[Asus RT-AX88U] Experiences & Discussion

[JemTheWire]

When you say ‘picked up’ do you mean it is second hand?

Perhaps the seller ‘disposed of it’ because it was faulty.

It is not normal for it to forget its settings when powered off.

 

[L&LD]

@msg617 whether brand new or second hand like @JemTheWire suggests, the following may help determine if your router is just misconfigured or has a hardware issue.

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/ax88-packet-loss.62891/#post-563326

With the above steps completed, make sure you follow up with the M&M Config and ideally the Nuclear Reset guides to get your router back to a good/known condition.

If, after carefully following the steps suggested above the issue remains, it is more than likely a hardware issue and you'll need to decide then what you will do for your network requirements (keep, buy new, etc.).

HTH.

 

[koaly]

Hi guys,

My 5 cents. I tested 3 routers with merlin FW and they did work fine except one thing. 2,4 Ghz wifi power is very poor. It is important for all Smarthome devices. I compared the dbm of the router staying in the next room (10 m and 1 wall) and got from 60 to 70 dbm. With the same settings and all ac86u gave me 50dbm.
For me it was easy decision that ax88u goes back and ac86u remains at its power.
I do not know what's wrong with ax88u, either FW or HW, but I would keep my fingers out of this piece of HW.
I hope that ax86u will also get Merlin's FW and it will be an upgrade in all means to ac86u.

 

[Smoke99]

Hi,
I have a bad 2.4 ghz wifi power coverage with this router.
Many smarthome device loose the connection.
I tried to intall Malrin firmware but the problem remains

 

[Maghook]

Hi,
I have a bad 2.4 ghz wifi power coverage with this router.
Many smarthome device loose the connection.
I tried to intall Malrin firmware but the problem remains

Known problem for those who are affected and have been looking for solutions: https://www.snbforums.com/threads/wi-fi-signal-strength-rt-ac86u-v-rt-ax88u.61856/
The chances that Broadcom/ASUS will fix this "feature" are increasing towards zero. Try to shift your devices to the 5GHz band if you can. (Just in case you don't have a faulty AX88u - no apocalyptic or whatever factory reset or change of wireless configuration settings will help you here, I'm sorry. Not Merlin's firmware fault either.)
---
Update:
Oh well... okay, just to make sure that your current settings are "optimized for compatibility and range", as far as this is at least possible at all in this AX88u 2.4 GHz band mess:

• Do a wireless site survey. Search for the least congested channel (1, 6 or 11) and set this channel fixed. (In comparison to other ASUS units, the AX88u has a stronger problem with interference - cross channel interference is hell for this beast)
  
• Turn off everything AX-related for 2G band (802.11ax mode, Target Wake Time, maybe(?) agile Multiband support and OFDMA/802.11AX MU-MIMO).
• Turn off other settings known for producing issues (Protected Management Frames, explicit and also universal beamforming (!) as well as airtime fairness and TX bursting)
  
• Choose WPA2 (Personal or Enterprise) for authentication method and a long preamble. It's up to you if you would like to test with AMPDU optimization being enabled (bad for realtime and voice data traffic, but may help with interference and pushes raw throughput a little bit). Reduce modulation scheme to MCS 7 (802.11n).
• Leave WMM-Settings, multicasting rate and DTIM interval settings alone (factory default). Maybe you could tinker with reducing beacon interval a little bit: 80 or 90 (helps with better reception if all other steps failed so far). Too low will use up airtime by the router and reduce client throughput too much.
• Let your client devices "forget" (delete) the known wireless connection profile, turn devices off and on and start a new /configure the wireless connection on the client side.

That's it. Won't help with the wireless SDK/driver issue introduced lately by Broadcom/ASUS but could be of help with the surroundings.

 

[L&LD]

@Smoke99 you need to give more info.

What are your settings? What steps did you do when installing RMerlin firmware? Which firmware did you try?

Give a few screenshots and more applicable help may be offered.

 

[koaly]

Known problem for those who are affected and have been looking for solutions: https://www.snbforums.com/threads/wi-fi-signal-strength-rt-ac86u-v-rt-ax88u.61856/
The chances that Broadcom/ASUS will fix this "feature" are increasing towards zero. Try to shift your devices to the 5GHz band if you can. ...

Thanks for sharing the settings. I would rather avoid all song and dance around ax88u's 2,4 GHz band as it seems a HW/FW problem and as you said, there's no guarantee it can be solved.
If this 2,4 GHz band for whatever reason is important, my choice is to skip this model and try another one. I keep ac86u and will try ax86u as a head unit if Merlin takes it into his development.

 

[PPBB]

Hi experts,
I have tried to use RT-AX88U_384.18 firmware on my AX88. However when i install.
The speed is very slow and is not running fast compare to teh Asus firmnware. Tried 2 times install and re-install. tried to find solution here, but i cant find
My 5G is there, not missing. but not running 160. any idea y

 

[L&LD]

@PPBB you may want to use the M&M Config and ideally also the Nuclear Reset guides found in the link below.

https://www.snbforums.com/members/l-ld.24423/#info

 

[njhorn]

So I’ve had the ax88u for a couple of months now, feels like recently I’m having to reboot it fairly often as suddenly the network just seems to stop working. On latest stock ASUS firmware. Have done full factory reset but still same issues. Is this the crap driver/sdk issue I see referred to? Anything I can do about it (different firmware?)

Edit 1: I disabled AX on 2.4ghz to see if that makes a difference, I prefer to keep it on for the 5ghz for our iphones if possible... My channel width is set to 20/40/80 and I see my MacBook connecting on channel 157 80Hz

I also have a ton of these in my logs... Only on ports without cables plugged in it seems...
Jul 1 09:34:04 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(464): eth7: Deauth_ind C8:3A:6B:96:722, status: 0, reason: Unspecified reason (1)
Jul 1 09:34:04 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(499): eth7: Auth C8:3A:6B:96:722, status: Successful (0)
Jul 1 09:34:04 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(464): eth7: Deauth_ind C8:3A:6B:96:722, status: 0, reason: Unspecified reason (1)
Jul 1 09:34:04 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(499): eth7: Auth C8:3A:6B:96:722, status: Successful (0)
Jul 1 09:34:04 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(527): eth7: Assoc C8:3A:6B:96:722, status: Successful (0)

 

[Radarblip34]

Hi guys,

I have an ax88u currently running merlin 384.17 and recently followed all the instructions set out by L&LD for a nuclear reset, m&m config, nvram format and sanitize network. While everything was fine for maybe a day, I started getting the same thing that was happening prior and the reason I did a reset in the first place, that all the wifi would drop out, everything would disconnect and then have real trouble coming back online. My wife works from home and I am at my wits end because she is losing her mind at me. Every time she makes a voip call it seems to drop off straight away and then happens multiple times throughout the work day but doesn't seem to happen overnight. She has to connect to her workservers through a work gateway/vpn which i'm wondering if thats partly the problem too? I've also noticed the RAM counter is starting to be sky high its hovering around 701mb's used right now when it's always been about 550mb's used.

If anyone could shed some light I would be most grateful, thanks in advance!

I'm not sure what I should post to help but here is some of the log:

15:56:21 kernel: cfg80211: Exceeded CRDA call max attempts. Not calling CRDA
Jul 1 15:56:22 WLCEVENTD: Auth 34:C0:59:1B:37:5C
Jul 1 15:56:22 WLCEVENTD: Assoc 34:C0:59:1B:37:5C
Jul 1 15:56:22 hostapd: eth7: STA 34:c0:59:1b:37:5c IEEE 802.11: associated
Jul 1 15:56:22 kernel: CFG80211-ERROR) wl_cfg80211_change_station : WLC_SCB_AUTHORIZE sta_flags_mask not set
Jul 1 15:56:22 hostapd: eth7: STA 34:c0:59:1b:37:5c RADIUS: starting accounting session 4A6C1F7F687C426F
Jul 1 15:56:22 hostapd: eth7: STA 34:c0:59:1b:37:5c WPA: pairwise key handshake completed (RSN)
Jul 1 15:56:22 dnsmasq-dhcp[1137]: DHCPREQUEST(br0) 192.168.50.188 34:c0:59:1b:37:5c
Jul 1 15:56:22 dnsmasq-dhcp[1137]: DHCPACK(br0) 192.168.50.188 34:c0:59:1b:37:5c MWooss-iPad
Jul 1 15:56:22 kernel: random: nonblocking pool is initialized
Jul 1 15:56:27 kernel: ubi1: attaching mtd10
Jul 1 15:56:27 kernel: ubi1: scanning is finished
Jul 1 15:56:27 kernel: ubi1: attached mtd10 (name "misc1", size 8 MiB)
Jul 1 15:56:27 kernel: ubi1: PEB size: 131072 bytes (128 KiB), LEB size: 126976 bytes
Jul 1 15:56:27 kernel: ubi1: min./max. I/O unit sizes: 2048/2048, sub-page size 2048
Jul 1 15:56:27 kernel: ubi1: VID header offset: 2048 (aligned 2048), data offset: 4096
Jul 1 15:56:27 kernel: ubi1: good PEBs: 64, bad PEBs: 0, corrupted PEBs: 0
Jul 1 15:56:27 kernel: ubi1: user volume: 1, internal volumes: 1, max. volumes count: 128
Jul 1 15:56:27 kernel: ubi1: max/mean erase counter: 42/24, WL threshold: 4096, image sequence number: 1862459137
Jul 1 15:56:27 kernel: ubi1: available PEBs: 0, total reserved PEBs: 64, PEBs reserved for bad PEB handling: 4
Jul 1 15:56:27 kernel: ubi1: background thread "ubi_bgt1d" started, PID 1966
Jul 1 15:56:27 WLCEVENTD: Auth 84:34:97:B2:0B:CC
Jul 1 15:56:27 WLCEVENTD: Assoc 84:34:97:B2:0B:CC
Jul 1 15:56:27 hostapd: eth6: STA 84:34:97:b2:0b:cc IEEE 802.11: associated
Jul 1 15:56:27 kernel: CFG80211-ERROR) wl_cfg80211_change_station : WLC_SCB_AUTHORIZE sta_flags_mask not set
Jul 1 15:56:28 kernel: UBIFS (ubi1:0): background thread "ubifs_bgt1_0" started, PID 1985
Jul 1 15:56:28 kernel: UBIFS (ubi1:0): UBIFS: mounted UBI device 1, volume 0, name "nvram"
Jul 1 15:56:28 kernel: UBIFS (ubi1:0): LEB size: 126976 bytes (124 KiB), min./max. I/O unit sizes: 2048 bytes/2048 bytes
Jul 1 15:56:28 kernel: UBIFS (ubi1:0): FS size: 5840896 bytes (5 MiB, 46 LEBs), journal size 1015809 bytes (0 MiB, 6 LEBs)
Jul 1 15:56:28 kernel: UBIFS (ubi1:0): reserved for root: 275879 bytes (269 KiB)
Jul 1 15:56:28 kernel: UBIFS (ubi1:0): media format: w4/r0 (latest is w4/r0), UUID B5453CA3-D074-46CD-A5AB-7C084A567601, small LPT model
Jul 1 15:56:28 kernel: UBIFS (ubi1:0): un-mount UBI device 1
Jul 1 15:56:28 kernel: UBIFS (ubi1:0): background thread "ubifs_bgt1_0" stops
Jul 1 15:56:28 kernel: ubi1: detaching mtd10
Jul 1 15:56:28 kernel: ubi1: mtd10 is detached
Jul 1 15:56:28 hostapd: eth6: STA 84:34:97:b2:0b:cc RADIUS: starting accounting session 81EF9D4F4BD0DD66
Jul 1 15:56:28 hostapd: eth6: STA 84:34:97:b2:0b:cc WPA: pairwise key handshake completed (RSN)
Jul 1 15:56:29 dnsmasq-dhcp[1137]: DHCPREQUEST(br0) 192.168.50.19 84:34:97:b2:0b:cc
Jul 1 15:56:29 dnsmasq-dhcp[1137]: DHCPACK(br0) 192.168.50.19 84:34:97:b2:0b:cc dhcppc14

 

[njhorn]

At wits end, could use some advice... Seems like the last month or so (maybe since last official fw update? not sure), my router will just stop working with wifi and need a reboot... I'm on an RT-AX88U with latest FW, and nothing special really set up in terms of settings... AX disabled on 2.4ghz, 160Mhz disabled, separate 2.4 and 5 Sid's... all my devices usually work until they all stop at once (on 2.4 and 5ghz) every so often...

Is there a stock firmware version I should roll back to? Do I go to the newest Merlin FW? An older Merlin FW? What do y'all suggest? I've tried a reset on this thing with no luck in helping... Some more features would be nice so I'm all for Merlin if it will help, I had fun things like grafana/influxdb/telegraf set up on docker on my Synology was for graphing data in the house (currently shut off those containers yesterday to see if it helps at all), and would be fun to send router level data to it as well, but my first thing is making sure this $300 router can at least just have wifi that works more than a day or two

 

[Tommy Grace]

At wits end, could use some advice... Seems like the last month or so (maybe since last official fw update? not sure), my router will just stop working with wifi and need a reboot... I'm on an RT-AX88U with latest FW, and nothing special really set up in terms of settings... AX disabled on 2.4ghz, 160Mhz disabled, separate 2.4 and 5 Sid's... all my devices usually work until they all stop at once (on 2.4 and 5ghz) every so often...

Is there a stock firmware version I should roll back to? Do I go to the newest Merlin FW? An older Merlin FW? What do y'all suggest? I've tried a reset on this thing with no luck in helping... Some more features would be nice so I'm all for Merlin if it will help, I had fun things like grafana/influxdb/telegraf set up on docker on my Synology was for graphing data in the house (currently shut off those containers yesterday to see if it helps at all), and would be fun to send router level data to it as well, but my first thing is making sure this $300 router can at least just have wifi that works more than a day or two

If you are having real issues i would maybe suggest rolling back to 3.0.0.4.384.6436 jut as a test. I found this version rock solid and did have issues with the next couple of releases. I have since moved on to the latest Merlin 384.18 which seems stable for me. I have noticed one issue so far and that is the Bandwidth Monitor on the Adaptive QoS menu has lost its measurement units and doesn't seem to measure the upload correctly.

 

[njhorn]

If you are having real issues i would maybe suggest rolling back to 3.0.0.4.384.6436 jut as a test. I found this version rock solid and did have issues with the next couple of releases. I have since moved on to the latest Merlin 384.18 which seems stable for me. I have noticed one issue so far and that is the Bandwidth Monitor on the Adaptive QoS menu has lost its measurement units and doesn't seem to measure the upload correctly.

Awesome, thank you! The problem is that the issue is intermittent... I also haven't had the issue in about 36 hours, which is when I disabled ax on 2.4ghz and also shut down my grafana/telegraf/docker setup that would send a bunch of data from different devices in the house to my NAS... I doubt the docker stuff was causing this, but if there was some sort of memory leak in the firmware or something it could be... The next time this happens I'm going to nuke and try out the new Merlin first I think, and then if I see the same connectivity issues I'll roll back to 3.0.0.4.384.6436... If it doesn't happen again by end of weekend I'll reenable those docker containers... I don't care about ax on 2.4ghz though, so I'll leave that off

 

[njhorn]

Ugh, switched over to 2.4ghz today on MacBook just to do a speedtest, and would get a no access to internet on it... time to do a nuclear reset on this and get that older firmware I think (or merlin 384.18)

 

[sanke1]

I am using 3 RT-AX88Us on Stock 3.0.0.4.384_9107 firmware and all 3 are having excellent stability. Running stable without restart since 1 month now.

 

[njhorn]

Hey L&LD, going to do a nuclear reset, M&M config, and change to Merlin FW... Only confused as do I do the Merlin FW first? Or after the other two things? thanks!

 

[L&LD]

@njhorn first step is to flash to the firmware you want to use.

 

[njhorn]

@njhorn first step is to flash to the firmware you want to use.

Thanks . It did seem like if I flashed a new firmware than a lot of earlier steps were needed to be repeated . Ok, will flash and do a reset and hope my random wifi issues go away... wife not pleased with this lately lol

 

[Viktar Hushchynski]

I'm looking for help in identifying connection issues with AX88U. Previous setup I had AC86U (as a mesh router on latest Merlin FW) and 2xAC2600 "Blue Cave" (as mesh nodes on latest stock FW). 86U and nodes were connected in a wireless mode. I had some connection drops (maybe once-twice a day), but overall it was working fine.

So I got AX88U and set it up as a AiMesh router and swapped my AC86U to a mesh node. I updated FW on 88 to latest Merlin. Right now they both running 384.18_0:

I have about 25 wireless clients and few wired. My desktop connected into AC86U node with wire. From the wifi settings prospective, I'm using smart connect.

Overall connectivity across the board has never been soooo bad.

This is how the ping looks like from my desktop (connected in AC86U node) to AX88U:

I tried hard reset both routers to factory settings and do a clean setup - doesn't help. I'm using paper trail as a remote log server and logs looks pretty usual nothing critical there.
Probably this is the only unknown one:

Jul 09 16:23:37 RT-AX88U kernel CFG80211-ERROR) wl_cfg80211_sta_info : GET STA INFO failed, -21