[Asus RT-AX88U] Experiences & Discussion

[L&LD]

@ankhazam, Which router?

 

[ankhazam]

The one in this undug topic.. the one in my footer... the AX88U

 

[L&LD]

@ankhazam, I could guess it may have been the one of the topic of this thread, but that isn't always the case lately.

As for your 'footer'? Your posts are not showing any signature or other info.

 

[ankhazam]

'Now' they are and yes, I specifically undug this topic not to begin a new one.
So back on the topic... with at least one of the features is it expected for the WAN-DL throughput to drop down that much?
I was observing CPU stats and it wasn't 100% on all cores, barely half of them.

 

[ankhazam]

@L&LD,
I apologize if I got you offended by my post. Just thought that doing my homework of undigging the router topic and saying in my post " for this router to" was enough to hint I meant the AX88U.

I've also dug through some of your posts... e.g. https://www.snbforums.com/threads/b...ta-is-now-available.60037/page-31#post-531024 and you state there that you can achieve >650 mbps downloads:

Fast.com
810Mbps down, 420Mbps up
Latency, 2ms unloaded, 6ms loaded
speedtest.net
2ms 843Mbps down, 543Mbps up

Hence my question is are you using any of the Trend Micro DPI engine dependent features?

BR,
Ank

 

[L&LD]

@ankhazam, no need for apologies! I just like to be accurate.

As for the AiProtection? Yes, I am using it now. In that link you found, I was in test mode and if you read it carefully, it was not done with my full setup and all scripts included, just 'bare' defaults vs. 'bare' defaults of my previous router. (I could have been more clear on that, in that original post).

I don't have the same client devices I had then so doing a 'comparison' test today won't happen.

I don't care about maximum throughput (peaks) as much as I care about a consistent and responsive network experience, with a focus on security and ad-filtering too.

The RT-AX88U is easily the king of the hill today for those criteria when paired with a fast USB drive (close to SSD speeds; Patriot Elite 256GB or soon, the even faster 512GB version), RMerlin firmware with AiProtection enabled, and amtm, Diversion, Skynet, Unbound and a few other choice scripts too. Along with Adaptive QoS and the FreshJR QOS script also.

With all those enabled, I am not pegging my 1Gpbs up/down symmetrical connection on anything except my wired devices. But the consistent Wireless speeds I'm seeing are still above what a fully (and quite similarly) loaded RT-AC86U offered in my network environment too.

Again, I don't want to quote numbers here because the client devices have changed since. But consistency, regardless of load (with about 25 to 30 client devices), overall speed, and total household throughput are all at the highest level they have ever been.

Thanks in no small part to the quad-core CPU and the 1GB RAM of the RT-AX88U and the additional 'snappiness' that Unbound offers too.

The newer 2.2GHz router processors will obviously be better (to be available around September of this year). When they're paired with greater than 1GB of RAM, that is when I'll be seriously thinking of upgrading the network again.

 

[ankhazam]

Thanks for the reply! Nonetheless some numbers would be welcome e.g. asmentioned for my case, running any (or all, tested and doesn't really matter) TrendMicro DPI modules causes router-WAN or LAN-WAN speeds to drop from 950mbps to ~650mbps... then further the pipe adding Skynet dropped my router-WAN speeds tested using spdmerlin to 400/500 mbps DL/UP...

 

[L&LD]

My LAN/WAN and WAN/LAN speeds (wired) are not affected it seems on my most powerful desktop computers. At times, they show a bit slow at about 750Mbps for 'up', but that could be when connmon, ntpMerlin, Scribe and uiDivStats may be running too.

At about 45 feet away, with three walls in between, I can hit almost 500Mbps with an AC client. No AX clients to test with currently (except my phone; but I don't count that).

My Control Channels, Channel Bandwidth, and router location, alignment, orientation, and height have been dialed in for a few years now.

If I had the same AX clients I had in that original test, I have no doubt I would be hitting in the same ~840Mbps ballpark at this same testing location with the router in AX mode.

HTH.

 

[ankhazam]

Duh... guess I need to set it from scratch then and find my bottleneck...

 

[juched]

@ankhazam, no need for apologies! I just like to be accurate.

As for the AiProtection? Yes, I am using it now. In that link you found, I was in test mode and if you read it carefully, it was not done with my full setup and all scripts included, just 'bare' defaults vs. 'bare' defaults of my previous router. (I could have been more clear on that, in that original post).

I don't have the same client devices I had then so doing a 'comparison' test today won't happen.

I don't care about maximum throughput (peaks) as much as I care about a consistent and responsive network experience, with a focus on security and ad-filtering too.

The RT-AX88U is easily the king of the hill today for those criteria when paired with a fast USB drive (close to SSD speeds; Patriot Elite 256GB or soon, the even faster 512GB version), RMerlin firmware with AiProtection enabled, and amtm, Diversion, Skynet, Unbound and a few other choice scripts too. Along with Adaptive QoS and the FreshJR QOS script also.

With all those enabled, I am not pegging my 1Gpbs up/down symmetrical connection on anything except my wired devices. But the consistent Wireless speeds I'm seeing are still above what a fully (and quite similarly) loaded RT-AC86U offered in my network environment too.

Again, I don't want to quote numbers here because the client devices have changed since. But consistency, regardless of load (with about 25 to 30 client devices), overall speed, and total household throughput are all at the highest level they have ever been.

Thanks in no small part to the quad-core CPU and the 1GB RAM of the RT-AX88U and the additional 'snappiness' that Unbound offers too.

The newer 2.2GHz router processors will obviously be better (to be available around September of this year). When they're paired with greater than 1GB of RAM, that is when I'll be seriously thinking of upgrading the network again.

I had been using Quad9, as it does security checks and returns NXDOMAIN for bad DNS lookups, but going to Unbound and feeling it be faster (I really didn't believe it until I tried), I am no longer getting the protection from Quad9.

So, I decided to try out AiProtection. Now I am thinking (and maybe feeling) that the snappiness is gone. That would make sense, AiProtect would need to send all URLs to Trend Micro. I don't think they are doing it at the DNS lookup level like Quad9, and their documentation says URLs, but then how would they work with https sites?

Anyways, curious if anyone else felt it slowed things down....

P.S. it does seem to have a memory leak... seeing my memory usage creep up from 65% -> 68% -> 70%.

 

[maxbraketorque]

Hmmm didn't know there is a GT and RT 5300. The GT5300 is not supported by RMerlin, so its a no-no for me.

Im on RMerlin Firmware since several Years. Just awesome what he delivers and i hope he continues to spread his Firmware love for a long, long Time.

So its now Ac86u vs. ax88u.
Il continue to investigate.

I suggest AC86U. Judging by the forums, I'd say people are having far fewer issues with the AC86U, and its a great performing router. Only reason I can see for an AX88U would be having AX devices, and even then, I'm not sure its justified. Most internet connection speeds are much slower than the max speed of even the 802.11AC. AX might only be justified if you have a smokin' fast internet connection and/or if your WLAN/LAN requires max speed between devices.

 

[digits n bits]

I suggest AC86U. Judging by the forums, I'd say people are having far fewer issues with the AC86U, and its a great performing router. Only reason I can see for an AX88U would be having AX devices, and even then, I'm not sure its justified. Most internet connection speeds are much slower than the max speed of even the 802.11AC. AX might only be justified if you have a smokin' fast internet connection and/or if your WLAN/LAN requires max speed between devices.

what’s the old saying “Once you go WiFi6 you’ll never go back” or some such thing

 

[L&LD]

@digits n bits, I know I won't!

 

[maxbraketorque]

@digits n bits, I know I won't!

I do need fast WLAN/LAN speeds, so I have considered it. Decided to wait and see how long it takes for 2.5/5 gpbe to go main stream in routers.

 

[Makaveli]

I suggest AC86U. Judging by the forums, I'd say people are having far fewer issues with the AC86U, and its a great performing router. Only reason I can see for an AX88U would be having AX devices, and even then, I'm not sure its justified. Most internet connection speeds are much slower than the max speed of even the 802.11AC. AX might only be justified if you have a smokin' fast internet connection and/or if your WLAN/LAN requires max speed between devices.

I would actually say the other way around.

There are most post about the AC86U than the AX88U. Not to mention the AX88U if in your budget has more RAM.

 

[LittleHulk]

Hi all. I want to let you know about my RT-AX88U and the 5Ghz issue I observed. When I first turned it on last week I noticed that the 5Ghz light was off. I let it do the automatic update and the 5Ghz light was still off. After the first login with minimal settings still no 5Ghz. I turned it off and held the reset for about 10 seconds and rebooted it but still no 5Ghz light and it couldn't be found using my iPhone 10X Max. At this point I installed Merlin's 384.15 and followed the steps that L&LD has shared with us for a reset. Still no 5Ghz light or signal. BTW I did use different SSID's than I had with my RT-AC3200. Nothing that would see the 5Ghz with the AC3200 would see it with the AX88U. I do not have any AX devices at this time. I had read the posts about changing the control channel but the only thing that made the 5Ghz come to life was turning off the Wi-Fi 6 mode. So currently that is off and the control is on 40 and all our phones, laptops and tv's that support 5Ghz can see it and connect. I see this as a bug in the Asus firmware where the AX Wi-Fi 6 is concerned. I have also noticed a few other posts from people with the same problem but I can't remember where they were. I haven't posted alot here but I do read alot and I wanted to let Merlin know about my experience. I would like your opinion if you also think this is a firmware issue. I am a bit undecided on if I should return this unit. It's a version A1.1 made in Vietnam.

 

[juched]

I can notice a real power difference between channel 36 and channel 149.

In canada there are different restrictions I know that limit the output.

One odd thing I am seeing is that when on 36 my Xbox one connects to the 5Ghz wifi. But when I’m channel 149 it has issues getting an IP from DHCP and it regularly disconnects. Still trying to figure this out.

 

[Kingp1n]

Hi all. I want to let you know about my RT-AX88U and the 5Ghz issue I observed. When I first turned it on last week I noticed that the 5Ghz light was off. I let it do the automatic update and the 5Ghz light was still off. After the first login with minimal settings still no 5Ghz. I turned it off and held the reset for about 10 seconds and rebooted it but still no 5Ghz light and it couldn't be found using my iPhone 10X Max. At this point I installed Merlin's 384.15 and followed the steps that L&LD has shared with us for a reset. Still no 5Ghz light or signal. BTW I did use different SSID's than I had with my RT-AC3200. Nothing that would see the 5Ghz with the AC3200 would see it with the AX88U. I do not have any AX devices at this time. I had read the posts about changing the control channel but the only thing that made the 5Ghz come to life was turning off the Wi-Fi 6 mode. So currently that is off and the control is on 40 and all our phones, laptops and tv's that support 5Ghz can see it and connect. I see this as a bug in the Asus firmware where the AX Wi-Fi 6 is concerned. I have also noticed a few other posts from people with the same problem but I can't remember where they were. I haven't posted alot here but I do read alot and I wanted to let Merlin know about my experience. I would like your opinion if you also think this is a firmware issue. I am a bit undecided on if I should return this unit. It's a version A1.1 made in Vietnam.

Jsut got my RT-AX88U, my firestick was having issues locating 5ghz. I switched the channel from auto to 36 and no issues so far.

 

[Tommy Grace]

Jsut got my RT-AX88U, my firestick was having issues locating 5ghz. I switched the channel from auto to 36 and no issues so far.

Yeah pretty much all Amazon devices like Fire Stick, Alexa etc can't use certain 5Ghz channels but they will use 36-48 and 149-165 from memory. This is the same on all routers not just ASUS.

 

[Cidious]

Quick questions for the RT-AX88U users here. I'm on a RT-AC86U now and I like to use it as a NAS with a 8TB HDD connected to it. And although speeds are very decent for a router steadily 110MB/s, I can't enable the security features because it will take too much of the processor and throttle the throughput. Also the 1gbit lan limits the HDD speeds.

The RT-AX88U has a more powerful quadcore vs the dual core and also has an option to use Link Aggregation on Lan 1+2. I have a dual 1gbit Intel card and another 2.5GbE realtek port that I can team as I want.

Has anyone tried teaming to the router using the USB 3.0 port as a NAS solution? And doe it improve transfer speeds?

It's the cheapest option I can think of upgrading my network achieving better NAS speeds and I'll get the Wifi 6 bump too although the apartment is kind of small.