ASUS RT-AC86U Firmware version 3.0.0.4.384_81351

[OzarkEdge]

Its a complete disgrace that it takes so long to make firmware that will just "work". I used OzarkEdge settings on 45717 and lucky it seems to have basic level of functionality when it comes to user experience ( no internet drops, kind of stable ping within games not perfect tho ) but the thing is i have to worry about security because newer firmwares with fixes will die after 3 days and only reboot will restore internet connection . Shame on you Asus that you cant make 1 decent firmware in years. The most ridiculous thing is that they promote it as gaming router where any tp-link for 10 euro i had was 100x more stable and better for gaming and could stand 1 year without issues. Apart from wifi range this router is complete trashcan.

My suggested install is pretty basic, nearly default settings and the log has been consistently minimal logging in this latest firmware 81351. No tricked out router usage here.

OE

 

[Val D.]

tp-link for 10 euro

If you want/need a router with friendly setup and properly working with TrendMicro protection and adaptive QoS, get TP-Link Archer C2300. It is based on the same hardware as ASUS RT-AC86U. I kept one of those as a backup router, very stable and with excellent WiFi performance and range. Even USB attached storage works better on it. ASUS has issues implementing the 50-in-1 device idea, this is why the firmware is in a mess. TP-Link stopped at 10-in-1, what is offered is working properly and is more than enough for a home router. Many "router enthusiasts" expect to get an enterprise class firewall + data center + pro WiFi access point... for $150. Not going to happen.

 

[tallytr]

Its a complete disgrace that it takes so long to make firmware that will just "work". I used OzarkEdge settings on 45717 and lucky it seems to have basic level of functionality when it comes to user experience ( no internet drops, kind of stable ping within games not perfect tho ) but the thing is i have to worry about security because newer firmwares with fixes will die after 3 days and only reboot will restore internet connection . Shame on you Asus that you cant make 1 decent firmware in years. The most ridiculous thing is that they promote it as gaming router where any tp-link for 10 euro i had was 100x more stable and better for gaming and could stand 1 year without issues. Apart from wifi range this router is complete trashcan.

To be truthful, mostly all firmware updates work great for me, love Asus routers, can't wait to buy an AX router, wondering if there is such a thing like a "perfect router"
Love how I can remotely access the router via WAN, Wake up my PC at home when away (WOL)...and really have all the functionality I ever needed, took literally years for me to figure out everything...
What I really don't like is the dreaded iOS App. It literally does nothing better than the web page access via LAN or WAN (DDNS)...

 

[podkaracz]

To be truthful, mostly all firmware updates work great for me, love Asus routers, can't wait to buy an AX router, wondering if there is such a thing like a "perfect router"
Love how I can remotely access the router via WAN, and really have all the functionality I ever needed, took literally years for me to figure out everything...

Its not about beeing perfect just 10 euro tp link is stable my ping is sharp and stable here on this "gaming router" i bet its really hard to find worse performing router than asus ones in online games. I can tell by how much delay those routers add because of this crappy firmware. You spread fake news because you think that 50%~ of this forum having problems is imagination without proof. Shame on you. Also my router cost 250 euro for 86u not 150 thats a difference you except something not broken crap in only category it wins award is that its hard to find router that will perform worse than this in online games.

#edit

Also you can find info on just about 99% of the forums around the world stating that those expensive routers are for losers who dont know what to do with money and they are equal or worse than normal cheap ones. Now i learnt it hard way by wasting money gratz.

 

[OzarkEdge]

Also you can find info on just about 99% of the forums around the world stating that those expensive routers are for losers who dont know what to do with money and they are equal or worse than normal cheap ones. Now i learnt it hard way by wasting money gratz.

So then, what "cheap" router are you using now?

OE

 

[tallytr]

Its not about beeing perfect just 10 euro tp link is stable my ping is sharp and stable here on this "gaming router" i bet its really hard to find worse performing router than asus ones in online games. I can tell by how much delay those routers add because of this crappy firmware. You spread fake news because you think that 50%~ of this forum having problems is imagination without proof. Shame on you. Also my router cost 250 euro for 86u not 150 thats a difference you except something not broken crap in only category it wins award is that its hard to find router that will perform worse than this in online games.

#edit

Also you can find info on just about 99% of the forums around the world stating that those expensive routers are for losers who dont know what to do with money and they are equal or worse than normal cheap ones. Now i learnt it hard way by wasting money gratz.

I don't disagree with you. Just my expectations are kind of low, especially considering how cheap all these consumer routers really are for what they do....

 

[podkaracz]

I used tp link wr841n and archer c1200 v1 both are of the cheapest and 0 problems . You make factory reset and forget they exist . Im still using asus rt86u since i paid for it so much that i wont switch to other routers. I believe security is higher on this one than on cheap routers but performance wise its unusable constant drops on newest firmware and "gaming" aspect where ping jumps like crazy is a unacceptable considering its beeing promoted as gaming router where its as far from it as possible .

 

[OzarkEdge]

I used tp link wr841n and archer c1200 v1 both are of the cheapest and 0 problems . You make factory reset and forget they exist . Im still using asus rt86u since i paid for it so much that i wont switch to other routers. I believe security is higher on this one than on cheap routers but performance wise its unusable constant drops on newest firmware and "gaming" aspect where ping jumps like crazy is a unacceptable considering its beeing promoted as gaming router where its as far from it as possible .

Maybe your 86U has a hardware defect.

OE

 

[podkaracz]

Maybe your 86U has a hardware defect.

OE

Its booting and working what else can be defective other than unstable ping? I would rather blame firmware than hardware on this one because 45717 is performing decently its not as stable and normal as some tp link's but still better than any other. My asus rt 86u production date is 2019 revision 1.5 maybe there are differences and asus doesnt care just push broken updates.

 

[bitsbytes]

unstable pings on your locally connected devices or to remote servers? I've seen many complain about dead wifi or unresponsive gui but unstable pings....I think you're the only one.

 

[podkaracz]

unstable pings on your locally connected devices or to remote servers? I've seen many complain about dead wifi or unresponsive gui but unstable pings....I think you're the only one.

Its not normal to feel delay doing actions and you can actually feel it within games its usunable with most firmwares.

 

[OzarkEdge]

Its not normal to feel delay doing actions and you can actually feel it within games its usunable with most firmwares.

I don't doubt your experience... I just want more diagnosis before assigning blame.

OE

 

[podkaracz]

What i can tell for sure that upgrade is broken because if i dirty upgrade from previous firmware to latest one using gui i have different options on router compared to what i had clean installing from gui . Example after upgrade there is no choice for N only for 5 ghz and right now i have only n/ac mixed and legacy. Upgrade process is bugged maybe thats the cause other than broken firmware.

 

[RMerlin]

I used tp link wr841n and archer c1200 v1 both are of the cheapest and 0 problems . You make factory reset and forget they exist

Until your router gets hacked.

That TP-Link uses an OpenSSL version from 2013 for instance:

OpenSSL 1.0.1e 11 Feb 2013

You always get what you paid for... Personally, I like my security devices (the firewall) to be reasonably up-to-date in terms of security patching.

EDIT:

Also, in the latest firmware for that TP-Link:

DNSmasq 2.62, from 2012. Only in 2019, three CVEs were found affecting that version - probably plenty of other known security holes as well.

Dropbear 2011.54, from... 2011.

miniupnpd is more reasonably up-to-date, from January 2018.


I wouldn't trust my network security to that, sorry.

 

[podkaracz]

Until your router gets hacked.

That TP-Link uses an OpenSSL version from 2013 for instance:

OpenSSL 1.0.1e 11 Feb 2013

You always get what you paid for... Personally, I like my security devices (the firewall) to be reasonably up-to-date in terms of security patching.

EDIT:

Also, in the latest firmware for that TP-Link:

DNSmasq 2.62, from 2012. Only in 2019, three CVEs were found affecting that version - probably plenty of other known security holes as well.

Dropbear 2011.54, from... 2011.

and I'll stop checking there.

I wouldn't trust my network security to that, sorry.

Yes i said i keep it only for security purposes because performance wise its day and night advantage for cheap routers. Also what do you think about firmware upgrade when i go from 81049 to 81351 dirty then i dont have N only option for 5ghz and when i clean install 81351 manually i have this option other options seems to be changed to. How do you explain it?

 

[RMerlin]

Also what do you think about firmware upgrade when i go from 81049 to 81351 dirty then i dont have N only option for 5ghz and when i clean install 81351 manually i have this option other options seems to be changed to. How do you explain it?

Could be for compatibility reasons. Sometimes, Asus makes adjustments to the webui to prevent users from configuring incompatible settings. For instance, "b/g protection" cannot be toggled unless you set Wifi to Legacy mode, since that setting has no impact on 802.11n, only 802.11g or 802.11b.

 

[RMerlin]

For reference, this is the code that updates the content of that Wireless Mode menu. As you can see, the options will vary based on various factors.

function regen_5G_mode(obj,flag){       //please sync to initial() : //Change wireless mode help desc
        free_options(obj);
        if(flag == 1 || flag == 2){
                if(based_modelid == "RT-AC87U"){
                        obj.options[0] = new Option("<#Auto#>", 0);
                        obj.options[1] = new Option("N only", 1);
                }
                else if(no_vht_support){        //Hide 11AC/80MHz from GUI
                        obj.options[0] = new Option("<#Auto#>", 0);
                        obj.options[1] = new Option("N only", 1);
                        obj.options[2] = new Option("Legacy", 2);
                }
                else if(band5g_11ax_support){
                        obj.options[0] = new Option("<#Auto#>", 0);
                        if(based_modelid == "RT-AX92U" && flag == 1){
                                obj.options[1] = new Option("N/AC mixed", 8);
                        }
                        else{
                                obj.options[1] = new Option("N/AC/AX mixed", 8);
                        }

                        obj.options[2] = new Option("Legacy", 2);
                }
                else{
                        obj.options[0] = new Option("<#Auto#>", 0);
                        obj.options[1] = new Option("N/AC mixed", 8);
                        obj.options[2] = new Option("Legacy", 2);
                }
        }
        else{
                obj.options[0] = new Option("<#Auto#>", 0);
                obj.options[1] = new Option("N only", 1);
                obj.options[2] = new Option("Legacy", 2);
        }
        obj.value = '<% nvram_get("wl_nmode_x"); %>';
}

 

[podkaracz]

Sadly i cant see because my knowledge is low but in my opinion the more options the more room for mistakes. All those features are just making those firmwares work like crap where on lets say tp link you have everything minimalized and you were sure that what you see will work and wont break other things . Also in my opinion they should sort out the upgrade process things like having an option in wireless or not is too big to rely on luck and method we upgrade . All those things combined probably make router performance worse and not better consiering there is no separate firmware for different revisions like we can see on different brand websites.

 

[RMerlin]

Sadly i cant see because my knowledge is low but in my opinion the more options the more room for mistakes. All those features are just making those firmwares work like crap where on lets say tp link you have everything minimalized and you were sure that what you see will work and wont break other things .

Asus does have lower entry level models, with fewer features. I have a number of Asus RT-AC1200 deployed for customers myself. I also used to install a lot of RT-N12 - these were inexpensive, and very much "fire-and-forget" as well.

consiering there is no separate firmware for different revisions like we can see on different brand websites.

There are, it's just that in general, Asus changes the model number rather than go with a V1/V2 model like used by Netgear/TP-Link/Linksys. Look at the RT-N12 for instance, there are a lot of different revisions, each with their own separate firmware. Same thing with the RT-AC66U and RT-AC66U_B1.

Asus approach is better IMHO because there are fewer risks of confusion (except in the RT-AC66U_B1 case where I believe they are really confusing a lot of users. The original internal name for it was RT-AC68U V2, which is much closer to reality than RT-AC66U_B1). If for instance I take the Netgear R7500, version 1 used the same Quantenna chipset as the Asus RT-AC87U. They afterward issued a V2 model, which uses completely different hardware and firmware. So if you buy an R7500, if you don't know the exact version, then you won't be able to tell if it's the original unstable Quantenna model, or the newer more stable model (I forgot if they went Qualcomm or something else with V2).

 

[podkaracz]

Asus does have lower entry level models, with fewer features. I have a number of Asus RT-AC1200 deployed for customers myself. I also used to install a lot of RT-N12 - these were inexpensive, and very much "fire-and-forget" as well.



There are, it's just that in general, Asus changes the model number rather than go with a V1/V2 model like used by Netgear/TP-Link/Linksys. Look at the RT-N12 for instance, there are a lot of different revisions, each with their own separate firmware. Same thing with the RT-AC66U and RT-AC66U_B1.

Asus approach is better IMHO because there are fewer risks of confusion (except in the RT-AC66U_B1 case where I believe they are really confusing a lot of users. The original internal name for it was RT-AC68U V2, which is much closer to reality than RT-AC66U_B1). If for instance I take the Netgear R7500, version 1 used the same Quantenna chipset as the Asus RT-AC87U. They afterward issued a V2 model, which uses completely different hardware and firmware. So if you buy an R7500, if you don't know the exact version, then you won't be able to tell if it's the original unstable Quantenna model, or the newer more stable model (I forgot if they went Qualcomm or something else with V2).

I dont know what objective truth is and i dont even try to state something because i dont have much experience with routers the point is i just post my experiences with product (86u) compared to previous routers ive had and those simpler cheaper were usually much less problematic when it comes to usability. The thing is when you play and you feel the impact of bad firmware 24/7 your more likely to complain rather than on cheaper one that maybe have security flaws but you dont see it in daily usage and it "just works". My point is if i pay for premium product it should perform as well as basic one + security and stuff right now it doesnt look like it fulfill those criteria that are part of what we pay for . I dont know if Asus is watching this forum but youve said that they implement things you add to your firmware maybe they can sort out problems and make the quality of "closed source" higher so you can improve the rest for example.


#edit

Also right now i can tell ive done a lot of what L&LD advises to do before and with all stuff done only 45717 performs optimally and he writes that if things dont work like expected its probably firmware bug so i bet he knows what hes talking about considering all that info gathered. Lets make things clear router works but for it to work like partially expected i need to do "nuclear reset" + 45717. I recommend L&LD troubleshooting he hits a nail on the head with those guides.