Aimesh on RT-AC56U

[Special]

Were you able to fix the WAN/LAN port issues? Which ports are working correctly?

And my understanding is that they all work, but that the labels are not correct.

They work correctly but LAN1 is now the WAN.

I did the edit and saved it under new_cfe. opened and made sure it held those values. followed through the steps again very patiently but not getting any success. You can tell I am a noob. I am starting to think that I am not changing the two instances you have mentioned. I am using HxD Hex Editor, not sure if that makes any difference.

Its funny though, just got my attention that the firmware version on the router is 3.0.0.4_384_45149-g467037b but its being reported as RT-AC56R (originally RT-AC56U) and still no AiMesh option.

Mine did the same thing until I changed the CFE.
I used CFEEdit to edit because it is simple and lists all options without all the extra undecipherable stuff. You can try to reupload just the CFE that has been changed and see if that works if it doesn't then try to pull the CFE from the router again to see if it really is changed or not.

Steps 1 - 6 above

 

[A_Pa]

They work correctly but LAN1 is now the WAN.



Mine did the same thing until I changed the CFE.
I used CFEEdit to edit because it is simple and lists all options without all the extra undecipherable stuff. You can try to reupload just the CFE that has been changed and see if that works if it doesn't then try to pull the CFE from the router again to see if it really is changed or not.

Steps 1 - 6 above

WOW.... i cant believe the cfeeditor did the trick. but now its reporting as 68U and AiMesh. I will test this out soon.

Thank you special really appreciate your help.

 

[L&LD]

Is there a link for CFEEdit? Searching leads me down strange paths...

 

[A_Pa]

Is there a link for CFEEdit? Searching leads me down strange paths...

yea i went through the same thing. but if you google cfeedit dot exe you will see the first link

 

[Special]

Glad you got it sorted A Pa.
Sorry, I thought CFEEdit was in the zip file from "Bay Area Tech Pros", I think maybe it was in one of the 100's of replies on their site but I don't remember.

 

[Special]

As far as the LAN/WAN ports I changed it from

vlan1ports=0 1 2 3 5*
vlan2ports=4 5u

to

vlan1ports=1 2 3 4 5*
vlan2ports=0 5u

with no luck, actually I think LAN4 stopped working all together after changing but I did not test it before hand so can't say for sure.

 

[L&LD]

As far as the LAN/WAN ports I changed it from

vlan1ports=0 1 2 3 5*
vlan2ports=4 5u

to

vlan1ports=1 2 3 4 5*
vlan2ports=0 5u

with no luck, actually I think LAN4 stopped working all together after changing but I did not test it before hand so can't say for sure.

Hope you can get it to work again.

Maybe this may help? The RT-AC56U has its ports arranged like this: first, the Lan1, Lan2, Lan3, Lan4 ports, and then, the WAN port.

The RT-AC68U has its ports arranged like this: first, the WAN port, and then the LAN1, Lan2, Lan3, and Lan4 ports.

Could this be important?

 

[Special]

Could this be important?

Probably is but I'm kinda dumb and I can't read good so maybe someone else knows.

 

[L&LD]

Probably is but I'm kinda dumb and I can't read good so maybe someone else knows.

I'm the same on these things.

Did you get the ports back to where they were formerly?

 

[Special]

Did you get the ports back to where they were formerly?

No I haven't but I haven't tried either. It is working and I only need 3 LAN ports for the time being, I might do it tomorrow while at work if I get some down time.

 

[L&LD]

No I haven't but I haven't tried either. It is working and I only need 3 LAN ports for the time being, I might do it tomorrow while at work if I get some down time.

Good enough, for now.

Here is some additional info for all in case it is pertinent to getting the ports sorted out. I'm sure the 'pros' here already know this stuff like the back of their hand, but for the others...

For the RT-AC56U running RMerlin firmware 384.6:

The LAN ports are all VLAN 1.

The WAN port is VLAN 2.

 

[Special]

A Pa let us know if you get them both working in AiMesh mode, I/we would like to know.

 

[A_Pa]

A Pa let us know if you get them both working in AiMesh mode, I/we would like to know.

I did manage to flash both routers. They are now set up for mesh network. I don't really like the way they are physically placed but that just means I have to re-arrange my network a little. As it stands, both routers are meshed. I will update on how they are working out but things are looking good. Thanks again Special.

 

[L&LD]

I have flashed an RT-AC56U that was running RMerlin 384.6 previously. Making sure I followed all the step in post 8 and I can say that the router now shows as RT-AC68U.

I can't say this is a successful install though. The WPS button isn't responsive, WPS now seems to be linked to the Radio on/off button (but still doesn't work as it should, when wanting to do a WPS NVRAM Erase).

Except for the power LED, the rest don't always light up, except for the 5GHz radio band indicator LED which seems to light up randomly (after a reboot, but not in any systematic way).

The radios themselves cannot be toggled on or off (even from the GUI). You can change the settings, but applying and coming back to that page shortly afterward shows them in their previous state.

The (working) WAN port is the labeled LAN port 1, and the labeled WAN port is LAN 4 (every other LAN port is shifted over by 1, eg. 2=1, 3=2, 4=3).

I have tried both Asus stock (as indicated in post 8) and RMerlin 384.10_2 but there are too many bugs and glitches to trust this router set up like this on an internet facing connection directly to my ISP.

It seems to work fine when put in a double-NAT set up behind my RT-AC86U.

It is very plain to see how much work RMerlin has put into his project when compared to the (even 'newer') Asus stock firmware!

I'll try to put the little RT-AC56U back to its former glory and install john9527's fork instead. I hope it works.

And for full disclosure, I have tried to perform a full M&M Config but it isn't possible with the above limitations.

But I did do about a dozen reset to factory defaults between the stock Asus and the RMerlin firmware. The interesting thing about that? The setup wizard only came up three times for me (twice on RMerlin and once on Asus stock).

Well, so much for me jumping into the router hacking business!

And Special, this in no way reflects on you! This is more than likely my inexperience doing these type of things outside of my comfort zone and have obviously messed up somewhere.

I'll give an update to whether or not I can make the franken68U back into a full and proper RT-AC56U once again.

 

[Special]

When you hold the WPS button it should take 20 seconds for the power light to start flashing. Did you hold it in for that amount of time?

 

[L&LD]

When you hold the WPS button it should take 20 seconds for the power light to start flashing. Did you hold it in for that amount of time?

Yes, I tried from 5 to 90 seconds in 5-second increments. No joy.

I did get the router working again with john9527's LTS fork. So it lives!

I may attempt it one more time. It was nice to see the fresh look on this old classic I would recommend by the dozens.

 

[Special]

Maybe try updating to last official firmware then do the conversion, don't know if it would help but it might.

 

[Special]

Just flashed RT-AC68U 3.0.0.4.384.45708 firmware to the 56U and still looks to be working correctly but will not be able to test till tomorrow.

The radios themselves cannot be toggled on or off (even from the GUI). You can change the settings, but applying and coming back to that page shortly afterward shows them in their previous state.

I am able to shut off the wireless in the "Wireless/Professional" tab

 

[L&LD]

Just flashed RT-AC68U 3.0.0.4.384.45708 firmware to the 56U and still looks to be working correctly but will not be able to test till tomorrow.



I am able to shut off the wireless in the "Wireless/Professional" tab

And they stay shut off? The web UI seemed to work for me too, but no actual commands were passed to the hardware.

 

[Special]

And they stay shut off? The web UI seemed to work for me too, but no actual commands were passed to the hardware.

They stay shutoff, I just plugged in router and it is not broadcasting.
You also could have a different CFE version from what I have. I have 1.0.2.3 but there is also 1.0.1.9 and 1.0.2.8