[RT-AC68] Atium Bead for you to burn

[Jaded]

using 339 and wpa2 with no issues with 5ghz.. tested/using ipad2, iphone5, ipad air, and a 5ghz bridged connection from my ac1750 buffalo..

Not a single drop. Just streamed HD and airplay without issues for over an hour.

notes..
I am not using roaming assistant

transmit power @ 120 and 140 with no issues.. (unit is not hot, only warm to touch)

dont use lower channels.. e.g... anything under 149... reason.. your transmit power is limited on lower channels. Try using channel 149 or higher

try disabling beamforming. If your clients are too close to the beamformee.. it could be counter intuitive.

 

[nurv2600]

This is exactly what I was looking for (Merlinwrt with HFS+)! Thank you! So far, TONS of Apple devices, nearly all 5GHz, no problems yet. One odd question I saw posted a year ago but no replies: is it possible to WDS extend the guest network? I realize this is an odd request, but it would be helpful for my application. Any plans to add WPA support to the WDS feature?

 

[chunlianghere]

it seems the vpn on 3.0.0.4.374.35_alpha3 not working well. wat hav i missed out?

i turn it on, add in username n password, click apply. after than when the page refresh, it was back to off, username n password also empty.

 

[canuckle]

This is exactly what I was looking for (Merlinwrt with HFS+)! Thank you! So far, TONS of Apple devices, nearly all 5GHz, no problems yet. One odd question I saw posted a year ago but no replies: is it possible to WDS extend the guest network? I realize this is an odd request, but it would be helpful for my application. Any plans to add WPA support to the WDS feature?

Are you using a Mac Journaled usb drive with this? How's the performance?

 

[RMerlin]

After 3 days, 2 nights and 2 routers - I think I know what the problem is -
when authentication on 5Ghz is set to WPA2 Personal - the signal just goes to zero. If it is set to WPA -Auto-Personal works just fine. This applies to 5GHz only in my scenario. I have tried different combinations to see if 2.4GHz would be affected one way or the other and there are no problems there.
So, it affects 5GHz only on .339 or .35alpha5.

@RMerlin~
Is there any way to check for any possible changes (errors?) between .306 (works fine) and .339 please.

I have no problem with WPA2 and the 5 GHz band here.

 

[RMerlin]

it seems the vpn on 3.0.0.4.374.35_alpha3 not working well. wat hav i missed out?

i turn it on, add in username n password, click apply. after than when the page refresh, it was back to off, username n password also empty.

Read the system log, it will tell you why it's failing to start. Otherwise, it's impossible to tell with so limited information.

 

[canuckle]

Read the system log, it will tell you why it's failing to start. Otherwise, it's impossible to tell with so limited information.

Welcome back sir

What's your assessment of this build so far? I'm pretty tempted to jump in. Any serious issues you're working on?

 

[nurv2600]

Are you using a Mac Journaled usb drive with this? How's the performance?

I am, and the performance is great, however, there is a serious flaw, but it's existent in all versions of the firmware that I've tested: if your Finder is set to "calculate all sizes", as in calculate the size of each folder recursively, it seems to hang the smbd process on the router and bandwidth immediately goes to hell for everyone since the core running the process just chokes. The only way to fix it is to force restart finder, and then performance comes right back. I've actually submitted a VERY long and detailed explaination of the problem with top and lsof outputs at various stages, as well as screenshots, to Asus tech support. Who knows if it'll just get shirtcanned as soon as they see something longer than a paragraph, but they've been decently helpful before with minor things.

I had a 16TB Drobo 5D connected to it, tested to push 200+MB/s over Thunderbolt, and just about the same over USB (direct-connect to computer). Via GbE, I got a fairly steady 45MB/s, via 5GHz wireless, reported linkrate 450Mb/s @ RSSI of -60, steadyish around 25MB/s. Bear in mind these numbers are with roughly 15x 2.4 clients, 10x 5.0 clients, and 50-60 wired clients all doing "normal" work (if anything we ask of this router is normal ). I tried for a quiet time, so I'm not sure if you'd get much better than that, but I feel that's decent enough for a router. To compare, our 10.9 server with that same 5D connected via Thunderbolt, we get a steady 60MB/s outta the thing over GbE. That server is a 2.5GHz dual i5, and that's damn close performance. We were going to use the router as the same server for that 5D (since there was no need for any "real" account managment and we wanted to spread resources so to say), but the folder size calculations causing smbd to peg the CPU put a stop to that.

EDIT: any answer on either WDS extending the guest network (any auth) or the main network (WPA/2 auth)? I'd love to have an answer for either!

 

[chunlianghere]

Read the system log, it will tell you why it's failing to start. Otherwise, it's impossible to tell with so limited information.

noted!

the system log tell this: rc_service: httpd 522:notify_rc stop_vpnd

 

[RMerlin]

noted!

the system log tell this: rc_service: httpd 522:notify_rc stop_vpnd

That only states that the web interface send a stop signal to all VPN servers, so it's not a config error. Make sure you did enable the OpeNVPN server instance you are using.

 

[RMerlin]

Welcome back sir

What's your assessment of this build so far? I'm pretty tempted to jump in. Any serious issues you're working on?

I'm still semi-away until the end of the month. Lots happening at work (including moving the office), lots happening at home as well. I did a pass at reported issues during this weekend, fixing a few reported issues (not AC68U-specific).

I've put my RT-AC68U as my main router about a week ago to give it a real life testing, so far it's working fine. One thing left to investigate is the OpenVPN server that seems to still be slightly quirky. Sometimes when the router boots it will fail to set up the tun interface. I added more debugging output to the log, but I haven't been able to reproduce the issue again.

I'm also waiting on something from Asus to take care of another issue (specific to another router model).

For the RT-AC68U itself, I'd say go for it. If you use OpenVPN, keep a close eye after a reboot to ensure OpenVPN is properly started.

 

[RMerlin]

Speaking of OpenVPN, I'd like additional feedback due to the major changes that occurred surround it in this new build, both server and client.

 

[canuckle]

I'm still semi-away until the end of the month. Lots happening at work (including moving the office), lots happening at home as well..

I'll say this on behalf of everyone who enjoys your hard work. When it happens, it happens. We are grateful for your help and hard work, providing us with an incredible improvement over stock fw on these routers.

If you haven't donated to RMerlin's efforts yet, please do so right now. We enjoy his work, and though he doesn't actively ask for donations, I can attest that he responds personally to every one. DO it!

 

[Fester1952]

I am having an issue with VPN on this firmware. I don't use OpenVPN. DDNS is DynDNS. I cannot save my username and password under VPN Server. I can enter the details but when I apply, Enable VPN Server goes to OFF and my entered username and password is cleared. Haven't had this issue on Asus stock or 374.34

 

[RMerlin]

I am having an issue with VPN on this firmware. I don't use OpenVPN. DDNS is DynDNS. I cannot save my username and password under VPN Server. I can enter the details but when I apply, Enable VPN Server goes to OFF and my entered username and password is cleared. Haven't had this issue on Asus stock or 374.34

Confirmed, I was able to reproduce it here. Thanks.

 

[RMerlin]

I am having an issue with VPN on this firmware. I don't use OpenVPN. DDNS is DynDNS. I cannot save my username and password under VPN Server. I can enter the details but when I apply, Enable VPN Server goes to OFF and my entered username and password is cleared. Haven't had this issue on Asus stock or 374.34

Actually, this is linked to another bug that I already fixed earlier today.

In the meantime, the workaround is to run these commands:

nvram set VPNServer_enable=1
nvram commit

That's because Asus uses a global setting to enable/disable all VPN server instances. I don't use that setting, but I had some leftover code that still relied on it.

It should also help with the issue reported previously where the OpenVPN Server would fail to start, and would try to stop itself instead of starting itself.

 

[Fester1952]

Thanks Merlin, that worked

 

[miodzicho]

I would like to use ebtables to filter traffic (DHCP, UPnP) on tap tunnel :

#Block DHCP between OpenVPN TAP
ebtables -I FORWARD -i tap21 -p IPv4 --ip-protocol udp --ip-destination-port 67:68 -j DROP
ebtables -I FORWARD -o tap21 -p IPv4 --ip-protocol udp --ip-destination-port 67:68 -j DROP
ebtables -I INPUT -i tap21 -p IPv4 --ip-protocol udp --ip-destination-port 67:68 -j DROP
ebtables -I OUTPUT -o tap21 -p IPv4 --ip-protocol udp --ip-destination-port 67:68 -j DROP

But on last line router always reboots, is ebtables not compatible or mistake in line ?
If I apply only 3 first lines, then in some time router hangs, power cycle is needed.

 

[RMerlin]

I would like to use ebtables to filter traffic (DHCP, UPnP) on tap tunnel :

#Block DHCP between OpenVPN TAP
ebtables -I FORWARD -i tap21 -p IPv4 --ip-protocol udp --ip-destination-port 67:68 -j DROP
ebtables -I FORWARD -o tap21 -p IPv4 --ip-protocol udp --ip-destination-port 67:68 -j DROP
ebtables -I INPUT -i tap21 -p IPv4 --ip-protocol udp --ip-destination-port 67:68 -j DROP
ebtables -I OUTPUT -o tap21 -p IPv4 --ip-protocol udp --ip-destination-port 67:68 -j DROP

But on last line router always reboots, is ebtables not compatible or mistake in line ?
If I apply only 3 first lines, then in some time router hangs, power cycle is needed.

This is a bug in kernel 2.6.36.4 used by the RT-AC68U. It was fixed in 2.6.37.

http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/ke.../?id=e6f26129ebbb0071016e2526036f42036ccf30e1

I just backported the fix and confirmed it was no longer crashing afterward. Thanks for the report!

 

[nurv2600]

Edit: got it up and running just fine, error on my end, sorry!