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Are there plans to add a GUI for Wireguard in Merlin for the RT-AC86U

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mdover

Occasional Visitor
I see there are plans to add Wireguard to the Merlin GUI for the RT-AX86U, but interested in the RT-AC86U.

I’m using the stock firmware for Openvpn and setup a home server and only getting 25 mbps down on a gig connection in an aimesh setup.

I can’t figure out why it’s so slow, but I think a move to Wireguard would resolve it.
 
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As I understand it, the folks at Asus are working on including WireGuard implementation in their firmware for devices that can run it, and that means a couple of things:
1- eventually it'll be included in Merlin firmware
2-older hardware that can't run it will likely be deemed "legacy" and no longer supported, like the AC68 .

In the meantime, if you want to give it a whack/take it for a spin, the option in the Addons for Merlin is viable and improving (and may end up being a better implementation than Asus', when that's fully cooked)
 
Hey heysounddude. I hope your right. I read elsewhere within these forums that Wireguard wouldn’t be extended to the AC series even though some routers (including my AC86U) can support it.

I went ahead and installed the latest Merlin version over my stock firmware and my downloads from my openvpn home server running on the router went from 25 mbps to around 100 mbps. I didn’t change any settings, so I’m not sure if Merlin is somehow optimizing things or what’s going on.

The upload are still quite slow, but I can manage with that unless there’s an easy tweek to test.

Given the download improvement, these speeds are now good enough for my primary use cases, so I’ll just hang tight and hope for Wireguard support in the future. The addons look neat but are a bit beyond me without investing a ton of time.

Thanks for the information!
 
If I'm remembering correctly, what RMerlin firmware does is start the OpenVPN server on the second core (the one that is usually 'free'). Stock doesn't.
 
Seems even AImesh is performing better at handing off devices between routers with Merlin on the main router. I thought aimesh was untouched, but maybe not.
 
The RMerlin code is optimized and gone over (again) with a fine-toothed comb. Of course, it's better. :)
 
Seems even AImesh is performing better at handing off devices between routers with Merlin on the main router. I thought aimesh was untouched, but maybe not.
AiMesh is untouched. And you get a fair number of users who claim the complete opposite from your own experience, where they are unable to even pair their nodes.

The main difference there is people are rarely comparing the same firmware versions. Over time Asus will improve things (or introduce new bugs) on their end. There is a lag between the moment they make the change, and the moment it gets included in a release of my firmware. So, if they break something, the bug might take another release before it makes it into my code. Or if they fix something, that fix may take time to make it to my own releases.
 
AiMesh is untouched. And you get a fair number of users who claim the complete opposite from your own experience, where they are unable to even pair their nodes.

The main difference there is people are rarely comparing the same firmware versions. Over time Asus will improve things (or introduce new bugs) on their end. There is a lag between the moment they make the change, and the moment it gets included in a release of my firmware. So, if they break something, the bug might take another release before it makes it into my code. Or if they fix something, that fix may take time to make it to my own releases.
Thanks for the response. I’ve been experimenting through the day, and I find my VPN server speeds to be quite variable - sometimes good and sometimes poor. It also seems the aimesh is more hit and miss than it was at first, hanging onto devices out of range and so on. I guess that’s just the nature of a consumer router at this price point.

One question if you don’t mind. Do you anticipate Asus and Merlin in time to support Wireguard on the AC86U? I’ve seen answers saying yes and no, but your a little closer to their plans than most.

I’m doing a major network refresh and need four new routers (two for my winter residence and two for my summer - both residences with a 2 router aimesh setup) so I can connect the two networks / residences. The current vpn speeds I’m seeing over Openvpn is borderline workable, but if they eventually add Wireguard that will future proof things for me for a few years. I just bought the first two routers so I have a few days to test while I’m still in my return window.

Thanks!
 
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I’m doing a major network refresh and need four new routers (two for my winter residence and two for my summer - both residences with a 2 router aimesh setup) so I can connect the two networks / residences. The current vpn speeds I’m seeing over Openvpn is borderline workable, but if they eventually add Wireguard that will future proof things for me for a few years. I just bought the first two routers so I have a few days to test while I’m still in my return window.
Perhaps straying off topic, but everytime I feel this itch I remind myself that my locations are 200/30 and 200/10, so until those crappy upload speeds are fixed nothing router-wise will improve the connection between my two locations. The 200/30 is legacy--if I went to 1G download upload would be downgraded to 20.
 
Back on topic. I have seen some of Asus Wireguard GUI. Looks good. But, after using


I doubt Asus will have the breadth of features/options.
Check it out.
 
One question if you don’t mind. Do you anticipate Asus and Merlin in time to support Wireguard on the AC86U? I’ve seen answers saying yes and no, but your a little closer to their plans than most.
I don't know. I can't start studying Asus's implementation until they finalize and release source code for it, so until then, it's impossible for me to evaluate it. The fact that Asus hasn't included it for that model in their public beta may make it difficult for me to add support for it if it involves large nvram variables, as I'm not able to add these to the firmware if they don't already exist in the stock firmware.
 
I don't know. I can't start studying Asus's implementation until they finalize and release source code for it, so until then, it's impossible for me to evaluate it. The fact that Asus hasn't included it for that model in their public beta may make it difficult for me to add support for it if it involves large nvram variables, as I'm not able to add these to the firmware if they don't already exist in the stock firmware.
@RMerlin, do you have any objection for me to play/hack with your code?

e.g.

1644313872680.png


I hope to finally spend some time to design the GUI for my script having previously tested its command-line compatibility to run on stock ASUS RC-3.

I use wysiwyg BlueGriffon but sometimes it appears to mangle the HTML tags or gets confused by replacing '<' and '>' with HTML literals '&lt'/'&gt' etc. so I sometimes have to resort to notepad++

The above tools have been adequate in the past for standard simple HTML web projects, but just out of curiosity (and probably already disclosed somewhere on the forums), which editor/IDE do you use to develop/enhance the ASUS web pages?
 
@RMerlin, do you have any objection for me to play/hack with your code?
That's not mine, that's Asus's. It was the webui they initially developed during the early alpha stage, which they replaced with the new VPN client UI in RC3.

There's a good chance I will base my own UI on these, but I'm waiting to see the final backend code first to determine if it's still usable or not.

The above tools have been adequate in the past for standard simple HTML web projects, but just out of curiosity (and probably already disclosed somewhere on the forums), which editor/IDE do you use to develop/enhance the ASUS web pages?

Either nano (for normal stuff) or notepad++ (for more complex work). I don't use any IDE.
 

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