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dpwhite · ‎07-16-2022

I just got my new GS-AX3000 that I hope to use to replace my Netgear R6400 v2 that cannot seem to keep up with the demand of more connections on it 2.4Ghz...

While I am a newbie to this router (and "modern" Asus routers - since the RT-N10 and 12), I have developed a fair amount of router experience overall. Despite this, I am stumped by a few things. I hope you can help...

1. I simply cannot find a full manual for this router anywhere. I have looked and looked and only find a quick start guide - which is hardly the same thing. I find this unusual for Asus routers as all of the other models I have considered have full manual readily available. Even when I click the link in the router's admin pages, I get sent to somewhere in which I can find no manual. Can someone point me to the manual? This should not be this hard.

2. One of the main reasons I wanted to go Asus this time is its full support for shell access - even in the stock firmware. My main reason for needing this is so that I can run tcpdump and capture packets running through the router for use in Wireshark. I have enabled both telnet and ssh for now. I am surprised to find, however, that there is no tcpdump binary installed. I find it on my Netgear's stock firmware. I figured it would be here. Is there some way I can get this capability?

3. One possible answer to #2 is to use Merlin. But it appears that Merlin does not support this router. I see that it does support the RT-AX58U/RT-AX3000 and read here that the hardware of my new router is the same. I don't know if I am taking this too literally or if this is correct info. But if so, can I run Merlin for the RT-AX58U on this box?

4. I have almost all the devices on my router installed on DHCP reserved addresses. I have set things up on the new router using a LAN IP range different from my current Netgear. But I want to eventually switch the new router to the Netgear's IP range when the Netgear is ready to be powered down. So I was testing this router's ability to cope with such a change in LAN IP range. I find that when I change it, I get a dialog asking if I wish to update the current IPs. I answered yes and things seemed to update - except the reserved addresses - which were left untouched. That is bad enough. But it seems that once created, those entries cannot be edited/changed. I have to delete and re-add. My Netgear and a TP-LINK I tested do better than this. So I cannot help but wonder if I am missing something or if there is a way (perhaps using the nvram command in the shell) to accomplish this more easily. Suggestions?

Thanks for your time and help.

jzchen · ‎07-16-2022

I can only really help with #1 I'm afraid, and that is likely due to the downloads pages being down on several, (if not all,) ASUS webpages for products.

dpwhite · ‎07-17-2022

jzchen wrote:
I can only really help with #1 I'm afraid, and that is likely due to the downloads pages being down on several, (if not all,) ASUS webpages for products.

Thanks. But that isn't it. Unlike so many other models, under the support link there simply is no manual shown, only the quick start. This isn't really a manual along the lines of that, for example, of the RT-AX3000.

Saltgrass · ‎07-17-2022

dpwhite wrote:
Thanks. But that isn't it. Unlike so many other models, under the support link there simply is no manual shown, only the quick start. This isn't really a manual along the lines of that, for example, of the RT-AX3000.

On newer ASUS routers, the manual is built into the firmware. Many of the options will have explanations available there. On the bottom you may even see a Manual option you can select.

I can't find the setting for setting up DHCP on my router right now, maybe you could tell us where that is? If you have the other Router active then what you see when trying to assign addresses may be misleading.

Maximus Z790 Hero,
Intel i9-13900k
Intel BE200

dpwhite · ‎07-21-2022

Saltgrass wrote:
On newer ASUS routers, the manual is built into the firmware. Many of the options will have explanations available there. On the bottom you may even see a Manual option you can select.

I can't find the setting for setting up DHCP on my router right now, maybe you could tell us where that is? If you have the other Router active then what you see when trying to assign addresses may be misleading.

Thanks. Regards the manual ling at the bottom, it goes to <> and that just produces no results in any of my browsers. So it isn't very useful. Regards the manual being somehow in the firmware, as-if some contextual help is really enough, I can only say maybe it is for some. But it surely isn't for others. And the amount of these hints are truly limited. It is NOT a replacement for a real manual. Cheers

dpwhite · ‎07-17-2022

dpwhite wrote:

2. One of the main reasons I wanted to go Asus this time is its full support for shell access - even in the stock firmware. My main reason for needing this is so that I can run tcpdump and capture packets running through the router for use in Wireshark. I have enabled both telnet and ssh for now. I am surprised to find, however, that there is no tcpdump binary installed. I find it on my Netgear's stock firmware. I figured it would be here. Is there some way I can get this capability?

3. One possible answer to #2 is to use Merlin. But it appears that Merlin does not support this router. I see that it does support the RT-AX58U/RT-AX3000 and read here that the hardware of my new router is the same. I don't know if I am taking this too literally or if this is correct info. But if so, can I run Merlin for the RT-AX58U on this box?

With some pointers I got elsewhere, I was able to install Entware on the standard Asus firmware. I needed to tweak this a bit. But I got it going, living through router reboots, and installed the Entware tcpdump package. It works!

dpwhite · ‎07-17-2022

dpwhite wrote:
4. I have almost all the devices on my router installed on DHCP reserved addresses. I have set things up on the new router using a LAN IP range different from my current Netgear. But I want to eventually switch the new router to the Netgear's IP range when the Netgear is ready to be powered down. So I was testing this router's ability to cope with such a change in LAN IP range. I find that when I change it, I get a dialog asking if I wish to update the current IPs. I answered yes and things seemed to update - except the reserved addresses - which were left untouched. That is bad enough. But it seems that once created, those entries cannot be edited/changed. I have to delete and re-add. My Netgear and a TP-LINK I tested do better than this. So I cannot help but wonder if I am missing something or if there is a way (perhaps using the nvram command in the shell) to accomplish this more easily. Suggestions?

I succeeded by using the nvram on the Netgear to extract the information and then used nvram on the Asus to add it. I had to edit and reformat the data and it was held in variables with different names. But I was able to get it all in place with relative ease.

I also discovered that one can indeed change the reserved address entries. You have to click the entry's icon on the left of the list. Up pops a dialog and you can change it all. It was just not obvious (at least to me) that the icon was click-able.

Still, making a global change to the IP addresses in this list of data was much easier using a text editor and nvram. To me it makes no sense to change the IP range as described above and NOT modify the ranges in the reserved addresses. My old Netgear does this and so too did a TP-LINK I was testing (which failed on other requirements I have). If they can do it, Asus sure can do it.

Cheers

Several Questions re: GS-AX3000