ASUS RT-AC87 Firmware - Official Releases

[doc octopus]

installed and tested the lastet beta:

- 5 GHz sucks with pc win 7, pc win 8.1 and xbox one
- wps button mode not work with Linksys WET610N and zyxel wap5605
- when set to bridge mode at 5 GHz, the radio remains active even 2.4 ghz without protection

 

[desides]

Thread lurker here.

Has the AC87 improved at all since release? I'm still using an N66U, but I'm interested in moving up to AC, as well as re-architecting my home network in the process of upgrading. I keep going back and forth between this and the Netgear R8000. It seems they both have their own unique problems, but the reviews are several months and firmware revisions out of date.

How is the AC87 performing today?

 

[hackintoshsr]

2.4ghz screams and range is good.
5ghz not so much.

For some reason the AC part isn't really AC when the 2.4ghz N band performs faster

 

[nagle3092]

Thread lurker here.

Has the AC87 improved at all since release? I'm still using an N66U, but I'm interested in moving up to AC, as well as re-architecting my home network in the process of upgrading. I keep going back and forth between this and the Netgear R8000. It seems they both have their own unique problems, but the reviews are several months and firmware revisions out of date.

How is the AC87 performing today?

No better than release. Which is kind of shocking considering the releases of their other routers. They are REALLY dragging their feet with this one it seems.

 

[desides]

2.4ghz screams and range is good.
5ghz not so much.

For some reason the AC part isn't really AC when the 2.4ghz N band performs faster

No better than release. Which is kind of shocking considering the releases of their other routers. They are REALLY dragging their feet with this one it seems.

Sigh. Guess I'll keep waiting. I need a decently strong 5 GHz signal to penetrate through multiple walls and downstairs to the other side of the house. (I really, really wish my house was wired with ethernet...)

Thanks for the update.

 

[toor]

No better than release. Which is kind of shocking considering the releases of their other routers. They are REALLY dragging their feet with this one it seems.

I dont see it as dragging their feet, they have 2 options. spend a bunch of time and resources working on sdk6 or stop working on 6 and work on sdk7.

I'm using 2769 and I have 6 AC clients working on 5ghz perfectly. I hve one issue with one laptop with the intel AC7260 where the doesnt work the greatest. So I use the 2.4 for now in the meantime while they are working on the firmware.

People seem to forget that all these routers had issues for awhile when they came out. heck people seem to forget the debacle even on the N66 when they upgraded to SDK6. Give it a little time...

I love my AC87, 30 days uptime with no issues. Would have been longer if I wouldnt have had to replace the battery on my UPS. If you think you are not going to have any issues with another brand like netgear...think again.

 

[scavenger]

Yeah, a lot of doom and gloom here. But after a rocky start with the first couple firmwares I've not had any issues whatsoever. I have full bars in 5GHz two floors down to the basement, across multiple devices-- laptops, phones and tablets-- and the 2.4 net is the best I've ever had.

I have nearly every feature enabled on the thing and it just keeps ticking along. I had one major failure when I tried to enable dual-wan to the USB3 port, and I had to reflash from rescue. I'm hoping the latest beta is solid with that, as I just sold my soul to Comcast for 50Mb and will have both cable and my old 4Mb DSL as backup starting this weekend.

 

[RMerlin]

Sigh. Guess I'll keep waiting. I need a decently strong 5 GHz signal to penetrate through multiple walls and downstairs to the other side of the house. (I really, really wish my house was wired with ethernet...)

You will never be able to get that out of 5 GHz band regardless of the router. You will have to rely on repeaters or access points to extend the range to be able to cover multiple floors AND opposite extremities of a house.

 

[desides]

You will never be able to get that out of 5 GHz band regardless of the router. You will have to rely on repeaters or access points to extend the range to be able to cover multiple floors AND opposite extremities of a house.

The areas in question are relatively close together, though. The router is in the front of the house on the second floor, and the living room is in the back of the house on the first floor, but they're both on the right side of the house. If you drew a straight line from the router to the living room, it would go through the floor the second floor, a bathroom on the second floor, a bathroom on the first floor, and the kitchen, before hitting the living room. That SHOULD be possible on the 5GHz band. The house is relatively new construction (1993) so it's not like there's lead or lead paint in the way, just wood, PVC piping, and about 60 diagonal feet.

But yes, I'd greatly prefer to have a local AP set up in the living room that would run via ethernet cable to the router... unfortunately, that would likely involve opening walls.

 

[RMerlin]

The areas in question are relatively close together, though. The router is in the front of the house on the second floor, and the living room is in the back of the house on the first floor, but they're both on the right side of the house. If you drew a straight line from the router to the living room, it would go through the floor the second floor, a bathroom on the second floor, a bathroom on the first floor, and the kitchen, before hitting the living room. That SHOULD be possible on the 5GHz band. The house is relatively new construction (1993) so it's not like there's lead or lead paint in the way, just wood, PVC piping, and about 60 diagonal feet.

But yes, I'd greatly prefer to have a local AP set up in the living room that would run via ethernet cable to the router... unfortunately, that would likely involve opening walls.

That's still a lot of obstacles to go through, especially as you are going through them at a non-perpendicular angle (which means you have to travel through more solid surface than if you were hitting it at a 90 degrees angle).

Here in an old apartment that has very thin walls, none of the 5-6 routers I've used these past three years can give me more than 1 bar on the 5 GHz band going through three walls.

The 5 GHz band is drastically affected by any obstacle it has to go through. It not a distance issue so much as an obstacle issue.

 

[desides]

That's still a lot of obstacles to go through, especially as you are going through them at a non-perpendicular angle (which means you have to travel through more solid surface than if you were hitting it at a 90 degrees angle).

Here in an old apartment that has very thin walls, none of the 5-6 routers I've used these past three years can give me more than 1 bar on the 5 GHz band going through three walls.

The 5 GHz band is drastically affected by any obstacle it has to go through. It not a distance issue so much as an obstacle issue.

Then I guess I'd better start looking for powerline access points that support AC. At least this means I have less reason not to buy the AC87 now.

 

[RMerlin]

Then I guess I'd better start looking for powerline access points that support AC. At least this means I have less reason not to buy the AC87 now.

Powerline is usually a good compromise. You could also see if you could move the router closer to the center of the house, so it won't have so many walls to go through.

Positioning the router is key in improving coverage, above any other trick people might suggest.

 

[thiggins]

Then I guess I'd better start looking for powerline access points that support AC. At least this means I have less reason not to buy the AC87 now.

No such animal yet. It's hard enough to find dual-band N powerline APs.

 

[desides]

Powerline is usually a good compromise. You could also see if you could move the router closer to the center of the house, so it won't have so many walls to go through.

Positioning the router is key in improving coverage, above any other trick people might suggest.

Unfortunately, it's not. It's in the same room as and plugged in to the U-Verse modem, which itself can't be moved without calling AT&T to run the necessary lines in the house. And they usually wind up just drilling a hole in the outside of the second floor to connect the NVG589 to the box on the side of the house. It's pretty crappy service, honestly.

I also have several devices in the same room as the modem that need a direct wired connection, like a gaming PC and a NAS. The goal is to make sure I maintain those wired connections directly into the router, which itself maintains its direct connection to the modem.

I'm kind of stuck.

No such animal yet. It's hard enough to find dual-band N powerline APs.

I'll take whatever I can get at this point.

 

[thiggins]

I'll take whatever I can get at this point.

TP-LINK TL-WPA4220KIT 300Mbps Wi-Fi Range Extender, AV500 Powerline Edition Reviewed

D-Link DHP-W306AV PowerLine AV Wireless N Extender Reviewed



http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0087O6AQE/?tag=snbforums-20


http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009WG6K66/?tag=snbforums-20

 

[jmantn]

Surprised

I'm surprised there's no AC power line products as of yet but I've also never really needed more options until recently.

On a side note looking forward to next firmware release as I'm running the lastest official firmware on my 87u and been having random issues with 5ghz dropping off with iPhone 6 plus and MacBook pro (while devices connected via cat6e continued to work) that required a restart to router to fix as the admin panel for router reflected devices where connected when checking from a device still connected. It's been truly random and not frequent but still not what I paid for.

Thanks for the all the work and help everyone.

 

[L&LD]

There are no power line products that can take full advantage of N class speeds either, AC class power line products may be years away, if they ever get produced at all.

 

[RMerlin]

There are no power line products that can take full advantage of N class speeds either, AC class power line products may be years away, if they ever get produced at all.

Correct. Having a powerline that can transmit wifi at up to 350-400 Mbps (assuming 2x2) sounds like a waste if the powerline part itself is limited at 100-200 Mbps of real-life throughput.

 

[nagle3092]

My log is filled with these running the latest beta, I did a factory reset after flashing.

Nov 8 13:37:38 kernel: Oops: conntrack->mark=40000001!
Nov 8 13:37:38 kernel: Oops: conntrack->mark=40000002!
Nov 8 13:37:38 kernel: Oops: conntrack->mark=40000002!
Nov 8 13:37:38 kernel: Oops: conntrack->mark=40000003!
Nov 8 13:37:38 kernel: Oops: conntrack->mark=40000004!
Nov 8 13:37:38 kernel: Oops: conntrack->mark=40000001!
Nov 8 13:37:38 kernel: Oops: conntrack->mark=40000002!
Nov 8 13:37:38 kernel: Oops: conntrack->mark=40000002!
Nov 8 13:37:38 kernel: Oops: conntrack->mark=40000002!
Nov 8 13:37:38 kernel: Oops: conntrack->mark=40000004!
Nov 8 13:37:38 kernel: Oops: conntrack->mark=40000002!

and

Nov 10 09:59:54 rc_service: ntp 775:notify_rc stop_ntpc
Nov 10 09:59:57 rc_service: ntp 775:notify_rc stop_ntpc
Nov 10 10:59:54 rc_service: ntp 775:notify_rc stop_ntpc
Nov 10 10:59:57 rc_service: ntp 775:notify_rc stop_ntpc
Nov 10 11:59:54 rc_service: ntp 775:notify_rc stop_ntpc
Nov 10 11:59:57 rc_service: ntp 775:notify_rc stop_ntpc

Anyone else seeing something similar?

 

[ctonylee]

Logs

Yep filling my logs up.