Best firmware for AC68U/TM-Ac1900

[John Bennett]

Have a couple of the above router, and thinking of putting them into service as AP/Repeater. (ie just internal.)
Just wondering if they would be better off with the standard Asus firmware, or wether the Merliin firmware may work better?
Thanks,
John.

 

[CaptainSTX]

Have a couple of the above router, and thinking of putting them into service as AP/Repeater. (ie just internal.)
Just wondering if they would be better off with the standard Asus firmware, or wether the Merliin firmware may work better?
Thanks,
John.

They were designed to run on their own special branch of ASUS firmware. While they could be hacked to run on other firmware discussion of how to do so was banned on this site. These routers haven't had a software update for many years but running them as APs on your network is probably OK though being AC only radios will limit the potential throughput. Just use a strong paraphrase for the WiFi and let what is hopefully a more UpToDate router protect your network.

 

[bennor]

Have a couple of the above router, and thinking of putting them into service as AP/Repeater. (ie just internal.)
Just wondering if they would be better off with the standard Asus firmware, or wether the Merliin firmware may work better?

Note what RMerlin indicates, back on Aug 16, 2023, about the TM-AC1900...
SNBForums Policy on ASUS TM-AC1900 Conversion Discussion

After discussing it with @thiggins, we agreed that at this point, considering this device has long been EOL, it was time to drop this rule. If people can find ways to avoid TM-AC1900 from ending up as e-waste, then it's a Good Thing, and as this is an 8 years old device, I doubt either T-Mobile or Asus would complain.

That being said, one thing stays unchanged: that device is NOT support by Asuswrt-Merlin, and anyone trying to get things to work on it is entirely on their own, as I won't waste my time (or the community's time) trying to help people figure out issues that are caused by Asus's undisclosed protection measures they might have in place.

One would have to jail break the TM-AC1900, including performing the MTD5 fix, for the router to run the latest RT-AC68U or Asus-Merlin firmware. If you want to discuss jailbreaking the TM-AC1900, see other web forums for such discussions. RMerlin has ended support for the RT-AC68U, as such the Asus-Merlin firmware for it is dated. Last Asus-Merlin firmware for that router is 386.14_2 (2024-11-17).

Asus released updated firmware for the RT-AC68U, primarily just security fixes, recently even though the router is end of support by Asus.
ASUS RT-AC68U / RT-AC66U B1 / RT-AC1900(P/U) Firmware version 3.0.0.4.386_52062 (2025/10/27)

There is also third party firmware for the router one can flash if they don't want to use Asus or Asus-Merlin firmware.

When running the router in AP or AiMesh mode certain router features may be disabled. Typically around here people recommend running stock Asus firmware on AiMesh nodes. Unless a third party firmware has some specific feature one needs or if that third party firmware is continually updated, it might be best to just run the latest Asus stock firmware on that router due to it's age and limited hardware. As always one's use case will be the ultimate driver of what firmware to use.