RT-AC86U stock vs merlin

[Lord Lovaduck]

What was your final solution, did you try Asus Stock?

I also have the TM-AC1900. Did all the steps prescribed to prevent firmware rollback but I don't dare try stock, Asus developers may find another way to punish the rebelion... Merlin looks a much safer alternative. It may be unsupported on this hardware but it does the job. I know there's always a risk Asus finds me and reflashes my fw, but in any case, I got this router for just 30 USD and I can always use a serial port...

I could use AImesh (lots of thick brick & concrete walls here), no doubt! But it isn't essential. Like you I have a cat 5 cable from one floor to another, so far so good with an apple airport access point. Covers most of the low-signal areas.

Is this really true? This is important for me, for I was one of those evil interlopers that acquired a 1900 and converted it to a 68U. The entire purpose was to get coverage from routers on the 3rd floor and the basement. I have a perfectly good N66 as well and a Cat 5E connection to these two points. Now ASUS is playing games with the update process and Merlin doesn't support AIMesh (yet). Can anybody verify this claim?

By the way, the mid-term strategy was to buy a high end ASUS main router and use AIMesh to connect to the converted 68U. I'm so disgusted by the approach that ASUS has taken that I'm evaluating other brands now.

mjclifford

 

[terminator]

Thanks, what alternative do we have, or are there any plans on adding this or similar feature? If it's even worth it? To me being able to walk around the house without losing connection sounds useful. But I may be missing something.

This year a bought a 4200 sq foot, 3 story house with front and backyard. I was on the hunt to find something "to walk around the house without loosing connection" to replace my 7 year old dlink router. I got Linksys Velop 3 node mesh system, installed it and had nothing but stability issues for 3 months on top on basic features missing and bad customer support (their forums is FULL of issues). Sold that on eBay, did some more research and got a AC86. Installed Merlin's firmware as the first thing. The performance is rock solid and the range of this extends to all property boundaries and beyond. The router doesn't even sit in the middle of the house, it is in one corner. Long story short, I (and probably others) didn't need multiple access points after getting AC86 unless you have an exceptionally large house or iron walls.

 

[Michael Clifford]

What was your final solution, did you try Asus Stock?

I also have the TM-AC1900. Did all the steps prescribed to prevent firmware rollback but I don't dare try stock, Asus developers may find another way to punish the rebelion... Merlin looks a much safer alternative. It may be unsupported on this hardware but it does the job. I know there's always a risk Asus finds me and reflashes my fw, but in any case, I got this router for just 30 USD and I can always use a serial port...

I could use AImesh (lots of thick brick & concrete walls here), no doubt! But it isn't essential. Like you I have a cat 5 cable from one floor to another, so far so good with an apple airport access point. Covers most of the low-signal areas.

< What was your final solution, did you try Asus Stock? >

Here's an update on my situation. I'm simply doing nothing at the moment. To be clear, my plans were to purchase an upscale ASUS model for the third floor and use the revised TM-AC1900 on the bottom floor. That's all been dismissed now, given the game ASUS is playing.

 

[Lord Lovaduck]

< What was your final solution, did you try Asus Stock? >

Here's an update on my situation. I'm simply doing nothing at the moment. To be clear, my plans were to purchase an upscale ASUS model for the third floor and use the revised TM-AC1900 on the bottom floor. That's all been dismissed now, given the game ASUS is playing.

Sorry to hear this very much illegal action by Asus has dampened your enthusiasm, Michael!

I managed to get through the flashing and "immunization" procedure and got a working router. I don't know if I will have an upgrade path though... For now I am OK with the functionality provided by Merlin and might move to Asus stock if I need something they have (not for now).

If I get busted, I can always buy another router, in the meantime this one works.

About security, which would be a major driver for installing FW upgrades, it seems to me that the susceptibility to the VPNfilter virus is not yet clearly understood. I see vendors (Norton) promoting their routers as being the solution. Is it? Am I at risk? For now my router reboots every few hours just to get some protection. I am waiting to see what can be done to protect myself more effectively.

 

[heysoundude]

Sorry to hear this very much illegal action by Asus has dampened your enthusiasm, Michael!

I managed to get through the flashing and "immunization" procedure and got a working router. I don't know if I will have an upgrade path though... For now I am OK with the functionality provided by Merlin and might move to Asus stock if I need something they have (not for now).

If I get busted, I can always buy another router, in the meantime this one works.

About security, which would be a major driver for installing FW upgrades, it seems to me that the susceptibility to the VPNfilter virus is not yet clearly understood. I see vendors (Norton) promoting their routers as being the solution. Is it? Am I at risk? For now my router reboots every few hours just to get some protection. I am waiting to see what can be done to protect myself more effectively.

Busted? That would expose a security vulnerability by the manufacturer, I think. Do you think they would do that to themselves?
Now that you've got a working machine, leave it be to do its' job. If you do choose to click on the flashing exclamation point, be sure to read ALL the release notes by @RMerlin for all the releases between what you're running and what's current to see if something you need/rely on will break in re-flashing.

 

[deddc23efb]

Sorry to hear this very much illegal action by Asus has dampened your enthusiasm, Michael!

I managed to get through the flashing and "immunization" procedure and got a working router. I don't know if I will have an upgrade path though... For now I am OK with the functionality provided by Merlin and might move to Asus stock if I need something they have (not for now).

If I get busted, I can always buy another router, in the meantime this one works.

About security, which would be a major driver for installing FW upgrades, it seems to me that the susceptibility to the VPNfilter virus is not yet clearly understood. I see vendors (Norton) promoting their routers as being the solution. Is it? Am I at risk? For now my router reboots every few hours just to get some protection. I am waiting to see what can be done to protect myself more effectively.

I find the hyperbolic description of putting ASUS software on another machine as Illegal to be irritating. You have a right, in Canada at least, to repair/modify your devices. ASUS doesn't want you to do it because it erodes their market share. Imagine being told it was illegal to use Panasonic batteries in something that specifies Duracell - or more to the point Panasonic specifying that you can't use their batteries in a Sony device.

I find that the biggest limitation of the Asus merlin firmware is that it is tied so closely to the ASUS stock firmware. The ASUS firmware is evolving to be more an more closed source - including their unfixed bugs. ASUS is nibbling away at the open source/user fixable aspects of their system making it next to impossible to enhance the system or fix bugs. I think what Eric has been doing is great, but I think ASUS is doing us a dis-favour (in order to protect their IP of course) by locking us out of the code.

/Dedd

 

[Steven Porter]

Keep in mind that if you have more than one ASUS router and can manage a wired connection between them then setting one up as a wired AP does everything that aimesh does in regards to wireless coverage and roaming with your devices. Aimesh wins if you must rely on a wireless backhaul between the devices.

I currently have an AC5300 as my primary and 3 x AC68U connected to Ethernet spread around the house and have very good coverage. Reason for so many was I wanted to get wireless coverage on the perimeter of my grounds as well. I am using Merlin 384.8 on all my units and have a rock solid "mesh".

 

[ASadani]

hello, replacing my n66 fork firmware router today with a new ac86u. thoughts on the merlin firmware vs the stock firmware ??
am i able to flash back and forth somehow, meaning asus doesn't lock firmware or anything.
any thoughts or feedback would be great. thank you.

Lets put it this way, If Merlin would not support this router, there would be no reason for me to put my money on it. Just look at GT-AC5300. Since it's not supported, almost everyone here stayed out of it.

As for me, the ability to use VPN's is the fundamental need.

Now I usually don't update the firmware. Once things work well, I just leave it and I'm on an old merlin build with the 86u china edition and no complaints.
never really had any issues

 

[Jack Yaz]

Lets put it this way, If Merlin would not support this router, there would be no reason for me to put my money on it. Just look at RT-AC5300. Since it's not supported, almost everyone here stayed out of it.

As for me, the ability to use VPN's is the fundamental need.

Now I usually don't update the firmware. Once things work well, I just leave it and I'm on an old merlin build with the 86u china edition and no complaints.
never really had any issues

RT is supported, GT is not

Staying on an older firmware is not advised on an Internet facing device. Unless you like being vulnerable to known exploits, of course.

 

[ASadani]

RT is supported, GT is not

Staying on an older firmware is not advised on an Internet facing device. Unless you like being vulnerable to known exploits, of course.

You are right on the GT. I'll edit my post to reflect that.
Now in terms of upgrade, Its like why break something that works. For example, I had Hugo on 5300 on an old firmware. I upgraded to his latest version and that was extremely buggy. No matter what I try I couldn't downgrade it back again as the CPU's would never work. Hence since that day I purchased the 86u and have stayed on the first configured firmware. I'm getting the speeds, All appliances at home are working just fine. I'm tempted to upgrade though. But may want to do a dirty upgrade as I don't want to reconfigure all my devices. The Printer and the switch always need re-configuring if factory is selected.

 

[alback]

I replaced one of my AC68U router of several years with the AC86U. Always used Merlin firmware on the AC68U, with little to no issues. We have 2 AC68U routers, main one in the office, second as media bridge on the top floor.
I added an OPenVPN to our setup this week, the AC68U was unable to achieve any significant DL speed (<= 16 Mbps). I loaded the AC86U and achieved up to 50 Mbps - Asus firmware. My connection speed to the upstairs AC68U improved but less than I expected. Then the problems began, first the austor NAS box consistently dropped its ethernet connection, then wireless devices became unstable. The AC86U quickly became the most unreliable router I have ever used, so much so that I was about to return it.

Today I read a thread here where it stated the AC68U (using Asus firmware) has an issue with drives over 3TB, which is my situation. I loaded the Merlin firmware 384.8_2. The connections improved instantly! My OpenVPN DL speed jumped to 116 Mbps. I was able to add some tweaks to the OpenVPN and achieved a speed of 130 Mbps. My NAS Ethernet connection and wireless devices have become stable. The Link rate to the AC68U media bridge now reads 1300Mbps such that I was able to achieve a VPN speed of just over 100 upstairs connected to the AC68U media bridge.

I really like Asus product, but if it wasn't for the Merlin firmware, I would have returned this AC86U.

 

[Klueless]

Today I read a thread here where it stated the AC68U (using Asus firmware) has an issue with drives over 3TB, which is my situation. I loaded the Merlin firmware 384.8_2. The connections improved instantly! My OpenVPN DL speed jumped to 116 Mbps. I was able to add some tweaks to the OpenVPN and achieved a speed of 130 Mbps. My NAS Ethernet connection and wireless devices have become stable. The Link rate to the AC68U media bridge now reads 1300Mbps such that I was able to achieve a VPN speed of just over 100 upstairs connected to the AC68U media bridge.

Awesome testimonial!