Menu
homeFiles and folders

Asus rt n16 firmware setup. Updating and restoring Asus router firmware

Hello %username%,
Summer is coming soon. Unfortunately, I realized this not by the awakening of nature, but by the behavior of my Asus RT-N16.
As soon as the thermometer began to reach 27 degrees, the hardware began to slow down, FTP began to respond poorly to connections, and sometimes simply went down. I realized that they had arrived, and began to take out radiators, a soldering iron and a screwdriver from the bins of my homeland.

During the preparation of the topic, not a single router was harmed, and the topic does not contain scenes of violence or harshness. (Caution photo.)

Background

The hero of the story himself came to me at the end of October, that is, the climatic conditions were already quite favorable for the normal functioning of his warm heart. For some time, I made grandiose plans for him. Specifically: FTP + Torrent + Print/Scan server. As a result, due to some workload with studies (diploma, with all that it entails) and work, I only had enough for FTP. No, there was an honest attempt to raise a Print/scan server, but I was never able to teach the HP DeskJet F2280 to scan to a hard drive connected to the router. As a result, for six months, everything was smooth and the RT N-16 was already beginning to become covered with dust, but then it suddenly became warmer.

Characteristics

For those who are not yet familiar with this device, here are the characteristics:
ASUS RT-N16
Standards IEEE 802.3 (10/100/1000 Base T)

IEEE 802.11b/g/n Draft (up to 300Mbit/s, actually squeezed 175Mbit/s)
CPU Broadcom4718A, 533 MHz
(Limited by manufacturer to 480MHz,
but there are ways to overclock.)
RAM 128 MB (2x 64MB - Samsung K4N511163QZ-HC25 or
2x 64MB - Samsung K4T51163QG-HCE6)
Flash 32 MB (MACRONIX MX29GL256EHTI2I-90Q)
Available firmware DD-WRT, Asus, Tomato
Ports 1x WAN

4x LAN (10/100/1000 Mbps)

2x USB 2.0
Frequencies 2.4-2.5 GHz
Antennas Three external detachable antennas
Safety 64/128 bit WEP

WPA-PSK, WPA2-PSK

WPA-Enterprise, WPA2-Enterprise

Firewall (SPI, Port filtering, IP packet, URL keyword, MAC address)
Network protocols Static/dynamic IP, PPPoE (MPPE), PPTP, L2TP
Functions NAT/NAPT, DynDNS, Static Routing, DHCP, EZQoS

Media server UPnP, WPS, AiDisk, EZSetup, FTP
Nutrition External (12 V / 1.25 A)
Dimensions, mm 216x162x41
Weight, gram 470
Warranty, months 24
price, rub. ~4200 yandex market

Symptoms

I must say that some time after putting this device into operation, I already began to notice that the upper part of the device was heating up a little, this was especially noticeable when traffic was actively moving over the network (torrenting, watching videos via WI-FI, etc. .).
But no serious glitches were noticed in the work; sometimes it would be thought about for a while, but in the end it would hang up quite quickly. There were no spontaneous reboots or specific freezes, until the unfortunate 27 degrees Celsius on the thermometer. Then the fun began: “Either FTP does not respond, then sharing over the network does not work, then the new client cannot connect and this is without much load. When I turned on the torrent, the router pretended to be a hose and lay out, while actively pretending to be a mini potbelly stove (the top cover was quite warm), cheerfully winking at me with blue lights.

Scalpel, syringe, cucumber

First, let's dissect the patient and see what's under the lid.
To do this, we need a screwdriver with a thin blade to pry off the rubber feet:

The top cover can be removed quite easily with a simple upward movement. And here we have the whole filling of this monster:

Frankly speaking, I heard that the cooling system of this device is often modified, but I didn’t read anything specifically on the topic and acted on instinct.
As you can see, the heatsink installed on the processor is not large at all, and when you touch it, even during idle time, you feel a serious heat (50~60C degrees, offhand). In addition to this, I tried by touch, memory chips (to the left of the heatsink), a 5-port switch (a square chip, diagonally on the top left) and a tin square (to the right of the heatsink, judging by the stars, the WI-FI switch). Of all of the above, only the memory caught my attention; it was warm, while the rest of the participants were almost room temperature. Therefore, we will only cool the memory and processor.

Operation and spare parts

Before removing the radiator, I decided to measure the permissible dimensions of the new radiator:

The height to the top cover was about 2.5 cm

In terms of width, it turned out that the radiator should not extend beyond the tin-dotted line, because Otherwise, it will interfere with the light guides that are attached on the top cover to indicate status. At the top, again, there is a limitation on the WI-FI cable clamp.

The heatsink on the processor is glued quite firmly, using some kind of thermal adhesive. While I was picking it out, I was very afraid of tearing it off along with the CPU, but everything turned out okay.

Now it's time to find a worthy replacement for this under-radiator. On this occasion, it was decided to remove the Arctic Freezer 13 Pro northbridge radiator from one of the old mats. plat.

We also need thermal paste and glue ala “moment”. It’s better to take good thermal paste, since disassembling the router every six months to replace it is not leisure. I took the “moment” glue for the reason that if, after a couple of years, the thermal paste dries out, it will be possible to change it without harm to the processor.

Please skip the next photo if you are an aesthetic person and even the toilet in your apartment is installed exclusively according to Feng Shui. Yes, I know that there are clever techniques for applying thermal paste, but it just boggles my mind, and, in my opinion, they don’t justify themselves (Hello Keman!).

After this disgrace, we install a new radiator (before installation, it must be cleaned of any remaining thermal paste or hot-melt adhesive, it is also advisable to degrease it with alcohol) and press it tightly so that the glue sets. Well, I identified the old radiator to cool the memory. Something like this:

In principle, this could be the end of our story...
But, I found an old cooler from Toshiba Satellite A10. The turntable is quite thin and consumes painfully familiar numbers at the input: 5V, 300mA. Therefore, I decided to add it optionally to the design in case of overclocking the CPU, and just in case of emergency. I secured the cooler with screws to the top cover of the router and directed it in such a way that during operation the air flow would blow over the heatsink on the processor.

Inside view:

External view, in my opinion, lovers of aesthetics must forgive me for the thermal paste:

Because I didn’t want to solder directly to the board, in order to avoid loss of power on the USB, and also to avoid introducing interference into the radio part of the device. I decided to power the cooler from the USB input externally and leave the option for external power. To do this, I drilled a hole in the lower right end with a diameter suitable for a USB cable. As far as possible from the board.

To slightly reduce the current and add illumination, I connected a bright diode (6V, 30mA) in series to the cooler and directed it into one of the ventilation holes. When connecting the diode, observe the polarity (long contact “+”, short contact “-”). If you have never soldered before, then you can refer to this manual, which was prepared by Habrauser. Luckily, I should have filled the wires with “Chinese snot,” but I only had tape. Well, what are the wires worse than the Glonass chip in the MTS 945?

Carefully, we run the cable to move it as far as possible from the printed circuit board and close the router.

We tighten the screws back and get a router with passive and, if desired, active cooling.
It looks like this:

Well, what about the noise?

Especially for lovers of silence, I made a short video of the router in action:

If it’s not entirely clear from the video, I can assure you that the cooler can only be heard at the moment of startup, and then there is absolute silence.

Field tests

Now, it's time to load the router and check how well it copes with its task. I've never had to stress test a router before, so I turned to the all-knowing Google for an answer. Unfortunately, I didn’t find a suitable testing method and turned to the hackers with the question: “How to stress test a router?” There weren't many answers, but the most popular one sounded like this:
“Launch a torrent with 10 thousand threads, and your router will crash.” Thank you.
In principle, I was thinking about something similar, but I fully hoped that there were special utilities for such cases. There was an option, checking using the ixChariot program, but, firstly, it is paid, and secondly, it is more for testing than for loading.

Test first
I set 10 GB of movies to download overnight. The router completed it in 7 hours and survived.
Torrent settings (default):

To confirm the authenticity of the experience, I made 3 print screens. The torrent at the beginning of the download, when accepting the configs, in the middle, and the total operating time of the router in the web interface (so that it would be clear that I did not have to reboot it.)

Test two
I carried out subsequent tests for 20 minutes, because I was afraid that I would run out of valuable gigabytes on my hard drive.

Photos are clickable.





During the test, about 30 GB of traffic was downloaded, one laptop was also constantly connected and 2 more clients connected from time to time. While loading with a torrent, I also checked how the router responded to an FTP connection and remote access via HTTP; it all worked flawlessly. Problems with the Internet were observed only when the torrent traffic reached the maximum limit of my provider. Honestly, I doubt that such a technique loaded the router to its fullest, but since I did not find any other available methods at that time, I had to be content with what I had.

Conclusion

The modding process itself took place on April 19, 2011, and took about 4 hours (without searching for parts). As of today, the router has been working for 7 days, during which time I rebooted it once, due to the fact that I inadvertently kicked the hard drive connected to the router and it did not want to connect back without a reboot.

Total operating time:

In principle, I am satisfied with the results of modifying the cooling system. The only thing is that it’s a pity that the pinwheel there is like an umbrella for a fish. Although, maybe I’ll overclock it somehow, but I don’t see the point. Yes, I conducted tests with passive cooling. Unfortunately, I couldn’t measure the temperature, there was simply nothing. Well, don’t blame me - the rich you are, the happier you are.
Also, one of the goals of the topic was to check: “How reliable is the ASUS firmware.” I think that ASUS programmers turned out to be at their best, as always.
On this optimistic note, let me take my leave.

  • cooling.
    • Add tags

    Today I will tell you how to perform a factory reset on Asus routers. In fact, a very useful thing. I think that the article will be useful to many. In principle, settings on an Asus router can be reset in the same way as on other routers. This can be done with a special button on the router case, or through the control panel, there is such a function.

    What is a factory reset and why do it? It's very simple, every router has default settings with which it comes from the factory. After the purchase, we, of course, configure the router the way we need: we set the parameters for connecting to the provider, set a Wi-Fi password, change the network name, etc. For example, we recently... So, there are times when you need to clear these parameters so that the router is back to its factory settings. For example, you changed your provider, want to sell your router, or something didn’t work out during the setup process and you want to start over. To do this, so that the old settings do not interfere with us, we simply reset all the settings on our router and configure it again.

    Also, in the instructions for setting up specific router models, I always advise resetting the settings to factory settings before setting up. This is necessary in order to clear settings that someone may have already set. And because of them, problems may arise during the setup process.

    This article is suitable for almost all models of network devices from Asus (RT-N10, RT-N12, RT-N14U, rt-g32, etc.). The principle is the same. The only difference is that the button and its location may differ.

    Resetting the settings on the Asus router

    As I wrote above, a special button on the router case is responsible for resetting the settings. She is signed Reset, or Restore. Asus really likes to add the WPS function to this button. (activated by short press).

    So, in order to reset the settings, we you need to press this Reset button for 10 seconds and hold it. Then we release it, the router will reboot and the factory settings will be restored. The button looks like this (for example):

    And this is what it looks like on the older Asus RT-N13U:

    Here I think everything is clear. We pressed the button, held it for 10 seconds, and the settings were restored.

    Restoring factory settings via the control panel

    Another simple way. We need to go into the router settings, I wrote about how to do this in the article:.

    In settings go to the tab Administration - Manage Settings and press the button Restore. Click Ok for confirmation, and wait until the process of restoring parameters is completed.

    By the way, it is possible to save the settings and then, if necessary, restore them from a file. I will write about this in a separate article. I hope you were able to reset the settings of your Asus router; if anything doesn’t work out, ask in the comments.

    Problem solved

    Pros: Powerful. Popular, oddly enough. Accurately performs assigned functions. Easy to update to alternative firmware. With DD-WRT, the uptime is stable for 50 days or more, especially when you do not update the firmware, but use a stable version. Because I don’t use pptp/l2tp/etc, but just dynamic ip, load average even at high data transfer rates usually does not exceed 0.03-0.04, even if these are torrents. A friend of mine has pptp - of course, this process requires large values. But the hardware also holds this load, which is good in principle. Disadvantages: LEDs. It is treated by the closet door, where it is actually installed. The basic firmware is simply unbearable, replaced on the fifth day of operation with DD-WRT due to poor QoS performance - losses were audible on SIP via SIP-TA; Surprisingly, on the basic firmware, the Internet connection could disappear for several seconds while the router was doing DHCPRENEW. Let me make a reservation right away: the link did not physically disappear, which is confirmed by logs from the operator’s switch. Comment: It may show a goat's face when flashing: it will create a loop on the wan port, for which the telecom operator can ban you, and the router itself will blink two lights - power and one more. It can be treated by updating it to the factory version via tftp from the Asus website. On 802.11g, when broadcasting an X-window from a host connected via a 100 Mbit/s cable, I managed to get a maximum of stable 3.4 MB/s, not such a bad result for wi-fi over g... I can’t use 802.11n, it’s free There are no frequencies under n in the apartment - everything is occupied. In a friend’s apartment, where other points are at a significant distance from his router, 802.11n is received efficiently. Also, on DD-WRT it is better not to change the power of the wi-fi transmitter, within the limits allowed by the web interface: one friend already managed to burn it this way :) The English-language forum talks about the possibility of using a band from 17 to 25 mW, but use such The feature must be used carefully - in my case, 20 mW was a stable maximum. Everything that was above did not add improvement. For example, I left the laptop turned on overnight, we checked: the laptop driver says a channel of 54 Mbit/s, the web face (Rate field) says the same thing. The next morning I get the results: laptop driver - 54 Mbit/s, web face - 1 Mbit/s - relevant for power over 21 mW. After experimenting for several weeks with different firmware versions, I came to the conclusion that the stable build of dd-wrt (14896), which is on the official dd-wrt wiki, is really stable - at the default TX Power value of 17 mW there are no connection breaks and the speed is consistent. On the last beta build 17598, I had a need to increase the transmitter power due to interruptions, but this did not solve the problem. Updating to an older firmware version solved the problem. I did not observe any problems with overheating, even at +30 in the room. The bottom line is simple: the money was not wasted, I don’t feel the need for more productive hardware this year.

    They brought me an ASUS RT-N16 router with the diagnosis “it won’t turn on, but the power supply works.” The hardware is not bad, it’s not good to throw it away. They asked to see if the repair was simple.

    “It’s a small thing, now I’ll replace the power containers and that’s it! It’s even boring!” - I thought, but it wasn’t to be...

    The containers all turned out to be normal and I decided, without the help of the Internet, for the sake of training, to figure out what was going on.

    A quick inspection determined that there are 3 secondary power supplies on the board. The measurements revealed the following voltages: +1.3 V, +5 V and... But with the third one there was trouble, there was nothing at the output. I checked the power line, there is no short circuit. I unsoldered the output inductor L51 from the power line, a weak 3.3 V appeared on it. Here is the answer! The 3rd power supply is 3.3 V. I supplied 3.3 V from the laboratory power supply and lo and behold, the router started up and a Wi-Fi network appeared.

    I started checking the +3.3 V power supply. The oscilloscope did not show any activity on the Q4 IRF7313 keys, the keys themselves ring normally. On the U28 chip there is also only an input voltage of 12 V and silence.

    The verdict is clear, U28 is a replacement, but it has no markings, it is invisible even under a microscope. And here the Internet has already helped. I found a photo of the board, where you can see the U28 marking, this is CAT7581CA.

    Searches for this microcircuit on the Mitinsky radio market and in other places did not lead to anything; all paths led to Aliexpress. The microcircuit and all the containers were ordered.

    3 weeks passed, the package arrived. U28 CAT7581CA was installed in place, +3.3 V immediately appeared. The router had fun, distributing the Internet. And I decided to go over the power supplies and post the measurements, in case someone finds it useful.

    The + 1.3 V source consists of a U32 RT8101A control chip and Q12 FDS6982AS keys.

    Measurement results:

    Output +1.3 volts
    KT1 - output from keys Q12.

    KT2 - key control with U32

    The +5 V source is made on a single U20 CAT7199CA chip.

    Measurement results:

    Output +5 volts
    Output from U20 chip

    The source of + 3.3 V, as well as +1.3 V, is made on the U28 CAT7581CA control chip and Q4 IRF7313 keys.

    Measurement results:

    Output + 3.3 V.
    KT2 output from U28 to keys

    KT1 output from keys Q4

    Of course, the repair took a long time. All elements: 3 types of capacitances (16 V 470 μF, 25 V 470 μF, 16 V 1000 μF) and a microcircuit were ordered in reserve in 5 times the size, costing less than 500 rubles.

    Not expensive, but a good thing is back in service. And I still have spare parts.

    There is an indication that the router is loaded and will soon return to its owner.

    Multifunctional wireless gigabit router 802.N. Powerful processor, high packet processing speed. Supports up to 300 thousand simultaneous sessions to support P2P clients. The presence of a USB 2.0 port in the router for connecting peripheral devices opens up new possibilities for use: it can be used to connect a network printer/MFP or external data storage to organize a file server. Updated Download Master program: high download speed and maximum ease of use.

    Instructions for setting up the Asus RT-N16 router

    Authorization

    In order to get to the router’s web interface, you need to open your Internet browser and type 192. 168.1.1 in the address bar, Username - admin , Password - admin(provided that the router has factory settings and its IP has not changed).

    Setting up Wi-Fi on the router

    In the router interface, you need to go to the tab on the left Extra options Wireless network.

    We set the parameters as follows:

    1. Field SSID: Enter the name of the wireless network. The value in this field cannot be changed.
    2. Authentication method: WPA2-Personal
    3. WPA encryption: TKIP or AES
    4. WPA Preshared Key: you must enter any set of numbers from 8 to 63. They also need to be remembered so that you can specify them when connecting to the network.
    5. Click the button below Apply

    Setting up an Internet connection

    In the router interface, you need to select the tab on the left Extra options, in the list that opens, select WAN.

    Setting up a PPPoE connection

    1. WAN connection type: PPPoE
    2. Get a WAN IP address automatically: Yes
    3. Username: Your login according to the contract
    4. Password: Your password according to the agreement
    5. MTU: 1472
    6. Save the settings with the button Apply.

    Setting up an L2TP connection

    1. WAN connection type - L2TP
    2. YES
    3. automatically- put a point on YES
    4. Username and Password- login and password from the contract
    5. VPN server -
    6. The remaining parameters can be left unchanged. In the hostname, write something in English. Save settings.

    Setting up PPTP (VPN) when automatically obtaining a local IP address

    1. WAN connection type: PPTP
    2. Enable WAN, Enable NAT, Enable UPnP - set it everywhere YES
    3. Get an IP address and connect to DNS automatically- put a point on YES
    4. Username: Your login according to the contract
    5. Password: Your password according to the agreement
    6. enter the IP address or name of the VPN server according to the contract
    7. Save the settings with the button Apply.

    Setting up PPTP (VPN) with a static local IP address

    1. WAN connection type: PPTP
    2. Get an IP address and connect to DNS automatically- put a point on No
    3. IP address: We enter your IP address according to the contract
    4. Subnet mask: We hammer in the mask according to the contract
    5. Main gate: We drive in the gateway according to the contract
    6. DNS server 1: And DNS server 2: enter your provider's servers (Rostelecom Omsk DNS 1: 195.162.32.5 DNS 2: 195.162.41.8)
    7. Username: Your login according to the contract
    8. Password: Your password according to the agreement
    9. Heart-Beat or PPTP/L2TP(VPN) server: enter the IP address or name of the VPN server according to the contract
    10. Save the settings with the button Apply.

    NAT when automatically obtaining an IP address (DHCP)

    1. WAN connection type: Dynamic IP
    2. Save the settings with the button Apply

    Checking Internet connection status

    Saving/restoring router settings

    After setting up, it is recommended to save them so that if problems arise, you can restore them. To do this you need to go to the tab Additional settings, menu Administration;, Restore/Save/Load settings tab.

    • To save the current router settings, you must press the button Save. The settings file will be saved to the specified location on your hard drive.
    • To restore settings settings from a file, you must click the button Choose File, specify the path to the settings file, then click the button Send.

    Attention! Button press Restore will restore factory settings!