Asuswrt-Merlin - custom build of the Asus RT-N66U firmware

[RMerlin]

Merlin, I have a problem with your firmware: using games on xbox live, I see lag during games to Halo, while using the original asus firmware, everything is fine.

Wired? Wifi? With or without QoS?

Did you check your ping time or a traceroute to make sure it's not actually an ISP issue?
Make sure you do use the same settings in both firmwares. If in doubt make a backup of your settings, then restore to factory defaults, and see if it helps. If not, you can restore your backed up settings.

I can't think of any reason why there would be a latency difference between both firmwares, since it's the same hardware drivers, and the same network settings.

 

[Gingernut]

Does anybody know a iptables command to get access to a half bridge modem on a different sub net using RMerlins firmware?

The ones I have for ddwrt and Tomato don't seem to work.

Thanks

 

[doc octopus]

Wired? Wifi? With or without QoS?

Did you check your ping time or a traceroute to make sure it's not actually an ISP issue?
Make sure you do use the same settings in both firmwares. If in doubt make a backup of your settings, then restore to factory defaults, and see if it helps. If not, you can restore your backed up settings.

I can't think of any reason why there would be a latency difference between both firmwares, since it's the same hardware drivers, and the same network settings.

Use the same settings, firewall disabled, enabled qos and upnp enabled, wifi connected. Your last revision I felt it for fun, the original asus .162, for my use, works very well.

 

[RMerlin]

Does anybody know a iptables command to get access to a half bridge modem on a different sub net using RMerlins firmware?

The ones I have for ddwrt and Tomato don't seem to work.

Thanks

I can't test it because this cablemodem has no webinterface (unlike my previous DSL modem), but this is how I would try it, based on the DD-WRT method (that I was using back in the day):

ifconfig eth0:0 10.0.0.2 netmask 255.255.255.0
iptables -t nat -I POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE

 

[Gingernut]

I can't test it because this cablemodem has no webinterface (unlike my previous DSL modem), but this is how I would try it, based on the DD-WRT method (that I was using back in the day):

Great thank you very much, that worked perfect. It's the interface name I was getting wrong.

Do you know why these commands don't work?

ifconfig `nvram get wan_ifname`:0 10.0.0.2 netmask 255.255.255.0

iptables -t nat -I POSTROUTING -o `nvram get wan_ifname` -j MASQUERADE

Sorry, I've gone over the readme a few times but it's still a bit vague, do the wanup, startup etc scripts have to be named like

something.services-start or something-service-start.sh

or am I totally off.

Thanks again.

 

[RMerlin]

Great thank you very much, that worked perfect. It's the interface name I was getting wrong.

Do you know why these commands don't work?

That's because Asuswrt doesn't use the same nvram variable names as DD-WRT. Asuswrt uses "wan0_ifname" for the main WAN interface.

Also make sure you are using backticks, not single quotes. You could also just hardcode it to eth0 like I did.

Sorry, I've gone over the readme a few times but it's still a bit vague, do the wanup, startup etc scripts have to be named like

something.services-start or something-service-start.sh

No, just name them services-start, firewall-start, etc....

 

[2000wolf]

Hi RMerlin,

I tend to update from .151 to your .162.13.

Due to unsolved issues in the past now I'm using the RT-N66U as an accesspoint connected to a cisco router.

Can I switch the RT-N66U easily to AP mode after updating to .162.13?

... and if I intended to use the RT-N66U as a standalone router would .162.13 wipe out all settings that are now deactivated only because I use it as an AP, e.g. the MAC IP allocations?

 

[RMerlin]

Hi RMerlin,

I tend to update from .151 to your .162.13.

Due to unsolved issues in the past now I'm using the RT-N66U as an accesspoint connected to a cisco router.

Can I switch the RT-N66U easily to AP mode after updating to .162.13?

... and if I intended to use the RT-N66U as a standalone router would .162.13 wipe out all settings that are now deactivated only because I use it as an AP, e.g. the MAC IP allocations?

I haven't tested in any other mode than router, but it should work - I haven't changed anything in that area.

Going from 151 to 162.13 will most likely wipe out all settings, because you'd be upgrading from 32K to 64K nvram. One way to make it easier to reconfigure is to first dump all your nvram settings into a text file:

nvram show

Upgrade your router, do the basic settings, and then look at the copy of the settings you kept, and manually reapply those settings that are most annoying to reconfigure by hand. An example:

nvram set vts_rulelist="<Camelot>60000:60999>192.168.10.100>>BOTH<VM>61000:61999>192.168.10.105>>BOTH"
nvram commit

This will reapply all your forwarded ports. A few interesting settings to quickly re-import that way:

qos_rulelist
dhcp_staticlist

Don't forget to use " " around the actual data, like I did in my example.

 

[KuDeSnik33ra]

Hello, i have a problem with iptv on my rt-n66u. I connect my iptv stb to LAN4.
Then I select iptv stb port = LAN4 in router settings, no difference other settings on this page, only one of internet or iptv working. Then iptv is powered on while router reboots it works, internet - no, log says:
Jan 1 04:00:52 pppd[500]: Timeout waiting for PADO packets
Jan 1 04:00:52 pppd[500]: Unable to complete PPPoE Discovery
Then iptv is powered off on router reboot internet work, iptv dont even boot (it checks network before boot).

Then I set iptv stb port = None, and enable multicast routing internet and iptv work together, BUT my WiFi devices work very slowly (looks like multicast go to all network devices and overload wireless). Both internal router's wifi and other acess points in network are involved.

Can some one help me with settings, or, maybe look for firmware's bugs?

My firmware is 3.0.0.3.162.13. And some bugreports for this firmware:
1. "Administration -> Performance Tuning" is not working correctly.

 

[RMerlin]

Hello, i have a problem with iptv on my rt-n66u. I connect my iptv stb to LAN4.
Then I select iptv stb port = LAN4 in router settings, no difference other settings on this page, only one of internet or iptv working. Then iptv is powered on while router reboots it works, internet - no, log says:
Jan 1 04:00:52 pppd[500]: Timeout waiting for PADO packets
Jan 1 04:00:52 pppd[500]: Unable to complete PPPoE Discovery
Then iptv is powered off on router reboot internet work, iptv dont even boot (it checks network before boot).

Then I set iptv stb port = None, and enable multicast routing internet and iptv work together, BUT my WiFi devices work very slowly (looks like multicast go to all network devices and overload wireless). Both internal router's wifi and other acess points in network are involved.

Can some one help me with settings, or, maybe look for firmware's bugs?

My firmware is 3.0.0.3.162.13. And some bugreports for this firmware:
1. "Administration -> Performance Tuning" is not working correctly.

I recommend you try again with Asus's original firmware, and if it does the same then contact their tech support. I can't test or debug anything related to IPTV since I don't have that service to do any tests, sorry.

Performance Tuning: that page will be removed in a future version.

 

[diyguy]

I need some help! I just flashed to the RM13 and after it completed with the message to reboot, I cannot get to the router's web interface or ssh into it. I still have web access.


EDIT: OK PHEW!! It seems like it an isolated problem to my machine and not my router, the machine which I used to do the firmware upgrade can't seem to get to the router, and it is directly plugged in. Another machine on the network got in just fine. Probably unrelated to the upgrade. also make sure you backup you jffs partition, it does indeed get removed with this update, It didn't last time though.

 

[RMerlin]

I need some help! I just flashed to the RM13 and after it completed with the message to reboot, I cannot get to the router's web interface or ssh into it. I still have web access.


EDIT: OK PHEW!! It seems like it an isolated problem to my machine and not my router, the machine which I used to do the firmware upgrade can't seem to get to the router, and it is directly plugged in. Another machine on the network got in just fine. Probably unrelated to the upgrade. also make sure you backup you jffs partition, it does indeed get removed with this update, It didn't last time though.

If you were going from a 32K to a 64K firmware, then your network settings also got reset. So if that PC has a static IP in a different network (for example, 192.168.10.xxx) then it won't be able to reach the router on its default 192.168.1.1 address.

JFFS partition is never guaranteed to survive firmware flashes, as the rootfs partition will most likely be a different size between upgrades.

 

[MXM]

Just found an issue with 3.0.0.3.162.13 (Merlin build)

I had port forwarding enabled to allow RDP. And RDP was working just fine. Then, I disabled Port Forwarding but the RDP session continued to work just fine...

The System Log/Port Forwarding page does not show any port forwarding enabled....

Looks like the router is not refreshing those permissions...

 

[RMerlin]

Just found an issue with 3.0.0.3.162.13 (Merlin build)

I had port forwarding enabled to allow RDP. And RDP was working just fine. Then, I disabled Port Forwarding but the RDP session continued to work just fine...

The System Log/Port Forwarding page does not show any port forwarding enabled....

Looks like the router is not refreshing those permissions...

Port forwarding works on the initial connection attempt. if you disable port forwarding but there is already an existing connection, it won't be terminated since the NAT session is already established. That's normal.

 

[diyguy]

If you were going from a 32K to a 64K firmware, then your network settings also got reset. So if that PC has a static IP in a different network (for example, 192.168.10.xxx) then it won't be able to reach the router on its default 192.168.1.1 address.

JFFS partition is never guaranteed to survive firmware flashes, as the rootfs partition will most likely be a different size between upgrades.

I was going form 64 to 64 so I think it just an isolated problem with my browser/machine or something.

Yea, I am planning to setup a cronjob to make a weekly backup of the JFFS partition to the USB hard drive. the "cp" command on the router does not copy directories for some reason ( I get an error directory omitted) so I need to figure the proper command to execute. I tried cp -r but still no luck. Open to any ideas for creating a copy script, maybe a creating a tarball on the USB might be the way to go.

 

[Mektub]

/bin/cp -a copies directories recursively.

/bin/cp alone gives a help.

/opt/bin/cp --help (if you have it, ipkg) has far more options.

Mektub

 

[RogerSC]

I was going form 64 to 64 so I think it just an isolated problem with my browser/machine or something.

Yea, I am planning to setup a cronjob to make a weekly backup of the JFFS partition to the USB hard drive. the "cp" command on the router does not copy directories for some reason ( I get an error directory omitted) so I need to figure the proper command to execute. I tried cp -r but still no luck. Open to any ideas for creating a copy script, maybe a creating a tarball on the USB might be the way to go.

For linux, "cp -r" should do it for you. There's also "cpio -pmdvu" to transfer hierarchies if you have cpio. You have to use the "find" command to pipe the hierarchy into STDIN of the cpio command, though; e.g.

find . -depth -print | cpio -pmduv <target directory>

kind of thing.

I'm not sure what all that the embedded Linux on the router has as far as commands go, but "cp -r" and "cpio" are pretty standard UNIX/Linux commands. And "tar" should also be there, as well as gzip to compress your backups if you want to.

The thing about "cp -r" is that symlinks are replaced by real directories and files, so that can expand your hierarchy if you use symlinks. On the other hand, "cpio -p" will preserve symlinks during a copy...but you have to make sure that you're including the target of the symlink as well, so that the symlink works in the copy.

 

[RMerlin]

I'm not sure what all that the embedded Linux on the router has as far as commands go, but "cp -r" and "cpio" are pretty standard UNIX/Linux commands. And "tar" should also be there, as well as gzip to compress your backups if you want to.

Asuswrt (like most embedded devices) uses Busybox for most basic commands. Tar and gzip applets are both enabled in this Busybox build.

 

[Mikeriv]

Quick question about setting up my NAS. When the NAS is setup without a password i can actually mount it as a network drive and have everything exacty as if it was plugged into my usb. Now when i set up a password and access restriction so certain users on my network have readonly access etc the NAS shows up differently in my windows 7 network and it can no longer be mounted as a network drive. Is there any possibility to have a password and still be able to mount as a network drive?

 

[mossman]

Bug in Asus official 162 build carried through to Merlin build?

There seems to be a bug with the official 162 code that was not present in earlier versions, and that bug has carried through to the Merlin build. It is detailed in this thread:

http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx...model=RT-N66U+(VER.B1)&page=1&SLanguage=en-us

And I can confirm that I am also seeing this problem (wireless will turn off according to the date/time schedule, but it does not turn back on). Is this a bug that you can locate and fix in your build?

It was working in your previous build 157