SNBForums Policy on ASUS TM-AC1900 Conversion Discussion

[RMerlin]

Eh, wouldn't it be easier to not read this thread. Be that as it may, maybe I missed it but I read it somewhere that your current firmwares also have the lockdown? I have always respected what you've done and respect that it's your right to lock thing down, but it really doesn't hurt you any to state whether your firmwares also lock down converted TM units.

The protection mechanism is part of the closed source code, it's not something I've deliberately implemented. Upgrading to newer GPL code will automatically include such mechanisms.

 

[Mic]

The protection mechanism is part of the closed source code, it's not something I've deliberately implemented. Upgrading to newer GPL code will automatically include such mechanisms.

Thank you for the answer. I very much appreciate that.

 

[bluepoint]

Look at this. You guys can see what ASUS does. There are no more previous firmwares.
What kind of company is this? This is so disgusting. They may say it is a website issue if users complain. Visit ac68u, ac68r, ac68p, ac1900p pages. It only happens to AC68 series. ASUS doesn't want to provide previous firmwares because they don't want users modify firmwares for TM-AC1900 anymore. UH~~~WOW!

https://www.asus.com/us/Networking/RTAC68U/HelpDesk_BIOS/

View attachment 12697

That's because you are looking at the site that doesn't have it. Hurry, they might close the curtain too.
https://www.asus.com/us/Networking/RTAC68U/HelpDesk_Download/
Choose "other"

 

[Sammy2]

What's tha protection mechanism and what does it protect and what from does it protect? That's a vague statement to say the least.

Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk

 

[Stephen Harrington]

What's tha protection mechanism and what does it protect and what from does it protect? That's a vague statement to say the least.

Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk

Protection as in “Protection Racket” ?

No I think it means as in “protecting our revenue from that high-quantity but low-margin deal we did with T-Mobile that sees lots and lots of cheap routers with hardware identical to the AC68U floating around”.

StephenH

 

[monaro-ds]

That's because you are looking at the site that doesn't have it. Hurry, they might close the curtain too.
https://www.asus.com/us/Networking/RTAC68U/HelpDesk_Download/
Choose "other"

they already did i think they updating CFE's

 

[George Anderson]

SNB and ASUS are shooting themselves in the foot by taking these actions. SNB just lost the only reason many of us come to this site. ASUS is alienating many of its most loyal promoters, myself included. Very shortsighted.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[kvic]

It's interesting to see the strong interest in AiMesh (or mesh in general) here. I don't believe it's the utility of mesh itself that attracts people but rather the fun to form a network by adding nodes and see them in action. Without AiMesh really shall not have driven people crazy..

When ORBI was hit on this forum, I made a suggestion in a post that a better play of mesh shall allow existing and old routers/APs to join as nodes. I don't think Asus read my post nor my suggestion was of any nobleness. Apparently though some middle managers in Asus and I thought alike in terms of having fun.

Back to the TM/AiMesh saga, seems like AiMesh was not intended for TM models to begin with. Looks like some programmers' oversight that this feature was accidentally made possible by flashing AC68U firmware on TM models. Just my guess. So this shall not be read as ASUS is obliged to support AiMesh on TM models.

Some people can't let go that's the case is a little bit beyond my comprehension. From a business point of view, the TM models are both done sales for T-Mobile and Asus. The contract itself is very likely not including additions of new features (especially a "major" one like AiMesh).

I wonder if there is deep resellers' interest on after market at play here.

Asus perhaps could use this opportunity to further boost the hype of AiMesh in a creative way. For example, charge an extra fee to cover additional licences and provision new features such as AiMesh. My guess is that TM users in this category is a small minority. Hence, the overhead in administrative cost perhaps won't justify it.

 

[AndreiV]

SNB and ASUS are shooting themselves in the foot by taking these actions. SNB just lost the only reason many of us come to this site. ASUS is alienating many of its most loyal promoters, myself included. Very shortsighted.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Really ? This from someone that has only been registered for 3.5 months and has a grand contribution to the community of 8 posts?

Strange (or not) how many of the whining posts in this thread are from people that have either never previously been a member / just joined this week /or have never before contributed in any way to this site and now, these people are suddenly thinking they are qualified or entitled to lecture the site owner on what is good for the site/forum.

ASUS is alienating many of its most loyal promoters, myself included. Very shortsighted.

You have no idea why Mr.Higgins has taken this decision so yet another pointless statement.

And whatever you may like think , SNB do not have to explain or justify their actions.

 

[follower]

That's because you are looking at the site that doesn't have it. Hurry, they might close the curtain too.
https://www.asus.com/us/Networking/RTAC68U/HelpDesk_Download/
Choose "other"

Unfortunately I don't have a TM-AC1900.

 

[OzarkEdge]

It's interesting to see the strong interest in AiMesh (or mesh in general) here. I don't believe it's the utility of mesh itself that attracts people but rather the fun to form a network by adding nodes and see them in action. Without AiMesh really shall not have driven people crazy..

When ORBI was hit on this forum, I made a suggestion in a post that a better play of mesh shall allow existing and old routers/APs to join as nodes. I don't think Asus read my post nor my suggestion was of any nobleness. Apparently though some middle managers in Asus and I thought alike in terms of having fun.

Back to the TM/AiMesh saga, seems like AiMesh was not intended for TM models to begin with. Looks like some programmers' oversight that this feature was accidentally made possible by flashing AC68U firmware on TM models. Just my guess. So this shall not be read as ASUS is obliged to support AiMesh on TM models.

Some people can't let go that's the case is a little bit beyond my comprehension. From a business point of view, the TM models are both done sales for T-Mobile and Asus. The contract itself is very likely not including additions of new features (especially a "major" one like AiMesh).

I wonder if there is deep resellers' interest on after market at play here.

Asus perhaps could use this opportunity to further boost the hype of AiMesh in a creative way. For example, charge an extra fee to cover additional licences and provision new features such as AiMesh. My guess is that TM users in this category is a small minority. Hence, the overhead in administrative cost perhaps won't justify it.

And even the 68U does not fully support AiMesh, so buying and hacking unsupported TM versions for AiMesh application is insult to injury all around. As I implied earlier... our host has done the TM AiMesh hopefuls a service.

OE

 

[maxbraketorque]

I am surprised to see these discussions killed. I doubt it has anything to do with ASUS talking to SNB but rather the legal implications of facilitating it. It may also be due in-part to all the whining that occurred when ASUS made their move. The sense of entitlement from some TM-AC1900 owners is ridiculous.

 

[dlandiss]

The sense of entitlement from some TM-AC1900 owners is ridiculous.

When all of the disgruntled complainers follow up on their threats to leave the forum, we can get back to the business of making a good router great and quit worrying about making a crippled version simply good.

 

[Marcustaz]

@goggles99 appreciate your future commitment to keeping our investment with the ASUS TM-1900\86U secure & running smoothly on Aimesh.

 

[thiggins]

Knock off the sniping at each other. Direct your complaints at me or at the policy.

 

[goggles99]

When all of the disgruntled complainers follow up on their threats to leave the forum, we can get back to the business of making a good router great and quit worrying about making a crippled version simply good.

Please clarify, how is any TM-AC1900 owner in this thread keeping you from "the business of making a good router great"? Are you that hung up over something not even in your direct space to be rendered non-functional? You've got some bigger issues if this is the case. If it isn't then why are you trolling?

After seeing a few posts like the ones I quoted, I was pondering why "legit" owners (meaning their hardware has a different label printed on the same exact hardware) keep complaining about or even visiting this thread? Are we coming into your threads and causing a disturbance like you are coming into ours. You have no right to have a beef with us. I mean really, are you jealous that you paid three times as much for a different sticker? This is the only reason I can think of . Is your life really that boring that you are bothered by such things? What have you lost because of this thread? We aren't even posting in the same threads as you. Why do you come and post in our thread? You don't even have a say here (since you own the overpriced sticker model). Would you be happy if we start trolling your AiMesh threads?

I tell you, many of the TM-AC1900 owners just can't afford two AC68Us (or would have to trade off with buying clothing for their kids or something). They bought this in the hopes of having an affordable mesh system. You think it's funny now because poor people can't have the nice AiMesh setup that you can afford? You want them to just go away? That $40-$50 x2 is a lot of money to some people. They bought this knowing it was a bit of a risk going in, but seeing a big company purposely stick it to them by conspiring against their investment (and this conspiracy has literally has zero chance to make any significant improvement in Asus' bottom line) gives them a legitimate gripe here.

Well, sorry, we are going to always have the latest AiMesh firmware. for the TM-AC1900. I have had it since day one (yes even when Asus tried to prevent it). Any stupid measures that Asus tries to take are easily circumvented by a reverse engineer worth half his salt. Sorry you paid way too much for the same hardware. I can't change that. Asus trying to prevent this firmware from running on the TM just makes it interesting for me and others like me. I brought AiMesh to this router and I will keep it there. Thanks Asus, you just made this fun for the enthusiasts, and for white hats like me. The TM -> AiMesh user base will grow because of your ignorant actions, not shrink. You are ignorant and have not learned from history, so you will have to learn from your own experience. It's game on...

Did that sound serious enough? of just cheezy LOL? I am serious about keeping any FW that Asus releases for the AC68U running on the TM-AC1900 though. I will make it happen because its fun to me now and I love a challenge (I wasn't kidding about me being a white hat).

 

[goggles99]

Knock off the sniping at each other. Direct your complaints at me or at the policy.

So why are you selectively deleting the "sniping" comments? (I toned mine down because it was snarky and deserved deletion, but so do others it was directed at). Is there a reason to not apply discipline and order equally...

Obviously it's your forum and not a free democracy, but really?

 

[Michael Clifford]

Further discussion of methods to get around ASUS' lockdown of TM-AC1900 firmware to prevent conversion to RT-AC68U will not be allowed. The main discussion thread has been deleted. Conversations related to defeating the lockdown have been deleted. New threads or Conversations opened on the topic will be deleted.

ASUS did not request the removal of this material or otherwise influence these actions.

I've been monitoring this forum nearly daily for years. Yes, I purchased that $ 50 router and (long story short) loaded an ASUS modern trx file on it. My question on the forum was titled "How Do I return to the Merlin fold?". Two people provided some tips (Recovery, etc.).

However, the entire conversation was yanked with little explanation - the first time I've had a post deleted in decades.

I fail to see how a request to "return to the fold" would warrant such an action - and can understand others in this post who threaten to leave.

mjclifford

 

[AndreiV]

I've been monitoring this forum nearly daily for years. Yes, I purchased that $ 50 router and (long story short) loaded an ASUS modern trn file on it. My question on the forum was titled "How Do I return to the Merlin fold?". Two people provided some tips (Recovery, etc.).

However, the entire conversation was yanked with little explanation - the first time I've had a post deleted in decades.

I fail to see how a request to "return to the fold" would warrant such an action - and can understand others in this post who threaten to leave.

mjclifford

You answered your own question with the quote you included.

Further discussion of methods to get around ASUS' lockdown of TM-AC1900 firmware to prevent conversion to RT-AC68U will not be allowed. The main discussion thread has been deleted. Conversations related to defeating the lockdown have been deleted. New threads or Conversations opened on the topic will be deleted.

Hacking/flashing a TM router to Asus or Merlin is not to be discussed.

 

[Michael Clifford]

You answered your own question with the quote you included.



Hacking/flashing a TM router to Asus or Merlin is not to be discussed.

The router model was at the time only a backstory. I was requesting (as a near novice) information on putting Merlin on what I thought was an Asus router. I only had a glimmer about the need to now use Recovery since prohibitions were put in place a few years ago. Details on the methods since that change to put on later firmware were politely requested.

Little did I know about all this conflict. Time to go back to the N66...

mjclifford