ASUS RT-AC5300 Firmware version 3.0.0.4.384.45149

[Pauloo]

Thank you

 

[drabisan]

Hi LimJK,
Could you send feedback with system log, wifi by administration-> feedback? According to 5G2_DWB, we will discuss internally.

thanks.

Arthur, how can we provide feedback about backhaul/dwb decision you've made?
I've send feedback from router, but I can be only that much explicit on that form.

My 2c:
- if I would have 2 3 band routers with a wireless backhaul, this approach would be like holy-grail!
- but how many AiMesh users have a pair or more of 3band routers? I think you should have an estimate - maybe from feedback we're sending from our routers? Maybe you should update your TC to help you collect router configs (without confidential info like IPs and passwords), that will give you a broad range of analytics to work with.
- some of us, fortunate ones, have proper Cat6 cabling in our houses. And we're using a good old&fast ethernet backhaul. (I don't want to think about how I was considering to buy a second GT-AC5300 - I would be loosing 2 times the 2nd 5GHz radio!)
- some of us, less fortunate, have a 3band router and a 2band node(s) with wireless backhaul. Again, having access to our not-private config will give you a great image. I don't know if node will use 5GHz for backhaul and at the same time will share it to the users. If so, I would fail to see the benefit of blocking a radio on node for backhaul.

Decision to make 5GHz#2 a dedicated backhaul is at least debatable! It serves no purpose for anybody but users with 2 3band routers and a wireless backhaul. For anybody else it only translates into "I just lost a 5GHz radio"! Doesn't look good at all as a strategic business decision! You targeted a (very?) small market while impacting a larger (?) market.

I do have a suggestion:
1. address wired backhaul! Broadly! Allow easy access to 2nd 5GHz radio if user has such router and/or such a node. Make all radios available in smart connect. Allow user to change wireless channels for node! Perfect situation! It will bring plenty of bandwidth without killing radio spectrum by sharing the spectrum.
2. 3band router, 2band node with wireless backhaul. Help users create smart connect on all bands and use that bandwidth to share it with the node. Not perfect, but good enough. Plenty of co-channel interference, but it will work just fine.
3. 3band router, 3band node - one 5ghz for backhaul, the other for clients. You should allow them to change the wireless channels for 2.4 and 5 radio that's not used for backhaul. Good bandwidth and co-channel intefrence only for backhaul. Pretty good I would say!

 

[LimJK]

Hi LimJK,
Could you send feedback with system log, wifi by administration-> feedback? According to 5G2_DWB, we will discuss internally.

thanks.

Arthur,
Some additional information on 5GHz(2)_DWB. Out of curiosity, I turn OFF Hide SSID, just to see what happen. After that I turn ON Hide this SSID ... I got this message ... I got an earlier message saying something like it affect WPS ...

 

[LimJK]

I have been running for almost 3 days with no known issues for now. All my mobile devices are Apple.

I like to set everything to factory reset DEFAULT to avoid chasing my own tail, due to changing NVRAM settings that I do not fully understand. The following are some of the things I modified all along since beta.

AiProtection : Set all settings to ON or Secured (except WPS is not disabled for AiMesh)
USB Application: All Disabled specifically Media Services & Servers; as I have a Synology NAS
Wireless : I left all as Default, apart from SSID / passphrase
LAN : DHCP with 40 manually assigned IPs, Link Aggregation LAN 1 & 2 for my Synology NAS
WAN : DDNS using Free Asus Services which is needed for my OpenVPN Server
IPV6 : Native
VPN : OpenVPN (change port 1194 to a high port number, RSA Encryption from 1024 to 2048 bit)

My only problem is I missed my Triband (considering that I have Wired Backhaul); which Arthur said they are discussing internally. I am curious if the passphrase of the 5GHz(2)_DWB channel is secured enough or as good as the current WPS implementation when searching for New AiMesh Node. Just a bit uncomfortable, that I have no control over the passphrase for this hidden channel.

 

[Jim Kirk]

I have been running for almost 3 days with no known issues for now. All my mobile devices are Apple.

I like to set everything to factory reset DEFAULT to avoid chasing my own tail, due to changing NVRAM settings that I do not fully understand. The following are some of the things I modified all along since beta.

AiProtection : Set all settings to ON or Secured (except WPS is not disabled for AiMesh)
USB Application: All Disabled specifically Media Services & Servers; as I have a Synology NAS
Wireless : I left all as Default, apart from SSID / passphrase
LAN : DHCP with 40 manually assigned IPs, Link Aggregation LAN 1 & 2 for my Synology NAS
WAN : DDNS using Free Asus Services which is needed for my OpenVPN Server
IPV6 : Native
VPN : OpenVPN (change port 1194 to a high port number, RSA Encryption from 1024 to 2048 bit)

My only problem is I missed my Triband (considering that I have Wired Backhaul); which Arthur said they are discussing internally. I am curious if the passphrase of the 5GHz(2)_DWB channel is secured enough or as good as the current WPS implementation when searching for New AiMesh Node. Just a bit uncomfortable, that I have no control over the passphrase for this hidden channel.

Hi LimJK,

Take a look at my post on my upgrade problem for FW 384.45149 for 3 RT-AC5300's. I had a big speed problem at the parent router which was sometimes as bad as no upload connectivity.

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/3...384-45149-quickly-downgraded-384-32799.50296/

If you check your IOS speed near each node and then at the parent I'm curious if you observe the same speed loss at the parent with an IOS device? My testing was done using the OS app "Speedtest by Ookla"?

Also, I was amazed at how easy I was able to downgrade my FW by using the procedure described in my thread. The "central management" of AI Mesh worked well.

I did not do a reset at any of the 3 routers after the downgrade.

Jim

 

[Pauloo]

Hello,

My use of an Asus router is recent.
I find the interface friendly but I still have a request for improvement to you.
I use it in AP mode only, and what is missing is the ability to see live streaming and traffic on all connected devices.
From what I could see in the captures, this information is available in full router use.
Is it possible to access this information?
Best regards.

 

[LimJK]

Take a look at my post on my upgrade problem for FW 384.45149 for 3 RT-AC5300's. I had a big speed problem at the parent router which was sometimes as bad as no upload connectivity.

If you check your IOS speed near each node and then at the parent I'm curious if you observe the same speed loss at the parent with an IOS device? My testing was done using the OS app "Speedtest by Ookla"?

Jim,

I saw your post I can understand how you feel and certainly will missed the Triband for your 3 RT-AC5300

I did a "Speedtest by Ookla" test on my iPhoneXsMax, I have ensured that I am connected to my 5GHz(1) Band on my AiMesh Router by checking the BSSID. See my result (which I cannot complain), I believe you are aware that the key dependancy for the meaningfulness of the test result is the condition of the "Speedtest Server" available to you that you have chosen:

I usually run a test from my client to my NAS Server to test raw speed of my local network with another LAN Speed Test, I run it on my MacBookPro (Wireless 5GHz band). You can find it here: https://totusoft.com/lanspeed

The following is the result over gigabit Ethernet Connection

PS: I did factory Reset on all my ASUS AiMesh Router / Nodes.

 

[Jim Kirk]

Jim,

I saw your post I can understand how you feel and certainly will missed the Triband for your 3 RT-AC5300

I did a "Speedtest by Ookla" test on my iPhoneXsMax, I have ensured that I am connected to my 5GHz(1) Band on my AiMesh Router by checking the BSSID. See my result (which I cannot complain), I believe you are aware that the key dependancy for the meaningfulness of the test result is the condition of the "Speedtest Server" available to you that you have chosen:

View attachment 15408

I usually run a test from my client to my NAS Server to test raw speed of my local network with another LAN Speed Test, I run it on my MacBookPro (Wireless 5GHz band). You can find it here: https://totusoft.com/lanspeed

View attachment 15410

The following is the result over gigabit Ethernet Connection

View attachment 15409

PS: I did factory Reset on all my ASUS AiMesh Router / Nodes.

LimJK,

Too bad we cannot turn off the dedicated and inaccessible 5G backhaul band in 45149 when using an ethernet backhaul. I could then have pinned down the issue very quickly.

AiMesh was running so well, and through the last several FW upgrades, there were no problems upgrading. I was confident AiMesh was a mature technology for ASUS-bug corrections sure-but not a band loss.

Little did I know because I didn't see this thread till after I did the upgrade.

I was close to abandoning AiMesh after 45149 and going back to an AP configuration because I just didn't want to rebuild my setup again. I hope the RT-AC3500 forced 5G backhaul band gets corrected in the next FW update.

I tried several different speed test servers when I was near the parent and all produced the same low speeds.

I also did a walk around test while running the speedtest app. I moved from near proximity to the parent as I moved away I saw the speed test numbers climb significantly. Also, as I started a speed test a bit away from the parent and then walked toward the parent I could visibly see the speeds dropping.

In the same room as the parent, I have a laptop, normally ethernet connected to the parent, but I set it up with a wifi connection and speeds were also terrible. I connected to the parent on the 2.4 and the 5G band-both had the same slow speeds with connectivity very poor.

Maybe my problem has to do with having 3 Triband routers but with 32799 working perfectly, and the loss of having one of the 5GHz bands in 45149, I was not happy.

One of the best things I learned from my experience is that changing the FW via the central management GUI of the parent works well.

 

[HuskyHerder]

Hey folks,

Last night, I did a lot of reconfiguring for my system, in prep for my incoming 2nd 5300 (tomorrow), to which I am going to run Merlin, and have a AiMesh Router in AP mode for mesh with nodes off of it. Details in my signature.

I also did a complete reset, of all nodes and routers before flashing, reset again, and finally reset with WPS button to ensure I had a super starting base.

Till tomorrow the Parent AiMesh Router/AP is a 68U its show's a slight speed difference to the 5300. I wanted to try to iron out any setup bugs before the final setup tomorrow.

Today with my usual speed test server.

1. WiFi > 68U AP mode ( AiMesh Router) ----5300 Main Router = 460 down and 38 up
2. WiFi > 68U node --- 68U (AiMesh Router) --- 5300 Main Router = 398 down and 38 up * Expectedly slower, as all the family is all around, this node on the snowy winter day.
3. LAN --- 5300 Main Router = 908 down and 39 up.

Previous, typical speeds (wirelessly) when the 5300 was in place as the AiMesh Router were 550's down and 38 up. *Testing off the 5300.

Once, I get through reconfiguring and have my 5300 back in place as my AiMesh Router and the 5300 for Merlin, I can give a better idea how my speeds are compared to normal. But as of now it looks very similar.

 

[LimJK]

Searching for dwb give me the clue:
In my GT-AC5300 there are 3 settings:
dwb_band=2
dwb_mode=1
dwb_scb=1

Overwriting it in the following order:
nvram set dwb_scb=
nvram set dwb_mode=
nvram set dwb_band=
nvram commit

Brings back the 2nd 5Ghz radio. It just pops-back to Smart Connect in my case.
So I'm back happy.

Although it's stupid the way Asus made this decision! I mean...there must be a product manager somewhere that really pays no attention and decides the features with no thoughts on what's out there.

And that's odd, because they do get our config every single time we send feedback. So they could run some comprehensive assessment what people are looking for and what config is actually running on their routers.

Late edit: sorry I couldn't revert sooner.
Pointless: those settings are not persistent. A reboot will turn them back on.
Still searching, but I'm afraid there's no fast way around, other than wait for Asus to allow us use the 2nd 5GHz radio

Drabisan,

I tried setting the dwb_ related NVRAM settings as per what you did, the GUI indeed pops up with Triband.

• Unfortunately, when I use my WiFiAnalyser to validate, I noticed that the 5GHz(2) band is still hidden and not accessible by us (we do not know what is the passphrase, even if we unhide the channel).
• I also noticed that there are a number of dwb related NVRAM setting propagated to the 2 AiMesh Nodes, which clearly I do not understand.
• Thankfully those changes did not survived reboot

Suggestion: Arthur Lien mentioned that they are having internal discussion on this matter. May be it is not a good idea to mess around with these NVRAM. I will live with Dual band for now, hoping that Triband will be back soon.

 

[drabisan]

At first I unhide the dwb ssid. My key was the one I remembered and it was shown in the GUI. At least that's true for GT-AC5300.
And yes, once applying the commands I could full use that band, have clients attach to it. Proper functionality.

Granted, this didn't survive a reload so it was useless.

Definitely the ultimate solution must be build in firmware so yes, we have to wait for Asus.

 

[Jim Kirk]

Drabisan,
Suggestion: Arthur Lien mentioned that they are having internal discussion on this matter. May be it is not a good idea to mess around with these NVRAM. I will live with Dual band for now, hoping that Triband will be back soon.

LimJK,
I second, and third, etc. etc. that hope

Jim

 

[HuskyHerder]

I’ll gladly 4th that vote. I’ll even go so far as to say (I think someone already said it). Give us the choice to set it up as a dedicated backhaul. Who knows, I might even use it someday, like trying to reach the neighbors house, with a street in-between us. A dedicated backhaul would be superb in that situation. Considering they are family, I can see me pursuing that endeavor one day.

 

[mlippold]

Can anyone give a description of everything that this buys you? I hadn't seen this option in previous firmware versions under Administration -> System

View attachment 15381

Does it drop and reconnect your WAN connection when it can't get out to the Internet etc...?

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/a...-version-3-0-0-4-384-45149.50244/#post-448098

arthurlien - Could you provide some information on these newer options?

 

[LimJK]

Hi LimJK,
Could you send feedback with system log, wifi by administration-> feedback? According to 5G2_DWB, we will discuss internally.

thanks.

Arthur,
May I know if there is any update after you internal discussion on 5G2_DWB matter where our Triband is reduced to Dualband Thanks

 

[HuskyHerder]

@LimJK

I don't know if it matters, but have you noticed that with the removal of the 5G-2 channel your 5300 will be running on a different set of channels vs the nodes?

For example my nodes are running on 157 and the router on 48.

I had always assumed the nodes and the router would match, in a perfect mesh system.

I get that the channel has been there all along. It just now seems more channel jumping vs the older way. Kinda curious if this is a bug from the recent decision to remove the 5g-2 channel.

Maybe I have missed a setting to fix the issue I am describing? Thoughts ? Maybe its just 0200 on Xmas day and my kids will be up in a few hours and I am not thinking clearly.

 

[LimJK]

@LimJK

I don't know if it matters, but have you noticed that with the removal of the 5G-2 channel your 5300 will be running on a different set of channels vs the nodes?

For example my nodes are running on 157 and the router on 48.

I had always assumed the nodes and the router would match, in a perfect mesh system.

I get that the channel has been there all along. It just now seems more channel jumping vs the older way. Kinda curious if this is a bug from the recent decision to remove the 5g-2 channel.

Maybe I have missed a setting to fix the issue I am describing? Thoughts ? Maybe its just 0200 on Xmas day and my kids will be up in a few hours and I am not thinking clearly.

HuskyHerder,
If I recall correctly my AC86U AiMesh Nodes always run on higher 5GHz band and my AC5300 my 5G-(1) is on the lower 5GHz Band, and 5G-(2) has always been on the higher 5GHz Band. With this firmware 5G-(2) band of AC5300 has been utilized for Wireless Backhaul (despite me having Wired Backhaul), it is name as <MySSID>_DWB and it is Hidden (I can see it on my WiFi Analyzer. By the way to make use of the higher 5GHz Band, I have created a Guest Wifi utilizing the 5G-(2) Band ... I use it to connect my TV-Box
Wishing that <MySSID>_DWB be removed and returning Triband back to those of us with Wired Backhaul.
Blessed Christmas!

 

[HuskyHerder]

HuskyHerder,
my AC5300 my 5G-(1) is on the lower 5GHz Band, and 5G-(2) has always been on the higher 5GHz Band.

Maybe your correct, this past week was the first time I ever took notice. I noticed the channels were different but didn't put 2 and 2 together that the high Channel was the 2nd 5g band.

I can see it on my WiFi Analyzer.

Yup same here.

Wishing that <MySSID>_DWB be removed and returning Triband back to those of us with Wired Backhaul.

No argument there. All wired myself.

 

[JDB]

I have held back upgrading my 2x 5300’s to this firmware having read this thread and the loss of the tri-band.
I also use wired backhaul so don’t want to lose a radio unnecessarily!
Aside from that, my high band 5G has much better range than my low band, so if the high band becomes the backhaul I’ll lose coverage!

Definitely hoping this becomes an option you can disable in the next release (and that the release is soon!).

 

[OzarkEdge]

I have held back upgrading my 2x 5300’s to this firmware having read this thread and the loss of the tri-band.
I also use wired backhaul so don’t want to lose a radio unnecessarily!
Aside from that, my high band 5G has much better range than my low band, so if the high band becomes the backhaul I’ll lose coverage!

Definitely hoping this becomes an option you can disable in the next release (and that the release is soon!).

What was your need for tri-band if not for a dedicated wireless backhaul? Never mind the high-band 5G range observation because I don't think that applies to a dual-band router... my 86U 5G band can use the high channels and presumably has equally good range (if not better). All I can think of is some need to split many 5G clients to spread the WiFi burden on the router.

OE