ASUS RT-AC87 Firmware - Official Releases

[LoneWolf]

Update: I applied the beta firmware. While the process was uneventful, I got prompted to accept a new security certificate on completion by Internet Explorer. Now, IE 11 (running on Server 2012R2, I update my router wired from my server) won't let me proceed to log in to the router, because I can no longer bypass the security certificate error screen.

Here is an MSDN blog entry referencing this:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ieinternals...cate-blocking-page-missing-continue-link.aspx

In my case, I have previously altered the port I am connecting to for management of the router for better security, though I cannot see how this would change things. Could the cert on the router be weak?

 

[SpacemanJT]

In my case, just having the unit turned on and plugged into the LAN, with NO wireless clients connected - that's enough to cause a network loop or storm every few hours!

 

[dfran1]

Well the light was completely off on 5ghz and not showing up on wifi scan. This is different behavior than previously where it would still be connected 5ghz still show up, just wouldn't work intermittently.

I wasn't getting 5ghz completely shutting off prior. I may have seen it do it twice in the few months I have had the router. I was surprised it happened so soon of updating firmware.

I had this exact same problem!!!!!!

I am 95% sure it is apple and IOS 8.??

When I took home my new air 2, I lost 5 GHz within 24 hours every day, no 5GHz light or signal and very difficult to get into the router, sometimes I had to power cycle it. So I used the 2.4GHz instead, and now just randomly I get 5GHz drops, most of the time within 2 weeks or??

What I did to correct it see below but first...

I have a mac pro early 2008, mac pro 2010?, ipad air 2, iphone 6, iphone 6 plus, and an old 2nd gen touch.

Every single update apple came out for my IOS devices, my iphone 6 plus had to be wiped and restored from itunes or I would get all kinds of strange problems, overheating, bad battery life, ect...

So when 8.1.1 came out I did it to my iphone 6 plus and air 2, and put the air 2 back on the 5GHz and to this day my 5GHz never shut down again, but I do get random drops and hesitation from time to time.

I do need to put this beta on and try.

I hope this helps some out there.

If you're not sure what IOS device is causing it, put all on the 2.4 and only one on the 5GHz at a time until the problem goes away then a reset and itunes restore to that device or all.

Now today I took my iphone 6 plus in to apple store and they are going to replace it, they wanted me to load it from scratch and still do, but I did this already and it takes a good 3 days to do for me, but I got them to replace it again, tomorrow I get a replacement 6 plus. It has lots of errors and I thought it was working perfect, just had dropped calls or calls don't go thru, on the verizon network (I hope new phone gets less dropped calls).

 

[dfran1]

well so far my USB 3.0 test still failed! with the latest beta.

I can play this movie with no problems when the same drive is plugged directly in the USB 2.0 port of the player, but the movie still stutters in certain spots when the drive is plugged into the USB 3.0 port of the 87r and I suspect the same for the 2.0 port.

 

[Richard1864]

I had this exact same problem!!!!!!

I am 95% sure it is apple and IOS 8.??

When I took home my new air 2, I lost 5 GHz within 24 hours every day, no 5GHz light or signal and very difficult to get into the router, sometimes I had to power cycle it. So I used the 2.4GHz instead, and now just randomly I get 5GHz drops, most of the time within 2 weeks or??

What I did to correct it see below but first...

I have a mac pro early 2008, mac pro 2010?, ipad air 2, iphone 6, iphone 6 plus, and an old 2nd gen touch.

Every single update apple came out for my IOS devices, my iphone 6 plus had to be wiped and restored from itunes or I would get all kinds of strange problems, overheating, bad battery life, ect...

So when 8.1.1 came out I did it to my iphone 6 plus and air 2, and put the air 2 back on the 5GHz and to this day my 5GHz never shut down again, but I do get random drops and hesitation from time to time.

I do need to put this beta on and try.

I hope this helps some out there.

If you're not sure what IOS device is causing it, put all on the 2.4 and only one on the 5GHz at a time until the problem goes away then a reset and itunes restore to that device or all.

Now today I took my iphone 6 plus in to apple store and they are going to replace it, they wanted me to load it from scratch and still do, but I did this already and it takes a good 3 days to do for me, but I got them to replace it again, tomorrow I get a replacement 6 plus. It has lots of errors and I thought it was working perfect, just had dropped calls or calls don't go thru, on the verizon network (I hope new phone gets less dropped calls).

I had similar issues with this router, with my speed tests documented space or two before yours. However, it doesn't appear to be the Apple devices as they work perfectly with the Netgear R8000, Netgear's equivalent to the 87R. I am using 2012 MacBook Airs with Yosemite 10.10.1 and iPhone 6 with iOS 8.1.1. It's weird the my Apple devices work fine with Netgear yet have issues with Asus.

 

[dfran1]

I had similar issues with this router, with my speed tests documented space or two before yours. However, it doesn't appear to be the Apple devices as they work perfectly with the Netgear R8000, Netgear's equivalent to the 87R. I am using 2012 MacBook Airs with Yosemite 10.10.1 and iPhone 6 with iOS 8.1.1. It's weird the my Apple devices work fine with Netgear yet have issues with Asus.

its worth a try, move your 8.?? IOS devices all to the 2.4 and see what happens

I think its worth a try but ??

and the NETGEAR Nighthawk X4 AC2350 Smart Wi-Fi Router (R7500)
I think is the equil, how did you come up with your theory?

cnet

smallnetbuilder

try my suggestion, what harm can be done, and it is easy to do.

 

[raphaelogy]

not just apple devices suffering from wifi performance issues with ac87u.. android devices also! my samsung galaxy note 4 is suffering the same fate while my tab s don't. weird...

 

[Gitsum]

My 5ghz channel drops connections still with the new beta firmware. Mostly with my laptop that has an Intel 5100 in it.

 

[neokoenig]

The beta firmware means I've now no longer got a visible 5Ghz network at *all*.

Hmm.

2.4 is working fine, 5 is just unusable.

 

[Richard1864]

its worth a try, move your 8.?? IOS devices all to the 2.4 and see what happens

I think its worth a try but ??

and the NETGEAR Nighthawk X4 AC2350 Smart Wi-Fi Router (R7500)
I think is the equil, how did you come up with your theory?

cnet

smallnetbuilder

try my suggestion, what harm can be done, and it is easy to do.

I tried it with my Apple devices a day or so and posted my speed test results in this thread. I also posted how long the 5 and 2.4 Ghz signals stayed usable to the second before none of my Macs or iOS devices lost all connectivity. All of them work fine on the Netgear R8000 without any dropouts (more than 36 hours now with no issues). Your thoughts?

 

[Find the Door]

When will the 5ghz band be usable? I'm in an area with heavy 2.4ghz interference. Would be nice to be able to use 5ghz on a nearly $300 piece of equipment. Ridiculous.

Asus support has gone by the wayside recently. Maybe they should stop focusing on releasing another broken router in the 3200.... and give a little support to the users who shelled out hundreds to be guinea pigs.

All I want is proper handling on NAT and 5ghz..... is that too much to ask for

 

[dfran1]

I tried it with my Apple devices a day or so and posted my speed test results in this thread. I also posted how long the 5 and 2.4 Ghz signals stayed usable to the second before none of my Macs or iOS devices lost all connectivity. All of them work fine on the Netgear R8000 without any dropouts (more than 36 hours now with no issues). Your thoughts?

Do I get drops, yes, BUT no way near what some are posting on here.

I don't know what you did, I would remove, every device from the 5GHz band and see how long the 5GHz light on the router stays on.

You said the light goes out, all I am stating is I had this happen and it was an IOS device causing it (I know it works on other routers but this is new tech).

I am just making a suggestion, if you don't want to try then, so be it, its your choice.

Like I said, I don't get the 5GHz shutting down anymore, and my drops are no way as bad as what some post here.

My USB works BUT I should not get stutter in a section of my video playback at all, but most play flawlessly, so asus needs to figure out what is wrong there, but it is most definitely usable. Just like the 5GHz it is usable for me, but I am not streaming on it 24/7. As I read here new drivers (from what I think I understand) is coming next month for the 5GHz, so maybe then we will get less or hopefully no drops or lockups.

Maybe you and others have bad hardware??
Maybe you and others need to Flash using the ASUS utility (recovery mode)
video

Are you all doing WPS reset? power off router, then hold WPS button and power on while keeping the WPS button pressed for 30 seconds.

After you do the WPS, are you loading all settings from scratch? Do not use a file backup.

These are just suggestions, please do not take any of this to heart, I am no expert at this either.

Best of luck.

 

[RMerlin]

The 5 GHz issues are definitely device specific. Aside from my laptop with an Intel AC7260 that's been working great, I also have no issue so far with my Nexus 9. I just did an iperf test with it, out of curiosity, and the results were pretty impressive for a mobile device.

My RT-AC87U currently has an uptime of 11 days without reboot, and I'm also typing this from the laptop currently connected to it, so it's definitely possible to use this router in a stable environment. Make sure you have looked at BOTH ends of the equation (which means router AND clients) before blaming it on the router. We already know that Apple's having issues with this router, something both Apple and Quantenna are looking into. And due to the high number of wifi issues reported by Apple users since Yosemite and iOS 8 landed, I wouldn't be surprised if the issue was actually on their end. A lot of iOS wifi issues have been tracked down to the AirDrop service, for instance.

Asus also posted a beta firmware on this forum - make sure you try it. Some users already reported better performance from this new firmware.

A lot of disappearing 5 GHz issues were also resolved when people switched to pure alphanumeric WPA keys.

Finally, the grass isn't greener on the other side of the fence. Plenty of Linksys and Netgear users also complaining these past few months. Let's face it, wifi interoperability has gone down the drain due the large number of different chipsets and manufacturers out there. It's not an Asus, or a Netgear, or an Apple problem. It's an industry-wide problem.

 

[CorruptedMind]

+1 to last two comments... Currently running the newest beta and I love my RT-AC87. I don't know if people here have no life and constantly monitor their router 24/7 waiting for that one drop on the 5ghz network or say it is unusable. Then they keep bugging for a new firmware every week.

I have a Xbox One on the 5ghz and gaming is flawless... Never Disconnects while i'm gaming and I do not lag. I also stream movies and shows through the apps on the console and they stream straight to HD.

I also have a 3rd Gen Apple TV that my wife uses all the time to watch her shows. Also does not disconnect and streams HD just fine while I am even gaming.

Now.... I am not saying this router is perfect. The USB streaming my MKV's HD-DTS Bluray's files seem to disconnect very often. It hiccups as well. I assume I will have to wait for a better firmware with that.

My wife and I both have the iPhone 6 on the 5ghz network and it does disconnect here and there. Not to the point were it's unusable. I simply disconnect from the router and re-connect and it works again. Also my wife's 2011 Mac Book Pro sometimes disconnects when on the 5ghz. I put that shizzz on the 2.4 ghz so she doesn't complain when the 5ghz does disconnect. She doesn't know a freaking difference. She does her Pinterest, Facebook and schooling just fine. She doesn't need AC or 5ghz speeds to do that. The industry is thinking that we all need AC now. Sales gimmick... Though speeds are awesome when on AC This tells me though this is device specific.

Last I have a old Dell Inpspiron and a Lenovo X1 Carbon Thinkpad Laptop that work just fine on the 5ghz.

Anyways... Guess I got lucky? I have had the Netgear R7000 and Linksys WRT1900 and those had more problems to me... At least Asus is aware of the issues and I could only imagine this router getting better as time goes on.

 

[psychopomp1]

Another very happy AC87 user here, running the latest stock fw. I'm usually a Linksys fan but after the OpenWRT debacle with the WRT1900AC, i bought my first ever Asus router, the AC87. For me its been running perfectly and not had a single disconnection on any of our laptops, desktop or iOS devices.

 

[GGavan]

Not happy

I have AC87U router which is ok as performance except the fact that I have to reboot it too often. Average, once at two days. I had a cheap tp-link which I never had to reboot.
In the log I have something like this:

Nov 29 01:10:43 kernel: br0: received packet on vlan1 with own address as source address
Nov 29 04:35:38 WAN Connection: Fail to connect with some issues.
Nov 29 04:35:38 stop_nat_rules: apply the redirect_rules!
Nov 29 04:35:40 pppd[1313]: Connection terminated.
Nov 29 04:35:40 pppd[1313]: Modem hangup
Nov 29 04:36:25 pppd[1313]: Timeout waiting for PADO packets
Nov 29 04:37:40 pppd[1313]: Timeout waiting for PADO packets
Nov 29 04:38:55 pppd[1313]: Timeout waiting for PADO packets

And is continuing with timeout until reboot when everything is ok.
I tried with all 3 official firmware versions but nothing change.
I tried with Merlin one also and the same problem.
It seems that it is not disconnecting properly from PPPoE connection
It is anyone that had a similar problem and succeed to solve it?

Thx!

 

[hackintoshsr]

+1 to last two comments... Currently running the newest beta and I love my RT-AC87. I don't know if people here have no life and constantly monitor their router 24/7 waiting for that one drop on the 5ghz network or say it is unusable. Then they keep bugging for a new firmware every week.

As Merlin stated most of us have apple products. We have lives, but some of us depend on internet being up when we work from home. Investing in such an expensive router, it is frustrating when things don't work.

The waiting/bugging for new firmware is mostly loyalty to Asus and their superior routers. We are desperately just wanting things to work. That is why we can't wait for new firmwares to come out.

I can assure you that I don't sit there and wait for the 5ghz light to drop out.

 

[CorruptedMind]

As Merlin stated most of us have apple products. We have lives, but some of us depend on internet being up when we work from home. Investing in such an expensive router, it is frustrating when things don't work.

The waiting/bugging for new firmware is mostly loyalty to Asus and their superior routers. We are desperately just wanting things to work. That is why we can't wait for new firmwares to come out.

I can assure you that I don't sit there and wait for the 5ghz light to drop out.

No, I know you don't just sit there I tend to over-exaggerate. You're right though, Apple seems to be the worst of them all. Which everyone has iPhones now days... Well Gary said the Quantenna driver will be in the next update to which handles the 5ghz network. We can hope for the best when this gets released. I don't think this Beta helped with the 5ghz at all.

 

[Richard1864]

My team and I (we work for a state county government in Maryland, has spent several weeks working with Quantenna, Apple, Broadcom, and Intel on this issue both with the Netgear R7500/R8000 and the Asus 87R. Linksys refused to join us in the troubleshooting, saying they could troubleshoot the issues fine without any help from the Apple, Broadcom, Intel, or anyone else.

The issues causing the various connectivity problems have been determined to be:

Firmware issues in Broadcom chipsets used in Apple devices and Intel NICs. Broadcom has released updates that were included in iOS 8.1.1 and in upcoming 8.2, and are being included in Mac OS 10.10.1 and 10.10.2, with new drivers coming out soon for Windows PC's and in Android 5.0.1, which is also just coming out.

Broadcom has some issues with the firmware in their router chipsets, and those fixes are being rolled out now by Asus and Netgear.

Quantenna is working on a full driver re-write, due out sometime Q1 2015. Their issues are more extensive, as they also include overheat and shutdown issues, which is why we are having 5 GHz connectivity issues. They are attempting to remedy them with new driver and firmware.

Thought you guys and gals might want to know what some of the things going on were to try and help everyone with these issues.

 

[arrow201]

My wife works from home (laptop on 2.4GHz) , obviously she requires
a reliable environment, to elaborate, she VPNs to a remote server at least
8 hours a day. Usually she just leaves her laptop connected. She hasn't had
any disconnects.

My TV and Blu-Ray player are my only 5GHz devices. We watch movies often,
(large mkv, many in the 10 gig area) streamed from my Synology NAS,
and have never had a disconnect. (knock on wood)

The router usually has ~10 devices at a time connected to it.

My scenario: I have no Apple products. Because of the probs I've heard
here, I'm still running my unit at a minimum, meaning, no USB, no QoS, no
AI protection, etc. I have a few static addresses and port forwarding for SFTP
(no problem with port forwarding either). I made a change to the router when
I upgraded my NAS recently, but before that, it was up for over 30 days
without a hiccup.

With the wide range I'm reading here from lots of problems to no problems,
really makes me wonder if there are hardware issues, or at least maybe
hardware tolerance issues with these units. I don't know, maybe I just lucky
with the unit I have ??? ...and it's not for sale !