zax301, thanks for posting the more detailed info and follow-up. I remember your post from another thread. It's only a personal opinion from across the pond that you don't need to worry that the router has a fault nor that Merlin's firmware was to blame. Thing can happen when there's no trail leading to a direct cause; it can be easy if others are involved, to muck things up even when harm isn't intentional.
Your situation is unique, your friends are known to you, relatively few take advantage to cause mischief like this, but who knows what happened? With the latest build of Merlin's firmware, speaking only for myself, it's been one of the most stable builds I've every used, yet I still experienced some problems. The AC3200 is a different bird than the other RTs, not only for the tri-band radios, but for the situation involving the NVRAM. Prior to version 366.6_6, the 3200 was capable of running more than one OpenVPN config at a time, something I hadn't known about until recently; it just never came up. Version 367.0 limited the number of OpenVPN clients to only two, to save what NVRAM is provided under the prior Asus firmware. I'm going to be rolling our 3200 back to v366.6_6 to test simultaneous OpenVPN configs and responsiveness of the GUI under that build, since it came prior to the conditions experienced in my tests (*see below). NVRAM is expensive and specialized and has a finite lifetime and/or number of cycles, as described in other threads and the change logs relating to Merlin's work. Other 3200 owners please contribute their thoughts.
Following our upgraded to 380.68_4, I began tests of various OpenVPN configs used by our provider. *During these tests, the router GUI began acting extremely sluggishly, stalling and then began crashing. When the GUI crashed and wouldn't respond after 5-10 minutes, the router had to be removed from power; the GUI couldn't be recovered otherwise. At about the same time the router began to experience what I can describe as a possible date/time bug, which may/may not be related to some sort of hack. The date/time would inexplicably reset itself to a different date, which caused the router and configs to fail. It had me going in circles for about a month. The unit finally stabilized and the date/time bug has only resurfaced once following the DST changeover. It remains unexplained. I'm fairly certain that our unit or system wasn't hacked, and that this had nothing to do with Merlin's firmware. Since OpenVPN configs are written to NVRAM, and the operation of the router depends on accurate date/time, any unnecessary overwriting to this RAM may lead to or cause erratic behavior in the GUI. Bear with me; I'm getting to the point.
I was ready to RMA our 3200 after wrestling with these issues, but after almost a year of great performance, I stuck with it until the problem resolved. It took more patience, time and attention to resolve the problem. There are people who run many wireless devices and complex scripts on the 3200; it's a very solid router.
That said, after too many hasty resets, crashes etc, the NVRAM may become volatile, unsettled or just plain irritated. If you aren't blessed with patience or don't wait long enough for a reset to work, repeatedly interrupting that process by rebooting or resetting again isn't going to make the router (or you) any happier. When I first decided to perform the complete reset when nothing else worked, the crashing of the GUI had become intolerable. I thought I'd waited long enough for all the LEDs to cycle but I was wrong. I spent more hours working through the process. When I finally performed another complete factory/default/hard cycle (not sure my phrasing is accurate today), I let the router take as long as -it needed- to take. I held the WPS button in for what much longer than it should've taken or had ever been written about; finally all of the LEDs began blinking in unison, I let go of the WPS button, sat down and waited some more. It took more long minutes, but the router finally came back to life, and since then has been working very well, not too much the worse for wear despite my seeming incompetence.
I'm now happily using both OpenVPN clients/configs at once as well as the server, so obviously I didn't brick it. This alone makes me feel that your unit isn't ruined. You stated it runs the new Romanian Asus build OK? V380.68_4 GUI responsiveness seems to take longer to cycle than Asus stock FW, especially when scripts and/or multiple clients/servers run concurrently. Your router has been held up well so far. No one knows what happened to your unit since the work was done on your behalf. I don't blame the router, Asus or Merlin (or me
), and you shouldn't either.
Unless there's a 'defect' that you should RMA the router for, it's under your ownership, control and is always your responsibility to prevent others from doing anything that might result in an uncertain outcome. (If your ISP ever decides to adjust your service or bandwidth in the future, you may want to unplug your Ethernet cable from the modem while they do their work. In our case, I spent a full week pouring over a month's worth of logs, and thought it gave me some ideas, but I can only make assumptions as to what really happened. If I'd have RMA'd our router, I'd have probably been worse off, and would've received a refurbished router as replacement.
I'll post when I have time to test my theories on the prior build and responsiveness, which likely will have nothing to do with your experience. That's part of what forums like this do; make it possible to share knowledge among the members when strange things happen, so we all have a better way to deal with them down the road.
You have a large investment, but this kind of thing can happen; not often. Don't let it get the best of you. Neither Asus nor Merlin guarantees firmware any more than other operating systems, since you're paying for the quality and totality of the features packed into the hardware of the router. True, the router won't work without FW, but as you've found, you can alter or replace the FW whenever you decide it's in your best interest, and the level of time and expertise you devote to it. Running Merlin's firmware is lots of fun, and it takes time that many people don't want to devote. Later, you may be comfortable after you put time into learn more advanced firmware management. After your experience, it seems like a great deal of trouble, but is just another learning experience.
Since the new stock Asus RO-FW you placed on it seems fast and meeting your needs, keep an eye on it, note any changes and be happy this turned out well. The router wasn't harmed. The newest Asus firmware build supposedly expands NVRAM in the 3200 which is always welcome. Stay hands on, safeguard your SSIDs, logins, PWs etc, and never let anyone into your system unless you're watching what they do, ISP and friends included. Hacking is epidemic, no matter how diligent you are, there's always some way into any system. Cheers.