Some thoughts on RT-N66U firmware

[guipel]

Yesterday I sent a email to friendly Jeremy from Asus.

I'd like to share with you, since we have some black belt degree firmware experts here, maybe some ideas could be implemented on alternative firmwares.

"1) USB Disk Support: I am a Mac user, and have some external hard drives formatted on HFS+ file system. Was a little frustrating to me that I will need to format my HDs to turn it able to be recognized by this router. What is the possibilities to have a upgrade on firmware turning on this type of File System (HFS+) ?

2) TX Power: I made some tests with this configuration and doesn't get any kind of change on signal strength. What range of values are safe to use? 500mW is a safe value? Could you explain better what kind of tuning could be made on this parameter? Increasing TX Power on EA-N66U affects the input signal received from RT-N66U os just the output signal when acting as a repeater?

3) DHCP Server: Please, include a way to name the reservations made on Manual DHCP.

4) Wireless Mac Filter: Please, include a way to name the entries on Filter list.

5) 2.4GHz Wireless channel: How can I configure channels beyond 11 here in Brazil? I want to set to 13, but doesn't appears on the list.

6) Administration: Would be nice to have a way to enable remote administration, https support and port configuration to admin interface.

7) Dropbox, Google Drive: Would be nice to have integration with Dropbox, Google Drive, etc, allowing the router to sync folders on hard drive without having any computer enabled.

8) Download Master: This integration with Dropbox, Google Drive, etc, would allow the router to scan a folder on hard drive looking for torrents or nzb files, starting a download "automagicly". I wouldn't need to manually upload a file to router anymore."

Best Regards!

 

[RMerlin]

"1) USB Disk Support: I am a Mac user, and have some external hard drives formatted on HFS+ file system. Was a little frustrating to me that I will need to format my HDs to turn it able to be recognized by this router. What is the possibilities to have a upgrade on firmware turning on this type of File System (HFS+) ?

HFS+ support will require a proprietary driver to access that filesystem. I'm actually surprised it doesn't support it, since the Paragon driver they use for NTFS support should also be able to support HFS+. Either they didn't enable that support in the version they use, or there's some additional support missing in the firmware. Unfortunately that'd be tricky for me to look into, as I don't have a Mac.

3) DHCP Server: Please, include a way to name the reservations made on Manual DHCP.

I implemented that in my custom firmware. I actually sent the code patch (which is fairly simple) to Asus's devs. It's up to them to decide whether they want to implement it or not.

5) 2.4GHz Wireless channel: How can I configure channels beyond 11 here in Brazil? I want to set to 13, but doesn't appears on the list.

I suspect your router is a US model, in which case it won't make channels 12-13 available to you. Not sure if this is normal or not for Brazil. Radio legislation regions are even more confusing than DVD regions.

6) Administration: Would be nice to have a way to enable remote administration, https support and port configuration to admin interface.

Asus enabled https support on the RT-AC66U. Since it's the same code base, it's just one build option for them to enable it on the RT-N66U (I did it in my custom build). Wouldn't surprise me if they were going to do that at the same time they enable the 64K NVRAM code, and AiCloud support.

7) Dropbox, Google Drive: Would be nice to have integration with Dropbox, Google Drive, etc, allowing the router to sync folders on hard drive without having any computer enabled.

8) Download Master: This integration with Dropbox, Google Drive, etc, would allow the router to scan a folder on hard drive looking for torrents or nzb files, starting a download "automagicly". I wouldn't need to manually upload a file to router anymore."

AiCloud is the road leading there (folder synchronization with cloud services). Stay tuned for more info on this in the coming weeks. In the mean time, you can get a glimpse of AiCloud through this webpage.

 

[guipel]

Hello RMerlin, first of all, thank you for your quick reply.

About the HFS+, I guess Asus already made it compatible on O!Play, I hope they make it available on RT-NX too.

The implementation you made on adding description on DHCP Server list would work for MAC Filter list too?

I can't believe channel list is locked on Hardware, is it really possible? I suposed was some localization config I was missing. I tried to change the language and time zone with no effects on channel list. Is it possible to hack this on your custom firmware?

Thanks for your explanation on AiCloud, make sense to me now.

Best

 

[RMerlin]

The implementation you made on adding description on DHCP Server list would work for MAC Filter list too?

Might be, depends on how the firmware internally handles the list. It was easy for the DHCP reservations because the internal handling didn't mind if there was an extra field added (which means you could revert back to an original firmware without causing any issue). I will have to look on whether it is also doable for the MAC filter lists.

I can't believe channel list is locked on Hardware, is it really possible? I suposed was some localization config I was missing. I tried to change the language and time zone with no effects on channel list. Is it possible to hack this on your custom firmware?

The region is a series of settings stored in the bootloader (AKA pmon, AKA CFE) based on for which region the router was manufactured. While in theory you could change your region to a different one, it means you would then be bound by the restrictions of that other region. For instance, Europe allows more channels, but they limit output power to a lower value.

I prefer to stay away from overriding these values in my firmware, as I don't fully understand the legal ramifications of doing this. If people want to experiment on their own through the "wl" command or changing the nvram values, it's up to them. I just won't offer any web interface to do it.

 

[guipel]

Nice suggestion,

command: wl channels_in_country BR b
result: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

command: wl country BR
result: <empty>

command: wl channels
result: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

command: wl channel 13
result: <empty>

command: wl channel
result: No scan in progress.
current mac channel 11
target channel 11


Am I missing something? Do I need to reboot router on any step? Or just missing some command to apply the new channel setting?

 

[RMerlin]

You need to apply a bunch of changes to nvram as well, otherwise the firmware will still act as if you were in the US region as far as the webui is concerned. Keep poking There was more info posted on these forums as well (see the Asuswrt-merlin RT-N66U thread a few pages ago).