[Maylyn's Preview ~ Networking] ASUS RT-AC68U

[maserluv]

How do you backup "JFSS Partition"?

From RMerlin

 

[wilflare]

this fixed my MR 1Gbps speed woes :O

 

[MoOmUzik]

Just install this router but cant get my subscribed speed of 100mb starhub

able to get only 60mb+- dl n ul using speed test. (2.4GHz or 5GHz almost same speed)

Router: AC68U

Wireless card: Intel Network 7260.HMWG WiFi Wireless-AC 7260 H/T Dual Band 2x2 AC+Bluetooth HMC.

Antenna: The 1 supplied by the mobo Asrock z77e-itx

Not too sure whats is the limiting factor that is affecting my speed.

Should i upgrade the router 3 antenna to 9 dbl or change the antenna of my wireless card?

 

[Ah-Pin-Kor]

Just install this router but cant get my subscribed speed of 100mb starhub

able to get only 60mb+- dl n ul using speed test. (2.4GHz or 5GHz almost same speed)

Router: AC68U

Wireless card: Intel Network 7260.HMWG WiFi Wireless-AC 7260 H/T Dual Band 2x2 AC+Bluetooth HMC.

Antenna: The 1 supplied by the mobo Asrock z77e-itx

Not too sure whats is the limiting factor that is affecting my speed.

Should i upgrade the router 3 antenna to 9 dbl or change the antenna of my wireless card?

What firmware version is your AC68U running?
What driver version is your AC 7260 using?

My 7260-N can get around 180Mbps on speedtest.net (using 5GHz). I suspect it can go even higher, only it's restricted by the firewall s/w on the PC. Driver ver is 17.0.5.8.

 

[MoOmUzik]

3.0.0.4.376_1663 for router

17.0.5.8 64 bit for ac7260

 

[maylyn]

Hot on the heels from RMerlin.

RMerlin 3.0.0.4.376.44 Beta 2 is out as well

Changes in beta 2:

376.44-beta2 (29-Jul-2014)
  - NEW: HFS+ support for MIPS devices (N16/N66/AC66).
         N16 also uses Tuxera now.
  - CHANGED: Updated N66U driver to Asus's 1071 build
  - CHANGED: Implemented RT-AC87U report of LAN port 4
  - FIXED: RT-AC87U port order was wrong on Sysinfo page
  - FIXED: Minidlna issues with Philips smart TVs
  - FIXED: Incorrect state report of port 1 on AC87U.  
           MAC and VLAN cannot be retrieved (AC87U)
  - FIXED: SSHD brute force protection wasn't working if
           Dual WAN was enabled and set to LB mode.
  - FIXED: Miniupnpd error flood in Syslog when using a
           Plex server on your LAN

Beta 2:
1dda25009cf291af6925b39d430b986a  RT-AC56U_3.0.0.4_376.44_beta2.trx
94fae92595fdb0b0515e79cb1f61cf98  RT-AC66U_3.0.0.4_376.44_beta2.trx
bd1e2bc7fa2590ca1e95a80ae3cba4d4  RT-AC68U_3.0.0.4_376.44_beta2.trx
2080c9dd69f7feadb5be83091ae27c7e  RT-AC87U_3.0.0.4_376.44_beta2.trx
2141353a7442c8713ab082592834e7c6  RT-N16_3.0.0.4_376.44_beta2.trx
f729d682d3044528c34231d298ae6016  RT-N66U_3.0.0.4_376.44_beta2.trx

 

[maylyn]

Just to share .... some peeps just loves to scrimp and want their routers to perform like Ferrari in Singlish Please lah .... + /facepalm hehe

Just loves how RMerlin responses

This time, apart from the routine freezing issue, the tasks (downloading files) just disappeared from the list !

DM can handle the first 10 files on the task list as showing “downloading”
if there is more tasks in the task list, those are indicated by “not begin”

I assigned DM to 30 tasks (which is the limit) ED2K files to be downloaded.
As I can see DM can handle, actually download 4-7 ED2K files at the same time but showing the first 10 ED2K files as “downloading”

But because of the freezing issue of DM, I had to reboot the RT-AC68U several times, as usual.
Although they were flashing (coming & going) in the first 10-20mins of the reboot, I was able to see all of my 30 tasks (ED2K files) every time.

Again, you are asking too much out of a 800 Mhz MIPS device with only 256 MB of RAM, all of it going through a USB disk. 20-30 concurrent downloads is too much, use a real PC for that kind of workload.

You won't get any better results with any other router of similar hardware specifications.

 

[tuntun]

Are there any chances to integrate like RT-AC87U with trendmicro codes so that we all can get advantages of security scan on RT-AC68U and compatible models? Thanks

 

[maylyn]

Are there any chances to integrate like RT-AC87U with trendmicro codes so that we all can get advantages of security scan on RT-AC68U and compatible models? Thanks

From what i know is that, TrendMicro DPI aka AiProtection and Adaptive QoS will be featured in the ASUS RT-AC87U for the time being.

It's possible for ASUS to implement these on ASUS RT-AC68U and ASUS RT-AC56U with workaround on the 32MB firmware partition instead of 64MB firmware on the ASUS RT-AC87U and Adaptive QoS. (dual cores CPU are needed).

Most likely ASUS single core CPU based routers (ASUS RT-AC66/N66/N56) will not be implemented with these due to single core hardware limitation.

No idea what are Asus's plans for the AC68U. I know that one problem is the firmware partition is currently too small on the AC68U to contain this, however there are various ways to work around it. I did by removing the built-in Download Master packages (so they get downloaded at install time instead of unpacked from the firmware).

Personally I should be able to support it, however I won't know for sure until I get the final source code, as things might have changed. There are a lot of pieces that must fit together, including the wireless driver. But currently I've been running the new stuff (older beta version) on my AC68U without any problem.

An AC87U might not be mandatory, however it will definitely provide a better experience than with an AC56/AC68, due to its faster CPU. That new stuff can get CPU intensive at times.

I can't really answer on the wifi performance bit as I'm not sure I understand 100% of how MU-MIMO works (or even how different wifi clients interact with one another - wireless radio stuff isn't exactly my expertise). I have a feeling that it won't help you much, unless you were to keep those legacy clients on the 2.4 GHz band, and keep the 5 GHz band for the faster ones.

The new QoS is DPI-based, hence the need for a faster CPU.

 

[maylyn]

RMerlin 376.44-Beta 3 is out as well.

Changes in beta 3:

376.44-beta3 (31-Jul-2014)
  - NEW: Merged with GPL 376_2044 (from AC87U).  This includes
         amongst other things a minor webui refresh, 
         and IE compatibility fixes.
  - CHANGED: Updated miniupnpd to Git head (as of 20140731), which
             includes NAT-PNP fixes
  - FIXED: SmartSync hangs (updated binary blobs with
           copies extracted from FW 376_1123) (N16/N66/AC66)
  - FIXED: Error messages when using a FAT32 disk on MIPS-based routers

Beta 3:
917ab791e380eef213e96b0acaa4f37b  RT-AC56U_3.0.0.4_376.44_beta3.trx
e3fb09a1ece01dd180c81e719b109f40  RT-AC66U_3.0.0.4_376.44_beta3.trx
9e41ace0f91b36a3c3b720af2a522c2c  RT-AC68U_3.0.0.4_376.44_beta3.trx
5b46c06009520e092d9f837df1a33620  RT-AC87U_3.0.0.4_376.44_beta3.trx
8ee027dc306360ce32e18ad2692702fd  RT-N16_3.0.0.4_376.44_beta3.trx
5c02bdb9247adb328490842382e78dca  RT-N66U_3.0.0.4_376.44_beta3.trx

 

[maylyn]

ASUSWRT-MERLIN 376.44 Final is out

Howdy folks,

Asuswrt-Merlin 376.44 is now available for all supported models. The two biggest changes in this new release is the merge with GPL 376_2044 (which contains the first state of what Asus occasionally refers to as "Asuswrt 2.0"), and the support for the brand new RT-AC87.

Important: The JFFS2 partition layout has changed on the RT-AC56 and RT-AC68. If you have stored any file in this partition, make sure you make a backup of its content before flashing 376.44 (or any newer version)!

Important2:

If you ran one of the recent Beta on the RT-N66 or RT-AC66 it is strongly recommended that you do a factory default reset. There was a bug in Asus's code that caused one of the wireless-related nvram setting to be assigned an invalid value. While manually fixing it worked for some, it didn't always. Doing a factory default reset would take care of it.

The highlight of this new release:

• Added full support for the newly released RT-AC87. I'd like to thank Asus for providing me with an advance development sample to allow me to work on implementing support ahead of product launch. Some of the new features Asus added to this router have forced me however to drop support for L7 Filters and IPsec (kernel conflict with the new DPI engine from Asus). The Ethernet Port state on the Sysinfo page will also not be as accurate, as one of the ports isn't on the Broadcom switch, so I can't retrieve the last seen MAC like I could with the Broadcom switch. Otherwise, everything else is there: IPtraffic, Stealth Mode, etc...
  
• Merge with Asus 3.0.0.4.376_2044 (from the RT-AC87 GPL release). This first step toward Asuswrt 2.0 includes a new filesystem driver for ARM devices, a new configurable Networkmap, and a new DPI engine used for QoS and traffic control/filtering (AC87U only at this point).
  
• ARM-based routers (AC56, AC68, AC87) are now using an HFS+ and NTFS driver developped by Tuxera. This replaces the previous driver developed by Paragon. The Tuxera driver brings improved USB performance and reliability. A benchmark test I did on my RT-AC87 showed a good 10% performance gain from the Tuxera driver - and more improvements are expected in the near future.
• miniupnpd was updated. This new build should resolve log floods caused by Plex servers amongst other things
• Asus updated minidlna to the latest 1.1.3 version. On top of this I also applied a fix to resolve streaming issues with Philips smart TVs.
• Miscellaneous fixes were applied, such as mt-daapd support on MIPS-based routers

As usual, the complete detail can be found in the Changelog.

Changelog is here.
Downloads are here.
More details can be found in the complete changelog.

MD5 checksums:

5de51b7eaf6e8409ed8da1980089135d  RT-AC56U_3.0.0.4_376.44_0.trx
e8b5561f4ba2ca644c9d4a030f93fd78  RT-AC66U_3.0.0.4_376.44_0.trx
e79abd1a37c3c46e991628cf3b94b544  RT-AC68U_3.0.0.4_376.44_0.trx
c65e1a074cb28ef6f733e066e6494355  RT-AC87U_3.0.0.4_376.44_0.trx
fba8d8dfaad36ff843c9b176dfe46182  RT-N16_3.0.0.4_376.44_0.trx
843188022b77479e4217e259db4e078e  RT-N66U_3.0.0.4_376.44_0.trx

What's coming next?
Things will have to slow down the next couple of weeks as post-vacation projects for some customers will occupy a lot of my time. Also make sure to read the "project recentering" post I will be making later tonight (I will link it here once it's finalized).

 

[h030831]

AC87U CNET Review

Just in case anyone is interested in,

AC 87U review on 1 Aug 14 by CNET

Asus AC2400 RT-AC87U Dual-band Wireless Gigabit Router review - CNET

h030831

 

[maylyn]

Incoming change in the Asuswrt-merlin development pace

Re-post for info.

I'd like to take this time to explain a couple of changes that will be happening to this project starting with the 376.44 release.

The recent merge with GPL 376_xxxx from Asus proved to be quite difficult. As Asuswrt and Asuswrt-Merlin keep evolving, their codebase are drifting further apart, making each new GPL release harder to merge in that the previous one. Asus are being very aggressive in their firmware development, constantly adding new major features, and making numerous tweaks here and there. The last merge forced me to revert various IPv6-related fixes that had been applied to Asuswrt-Merlin over the past few months so I could merge the revamped IPv6 code from Asus. Two years ago, merging a new GPL was roughly 3-4 hours of work (one evening). With GPL 376_xxxx, the merges took me between two and three evenings, and that's not taking into account the RT-AC87 support development...

So, I won't be making new releases anymore every time Asus is pushing out a new GPL anymore. The increasing amount of work involved in GPL merges make that too taxing. I simply cannot keep up (as a one-man project) with Asus's entire dedicated team of developers rate of development.

Also because of this codebase drift, I am currently putting a stop on any new feature addition to Asuswrt-Merlin for the time being. I need to either find a way to reduce the amount of work involved in merging two increasingly drifting codebases, or limit the frequency of those painful merges. For now the latter is the only solution I could find. If Asus's development pace ever slows down I might go back to my previous development pace, but that will be something to evaluate once we get there. So for the coming months the focus will be strictly on keeping up with Asus's own changes, and bugfixing (where they don't require radical changes in the codebase - the IPv6 bugfixes were a killer there).

Another issue is how different the Asus routers are becoming with each new generation. We currently have the following generations:

- Old SDK5 device (RT-N16)
- First gen SDK6 (RT-N66, RT-AC66
- First gen ARM devices (RT-AC56, RT-AC68
- Quantenna device (RT-AC87)

All four require their own, separate copy of the closed-source components used by Asus. On top of that you can expect a fifth one to appear in the coming months, with the implantation of Broadcom's SDK7 (used for the RT-AC3200). This means that whenever Asus releases a new GPL for one of these four generations, I only get the updated closed source component of that specific generation. So if for example Asus were to release FW 376_5000 for the RT-AC87 with a whole new AiCloud, it would be impossible for me to implement it on the other generations until Asus also released the GPL for these other generations, with their corresponding closed source bits.

Because of this, there will be some change in my current (informal) release schedule. In the past I generally released new updates every time Asus pushed out a new GPL release, and I did it simultaneously for all supported routers. As this will become increasing difficult to do (sometimes even impossible), I will no longer guarantee that each new release I make will be simultaneously for all supported routers. I will have to go with what proprietary bits I get out of the GPL on which I will be basing this new release. This shouldn't be a major problem, as Asus has shown by now they are still committed into supporting their older routers.

So the bottom-line is, keeping up with Asus's current pace of development has outgrown my capacity as a one-man team of keeping up with them, so expect less frequent releases from me, and these won't always be for all supported routers at the same time. And the emphasis will be strictly on merging new code and fixes, with a temporary stop on any new feature development from myself.

 

[ckh98258]

Just in case anyone is interested in,

AC 87U review on 1 Aug 14 by CNET

Asus AC2400 RT-AC87U Dual-band Wireless Gigabit Router review - CNET

h030831

USD 270 ....

Anyone know what's AC68 launching price?

 

[renfred89]

USD 270 ....

Anyone know what's AC68 launching price?

$359

10char

 

[maxsony]

Just hope that when the AC87 router release.. AC68 pricing will drop..

 

[bagger 288]

Just hope that when the AC87 router release.. AC68 pricing will drop..

Anyway for me likely to sell either my ac68 or rt56 when ac87 is here. Cannot have tOo many routers at home.

 

[ckh98258]

AC87 already available in States. Any news when will hit SG shore? Hope to see it in coming Comex 2014.

 

[Apparatus]

Re

I want the one with 6 antennas leh....when is it coming?

 

[vagus1978]

Can I check with you guys.... on AC68U, how much does it take to saturate it's 1 single Gigabit LAN connection?

Let's say I have the following traffic I identified that comes through the AC68U:
- 2 wireless-N ip cameras with total 1.6mb/s liveview traffic recording to a Synology NAS
- torrenting to NAS
- media server sharing via DLNA wireless-N to a smart TV and some mobile devices from my NAS

Currently my setup is:
[synology 1511+] <==link aggregation===> [HP 1810-24G Switch*] <----single LAN (cat60---> [AC68U ]

*from the HP switch, I am connecting my home network via CAT6 patch panel to the rest of the rooms in the house.

Does it make sense to setup Link Aggregation between AC68U and the HP1810-24G as well?