[Asus RT-AX88U] Experiences & Discussion

[RMerlin]

What makes it "great" and a better choice than an AC88U?

Hardware accelerated AES-NI has a big impact on VPN performance. USB disk sharing also has much better performance for anyone using it. Based on Broadcom's newer platform, which will most likely get more active long-term support from Broadcom than the old SDK7 used by the RT-AC88U. The switch to glibc instead of a prehistoric version of uclibc also resolves a number of esoteric quirks that can affect general stability. Newer Linux kernel (4.1) which has received a lot of IPv6 fixes over the old 2.6.36 version used by the RT-AC88U.

The overall software stack is much more modern, and provides a lot of improvements over the old one used by the RT-AC88U.

The RT-AC88U is a tough sell, because in itself it barely brings any improvements over the RT-AC68U, while being significantly more expensive. I expect the RT-AC88U to gradually phase out, its mid-range spot being taken by the RT-AC86U.

 

[thiggins]

Thanks @RMerlin. It's significant that none of your reasons cite better Wi-Fi performance.

 

[FBI Surveillance Van #2]

Thanks @RMerlin. It's significant that none of your reasons cite better Wi-Fi performance.

It's at least equal to the RT-AC88U in Wi-Fi performance, but with AX clients, it is faster, right? As in, more Mbps?

 

[L&LD]

Thanks @RMerlin. It's significant that none of your reasons cite better Wi-Fi performance.

And to me too, it all points to better Wi-Fi performance.

 

[RMerlin]

Thanks @RMerlin. It's significant that none of your reasons cite better Wi-Fi performance.

I vaguely remember getting better throughput than with my RT-AC88U when I ran a speedtest after getting the RT-AX88U, but I never noted down my actual test results, so I didn't mention it as a known/confirmed fact. My tablet did report a stronger signal when I was at the other end of my appartment, but I never ran any speed test from it.

 

[Adamm]

Thanks @RMerlin. It's significant that none of your reasons cite better Wi-Fi performance.

So my AX200 wifi card for my finally laptop came today (only took three months ). Did a few quick benchmarks and was able to push throughput to my NAS to around 1.4 - 1.5Gbps for a 36% increase over my previous tests with a 160MHz AC client. These results fit in pretty accurately with the link speed increase (38%).

I think these real world results are a pretty worthwhile improvement

 

[maylyn]

Singapore, 18 November 2019 — ASUS today announced that the RT-AX88U router has been recognized as Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6™ by the Wi-Fi Alliance®. As one of the first home WiFi routers to receive this industry standard certification, RT-AX88U is guaranteed to reliably deliver the full benefits of the latest WiFi 6 technology, ensuring users enjoy the best home-networking experiences.



Benefits of WiFi 6 include up to 2.3X faster data-transfer speeds and up to 4X greater network capacity than WiFi 5 (802.11ac) dual-band routers. Additional benefits include improvements and optimizations for dense networking environments due to the massive increase in the number of connected devices in recent years as well as improved battery life for connected devices.



To receive the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 validation from the Wi-Fi Alliance, ASUS RT-AX88U passed a series of strict WiFi 6 capability tests, including assessments for WPA3 and OFDMA-related transmission. The certification also verifies the capability of RT-AX88U for the latest WPA3 security protocol and Wi-Fi Agile Multiband™. WPA3 ensures devices can connect to the network securely, and Wi-Fi Agile Multiband™ improves resource utilization, enabling RT-AX88U to provide a high-quality connection in changing network conditions.


Just passing the information along

 

[thiggins]

I think these real tworld results are a pretty worthwhile improvement

That's with an AX client that supports 160 MHz B/W and with the ability to use DFS. Neither the Samsung S10 nor iPhone 11 support 160 MHz.
@L&LD How so?

 

[thiggins]

Singapore, 18 November 2019 — ASUS today announced that the RT-AX88U router has been recognized as Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6™ by the Wi-Fi Alliance®.

They must have submitted the product with special firmware. WiFi6 Certification requires UL and DL OFDMA. ASUS has yet to release firmware that supports both.

 

[maylyn]

They must have submitted the product with special firmware. WiFi6 Certification requires UL and DL OFDMA. ASUS has yet to release firmware that supports both.

Not sure of their special firmware, but based on the WiFi alliance information is that they uses 3004_384_7261 firmware for certification. It's passed the certification on 29 Oct 2019 based on the PDF report.

@ ~> http://certifications.prod.wi-fi.org/pdf/certificate/public/download?cid=WFA91821.

The latest current version 3.0.0.4.384.6436 dated 2019/09/25.

Looks like ASUS will be releasing it onto their support page soon.

 

[thiggins]

Not sure of their special firmware, but based on the WiFi alliance information is that they uses 3004_384_7261 firmware for certification. It's passed the certification on 29 Oct 2019 based on the PDF report.

@ ~> http://certifications.prod.wi-fi.org/pdf/certificate/public/download?cid=WFA91821.

The latest current version 3.0.0.4.384.6436 dated 2019/09/25.

Looks like ASUS will be releasing it onto their support page soon.

Thanks for the information. I was going to look up the WiFi Certificate details.

The only firmware supporting OFDMA is the beta 9.0.0.4.384.6396. It supports DL OFDMA in 5 GHz only. I have been asking my ASUS contacts when full support for OFDMA will be released (UL and DL in both 2.4 and 5 GHz). They have not said "soon".

 

[RMerlin]

The only firmware supporting OFDMA is the beta 9.0.0.4.384.6396. It supports DL OFDMA in 5 GHz only. I have been asking my ASUS contacts when full support for OFDMA will be released (UL and DL in both 2.4 and 5 GHz). They have not said "soon".

The only info I had on my own end was that they initially expected to have a non-beta firmware available at the end of October, based on a new SDK. That deadline has passed, and I haven't received any new info. They didn't specify whether they intended to have full OFDMA support with that release, or just partial support.

 

[Panda panda]

Guys.. Coming from a AC87U, I must say after using AX88U for a week, the difference is night and day.. Although expensive, I hope it's worth every penny..

 

[RMerlin]

Guys.. Coming from a AC87U, I must say after using AX88U for a week, the difference is night and day.. Although expensive, I hope it's worth every penny..

The RT-AC87U isn't hard to beat however, to be fair.

 

[FBI Surveillance Van #2]

The RT-AC87U isn't hard to beat however, to be fair.

I suppose the same is true for our five year old Netgear R8000. That’s the nice thing about upgrading at five year intervals - the improvements are REALLY noticeable!

Having said that, I didn’t even consider anything other than a Wi-Fi 6 router because I upgrade so infrequently, and then generally when a significant new technology emerges.

I haven’t had the RT-AX88U that long, but every day I find some kind of improvement in our home Wi-Fi network.

Dong Ngo has somewhat derided the RT-AX88U because it only has a Gigabit WAN port, and Wi-Fi 6 easily exceeds that capacity. I definitely see his point, but at this time my ISP (and I suspect most other users’, as well) offers speeds and bandwidth so far below that, it isn’t yet relevant.

In my case, where we moved our old router to my wife’s office, this leading edge router makes logical sense. I am comfortable dealing with its emerging, immature technology, and so far, there has been no downside.

 

[Jugnu]

Hi Everyone,

My clients keep losing wireless connectivity randomly to AX88U router since upgraded it to 384.13 version. It's been few months now and I didn't bother earlier to post and seek help here to overcome this issue but now it's become annoying for me to ignore it anymore. I remember I had this same issue when I was on 384.11 or .10 until I upgraded to 384.12 and it became very stable then. I was recommended here at the time when this same issue surfaced to turn off some of the features "Airtime Fairness", "Universal Beamforming" and Explicit Beamforming" and these are still disabled to this date, hasn't helped so far. Is there anything else I can do to get this fixed? If anyone can help me out here. Thanks

 

[FBI Surveillance Van #2]

Hi Everyone,

My clients keep losing wireless connectivity randomly to AX88U router since upgraded it to 384.13 version. It's been few months now and I didn't bother earlier to post and seek help here to overcome this issue but now it's become annoying for me to ignore it anymore. I remember I had this same issue when I was on 384.11 or .10 until I upgraded to 384.12 and it became very stable then. I was recommended here at the time when this same issue surfaced to turn off some of the features "Airtime Fairness", "Universal Beamforming" and Explicit Beamforming" and these are still disabled to this date, hasn't helped so far. Is there anything else I can do to get this fixed? If anyone can help me out here. Thanks

What are the clients that are having the connectivity issues?

 

[Jugnu]

What are the clients that are having the connectivity issues?

Laptops and cell phones. It's happening on both 2.4 and 5ghz. I didn't have any issues with connection drops on the previous version 384.12. Has anyone else experienced same issue on 384.13?

 

[FTC]

Hi. I also experienced some wifi unstabilities and clients unable to connect/authenticate, and in a given instance even a router reboot with my RT-AX88. Always with latest versions of Merlin, but I am sure it is not merlin related but probably broadcom's since the common thing that happens before the problems is an avalanche of 'FPM Pool x : Invalid token xxxx freed' log messages whenever some high speed wifi data transfer is occouring . I have done many tests like enabling / disabling hw acceleration, QoS, AiProtection, and several wifi configuration flags, to no avail. Some configurations seem more probe to these problems. Right now what seems to make it more reliable is the combination of the following :

- Disable AX features and 160mhz channels usage
- Explicitly state the channel to use (in my case using DFS or not is irrelevant.. only that DFS will make you wait for radar scanning)
- Disable airtime fairness
- Disable wifi roaming support
- Disable Implicit and explicit beanformings
- Set wifi mode to Auto
- Plus, I set wifi power just one notch short from maximum power (not sure this has any influence at all)
- I am also forcing IGMP mode for my IPTV but I have not related this one to the wifi drops/unstability problems yet.
- I am using AiProtection but not using QoS, so hw acceleration is fully enabled.
- Using currently merlin 384.14 beta 1

As said, these settings do NOT fully eliminate the 'FPM' log messages but they seem to appear very randomly and not in avalanches (at least not seen yet)

 

[Jugnu]

Hi. I also experienced some wifi unstabilities and clients unable to connect/authenticate, and in a given instance even a router reboot with my RT-AX88. Always with latest versions of Merlin, but I am sure it is not merlin related but probably broadcom's since the common thing that happens before the problems is an avalanche of 'FPM Pool x : Invalid token xxxx freed' log messages whenever some high speed wifi data transfer is occouring . I have done many tests like enabling / disabling hw acceleration, QoS, AiProtection, and several wifi configuration flags, to no avail. Some configurations seem more probe to these problems. Right now what seems to make it more reliable is the combination of the following :

- Disable AX features and 160mhz channels usage
- Explicitly state the channel to use (in my case using DFS or not is irrelevant.. only that DFS will make you wait for radar scanning)
- Disable airtime fairness
- Disable wifi roaming support
- Disable Implicit and explicit beanformings
- Set wifi mode to Auto
- Plus, I set wifi power just one notch short from maximum power (not sure this has any influence at all)
- I am also forcing IGMP mode for my IPTV but I have not related this one to the wifi drops/unstability problems yet.
- I am using AiProtection but not using QoS, so hw acceleration is fully enabled.
- Using currently merlin 384.14 beta 1

As said, these settings do NOT fully eliminate the 'FPM' log messages but they seem to appear very randomly and not in avalanches (at least not seen yet)

Hi,

Thanks for the suggestions. Some of the suggestions have already been applied. I'll try the ones that are not and see if that makes any difference.