Release ASUS RT-AC68U Firmware version 3.0.0.4.386.40558 (05-Nov-2020)

[wouterv]

Access to admin GUI restored after few hours waiting w/o that I did anything. Looks like system/os is still doing something after the upgrade?

A few hours seems long, a few others including myself reported in this same thread that it took a some minutes for the GUI to be available and responsive after the upgrade to 40558.

 

[Arctic Ace]

A few hours seems long, a few others including myself reported in this same thread that it took a some minutes for the GUI to be available and responsive after the upgrade to 40558.

I tried to login to admin GUI right after the upgrade + first 15-20min without success. So next time I tested few hours later, and then it worked fine. Don’t know actual time when it might work after the upgrade.

 

[MidnightSVT]

Hi All -
New to the forums. Having a weird issue with my AC1900 and AC68R after updating to firmware version 3.0.0.4.386.40558. I am no longer able to get wireless download speeds above 140 Mbps on a 1 Gig Comcast connection (upload speeds are fine - in the 40 Mbps range).

I have a GT AC5300 as the "main" router and the AC1900 and AC68R as AIMesh nodes. Each node is connected to 5300 via CAT6 Ethernet (not daisy chained). The 5300 is running the latest firmware as well (3.0.0.4.384.82037).

Using AIMesh, I can see that each node is connected via Ethernet and their connection signal is "Great."

Before the AC1900 and AC68R firmware updates, I was getting 450-500 Mbps on each node with wireless clients (MacBool Pro and iPhone 12 Pro) about 5 feet from each node. Now, all clients, even at close range, only get a max 140 Mpbs down.

Wireless devices connected to the 5300 get around 650-670 Mbps down.

Anybody having this issue after updating to the latest firmware? Anything I can do to get my wireless speeds back up on each node? Thank you!!!

 

[OzarkEdge]

Hi All -
New to the forums. Having a weird issue with my AC1900 and AC68R after updating to firmware version 3.0.0.4.386.40558. I am no longer able to get wireless download speeds above 140 Mbps on a 1 Gig Comcast connection (upload speeds are fine - in the 40 Mbps range).

I have a GT AC5300 as the "main" router and the AC1900 and AC68R as AIMesh nodes. Each node is connected to 5300 via CAT6 Ethernet (not daisy chained). The 5300 is running the latest firmware as well (3.0.0.4.384.82037).

Using AIMesh, I can see that each node is connected via Ethernet and their connection signal is "Great."

Before the AC1900 and AC68R firmware updates, I was getting 450-500 Mbps on each node with wireless clients (MacBool Pro and iPhone 12 Pro) about 5 feet from each node. Now, all clients, even at close range, only get a max 140 Mpbs down.

Wireless devices connected to the 5300 get around 650-670 Mbps down.

Anybody having this issue after updating to the latest firmware? Anything I can do to get my wireless speeds back up on each node? Thank you!!!

It might be wise to keep either .384 or .386 firmware on all nodes.

Did you reset the node and re-add it to the AiMesh?

OE

 

[MidnightSVT]

Hi OzarkEdge -
Thank you for the quick reply. I did a hard factory reset on both mesh nodes (1900 and 68R) and then re-added them to my setup via the WebGUI and AIMesh. Now SpeedTests are showing 90-100 Mbps download and about 30 Mbps upload. I am hoping that things will at least go back to how there were once I reboot all equipment (modem, router, and nodes) later tonight.

According to the WebGUI and the Asus Support page, the GT AC5300's latest firmware is 3.0.0.4.384.82037 from 8/3/2020. Hopefully Asus will release a firmware update for the GT AC5300 soon.

Thanks for the help.

 

[OzarkEdge]

Hi OzarkEdge -
Thank you for the quick reply. I did a hard factory reset on both mesh nodes (1900 and 68R) and then re-added them to my setup via the WebGUI and AIMesh. Now SpeedTests are showing 90-100 Mbps download and about 30 Mbps upload. I am hoping that things will at least go back to how there were once I reboot all equipment (modem, router, and nodes) later tonight.

According to the WebGUI and the Asus Support page, the GT AC5300's latest firmware is 3.0.0.4.384.82037 from 8/3/2020. Hopefully Asus will release a firmware update for the GT AC5300 soon.

Thanks for the help.

If the issue is the firmware code base mismatch, you'll have to wait for the GT-AC5300 .386 firmware release... or upgrade all to AiMesh 2.0 RC2-8 beta:

Beta - ASUSWRT 386 RC2 public beta with full functions AiMesh 2.0 | Page 75 | SmallNetBuilder Forums (snbforums.com)

OE

 

[MidnightSVT]

If the issue is the firmware code base mismatch, you'll have to wait for the GT-AC5300 .386 firmware release... or upgrade all to AiMesh 2.0 RC2-8 beta:

Beta - ASUSWRT 386 RC2 public beta with full functions AiMesh 2.0 | Page 75 | SmallNetBuilder Forums (snbforums.com)

OE

Thank you!!

 

[mihvoi]

ASUS RT-AC68U Firmware version 3.0.0.4.386.40558

After this update to *.40558, the "Time scheduling" from "Parental Controls" got broken on my RT-AC68U.

Even when the block is not applied, the https connections get stuck in handshake for sites like https://www.yahoo.com and https://www.epicgames.com/. The same sites are responding in http but not https. Some other sites are working on https also, like https://www.google.com/.

The DNS resolving seems to work ok. I removed all the security filters, disabled QoS, restart, no result. I tried to remove and re-create the rules. Only when I remove the device entirely from scheduling the problem dissapears. The issue is similar if I use the new Family interface, even if I set Adult profile. Restart didn't help.

I use 2 identical RT-AC68U in aiMesh via ethernet, however the issue happens also for a PS4 device connected wired directly to the main router.

 

[mihvoi]

One of the improvements that I was looking for in this new release is the improvement in handling Wifi Calling while "roaming" from node to node on AiMesh. Just upgrade to this new release and hard reset all (router and 2 Mesh node). Unfortunately, I'm still dropping calls while moving from one node to another. I'm using MS Teams and Skype. Any suggestions?

Not fixed on AC68U with firmware 3.0.0.4.386.40558.

As long as the nodes assign different IPs, it's unlikely to have "seemless roaming".
"Roaming assist" will basically disconnect device when they are far from the current node. The device will reconnect to the nearest node and it will get a new IP - this will reset any existing connections and likely break the call.

There is a "Smart connect" feature that is not available on AC68U, but it is on newer routers like AC86 for example. It should be able to direct device to connect to a better router or frequency.
Didn't tested it, but I fear it will still disconnect the call.

I hear about Ubiquity that knows to do "seamless roaming" - at least with WiFi upling, however I never tried it.

 

[OzarkEdge]

Not fixed on AC68U with firmware 3.0.0.4.386.40558.

As long as the nodes assign different IPs, it's unlikely to have "seemless roaming".
"Roaming assist" will basically disconnect device when they are far from the current node. The device will reconnect to the nearest node and it will get a new IP - this will reset any existing connections and likely break the call.

There is a "Smart connect" feature that is not available on AC68U, but it is on newer routers like AC86 for example. It should be able to direct device to connect to a better router or frequency.
Didn't tested it, but I fear it will still disconnect the call.

I hear about Ubiquity that knows to do "seamless roaming" - at least with WiFi upling, however I never tried it.

FWIW, when my wireless clients roam, they keep their same IP address issued by the DHCP server running on the router/root node.

Smart Connect is node band steering... it is suppose to encourage a wireless client to connect to the better band/signal within a node. It does not steer a wireless client to a node... the user does that when they roam from node to node.

OE

 

[Andru]

has anyone did a wifi performnace benchmark compare to 385.20633? I assume more feature means slower wifi performance.

I did and report 30% performance drop of 386 compared to 385.

I was able to pull 120mbit/sec from Asus ac66u-b1, max that my internet provider allows.
with .386 firmware, max speed is 95 mbit/sec.
That is on a 5GHz at 3 meters direct line of sight.
The only feature i have enabled is traffic monitor. The rest is pretty much default.

.385 firmware: 120 mb/s
.386 firmware: 95 mb/s

I rolled back to .385

 

[Andru]

Unless you use all the features to their limits with a high number of client devices, you shoudn't see a significant difference in WiFi performance.
The wireless drivers are the same since long time.
I do not see a difference here.

Obviously, your assumption is wrong. I dont know what they did with drivers or anything else, the .386 shows 25% performance decrease.

 

[wouterv]

Obviously, your assumption is wrong. I dont know what they did with drivers or anything else, the .386 shows 25% performance decrease.

I speak from my own experience.
A laptop with a 2x2 802.11ac adapter connected over 5 GHz to the RT-AC68U router hits easily over 400 Mbps up and down.
The router is in the corridor and I just did another check from the adjacent room.
The numbers are similar for a long time with different firmware versions.

 

[Andru]

...5 GHz to the RT-AC68U router hits easily over 400 Mbps up and down.
The numbers are similar for a long time with different firmware versions.

I see. So 2 ppl on slightly different models report perf drop - ac66u-b1 and ac68r. Although it “should be” the same hardware, as it uses the same firmware. Maybe ac68u is not affected by this performance drop :?
Btw, how “similar” is it 400mbps? +- 10 or +-100 ?

 

[Lee MacMillan]

I did and report 30% performance drop of 386 compared to 385.

I was able to pull 120mbit/sec from Asus ac66u-b1, max that my internet provider allows.with .386 firmware, max speed is 95 mbit/sec.

I have the same router and get around 120 speed with 386, just as I did with 385.

 

[Andru]

I have the same router and get around 120 speed with 386, just as I did with 385.

Do you have traffic monitor on?

 

[wouterv]

I see. So 2 ppl on slightly different models report perf drop - ac66u-b1 and ac68r. Although it “should be” the same hardware, as it uses the same firmware. Maybe ac68u is not affected by this performance drop :?
Btw, how “similar” is it 400mbps? +- 10 or +-100 ?

Maybe the WAN connection type plays a role too, I am connected through "Automatic IP", with a 1 Gbps connection between the router and the fiber modem.
Different hardware, even slight differences e.g. antenna type, CPU and radio chips will for sure give differences.
I admit with a 600 Mbps up/down subscription I don't miss 10 or 50 or even 100 Mbps. The 400 Mbps I mentioned is in a range of 400 to 450 Mbps, but every test is different and there are significant differences with different speed test hosts.

In general my experience is that with WiFi neighbor disturbance is the number one issue, a good second is router location and antenna orientation, a general third are network adapter drivers, one that may appear over time is a bad cable between the router and modem.

A few router settings may drastically help:

Advanced Settings - Wireless - Professional - 2.4 GHz
Modulation Scheme: Up to MCS 7 (802.11n)
Airtime Fairness: Disable
Universal Beamforming: Disable

Advanced Settings - Wireless - Professional - 5 GHz
Airtime Fairness: Disable
Universal Beamforming: Disable

If possible you should start speed testing straight from the modem, next is to check that router and modem connect with 1 Gbps, then perform speed testing by using a wired connection to the router (and make sure it is also a 1 Gbps connection; my favorite laptop support only 100 Mbps LAN).
If the above is all fine then wireless testing shall be done, keep in mind that a wireless connection is never rock solid and depends on many variables (some you can control, others you can not).

A lot more is written allover this forum regarding router and wireless performance, there is not one magic setting or advise.

 

[Lee MacMillan]

Do you have traffic monitor on?

The traffic analyzer is on and the traffic monitor is set to "real-time"

 

[NobodyYouKnow]

So, just adding my $.02. This latest firmware was a disaster for me. Dropped every few minutes, randomly. Kids are doing remote learning and it kept on randomly resetting - the network names disappear and then magically show up. Reverted back to the august firmware and so far no drops. 3 units set up in mesh mode.

The latest parental controls is super slick, but had to dump it due to the lack of stability. It would crash at the worst time as the teachers were giving their lessons.

 

[jsbeddow]

So, just adding my $.02. This latest firmware was a disaster for me. Dropped every few minutes, randomly. Kids are doing remote learning and it kept on randomly resetting - the network names disappear and then magically show up. Reverted back to the august firmware and so far no drops. 3 units set up in mesh mode. I'm a non-technie, but I did flash these three t-mobile units to asus firmware.

The latest parental controls is super slick, but had to dump it due to the lack of stability. It would crash at the worst time as the teachers were giving their lessons.

Just as a FYI, don't expect any further help on these forums, as once you mention that you are using converted (cross-flashed) routers, any additional support is basically forbidden by the forum rules, as those are considered illegal conversions. See here, and numerous other pinned topics stating the same thing:

SNBForums Policy on ASUS TM-AC1900 Conversion Discussion

Further discussion of methods to get around ASUS' lockdown of TM-AC1900 firmware to prevent conversion to RT-AC68U will not be allowed. The main discussion thread has been deleted. Conversations related to defeating the lockdown have been deleted. New threads or Conversations opened on the...

www.snbforums.com