Help with RT-AC68U

[ricostuart]

I have the latest merlin build running and all seems mostly well.

However, I often find that one core in the router runs at max which seriously degrades its server abilities - if i try and play a video on it over my network, it runs extremly slowly. Most often it runs perfectly, but when it doesnt, a reboot wont even help.

Is there a way of figuring out what is causing it to run at max? I do not have any of the media server stuff running (itunes server, etc).

Thanks!

 

[huotg01]

I have the latest merlin build running and all seems mostly well.
However, I often find that one core in the router runs at max which seriously degrades its server abilities - if i try and play a video on it over my network, it runs extremly slowly. Most often it runs perfectly, but when it doesnt, a reboot wont even help.
Is there a way of figuring out what is causing it to run at max? I do not have any of the media server stuff running (itunes server, etc).
Thanks!

You don't provide much information. What is the device handling/storing/providing the videos ? What device do you use to look at them ? Are the devices hooked wireless or with a wire ? If wireless are you on the 2.4 or 5.0 MHz? I also have a AC68U and would be very surprised if this router is a bottleneck.

 

[ricostuart]

Hi,

The device has a 2tb external hdd on the USB2 port (a 2gb pen drive on usb3 which holds all the system information like transmission, etc). On the drive is timemachine, videos, documents, etc.

Some devices are connected via ethernet, some via 5ghz wifi. But thats not where the slowdown occurs. Its the router itself that is struggling at times. On the main setup page shows the processor activity, and often shows that the 2nd core is stuck at 94-100%. Core 1 is usually idle.

 

[huotg01]

Hi,
The device has a 2tb external hdd on the USB2 port (a 2gb pen drive on usb3 which holds all the system information like transmission, etc). On the drive is timemachine, videos, documents, etc.

Some devices are connected via ethernet, some via 5ghz wifi. But thats not where the slowdown occurs. Its the router itself that is struggling at times. On the main setup page shows the processor activity, and often shows that the 2nd core is stuck at 94-100%. Core 1 is usually idle.

I have a 4TB on the USB3 port, with two partition: 1 ntfs for backups and 1 ext4 for Transmission, rsync, etc.

That said I would not use the router as a file server, and if I was doing so, I would at least have it on the usb3 port. The USB 2 port is too slow for that purpose.

 

[RMerlin]

I have the latest merlin build running and all seems mostly well.

However, I often find that one core in the router runs at max which seriously degrades its server abilities - if i try and play a video on it over my network, it runs extremly slowly. Most often it runs perfectly, but when it doesnt, a reboot wont even help.

Is there a way of figuring out what is causing it to run at max? I do not have any of the media server stuff running (itunes server, etc).

Thanks!

Run "top" over SSH and see what process uses 50% of the CPU (which would mean 100% of a single core)

 

[RussellInCincinnati]

As someone else mentioned, consider using a QNAP TS-120 $90 dollar NAS
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=971614&gclid=Cj0KEQiA8f6kBRCGhMPFtev8p58BEiQAaMLmqRK-jFg361zEBkdfJ5KJvFGBLkfEEYUQmXU1QnnXTWUaAszW8P8HAQ&Q=&is=REG&A=details
if you are not happy for some reason with the file server aspects of the Asus WiFi routers. My goodness, you get eSATA and USB 3.0 ports on the little QNAP, as well as a place to put hard-drive-form-factor devices. Lots of help for sharing the NAS files over the Internet if you want, too.

I love the Asus routers, and install them both for light file sharing and no-file-sharing clients where speed at range is important. But when the absolute finest range is not essential and folks want lots of Samba sharing, am moving to putting in $55 dollar Edimax BR-6478AC's for the WiFi (and repeater) functions, plus a $90 dollar NAS, instead of the $150 dollar plus Asus routers.

Having said all that, with a high-end Patriot USB 3.0 flash drive with Ext2 format plugged into an RT-AC68U am able to copy a 94 megabyte file from the Samba router in 1.3 seconds. CPU usage does spike during the copy but so what.

Have also found it a big deal for the DLNA media server to not have zillions of files if you don't want the Asus to be scanning the drives forever. In other words, have found things to go a little smoother when the USB-attached drives have big video files or databases rather than 400,000 icon images etc.