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Replace Actiontec router with Asus RT-N56U, etc.

574K views 2K replies 208 participants last post by  colinpeddle 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Background

As many of you know when I first got FibreOP I was displeased with the performance of the provided Actiontec router when watching TV and torrenting. While I could have limited my torrents I felt I shouldn't have to do this and ended up building a custom pfSense image that worked with the FibreOP service. Through bringing this image up to date I began exploring options that had appeared on the market for consumer (or near consumer) equipment that would be capable of providing the throughput and functionality that some power users are requesting.

Initially I evaluated the Draytek Vigor 2130. While Draytek is not a big name here in North America they are big over in Europe. I chose the 2130 model specifically because it has hardware NAT functionality which offloads most of the load to dedicated hardware, away from the processor. While this unit worked fine for internet access the IPTV functionality was a different story. Unfortunately a lot of the lower level stuff is only provided in binary form which forbids really messing with it in ways required to have IPTV be functional. Once I discovered this I dropped it as a candidate and moved on to the Asus RT-N56U which turned out to be the right choice.

Hardware

The Asus RT-N56U is built using a Ralink system on chip with a MIPS core running at 500MHz, but this also includes a packet processing engine that I will explain later. For flash it has 8MB. For RAM it has 128MB. Network side it has an internal Broadcom switch which provides 4 gigabit LAN ethernet ports and 1 gigabit WAN ethernet port. There are also two USB ports for USB HDDs/flash drives/printers. Dual band wireless (2.4GHz and 5GHz) is also provided using Ralink chipsets.

The really awesome thing about the RT-N56U is the packet processing engine. This allows a lot of the NAT functionality to be offloaded into hardware, leaving the 500MHz MIPS core virtually idle. This is important for FibreOP since we have both high speeds and for some many simultaneous connections. My testing shows that it can easily keep up with my 70Mbps/30Mbps package and through internal testing I've seen it hit 800Mbps in each direction. As for number of simultaneous connections I've hit well over 35,000.

The internal Broadcom switch is also awesome. While most switch chips allow you to do VLAN tagging the included chip also allows you to do 802.1p tagging, which is required for IPTV service to work. In simple terms this means that your IPTV traffic is switched instead of having to go through the 500MHz core and then sent back out.

Software

As with most routers the Asus RT-N56U is built on a Linux platform with lots of common software you might find in standard distributions. Asus also puts out the entire source code needed to build custom firmware with each firmware release. This makes it *incredibly* easy to modify the router as it will build a completely functional firmware image.

The GUI is one of the best I've used and I've found it to be easy to work with and fast.

With the latest firmware available from Asus the RT-N56U requires no modifications to be compatible with Bell Aliant FibreOP service. You will have to manually enter VLANs and VLAN priorities, though. To that extent I have made a tweaked firmware which adds Bell Aliant as an ISP which allows the router to do automatic configuration with this information. I have also added a passthrough option which essentially allows you to use your own router behind the RT-N56U, talking directly to Bell Aliant, but have your IPTV service be provided through the RT-N56U. I will be posting this firmware once I test everything out.

You can find more information about the RT-N56U here: http://www.asus.com/Networks/Wireless_Routers/RTN56U/

Questions?

Important Note: As mentioned in post 130 you must "release the IP address from your Actiontec before switching. You must do this or the Asus won't get one. Powering off everything will *not* release the IP address. You have to go into the web interface to do so."


Other Note: You will find a direct link to Files' firmware upgrades in the link below. However, it is highly recommended to read the whole thread since there is a lot of info to understand before you try to do the hack.
http://web.joshua-colp.com/firmware/
 
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#533 ·
Asus RT-N56U

File, I was able to get this working as well on a Asus RT-N56U. I am using version 4.4.1.8e with port 4 connected to the actiontec as I am still using it for HPNA. If I get ambitious I may run Cat5e to my TVs and remove all of the COAX. I seems to me that my HD picture is clearer, but maybe its just me. I also noticed that changing channels does seem a bit quicker.
I haven't tried it yet but are the USB ports still functional for file sharing ?

cheers! and thanks for all your hardwork
 
#535 ·
Looking for some confirmation.
I'm going to set up an Asus RT-N56U in passthru mode and I have run cat5 cable to each of 5 STBs around the house in a home run configuration. My question is: should I hook an 8 port gigaswitch to Port4 of the RT-N56U to provide access for the 5 STB's? Is this the best configuration and any recommendations for a product to do this if it is?
 
#536 ·
Does anyone know if the Orange/Green lights indicating Gigabit vs 10/100 are reversed? I was lead to believe Orange was 10/100 and Green was Gigabit, but looking at what I have plugged in, it seems to be reversed.

My NAS (DNS-320) is showing up as orange on the ASUS and Green on the NAS.

On the flip side, I have my Apple TV in port 3, and an old switch plugged in to port 4 (for TV) and they are both showing green, when I would have expected orange. Also, the ONT is coming in as orange on the WAN (Not sure what this one 'should' be)

While I'm at it, anyone have any good methods/programs they know of on how to test throughput on a local network?
 
#537 ·
@jakek
Did you ever get Bell Aliant - passthru to work? I just did a fresh install of the latest firmware and the Bell Aliant option works like a charm but I cannot get an IP on the WAN of my DDwrt router after switching to passthru mode. I cloned the MAC address of the Actiontec on the DDwrt router and released the DHCP lease on the Asus before plugging the DDwrt into port 3 of the Asus. I've tried 2 different routers behind the Asus with the same result.

I've tried plugging the ONC directly into the WAN port of one of the DDwrt routers but was not able to get a DHCP lease there either. Would this suggest that the problem is downstream of the Asus because the Asus has no problem getting a lease (at least in Bell Aliant mode) or does the Asus firmware have something that enables the connection that a vanilla router would not?
 
#538 ·
The Asus does VLAN tagging and removal for the internet VLAN. It is most likely that I somehow did not merge in a change required to support the Passthru option long long ago. Until I get around to it (I'm uber-busy these days and it is of lower priority) you can use the Bell Aliant option with DMZ. The performance penalty is very very very minor. Instead of going through the switch it also goes through the hardware NAT chip, but that's fast.
 
#539 ·
An update on bandwidth monitoring - I've been unable to integrate it into the web GUI. It's a complete mess for something like this, so instead of making it available in the web GUI I'll be publishing details on how to telnet in and use the command line utility. It's pretty simple.
 
#540 ·
castlestone, I have not been able to get passthrough mode to work (tried on several devices). Waiting on file to test and update the firmware. As far as I can tell from reading this thread no one else seems to be using passthrough mode.

Currently using DMZ, but that means all network traffic is double NATed.
 
#545 ·
Fixed it. Had to disable L2TP and IPSEC passthrough. Also had to disable wireless multicasting.

If you go to "Advanced Settings > LAN > Route tab", even if "Enable multicast routing?" is disabled you still have to set both 2.4GHZ and 5GHZ Multicast Rate to "Disable" for it to work.
 
#546 ·
I know this might not be the best place for this but this is where the N56U experts are. Has anyone been able to use Rogers One Number service with this router? I tested it with another connection and it works fine but this router is blocking something.

I DMZ'd my pc and still no go (also tried opening various suggested ports from other posts around the net with no luck).

If this post is deleted, I understand.
 
#547 ·
I want to remotely administer my RT-N56U from my computer which is plugged into a router that is plugged into a LAN port on the RT-N56U but I just can't get to it. No problem with the computer plugged directly into that port and no problem logging into another router from the same configuration on the same subnet.
Also no problem logging in from the from the WAN side thru port 8080.
Are there some special settings that I have missed in the documentation?
The only difference I can see is that the direct connect gets it's IP from DHCP on the RT-N56U whereas the indirect connect gets it's IP from the middle router. Does this make the difference?
 
#551 ·
A few questions to lob over the transom. I have never kept up with consumer routers. At home I've been running a BSD based router on a somewhat older machine and am tempted to retire it from that purpose. I've got pf running on that box.

We run a mostly wired network here at Casa Tandem but I do have to support some wireless devices - my sons' phones (no net plan for them) and a couple of laptops. Everything else sits on the wired lan driven by a 24 port switch. The Asus would fill our routing and wireless needs just fine.

Moving the router functionality is straight forward enough; is there any chance I can use some of the spare CPU cycles to run other services? I'm wondering if this unit, or something else you can suggest, could be configured to support Squeezebox slimserver or whatever Logitech now calls it, or DLNA, or simple file serving. It'd be easy to power down the old noisy server (even if it is in the basement) if I could find a home for our audio files which need to sit on a 24/7 machine.

After reading the first post I was intrigued that the CPU in this router has plenty of headroom.

Any thoughts?
 
#553 ·
1. You can disable the DHCP server sure... as long as you hand out the IP address of the Asus as the gateway and have one network. Otherwise you can DMZ another router and double NAT things. It depends on what you want to achieve.
Double NAT wouldn't work since it's definitely the ASUS that is blocking the Rogers One Number service. DMZ and even trying through a VPN didn't help.

I'll give it a try tonight and see if changing back to my Netgear router helps. Thanks for the answers file.
 
#555 ·
Okay, step back and take a deep breath. You are making about as mess sense as Rogers long term planning. If you are attempting to eliminate the Asus from the equation to try to get Rogers One Number working then the only way to do that would be to physically remove it and replace it with something else, or wait for passthrough support to bubble to the top of my list.

If your VPN attempt forwarded all traffic through it then that's interesting... cause the Rogers One Number packets wouldn't have been visible to the Asus router really, and it shouldn't have interfered.
 
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