ASUS RT-AX88U Firmware version 3.0.0.4.384.7756

[LimJK]

Version 3.0.0.4.384.7756 2019/11/25 70.87 MBytes

ASUS RT-AX88U Firmware version 3.0.0.4.384.7756
- Enhanced the Wi-Fi 6 performance with Apple® iPhone11, Samsung® S10.
- Supported WPA3
- Supported OFDMA
- Supported 802.11k and 802.11v
- Fixed Let's encrypt register related bugs.
- Fixed connection issues between Android and RT-AX88U IPSec VPN server.
- Improved system stability.

Please unzip the firmware file first then check the MD5 code.
MD5: 8d4120bb7af814e7e755dbe3b6bbbb6c

https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/wireless/RT-AX88U/FW_RT_AX88U_30043847756.zip

 

[sanke1]

Thank god. Much needed.

 

[Hawk]

Thank god. Much needed.

Yes, indeed but I will wait for GPL and then Eric to merge changes. Most likely will see 384.15 with included changes.

 

[LimJK]

Hi,
I noticed that OFDMA is permanently disabled in my AiMesh Network (Router: AX88U + 2 Nodes: AC86U) with some strange side effects.

First I go to Wireless - General settings to enable "802.11ax / Wi-Fi 6 mode"

• 802.11ax / Wi-Fi 6 mode : "Enabled"

Then, I go to Wireless - Professional setting where 2.4GHz was shown, I select 5GHz, the moment I got there, I noticed

• OFDMA is permanently "Disabled" (note the change in color of "Disabled")
• Going back to Wireless - General settings, I found the above settings got changed to 802.11ax / Wi-Fi 6 mode : "Disabled"
• Enabling it, I noticed that in Wireless - Professional setting takes me to 2.4GHz screen, selecting 5.0GHz ... the whole thing repeats itself disabling Wi-Fi 6 mode in Wireless - General settings

PS: Could it be because my 2 AC86U AiMesh nodes do not support Wi-Fi 6 mode, so ASUS "intelligently" disabled it in the AiMesh router (?) ... I will continue to experiment with this for a few more days before I go back to Merlin 834.14 beta2.

 

[Hawk]

Hi,
I noticed that OFDMA is permanently disabled in my AiMesh Network (Router: AX88U + 2 Nodes: AC86U) with some strange side effects.

First I go to Wireless - General settings to enable "802.11ax / Wi-Fi 6 mode"

• 802.11ax / Wi-Fi 6 mode : "Enabled"

Then, I go to Wireless - Professional setting where 2.4GHz was shown, I select 5GHz, the moment I got there, I noticed

• OFDMA is permanently "Disabled" (note the change in color of "Disabled")
• Going back to Wireless - General settings, I found the above settings got changed to 802.11ax / Wi-Fi 6 mode : "Disabled"
• Enabling it, I noticed that in Wireless - Professional setting takes me to 2.4GHz screen, selecting 5.0GHz ... the whole thing repeats itself disabling Wi-Fi 6 mode in Wireless - General settings

PS: Could it be because my 2 AC86U AiMesh nodes do not support Wi-Fi 6 mode, so ASUS "intelligently" disabled it in the AiMesh router (?) ... I will continue to experiment with this for a few more days before I go back to Merlin 834.14 beta2.

View attachment 20012

Most likely since your rt-ac86u don't support ax mode, it disable ofdma. You can try remove rt-ax88u from aimesh and do factory reset and see if it is enabled.

With aimesh all router must support same setting in order enable it. In fact my gut feeling tell me it may apply to wpa3 as well.

 

[RMerlin]

Keep in mind that the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz settings are separate, and must be separately configured, clicking "Apply" between band changes. 802.11ax support has to be enabled separately on both bands.

 

[indark]

looks like asus might have break their adaptive QoS w/ this release?

tested after both dirty flash n factory reset, adaptiver qos w/ manual speed cap does not seem to be working

 

[LimJK]

Most likely since your rt-ac86u don't support ax mode, it disable ofdma. You can try remove rt-ax88u from aimesh and do factory reset and see if it is enabled.

With aimesh all router must support same setting in order enable it. In fact my gut feeling tell me it may apply to wpa3 as well.

Hawk,
I spent a bit more time, the only thing I did differently is to Select 802.11ax at the initial Quick Internet setup screen after Factory Reset with 3.0.0.4.384.7756; the last time I deselected 802.11ax. After that I Ran both

• AiMesh Router AX88U Standalone without any AiMesh Nodes, and
• AiMesh Router AX88U with 2x AC86U AiMesh Nodes

Both

• On Wireless - General Settings - 802.11ax / Wi-Fi 6 mode : "Enabled"
• On Wireless - Professional Settings - 5.0GHz - OFDMA: "Enabled"

Keep in mind that the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz settings are separate, and must be separately configured, clicking "Apply" between band changes. 802.11ax support has to be enabled separately on both bands.

PS: On Wireless - Professional Settings - 2.4GHz - there is no OFDMA NVRAM parameter

 

[sanke1]

Ok here are my findings:
1. RT-AX88U with WPA3 enabled + Asus Blue Cave (no WPA3 support) in Mesh mode create 4 separate networks (2 2.4 Ghz and 2 5Ghz networks) AI Mesh fail
2. I now have region selection setting under Wifi Professional Tab.
3. I have decided to dump my Blue Cave and purchase a 2nd RT-AX88U for mesh. Plain incompatibility
4. My Wifi stability and range has increased slightly.

Questions to @RMerlin
Have Asus used new SDK and kernel for this firmware release from Broadcom?
Is it possible to have Speedtest like app running natively on Router's GUI? So I can login remotely and check connection speed instead of WOL-ing a PC.

 

[RMerlin]

Have Asus used new SDK and kernel for this firmware release from Broadcom?

New SDK yes. I doubt there's a new kernel, Broadcom never updates kernels within an SDK, they only apply patches and what not to the same kernel.

Is it possible to have Speedtest like app running natively on Router's GUI? So I can login remotely and check connection speed instead of WOL-ing a PC.

You'd have to ask Asus. I know that there were hints at something like that a few years ago, but it never got finalized.

 

[sanke1]

New setting. This was not there in previous firmware. Which region gives best range?

I have also got access to manually selecting 5Ghz Radar Sensitive channels. Previously they were not select-able.

 

[thaMini]

I'm having problems with this new firmware. Internet is like it is from the dark ages from time to time and the routers internal pages are not reachable or very slow at best.
Reboot fixes it for a couple of hours.
Anyone else experiencing this?

 

[marcosatorres]

I'm having problems with this new firmware. Internet is like it is from the dark ages from time to time and the routers internal pages are not reachable or very slow at best.
Reboot fixes it for a couple of hours.
Anyone else experiencing this?

I have the same issue after firmware upgrade did you find any permanent solution to this?

 

[Frankflash]

did you factory reset send feedback through router

 

[thaMini]

did you factory reset send feedback through router

Not yet. I will do that when I have some time.

 

[sanke1]

This firmware is totally crap. All my wifi devices slow down to a crawl everyday and then the Router's home page does not even open. Reboot fixes temporarily. Both my RT-AX88Us are set up as new by clearing NVRAM.
I am using WPA2 mode only to avoid bugs and other incompatibilities.

ASUS fixes one thing and breaks 2 other things. Beta Life forever.

 

[LimJK]

This firmware is totally crap. All my wifi devices slow down to a crawl everyday and then the Router's home page does not even open. Reboot fixes temporarily. Both my RT-AX88Us are set up as new by clearing NVRAM.
I am using WPA2 mode only to avoid bugs and other incompatibilities.

ASUS fixes one thing and breaks 2 other things. Beta Life forever.

Sanke1,

Understand how you felt I got a fair bit of 5.0GHz dropping down to 20MHz Bandwidth, I noticed in your earlier post that you are using 160MHz Bandwidth, so, you are using DFS channels. Suggestion, I found that fixing both the Control channel and Bandwidth works best for me:

• 2.4GHz Band --> Control Channel: 11 & Channel Bandwidth: 20MHz (channel 11 is least noisy for my place)
• 5.0GHz Band --> Control Channel: 36 & Channel Bandwidth: 80MHz (this will avoid the use of DFS channels)

With regards to Region settings (ie. if you have the options), based on my observation, I recalled that when I have an old RT-AC5300 where I can select Region settings, I found that setting to US gives me best signal strength and works well when AiMesh was first introduced, obviously you have lesser channels available (sorry no logical explanation, just experiential).

Should one of the AiMesh nodes drop to 20MHz, Power Off and ON the offending node.

I am on macOS, I use WiFi Explorer App ... so I can see the characteristic of AiMesh Routers, AiMesh Nodes, any other Routers around me ... I check that once everyday to see if my AiMesh is behaving.

Hope you find a setting that is stable for you.

 

[marcosatorres]

Not yet. I will do that when I have some time.

Let me know if it works for you after hard reset, how come a new firmware breaks the access to the router, do they even test this?

 

[thaMini]

Let me know if it works for you after hard reset, how come a new firmware breaks the access to the router, do they even test this?

I think sanke1 just did this with poor results.
My hunch is that this is not channel or channel width dependant although I will give it a try.

 

[thaMini]

After a very rapidly declining WAF ( vs ) I decided to roll back to the previous firmware. Sorry guys, no time to test.
I wll keep an eye on this topic.