Release RT-AC68U Firmware version 3.0.0.4.386.43137

[Objects in Space]

Version 3.0.0.4.386.43137

2021/10/14 91.47 MBytes

ASUS RT-AC68U Firmware version 3.0.0.4.386.43137

• Fixed GUI bug

Please unzip the firmware file first then check the MD5 code.
MD5: 7223f4dc79dadde37835b90dc7fe0def

 

[wouterv]

That sounds exciting

 

[Intrepid]

No issues so far. No idea what GUI bugs were fixed.

 

[tts]

Still 91MB firmware. Not fixed?

 

[Intrepid]

Still 91MB firmware. Not fixed?

I heard that it contains two firmware images: one for the traditional RT-AC68U, and one for the forthcoming RT-AC68U V4.

 

[Justinh]

Wow. A GUI bug that apparently no one knew about. And they won't post updates for known bugs ...

 

[wouterv]

The Client Status overview is at least not fixed, and appears even worse than it was with the previous so many firmware releases.
iPhones are not identified as such, and clients jump in and out of the list.
I will soon revert the router to factory defaults and make a clean start, that is long ago.

 

[Objects in Space]

I noticed an anomaly after I upgraded the firmware, reset the router, performed the Quick Internet Setup and then performed my configuration settings.

When I went to the Administration > System to set the "DST time zone changes ends" for Central Time zone to the correct month & day, I saw a message on the Time Zone that "System time zone is different from your locale setting".

The Time Zone setting which by default was correctly showing Central Time (US, Canada) in the GUI and I did not have to change the locale time zone however the system time zone was not set correctly during the Quick Internet Setup.

I never had this problem in the past when I performed the steps listed at the top of this post.

In the GUI, I reselected the Time Zone as Central Time (US, Canada), made the DST change, clicked the Apply button and via the GUI rebooted the router to resolve the problem.

I reported both the incorrect "DST time zone changes ends" and the locale Time Zone not set correctly to the local setting during Quick Internet Setup to ASUS via the router's feedback option.

 

[wouterv]

The Client Status overview is at least not fixed, and appears even worse than it was with the previous so many firmware releases.
iPhones are not identified as such, and clients jump in and out of the list.
I will soon revert the router to factory defaults and make a clean start, that is long ago.

I gave the RT-AC68U a fresh start, factory defaults and manual reconfigure: still iPhones no longer show as Apple devices in the Client Status list and the iPhones do not show their Hostname in the DHCP Leases overview (they show a * instead).

 

[wouterv]

I noticed an anomaly after I upgraded the firmware, reset the router, performed the Quick Internet Setup and then performed my configuration settings.

When I went to the Administration > System to set the "DST time zone changes ends" for Central Time zone to the correct month & day, I saw a message on the Time Zone that "System time zone is different from your locale setting".

The Time Zone setting which by default was correctly showing Central Time (US, Canada) in the GUI and I did not have to change the locale time zone however the system time zone was not set correctly during the Quick Internet Setup.

I never had this problem in the past when I performed the steps listed at the top of this post.

In the GUI, I reselected the Time Zone as Central Time (US, Canada), made the DST change, clicked the Apply button and via the GUI rebooted the router to resolve the problem.

I reported both the incorrect "DST time zone changes ends" and the locale Time Zone not set correctly to the local setting during Quick Internet Setup to ASUS via the router's feedback option.

In my case, by selecting "(GMT+1:00) Amsterdam ..." it now showed the correct end time (in previous firmware releases this was always wrong), but the wrong start weekday.
For sure something has changed in the DST tables.

It is frustrating that the firmware release notes give no clue what has been changed.

 

[Objects in Space]

I gave the RT-AC68U a fresh start, factory defaults and manual reconfigure: still iPhones no longer show as Apple devices in the Client Status list and the iPhones do not show their Hostname in the DHCP Leases overview (they show a * instead).

On my generation 1 RT-AC68U router, my iPhone shows a Apple icon in the Client List for Devices. However, my Clients Name for the iPhone is the same value as the Clients MAC Address.

My PC and printer shows-up correctly using the PC's hostname and printer's device name for the Client Name. However, my Tx Rate & Rx Rate show as a single dash for each rate. The Access Time is blank for my PC and printer.

The iPhone has values for the Tx Rate, Rx Rate and Access Time.

The only difference is the Interface of the iPhone is set to use the 5GHz. The PC and printer are Ethernet cabled to the router.

And yes, I have the same issue of clients appearing and disappearing in the Client List. Specifically, my PC and printer. My iPhone seems to constantly show-up in the Client List.

 

[babaknouri9007]

Version 3.0.0.4.386.43137

2021/10/14 91.47 MBytes

ASUS RT-AC68U Firmware version 3.0.0.4.386.43137

• Fixed GUI bug

Please unzip the firmware file first then check the MD5 code.
MD5: 7223f4dc79dadde37835b90dc7fe0def

good work

 

[Objects in Space]

In my case, by selecting "(GMT+1:00) Amsterdam ..." it now showed the correct end time (in previous firmware releases this was always wrong), but the wrong start weekday.
For sure something has changed in the DST tables.

It is frustrating that the firmware release notes give no clue what has been changed.

Even more frustrating is I have been reporting to ASUS via the router feedback option that the default USA and Canada for "DST time zone changes ends" for the various time zones (Eastern, Central, Mountain, Pacific, Alaska) should be:
11 month, 1st Sun Week & Day, 2 hours

 

[wouterv]

Getting rid of DST would save a lot of headaches with programmers
The changing rules for different time zones, and the time change it self are an ongoing terror.

 

[Ameenhuus]

On my generation 1 RT-AC68U router, my iPhone shows a Apple icon in the Client List for Devices. However, my Clients Name for the iPhone is the same value as the Clients MAC Address.

My PC and printer shows-up correctly using the PC's hostname and printer's device name for the Client Name. However, my Tx Rate & Rx Rate show as a single dash for each rate. The Access Time is blank for my PC and printer.

The iPhone has values for the Tx Rate, Rx Rate and Access Time.

The only difference is the Interface of the iPhone is set to use the 5GHz. The PC and printer are Ethernet cabled to the router.

And yes, I have the same issue of clients appearing and disappearing in the Client List. Specifically, my PC and printer. My iPhone seems to constantly show-up in the Client List.

I don't know if it was IOS 15 or the new firmware but it shows the MAC-adress instead of the name of my iPhone.
Change this and it will show the name of the iPhone again.

Tap on the Private Address toggle to turn it off, a message will pop up to rejoin the network. The iPhone will briefly disconnect and then reconnect using the original hardware Wi-Fi address.

 

[andyross]

For items sometimes not appearing in the Client list, could it be due to them just not being active? Maybe the client list has a timeout and will remove a device if it doesn't show any activity over a certain amount of time.

 

[wouterv]

I don't know if it was IOS 15 or the new firmware but it shows the MAC-adress instead of the name of my iPhone.
Change this and it will show the name of the iPhone again.
View attachment 36814

Tap on the Private Address toggle to turn it off, a message will pop up to rejoin the network. The iPhone will briefly disconnect and then reconnect using the original hardware Wi-Fi address.

Correct with a non private MAC address the iPhone is properly identified.
I start to doubt now, but am quite sure that before the router update yesterday also iPhones with private MAC addresses did show up with their name.
It makes sense though, the random MAC address should not relate to Apple.

 

[Objects in Space]

Getting rid of DST would save a lot of headaches with programmers
The changing rules for different time zones, and the time change it self are an ongoing terror.

ASUS has failed to put any effort to keep the DST up-to-date especially when users report the issue for their time zone. It should be simple code update and/or internal database update.

In US, both the spring and fall season DST changes were announced in 2005 and took effect in 2007. And yet ASUS has not updated their code and/or internal database to reflect the DST changes for the fall season. I am assuming that ASUS did change the spring season from April to March starting in 2007.

 

[wouterv]

Global DST rules are quite a mess and individual countries or regions do what seems randomly change the rules. I can imagine that it has no priority for manufacturers of consumer products to keep pace with all DST rule changes.
Strictly given: what is the value of having the correct local time in your router? Ok maybe for parental control schemes, but then I like to argue the value of those schemes.
I would be happy with the router clock at UTC. ASUS still calls it GMT, which outdated as well.
Running industrial systems on UTC with no more DST issues saved me lots of headaches and service calls in the past.

 

[Objects in Space]

I liked to point out that Microsoft OS is able to correctly adjust for all the different DST settings for the entire world and Microsoft has released OS patches that adjusted the DST settings when appropriate.

The DST code is not that difficult if you code modularity properly across your product lines.

Hence, ASUS needs to spend some effort to update or rewrite the DST code as a function that can be called or use an internal SQLite DB. This function code or SQLite DB can then be used across all of their routers so it is a simple update to the function or the DB that be imported and used in each router's code base.