routers at the same distance from the tv, or shown higher connect speeds with other versions of software on the same router at the same connect distance? Unless your tv has shown higher connect speeds with some other router and/or software, at the same distance between the tv and the router, it does not seem like a good idea for anyone to spend time on this issue.

the iptv connection is independent of the internet speed. Not use the same vlan.
Previously i never have this issue. I think is a problem with the igmp or something similar. i will investigate

EDIT: SOLVED! enabling igmp in advanced wifi settings

 

[themiron]

2a) The router advertises *itself* as being the DNS server for the LAN, and this behavior cannot be changed (via the RDNSS parameter in the RA). This is incorrect when the LAN has its own DNS server for supporting configurations such as an internal sub-domain. I have also seen this lead to DNS failures when the router is busy with heavy traffic (such as a client pulling down the Merlin source code via a "git clone" command - DNS queries being directed to the router failed while the transfer was occurring). Another problem is that the DNS service provided by the router is a caching-only DNS server - but there are no provisions for inspecting/managing the cached DNS responses. So, for example, if the router picks up a stale DNS response there is no way to clear it short of rebooting the router (or manually logging into the router via SSH and killing/restarting the dnsmasq service).

If you have RA turned on, router is announsing itself as default router for clients, so pretty logical it provides itself as default DNS server.
Another reason is DHCP reservation list, DNS filter, possible guessing IPv6 client hostnames from SLAAC their addresses.
I'd treat no pissibility to set DNSS/DNSSL via WEB UI as a current limitation/underfunctionality, not as a bug. On Merlin FW you can add following to dnsmasq.conf

dhcp-option=option6:dns-server,[NS1],[NS2],[NS3]

, where NSes are static IPv6 addresses of the own DNS severs.
Regarding stale DNS records, isn't it what DNS TTL is all about? You can force any TTL for DNS records with dnsmasq as well.
Regarding DNS failures under heavy load - this can only be overriden with own full-blown DNS server that doesn't use router's DNS at all.
If it doesn't suit you, you can always turn RA off in WEB UI (and loose default route via it).

2b) The router has no facility for advertising the DOMAIN SEARCH parameter (the DNSSL parameter in the RA), which again causes problems when there is a local sub-domain on one's LAN

Same, add following into dnsmasq.conf

dhcp-option=option6:domain-search,"domain.tld"

2c) Even when configured for "Stateless" IPv6 address assignment on one's LAN, the router still fires up a DHCPv6 server which will respond to DHCPv6 inquiries. This can cause interference when one already has a DHCPv6 server running on one's LAN.

Stateless is DHCPv6, what do you likely mean is pure SLAAC, which is unlikely good idea in wild, becasue lots of clients doesn't support DNSS option and therfore can't get IPv6 DNS server at all.

All of these issues can be fixed by simply having a slightly more sophisticated logic for the generation of the dnsmasq.conf file. I believe that anyone using the ASUS routers in an IPv6 environment would find these to be very useful changes.

Right, seems the only change is additional control over dns servers and domain with enabled RA announcements.

Your website mentions that some of the changes made in Merlin were adopted by ASUS. If you are still uncomfortable with the idea of these changes in Merlin, and if you have a contact at ASUS who has adopted some of the Merlin extensions, perhaps you could point me at that contact. I could always create a private fork of Merlin and send the patches to ASUS. Providing them with working code is probably the fastest and surest way to encourage them to incorporate the changes.

This changes better be intoruced as public, why private?

 

[AlexD]

Still having issues on my AC88U. I have a gigabit PPPOE connection and I get a speed of 300 mbps (wired) with the 382 branch compared to 950 mbps with 380. I was hoping 382.1_2 would fix this but no luck so far.

 

[john9527]

Are you running with Adaptive QoS on? Just a guess, but maybe the new Trend Micro stuff is causing CTF to be bypassed where before it wasn't.

 

[Clark Griswald]

Still having issues on my AC88U. I have a gigabit PPPOE connection and I get a speed of 300 mbps (wired) with the 382 branch compared to 950 mbps with 380. I was hoping 382.1_2 would fix this but no luck so far.

I am also experiencing a speed reduction in the 382 branch.
I attempted the following:
Factory reset and QoS and AiP (On/Off)
Gigabit service, yet only getting 326 down (800 dl typical)
Hoping for a fix, I too have been updating to alpha fw hoping for a fix.

EDIT:
Reverted back to 382.1_2 and dl speed back to 880

 

[AlexD]

Are you running with Adaptive QoS on? Just a guess, but maybe the new Trend Micro stuff is causing CTF to be bypassed where before it wasn't.

I have QoS off but AiProtect is on. I will try to turn it off on the next 382 release.

 

[pattiri]

I have QoS off but AiProtect is on. I will try to turn it off on the next 382 release.

I've tried turning off AiProtect earlier with 382 but no luck. CPU usage is far above with 382 releases.

Once, just after a reboot I saw "CPU Load Average (1, 5, 15 mins) 10.28, 8.56, 6.31". Even web UI was too slow. I don't know why but 382 branch eats too much CPU IMO.

 

[TheUntouchable]

Had a CPU problem yesterday too with my AC-88U. Downloaded Noobs 4.5.0 for my raspberry pi over bittorrent. After some minutes the download and all traffices stoped, it was nearly impossible to open the router gui. But after some minutes of waiting I saw that cpu1 was on 100%, had to reboot the router to fix that.

 

[hotsauce2007]

How can I get 1000MB monitor on QoS? I only have the 100MB mark and my ISP is 400 / 200

 

[pattiri]

How can I get 1000GB monitor on QoS? I only have the 100MB mark and my ISP is 400 / 200

when I access router web UI via my phone it shows max 100M but on my PC it's 1000M

 

[hotsauce2007]

when I access router web UI via my phone it shows max 100M but on my PC it's 1000M

over here is the same, look:

 

[RMerlin]

Clear your browser cache.

 

[skeal]

Clear your browser cache.

On my Ubuntu computer with Chrome I cleared data and still my Bandwidth Meter maxes out at 100mbs.