ASUS RT-AC87 Firmware - Official Releases

[RMerlin]

One other thing I want to mention, there seems to be some difference between the ASUS and Merl.in firmwares. When I use ASUS firmware - the please streaming won't work outside of my network - when using Merlin's firmware - the remote plex streaming works fine. As far as I know , I am using the same setting for both... any ideas. It is not a big deal because I prefer Merlin's firmware - just curious mostly.

I know there's at least one issue with the Plex that is resolved in my firmware because I run a more up-to-date version of miniupnpd (its author resolved the issue a few months ago). Could be related.

 

[Ronv42]

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I don't think temp is causing my problem either. I am currently using RT-AC87U_3.0.0.4_376.49_5 (Merlin) - still having the same problem since I got the router - the 5Ghz wireless signal disappears - - on average once a week or so. my temp has never exceeded 62 degrees C - I do a lot of streaming using ghe 5ghz both inside the network with mezzmo and outside (using Plex pass). I have tried nearlyy all of the official ASUS and Merlin firmwares - no joy..
One other thing I want to mention, there seems to be some difference between the ASUS and Merl.in firmwares. When I use ASUS firmware - the please streaming won't work outside of my network - when using Merlin's firmware - the remote plex streaming works fine. As far as I know , I am using the same setting for both... any ideas. It is not a big deal because I prefer Merlin's firmware - just curious mostly.

For the disappearing 5Ghz signal have you tried switching channels. I used to run on 161 until I had a friend that couldn't keep a connection when it was on 161. I went to the lower channels and he didn't have any issues.

 

[richdbenson]

I may have figured out what flooded my syslog with VLAN1 messages. I have an Epson printer that was set up on ethernet as well as attached to the wifi radio. Just figured this out last night. Does anyone else with the AP or VLAN1 issues have this situation? Still some message suppression but no VLAN1 and the number is much smaller (hundreds vs hundreds of thousands)

This is my total syslog since last night.

Jan 18 02:59:57 ntp: start NTP update
Jan 18 03:59:59 ntp: start NTP update
Jan 18 05:00:01 ntp: start NTP update
Jan 18 05:00:04 ntp: start NTP update
Jan 18 05:01:01 kernel: br0: received packet on eth1 with own address as source address
Jan 18 05:59:57 ntp: start NTP update
Jan 18 06:00:00 ntp: start NTP update
Jan 18 06:59:57 ntp: start NTP update
Jan 18 07:59:57 ntp: start NTP update
Jan 18 08:14:41 kernel: net_ratelimit: 684 callbacks suppressed
Jan 18 08:15:07 kernel: net_ratelimit: 195 callbacks suppressed
Jan 18 08:15:31 kernel: net_ratelimit: 511 callbacks suppressed
Jan 18 08:15:55 kernel: net_ratelimit: 269 callbacks suppressed
Jan 18 08:16:35 kernel: net_ratelimit: 293 callbacks suppressed
Jan 18 08:16:47 kernel: net_ratelimit: 8 callbacks suppressed

Well, I have put my 2nd AP into storage until the issue with Access point can be fixed. AC87 runs great with a single router.

 

[8undy]

Well, I have put my 2nd AP into storage until the issue with Access point can be fixed. AC87 runs great with a single router.

Why not use your 2nd router for a router/router configuration?

Is there a benefit with running the 2nd router as an AP instead of a router?

 

[StormEffect]

Why not use your 2nd router for a router/router configuration?

Is there a benefit with running the 2nd router as an AP instead of a router?

If I understand your point correctly, usually you only want one router active on a network. Otherwise, you are running two competing networks, or one network as a subset of the other. This is redundant on a home network scale and causes conflicts or issues with systems trying to communicate outside of the first routers envelope.

Also, you don't want both routers running duplicate QoS and DNS. Icky!

Ignore everything I'm saying if I missed your point.

EDIT: And to answer the question, you run one as the router and one as an AP so that you avoid all the mess I described above. This let's you extend your network range using the second router.

 

[Jackal314]

Well, I have put my 2nd AP into storage until the issue with Access point can be fixed. AC87 runs great with a single router.

After spending a frustrating hour and a half on the phone yesterday with ASUS tech support without any progress toward understanding the issue, I will be mothballing my 2nd RT-AC87U AP as well; at least until the firmware issues are resolved.

If Nest products didn't have compatibility issues with Netgear, I would replace my AC87s with Netgear R8000s today. I might still.

I have been an ardent ASUS supporter for years - starting with motherboards through to ultrabooks and routers. This experience with the RT-AC87U has shaken my faith in ASUS greatly.

Here's hoping ASUS will post properly QA'd firmware to fix this issue ASAP.

 

[dfran1]

Hi all,
To this day, with
1. a laptop cooler under my replacement RT-AC87R
2. the newest official firmware
3. nat acceleration ON
4. only 2 revered IP addresses
5. 2 ports being forward (not to my PS4)

Working every day (so far)
1. No lag to date on the PS4
2. Able to (a reasonable time, on 5GHz) connect from a wifi device to remote control a LAN device.

Still issues
1. with nat acceleration on, when I am on my wifi, I can not connect to my DVR, using WAN IP address (NOTE I will test again tonight on this, I have not tested this in a few days)
2. VLAN errors in log still. (the other forum, Asus states they are working on this)

5GHz seems great, BUT I have not tested fully yet.

 

[Richard1864]

After spending a frustrating hour and a half on the phone yesterday with ASUS tech support without any progress toward understanding the issue, I will be mothballing my 2nd RT-AC87U AP as well; at least until the firmware issues are resolved.

If Nest products didn't have compatibility issues with Netgear, I would replace my AC87s with Netgear R8000s today. I might still.

I have been an ardent ASUS supporter for years - starting with motherboards through to ultrabooks and routers. This experience with the RT-AC87U has shaken my faith in ASUS greatly.

Here's hoping ASUS will post properly QA'd firmware to fix this issue ASAP.

I am using the Netgear R8000 at home and my Nest thermostat is working fine with it. They resolved the issue with Netgear routers a version back. They now have version 4.3.3 firmware on the thermostats. They are having some issues still with Asus and Linksys routers and expect to have those fixed with version 4.4.4; I haven't heard of a release date for that yet.

Oh, and for those interested, using firmware 1.0.1.16_1.0.74, the latest, on my R8000, my temps is 40º C. The R8000's at work with an average of 60 users are holding at 45º C. We are all Apple, and have no more 5 GHz issues, having an average throughput of 866-1000 mbps, almost 30% better than we got with the 87R. We're not sure why there's the difference in speed, but assume it could be related to heat issues and/or firmware issues in the 87R.

 

[RMerlin]

Oh, and for those interested, using firmware 1.0.1.16_1.0.74, the latest, on my R8000, my temps is 40º C. The R8000's at work with an average of 60 users are holding at 45º C. We are all Apple, and have no more 5 GHz issues, having an average throughput of 866-1000 mbps, almost 30% better than we got with the 87R. We're not sure why there's the difference in speed, but assume it could be related to heat issues and/or firmware issues in the 87R.

It will be interesting to compare with the RT-AC3200, which is Asus's Xtream product that matches the R8000 HW platform.

 

[NightOwl326]

I am using the Netgear R8000 at home and my Nest thermostat is working fine with it. They resolved the issue with Netgear routers a version back. They now have version 4.3.3 firmware on the thermostats. They are having some issues still with Asus and Linksys routers and expect to have those fixed with version 4.4.4; I haven't heard of a release date for that yet.

Oh, and for those interested, using firmware 1.0.1.16_1.0.74, the latest, on my R8000, my temps is 40º C. The R8000's at work with an average of 60 users are holding at 45º C. We are all Apple, and have no more 5 GHz issues, having an average throughput of 866-1000 mbps, almost 30% better than we got with the 87R. We're not sure why there's the difference in speed, but assume it could be related to heat issues and/or firmware issues in the 87R.

How are you checking temps on your R8000?

 

[Richard1864]

How are you checking temps on your R8000?

Telnet. I'm not home, can someone else post the link to Merlin's post listing those commands please?

 

[NightOwl326]

Telnet. I'm not home, can someone else post the link to Merlin's post listing those commands please?

Didn't think the r8000 was open to telnet?

 

[toor]

So my 87R has been pretty stable; I put on this new firmware and when I put a load on it; IE transferring a big file across the LAN; the router has literally crashed twice.

Something isnt right with this latest software....

 

[dfran1]

Hi all,
To this day, with
1. a laptop cooler under my replacement RT-AC87R
2. the newest official firmware
3. nat acceleration ON
4. only 2 revered IP addresses
5. 2 ports being forward (not to my PS4)

Working every day (so far)
1. No lag to date on the PS4
2. Able to (a reasonable time, on 5GHz) connect from a wifi device to remote control a LAN device.

Still issues
1. with nat acceleration on, when I am on my wifi, I can not connect to my DVR, using WAN IP address (NOTE I will test again tonight on this, I have not tested this in a few days)
2. VLAN errors in log still. (the other forum, Asus states they are working on this)

5GHz seems great, BUT I have not tested fully yet.

Now my router needs a reboot
wifi to lan control is now extremely sluggish and not usable, so my #2 in the working , now goes to not working after 2-3 days.
still no ps4 lag tho.
5GHz is still working

I wonder if its the vlan errors they are working on??

Edit: My #2 does not work on either 2.4 or 5GHz, well it works but I have to wait like 30 seconds for a response on the lan device

 

[dfran1]

So my 87R has been pretty stable; I put on this new firmware and when I put a load on it; IE transferring a big file across the LAN; the router has literally crashed twice.

Something isnt right with this latest software....

Put a laptop cooler under it, if you're not using one, put one on (under).

you're right, this latest firmware runs our 87's HOT, in my findings also.

Also you need to WPS reset the router and enter your settings in manually. (this is what I found)

 

[jim769]

I got a nice tax refund coming this year and i was considering buying the 87U but now after reading this thread i am really having second thoughts and may just pick up the 68P and be done with it. I am looking for a stable router that routes not something that seems to be full of bugs and constant issues. Can someone give me a good reason to spend $260 dollars on the 87U ?

 

[dfran1]

I got a nice tax refund coming this year and i was considering buying the 87U but now after reading this thread i am really having second thoughts and may just pick up the 68P and be done with it. I am looking for a stable router that routes not something that seems to be full of bugs and constant issues. Can someone give me a good reason to spend $260 dollars on the 87U ?

Well, if you give it another month and ask, this thread HOPEFULLY will be done with the majority of bad, HOPEFULLY!

Whatever you get I would from now on put a laptop cooler under it.

It seems Asus is going in the right direction, I just don't know why these get hot, and why it's taking them 6+months to get the firmware near right.

When others I hear, seem to have their version's of this chipset near right at the moment.

I have a 68R and I don't think that was perfect when I purchased this when it came out, 5GHz on it is useless (range wise).

 

[richdbenson]

Steps to set up 2nd router in router to router config instead of AP mode

1) Turn off wireless radio on first router using button on front (this makes it easier to access only 2nd router)
2) Turn on 2nd router and access setup via wireless on 2nd router
3) Skip easy setup
4) Setup wireless radio (it will suggest doing this)
5) Keep 2nd router hooked up to WAN port (if it establishes a subnet of 192.168.2.1 then that is ok)
6) Go to LAN tab and disable DHCP, Setup up 192.168.1.1 as the DNS server and WINS server, Set up 192.168.1.2 as the 2nd router IP address.
7) Enable Static Routes (on Routes subtab)
8) Create a Static Route to 192.168.1.1 via LAN
9) Set Enable WAN, Enable NAT, Enable uPNP to "No"
10) Remove cable from WAN port on 2nd router and plug into LAN port

I'll repost if this setup has any issues with uptime. Based on prior posts, setting up router/router config should allow users to get around the Access Point preconfigured ASUS issues.

Also, there is a bug in setup on the admin tab. You have to set your system time to GMT and then save, after that you can move to your US time zone. The bug is that if you move from default mountain time that DST is not populated in the fields and system will error.

So I pulled the router out of the closet after getting frustrated and I was analyzing bad packets on one of my wired switches seeing that two PC's were making many uPNP calls that were rejected. So I turned uPNP off on the main router.

I had also assigned a static IP to the wired switch which was a problem so i deleted that assigned. Finally I changed IPV6 Router advertisement to "NO'. Now that I've made those changes, I think things are running better. I'll post my uptime later. It is frustrating but I think working with the two router settings in router to router mode is helping. By the way, switched to Merlin's 49_5 version and the Log DHCP queries option on the LAN/DHCP tab is what enabled me to see in syslog what was causing rejected network packets. Hopefully I finally have a great setup with 2 AC87R's.

Finally figured out that in addition to turning off uPNP on the 2nd router that I needed to turn it off on the main router as well. This in addition to changing VPN to

 

[toor]

Put a laptop cooler under it, if you're not using one, put one on (under).

you're right, this latest firmware runs our 87's HOT, in my findings also.

Also you need to WPS reset the router and enter your settings in manually. (this is what I found)

Yep I did that after the first crash, mine was running at 84 with no load, put a cooler under it and it went down to 67.

After the last crash I reloaded the firmware again from scratch and factory reset it, was working fine for 2 days and today when I was copying a 2G file to my nas box across the lan; the router crashed again.

I'm going to try and down rev the firmware and keep an eye on it.

 

[raphaelogy]

Yep I did that after the first crash, mine was running at 84 with no load, put a cooler under it and it went down to 67.

After the last crash I reloaded the firmware again from scratch and factory reset it, was working fine for 2 days and today when I was copying a 2G file to my nas box across the lan; the router crashed again.

I'm going to try and down rev the firmware and keep an eye on it.

so i guess cooling down the unit does not help either?