Netgear x6 r8000

[siri_uk]

Hi guys,

I've just purchased a Netgear r8000 to replace my asus rt-ac68u, I was using Merlin on the Asus, has anyone any recommendations for the best firmware for the r8000 either original or custom

TIA

Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk

 

[tarassippo]

You can either run stock or DD-WRT, not aware of any other third-party firmware for that router...

 

[halcyon]

Late reply:

1. Official, probably fastest, CTF works, not the most feature rich.

2. DD-WRT BrainSlayer builds (lots of features, constantly updated, might have issues, not the fastest) from here:

https://download1.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv2/downloads/betas/2018/

3. DD-WRT Kong build (don't know why anyone would use these, as author Kong now commits directly to the main DD-WRT BrainSlayer builds, lagging a bit behind BrainSlayer builds, perhaps Kong has done more testing, perhaps not):

http://desipro.de/ddwrt/K3-AC-Arm/TEST/

4. FreshTomato builds based on the now abandoned excellent Shibby Tomato builds (some say more stable, haven't had time to test/compare):

http://www.linksysinfo.org/index.php?threads/fork-freshtomato-arm.74117/

5. Merlin builds from Koolshare (legacy 380 series, not the most up-to-date Merlin builds, but fairly recent. Some say faster than DD-WRT, some say more issues, I don't know, haven't tested):

(Link removed. -rm)
Remember to first download back to original firmware file:
https://firmware.koolshare.cn/Koolshare_Merlin_Legacy_380/Netgear/R8000/X7.9.1/
(Link removed. -rm)

 

[Pierino]

Kong tests his builds. BrainSlayer doesn’t. Too many units to support.
When possible always use Kong.
IMO, other than the extra 5ghz band, an r8000 is not an upgrade from an rt-ac68u.
Not when you have rmerlin and dd-wrt.

The koolshare versions are a violation of forum policy.

 

[halcyon]

Ah, sorry, I didn't know about the Koolshare violating something.

Can you explain what the violation is? Is it an illegal fork of Merlin?

Hard to find any info on the Koolshare fw.

I just came by all this information yesterday, when upgrading my own R8000 from Shibby Tomato v140-AIO back to the original Netgear Genie firmware V1.0.4.18_10.1.49.

Now I'm still wondering which 3rd party FW to upgrade my R8000 to: FreshTomato or Kong.

Based on your input, it's Kong build of DD-WRT (basically a more tested official DD-WRT with a bit of a lag in updates).

Why would you choose Kong DD-WRT over, say FreshTomato? I don't really know myself, haven't tried either build yet.

Thanks!

 

[Pierino]

Actually Kong’s build usually have fixes ahead of the main builds.

Asuwrt firmware has proprietary stuff in it that makes it illegal to be used on any unit but what it was meant for.
Also there have been instances of people messing up their r7000 by running the xvortex firmware on them which required a serial connection to repair.

I would use this on my r8000 http://www.desipro.de/ddwrt/K3-AC-Arm/.
The “test” folder has newer releases in it. I’ve used it on an r8000 and it was fine.
There were a couple of users on the dd-wrt forum who could not flash their r8000 with any dd-wrt firmware.
To test, I flashed mine back to the latest official firmware, as of 2 weeks ago, and was able to flash back to dd-wrt Kong.

Make sure you read the readme.

 

[halcyon]

Thanks Pierino!

 

[FBI Surveillance Van #2]

Hi guys,

I've just purchased a Netgear r8000 to replace my asus rt-ac68u, I was using Merlin on the Asus, has anyone any recommendations for the best firmware for the r8000 either original or custom

TIA

Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk

Thanks

I've had my R8000 for four years, now, and it has been a great performer, and trouble--free. The latest official firmware, 1.0.4.28, has made it faster and better with support for tri-band smart connect. Up until this update the smart connect function was dual-band, only using the two 5ghz bands. Now that it uses all three, throughput is noticably faster on all devices.
1.0.4.28