Noob afraid to upgrade Merlin

[Sinner]

I was in the same boat as @BGood , got my new ASUS router and hesitated to upgrade to Merlin after bricking a Linksys with DD-WRT but read that it's unheard of bricking an ASUS.

Only thing is I've never done any of the procedures mentioned prior to any upgrades. No resetting, no screens taken. Just hate the thought of having to reset all wireless devices and VPN clients back up.
I have yet to encounter any issues with any upgrade I installed.

Well if your not comfortable then stick to official builds. 384.2 has been great and rock solid for me on my 3100.

 

[KevTech]

Get Full Page Screen Capture for Chrome.

If not using chrome (or even if you are) in Win 7, 8 and 10 is the snipping tool which can make any size screen capture you want.

Push F11 to make your browser full screen so the entire router page is shown then push the windows key and type snip in the search box and snipping tool will be in the results.

 

[dvohwinkel]

If you are using windows there is a great util to grab screen shots or parts of screens called picpick http://ngwin.com/picpick

 

[dlandiss]

Get Full Page Screen Capture for Chrome.

Holy guacamole! What a trip watching it collect a "tall" page like this one!

Many thanks.

 

[58chev]

Well if your not comfortable then stick to official builds. 384.2 has been great and rock solid for me on my 3100.

I have no issue now, have loaded 4 Merlin upgrades up to this point. I was hesitant at first with a new router and and not knowing how Merlin would turn out. I have complete faith in future full revisions that come out.

 

[cmkelley]

I recently got a new router, RT-AC5300, and I went ahead and flashed to Merlin 380.69_2, figuring I had nothing to lose if things went wrong. Well, it all went just fine! But now I'm seeing there's a new version and I see: "It's generally recommended to do a factory default reset when coming from 380 to 384/NG."

So I did a screen capture of my settings, but I've also looked through a thread here about the new version. I have to say I'm a bit nervous about doing the upgrade. I'm concerned I'll overlook something or encounter an issue that I can't handle. Basically, I'm thinking I should wait a few weeks before trying it--maybe do more reading first.

So, is there any harm in waiting? Meaning, is what's fixed so important I should just install it now?

Thanks, everyone!

Heh, I'll be the contrarian here ...

In the short term, is there harm in waiting? Probably not much, it's not likely a new vulnerability will be discovered and patched in the near term. I _would_ update to 380.70 if I were you though, I think it includes a security fix or two. As time goes by, it's likely more vulnerabilities will be discovered and patched, and the 380 series is at end-of-life and won't be updated.

I kinda wish I'd had the patience to wait a release or two before trying to upgrade my AC3200, particularly because for that model, once you went to 382/384, there was no going back. So now I have a new 86U (which was already at 382 when I bought it, so the risk was small in going to 384) because I didn't have the time and my wife didn't have the patience for me to troubleshoot the AC3200.

I don't think there's much risk in waiting a few weeks, I think 384_5 will be released in a couple weeks, as the Beta seems stable, so I'd probably wait at least for that if I were in your shoes. Above all, make sure you have an ample amount of time to troubleshoot in case it goes sideways. If you have the time set aside and it goes smoothly, then you've got yourself some unexpected free time. Not a bad outcome.

 

[superjet]

Unless you're an animal, dont prt screen into word documents, use sharex. It will take 1/10th of the time and its an easier solution.

Flash, save your settings externally, reset, reset, unplug, flash some more, see what breaks. Rinse, repeat. Its fun.