Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2020 3:47 Post subject: Need advice on upgrading to an Asus RT-AC5300
I'm currently running my home network on an Asus RT-N66U that is getting a bit long in the tooth; it's been a great unit that I've had on DD-WRT from day 1, and I recently upgraded it to DD-WRT v3.0-r43381 big which has been very solid and reliable. Unfortunately, it's just not fast enough - our cable plan and gateway were recently upgraded, and while I can get 500Mbps pretty consistently if I'm wired to the cable gateway, I'm topping out at only 95Mbps through the N66U.
I've got a new Asus RT-AC5300 on the way, selected specifically because it'll run DD-WRT and it seemed the best bang for the buck available to me. It's not here yet, but I'm getting ready for the install, which will of course include flashing DD-WRT onto it immediately. However, in reading the forums, I've gotten myself confused - at least a couple threads indicate I can just take the latest BS beta build and update to it straight from the web GUI. Other threads indicate potential problems with the CFE blocking updates, and/or reference loading up significantly older Kong builds first then updating to BS builds.
Since most of the threads seem a bit out of date - can anyone advise on what the current best practice would be for getting DD-WRT up and running on the AC5300, and prepping for disaster in the event something goes south? Since I seem to be getting old/conflicting info from my searches I'm worried I'll wind up going down a known wrong path and screw up the new box.
Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2020 15:31 Post subject: Re: Need advice on upgrading to an Asus RT-AC5300
I got one at the end of June. I'm running DD-WRT v3.0-r43516 std (06/25/20). Not the experimental version, which wouldn't work for me on the 5 GHz band. Up for 22 days.
I'm pretty sure I just loaded the .trx file directly. No magic.
Have you considered using Asuswrt-Merlin? If you don't have complicated requirements, it might be a better way to go. In my case I'm running in router mode with multiple VAPs and VLANs to an upstream pfsense firewall. DD-WRT supports this (with a lot of reading). Merlin only supports a single guest network and setting up vlans requires a bunch of scripting.
One thing that I ran into is that the ports on the AC5300 are labelled differently from how DD-WRT sees them. The router is labelled W1234, but DD-WRT sees them as 4321W. Don't take my word for it. Verify in the switch config before plugging it into the internet.
Take note of the workarounds for the latest builds. You will need to set brcm_unlock=1 to get the full range of 5 GHz channels. You don't need the VAP workaround. They just work.
Jared, thanks, I really appreciate the quick reply. I may also take a look at Asuswrt-Merlin (always willing to see if something different will fit the bill), but I've been comfortable with DD-WRT for years and aside from speed have my N66U really dialed in for the network here at home so I'm reluctant to shift gears.
One set of somewhat odd requirements I was able to solve with DD-WRT was getting our Chromecasts to communicate cleanly across multiple VAPs without exposing other resources on those VAPs - so (for instance) my kids can cast stuff from their Chromebooks, as can guests on the guest network, but neither of them can see or contact the home file servers or any of my systems (which can also cast).
Once I get the AC5300 up and stable I might drop Merlin onto the N66U and play around; I think it's supported there and I'll be able to play around without annoying the rest of the household!
Hey, just wanted to say thanks paradoiley - I wound up loading build r43516 onto my AC5300 as you recommended, and it's been running mostly great. I appreciate the pointer to a solid build. Has been very stable, only needs a reboot when I screw with things, and lightning fast compared to the N66U it replaced.
I did run into a problem with VAPs not starting properly - I think that's due to the number of them. My config at the moment looks like this:
Seems like on a reboot I would get all the networks except one of the VAPs (and it would vary which one was missing, just luck of the draw it seemed). But I used to have the same issue on the N66U, so a quick script worked:
Code:
#!/bin/sh
# radiorestart - restart the wireless and bring VAPs up
stopservice nas
# stopservice wlconf # Only needed this on the N66U
sleep 5
# startservice wlconf # Only needed this on the N66U
startservice nas
I run that at startup, and generally have to run it after config changes, but it does the trick for now.
The only other issue I'm having is WAN DHCP, that's enough of a problem I'll throw another post out on it.
Hey, just wanted to say thanks paradoiley - I wound up loading build r43516 onto my AC5300 as you recommended, and it's been running mostly great. I appreciate the pointer to a solid build. Has been very stable, only needs a reboot when I screw with things, and lightning fast compared to the N66U it replaced.
I did run into a problem with VAPs not starting properly - I think that's due to the number of them. My config at the moment looks like this:
Seems like on a reboot I would get all the networks except one of the VAPs (and it would vary which one was missing, just luck of the draw it seemed). But I used to have the same issue on the N66U, so a quick script worked:
Code:
#!/bin/sh
# radiorestart - restart the wireless and bring VAPs up
stopservice nas
# stopservice wlconf # Only needed this on the N66U
sleep 5
# startservice wlconf # Only needed this on the N66U
startservice nas
I run that at startup, and generally have to run it after config changes, but it does the trick for now.
The only other issue I'm having is WAN DHCP, that's enough of a problem I'll throw another post out on it.
Thanks again!
I'm not at all an expert. I just happen to have the same router.
I'm not sure what is going on with your setup, but I do not need to restart the wireless on startup to get VAPs to work. I had to do that with my netgear r7000, but neither my ac5300 nor my ac3100 require it.
I am using my VAPs to route different traffic through VPNs. I have the same SSIDs on all the radios, with the addition of a guest network on the 2.4GHs radio. Otherwise I don't have them separated by radio. I have the same networks on both routers. The only thing that is different for each radio is the channel.
Thanks - my radio/VAP setup can definitely use some tuning, I basically just ported over what I had on my old N66U for convenience. The N66U didn't have a very strong 5Ghz radio (or more properly, I wasn't getting a strong signal from it throughout the house!) so I tended to overload on the 2.4Ghz side. Almost all of our devices can handle either (I think there's a couple 2.4Ghz only still hanging around) and the AC5300 definitely shows more power so I plan on redoing the setup when I have some free time.
