ASUS RT-AC68U vs Netgear R7000 AC1900 using custom firmware

[odeezy2ez]

I just purchased both of these routers certified refurbished because i couldn't decide on which one was the best option and didn't want the prices to go up. I actually have the t-mobile variant but read it could be easily flashed to the stock firmware and even custom. I also ready the R700 is more customizable and can be flashed to even ASUS firmware. I've never done this before but have a Computer Engineering degree and am pretty tech savvy.

My question is not so much performance because I read that they are comparable with the R7000 lacking slightly in up-link but leading everywhere else, and the ASUS being slightly more stable and consistence across many ranges. This will be used in a small one bedroom apt so they should both be suitable in that area.

My question is more so about custom firmware, what is available, what advantages there are, is there a performance boost, is remote configuration possible, stability?

I will likely use either router for the VPN connection to my local network and cloud storage. I work from home so i need a solution that will be stable as my current Netgear seems to drop me off my works VPN more than I'd like. Also some movie streaming and casual gaming every now and then.

 

[bill001g]

The vast majority of the functionality in the wireless part of the router is in a binary that is loaded to the chip. This comes from the chipset manufacture and there is nothing you can do to modify it so third party software can do little to modify the performance. There used to be more things you can do but the fcc cracked down on tricks like setting you country to russia so you could use different radio options.

I would recommend you look at the merlin firmware. This has many of the features of other third party firmware. The VPN client is one of the easier ones to setup. It tends to be very stable because they don't constantly update it like dd-wrt where you have to try different beta builds constantly.

The main feature that I like on merlin is that it still has the hardware nat assist but this may not matter if you do not have a fast internet connection. There seems to some kind of licensing restriction on the hardware nat feature so other firmware does not have it.

Then again using VPN on your router will limit your speed. The cpu even on the fastest routers limit the speed and if you are using openvpn there are not hardware accelerators like there are for ipsec.

It really depends what exact features you need which firmware you choose. I would avoid using the router as a NAS. A actual NAS will greatly out perform any router.

 

[odeezy2ez]

The vast majority of the functionality in the wireless part of the router is in a binary that is loaded to the chip. This comes from the chipset manufacture and there is nothing you can do to modify it so third party software can do little to modify the performance. There used to be more things you can do but the fcc cracked down on tricks like setting you country to russia so you could use different radio options.

I would recommend you look at the merlin firmware. This has many of the features of other third party firmware. The VPN client is one of the easier ones to setup. It tends to be very stable because they don't constantly update it like dd-wrt where you have to try different beta builds constantly.

The main feature that I like on merlin is that it still has the hardware nat assist but this may not matter if you do not have a fast internet connection. There seems to some kind of licensing restriction on the hardware nat feature so other firmware does not have it.

Then again using VPN on your router will limit your speed. The cpu even on the fastest routers limit the speed and if you are using openvpn there are not hardware accelerators like there are for ipsec.

It really depends what exact features you need which firmware you choose. I would avoid using the router as a NAS. A actual NAS will greatly out perform any router.

Right now I am stuck at 100Mbps with my current ISP. Is their no preference of device to run Merlin on? Also, are you saying that just having the VPN feature on, even while not connected to it remotely, will slow the network? being able to use the Cloud app with NAS is not an essential feature since i use Drive, so thanks for the heads up.

 

[bill001g]

In general only traffic flowing through the vpn would be slowed. The issue is with the hardware acceleration, they do not publish much details since not all chipset vendors have this. From what I can tell they somehow moved the function to the switch asic so the nat traffic never hits the cpu.

I do not know if having he vpn just turned on is one of those conditions. I know very simple things like the traffic meters do not work properly when you have the hardware acceleration turned on.

At 100mbps you likely do not need the hardware acceleration most router cpu can run that fast.

Merlin is only suppose to be loaded on asus platforms. I have seen people claim they can get it to run on other brands that have identical chipsets but all that is unsupported. It is like loading dd-wrt images not for the exact model of device. You run the risk of a bricked router, even though most newer routers you can recover but it is painful enough that I do not even think to try firmware that is not confirmed to run.

 

[odeezy2ez]

In general only traffic flowing through the vpn would be slowed. The issue is with the hardware acceleration, they do not publish much details since not all chipset vendors have this. From what I can tell they somehow moved the function to the switch asic so the nat traffic never hits the cpu.

I do not know if having he vpn just turned on is one of those conditions. I know very simple things like the traffic meters do not work properly when you have the hardware acceleration turned on.

At 100mbps you likely do not need the hardware acceleration most router cpu can run that fast.

Merlin is only suppose to be loaded on asus platforms. I have seen people claim they can get it to run on other brands that have identical chipsets but all that is unsupported. It is like loading dd-wrt images not for the exact model of device. You run the risk of a bricked router, even though most newer routers you can recover but it is painful enough that I do not even think to try firmware that is not confirmed to run.

I definitely don't want to brick one since one is going back. I've read good things about Merlin and the ASUS being slightly better so i may just stick with that one. Could you provide a reliable link to instructions for changing the firmware? Also do you think I should flash to stock being trying Merlin?

 

[bill001g]

Merlin is trivial it loads like stock firmware and you can go back just by replacing the image.

If you already loaded dd-wrt it should in theory just load over the top. I know people have issues when they do not reset the device to default and then try to overlay dd-wrt. Partially it is this frustration with dd-wrt why I have only been using merlin lately.