Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 16:54 Post subject: N66U -Update
I have tested the commited changes to trac and can confirm the reset and wps button work now.
I only have 2 remaining issues, is I have to do a nvram erase from the CFE > before the router boots properly and loads all the drivers ect. once that is done it sticks perminatly.
2nd, is the lan, and the lan leds all work, I am unable to get a WAN ip and setting it to static does not work either.. I am testing against 18821 revision of dd-wrt atm...
Eko if you have suggestions on either 2 of these let me know, I will look over roboswitch again and see if there is anything in there.
Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 1:18 Post subject: Very nice
I'm simply impressed...
Fractal. I have been reading your posts here and I must say that your activity and level of communication are quite pleasing. Very refreshing.
I noticed you were pretty far along in getting things to work out on the ASUS router...so I actually held off on buying a new one. I figured I'd see where this goes and how long it takes.
You have surprised me.
I'm actually glad that I waited. I actually REALLY like the ASUS GUI to be honest. It's actually pretty neat. But it'll be damn nice to know that I will at least have the option of putting DD-WRT on it if I so choose.
I appreciate your hard work on this. I really do. I think that by waiting, I have put myself into a position to buy the better router. (After the realization that 80MHz core clock difference is negligible. Especially when compared to the 128MB of RAM vs 256MB of RAM.)
Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 1:57 Post subject: Great job!!!
Thank you very much, Fractal, for putting all that time and effort into supporting the N66U! You definitely deserve a case of cold beers, or a bottle of fine whiskey. PM me and I'll send you one!
Just to let you know, I just ordered a N66U after you fixed the WAN issue - from Germany, 'cause they're 50EUR cheaper than in France, where I live. I'm an IT pro, been using Linux since can't remember, and it makes my day when I see what a strongly motivated individual like you can achieve.
Once again, congratulations on your work and keep it up!
Update: I joined the forum only to be able to offer you my sincere appreciations.
I am on the brink of a new purchase here, however... I am strongly considering this router - among several. (Currently using a WRT54G v3 with DD-WRT as my WAP. )
I am wondering if I should wait...or just go ahead with this one:
What does anyone else think? The Buffalo is 80 MHz faster on the CPU but has half the RAM of the ASUS RT-66NU.
Would appreciate some feedback on this... I want to make this purchase ASAP. (Today if possible.)
I finally got around to replacing my Buffalo WZR-HP-AG300H with the RT-N66U. The Buffalo is super stable with DD-WRT. The only complaint I heard from other people on the forum was about boosting Tx power. But really, how many situations does this actually provide real world performance gains.
I gave my Buffalo away to a friend with DD-WRT firmware loaded up because he needed to bridge his apartment building's public WiFi to a private network for his wired and wireless devices. This is someone who knows nothing about computers so he needed something stable. I wasted a ton of time getting crashes and terrible performance from a middle of the road Linksys and a Rosewill (don't laugh, Rosewill said it ran DD-WRT in the product tag line). Since my Buffalo had been running bridged (from a 4g wifi hotspot) at my house for a while I figured I'd just hand him that one and get something new to play around with.
Even on the stock firmware this RT-N66U is pretty awesome. Since I should be able to do VLAN's through the command line I'm hard pressed to think of a reason to put DD-WRT on here until it's super stable.
The RT-N66U stock firmware supports VPN, FTP, wireless bridging, 3g modems, printers, and storage through it's USB ports, you can create guest wifi networks. I really can't think of one killer feature that DD-WRT would add other then familiarity.
I was really tempted to go with the Buffalo again but I thought it would be totally boring just to flash, set it, and forget it.
Also Artheros routers never seem to have the support that Broadcom has in what gets released, whether it's DD-WRT,Optware, or other open source firmwares.
This router just began shipping in most places a few days ago and it's already being worked on for DD-WRT.
If $200 would really stretch the bank you're probably better off going with the Buffalo as we'll have 802.11AC routers in 6 months.
I am on the brink of a new purchase here, however... I am strongly considering this router - among several. (Currently using a WRT54G v3 with DD-WRT as my WAP. )
I am wondering if I should wait...or just go ahead with this one:
What does anyone else think? The Buffalo is 80 MHz faster on the CPU but has half the RAM of the ASUS RT-66NU.
Would appreciate some feedback on this... I want to make this purchase ASAP. (Today if possible.)
I finally got around to replacing my Buffalo WZR-HP-AG300H with the RT-N66U. The Buffalo is super stable with DD-WRT. The only complaint I heard from other people on the forum was about boosting Tx power. But really, how many situations does this actually provide real world performance gains.
I gave my Buffalo away to a friend with DD-WRT firmware loaded up because he needed to bridge his apartment building's public WiFi to a private network for his wired and wireless devices. This is someone who knows nothing about computers so he needed something stable. I wasted a ton of time getting crashes and terrible performance from a middle of the road Linksys and a Rosewill (don't laugh, Rosewill said it ran DD-WRT in the product tag line). Since my Buffalo had been running bridged (from a 4g wifi hotspot) at my house for a while I figured I'd just hand him that one and get something new to play around with.
Even on the stock firmware this RT-N66U is pretty awesome. Since I should be able to do VLAN's through the command line I'm hard pressed to think of a reason to put DD-WRT on here until it's super stable.
The RT-N66U stock firmware supports VPN, FTP, wireless bridging, 3g modems, printers, and storage through it's USB ports, you can create guest wifi networks. I really can't think of one killer feature that DD-WRT would add other then familiarity.
I was really tempted to go with the Buffalo again but I thought it would be totally boring just to flash, set it, and forget it.
Also Artheros routers never seem to have the support that Broadcom has in what gets released, whether it's DD-WRT,Optware, or other open source firmwares.
This router just began shipping in most places a few days ago and it's already being worked on for DD-WRT.
If $200 would really stretch the bank you're probably better off going with the Buffalo as we'll have 802.11AC routers in 6 months.
Excellent. Thanks for that subjective approach to my question. I do appreciate it.
Much of what you said would be a series of significant selling point for me to be honest. Mostly what I'm looking for is strength/range of signal and the most absolute consistency in performance I can get for now.
The GUI of the ASUS really kind of sold me...to be honest. That and it's got what appears to be slightly better hardware all around.
I have to admit that I had not heard of the 802.11ac standard before... But from what I just read it seems that it might be a while yet before it's really mainstream. I figure that I may as well stick with current hardware as it will suffice for the time being and will likely serve my needs for some time to come. (That and I am not an early adopter. I've learned to not be by watching others struggle with the new tech. LOL)
The feature set may be a bit overkill for me... I have a Cisco SG200-18 gigabit switch so VLAN's are covered. My 1U gateway server does OpenVPN. (Which is nice when I'm away from home.) But I do like the idea of the downloader embedded in the router itself. Seems like it'd be handy.
It's really just a great little machine all around and I'd be excited to experiment with it. Even if it's $180 at the moment. I'll just pick it up next paycheck I suppose.
The Buffalo kind of had me really thinkin' about it as it has a very nice form factor to it that would fit it very nicely on the wall in my closet where I have a small switch and my current access point. But as it turns out...the RT-N66U actually is wall-mountable as shown on the ASUS product page.
I think that ultimately the extra memory really kind of sealed the deal for me here.
But you're right. I think that the ASUS firmware will do just fine anyway. It allows one to quickly configure it as an access point and, like you, I don't think that the extra signal tweaks really provide general 'real-world performance'.
Just the same, though... I will likely still try DD-WRT out on it and see how they compare to one another. This will be part of the fun. Plus... You never know. We just might find that the DD-WRT firmware is a bit faster somehow?
Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2012 7:29 Post subject: Re: Great job!!!
marcbro wrote:
Thank you very much, Fractal, for putting all that time and effort into supporting the N66U! You definitely deserve a case of cold beers, or a bottle of fine whiskey. PM me and I'll send you one!
Just to let you know, I just ordered a N66U after you fixed the WAN issue - from Germany, 'cause they're 50EUR cheaper than in France, where I live. I'm an IT pro, been using Linux since can't remember, and it makes my day when I see what a strongly motivated individual like you can achieve.
Once again, congratulations on your work and keep it up!
Update: I joined the forum only to be able to offer you my sincere appreciations.
I am sure the devs all appreciate the feedback from everyone, it has been a long couple of weeks with lots of progress on broadcom platforms. I am happy to convey that the N66U has been running solid for the past 2 days on both bands without hickup.
On a side note I should be receiving my E1500 tommorrow and will begin working on getting it working with dd-wrt. I appreciate everyone's positive response and I am sure the devs do as well.
-Fractal
Last edited by Fractal on Tue Mar 27, 2012 15:07; edited 1 time in total
As a side note: did anyone tested if LAN port numbering is right?
Brainslayer builds are screwed - so far only Fractal has working build on rt-n66u...
fractal - please,release your bin - maybe its worth to update router databse with your working bin's... _________________ Asus RT-N66U
As a side note: did anyone tested if LAN port numbering is right?
Brainslayer builds are screwed - so far only Fractal has working build on rt-n66u...
fractal - please,release your bin - maybe its worth to update router databse with your working bin's...
That's not a wise idea.
Development builds are never a good idea to release. It's always best to keep a development build contained and distributed to only a handful of people. Otherwise you just get a crapload of people who - despite having been told that it's a dev build - will still complain, nag you for help and even dis you and your work just because something may have gone wrong or something doesn't work right.
Next thing you know, you've got a ton of people asking questions and expecting you to answer them. And if you don't (likely because you're BUSY working on the next or final build...) they get all pissed off at ya.
Nah... I wouldn't release the bins yet until the build clears a few standards and certain key people have had their chance to test whatever is current in the SVN/repository/whatever.
We'll get it soon enough. Let's just let Fractal do his thing.
You definitely deserve a case of cold beers, or a bottle of fine whiskey. PM me and I'll send you one!
)