Worth upgrading?

[binarydad]

I've been using 3.0.0.4.374.32 for quite some time and its been solid for me so far. At least, it seems that way. I'm curious if any compelling reason to update to the latest 374.39. Thanks.

 

[L&LD]

I would say yes. But which router are you talking about?

 

[binarydad]

I would say yes. But which router are you talking about?

Sorry, it's a RT-N66U. Could you say why? Thanks.

Edit: Does the newer driver resolve the range issues that were apparent after my .32 version?

 

[L&LD]

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showpost.php?p=98452&postcount=150

That link is for the previous 374.38_2-em version.

I would recommend the latest 374.39_0-em version now.


Also;
http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showpost.php?p=101028&postcount=50

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showpost.php?p=101034&postcount=51


Choosing the right channel is just as important as having the latest firmware version.

 

[ckane]

Sorry, it's a RT-N66U. Could you say why? Thanks.

Edit: Does the newer driver resolve the range issues that were apparent after my .32 version?

TL;DR version: just try it, if it works, fine; if not, revert. Save your settings on the old version first!

There is certainly reason to upgrade; there've been a number of fixes since 374.32, some of them security fixes (though those seem to be mainly important if you're using some of the add-on features of the router, like AiCloud or Samba). The newer releases also use a newer wireless driver, and I think some compilation flags were tuned so that in general newer versions should run faster. The range issues reportedly are mostly fixed with the -em builds since 374.38_2-em.

So much for theory. It's certainly worth trying out.

I did the exercise myself with 374.38_2-em, coming from 374.30_2. Took me about an hour (factory reset after flashing, then re-entering all my settings, then resetting wireless profiles on clients). Much better than my last attempt (I think that was with .34 or .35), where I couldn't get any Internet connection at all.

But after a week, I've reverted back to 374.30_2. Two reasons for that:

1. I didn't see any speed improvements; in fact, iperf tests showed a drop in throughput of about 10%. Signal strength and signal-to-noise ratio was about the same on both 2.4 and 5GHz for me (also in rather difficult locations).

2. 5GHz proved to be very unstable. It would drop out without warning frequently (every few days, sometimes even every few hours), and not come back. Tried different channels and other tweaks; nothing helped. The last time it did that, it even took down the 2.4GHz a little while after. No entries whatsoever in the system log; it just went out.

If you look through the ".38 is out" thread, you'll find several posts from other people stating their clients could not connect at 5GHz, or that 5GHz did not show up. Since .30_2 had been rock stable for me with all clients and on both bands, back to that old version it was. Since then; no problem: the router is stable again. (And the AiCloud/Samba security holes are non-issues for me. My router runs as a router; for storage stuff I have a NAS.)

It's still worth a try; there seem to be a lot of people who don't have any such problems. Just be prepared to roll back if you're one of the few who do have these troubles.

Edit: in the ".39 is out" thread, there's now also mention of these 5GHz problems. And then, some people have problems with IPv6 since the .38 build. That, too, doesn't appear to affect everyone.