RT-N66U firmware end of life? [SOLVED]

[Toratuga]

I'm on my second Asus RT-N66U router. The first worked very well with Merlin and then after that with John's Fork of Merlin. Until a lightning strike nearby.

Now I'm on a second N66U, purchased used off ebay. It works fine except I have not been able to put Johns Fork on it. I reset it with the small button on the port panel. I also pushed it back to the default original firmware using the Asus control software control panel. I did not use the rescue software or any of that. When I try to upload Johns Fork it starts uploading and in a few second stops and the Asus control panel pops back on the screen.

So, I've used the Asus firmware control panel to update to the latest Asus firmware. The router is NOT listed as End-of-Life on the Asus web site. And there is no warning when I updated to the latest firmware of Asus. But, that firmware is more than a year old and I want to make sure this router is still secure using this Asus firmware.

I only use it for a cable broadband connection with cat cables to a couple laptops, and sometimes for wifi internet. Nothing else.

Is it secure?

 

[dave14305]

The latest ASUS firmware for the N66U is Version 3.0.0.4.382.51640 (2019/06/10). Only 4 months old.

You do need to use the ASUS Firmware Restoration tool to load Johns fork. I recommend going with John’s fork over stock ASUS.

 

[Toratuga]

Thanks much. I'll try the restoration tool with John's Fork. It must have been what I used several years ago when I pt it on the the first router. But, I can't remember.

The Asus firmeware is 3.0.0.4.382_51640-xxxxxxxx. So it must the the latest and I made a mistake on the age. In the meantime it looks like it will be safe even with the Asus firmware, until I get Johns Fork on it.

thanks

 

[wh7qq]

I also made the error of loading the latest Asus firmware and it locked out reverting and loading John's fork. As I run Linux exclusively, I had no way to run the Restoration Tool. It was very frustrating until I was able to load up the CFE mini web page and download from that was problem free. I am now running John's Fork on this RTN66 and it works very well. Unfortunately, I don't recall all the steps to get to the mini web page and it was hard to find online but worth the trouble to escape the Asus/FCC trap and load better firmware that has a better than 1/year upgrade path (I hope). In any case, John's does work better but retains the look and feel of Asus/WRT...just more features.