Anything I should do before updating?

[Webheadfred]

Greeting folks.

I'm presently on 384.19 and the wife-unit will be out for a while. I'm contemplating on updating to the 386.7_2.

I'm not an expert user as most of you are and my network is pretty basic. Is there anything I should do prior to updating with this large of a jump in firmware? I'm on an RT-AX88u and it's working nicely now.

Cheers all!

Fred

 

[ColinTaylor]

... and my network is pretty basic. Is there anything I should do prior to updating with this large of a jump in firmware?

If you don't need to preserve lots of customised user settings it would be best to factory reset the router and set it up fresh for the new firmware. This also avoids a potential gotcha when migrating from 384.x to 386.x whereby the migration process could take many hours to complete.

So, do a factory reset via the GUI (with the initialise option ticked) now followed by the bear minimum setup required to log back into the router. Then install the new firmware. After that completes do another factory reset (with initialise) and then manually configure your router.

 

[Webheadfred]

If you don't need to preserve lots of customised user settings it would be best to factory reset the router and set it up fresh for the new firmware. This also avoids a potential gotcha when migrating from 384.x to 386.x whereby the migration process could take many hours to complete.

So, do a factory reset via the GUI (with the initialise option ticked) now followed by the bear minimum setup required to log back into the router. Then install the new firmware. After that completes do another factory reset (with initialise) and then manually configure your router.

Thank you. I thought I remembered this previously. I just finished taking screen-shots of all the pages for settings. I'm fix'n to go in!

Cheers!

 

[ColinTaylor]

I just finished taking screen-shots of all the pages for settings. I'm fix'n to go in!

By all means copy over customised changes that you have made (like DHCP reservations, SSIDs, passwords, etc.) but don't copy everything. By that I mean things like obscure WiFi settings as the new default values are possibly better than the old default values. Good luck.

 

[Webheadfred]

Thanks guys... success and everything seems to be fine. It was up and running pretty quickly and I did a factory reset. I copied from my screen shots and viola! I put in my OpenDNS settings in the DHCP and in the WAN and everything seemed to work fine. After about an hour, the TV went wonk saying something about it not finding the DNS server. I took the OpenDNS out and rebooted and all is fine. *knocks wood*. Wife-unit happy she can see the tube while I'm shooting pool. I did remember something I read that it could take an hour to get all sorted after a flash. Maybe that had something to do with the DNS stuff. I'll reset it in a day or so and see what's what. Thanks again folks.

Cheers,
Fred

 

[ColinTaylor]

Thanks for the update. Glad to hear it went well.

Bear in mind that the OpenVPN implementation is different now. Particularly how it handles DNS. Make sure your WAN DNS servers are either set automatically or set to public servers (e.g. 8.8.8.8). Do not specify a VPN provider's servers there. The global LAN/DHCP DNS Server 1 & 2 fields should be left blank and not set to your VPN providers addresses.

VPN Director

Third party firmware for Asus routers (newer codebase) - RMerl/asuswrt-merlin.ng

github.com