ASUSWRT News 2022
ASUS has made a fairly important evolution in the Asuswrt firmware, however, where they have had a complete revolution is in the ASUS Router app for Android and iOS devices, incorporating a large number of advanced configuration options. If you want to know everything that your ASUS router will have soon, or what it currently has if you have one of its compatible routers or WiFi Mesh, then we will show you all the details.
New Ethernet port status icons
One of the improvements is that now the official firmware of ASUSWRT us will indicate the status of the Ethernet ports, all routers have at least Gigabit Ethernet ports, so it will appear green if it is synchronizing at 1Gbps. In the case of synchronizing at a higher speed, such as 2.5G or 10G, then we will see the synchronization speed just below the green icon. We also have other states such as “warning” in case there is a problem, or “disconnected” if we do not have any cable connected. In these menus we can also see the status of the USB 3.0 or USB 2.0 port that the router incorporates.
A very important aspect is that we can also see this same information from the AiMesh nodes in the corresponding menu, in this way, we can see at all times the rest of the other Mesh nodes that we have in the meshed WiFi network, with the objective to know at all times what is happening on the network.
DNS over TLS and DoH blocking if you want
For quite some time, the Asuswrt Merlin firmware incorporated support for DNS over TLS, one of the most important protocols to keep our privacy and security safe on the Internet. Now the official ASUS firmware has also incorporated this functionality, we will be able to choose that we want to use DNS over TLS without any problem from the Internet WAN menu.
An important aspect is that we have a assign button to choose the main DNS servers, without having to set it manually, something that will be very helpful. In case you want to put custom DNS, we will also be able to do it because we have a “manual DNS” section to put the IP addresses of the DNS servers that we want.
VPN Server and VPN Fusion: the revolution
The menu of VPN servers and VPN clients have been a real revolution, now we have a completely new and different settings menu. In this new configuration menu we have a total of four VPN protocols:
- PPTP (not secure)
- OpenVPN
- IPsec VPN
- WireGuard
The menus related to the OpenVPN server have changed slightly, we still have the possibility to choose the basic (general) configuration or access the real advanced configuration, where we can configure every last parameter of the router. In this “General” menu we can configure the port, the RSA certificate and if we want it to tunnel the Internet connection or only access the local network. Of course, we can add different VPN clients so that they can connect.
The OpenVPN advanced menu is almost the same as always, but now some of the settings are only available in the “Custom Settings” section, however this is not a problem for “advanced” users who want to configure maximum security in this OpenVPN server. Anyway, having WireGuard VPN which is faster and one of the most secure with less advanced settings, we are sure that now OpenVPN will take a backseat.
In the IPSec VPN section we will be able to see all the general details and also the advanced configuration of the router, in this case, we have exactly the same configuration options as always, nothing has changed in this regard.
Most notable is the incorporation of the Wireguard protocol for VPN, thanks to this protocol we will be able to connect quickly and securely to the server, with the aim of going to the Internet through the router or only having access to the home network. In this case, we will be able to configure this protocol in an advanced way, and add a maximum of 10 clients so that they can connect simultaneously.
The addition of these new menus and the new WireGuard protocol is a clear revolution in ASUSWRT, as they have completely changed this menu.
In the case of VPN Fusion, we are also facing a complete revolution because all the available configuration menus have changed. We will be able to add different client profiles, both PPTP, L2TP, OpenVPN, HMA (Hide My Ass) as well as WireGuard. That is, it supports all protocols except IPsec. Thanks to these new menus, we will be able to register different profiles so that the different clients can access the Internet through a VPN or another, or that they can access the Internet directly through the Internet connection.
Finally, Instant Guard has now been updated, improving the security of communications, and we will also be able to monitor in detail who is connected to our VPN server with the app.
As you can see, ASUS has incorporated a complete revolution in its VPN services for its routers and WiFi Mesh, great news for those of us who like security and want to connect to the VPN whenever we are out.
Automatic firmware updates
Now we can configure firmware updates to be carried out completely automatically at a certain time. The router or WiFi Mesh will detect if there is a new firmware version, and at the configured time it will automatically download and install this new firmware version.
Other competitors of the manufacturer already had this feature, and now it has also finally reached ASUS routers and WiFi Mesh, to always enjoy the latest improvements in security, corrected bugs and also new features that are incorporated.
Other improvements
Other improvements incorporated in the ASUS router is the possibility of activate a Captcha to make it extremely difficult for robots to hack the router’s administration account. In this way, we can greatly limit unauthorized access from brute force or dictionary attacks.
ASUS Router app improvements
The ASUS Router app for Android and iOS smartphones and tablets is gradually becoming indispensable. At first it was only used to install and start up the router or WiFi Mesh, in addition to being able to monitor certain aspects of the router and being able to configure some very basic options. Now, most of the actions that we can do via the web can also be done through the application for mobile devices. The ASUS Router app is available for both Android and iOS, you can download it from here:
The novelties that ASUS has incorporated for the routers that are compatible are the following:
- One Click Security Scan: Now we can perform a complete security scan of our router through AiProtection Pro. It is not necessary to access via the web and perform the security scan, but we can do it directly through the application.
- VPN management from mobile: all the options that we have seen previously from Fusion VPN, we also have them available in the mobile app, with the aim of being able to configure VPN clients easily with the app.
- Important notifications: Now we will be able to receive important notifications of new connected devices and much more.
- Parental control: from the application we can now configure parental control in detail, we do not need to enter the router administration via the web if we need to configure it in a very advanced way. We will be able to configure different profiles by age, we can also configure an automatic blocking programmer, and even a very specific content filtering for minors.
- New app themes: Now we can choose different themes in the application, selecting a gaming red one, a blue tone, a very elegant white tone and finally a completely black one. Depending on our tastes, we can choose one or the other without problems.
In the ASUS Router application we will also be able to see the same graphical user interface of the status of the Ethernet ports, it will appear both in the router and in the WiFi Mesh system that we have.
What models does ASUSWRT 2022 support right now?
Currently ASUSWRT 2022 is available in very few models, but ASUS is working to deploy this important new version on different routers, both low-end, mid-range and top-of-the-range. The models that support this new version with all the new features are:
- Zen WiFi XT9
- GT-AXE11000
- RT-AX88U
- RT-AX86U
- RT-AX86U Pro
- RT-AXE7800
As you can see, not only the latest models are compatible with this new firmware, really old models (but they still work really well, because they are high-end) like the RT-AX88U or the RT-AX86U support this new firmware. Soon ASUS will expand this compatibility to add more models.