Best Tomato Build for RT-N66U

[hyelton]

So what's the best Build for stability and less issues?

Thanks

If it matters I like:
A good QoS for uploading as I only have a 2mb upload speed.

Bandwidth Monitoring (current stock firmware its broken)
And Anything that might be extra from choosing a build over another etc I like monitoring

Just something I don't need to reboot and not have issues with.

 

[andyg]

I'm wondering the same. I've been with Merlin for the past year or so but would like to experiment with the sdk5 tomato - 5.100 driver to be more specific. tomato RAF and shibby seem to be popular

RT-N66U : Merlin 374.43

 

[wouterv]

You can find some recent information and experiences here:
http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=19046

 

[Ronv42]

I have been running the TomatoRAF from Victek on my RT-N66 and N16 for over a year and it has been very stable. It also hosts a tiny web server to handle small web tasks at home. The last version is 1.3g.

Development seems to be on a pause right now but for the MIPS based routers you can't go wrong with either Toastman's for Victek's firmwares.

 

[hyelton]

So I was testing out ASUSwrt-Merlin and traffic monitor seems to work correctly.

Which would run better for stability & and all in all? Merlin or Tomato?

 

[KevTech]

I'm wondering the same. I've been with Merlin for the past year or so but would like to experiment with the sdk5 tomato - 5.100 driver to be more specific. tomato RAF and shibby seem to be popular

RT-N66U : Merlin 374.43

I don't think any of the latest tomato use the 5.100.xxx driver anymore.

They have moved on to 5.110.xxx driver.

 

[RMerlin]

So I was testing out ASUSwrt-Merlin and traffic monitor seems to work correctly.

Which would run better for stability & and all in all? Merlin or Tomato?

I provided most of the traffic monitoring fixes to Tomato devs. It's possible they didn't apply them all. Toastman applied a good portion of them. Not sure about Shibby, and nobody knows with Victek since he doesn't publish up-to-date GPL code for his own fork.

 

[hyelton]

I provided most of the traffic monitoring fixes to Tomato devs. It's possible they didn't apply them all. Toastman applied a good portion of them. Not sure about Shibby, and nobody knows with Victek since he doesn't publish up-to-date GPL code for his own fork.

I've been running Merlin today. great work!! everything seems smooth and nice.

Sent from my D6503 using Tapatalk

 

[wh7qq]

I've been running shibby121 on my RT-N66U for 18 days now...version 117 before that for a long time...never a glitch in either case. Documentation is sparse so you have to figure out what you need sometimes but it runs well. Merlin does great as well...just depends on what you want. Features may vary.

For whatever it may be worth, the TomatoUSB versions tend to be much smaller...probably due to the nicer appearance of the native and Merlin builds.

 

[andyg]

I've been running shibby121 on my RT-N66U for 18 days now...version 117 before that for a long time...never a glitch in either case. Documentation is sparse so you have to figure out what you need sometimes but it runs well. Merlin does great as well...just depends on what you want. Features may vary.

For whatever it may be worth, the TomatoUSB versions tend to be much smaller...probably due to the nicer appearance of the native and Merlin builds.

how's the 5ghz coverage? please share your overall experience. any specific functionality?

RT-N66U : Merlin 374.43 / RT-N16 : tomato RAF 1.28.9014MIPSR2-RAF-v1.3g.trx

 

[wh7qq]

how's the 5ghz coverage? please share your overall experience. any specific functionality?

I have no need, or even adapters, for 5G. The bandwidth monitoring features are more exhaustive in TomatoUSB. It has been a long time since I have used straight Asus or Merlin but what I recall is switching back to Tomato, not having found what I need in the other two. The stability has been fantastic...the only time I have rebooted or restarted was when I was screwing around with something or loading the latest. There is a ton of functionality there that I do not use. Frankly, were it not for the bandwidth monitoring (I have a 10G monthly cap), I would forget about my router altogether.

I don't use QoS but a neighbor does, on a WRT54GS I loaded Tomato on...he finds it works great...uses it to force Netflix to send him standard definition so he doesn't blow his cap.

Try it...see if you like it...you can always switch back. Just remember to clear your NVRAM and do a hard reset before and after. When you settle, send a contribution to whoever you wind up with, be it Merlin or Shibby or ?.

 

[KevTech]

I don't use QoS but a neighbor does, on a WRT54GS I loaded Tomato on...he finds it works great...uses it to force Netflix to send him standard definition so he doesn't blow his cap.

Another way is to go into Netflix setting and disable HD streaming.

 

[wh7qq]

Another way is to go into Netflix setting and disable HD streaming.

I don't use streaming myself...DVD plan only so this doesn't even show up in my Netflix pages...but will mention this to neighbor. Thanks.

 

[hyelton]

So I've now decided to go Tomato. Which one is the most stable to just leave alone? Shibby? RAF? Toastman?

I want performance that won't degrade. Tons of wan traffic etc.
Sent from my D6503 using Tapatalk

 

[RMerlin]

Toastman usually focuses on stability rather than features. That's why it has fewer features than Shibby, but these are more thoroughly tested (more mature).