ASUS RT-AC88U Wireless AC3100 Dual-Band Gigabit Router

[Naftali Oziel]

Looking at making the investment to replace my AC68U w/AC88U for better coverage. However noticed two hardware revisions A2 and A5 (MFG 2016). Is the A5 compatible with Merlin Firmware especially that I hear (rumors perhaps) it poses issues in display WiFi temperatures? Is there any other differences between revisions or potential incompatibles with 3rd party firmware? Preference is to use Merlin firmware of course.

Any insight is appreciated

Thank you

 

[RMerlin]

I don't know the details as to what was changed, but I see no reason for recent version of my firmware not to work with it, as it's based on Asus's latest code. Lack of temperature report might possibly be a limitation on the new chip.

 

[Naftali Oziel]

Thanks, I also forgot to mention on my original post. With the 88U it supports the MU-MIMO, again I hear that it does not work well in 2.4ghz? All my devices are N. What are your thoughts towards enabling the universal beamforming, ATF and MU-MIMO on 2.4ghz N devices? I will be experimenting but if you have any experience to share, appreciate getting your feedback especially that you have indept knowledge of this product.

 

[avtella]

MU-MIMO shouldn't affect 2.4 Ghz as its specific to 5Ghz. ac specification refers to changes to the 5Ghz band. 2.4Ghz part of the router is still n.

 

[RMerlin]

MU-MIMO shouldn't affect 2.4 Ghz as its specific to 5Ghz. ac specification refers to changes to the 5Ghz band. 2.4Ghz part of the router is still n.

Yet Asus offers Beamforming on the 2.4 GHz band, which is why I recommend people disable it on that band (especially the Universal Beamforming, formerly known as implicit).

Seems that Explicit Beamforming might exist on the 2.4 GHz band, as part of 802.11n.

 

[Naftali Oziel]

Yet Asus offers Beamforming on the 2.4 GHz band, which is why I recommend people disable it on that band (especially the Universal Beamforming, formerly known as implicit).

Seems that Explicit Beamforming might exist on the 2.4 GHz band, as part of 802.11n.

Thank you so if I understand correctly, best to have those two options simply disabled as you recommend, though explicit won't work anyways unless the NIC supports it, so guessing no value in having it enabled.

 

[sm00thpapa]

Looking at making the investment to replace my AC68U w/AC88U for better coverage. However noticed two hardware revisions A2 and A5 (MFG 2016). Is the A5 compatible with Merlin Firmware especially that I hear (rumors perhaps) it poses issues in display WiFi temperatures? Is there any other differences between revisions or potential incompatibles with 3rd party firmware? Preference is to use Merlin firmware of course.

Any insight is appreciated

Thank you

Where did you see an A5 version? I have seen nothing but A2's for the last year.

 

[pege63]

A5 is maybe a AC88U?
Wath Wireless NIC should it?

 

[sm00thpapa]

A5 is maybe a AC88U?
Wath Wireless NIC should it?

What? You confused me. A5 is a revision of the AC88U.

 

[pege63]

What? You confused me. A5 is a revision of the AC88U.

Yes, that's what I came to the end about that, my bad
This lyme disease does this to me, that the short memory does not work properly see one thing do someting else confused. Sorry

 

[Striker317]

Looking at making the investment to replace my AC68U w/AC88U for better coverage. However noticed two hardware revisions A2 and A5 (MFG 2016). Is the A5 compatible with Merlin Firmware especially that I hear (rumors perhaps) it poses issues in display WiFi temperatures? Is there any other differences between revisions or potential incompatibles with 3rd party firmware? Preference is to use Merlin firmware of course.

Any insight is appreciated

Thank you

confirming that the temperatures are shown on my revA5 RT-AC3100.

 

[sfx2000]

MU-MIMO shouldn't affect 2.4 Ghz as its specific to 5Ghz. ac specification refers to changes to the 5Ghz band. 2.4Ghz part of the router is still n.

Depends on how the vendor has configured that 2.4GHz radio as a default... and what options they allow users to configure...

I've seen some weird stuff in the 2.4GHz band - Broadcom and Marvell, in order to run up the numbers, enable AC in 2.4G, and this gets some clients into a very bad place unless the user is knowledgeable and disables certain "features" there (beamforming, wide channels, turbo/nitroQAM, etc)...

 

[sfx2000]

Lack of temperature report might possibly be a limitation on the new chip.

I think it's still there - that being said, I think too many people worry about temps...

 

[ulaganath]

One need mu MIMO client to get support. There are MIMO client. Only ac client support mu mimo currently. There is one usb adapter if you want laptop upgraded to mu mimo edimax have one adapter cost 20 bugs

Sent from my ASUS_Z00AD using Tapatalk

 

[avtella]

You need more than one MU-MIMO adapter plus Broadcom's implementation of MU-MIMO wasn't very good and unstable, unless things changed. Probably not worth spending money on an adapter just to check mark a feature, the AC88U performs plenty well even without it.

I wonder if the revision change also includes a C0 steppping 4366 radio. Netgear R8500 DD-WRT users recently found out the hard way that there was a radio update after bricking their devices from flashing.