Switched from Merlin's latest to latest Asus, stopped issues...

[4Leaf]

I heard that netgear was suing asus a while ago before I ever bought my rt-n66u. Was the switch to sdk6 driver a direct result of netgear's jealousy (by that I mean, a direct result of netgear suing asus)

 

[KevTech]

Pre-march 2013: everyone is using sdk5 driver. Outstanding range. Probably has the best range of any consumer router. Most reviews rave about the range.

What driver version is that?

I am running: 5.100.138.20

Been thinking perhaps of moving to a ac56u but not sure of performance compared to the 66u.

May jump on ac68u after price comes down some.

My old WNDR3700v1 kept connection on 5GHz with no issues at all but Netgear does not update firmware hardly at all.

Been using it as a switch right now.

 

[4Leaf]

What driver version is that?

I am running: 5.100.138.20

Been thinking perhaps of moving to a ac56u but not sure of performance compared to the 66u.

May jump on ac68u after price comes down some.

My old WNDR3700v1 kept connection on 5GHz with no issues at all but Netgear does not update firmware hardly at all.

Been using it as a switch right now.

I agree, netgear is really super slow at updating their firmware... and not to mention after a while they just stop doing it in general and only update the newer routers instead.

I had the r7000 before I returned it for the rt-n66u and it's hard not to notice how much better the firmware is on the rt-n66u compared to the r7000

The only issues with the rt-n66u are with all the wireless driver changing that it going on now.

the r7000 had so many firmware issues, it was ridiculous! I'm sure they have patched some things up since then, but it was almost unusable when it first came out.

 

[KevTech]

I recently discovered that the EM driver hasn't been included in the last couple of firmware releases

What was the last build (other then the EM builds) that had the driver running in EM mode?

 

[4Leaf]

What was the last build (other then the EM builds) that had the driver running in EM mode?

It has to be rather 374.40 or 374.41

 

[Builder71]

I recently discovered that the EM driver hasn't been included in the last couple of firmware releases. It never got properly committed to Github, so at some point in the past few months it got overwritten by an older, regular RT-N66U driver. That would explain why some people reported a range drop in recent releases.

So since it never got saved to Github, it means I no longer have a copy that driver, and I can't get it from the original provider either.

Oh, crap.
But it does explain the range drop I've seen as well.

 

[Briant73]

I reported a range drop with the latest Rmerlin FW on my 66u from the last SDK5 build and was told by a few people in the forums it had to be my setup but now seems there's an explanation about drivers that makes more sense. I still prefer the Rmerlin builds over Asus and hope that future drivers get back to the range that the SDK5 version had.

 

[MarkyPancake]

I've rolled back to Merlin 3.0.0.4.374.36_beta1-sdk5 and after testing the X1 and PS4 the throughput over wired is much worse than before and is worse than wireless.

 

[KevTech]

I've rolled back to Merlin 3.0.0.4.374.36_beta1-sdk5 and after testing the X1 and PS4 the throughput over wired is much worse than before and is worse than wireless.

I think 3.0.0.4.374.36_beta1 was sdk6 driver as sdk6 started with 3.0.0.4.374.33 build.

Have you tried 3.0.0.4.374.35_4-sdk5 that is in the sdk5 driver folder?

 

[Requi3m]

I've rolled back to Merlin 3.0.0.4.374.36_beta1-sdk5 and after testing the X1 and PS4 the throughput over wired is much worse than before and is worse than wireless.

I recall having that issue with older versions. It was fixed in the newer versions.

 

[MarkyPancake]

I've gone back to Merlin 374.73 and the wired throughput is much better and the radio signal is better.

I'm not sure what I'll do when Merlin adopts the percentage settings for the Tx power, as it's not as effective as the mW method.

 

[jim769]

I've gone back to Merlin 374.73 and the wired throughput is much better and the radio signal is better.

I'm not sure what I'll do when Merlin adopts the percentage settings for the Tx power, as it's not as effective as the mW method.

Only one thing we can do if Merlins new build has the Asus bugs and that is to go back to 374.43 and stay there.

 

[4Leaf]

Hey guys, if my isp ntp server they use is 64.39.145.102. Is this what i should enter on the router page in the ntp server entry?

 

[bodean]

Merlin likes to release his beta FW's over the weekend for people to test. Maybe we will see something tonight/tomorrow.

 

[RMerlin]

Merlin likes to release his beta FW's over the weekend for people to test. Maybe we will see something tonight/tomorrow.

Nothing will come out this weekend, except possibly an ALPHA release for the RT-AC87U, for early adopters. Asus are finalizing the firmware for the RT-AC87U this weekend, so I won't get up-to-date code to work with until next week.

 

[KevTech]

I recently discovered that the EM driver hasn't been included in the last couple of firmware releases. It never got properly committed to Github, so at some point in the past few months it got overwritten by an older, regular RT-N66U driver. That would explain why some people reported a range drop in recent releases.

Do you know which version is the last one to have the driver in em mode?

Or know of a way to find out with a command.

Trying to not load different versions to test signal strength.

I am thinking maybe 374.39 or 374.40 were the last to have the driver in em mode.

 

[RMerlin]

Do you know which version is the last one to have the driver in em mode?

Or know of a way to find out with a command.

Trying to not load different versions to test signal strength.

I am thinking maybe 374.39 or 374.40 were the last to have the driver in em mode.

All the -EM builds definitely had the correct version.

My advice would be to install 374.39-em, then check the wireless driver build date (not just the version number) on the Tools -> Sysinfo page. This will be the one you are looking for.

Personally I have no idea at which point it got overwritten - sorry.

 

[KevTech]

I've gone back to Merlin 374.73 and the wired throughput is much better and the radio signal is better.

Is that version number a mistype?

I thought the latest version is 374.43

 

[KevTech]

My advice would be to install 374.39-em, then check the wireless driver build date (not just the version number) on the Tools -> Sysinfo page. This will be the one you are looking for.

Well I loaded all versions from 374.39em to 374.43 and all show the same driver.

374.39em
wl0: Dec 12 2013 14:32:36 version 6.30.163.2002 (r382208)

374.40
wl0: Dec 12 2013 14:32:36 version 6.30.163.2002 (r382208)

374.41
wl0: Dec 12 2013 14:32:36 version 6.30.163.2002 (r382208)

374.42
wl0: Dec 12 2013 14:32:36 version 6.30.163.2002 (r382208)

374.43
wl0: Dec 12 2013 14:32:36 version 6.30.163.2002 (r382208)

 

[RMerlin]

Well I loaded all versions from 374.39em to 374.43 and all show the same driver.

374.39em
wl0: Dec 12 2013 14:32:36 version 6.30.163.2002 (r382208)

374.40
wl0: Dec 12 2013 14:32:36 version 6.30.163.2002 (r382208)

374.41
wl0: Dec 12 2013 14:32:36 version 6.30.163.2002 (r382208)

374.42
wl0: Dec 12 2013 14:32:36 version 6.30.163.2002 (r382208)

374.43
wl0: Dec 12 2013 14:32:36 version 6.30.163.2002 (r382208)

Hm. Now I'm really confused then.

Can you check 374.39 (non-EM version) just so we see for sure what was the last non-EM driver version? I was assuming that the Dec 12 file was the non-EM build based on the fact I could not trace back its merging in my Github log.