[Maylyn's Review] ASUS RT-AC66U Dark Knight Rises

[Nakedtoes]

Which is the best merlin build for ac66u now? In term of wireless strength..

 

[Studded]

Full reset after upgrade

Okay thanks. Now on 376.44. So much better now, smoother connection on my PS3

 

[eyz]

quite new to this custom firmware, and would like to ask,

i just took a look at merlin's website that his the rmerlin firmware patches, tweaks and fixes bugs.

i used my internet mainly for BT, the built in AiDisk, DownloadMaster for BT, hence would like to know whether the custom firmware would help in my usage.

thanks.

 

[tangbee]

Hello All, i just updated to MERLIN 376.44 and did the hard reset, but got an issue, not sure if this is a bug or my mistake?

I use below setting for 5GHz wireless
--> Wireless mode: "N+AC" ,
--> Channel Bandwidth: 80MHz
--> Control Channel: 153

After clicked "Apply" and cross checked with PCE utility, the connection always stay @ 5GHz 20MHz, and the channel remained at 36 instead of 153 in setting, is there anyone encountered this? Any suggestion?

Thanks in advance.

 

[renfred89]

Hello All, i just updated to MERLIN 376.44 and did the hard reset, but got an issue, not sure if this is a bug or my mistake?

I use below setting for 5GHz wireless
--> Wireless mode: "N+AC" ,
--> Channel Bandwidth: 80MHz
--> Control Channel: 153

After clicked "Apply" and cross checked with PCE utility, the connection always stay @ 5GHz 20MHz, and the channel remained at 36 instead of 153 in setting, is there anyone encountered this? Any suggestion?

Thanks in advance.

i think you need to reboot it..

 

[Ah-Pin-Kor]

Hello All, i just updated to MERLIN 376.44 and did the hard reset, but got an issue, not sure if this is a bug or my mistake?

I use below setting for 5GHz wireless
--> Wireless mode: "N+AC" ,
--> Channel Bandwidth: 80MHz
--> Control Channel: 153

After clicked "Apply" and cross checked with PCE utility, the connection always stay @ 5GHz 20MHz, and the channel remained at 36 instead of 153 in setting, is there anyone encountered this? Any suggestion?

Thanks in advance.

There are other people reporting similar problem with 376.44 at SNB:
Asuswrt-Merlin 376.44 is out - Page 14 - SmallNetBuilder Forums

Between 374.43 and 376.44 are major changes. If you don't absolutely need any of the new stuff, best to stay at 374.43 for the time being. Major changes usually need a few cycles to quieten down.

 

[tangbee]

Thank you guys...I hav rolled back to 374.43 for good...seems like .44 will need more time to "fine tuning"

 

[joej]

.44 has many new features and is quite stable. I have also rolled back to .43 because .44 reduces my wifi range significantly

 

[maylyn]

RMerlin 3.0.0.4.376.45 is out.

Howdy folks,

Initially I wanted to wait for newer Asus source code before pushing out a new release, however in light of the recent OpenSSL security fixes I decided to publish a 376.45 release with the current Github content for all supported models.

This is essentially a security + bugfix release with little frills, so I'll just dump the changelog here:

376.45 (17-Aug-2014)

• NEW: Compiled vsftpd with SSL support (must be manually configured if you intend to use it)
• NEW: Report FA state (Level 2 CTF) on Sysinfo page.
• CHANGED: Updated dropbear to 2014.65.
• CHANGED: Updated openssl to 1.0.0n (numerous security fixes)
• CHANGED: Updated lzo to 2.08
• CHANGED: Reworked VPN Server pages to be more intuitive
• FIXED: Garbled client dropdown selector on DNSFilter page
• FIXED: The Comcast neighbour solicitation block wasn't enabled anymore (regression in 376.44) (Patch by Sinshiva)
• FIXED: 5 GHz N+AC mode was incorrectly setting router to N-only mode (Asus bug, fix backported from 2381, additional fix by me for AC66)
• FIXED: PControl page failing to display on French and Italian locales (Asus bug)
• FIXED: IPv6 can occasionally fail to work properly when using a PPPoE WAN interface (patch by pinwing)

Downloads are here.

 

[joej]

.44 has many new features and is quite stable. I have also rolled back to .43 because .44 reduces my wifi range significantly

Guys, this might be useful... changes of .44 and .45 but with .43's wifi range
Update for 374.43 available - SmallNetBuilder Forums

 

[maylyn]

TX power

Some information regarding future ASUS firmwares on TX power.

It's will be the same for all networking manufacturers across the board.

See this link for the two documents that relate to this. The second document shows the type of things the FCC asks out of manufacturers now before granting certification.

https://apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/kdb/forms/FTSSearchResultPage.cfm?id=39498&switch=P

One interesting bit there that relates to the use of channel 12 and 13, as an example:

So giving end user manual control of it is definitely out of the question for future products. No idea how strict they are about existing, already certified products, but in any case get used to not being able anymore to control this, as it will be the norm from now on.

 

[jojo_b2]

Help with issue installing PCE-AC68 Utility (WlanMgr)

I'm having issues installing the utility included with the PCE-AC68 even the latest one.

Once installed and computer reset.

The Utility opens but is stuck in a loop "Initializing" until it hits an error and closes entirely. Has anyone encountered the issue?

The only work around was to get the drivers uninstall the utility and just install the drivers.



Btw, running Windows 7 SP1 64 Bit

 

[jackt11]

Hi, may I know where can I download ac66u firmware 3.0.0.4.270? Thanks

 

[Ah-Pin-Kor]

Hi, may I know where can I download ac66u firmware 3.0.0.4.270? Thanks

Any reason why you are looking for such an old version?
RMerlin's 270.26b is still available for download.

 

[jackt11]

Any reason why you are looking for such an old version?
RMerlin's 270.26b is still available for download.

After upgrading to the lastest firmware, found out at channel 12 & 13 missing and also the tx power adjustment no longer in mW only in %. So thinking revert back to the firmware I know
Thanks

 

[Ah-Pin-Kor]

After upgrading to the lastest firmware, found out at channel 12 & 13 missing and also the tx power adjustment no longer in mW only in %. So thinking revert back to the firmware I know

You don't have to go so far back (those old f/w might have some security issues).
Just have to roll back to 374.x like 374.5517 (stock Asus) or 374.43 (RMerlin) and you should get back the mW setting.
Do a factory reset after flashing.

 

[Nakedtoes]

i play ard the 5ghz setting and set

beacon interval to 50
RTS treshold to 2307..

performance and range increase.

 

[jackt11]

You don't have to go so far back (those old f/w might have some security issues).
Just have to roll back to 374.x like 374.5517 (stock Asus) or 374.43 (RMerlin) and you should get back the mW setting.
Do a factory reset after flashing.

Thank you very much!

 

[jackt11]

You don't have to go so far back (those old f/w might have some security issues).
Just have to roll back to 374.x like 374.5517 (stock Asus) or 374.43 (RMerlin) and you should get back the mW setting.
Do a factory reset after flashing.

Hi Ah-Pin-Kor, thanks you for the help, got back the mW setting ability. But still missing channel 12&13. For what I know ac68u got channel 12&13.
Thanks.

 

[Ah-Pin-Kor]

Hi Ah-Pin-Kor, thanks you for the help, got back the mW setting ability. But still missing channel 12&13. For what I know ac68u got channel 12&13.

Your ccode values are probably set to US (no chans 12 & 13).
See this post by Techno Pride at SNB for some telnet/ssh commands to set the ccode to SG:
SmallNetBuilder Forums - View Single Post - [Q] How to enable all wireless channels and allow higher TX power?