[RT-N66U] firmware upgrade from old merlin build

[amita]

Hello,
I am using an old Merlin firmware on my RT-N66U Assus router: 3.0.0.4.374.34_2 (Merlin build).

Since this is a very old version and updated firmware includes many security fixes, as I heard, and since I experience problems with a printer that is connected to my network that starts printing pages that were not sent from legitimate source, I would like to upgrade my router's firmware in order to reduce possibility of attacks over my connected devices.

I understand that the firmware to this router is no longer supported, so I would like to get the latest version that is available to it.

I have few questions:
1. Any recommendation for use of Merlin Firmware vs. the Assus official version?
2. Which version is the latest for this router by Merlin? Where can I download it from?
3. How should the upgrade process be done? Should I only choose from the upgrade screen the new firmware and that's all? should I do anything else? (Note that the current firmware that I use is very old). A link to relevant guide, if available would be appreciated.
Will this process be different in case I choose to install Assus firmware over the Merlin, or if I choose to install the Merlin firmware on top of the current one?

Thanks,
Amit.

 

[AndreiV]

Merlin no longer supports that model.

The last update was RT-N66U_380.70_0. 2018-04-08

Supported devices are listed here :

https://www.asuswrt-merlin.net/about

 

[ColinTaylor]

You have two realistic choices if you want to stay with an Asuswrt based firmware.

1. John's fork of Merlin. It was last updated on 17-April-2019 and includes many fixes not present in the final Merlin release.

2. Stock Asus firmware.

I wouldn't consider the final Merlin release anymore as that hasn't been updated since April 2018.

Installation for either firmware should be a matter of simply downloading and unzippping the file and applying it through the GUI. You should perform a factory reset afterwards followed by a manual configure.

 

[amita]

You have two realistic choices if you want to stay with an Asuswrt based firmware.
1. John's fork of Merlin. It was last updated on 17-April-2019 and includes many fixes not present in the final Merlin release.
2. Stock Asus firmware.

Great, Thanks for the answers !
Any recommendation about the better option - John's for vs the Stock Asus FW?

 

[ColinTaylor]

The RT-N66U isn't capable of supporting some of the newer firmware features, like Adaptive QoS. So that's not a consideration.

Personally I use John's fork. It's rock solid and has some added features that are not in the stock firmware.

 

[amita]

So I went on with John's fork.
The upgrade was performed using the GUI, even though I read in the @UpgradeMatrix.txt file (which is part of the installation package) that I should have upgrade the router using the Asus Firmware restoration tool.
The upgrade seems to work well - the router works with the new firmware.
Since it seems to work fine, I did not perform NVRAM reset (also supposed to do that according to @UpgradeMatrix.txt file)

Do you know if I should perform the NVRAM reset, and then manually reconfigure the router? if so - how? Will the factory default button in the GUI do the job?

with the new firmware I see one problem: some of the text in the GUI pages is printed over other text - for example the page titles, and explanation text that is printed over some tabs.
See example in the attached screenshot.

Who should I report issue this to?
It is difficult to me to assume that I am the first one to see these issues - maybe these are related to the actions that I did not do?

 

[ColinTaylor]

Do you know if I should perform the NVRAM reset, and then manually reconfigure the router? if so - how? Will the factory default button in the GUI do the job?

Yes you really should do a reset. You can either do it in the GUI, or you can just press and hold the physical reset button for 5 seconds.

with the new firmware I see one problem: some of the text in the GUI pages is printed over other text - for example the page titles, and explanation text that is printed over some tabs.

Yes this is a known issue with recent versions of Chrome. The fix is described here.

 

[amita]

Merlin no longer supports that model.
The last update was RT-N66U_380.70_0. 2018-04-08
Supported devices are listed here :
https://www.asuswrt-merlin.net/about

Thanks, Andrei.
I saw that page prior to posting my questions. I did not know about the form made by John based on Merlin's code, and considered using the latest version by Merlin. John's fork is a better option, I understand.

 

[wh7qq]

Thanks, Andrei.
I saw that page prior to posting my questions. I did not know about the form made by John based on Merlin's code, and considered using the latest version by Merlin. John's fork is a better option, I understand.

John's recent stuff seems to work well on my RT-N66U. You should go to the "development" page at https://onedrive.live.com/?authkey=!AKXdaMzjqVKbGsc&id=9332FC159A7E129!1117&cid=09332FC159A7E129
for the very latest versions. I am up to 42D3 with no problems but my setup is pretty plain vanilla. YMMV.