Need a rock solid firmware for RT-N66U

[mai mariarti]

I have one computer connected to the Ethernet port of an RT-N66U, some computers on 2.4GHz and some on 5.8GHz wireless.
The problem is that the router drops the 5.8GHz channel and it won't even show on the list when I mouse over the connection signal bar on windows 7 ultimate x64
after about 30 sec or so, the 5.8GHz band comes back!
I enabled logging to log everything but don't see anything unusual, and nothing that matches the time stamp the problem occurred.
I don't care which version of firmware I need to use, but I need a rock solid one. I am not using anything like VPN, IP6,... Just a pure home use. I have upgraded to 380.70 and the problem persists and even happens more often.
I've included the syslog.txt if it helps. I don't know much about this stuff and that's the most dangerous part!
Any suggestions?
Thanks.

 

[skeal]

I have one computer connected to the Ethernet port of an RT-N66U, some computers on 2.4GHz and some on 5.8GHz wireless.
The problem is that the router drops the 5.8GHz channel and it won't even show on the list when I mouse over the connection signal bar on windows 7 ultimate x64
after about 30 sec or so, the 5.8GHz band comes back!
I enabled logging to log everything but don't see anything unusual, and nothing that matches the time stamp the problem occurred.
I don't care which version of firmware I need to use, but I need a rock solid one. I am not using anything like VPN, IP6,... Just a pure home use. I have upgraded to 380.70 and the problem persists and even happens more often.
I've included the syslog.txt if it helps. I don't know much about this stuff and that's the most dangerous part!
Any suggestions?
Thanks.

This your ticket. https://www.snbforums.com/threads/fork-asuswrt-merlin-374-43-lts-releases-v32e4.18914/

 

[joegreat]

This your ticket. https://www.snbforums.com/threads/fork-asuswrt-merlin-374-43-lts-releases-v32e4.18914/

John's fork is Rock Solid - Carved in Stone! You need to enter it manually into your router with a mechanical typewriter...

But still do not forget to do a factory reset and reconfigure the router manually - after the firmware change!
Or use John's User NVRAM Save/Restore Utility to save the USER NVRAM settings and restore it after a factory reset - the factory reset makes sure that the SYSTEM NVRAM settings are correct.

 

[ColinTaylor]

The problem is that the router drops the 5.8GHz channel and it won't even show on the list when I mouse over the connection signal bar on windows 7 ultimate x64 after about 30 sec or so, the 5.8GHz band comes back!

That's exactly the behaviour you would expect to see (on any router) if the router was using one of the DFS channels and it detected the presence of radar scanning. The router will change to another channel but has to wait for 60 seconds to check that the new channel is also free from radar. When I was using DFS channels on my N66U I found that it was overly sensitive to radar scans. But you should see messages appearing in the router's syslog regarding radar.

If this is your problem then either manually choose a non-DFS channel for 5GHz (36-48 and 149-165), or if using "Auto" check the option to not include DFS channels.

 

[mai mariarti]

Thanks Colin,
Since I couldn't see and option called "DFS", I did a scan of the area, and assigned it 44 since it was completely empty.
Hope this will fix it.
Thanks again.

 

[ColinTaylor]

@mai mariarti I think the DFS option only appears on EU & JP routers. US routers instead have an option regarding band1 whose meaning isn't entirely clear. Anyway, setting a fixed channel might help.

 

[joegreat]

Since I couldn't see and option called "DFS", I did a scan of the area, and assigned it 44 since it was completely empty.

Nothing to see for DFS as it's a legal requirement as outlined here and implemented hidden to the user - so simply use the lower (non-DFS) channels (as you did) or live with DFS on the higher channels.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Nothing to see for DFS as it's a legal requirement...

I don't see your point. The (EU) option for DFS doesn't "disable" DFS it just restricts which channels the router can use in "Auto" mode. Even in the US, Band1 does not use DFS.