Release ASUS RT-AX86 Series(RT-AX86U/RT-AX86S) Firmware version 3.0.0.4.388_24243 (2024/05/13)

[aardbeix15]

I rolled back the update yesterday to the firmware version of November 2023 (FW_RT_AX86U_AX86S_300438823285).
Installation went smoothly, but I continued to have a very slow signal on all kinds of clients, wired and via WiFi. Also after rebooting or reconnecting the clients. Slow DNS resolving or no response at all. To be sure, I also restarted my cable modem, but that made no difference. Also rebooted the router several times. After an hour of frustration with mobile phones not working, an Android TV that received a kind of super slow signal when wired, the trade was put back again, and it was arranged in a minute.

I don't have anything special running;
- a ZenWiFi AX Mini via 1Gpbs swtich wired in AImesh-mode
- custom dns on 1.1.1.3 and secondary AdGuard dns
- OpenVPN server configured in ASUS-WRT
- a few port forwards to access my Plex server, among other things.
- QoS, Analyzer, Game things I have all turned off.
- router is behind a DMZ IP that my modem passes on.

In a running household with a wife and children, it is too much work for me to have to reset everything manually/then I really have to schedule it at some point, but perhaps that is the only method to be able to make the step to this firmware.

Very strange what this can cause.
I did notice that Asus also downloaded the latest firmware from the site after November 2023 for the AX86U Game/non-pro.

Normally a nice router when it works, but these kinds of crazy firmware upgrades are really terrible.

 

[SeriousFamily]

updated and running smoothly for a couple of days now.

 

[camaro322hp]

Dirty flashed this update from 3.0.0.4_388_24231 and all is working fine for about a week now. My use case for this router is pretty basic. I do use DDNS and WireGuard VPN server, and those are confirmed working after update.

 

[Volfi]

Getting these errors after upgrade. Anybody knows how to solve this?

May 29 19:50:17 kernel: wl0: PSM microcode watchdog fired at 208361 (seconds). Resetting.
May 29 19:50:17 kernel: wl0: reason = psm watchdog at 208361 seconds. corerev 131 ucode revision 1626.38205 features 0x3106
May 29 19:50:17 kernel: psmdebug 0x000001ff pc 0x01ff000e phydebug 0x0 macctl 0x84160403 maccmd 0x4
May 29 19:50:17 kernel: psm_brc 0x0181 psm_brc_1 0x0000 M_UCODE_DBGST 0x2

 

[1ceLaz0r]

Getting these errors after upgrade. Anybody knows how to solve this?

May 29 19:50:17 kernel: wl0: PSM microcode watchdog fired at 208361 (seconds). Resetting.
May 29 19:50:17 kernel: wl0: reason = psm watchdog at 208361 seconds. corerev 131 ucode revision 1626.38205 features 0x3106
May 29 19:50:17 kernel: psmdebug 0x000001ff pc 0x01ff000e phydebug 0x0 macctl 0x84160403 maccmd 0x4
May 29 19:50:17 kernel: psm_brc 0x0181 psm_brc_1 0x0000 M_UCODE_DBGST 0x2

Yeah, don't worry about it.

 

[willyburz]

Updated and still working great! 160HZ is staying locked and wifi TRX rates are 1900-2499 on my 2.5gb line connections. Stable, and great so far.

 

[willyburz]

I will add, I found a really good open channel on the 160 hz mode, I have NOT checked or tried to auto channel in 160 for a year now...I found all previous auto locked channel with minimal interference would kick out of 160hz mode but stay on same channel. It was NOT radar kicks, but legitimate low interference with channels would drop the 160hz to 80hz. It was and is annoying, I highly recommend channel scanning "WiFiAnalyzer - open source" for a day or two and find the cleanest channel spot for yourself, then hardlock 160hz and the channel...even the jack butt neighbor eeros avoid my locked channel now, when they channel dance around! I legitimately have not dropped 160hz for months. If I ever do drop, I just reboot and it's back.

 

[iFrogMac]

Hey all, just jumping on with a quick question, Sometimes I forget to click the logout button when done with the router. Not a big deal, was just curious how long it takes for the router to timeout the connection if I forget to officially log off. I've never seen any issues from this, so this was more of a question of how does asus handle sessions that forget to log out before closing the browser.

 

[visortgw]

Hey all, just jumping on with a quick question, Sometimes I forget to click the logout button when done with the router. Not a big deal, was just curious how long it takes for the router to timeout the connection if I forget to officially log off. I've never seen any issues from this, so this was more of a question of how does asus handle sessions that forget to log out before closing the browser.

Check Auto Logout value on System tab of Administration page in web GUI.

 

[iFrogMac]

Check Auto Logout value on System tab of Administration page in web GUI.

Thanks, will do that Set to 30 Minutes by default. OK, so it sounds like, if I forget to logout, or leave the site idle for 30 minutes the router will automatically logout for me. Thanks again.

 

[Tech9]

Not sure about this firmware version, but Asuswrt had a bug before logging you out as you do something in GUI discarding the changes you have made, but not saved. I've seen it happening on Manually Assigned IP in DHCP page. If you have many and don't click Apply from time to time you may get logged out. It's a firmware bug not resetting the timer on activity. Something to keep in mind when Auto Logout time is set to low value.

 

[aardbeix15]

Did a second attempt today to go to the May 13 firmware (3.0.0.4.388_24243).

With forget + re-define wifi-preference on several devices and running dns-flushes where possible and reboot of all devices I finally ended up with smooth connection. Strange why this is such an issue in my network. Otherwise I get all kinds of DNS-drops or very slow connections.
I have hard-coded Cloudflare (1.1.1.3 as primary DNS and Ad-Guard as secondary.)

 

[Tech9]

Strange because none of this is needed after firmware update. The same radios with the same settings before and after the update. Your DNS choice is strange too because the two services you use filter different things and are used one at a time. Not sure what do you mean by "hard-coded". Your router's WAN settings offer automatic DNS by ISP's DHCP or Custom. Whatever you select there will be offered to your network clients by router's DHCP.

 

[aardbeix15]

Sorry for my poor description.
Set as DNS on the WAN properties is my scenario indeed.

 

[Tech9]

In this case go with Cloudflare OR AdGuard. Mixing both means different filters applied for your DNS queries.

 

[aardbeix15]

Thanks changed my DNS manual setting to all Cloudflare. However this is not the origin for my issue;

Found the cause of continues network timeouts, connection drops and failed DNS searches after this last update;
the latest firmware (3.0.0.4.388_24243 2024/05/13) is not compatible with the latest firmware version for the mesh node 'ASUS ZenWiFi Mini AX XD4' firmware version 3.0.0.4.386.49599, this is the latest firmware and it is from 2022....

The ZenWiFi AX mini malfunctions and produces a blue flashing LED, but also causes all kinds of network-routing issues in your LAN (network drops, failed DNS queries). I discovered that everything immediately went well when I removed the interfering ZenWiFi AX mini from the LAN by removing the network cable, a slow loading page in Edge on my desktop PC immediately loaded after I unplugged the node.

I am now back to the previous router firmware (3.0.0.4.388_24231 2023/11/07).

Shame on ASUS for this, IMO this should be caught during testing. For me, the ZenWiFi AX mini is a vital part of my network for good coverage in the office and children's rooms, so I don't want to run without it. The node is not communicated as EOL but is clearly not maintained or part or regression testing at ASUS. When they update the mesh-protocol it seems logical that a device like this is also updated....

what I also tried instead of a regular update of the router:
EDIT:
running an other strategy now; factory reset ZenWifi AX mini, updated router to latest firmware (3.0.0.4.388_24243 2024/05/13) and rebinding/adding ZenWifi Ax Mini to the mesh now. Asus is mentioning this to the release notes of the firmware, not a very clear procedure but resetting the mesh-nodes matbe to the trick.

"Please be advised that due to a security upgrade in AiMesh, we strongly recommend against downgrading to previous firmware versions, as this may lead to connection issues. Should you encounter any difficulties, resetting the AiMesh router to its default settings and re-establishing the mesh connection can resolve the problem."

EDIT2: with the latest firmware the (first factory reseted) ZenWiFi-AX-mini-AiMesh-node pair/bind will always fail when running the wizard.
with the previous firmware (3.0.0.4.388_24231 2023/11/07). the wizard is completed successfully. To be sure I brought the node physically close (1 meter) to the router as prescribed.

anybody else running the latest firmware together with a ZenWiFi-AX-mini-AiMesh-node?

 

[Tech9]

For me, the ZenWiFi AX mini is a vital part of my network

This model had no firmware update from Jul 2022. It's 2 years behind already, runs on 386 base firmware. Perhaps your nodes are the issue.

 

[aardbeix15]

[Review] Asus ZenWiFi AX Mini

Author's Note: The original review can be found at my blog - Asus ZenWiFi AX Mini Review @ JayceOoi.com. Hello everyone, meet my very first mesh WiFi system from Asus. ZenWiFi AX Mini (XD4) is powered by a quad-core processor. AX1800 dual-band with MU-MIMO support. WPA3 encryption with...

www.snbforums.com

However it is still advertised as current supported hardware.

 

[slurmsmckenzie]

anybody else running the latest firmware together with a ZenWiFi-AX-mini-AiMesh-node?

Sorry this is a very late reply and likely not useful to you but I am running the following combo without any issues that I'm aware of:

RT-AX86U	Current Version : 3.0.0.4.388_24243-g3b611ea

ZenWiFi AX Mini	Current Version : 3.0.0.4.386_49599-g8352df7

I just did the standard "dirty" upgrade via the web interface and (fingers crossed) do not have any issues. Can confirm that my XD4 is also connected via AiMesh via wired backhaul. Sorry you've been having issues.

 

[aardbeix15]

finally, after +2 years, new firmware for the ZenWiFi XD4!

now running latest on this combo:
- ASUS ZenWiFi XD4 Firmware version 3.0.0.4.388_25041 - 2024/09/05
- ASUS RT-AX86 Series(RT-AX86U/RT-AX86S) Firmware version 3.0.0.4.388_24243 - 2024/05/13

for now it seems to have resolved my issue, still running multiple video/tv-streams to test if the messy traffic, dropped out connections wil re-appear after sometime (my original issue before when running latest router firmware together with a XD4 mesh node).