DD-WRT not possible on latest ASUS routers

[William Hudson]

I spent most of yesterday trying to get DD-WRT installed on a new ASUS RT-AC88U without success. The problem is known, but working around it seems pretty much impossible.

The most recent ASUS firmware warns that it does not support third-party builds (although Merlin works fine). If you try loading an older ASUS version, it complains that the device is not authorised and cripples various functions. This is both through the firmware update page in the GUI and using the firmware restore feature. I could not load any version of DD-WRT. The loads would be reported as successful but either the router would not boot or it would boot the previous firmware. The warnings/crippled behaviour from ASUSWRT did not go away until the latest firmware was restored.

I think if you have an older router (before the firmware version listed for your router as not supporting third-party builds - see the download page for your router), then it shouldn't be a problem.

 

[Xentrk]

I spent most of yesterday trying to get DD-WRT installed on a new ASUS RT-AC88U without success. The problem is known, but working around it seems pretty much impossible.

The most recent ASUS firmware warns that it does not support third-party builds (although Merlin works fine). If you try loading an older ASUS version, it complains that the device is not authorised and cripples various functions. This is both through the firmware update page in the GUI and using the firmware restore feature. I could not load any version of DD-WRT. The loads would be reported as successful but either the router would not boot or it would boot the previous firmware. The warnings/crippled behaviour from ASUSWRT did not go away until the latest firmware was restored.

I think if you have an older router (before the firmware version listed for your router as not supporting third-party builds - see the download page for your router), then it shouldn't be a problem.

I have experience with DD-WRT. Based on the issues I have found, I highly recommend you go with Merlin Firmware on the AC88U and all ASUS routers supported by @RMerlin . I support three AC88U routers running Merlin Firmware. Merlin does a helluva job maintaining the firmware, keeping it current and helping others on the forum. There are great scripts like AB-Solution for ad blocking and many others for blocking malware, Microsoft telemetry and more.

Issues I have found with DD-WRT are no support for ipset, cron jobs stop running for reasons unknown and parental controls don't work all of the time. A caveat is I did get ipset working on one DD-WRT router. But it was a hack and I am unable to get the most recent version of it.

I also find there is better support here in this site when compared to the forums on DD-WRT. I don't want to know the hard work of DD-WRT firmware, just sharing what my experiences are.

 

[William Hudson]

I have experience with DD-WRT. Based on the issues I have found, I highly recommend you go with Merlin Firmware on the AC88U and all ASUS routers supported by @RMerlin . I support three AC88U routers running Merlin Firmware. Merlin does a helluva job maintaining the firmware, keeping it current and helping others on the forum. There are great scripts like AB-Solution for ad blocking and many others for blocking malware, Microsoft telemetry and more.

Issues I have found with DD-WRT are no support for ipset, cron jobs stop running for reasons unknown and parental controls don't work all of the time. A caveat is I did get ipset working on one DD-WRT router. But it was a hack and I am unable to get the most recent version of it.

I also find there is better support here in this site when compared to the forums on DD-WRT. I don't want to know the hard work of DD-WRT firmware, just sharing what my experiences are.

Thanks for sharing. I was already using Merlin but recently have been having trouble with my VPN (PrivateTunnel, reported elsewhere) so thought I'd give DD-WRT a go. But like I say, I don't seem to have that option! So I'm back with Merlin now.

 

[Xentrk]

Thanks for sharing. I was already using Merlin but recently have been having trouble with my VPN (PrivateTunnel, reported elsewhere) so thought I'd give DD-WRT a go. But like I say, I don't seem to have that option! So I'm back with Merlin now.

Is there an active thread on the issue that you can provide the link to? If so, I'll see if I can help. I try to help with OpenVPN issues posted on the forum. I use TorGuard and saw some issues when I updated to 380.65 release. As a result, I wrote a three part guide in the VPN Forum:

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/torguard-openvpn-2-4-client-setup-for-asus-merlin-380-65-380-65_2-part-i.38281/

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/torguard-openvpn-2-4-client-setup-for-asus-merlin-380-65-380-65_2-part-ii.38282/

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/torguard-openvpn-2-4-client-setup-for-asus-merlin-380-65-380-65_2-part-iii.38283/

 

[William Hudson]

Thanks, it's here @ https://www.snbforums.com/threads/connection-refused-problems-with-merlin-on-asus-rt-ac88u.39541/

It had been working fine until last Tuesday (30th May). Then we just started receiving connection refused messages while browsing - further details in the posting. I hadn't touched the config for at least a couple of weeks previously, so I don't know what brought on the problems. Currently running with OpenVPN client switched off, with no issues.