What version should I upgrade to?

[Nerre]

I have for a long time procrastinated the upgrade of my RT-AC66U. When it was running stable I didn't want to mess with it, our internet connection is used by the whole family all the time so downtime on the router is not very popular

(I have even been thinking of buying a second router to try upgrades on so I can easily swap back if stuff doesn't work well.)

When the infosvr backdoor was revealed I was about to upgrade, but instead used the quickfix to kill infosvr and block port 9999 in firewall-start.

Now I am running the very old 3.0.0.4.246.19 (yes, that old! time runs fast) and I really think I should upgrade. But I don't miss many features in this version, so I wonder if the latest version also is the most stable, or if I should look at a little older version?

 

[RMerlin]

380.62 is the recommended build (or 380.62_1 if you can wait a day or two - it will include a security update for OpenSSL).

Be prepared to do a factory default reset and manually reconfiguring everything as you are coming from a very old version.

 

[L&LD]

I have for a long time procrastinated the upgrade of my RT-AC66U. When it was running stable I didn't want to mess with it, our internet connection is used by the whole family all the time so downtime on the router is not very popular

(I have even been thinking of buying a second router to try upgrades on so I can easily swap back if stuff doesn't work well.)

When the infosvr backdoor was revealed I was about to upgrade, but instead used the quickfix to kill infosvr and block port 9999 in firewall-start.

Now I am running the very old 3.0.0.4.246.19 (yes, that old! time runs fast) and I really think I should upgrade. But I don't miss many features in this version, so I wonder if the latest version also is the most stable, or if I should look at a little older version?

You're running a four year old version of the firmware? I see you're a gambling man.

The following links will be useful to getting up to date as painlessly as possible while also starting on the latest firmware with the best foot forward (a known/good state).

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/no...l-and-manual-configuration.27115/#post-205573

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/faq-nvram-and-factory-default-reset.22822/

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/rt-ac66u-slow-wan-to-lan.12973/page-3#post-269410

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/user-nvram-save-restore-utility-r24.19521/


Do you have to follow all the suggestions in the links above? Maybe not. I do for myself and my customers because I only want to set up the network once (not second guess myself which step I missed or took a shortcut with).

The last link is very useful if you have a lot of custom settings in your router (or, just as a backup to the current firmware version you have, of course). The most powerful feature, imo? The text based output of 'all' the settings in your router. Better than making notes yourself. Better than taking a screenshot of each tab. Better than making a PDF record of each screen. And much, much faster.

Another highly recommended addition to your updated router would be AB-Solution by thelonelycoder.

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/ab-solution-2-0-is-out-v2-0-1.34530/

If you want to surf at top speed while consuming 'only' the data you actually care to read and are searching for.

 

[Nerre]

I have already taken screen dumps of all settings (most are really defaults), done a backup of /jffs and will do the upgrade without the USB stick connected, so I am fully prepared to du a full new install. (The rest of family will be away all friday evening, so that's my slot to upgrade.)

I'm not interested in running Ad-blocking on the router, I consider the router "production critical", thus I want it to be as easy as possible to replace and keep tghe configuration simple.

 

[L&LD]

I'll be looking forward to your results Saturday!

 

[thelonelycoder]

I'm not interested in running Ad-blocking on the router, I consider the router "production critical", thus I want it to be as easy as possible to replace and keep tghe configuration simple.

production critical

 

[Nerre]

Well, two teenagers and a wife screaming at me if "the internet" is not working

Which means I can not perform any maintenance on the router when they are home. And they are home more than me, so... I think I once had an uptime of 400+ days.

 

[thelonelycoder]

I have three routers to choose from, and if all that fails, then the unlimited mobile plans jump right in.

 

[L&LD]

Well, two teenagers and a wife screaming at me if "the internet" is not working

Which means I can not perform any maintenance on the router when they are home. And they are home more than me, so... I think I once had an uptime of 400+ days.

Maybe time to 'scream' back?

Uptime like that is negated when you're the support and the router is forced to use 4 year old firmware.

 

[Nerre]

Well, it's still working as good as it did 4 years ago, so why upgrade?

Most people I know don't even know that you can upgrade the firmware of a router.

 

[L&LD]

Well, it's still working as good as it did 4 years ago, so why upgrade?

Most people I know don't even know that you can upgrade the firmware of a router.

And that is how some of those people are part of botnets that measure in the thousands, ten thousands and hundred thousands.

And I bet they didn't know that either.

 

[thelonelycoder]

And that is how some of those people are part of botnets that measure in the thousands, ten thousands and hundred thousands.

The rest of the millions of spam and botnet relays have the wallpaper set by default to Bliss.

 

[RMerlin]

Well, it's still working as good as it did 4 years ago, so why upgrade?

Most people I know don't even know that you can upgrade the firmware of a router.

The massive DDoS attack that recently took down Krebs' website was partly driven by compromised security cameras according to his research... I know, it's ironic that "security" devices were used in this case, right?

 

[Nerre]

Yes, but are there any known security vulnerabilities in the version I am using? Save the infosvr (that I have already addressed).

I keep an eye on the number of processes running, free memory etc, I think that is better then just blindly upgrading because a newer version "probably" is more secure. Has there never even been an upgrade that introduced a new vulnerability?

 

[thelonelycoder]

Yes, but are there any known security vulnerabilities in the version I am using? Save the infosvr (that I have already addressed).

I keep an eye on the number of processes running, free memory etc, I think that is better then just blindly upgrading because a newer version "probably" is more secure. Has there never even been an upgrade that introduced a new vulnerability?

I'm fully trusting @RMerlin on this. He's the one that reacts quickly if critical issues arise.

 

[RMerlin]

Yes, but are there any known security vulnerabilities in the version I am using? Save the infosvr (that I have already addressed).

A lot. Asus fixes 1 or 2 XSS vulnerabilities in the webui every 2-3 months, your OpenSSL is vulnerable to things like Heartbleed, your Samba version has 3 or 4 different known vulnerabilities, and so on.

 

[Nerre]

Not using SSL or Samba on the router. And any vulnerabilities from the LAN side are non-issues since anyone connecting to the LAN will also have physical access to the machines on the network. XSS could be an issue if I was soneone who had dozens of browser Windows open, but I don't.

I'm honestly a lot more concerned about my 17 yo son who uses his Windows 7 computer for gaming. That's where we might have security issues.

Or burglars breaking into the house.