J Angel: I've been running RMerlin's FW on our Asus routers for years from the N66W and 3 others, to the RT-AC3200. With the latest Merlin release, the newer security concerns listed elsewhere left me with no choice, but to upgrade to 380.68_4, as soon as RMerlin released it; I generally wait a few days, but there are seriously evil dudes online; you may consider updating and saving more often. Asus can't keep our routers as tight as RMerlin does. His work on his fork is considered far superior to theirs,IMO and notwithstanding John's fork. The last update was the smoothest one I ever experienced and has worked extremely quickly, and I didn't lose a single setting. YMMV. I always back the FW and configs up before and after I update, just in case. Last week I powered the AC3200 down after adding a new opnvpn client config, to be sure nothing was left in memory that shouldn't be there. For the first time ever, I lost access to the router GUI; there was no reason. I still had partial connectivity but the GUI wouldn't come up. I was fairly sure that indicated the router was salvagable. I followed all of the instructions in RMerlin's FAQ to the letter, but nothing doing; the GUI didn't come up. I thought about it for a while. I kept after it and was begining to get the idea that things might be worse than they should be; it's worrisome. What finally worked for me, was to remain calm, and to take longer during each step of the cycle; with an N66, that will take longer still. I turned the power off to the router. I actually cut the power going to it. I have seperate A/C switches for each part of the system, rather than to fiddle with the router power button. Sometimes the router power button gets flakey and doesn't turn off completely, or isn't held in long or firmly enough. I held the WPS Button button in for a full minute, then still holding it in, flipped the power switch, keeping the WPS button firmly depressed. Then, I briefly pushed the router power button in until the LEDs lit up, then released the -power button only-; still holding the WPS button for for over a munute, until almost all of the LEDs began flashing rapidly, not completely in unison but enough, so I knew it was enough. I released the WPS button,then sat back, watched and waited. Another minute went by. Finally the red LED came up on the 3200 and stayed on. I waited a another minute, then tried 192.168.1.1 in the browser but the GUI wasn't budging; yet. I waited another minute, and then -whoopie- the GUI came up, with empty admin/password fields; it was back to RMerlin 'stock' so to speak. I re-entered all my ID/passwords, revising them later; you could use admin/admin if you're in a rush. Be sure your firewall is up before moving on. I was surprised after 2-3 hours of futzing around, with so many failed attempts including time spent thinking, little had changed in the innards. The wireless section was back to stock, but the saved config file took care of that in under a minute. The router was stable and then I could spend time going through it to verify that all was well again. I loaded a fresh new openvpn client config , no problems logging back into the GUI, that predated this incident. A final save and reboot; the router runs as smoothly and hopefully stays that way. This never happened to me in this manner with an Asus router. If you remembered to back up your firmware/configs, you shouldn't have much work ahead except to upgrade to RMerlin's latest build, or John's if you'd rather at your earliest opportunity, but that will take the recovery tool (back it all up first). If you didn't save, that"s is the tough part. Be as prepared as you can and expect the unexpected, it happens to everyone. Once your GUI comes back, start from scratch. If it's not recoverable, now is the time of year that seasonal router sales begin. You'll get a good deal on a newer, more powerful Asus router on Amazon/Newegg, etc. My method was different and longer than the road others have taken for the most part, but as RMerlin wrote, it's really difficult to brick an Asus router. My N66, is more sluggish than my trusty AC56R and definitely slower than the AC3200. All routers eventually begin to fail in odd ways. Perhaps your next Asus router will be what you need, not to mention will probably cost less than you can imagine. Good luck and hope this offering is of some help to you.
