Release ASUS RT-AC86U Firmware version 3.0.0.4.386.48260

[maxbraketorque]

Feeling lucky?

Asus RT-AX86S $179.99 B&H Photo

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1670371-REG/asus_rt_ax86s_ax5700_dual_band_wifi_6.html

www.snbforums.com

Purchase dates are 12/2017, 3/2018, 1/2019, 2/2020 from Amazon. All have been running nonstop since purchase. The ones purchased in 1/2019 and 2/2020 are subjected to near freezing in the winter and 90F+ in the summer. Three out of the four have cooling fans.

 

[Tech9]

Three out of the four have cooling fans

Are you fixing or preventing a potential problem with this router by adding extra hardware?

 

[maxbraketorque]

Are you fixing or preventing a potential problem with this router by adding extra hardware?

View attachment 48009

Not sure what question you are asking. If you are asking how I'm powering the cooling fans, two of the three routers receive fan power from a standalone USB power source, and IIRC, the fans on the router seeing the greatest temperature variation are powered from one of the USB ports on the router. Been like that from almost the first usage of that router.

 

[NetworkDude]

Wow, adding those two fans took the temp from 75c to 53c.

 

[Tech9]

Not sure what question you are asking.

Three of your routers are actually modified, not stock. When you say "AC86U is a fine choice" make sure you mention all the details around your routers. You got lucky because of active cooling. The fans are extra hardware. Quite a few SNB members lost one or more AC86Us, including three developers.

 

[maxbraketorque]

Three of your routers are actually modified, not stock. When you say "AC86U is a fine choice" make sure you mention all the details around your routers. You got lucky because of active cooling. The fans are extra hardware. Quite a few SNB members lost one or more AC86Us, including three developers.

No doubt that some AC86Us run hot. None of mine ever exhibited that tendency, but I added cooling fans to be safe.

But I agree that the average consumer is likely to be unaware of potential temperature issues with the AC86U.

 

[NetworkDude]

These fans work, but they are not silent. (at all)

Returning. I will make my own.

 

[heywire]

A lot of these "temperature problems" and "hardware failures" that certain people like to bang on and on about stems from buggy firmware in my observation.

 

[Tech9]

I had to replace ICs to bring dead units back to life and replace silicone leaking pads to bring down the CPU temperature to acceptable levels. Burning step-down converters are component issue. Non-working radios are perhaps RoHS and thermal stress related issue. Thermal pads are material quality and heatsink design issues. It's not like every AC86U will be dead at some point, but this model has higher than usual failure rate perhaps due to insufficient QC at the factories. I remember in famous Router Temperatures thread one user found his AC86U has no thermal pads installed at all and even posted pictures.

 

[heywire]

Right, but I'm servicing 3 AC86U's and none of them have hardware failure. They have had lots of problems tho, but this came down to persistent firmware bugs that didn't get addressed for many versions. The cause of this is Asus seemingly non-existent QC procedures, not hardware failure.

Although I'd encourage people who want to RMA (which is not an option for everybody) to use hardware failure as a reason, it is very unproductive to default to that explanation when people report problems in this forum.

The best options are to either RMA it, or install the latest official firmware (which actually can solve the problem in case the issue is in the latest GPL version that Merlin uses, which usually lags behind a few versions) and then - if the problem persists in the latest official firmware - report the bug with attached logs in the Web interface, like this:

- file a report to Asus in the webgui under "Administration/Feedback" - describe what you did in the free-text field, and remember to check "attach logs" so they can use it to problem-solve.

After that, try going back to older versions of the Merlin firmware (or official if that's what you want) to see if that solves the problem.

In that way, we actually have a hope of Asus eventually squashing those bugs. If more people reported bugs like this instead of only complanining, the chances increase that they get the issue resolved, as it is clearly not likely caused by odd flukes in individual routers (might even be HW failure), but systematic problems in the FW.

 

[Tech9]

I agree to what you are saying @heywire, but this router is getting old and the focus is now shifted to current AX-class models. Asus had to offer extended warranty to users with failed units, but they never did. Asus has issues with current 388 firmware and chances to see fixes on previous 386 are slim. This is the reality. Plus marketing on top forcing customers to upgrade.

 

[NetworkDude]

I evaluated the RT-AX86U PRO vs my current RT-AC86U.

Firstly, the wired Ethernet issue is the same with the RT-AX86U PRO.

The USB adapter was giving me 800+ Mbps, but now it's not getting past 200Mbps for some reason.

I tried everything, even a new USB Ethernet adapter. No Joy. (Maybe Xfinity shenanigans?)

RT-AX86U PRO (pros)

• 2.0Ghz 4 core CPU
• 1GB memory
• WPA3
• 2.5G port
• WiFi 6
• USB 3.2
• Fast

RT-AX86U PRO (cons)

All of those are great features, but it costs $300 and my old router still works. (I don't run mesh)

So I am keeping my RT-AC86U for now.

I also checked the running temp on the RT-AX86U PRO and it was around 66956c. The RT-AC86U was around 72873c (but is older)

 

[lepicane]

Firmware updated today. For me HTTPS router login no longer works on either Chrome or MS Edge, where it did work on MS Edge with previous firmware but not Chrome.

EDIT: I just noted the following text on https://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/1045854/ stating "The default certificate in the router is self-signed and doesn't fulfil the default SSL policy of the browser.", which explains the issues I've been having.

EDIT 2: Went into the GUI>Administration>System and under ‘Local Access Config’ pressed the ‘Renew’ certificate (router logged out and in again) and then exported the renewed certificate. Then I installed this renewed certificate in Windows 11 (deleted the old one first) and now HTTPS router login works on both Chrome and MS Edge. This did not work with the previous firmware.


ASUS RT-AC86U Firmware version 3.0.0.4.386.51255
Version 3.0.0.4.386.5125565.6 MB
2023/03/02
1.Fixed HTTP response splitting vulnerability.
2.Fixed Samba related vulerabilities.
3.Fixed cfg server security issues.
4.Fixed Open redirect vulnerability.
5.Fixed token authentication security issues.
6.Fixed security issues on the status page.
7.Fixed XSS vulnerability.
8.Fixed CVE-2022-26376
9.Fixed CVE-2018-1160
10.Fixed IPv6-related bugs.
11.Added a new login URL http://www.asusrouter.com to fixed the login issues.
12.Optimize the AiMesh web interface
13.Fixed network map UI bugs
14.Fixed bugs related to Wi-Fi calling.
15.Supported web history record exported.
16.Fixed IPSec VPN server compatibility with Windows 10 VPN client.
17.Improved AiMesh connection stability.
18.Fixed IPTV issues.

Please unzip the firmware file first then check the MD5 code.
MD5: 9c55ed74c15323c29e0de1e106769107