ASUS RT-BE92U

[aaronwt]

Something is certainly off with the BE92U. I took my settings file from my BE92U and uploaded it to my BE96U. And instantly all my issues went away. Everything has been rock solid for almost two weeks now, with my two BE96U units.

And MLO has been on for almost a week, and it is still solid. The exact same settings on the BE92U had issues. But, with the BE96U it is rock solid and completely stable. Zero dropped devices, zero reboots, and extremely stable wifi.

 

[Tech9]

I took my settings file from my BE92U and uploaded it to my BE96U.

In general avoid doing this type of settings transfer. May or may not work properly, no guarantees.

 

[aaronwt]

In general avoid doing this type of settings transfer. May or may not work properly, no guarantees.

Yes. I plan on doing everything again from scratch, but that will take me at least half an hour to input all of my DHCP reservations. Plus the time to reset both devices and setup my eight wifi networks. But, since it's working great with the uploaded BE92U settings, I have not been in a rush to do it.

 

[jzchen]

I have heard of many positive experiences with backups and restores across different routers from Dong Knows Tech. He has an article with a methodology he recommends, which is multi-step though.

Glad you've found a stable system. How's the EBG15 working out for you? (For me it is the primary Access Point so seems a little overloaded), but I have a EBM68 coming. Impatiently waiting for its arrival....

 

[iFrogMac]

I have heard of many positive experiences with backups and restores across different routers from Dong Knows Tech. He has an article with a methodology he recommends, which is multi-step though.

Glad you've found a stable system. How's the EBG15 working out for you? (For me it is the primary Access Point so seems a little overloaded), but I have a EBM68 coming. Impatiently waiting for its arrival....

I was thinking, the rule of thumb was, not to take settings from a newer firmware to an older version. As far as backing up and restoring from different models, I thought the process was intended to be smart enough in the case of getting a new router to carry over settings from existing. I would also think the main precaution would be to have the latest version on both before doing this.

 

[hukashi]

So I got around to setting up the new hardware version 5.1 unit over the 3.0 version. Same exact settings.

I don't know if it s placebo effect but I feel like the 5.1 boots up faster. I also do not see any difference in performance other than slightly less disconnects with my windows laptop that I use for work. MacBook Pro seems to be stable with connection as well as all my other IoT devices on 2.4Ghz. Had my google nest thermostat drop connection but it may have been a fluke with setting the ssid as not visible? Not sure. But for now I set it back to being visible to see if it happens again or not.

I will most likely be keeping this 5.1 hardware version unit and returning the 3.0 version. Gonna give it like 2 more days of testing before I return it.

 

[Tech9]

I plan on doing everything again from scratch

If everything is working properly - don't waste your time.

I have heard of many positive experiences with backups and restores across different routers

I have tested it (there is a thread somewhere on SNB Forums) and it works in Asuswrt pretty well with consistent positive results. Reset to defaults option is always there if something goes wrong. This is stock Asuswrt feature and the level of success on stock firmware doesn't apply to people running Asuswrt-Merlin. It doesn't only save/restore settings, but also does conversions older to newer firmware branch. General statement "never do it" often repeated on this forum is simply incorrect. The statement "same firmware version only" is also incorrect.

 

[Tech9]

I thought the process was intended to be smart enough

It is, actually. My last experiment was RT-AC68U on 386 firmware to RT-AX86U Pro on 102 firmware and all relevant settings were converted and applied correctly. The newer router had the settings not present on the older one at default values. I would say it works properly with most common and expected user configurations.

 

[jksmurf]

My last experiment was RT-AC68U on 386 firmware to RT-AX86U Pro on 102 firmware and all relevant settings were converted and applied correctly.

Curious as to whether this was only a visual check in the GUI and whether an nvram dump nvram show > /tmp/nvram_dump.txt type of result would confirm all these if that or a stock version of it can be run on stock? (I’ve only run that on Merlin so not sure if similar works on stock). I agree the conventional wisdom in the Merlin FW forums is not to upload configs from one device to another.

A very limited check has RMerlin still recommending, even for stock FW, not to re upload your config to the same router after a factory reset, if you’ve had issues, due to it reuploading the same issues. Of course if you don’t have issues, amd your config is good, that is a different story.

The last time I can find (limited search again) an @RMerlin post on cross-router config uploads was some time ago, for Merlin FW. I would be interested to hear the current thinking, but won’t be trying it myself anytime soon.

plan on doing everything again from scratch, but that will take me at least half an hour to input all of my DHCP reservations.

Not sure if you’re on stock or Merlin but this process of restoring DHCP lists is so much simpler in Merlin with a number of ways available to do it. My preference is using the excellent YazDHCP Addon where you can do it via the GUI.

 

[Tech9]

I’ve only run that on Merlin so not sure if similar works on stock

Again, Save/Restore is Asuswrt feature. What works or doesn't in Asuswrt-Merlin is different topic.

can configuration information of the same firmware version be exported/imported to each other?

If you overwrite these nvrams with the MAC of a different device's config file, they won't be replaced by the correct one unless you did another factory default reset. You will end up with a mixture of correct and incorrect MACs. On which mac addresses do you refer to? This is the AX88U I...

www.snbforums.com

I had an 102 firmware router for tests after this post was created and Save/Restore worked on it as well.

 

[RMerlin]

has RMerlin still recommending, even for stock FW, not to re upload your config to the same router after a factory reset

Because there is no point in saving your setting, doing a factory default reset, then reloading those same settings. You are just going back to where you started, the factory default reset won't have done anything at all.

 

[jksmurf]

Because there is no point in saving your setting, doing a factory default reset, then reloading those same settings. You are just going back to where you started, the factory default reset won't have done anything at all.

Agree and that’s always made sense to me, was more an interim comment for the subsequent comment (below it), about whether cross-router configs (stock or Merlin) was now considered an option or was still considered a no no.

 

[jksmurf]

Again, Save/Restore is Asuswrt feature.

Noted but does not seem to be a documented (by ASUS) feature specifically for cross-router use, even if it does work.

You’ve done some really great work testing though, in the thread you linked to. A lot of work; albeit as you and RMerlin suggested, you simply cannot cover all scenarios.

RMerlin seems pretty clear on this for at least, Merlin FW.

 

[jzchen]

I'm not sure I understand why a factory reset is needed in the first place? If the firmware install goes as planned, wouldn't all settings be stored properly, simply requiring a reboot? If a special reboot is required for certain factory settings to be set, then a restore can be implemented without harming these important/protected settings?

I'm under the impression that some pointers to settings data are mixed up and so the factory reset loads the correct default settings into the correct pointer locations. Similarly a restore can send those settings to the proper place.

I don't know of anyone who would knowingly backup a "defective" set of settings. So how is restoring different than factory reset? We are restoring known good configuration....

 

[Tech9]

cannot cover all scenarios

Correct, plus AiMesh configurations on top, plus the phone App with user account and options to save settings there. Most users set their routers with the phone App and I haven't touched this option. Perhaps it uses the same save/restore mechanism available in WebUI. For the reasons above my usual recommendation is also start fresh. In theory factory reset is recommended by ASUS after every firmware upgrade. At the same time Auto Upgrade is also recommended by ASUS and it obviously doesn't do factory reset. Plus ASUS can push upgrade regardless of Auto Upgrade on/off setting if the new firmware is the new minimum required.

 

[jksmurf]

At the same time Auto Upgrade is also recommended and it obviously doesn't do factory reset.

imagine the chaos that would cause !

 

[Tech9]

You want some chaos in your life? There are reports for routers auto upgrading to some new firmware and ending in some unusable state. There are also reports of routers resetting themselves overnight. Just search around, different models. Remember what I told you about hardware choice for remote locations? Comes from experience. Over the counter consumer AIO router may make your life interesting. I have my own VPN exit points in Europe. ASUS killed one some time ago with bad ASD update. It was some 6000km away from my home in Canada...

 

[RMerlin]

Agree and that’s always made sense to me, was more an interim comment for the subsequent comment (below it), about whether cross-router configs (stock or Merlin) was now considered an option or was still considered a no no.

Asus are very discrete about advertising that "Universal restore" capability, in fact it just randomly started appearing in some marketing material without it ever being broadly advertised.

Personally I wouldn't trust it, as there are too many potential causes for issues:

- People trying to copy configs to older firmware codebases (going from the newer Wireless settings architecture to the older one will definitely completely screw up your wifi, even if you were on the same router model)
- No idea what happens if the two routers have different ordering for wifi radio - the GT-AXE16000 first radio is not the 2.4 GHz unlike all other models, the settings import most definitely has no idea on how to handle that
- No idea either what happens if coming from a dual band to a tri band model
- If coming from a model that has support for 256 KB NVRAM to a model with only 128 KB, and your original settings took more than 128 KB - settings will most likely be truncated or corrupted
- If coming from a model that supports larger variables (for instance the dhcp_staticlist max size varies between models) to a model that has support for a smaller string - most likely truncated and corrupted content being imported

The list of scenario where that import would fail is pretty long. So my advice still remains: don't do it.

 

[Poul Bak]

Asus are very discrete about advertising that "Universal restore" capability, in fact it just randomly started appearing in some marketing material without it ever being broadly advertised.

Personally I wouldn't trust it, as there are too many potential causes for issues:

- People trying to copy configs to older firmware codebases (going from the newer Wireless settings architecture to the older one will definitely completely screw up your wifi, even if you were on the same router model)
- No idea what happens if the two routers have different ordering for wifi radio - the GT-AXE16000 first radio is not the 2.4 GHz unlike all other models, the settings import most definitely has no idea on how to handle that
- No idea either what happens if coming from a dual band to a tri band model
- If coming from a model that has support for 256 KB NVRAM to a model with only 128 KB, and your original settings took more than 128 KB - settings will most likely be truncated or corrupted
- If coming from a model that supports larger variables (for instance the dhcp_staticlist max size varies between models) to a model that has support for a smaller string - most likely truncated and corrupted content being imported

The list of scenario where that import would fail is pretty long. So my advice still remains: don't do it.

I can add some first hand experience:
Some months ago I was heavily messing with the BT10 (as accesspoint!) I didn't like the settings so I decided to upload my good backup.
Ok, my excuse is it was very late and when the upload file dialog came up, it showed a config file - only too late I realized I had uploaded the RT-BE92U config (running as router).
Long story short: Only time I have seen the BT10 flashing RED!
I could however press the reset button and do a new upload.

Lesson: Never ever upload a config from a router running as access point to a router (or the other way around.) I bet that includes AiMesh nodes.

 

[Tech9]

Lesson:

Operation mode is part of the configuration. You get what you upload.

I bet that includes AiMesh nodes

AiMesh nodes have no GUI. You can't upload any configuration files there.