Asus Auto Update Experiences

[RMerlin]

I don't agree with auto-updates in any way, shape, or form on a router because that means Asus (or anyone else) has deep access to our network/systems.

They don't. The updates are pulled by your router, not pushed from their server. So, it doesn't give them any more access than they would have if you were to download and flash a firmware manually. It's the same firmware image after all, where you already put your trust in them regarding what it contains.

A more valid reason to dislike automatic update would be because you want to wait to ensure that no major issue is found by other users, and also to have the option of running an older version if the newer one has problems. Or because you don't want your router to blindly reboot itself while in the middle of downloading a nighttime 100 GB backup. Those are legitimate reasons to want to retain full control as to when updates are deployed.

 

[OzarkEdge]

I don`t use their firmware update check code, since I need to point at my own server, not theirs, to determine if a new version of my firmware is available.

Yes, you mentioned this earlier. But will/should you adopt the same auto update security rational demonstrated by Asuswrt?

OE

 

[RMerlin]

Yes, you mentioned this earlier. But will/should you adopt the same auto update security rational demonstrated by Asuswrt?

OE

No, for the same reasons I said I don't want to support liveupdate of any kind, because that would put on me the burden of implementing and managing an end-to-end secure transmission method. Asus has the network management team to handle that kinda of infrastructure - I don't. I don't have a team of system administrators monitoring my VPS 24/7 to ensure it doesn't get compromised.

 

[dosborne]

I am firmly in the "if they implement it, there needs to be an off switch" camp.

There are too many variables, such as dealing with 3rd party scripts, usb drives etc to blindly update firmware. A signature or other data file, perhaps, but f/w is too risky. When I update manually, I am prepared and have the necessary tools to roll back, reset, load configurations, etc. Benefits an automated process is unlikely to have.

Do I agree that there are too many unsecure devices with vulnerabilities out there? Of course, but, unless a serious and significant amount of time and money is put into a foolproof system that covers all the wacky scenarios, I'm against it. Turn it on by default so those who essentially don't know any better are protected in this sense, but allow those who do know what they are doing to disable the automation. Or, even better, store 2 versions of the FW in memory so it can rollback if there is a failure.

Although a home market is the intended audience for these products, automatic updates would not be tolerated in most business or secure environments I've worked at.

Highjacking autoupdates has also been a significant vector for malware, in general, in the past.

 

[ATLga]

I made my thoughts known on this in the other thread a couple of weeks ago. Hate anything that auto updates, period. However, think about how this is a slightly different situation. You have to manually login to the router GUI to see the flashing update available indicator. "Most" people don't do this, it's set it and forget it. On a computer you see the update available pop-ups, etc. Different scenario. Thinking about this I wonder if the FTC settlement issue in 2016 may be coming into play here.

FTC Approves Final Order in ASUS Privacy Case

After a public comment period, the Federal Trade Commission has approved a final order resolving the Commission’s complaint against ASUSTeK Computer, Inc., charging that critical security flaws in

www.ftc.gov

Asus may be stepping up the game a little and trying to comply a little more "to the letter". Bad audit? Regardless, Why don't they have the toggle for the auto update, with a disclaimer that let's them off the hook, and ALSO add an email notification feature here for those that would like an email about an available update. I for one would welcome the email update.

 

[Ken Atkinson]

Update on my experience , wifi disconnects/variable signal quality on version 20631 on AC88U , impacting my son working from home , additional mobile data having to be purchased for my wifes phone which doesnt seen to return to wi-fi automatically or as quickly as mine. Have factory reset unit and setup from scratch re-adding my AC66U-B1 as mesh node , still same issues have returned to 20490 which works for me and added block to firewall for dlcdnet.asus.com as mentioned by RMERLIN (Hope this works and it doesnt auto update again). I'm appalled at their disregard for what consumers use the products for and the massive inconvenience this has caused me and my family.
E-mailing a log/fault but have no confidence in ASUS support ability to even make a cup of coffee.

 

[HWDan]

If Netgear can do it ...

(the out-of-the-box default here is 'Enable' for those who just power it up and go as-is.)

 

[punchsuckr]

I have not yet gone through the entirety of this thread, however during my troubleshooting vpn performance I loaded up 81858 yesterday.
During the initial configuration itself a page showed up that 82072 was available giving me only two choices of either updating at night or updating immediately. I bypassed it by just going to the homepage directly. I then went out for 30 minutes and when I came back it had already updated to 82072.
I am not too sure on whether they are controlling auto update server side or thru the installed firmware now.

 

[ATLga]

I have not yet gone through the entirety of this thread, however during my troubleshooting vpn performance I loaded up 81858 yesterday.
During the initial configuration itself a page showed up that 82072 was available giving me only two choices of either updating at night or updating immediately. I bypassed it by just going to the homepage directly. I then went out for 30 minutes and when I came back it had already updated to 82072.
I am not too sure on whether they are controlling auto update server side or thru the installed firmware now.

If you read the entire thread you would have your answer.

 

[OzarkEdge]

I have not yet gone through the entirety of this thread, however during my troubleshooting vpn performance I loaded up 81858 yesterday.
During the initial configuration itself a page showed up that 82072 was available giving me only two choices of either updating at night or updating immediately. I bypassed it by just going to the homepage directly. I then went out for 30 minutes and when I came back it had already updated to 82072.
I am not too sure on whether they are controlling auto update server side or thru the installed firmware now.

Good question!... until your post, we were told here that auto update was 'added' to AC86U 81992, and no one beside yourself has indicated that auto update occurred before with 81858. And I have not seen a router Quick Setup offer an option to update at night, especially when it doesn't yet know what time it is.

Router Quick Setup does automatically query a server to determine if an update is available. Maybe a relatively recent server side change now conditions Quick Setup to offer the update time option and triggers the update to happen even if you try to skip responding to the setup dialog. This would suggest that there is Asus server involvement in auto updates, at least during the Quick Setup routine... and before 81992.

FWIW... AC86U 82072 is running solid here.

OE

 

[punchsuckr]

Good question!... until your post, we were told here that auto update was 'added' to AC86U 81992, and no one beside yourself has indicated that auto update occurred before with 81858. And I have not seen a router Quick Setup offer an option to update at night, especially when it doesn't yet know what time it is.

Yes that's what prompted me to post a quick update to this thread since previous accounts only mentioned about this behavior for 81992. I did however enter my PPPOE info in the quick setup so it should know what time it was.

FWIW... AC86U 82072 is running solid here.

OE

Wish I could say the same.. Giving this router one last shot with auto channel selection on 5ghz (which is what a majority of people would have it running on... it loves 149 with auto). I am very sure though that its 5ghz radio has the channel 0 bug (2020 manufactured). Interestingly I could still detect its signal on channel 36 in Inssider during such an event when it would not show up on any device.

 

[doublehd]

I got the same consequence on RT AC86U(node) 82072.That's freaked me out because what's gonna happen if I cut off power.I couldn't go back to 81858 no matter how many times I flashed it back(got a connection problem on 82072 for my 2.4G).It's so annoying so moved to Merlin's firmaware for my node.

 

[pepefu]

I just noticed an auto-update on Sep 18 2020
Asus RT-AC31000
from 3.0.0.4.385_20630 to 3.0.0.4.385_20631 and now the router disconnects from all of my wireless devices intermittently, multiple times an hour rendering my connection highly unstable.
Lots of syslog disassoc and deauth events

Pretty much has made my work-from-home completely pointless

 

[bbunge]

I got the same consequence on RT AC86U(node) 82072.That's freaked me out because what's gonna happen if I cut off power.I couldn't go back to 81858 no matter how many times I flashed it back(got a connection problem on 82072 for my 2.4G).It's so annoying so moved to Merlin's firmaware for my node.

I had good results with 384.82072 even after an auto upgrade. I feel the key to stable WIFI on the AC86U is:
Factory reset per: https://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/1039078
Use all letters in SSID (uppercase and lowercase OK)
Use Dual Band SmartConnect
2.4 GHZ set to 20 MHZ on Channel 1, 6, or 11
5 GHZ set to 80 MHZ on Channel 36 (alternate of 149)
Turn off WPS unless setting up AiMesh then turn off after AiMesh setup
Don't change any professional WIFI settings

Avoid using the router to store files on USB. If you must use the USB set the USB 3 to USB 2 operation to minimize interference in the 2.4 band.
Turn off Samba and Media Server.
Usr AiProtect and QOS if needed.

Works for me with Asus or Merlin firmware!

 

[doublehd]

I had good results with 384.82072 even after an auto upgrade. I feel the key to stable WIFI on the AC86U is:
Factory reset per: https://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/1039078
Use all letters in SSID (uppercase and lowercase OK)
Use Dual Band SmartConnect
2.4 GHZ set to 20 MHZ on Channel 1, 6, or 11
5 GHZ set to 80 MHZ on Channel 36 (alternate of 149)
Turn off WPS unless setting up AiMesh then turn off after AiMesh setup
Don't change any professional WIFI settings

Avoid using the router to store files on USB. If you must use the USB set the USB 3 to USB 2 operation to minimize interference in the 2.4 band.
Turn off Samba and Media Server.
Usr AiProtect and QOS if needed.

Works for me with Asus or Merlin firmware!

thx for teaching me the great ways and sorry for late reply bud.Actually I had done all the suggestions before as you said.And I believed it would be happened on differ hardware sadly.but I'm okay now with Merlins firmware on node either.what I'm worry is just the stock firmware's busted my node by the auto upgrade

 

[lemoon]

If I change the value of "FORCE_AUTO_UPGRADE = n" and compile the firmware, will it fix the problem of forced automatic update?

 

[RMerlin]

If I change the value of "FORCE_AUTO_UPGRADE = n" and compile the firmware, will it fix the problem of forced automatic update?

Yes, but in newer firmware releases it also means you will lose some features like Adaptive QoS (which no longer work when compiling pure GPL code).

 

[lemoon]

Yes, but in newer firmware releases it also means you will lose some features like Adaptive QoS (which no longer work when compiling pure GPL code).

If I understand you correctly, the GPL available on the ASUS website is stripped of some functionality?

 

[RMerlin]

If I understand you correctly, the GPL available on the ASUS website is stripped of some functionality?

Yes, for licensing reasons.

 

[ablatt]

I manually rolled back 40451 to 81992 on my AC86U and it auto-updated back to 40451. It's actually the first time I can remember my AC86U ever auto updating. Before installing 40451, I sat on 81992 and 82072 for quite a while without either updating. Something changed recently for me in terms of auto update.