Torrenting on the RT-AC86U

[r00t]

I have an RT-AC86U that I would like to use as an eventual torrent downloader (i.e. not a constant seedbox for a huge amount of files, but eventually downloading and seeding for a while one or two torrents, albeit definitely huge ones).

I once used the stock firmware with its downloader app but it would crash so often I gave up altogether.

So my questions are:

1. Is Merlin better for this or is it a hardware issue?
2. Would writing on a flash drive be too bad? I've seen recommendations against it but the posts are pretty old so I wonder if it's still an issue.
3. Does USB 3.0 work well for this or should I stick with 2.0?
4. I also intend to run AdGuard in it. Would that be too much for it to handle?

Thanks in advance!

 

[drinkingbird]

I have an RT-AC86U that I would like to use as an eventual torrent downloader (i.e. not a constant seedbox for a huge amount of files, but eventually downloading and seeding for a while one or two torrents, albeit definitely huge ones).

I once used the stock firmware with its downloader app but it would crash so often I gave up altogether.

So my questions are:

1. Is Merlin better for this or is it a hardware issue?
2. Would writing on a flash drive be too bad? I've seen recommendations against it but the posts are pretty old so I wonder if it's still an issue.
3. Does USB 3.0 work well for this or should I stick with 2.0?
4. I also intend to run AdGuard in it. Would that be too much for it to handle?

Thanks in advance!

Never tried it on the router, but I know on my PC when there are lots of peers, it can really become resource intensive. Considering the router has about 1/1000th the power and memory as a PC, you're going to hit some limits. Not sure if there are settings you can tweak to limit the number of peers etc, maybe that would help (but would also slow down your transfers potentially).

Even a 10+ year old PC would probably be able to handle more than the router, may be a case of throwing something together for that type of use and just firing it up when needed.

 

[jata]

I wouldn't bother doing this on a router.

All you need is a raspberry pi, install open media vault (OMV) and setup a torrent solution via docker/portainer (e.g. haugene/transmission-openvpn)

this works great and it is integrated with openvpn so everything is private.

I doubt you will be disappointed

 

[muffintastic]

Or just invest in a seedbox.

 

[sl4fko]

I had an AC86U for 3 years with Transamission installed and it worked without any problems.



Follow this guide for installation:

Installing Transmission through Entware

Third party firmware for Asus routers (newer codebase) - RMerl/asuswrt-merlin.ng

github.com

 

[heysoundude]

You may want to check this thread from a few years ago out for an option as well.
Caution: it can saturate your connection, and slow other traffic in/out to a crawl