[Asus RT-AX88U] Experiences & Discussion

[daedex]

I have a AX88U and am running Merlin 384.13. AiMesh and WAN Aggregation is supported. I can't say how well it works as I don't use these features.

thanks for the feedback! If anything I would do LAN aggregation for my NAS. Not really interested in WAN aggregation, but good to know it is available.

anyone have aimesh running with merlin that wants to pitch in?

 

[Srinivasan Ramamurthy]

@RMerlin

I already have a RT-AC88U. I also have an ExpressVPN Subscription. And as luck would have it, I didn't know about the hardware-acceleration and ended up getting 30 - 35 MBPS using OpenVPN on my 100 MBPS connection.

I was thinking either a RT-AC86U or a RT-AX88U to connect to my internet and also enable OpenVPN (thereby using the hardware-acceleration offered by these routers) to get better OpenVPN speeds (hopefully over 80/90 MBPS) and use my existing RT-AC88U and convert that into an AI-Mesh.

So what would you recommend? Do I get a RT-AC86U or RT-AX88U?

 

[Grisu]

Get the 86U for half price and update in 2 years when AX is approved, than you will get AX routers for the same price and end up with 2 good routers instead of only one AX now.

 

[Srinivasan Ramamurthy]

Get the 86U for half price and update in 2 years when AX is approved, than you will get AX routers for the same price and end up with 2 good routers instead of only one AX now.

Here in India, ac86U sells in amazon for roughly about 2/3rd the price of ax88u.
And my RT-AC88U is still selling for the same price that I purchased it for from Amazon back in 2017. So, prices don't seem to be dropping here at least. So, would it be wise to invest in 86U and 2 years later end up purchasing AX88U for the same price as today?

So, I'm back to my basic question at @RMerlin - for my OpenVPN speed optimisation, should I upgrade my RT-AC88U to RT-AC86U or RT-AX88U, assuming money is not a problem!!

Any information you can share that'll help me take an informed decision, I'll be grateful for it!

 

[Clark Griswald]

for my OpenVPN speed optimisation, should I upgrade my RT-AC88U to RT-AC86U or RT-AX88U, assuming money is not a problem!!

If money is no problem, then buy the AX88U:
-RMerlin Support (#1 reason)
-quad-core chip
-additional RAM
-Warp Speed Enhanced Gold Antennae

 

[Srinivasan Ramamurthy]

If money is no problem, then buy the AX88U:
-RMerlin Support (#1 reason)
-quad-core chip
-additional RAM
-Warp Speed Enhanced Gold Antennae

Thank you. That helps! My hesitation probably arose after reading this topic's various older posts that spoke of instability.

But I also see that @RMerlin has also now uploaded a stable production release. I'd guess that most bugs are out and this is a stable enough release.

And I also wanted to know what changes would I have to make to enable this hardware support to take care of encryption such that my OpenVPN would work at it's FASTEST!

 

[Grisu]

I wont take the AX now, still under development!
And future AX routers in about 2 years will support all WiFi6 features and standards.
And there will be some cheaper ones than AX88U.
Merlin or not, there are still some major problems with AX right now, and Merlin wont and cant fix them as its closed source!

 

[TaylorH]

Well after 12 hours of the router log staying clean. I decided to give "WAN Aggregation" another try. Well that didn't turn out well, even with this setting changed. Here's what my router log showed in a short period of time. Asus needs to figure this out... as there's something wrong within their software.

May 10 12:28:23 kernel: net_ratelimit: 91 callbacks suppressed
May 10 12:28:23 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:23 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:23 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:23 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:23 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:23 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:23 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:23 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:23 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:23 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:29 kernel: net_ratelimit: 83 callbacks suppressed
May 10 12:28:29 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:29 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:29 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:29 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:29 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:29 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:29 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:29 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:29 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:29 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:35 kernel: net_ratelimit: 100 callbacks suppressed
May 10 12:28:35 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:35 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:35 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:35 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:35 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:35 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:35 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:35 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:35 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:35 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:41 kernel: net_ratelimit: 96 callbacks suppressed
May 10 12:28:41 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:41 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:41 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:41 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:41 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:41 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:41 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:41 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:41 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:41 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:47 kernel: net_ratelimit: 82 callbacks suppressed
May 10 12:28:47 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:47 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:47 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:47 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:47 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:47 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:47 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:47 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:47 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
May 10 12:28:47 kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1

I too am seeing these log messages spam the log file. I can’t figure out if I need to disable LAG for now or if it’s OK to keep running? It seems to work well.

I get:
kernel: protocol 0800 is buggy, dev eth1
and
kernel: protocol 0000 is buggy, dev eth1

Overall I’m pretty pleased with it.

Oh, and I am getting 1.2Mbps (gigabit over-provisioned speed) via Comcast cable with aggregation turned on. I don't seem to have any performance problems or any problems of any other kind, just this log spamming.
I also have aggregation turned on on the LAN side to a managed router to get 2Gbps throughput to the switch so that all of my ethernet traffic can fully utilize the pipe and according to my speed tests it indeed does.

 

[dosborne]

If money is no problem, then buy the AX88U:
-RMerlin Support (#1 reason)
-quad-core chip
-additional RAM
-Warp Speed Enhanced Gold Antennae

Having 8 lan ports is what convinced me. The difference in cost really isn't all that much. Not a big deal if ax support can't be fixed (if it's broken) with a firmware update in 2 years. Will make a good secondary router if I need to upgrade in 2 years

 

[Adamm]

Thank you. That helps! My hesitation probably arose after reading this topic's various older posts that spoke of instability.

But I also see that @RMerlin has also now uploaded a stable production release. I'd guess that most bugs are out and this is a stable enough release.

And I also wanted to know what changes would I have to make to enable this hardware support to take care of encryption such that my OpenVPN would work at it's FASTEST!

I've been using the AX88U since it launched and it has probably been the most stable Asus device I've used to date (N56U/AC66U/AC68U/AC86U) . A lot of the time you will find users wifi problems are isolated and due to configuration and/or client issues.

I believe it's also been confirmed by Jack Cheng over at Asus that all Wifi 6 features will be coming to this device with a future firmware update (no hardware update required), so being an early adopter is not necessarily a bad idea.

 

[Srinivasan Ramamurthy]

I've been using the AX88U since it launched and it has probably been the most stable Asus device I've used to date (N56U/AC66U/AC68U/AC86U) . A lot of the time you will find users wifi problems are isolated and due to configuration and/or client issues.

I believe it's also been confirmed by Jack Cheng over at Asus that all Wifi 6 features will be coming to this device with a future firmware update (no hardware update required), so being an early adopter is not necessarily a bad idea.

Thanks! Your feedback helps a lot. Yes, if we have a confirmation from ASUS that the hardware is final and not subject to change, then most issues can be ironed out by them (& Merlin) through software updates.

But Before I bite the bullet and get one, quick question that still remained unanswered for me:
I’m basically buying this for improved OpenVPN speeds on my 100 mbps connection. Currently I’m getting max 35 mbps when using OpenVPN. And hence this purchase. Now in order to utilise the routers’ hardware enabled cryptography support for improving OpenVPN’s performance, are there any tweaks I need to make? Or is it an out of the box feature that I’ll instantly start getting 90 to 100 mbps on my OpenVPN connection (on a 100 mbps line).

Thank you (all) for your help and support. Just need answer for one last question.

 

[Adamm]

Thanks! Your feedback helps a lot. Yes, if we have a confirmation from ASUS that the hardware is final and not subject to change, then most issues can be ironed out by them (& Merlin) through software updates.

Correct, this has been confirmed by Asus reps over at Whirlpool forums (and possibly here too). There is currently a beta firmware with WPA3 and OFDMA support which I am sure will go mainstream sooner then later, then once the GPL drops can be adapted into Merlin's firmware.

But Before I bite the bullet and get one, quick question that still remained unanswered for me:
I’m basically buying this for improved OpenVPN speeds on my 100 mbps connection. Currently I’m getting max 35 mbps when using OpenVPN. And hence this purchase. Now in order to utilise the routers’ hardware enabled cryptography support for improving OpenVPN’s performance, are there any tweaks I need to make? Or is it an out of the box feature that I’ll instantly start getting 90 to 100 mbps on my OpenVPN connection (on a 100 mbps line).

No additional tweaks are needed, assuming your VPN provider can keep up (and your ISP) you will be able to reach speeds of roughly ~250Mpbs. I currently use PIA and can max my 100/40 fiber connection.

 

[Srinivasan Ramamurthy]

Correct, this has been confirmed by Asus reps over at Whirlpool forums (and possibly here too). There is currently a beta firmware with WPA3 and OFDMA support which I am sure will go mainstream sooner then later, then once the GPL drops can be adapted into Merlin's firmware.





No additional tweaks are needed, assuming your VPN provider can keep up (and your ISP) you will be able to reach speeds of roughly ~250Mpbs. I currently use PIA and can max my 100/40 fiber connection.

Yes. I think both can keep up. I have a RT-AC88U and without vpn, I easily hit 100/100 on Speedtest every time. My vpn provider is ExpressVPN and from what I understand, they are one of the best (if not the best), in the business.

So, I think I am quite ready (& excited) to lay my hands on an AX88U.

Thank you so much for your help and guidance (& quickly too)!!

 

[John1228]

I've been using the AX88U since it launched and it has probably been the most stable Asus device I've used to date (N56U/AC66U/AC68U/AC86U) . A lot of the time you will find users wifi problems are isolated and due to configuration and/or client issues.

I believe it's also been confirmed by Jack Cheng over at Asus that all Wifi 6 features will be coming to this device with a future firmware update (no hardware update required), so being an early adopter is not necessarily a bad idea.

Can you direct us to the post that states that the rt ax88u will be able to meet the final wifi 6 draft?

 

[Adamm]

Can you direct us to the post that states that the rt ax88u will be able to meet the final wifi 6 draft?

https://whrl.pl/RfRYbV

frank flash writes...

will the ax get the final wifi6 specs after the draft is finshed or will we need to get new hardware for wifi 6

Hi frank flash,

The existing AX devices are based on final spec of WiFi6. There is no need for new hardware change for the claimed specifications including ODFMA support.

regards,

Jack Cheng, ASUS Australia

 

[Broken Hope]

They can't be based on the final spec because spec isn't final yet.

 

[TaylorH]

Are still making changes to the spec?

 

[Srinivasan Ramamurthy]

They can't be based on the final spec because spec isn't final yet.

What changes do you anticipate between now and the final spec?

 

[Frankflash]

Are still making changes to the spec?

They can't be based on the final spec because spec isn't final yet.

thats what jack said when i asked him any changes will be added in firmware up dates hardware is final there will be no changes

 

[barcote]

Thank you. That helps! My hesitation probably arose after reading this topic's various older posts that spoke of instability.

But I also see that @RMerlin has also now uploaded a stable production release. I'd guess that most bugs are out and this is a stable enough release.

And I also wanted to know what changes would I have to make to enable this hardware support to take care of encryption such that my OpenVPN would work at it's FASTEST!

I thought I'd add my (disappointing) experience as a note of caution as I don't see a lot of posts reflecting it on this forum (which are mostly positive give or take) which in no small part is why I decided it was safe to dip my toe with AX so I bought the AX88U (coming from rock solid AC88U) and had almost nothing but problems with WIFI. The basic hardware is good with a very capable CPU but the WIFI... my lord. In fairness it worked with most of my devices but is no faster than AC as is to be expected - I didn't really see a speed improvement on my ax ready S10; perhaps slightly but not anything to get excited about. Obviously the big benefits of AX are not really speed and this was not an issue for me. But my wife's Samsung S7 was operating at little better than dial up speed with frequent periodic massive latency (5-10s+) to boot and it didn't play nicely with my LG OLED either with a lot of buffering. I wasted some two hours playing with channels DFS/non DFS and toggling professional settings etc - very little channel interference here (I'm not as advanced a user as many on this forum but I think of myself as quietly competent with a fair understanding of what the settings do).

Ultimately I gave up (life is too short) and thought I'd try the AX11000 instead. Crikey - even worse. I missed Merlin which isn't available on that device but that one didn't solve the problem with S7 or LG OLED but also it didn't play nicely with my Samsung S10 either which has an AX chip(!) and the GUI hung every day or two. In fairness both devices were solid with intel wifi cards in laptops and PC. Generally for me at least, what a mess. Both routers have gone back to Amazon.

I see that many seem to be having an OK or even good experience but my experience is WIFI 6 is far from ready for mainstream at least on Asus. Unfortunately I sold my AC88U before I anticipated that there would be problems. I've since bought the AC86U and haven't looked back. It lacks the LAN aggregation I used for my NAS but I don't need it. Otherwise everything is an improvement over the AC88U. It gives better range than the AC88U (possibly due to its more upright design in my setting), love the hardware encryption on the CPU for VPN (means much faster speeds via VPN) and more importantly rock solid WIFI and router for all devices not just some.

AX will be great one day I'm sure and may even be now if you are fortunate with your device profile but you are effectively paying a premium price to be a beta tester. My early adopting days are done. I hope whichever choice you make it works out for you.