378.56_2 on RT-N66U insanely slow... :-(

[tbessie]

Since I upgraded to 378.56_2 on my RT-N66U, my connectivity has been very spotty and undependable, slow and pokey.

I posted about it earlier, someone suggested resetting to factory defaults and re-entering settings. I did that, and also did all of the performance-improving suggestions mentioned in a thread here... no go. Still really slow. Pages load more slowly, connections take longer, and Remote Desktop connections (mostly using LogMeIn) are unusably slow.

Is anyone else seeing this? This is making it impossible for me to do my job, sadly.

- Tim

 

[sbailey4]

Since I upgraded to 378.56_2 on my RT-N66U, my connectivity has been very spotty and undependable, slow and pokey.

I posted about it earlier, someone suggested resetting to factory defaults and re-entering settings. I did that, and also did all of the performance-improving suggestions mentioned in a thread here... no go. Still really slow. Pages load more slowly, connections take longer, and Remote Desktop connections (mostly using LogMeIn) are unusably slow.

Is anyone else seeing this? This is making it impossible for me to do my job, sadly.

- Tim

Not using this version but the N66 and the AC66 (older MIPS routers) seem to perform better on the older 374 firmware builds. May want to try Johns fork as its pretty much understood that fork and the N66 are a great match.

 

[AntonK]

Not using this version but the N66 and the AC66 (older MIPS routers) seem to perform better on the older 374 firmware builds. May want to try Johns fork as its pretty much understood that fork and the N66 are a great match.

Agreed! John's fork is a dream on my N66U.

 

[tbessie]

Ok then, I'll give it a try!

 

[tbessie]

Ok, tried it. Still slow; but I'm beginning to suspect that it may just have been a coincidence, and that the slowness I'm seeing is due to other factors (equipment on my home network, ISP issues, possibly network path to my work computer, etc).

I'll have to experiment more.

 

[tbessie]

I just talked with my ISP, and they said they were seeing a lot of line code violations on my DSL lines, so it may just have been something that happened around the same time as I updated my router firmware, and is not related. Talk about bad timing!

I'll report back here what the eventual outcome is.

 

[Deleted member 22229]

I just talked with my ISP, and they said they were seeing a lot of line code violations on my DSL lines, so it may just have been something that happened around the same time as I updated my router firmware, and is not related. Talk about bad timing!

I'll report back here what the eventual outcome is.

Either way if you want your N66 to work as good as possible use John's fork as mentioned. You wont regret it..

 

[doeboy]

Is there anything I would need to do when flashing to John's FW coming from the latest Merlin FW?

 

[mstombs]

What is the WAN internet connection type and speed? If plain DSL (ADSL2plus up to 24Mbps) the N66U should not be ther bottleneck with any fork.

 

[Deleted member 22229]

Is there anything I would need to do when flashing to John's FW coming from the latest Merlin FW?

Just flash as normal you will need a complete factory reset after install if coming from Merlin's latest code.

 

[sbailey4]

Is there anything I would need to do when flashing to John's FW coming from the latest Merlin FW?

Also I would remove the wifi connections from your devices and reconnect as new since this rev uses different wireless driver versions. From the Merlin [userguide]-tips on the main ASUS wireless topic:

<<Try deleting the wireless profile from your device, and reconnecting as if it was a new connection. The device tend to save more technical details than just the SSID and encryption, so sometimes that information can be out of sync with what the router is using.>>

 

[tbessie]

Either way if you want your N66 to work as good as possible use John's fork as mentioned. You wont regret it..

It turned out it was my landline; I have Fusion service (bonded 2-line DSL), and one of the lines is split between the DSL modem and a telephone, with a filter between. I don't know why, but it appears that a couple of days ago, either the filter stopped working well, or the phone started generating some kind of feedback into the DSL line. Never happened before that I can recall. Very weird. ISP says it could also be the cable from the filter to the phone, anything along that path. Maybe it's time to get another phone. :-/

In any case, I may just go back to the main branch - it was working fine before. Why do you think the fork works better on the N66?

- Tim

 

[Deleted member 22229]

Why do I think that ? Because it does..

 

[tbessie]

Why do I think that ? Because it does..

I meant, eg. in what ways? Details?

- Tim

 

[tbessie]

Incidentally, I reverted to the latest main branch Merlin firmware, and found I still had the same problems I had been having before (slowness, lost packets), despite my having removed the issue of the landline causing problems on my DSL lines. When I went back to the fork, it was faster. So I guess that's one thing that's different.

I'm wondering if I should just get a more modern router at some point.

- Tim

 

[sbailey4]

Incidentally, I reverted to the latest main branch Merlin firmware, and found I still had the same problems I had been having before (slowness, lost packets), despite my having removed the issue of the landline causing problems on my DSL lines. When I went back to the fork, it was faster. So I guess that's one thing that's different.

I'm wondering if I should just get a more modern router at some point.

- Tim

I would get a more modern ISP. Sorry couldn't resist that one. DSL ? eeks.

You can read from page 1 and see lots of N66 users as well as others who swear by this fork. Myself wifi seems more stable . I would get massive slowdowns and would have to disconnect and reconnect fairly often to get things back. Don't have that issue since using this fork. LAN throughput/speedtest is also faster than the newer builds. Granted I am on fiber so can get like 500-600 mbps over lan. That may would drop to like 300 or so on the 378 builds from what I remember. Since John backports security changes and various other things from the newer builds there is really no reason not to use this. Unless you prefer the fancy login and network map, other UI stuff over performance. Not to mention the FCC ruling to turn down the WIFI power to 80mW on anything 376 and up.

 

[tbessie]

I would get a more modern ISP. Sorry couldn't resist that one. DSL ? eeks.

Haw haw haw ;-)

My ISP is Sonic (sonic.net), which is one of the best in the country as far as customer service, technical know-how, and privacy concerns; also, they provide a shell account, which has access to my email folders, and I read my email with Pine - yes, I am a dinosaur, but a HAPPY dinosaur. ;-) I think Sonic wins lots of "best ISP" awards and such every year.

Anyway, the above is mostly why I'm still with them. DSL sucks where I am, as I'm almost as far as you can be from the C.O. and still get DSL, and nobody's laid fiber in my area of the city (and likely won't for quite some time, if ever), so I get around 7.5Mbps up / 1.5Mbps down / 25ms latency (and this is on "Fusion" aka dual-line DSL). I would get Comcast, but They Are Evil(tm), you know.

You can read from page 1 and see lots of N66 users as well as others who swear by this fork. Myself wifi seems more stable . I would get massive slowdowns and would have to disconnect and reconnect fairly often to get things back. Don't have that issue since using this fork. LAN throughput/speedtest is also faster than the newer builds. Granted I am on fiber so can get like 500-600 mbps over lan. That may would drop to like 300 or so on the 378 builds from what I remember. Since John backports security changes and various other things from the newer builds there is really no reason not to use this. Unless you prefer the fancy login and network map, other UI stuff over performance. Not to mention the FCC ruling to turn down the WIFI power to 80mW on anything 376 and up.

I'll stick with the fork for now; yeah, I *do* like all the GUI sugar that's been added lately in the main branch, but I can do without that if it means better performance and none of those slowdowns/packet loss I was seeing.

I can't imagine what it would be like to get 600Mbps - I often remote in for my job, and it's JUST BARELY usable. At your speeds, it would be simply heaven. Oh well.

Thanks for your advice and comments in any case, every bit of info is helpful!

- Tim

 

[cattywh]

Same problem here. Mine is an RT-AC68U. I called ISP to reset my modem but nothing helped at all. Finally I had to downgrade the firmware to 378.52_2. Then I got full speed. Really weird.

 

[Rango]

If it helps i first ran 378.52_2 and i had slowness as well. Speeds were fast but seemed like really bad latency (dns issue?) while changing web pages in chrome if i am to be specific. I did ping and speedtest and it all looked great so not sure but looked to me like latency being caused by something. I'm running now John's fork as i want stability and also i have older laptop so maybe older wifi drivers work better with my laptop but my lan latency with my pc were also slow. Not sure what the issue is but just wanted to second that. Looking forward to new releases and fixes. I have n66.

 

[jeff288]

I also seemed to have performance issues I couldn't quite pin down on the latest Merlin and official with my N66U. I tried John's fork and it seems back to normal and slightly better reception. One issue seemed to be gaming where I'd have lag but good ping and slow web interface sometimes.