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alex5908
join:2010-10-11
York, ON

alex5908

Member

[Modem/Router] Asus RT-N66U router firmware

Hi there,
Yesterday I bought an RT-N66U router and installed it. It's working OK but the firmware is ...376.1071 which is not the latest. Thus I have 4 questions.
1. What are the benefits if I upgrade the router to the newest firmware?
2. If something is wrong how can restore the router to the previous firmware?
3. I bought the router to increase the wifi transmission range as the distance between the router and my bedroom is just 15 meters but my mini Ipad was loosing the wifi connection with Linksys router. What is the best firmware just to fix this issue?
4. Do I have to use TomatoUSB/Merli/Padavan installed for improvement of the wifi transmission range?

Gokuu
join:2001-08-27

1 edit

Gokuu

Member

[Modem/Router] Re: Asus RT-N66U router firmware

Your post was better suited in another part of this forum..

The N66U is an excellent N device. Upgrade it to the latest firmware from Asus for stability and reliability. You do not need to install Tomato or any 3rd party for what you are doing. "Merlin" would be an excellent 3rd party firmware choice for the N66U..

damir
join:2013-12-12
CANADA

damir

Member

I would go with Merlin's firmware as well.
imtiax
Premium Member
join:2014-05-24
Toronto, ON

imtiax to alex5908

Premium Member

to alex5908
use merlin

mozerd
Light Will Pierce The Darkness
MVM
join:2004-04-23
Nepean, ON

mozerd to alex5908

MVM

to alex5908
The best wireless performance you'll get out of the RT-N66U is using the stock firmware and always load the latest version that asus provides because it contains the most recent wireless drivers provided by the chip maker. The wireless drivers are proprietary and cannot be reconfigured by anyone except the chip maker.

The most stable firmware is made by Merlin .... The stability has more to do with how the router functions in general but you get added capabilities .... Those additional capabilities are only usefull if you have the Technicle skills to exploite them. In my experience the stock firmware produces superior wireless performance results.

Oldster
join:2015-01-19
K4P 1A0

Oldster to alex5908

Member

to alex5908
One thing to mention about Merlin's firmware is that it's based off the ASUS stock source code. When they update, he usually follows. The GUI is almost identical, but with a few new features. It can be uploaded the same way that ASUS stock firmware is; and if you want to go back to ASUS stock firmware, there are absolutely no issues doing that.

I would go with the latest Merlin load, but don't expect any change to the WiFi range. My router is on one side of the house, and I am able to get a strong signal on the other side, about 17m away.

alex5908
join:2010-10-11
York, ON

alex5908

Member

I've updated the firmware to the latest and still have 1 or 2 bars in my bed-room from mini Ipad. It's almost the same as I had with Linksys WRT 54G V.8 which is 5 times less expensive. Shall I buy new AC router (+$300)? Will it help to get a strronger signal in my bed-room?

Oldster
join:2015-01-19
K4P 1A0

Oldster

Member

15 meters should not be a problem for any decent WiFi transmitter in a no-obstructions situation. It's hard to say why it's not working for you without knowing the situation of your home network....

- Are there lots of metal heating ducts between the router and the bedroom?
- Might there be interference from neighbour's systems? Try a site survey and see what's out there. If that's a problem, there's an "enhanced interference management" feature that is enabled from the [Professional] tab in the [Wireless] menu. At least in Merlin there is.

If none of this works, can you run a Cat 5 cable from the router to a point closer to the bedroom. You might then be able to use your old WRT 54G as a wireless access point. That's what I did to get coverage on my back patio during the summer.
Datalink
Premium Member
join:2014-08-11
Ottawa ON

Datalink to alex5908

Premium Member

to alex5908
One thing to remember is that mini devices of any type will probably not have anywhere near the wifi performance compared to something like a laptop with two or three antennas operating. Try using a laptop in the same house location, if you happen to have one handy, and run the test so that the laptop top cover is facing the direction of the router, and then turn the laptop around so that it faces the other direction. If you ran a speedtest for example, you should see a difference in data rates due to the positioning of the antenna, with the first run seeing higher speed test results. The difference in "bars" should also give you some idea of what the difference is between the two devices, in terms of their receive capability from the router. That will be nothing but a rough gauge of receive capability, but it should show how much better a laptop might be.

The other thing that you could consider doing is replacing the stock antenna on the router with higher gain antenna. You would need to find a set that runs both 2.4 and 5 Ghz networks if you happen to use both frequency ranges. If you never use 5 Ghz, and never intend to fire up a 5 Ghz device, you could probably use antennas designed for 2.4 GHz use. Just remember, that running a 5 Ghz network with that antenna would or could damage the 5 Ghz transmitter.

alex5908
join:2010-10-11
York, ON

alex5908 to Oldster

Member

to Oldster
said by Oldster:

- Are there lots of metal heating ducts between the router and the bedroom?

There are only two walls between.
I would not like to use a router in my bed-room.
alex5908

alex5908 to Datalink

Member

to Datalink
said by Datalink:

Try using a laptop in the same house location

The laptop has 3 bars. My wired connection is +25Mbps. The laptop shows 3Mbps only.
Will an AC router (like Asus AC2400 RT-AC87U) fix this issue?
Datalink
Premium Member
join:2014-08-11
Ottawa ON

Datalink

Premium Member

Here is an interesting thread on antennas for the N66U.

»forums.smallnetbuilder.c ··· p?t=6832

Going to an expensive router like that night help to some degree, but I would say, read through the FCC report first before spending any money. The question is, would you end up with a significant gain with a non 802.11ac device. Newer Asus routers have an explicit and universal beamforming capability. Explicit requires both router and remote device to support beamforming while universal (implicit) beamforming depends on the router to determine the direction of propagation and change it to increase the data throughput. If you are using a small handheld device, is universal beamforming going to be enough to increase the throughput at the location that you want? Thats the question.

Link to smallnetbuilder page on beamforming:

»www.smallnetbuilder.com/ ··· lly-work

FCC report page:

»fccid.net/number.php?fcc ··· d=261105

Here is another idea using an ASUS router with higher gain antenna:

»www.asus.com/Networking/RTN12HP/

The question is, which is a better bet, beamforming, possibly combined with higher gain antenna versus the RTN12HP, which runs higher gain antenna but is only a 2.4 Ghz router?

alex5908
join:2010-10-11
York, ON

alex5908

Member

said by Datalink:

read through the FCC report first before spending any money.

I did not understand anything about FCC. Could you explain in two words what you meant mentioning FCC?

mozerd
Light Will Pierce The Darkness
MVM
join:2004-04-23
Nepean, ON

mozerd to alex5908

MVM

to alex5908
said by alex5908:

I've updated the firmware to the latest and still have 1 or 2 bars in my bed-room from mini Ipad. It's almost the same as I had with Linksys WRT 54G V.8 which is 5 times less expensive. Shall I buy new AC router (+$300)? Will it help to get a strronger signal in my bed-room?

Before you decide to change routers describe your environment.

Are you in a House, High-rise apartment/condo and which floor. The materials used in/on the walls of your unit.

Where in your dwelling have you placed the RT-N66U? is the RT-N66U surrounded by any obstacles of any kind? if yes describe the obstacles.

Obstacles can be your large Screen TV or any TV, furniture, etc.

Positioning the wireless RADIO plays a very important role in HOW wireless signals get dispersed. The Rules for good to excellent wireless coverage is:

As HIGH as possible and as CENTRAL as possible. The high part removes obstacles from the equation and allows proper signal radiation on a horizontal to vertical plane --- centrally placed enables balanced signal penetration throughout and especially through plasterboard walls.
lethalsniper
join:2010-10-01
North York, ON

lethalsniper to alex5908

Member

to alex5908
How is the Qos on this asus router can it do ip or Mac bandwith control like choosing how much up and download speeds to each house hold clients? Reason for this is when playing p2p online games I can lower my upload and down load speeds because of being host I slow down.

Oldster
join:2015-01-19
K4P 1A0

Oldster

Member

said by lethalsniper:

How is the Qos on this asus router can it do ip or Mac bandwith control like choosing how much up and download speeds to each house hold clients? Reason for this is when playing p2p online games I can lower my upload and down load speeds because of being host I slow down.

You set the Min/Max uplink & downlink limit for each of 5 priorities. Then you assign by IP-or-MAC, Protocol, Port, and transfer size (KB) to one of the 5 priorities.

alex5908
join:2010-10-11
York, ON

2 edits

alex5908 to mozerd

Member

to mozerd
said by mozerd:

re you in a House, High-rise apartment/condo and which floor. The materials used in/on the walls of your unit.

Where in your dwelling have you placed the RT-N66U? is the RT-N66U surrounded by any obstacles of any kind? if yes describe the obstacles.

Obstacles can be your large Screen TV or any TV, furniture, etc.

I live in a high-rise apartment condo on the 9th out of 24 floors. The walls are standard (made of plasterboard, I guess).
The router is in the kitchen (on the floor in the cabinet). There are no obstacles other than 3 walls and a large screen TV at the side. I can't change the position of the TV as it's optimum.
Do you think it will help to position the router high above on the wall?

mozerd
Light Will Pierce The Darkness
MVM
join:2004-04-23
Nepean, ON

3 edits

mozerd

MVM

said by alex5908:

Do you think it will help to position the router high above on the wall?

FYI, Positioning the router on the floor in the cabinet is not good in any way shape or form -- in fact --- its beyond horrible

Yes, positioning the router high above on the wall should help to improve the wireless signals of the RT-N66U.

If you have 2.4 Ghz Phones or 5.8Ghz Phones they will interfere with the RT-N66U wireless signals causing poor performance .... and if that is the case change your phones to DECT 6.x. and if you have a Micro-Wave Oven in the Kitchen -- when it's used it will also interfere with your RT-N66U

Use the 5Ghz band where possible and do not worry about the number of bars that appear --- The RT-N66U is a MIMO exploiting device so the number of bars [signal strength] is not the total picture -- its only a small part of the wireless equation --- its far more important that your device like your Mini-iPad supports MIMO --- the key point is how well does your wireless device that is MIMO capable [like the Mini-iPad is] perform at the desired location and utilizing the 5Ghz band generally will yield much better ACTUAL performance due to MIMO, Beam-forming and far less wireless interference.

alex5908
join:2010-10-11
York, ON

alex5908

Member

That's what I got from techsup.
"Did you so happen to chose WEP or plain WPA for your encryption. The IEEE 802.11n/ac standard prohibits using High Throughput with WEP or WPA-TKIP as the unicast cipher. If you use these encryption methods, your data rate will drop to IEEE 802.11g 54Mbps connection. This information is based of a standard 100Mbps connection.

You can adjust the channel bandwidth for your 2.4Ghz to 40 Mhz and your 5Ghz to 80Mhz to help with the speeds an signal strength of your router. Also which firmware version are you on?"

mozerd
Light Will Pierce The Darkness
MVM
join:2004-04-23
Nepean, ON

mozerd

MVM

Now that you got that bit of wisdom from techsup --- How did you originally configure your Router?

And Yes --- do NOT use WEP or WPA-TKIP --- because they will slow the performance of your router significantly.

alex5908
join:2010-10-11
York, ON

1 edit

alex5908

Member

said by mozerd:

do NOT use WEP or WPA-TKIP

What is the safest encryption to use?
I am using WPA2 personal with WPA-PSK key. Is it slow?

mozerd
Light Will Pierce The Darkness
MVM
join:2004-04-23
Nepean, ON

mozerd

MVM

said by alex5908:

What is the safest encryption to use?
I am using WPA2 personal with WPA-PSK key. Is it slow?

it's very safe as long as your key is at least 13 characters long mixed case ... The longer the key the safer it will be. And WPA2 is what you should be using for best security performance. On the 5G use channels 136 or higher for better performance especially on newer Apple gear.

alex5908
join:2010-10-11
York, ON

2 edits

alex5908

Member

I don't have 80Mhz. There are only 20, 40 and 20/40. Where can I ger 80Mhz? I am using the latest firmware.
"You can adjust the channel bandwidth for your 2.4Ghz to 40 Mhz and your 5Ghz to 80Mhz to help with the speeds an signal strength of your router."

mozerd
Light Will Pierce The Darkness
MVM
join:2004-04-23
Nepean, ON

mozerd

MVM

It's only available on AC type routers.

alex5908
join:2010-10-11
York, ON

1 edit

alex5908

Member

2 mozerd
Mind the message was sent by n66u router techsup.

mozerd
Light Will Pierce The Darkness
MVM
join:2004-04-23
Nepean, ON

mozerd

MVM

said by alex5908:

2 mozerd
Mind the message was sent by n66u router techsup.

n66u router techsup are wrong. The RT-N66U does NOT have 80Mhz channel width for 5GHz--- it only has 20/40 channel width.

Only AC wireless Routers have 80MHz channel width's for 5GHz.

alex5908
join:2010-10-11
York, ON

alex5908

Member

said by mozerd:

it only has 20/40 channel width.

Which is better - 20/40 or 40?

mozerd
Light Will Pierce The Darkness
MVM
join:2004-04-23
Nepean, ON

mozerd

MVM

Auto will select the best channel width in your particular environment. Bu 40 does work best in many situations.

BTW, you should read the User Guide that comes with your Router. Lots of important information there that could be helpful.
malam
join:2006-02-25
Canada

malam to alex5908

Member

to alex5908

Re: [Modem/Router] Asus RT-N66U router firmware

I have the same router and do live in an apartment also. I live in a two bedroom unit and have excellent coverage throughout the unit - full strength on my iPhone 4S, iPad2 and Mac Book Pro. I just walked around the unit to confirm. Can't go on the balcony - too cold. The ASUS RT-66U router is connected to a bridge with Rogers CGN2 Modem and located under my desk in the second bedroom which is in the middle of my apartment. You may want to try to relocate the router.

alex5908
join:2010-10-11
York, ON

alex5908

Member

said by malam:

located under my desk in the second bedroom which is in the middle of my apartment.

The key word is "in the middle of the apartment". I don't want the router in my bedroom.