The issue started over 6 months ago or maybe longer. I’ve tried various Asus Merlin’s firmware’s, various settings, resets, firmware reflashes.
About five, six months ago I switched to FreshTomato firmware. The issue continued, so I kept the android phone attached to a charger at all times while it’s connected to 2.4 band. It’s an Astro64. I’ve reset the phone several times, turned off every background process, but that didn’t help.
Over the months, I have tried many different combinations of: Beacon Interval settings and DTM Interval. Nothing worked.
About three days ago, I was bored and I was trying to figure out how to squeeze a little bit more out of the router. Mainly, how to improve transfer speeds over WiFi on 5Ghz band, while transferring files over WiFi to an hdd that is attached to a router via usb port.
I turned off/disabled 2.4Ghz band on the router. After extensive testing, I have gained an average upload speed of 2.5MB/s and download of 3.5MB/s.
I know it’s not much in 2025. But I’m the type of person who is always looking for ways to squeeze a little bit more. I enjoy experimenting and keep figuring things out. I will test and test and keep testing, for hours and days, till I can replicate results every single time, no matter how long it takes. I love it and it brings me joy!
AC68U is overclocked. CPU is running at 1Ghz and ram is at 800Mhz.
I have successfully OCed CPU to 1200 Mgz, but I went back to 1,000 to prolong the life of CPU, even though I saw no temp changes. Running cpu at 1200, did not yelled more benefits, because RAM is too slow.
In my limited testing, additional 200mhz in cpu is not worth is, because RAM is too slow in this router even at 800mhz. And ram should NOT be overlocked past 800mhz.
From the day I turned off 2.4 band , Android phone has been connected to 5Ghz band and there has been no battery drain. Which tells me, the 2.4 band on the router, is no longer functioning correctly. Even though, any device connected to 2.4 band does work, but power saving/s settings on that band no longer works.
I have a printer that used to be connected to 2.4 band. In the printer settings, I have manually set it to sleep after 10 min, but it wouldn’t fall a sleep for 5 hours.
In conclusion. AC68U is still a great WiFi router, it does everything I need. But after a decade, the 2.4 band is no longer functioning at 100%. The 2.4 band still works for upload and download, but sleep function no longer works.
I have tried various WiFi routers in the past and they have been great. But at the end of the day, many I have tried were good, but not good enough for the extra $$$.
FreshTomato firmware, extended the life of my router. Community continues provide firmware updates, and at the same time it provided me with additional options in the process in the firmware.
In my experience, there is less CPU and RAM usage, especially when moving files to or from usb attached drive that acts as a NAS. In some cases, CPU usage has been reduced by as much as 20% in my experience.
Settings are saved and implemented in half the time vs Asus/Merlin firmware. I timed it to compare a difference, using a stop watch app on a phone.
Rebooting the router and connecting to a WiFi has also been reduced by an average 50%.
I digress.
At the end of the day. It’s still one of the best AC WiFi routers. If you want to get more life out of it, for what ever reasons, try Freshtomato firmware and you’ll have additional settings that are not available in Asus or in Merlin’s firmware.
There is no amtm when you log in to a router via ssh. There are limited commands. In my limited experience, only reason I used SSH, is to see if overclocking commands worked. Beyond that, everything can be done in gui.
Edited for spelling and addition information.
Cheers.
About five, six months ago I switched to FreshTomato firmware. The issue continued, so I kept the android phone attached to a charger at all times while it’s connected to 2.4 band. It’s an Astro64. I’ve reset the phone several times, turned off every background process, but that didn’t help.
Over the months, I have tried many different combinations of: Beacon Interval settings and DTM Interval. Nothing worked.
About three days ago, I was bored and I was trying to figure out how to squeeze a little bit more out of the router. Mainly, how to improve transfer speeds over WiFi on 5Ghz band, while transferring files over WiFi to an hdd that is attached to a router via usb port.
I turned off/disabled 2.4Ghz band on the router. After extensive testing, I have gained an average upload speed of 2.5MB/s and download of 3.5MB/s.
I know it’s not much in 2025. But I’m the type of person who is always looking for ways to squeeze a little bit more. I enjoy experimenting and keep figuring things out. I will test and test and keep testing, for hours and days, till I can replicate results every single time, no matter how long it takes. I love it and it brings me joy!
AC68U is overclocked. CPU is running at 1Ghz and ram is at 800Mhz.
I have successfully OCed CPU to 1200 Mgz, but I went back to 1,000 to prolong the life of CPU, even though I saw no temp changes. Running cpu at 1200, did not yelled more benefits, because RAM is too slow.
In my limited testing, additional 200mhz in cpu is not worth is, because RAM is too slow in this router even at 800mhz. And ram should NOT be overlocked past 800mhz.
From the day I turned off 2.4 band , Android phone has been connected to 5Ghz band and there has been no battery drain. Which tells me, the 2.4 band on the router, is no longer functioning correctly. Even though, any device connected to 2.4 band does work, but power saving/s settings on that band no longer works.
I have a printer that used to be connected to 2.4 band. In the printer settings, I have manually set it to sleep after 10 min, but it wouldn’t fall a sleep for 5 hours.
In conclusion. AC68U is still a great WiFi router, it does everything I need. But after a decade, the 2.4 band is no longer functioning at 100%. The 2.4 band still works for upload and download, but sleep function no longer works.
I have tried various WiFi routers in the past and they have been great. But at the end of the day, many I have tried were good, but not good enough for the extra $$$.
FreshTomato firmware, extended the life of my router. Community continues provide firmware updates, and at the same time it provided me with additional options in the process in the firmware.
In my experience, there is less CPU and RAM usage, especially when moving files to or from usb attached drive that acts as a NAS. In some cases, CPU usage has been reduced by as much as 20% in my experience.
Settings are saved and implemented in half the time vs Asus/Merlin firmware. I timed it to compare a difference, using a stop watch app on a phone.
Rebooting the router and connecting to a WiFi has also been reduced by an average 50%.
I digress.
At the end of the day. It’s still one of the best AC WiFi routers. If you want to get more life out of it, for what ever reasons, try Freshtomato firmware and you’ll have additional settings that are not available in Asus or in Merlin’s firmware.
There is no amtm when you log in to a router via ssh. There are limited commands. In my limited experience, only reason I used SSH, is to see if overclocking commands worked. Beyond that, everything can be done in gui.
Edited for spelling and addition information.
Cheers.
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