ASUS RT-AC66U rev A1

Overview

 * • (RT-AC66W)  •  (RT-AC66R)
 * Specifications

"RT-AC66U" and "REV 1.30" is silkscreened on the ( blue ) board in the FCC photos.

This router is sold in various brick & mortar stores as the RT-AC66R and RT-AC66W..

The FCC label states the default SSID is ASUS.


 * FCC ID: MSQ-RTACHC00 (08/02/2016) (FCC Doc)

On the DD-WRT forums (w/ DD-WRT test build and internal images posted by Magnetron1.1 [hosted on Mediafire], official support added in build 20873 - 20130308 [per the DD-WRT wiki])
 * 50:46:5D OUI on a label shot in the thread
 * 08:60:6E OUI on a DD-WRT build shot in the thread
 * A later revision A2 model in the thread has "RT-AC66U" and "REV 1.60" silkscreened on the board.

Small info dump in the RT-N66U thread on the DD-WRT forums
 * Serial log indicates the device has an additional 2MB Serial Flash chip

Reviewed on SmallNetBuilder
 * 10:BF:48 OUI on the label in the internal photos

maylyns review on the hardwarezone.com.sg' forums
 * UPC: 886227214341, EAN: 4716<????>4342, OUI: 10:BF:48, revision A1, mfg. year 2012

There is a photo of the RF section in the FCC test report.

The FCC label states the default SSID is ASUS.

Links of Interest

 * NETGEAR Suing ASUS For Wireless Hanky Panky on SmallNetBuilder
 * Review on SmallNetBuilder
 * New Asus RT-AC66U router (5G 802.11ac) on wl500g.ino
 * on DD-WRT forums
 * on LinksysInfo forums

Flashing dd-wrt

 * 1) Download firmware image here
 * 2) Set static ip of 192.168.1.7
 * 3) reset to defaults in Asus GUI or in recovery mode
 * 4) In recovery mode, upload BrainSlayer's file
 * 5) Give the router plenty of time to flash and reboot.
 * 6) Once able browse to 192.168.1.1, if you see the change password screen of dd-wrt then do a hard reset which puts the router in recovery mode, select erase nvram and reboot. If you donot see the change password screen start over from step 1.

Flashing Tomato
Source:Guide to Install Tomato firmware on Asus RT-AC66U / RT-N66U / RT-N53 / RT-N16 / RT-N15U / RT-N12 HP B1 C1 D1 / RT-N10P / RT-N10U router (韌體教學)

Note: some people say you need to install DD-WRT first. I do NOT recommend anyone to install DD-WRT first before installing Tomato on Asus routers.


 * 1) Download a suitable tomato firmware as described above
 * 2) Install the Asus router utility from the CD that came with the router. Run \Utility\setup.exe from the CD to install it.  If you no longer have the CD you can also download it from the Asus website.
 * 3) Disable Firewall on your computer.
 * 4) Disable anti-virus on your computer.
 * 5) Connect your computer to one of the LAN ports of the router with an ethernet cable.
 * 6) Assign a static IP of 192.168.1.10 and subnet mask 255.255.255.0 to your computer LAN port.
 * 7) Disconnect the router WAN port if you already have a cable plugged into that port.
 * 8) From Windows Start menu, run ASUS Utility -> RT-N Wireless Router -> Firmware Restoration.
 * 9) Click the Browse button and select the file that you downloaded in step #1. Don’t click the upload button yet.
 * 10) Put the router in recovery mode: Unplug the power cord of the router. Hold down the black Restore button using a pen (not the red button). Plug the power cord back in. Once the power light starts flashing slowing, release the Restore button. The power light should continue to flash. The flashing light means the router is ready to accept the new firmware in recovery mode.
 * 11) Click the upload button in the Restoration utility. If it warns about incorrect Asus firmware, ignore it. The firmware should now start uploading into the router. Don’t touch anything while the firmware is being uploaded. (Note: these steps worked when I flashed my RT-N16. However, the utility could not find my RT-N12 B1 when I tried to flash the router, although it did work for other people.  After failing for more than a dozen times, I tried to perform the upload first before putting the router in recovery mode, then it finally worked.  Later I tried a different unit of RT-N12 B1 strangely it could be flashed the first time using the normal procedure.  If neither of these procedures work, please see the Addendum in The Wiert Corner, and the tftp method described by Simeon W in the comments section.)
 * 12) No matter whether the utility says the upload is completed, or it hangs at a certain percent, DO NOT PANIC, and WAIT FOR FIVE MINUTES before you do anything else.
 * 13) After five minutes, open a browser and go to http://192.168.1.1. Login with user “admin” (or “root”) and password “admin”. You should be logged into Tomato.
 * 14) Administration -> Configuration -> Restore Default Configuration -> Erase all data in NVRAM memory(thorough) -> OK (Note: there is a forum report saying this reset function does not work properly on RT-N53 – in this case, try the hardware reset button.)
 * 15) After it is completed, login again, enable DHCP (for Toastman Builds), change admin password, enable WiFi security if you use WiFi, plug in your WAN connection and configure it. Also take a look at the CPU frequency, you may need to manually change it if it is not correct.  (Note: overclocking your router is usually not a good idea from my experience.)
 * 16) Change your computer LAN port back to use DHCP (dynamic address) and dynamic DNS.

Pictures
Asus' Images

jffs Issue in DD-WRT
This problem is caused by the firmware encountering an unmarked bad block during an erase operation while attempting to setup a JFFS2 filesystem on device /dev/mtd/4.

Most people will probably never experience this problem. The AC66U, the D1800H, and the Buffalo WLI-H4-D1300 Media Bridge use the same Samsung flash memory chip. In my case, 4 of my 5 D1800H's had the problem but my D1300 didn't. Neither of my AC66U's had the problem. One person on one of the AC66U threads reported having the problem; here's a link to his post.

If you have the problem, you will not be able to create or copy directories and files to /jffs. Here are some example error messages:(this list was shortened to save space - it can go on for several pages)

Also the Status -> Router webpage will show that JFFS2 has no free space.

To fix this problem try the following at a command line prompt:

This command erases and marks bad any bad blocks encountered so that they can be "skipped" and formats the partition to JFFS2 specifications. I believe the firmware uses the mtd erase command which seems to fail at handling bad blocks. The flash_erase command needs to be run only once.

- Magnetron1.1

Trouble with recovery mode
mhchm

I just want to give a tip for anybody who has trouble getting into recovery mode. I didn't find this simple information on the internet yet. First, some context:

I flashed a Brainslayer build from a Fractal build, and then my router stopped responding to ping. When booting normally, the power and ethernet LEDs would light up. The same thing happened when booting up with the reset button pressed, which should have put into recovery mode, but didn't. When booting up with the WPS button pressed, the power LED would flash and clear the NVRAM. The router then started up and enabled the two radios, broadcasting a "dd-wrt" SSID, but still no ping.

To force it into recovery mode:

Set a static IP of 192.168.1.2 Press the WPS button and start up   Let the power LED flash rapidly for 5 seconds, then release WPS Immediately press the reset button, keeping it pressed until the power LED flashes slowly Release the reset button Point your browser to 192.168.1.1

Voilà.