State of the project (August 2016)

[thiggins]

When the government gets involved it stifles No DESTROYS innovation. You think this is about controlling WiFi you have benign intelligence. This is all about picking apart net neutrality moving toward government control of the net. Remember encryption and the cyrpto war a few years back, ya the government won

Stay on the topic of this thread, which is Merlin's project. Take conspiracy theories and anti-government rants elsewhere.

 

[nova]

UG! I just bought my AC3200 too after selling my AC87U. I keep buying the wrong router. Merlin, do you have any suggestions for ASUS router models to use? Thanks!

I too just bought this router but i wouldn't worry, if you get decent speeds that are enough to cover the hardware that is using them then its a good purchase.

I just wanted to tag this on but a mod can remove if its off topic, if the Gov want to kill vpn then they will have access through the providers so having a router that supports openvpn etc is a moot point.

 

[JGrana]

First, great job over the many years!

Sounds like you need a classic Product Manager. Someone that makes the decision on what features to add (or remove) in future releases and, more important, when models go End of Life.

I am amazed at how many routers Asus continues to support. My hats off to both Asus and yourself. Of course Asus has a development group (likely backed by PM's) and you are a single dev.

My recommendation - begin to EOL older and less popular models. Simplify.

Folks, if you are running a 5+ year older router and continue to expect enhancements - time to move up and on.

Also, give some due and financial consideration to Merlin. Go to this thread and act:

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/the-rmerlin-donation-thread.17285/

 

[Trebuin]

I too just bought this router but i wouldn't worry, if you get decent speeds that are enough to cover the hardware that is using them then its a good purchase.

I just wanted to tag this on but a mod can remove if its off topic, if the Gov want to kill vpn then they will have access through the providers so having a router that supports openvpn etc is a moot point.

I bought it as well for repeater mode which is gone. I changed it into my master and have my 66u in media mode to keep the speed up with an apple router that doesn't work as well. Might have to change up the 66u

 

[jeff288]

First, great job over the many years!

Sounds like you need a classic Product Manager. Someone that makes the decision on what features to add (or remove) in future releases and, more important, when models go End of Life.

I am amazed at how many routers Asus continues to support. My hats off to both Asus and yourself. Of course Asus has a development group (likely backed by PM's) and you are a single dev.

My recommendation - begin to EOL older and less popular models. Simplify.

Folks, if you are running a 5+ year older router and continue to expect enhancements - time to move up and on.

Also, give some due and financial consideration to Merlin. Go to this thread and act:

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/the-rmerlin-donation-thread.17285/

If they still officially sell it, they should still officially support it for a while. In the case of the N66U, they still officially sell it even though it's more than four years old but many of us bought it later. I don't expect the same of Merlin though. I know the MIPS routers are extra overhead for him.

 

[sfx2000]

A lot of the "good" I've done is because I wasn't bound by any corporate rules, not because of any particular skills. A lot of Asus's current developers are well above my skill level as programmers.

Maybe not as a coder - but as a Project Manager or Design on the front end - you're very much in-tune with the community, and you've probably got a better feel for the features that users really care about - and this can lead to better products across the board.

Please don't take this the wrong way - folks who write code are great, but at the same time, they generally write code to specifications and requirements that are defined around a product offering.

And here, honestly in my humble opinion, is your greatest strength - you saw the need, and started down that path. I know that path will take you down better things in life. Whether the project stops or not, know that there's a lot of folks that appreciate what you do.

On a personal, and on the collective basis - Thank You!

 

[vibroverbus]

I keep buying the wrong router. Merlin, do you have any suggestions for ASUS router models to use? Thanks!

Ha. Feeling similarly.

Wish Merlin could make a slightly better answer on that one, as for instance, I had NO idea that the 3200 was on a unique SDK (!? what was the idea there!? )

I DO suspect there's a bit more "X Y and Z models are on more common and continuing platforms therefore best guess is that they'll have continuing support for some time..." that could be guestimated, even knowing there's no guarantees... but need an expert to even be able t0 make that guess...

 

[RMerlin]

Wish Merlin could make a slightly better answer on that one, as for instance, I had NO idea that the 3200 was on a unique SDK (!? what was the idea there!? )

SDKs are architecture-specific. The RT-AC3200 is based on Broadcom's XStream platform (which introduced a new architecture and their Smart Connect feature), so it required a newer SDK than the AC56/AC68/AC87. The next wave of devices released a year later used a newer radio and introduced even more architectural changes, so it required an SDK update, leaving the RT-AC3200 as the only device based on that specific SDK version.

So, we have the RT-N66U (that was upgraded out of necessity at the time) and RT-AC66U based on 6.34, AC56/AC68/AC87 based on SDK 6.37, AC3200 based on 7.10, AC88/AC3100/AC5300 based on 7.14. Each of these come with their own separate Linux kernel and pre-compiled closed source components such as nas, acsd and ctf. Any time I make a change to the Linux kernel, it means I have to re-apply the same change to 4 different kernels.

 

[swetoast]

ok tnx Rmerlin for the info im glad i didnt flash the latest firmware so i didnt lock down my router, i know its a shirtty deal that your sitting in and i respect you for telling us straight up what models might be dropped (mine is RT-AC56U) so i might just move on to advanced tomato instead but really a big tnx for trying as long as it was possible.

 

[jappish84]

I appreciate the great work you've done with the Merlin FW. Still can't help feeling a bit sad to read that support for the RT-AC3200 probably will get droppet soon, especially since I just bought it.

Thanks for the hard would you've put in RMerlin

 

[swetoast]

@RMerlin just a stupid question but what about using Jenkins or something to automate the build process ?

 

[sfx2000]

@RMerlin just a stupid question but what about using Jenkins or something to automate the build process ?

I probably should let RMerlin respond - but seeing the code first hand, in my opinion, it's not suited for a template based iterative build environment like Jenkins... it's a large mon0lithic project, and spread across too many places...

Jenkins is very useful for microservices - e.g. subprojects as part of a whole... and there, it's part of an agile/devops oriented project, which AsusWRT is not...

 

[RMerlin]

@RMerlin just a stupid question but what about using Jenkins or something to automate the build process ?

The code on the repository's head doesn't always build for all models, and I don't want people running untested nightly builds that might have major issues or unfinished things in it.

 

[njespo]

Eric, I appreciate all your hard work and efforts that surely has benefited my experience with all the Asus routers I have owned over the years...Thank You!

 

[Kronyx]

SDKs are architecture-specific. The RT-AC3200 is based on Broadcom's XStream platform (which introduced a new architecture and their Smart Connect feature), so it required a newer SDK than the AC56/AC68/AC87. The next wave of devices released a year later used a newer radio and introduced even more architectural changes, so it required an SDK update, leaving the RT-AC3200 as the only device based on that specific SDK version.

So, we have the RT-N66U (that was upgraded out of necessity at the time) and RT-AC66U based on 6.34, AC56/AC68/AC87 based on SDK 6.37, AC3200 based on 7.10, AC88/AC3100/AC5300 based on 7.14. Each of these come with their own separate Linux kernel and pre-compiled closed source components such as nas, acsd and ctf. Any time I make a change to the Linux kernel, it means I have to re-apply the same change to 4 different kernels.

Another reason why I regret to have bought that router ...

 

[Kanuki]

Another reason why I regret to have bought that router ...

Me too. I know that as long as the router do the job then it should be fine.
But I'm flashaholic haha...

Is this AC3200 considered drop out and there won't be anymore newer release?

 

[RMerlin]

Is this AC3200 considered drop out and there won't be anymore newer release?

Nobody said that.

 

[tonysamson]

Asus should thank you Merlin. I became a fan of their router because of your custom firmware. Thank you so much.

 

[R1-Limited]

So when is the next release coming?

 

[mcouture]

Another reason why I regret to have bought that router ...

Yep, I bought into this model less than a year ago. I've been plagued with horrible 2.4G performance and limited 5G range - played with Shibby and DDWRT and Merlin firmware and since Merlin's .59 and .61 updates - it really makes this router shine. It finally performs like it should. But I buy my routers for longevity and hope firmware updates and improvements will continue to be available for years to come. Guess I should have stayed with the AC68 for the time being. That being said, I'll keep the 3200 as long as 380.61+ continue to provide the great performance/features it does today. Thanks Merlin!