Release ASUS RT-AX88U Firmware Version 3.0.0.4.386.48631 (2022/04/25)

[LimJK]

This firmware has stopped clients from connecting to the node via wifi. Also all clients connected to node via ethernet does not show up under Aimesh. Reverting back to previous firmware solves problem.

Running 2 x Ax88u

Few-jit-tiv,

Wireless can be tricky, milage can be different for different people, for different AiMesh devices, different Region & environment, etc.

For my configuration (see my signature), with Wired Backhaul, it works without any WiFi issues, Both (a) where, I just upgrade firmware over GUI (dirty flash) and run for 24 hours (b) after that, I did a complete Factory Reset and run for over 1.5 days also no issue.

For my Wifi settings:

(1) I always start with DEFAULT NVRAM settings of both Stock and Merlin firmware.

(2) I did the following changes based on what I gleaned from this forum over the years. Maybe, just use it for comparison, so that you can experiment and hopefully can be useful for your situation.

Wireless - General:

• Wireless Mode: I disabled 11b (because I do not have such devices at home)
• 2.4 GHz Channel bandwidth: I set to a fix 20MHz bandwidth
• 2.4 GHz Control Channel: I fix it on channel 11
• 5.0 GHz Channel bandwidth: I set to a fix 80MHz bandwidth … disabling 160 MHz (I have a AC AiMesh Node)
• 5.0 GHz Control Channel: I fix it on Channel 161

Wireless - Professional

• 2.4GHz Roaming assistant: I disabled it (following Merlin’s firmware default)
• 2.4GHz Explicit Beamforming: I disabled it
• 2.4GHz Universal Beamforming: I disabled it
• 5.0GHz Roaming assistant: I disabled it (following Merlin’s firmware default)

Guest Network: I have Guest network 1, setup with only 5GHz band, Sync to All AiMesh nodes

Hoping the suggestion above can be useful. Let me know if you need to do some specific comparison.

 

[Gregory Phillips]

I woke up today to find that the WAN port was red forcing me to reboot the router. Usually when that happens the modem has lost its connection but not so this time so I'll have to keep an eye on it and if it happens again I'll roll back.

 

[neil0311]

I woke up today to find that the WAN port was red forcing me to reboot the router. Usually when that happens the modem has lost its connection but not so this time so I'll have to keep an eye on it and if it happens again I'll roll back.

I had the WAN port showing red on mine as well. I think this build is just a bad one.

 

[Mr Zippy]

Bizarre, I updated 24 hours ago and oddly wifi seems to be 100+Mbps faster, and I do regularly test. It’s even faster on a DX4 node (wired backhaul), so maybe it isn’t wifi but the routing that’s faster for WiFi?

Connection is FTTP 1gbps over PPPoE, normally wifi is 600-650mbps, now I’m seeing 700-800mbps. Wired is 920mbps, as it was before the update.

So far so good.

 

[Fyew-jit-tiv]

Few-jit-tiv,

Wireless can be tricky, milage can be different for different people, for different AiMesh devices, different Region & environment, etc.

For my configuration (see my signature), with Wired Backhaul, it works without any WiFi issues, Both (a) where, I just upgrade firmware over GUI (dirty flash) and run for 24 hours (b) after that, I did a complete Factory Reset and run for over 1.5 days also no issue.

For my Wifi settings:

(1) I always start with DEFAULT NVRAM settings of both Stock and Merlin firmware.

(2) I did the following changes based on what I gleaned from this forum over the years. Maybe, just use it for comparison, so that you can experiment and hopefully can be useful for your situation.

Wireless - General:

• Wireless Mode: I disabled 11b (because I do not have such devices at home)
• 2.4 GHz Channel bandwidth: I set to a fix 20MHz bandwidth
• 2.4 GHz Control Channel: I fix it on channel 11
• 5.0 GHz Channel bandwidth: I set to a fix 80MHz bandwidth … disabling 160 MHz (I have a AC AiMesh Node)
• 5.0 GHz Control Channel: I fix it on Channel 161

Wireless - Professional

• 2.4GHz Roaming assistant: I disabled it (following Merlin’s firmware default)
• 2.4GHz Explicit Beamforming: I disabled it
• 2.4GHz Universal Beamforming: I disabled it
• 5.0GHz Roaming assistant: I disabled it (following Merlin’s firmware default)

Guest Network: I have Guest network 1, setup with only 5GHz band, Sync to All AiMesh nodes

Hoping the suggestion above can be useful. Let me know if you need to do some specific comparison.

Im pretty sure this is something to do with settings. the million dollar question is what.

Question... Why have you disabled Roaming Assistant? if you are using Aimesh wouldn't it make sense to have that enabled? With R.A disabled do you have to manually connect to your different nodes?

 

[LimJK]

Im pretty sure this is something to do with settings. the million dollar question is what.

Question... Why have you disabled Roaming Assistant? if you are using Aimesh wouldn't it make sense to have that enabled? With R.A disabled do you have to manually log onto different nodes?

Few-jit-tiv,

As explained in the note, Roaming Assistant was disabled because I noticed it is the DEFAULT setting on Merlin's Firmware. I have this disabled for years since AiMesh was first available and AiMesh has been working for me since. I do not know how Asus AiMesh is designed, I can only share with you my settings that works for my configuration, hoping that it can be of some help. All the best!

 

[PharmaCyclist]

For me I upgraded with the GUI option and it worked fine; I haven't upgraded my firmware in a long time, so the version I came from I don't know exactly but it was probably at least 12 months old. The new version seems to have improved the speed for my primary devices like my phone which seems to have gained nearly 100 Mbps.

So far the connection seems very stable and I was having some strange glitches with my Nvidia shield (before update) that seemed to be resolved after updating.

The only issue I have noticed so far is that I do not see any of my clients connected in that Android app.. the device I'm writing this on is connected and working great but the only thing I see is the AX58U.

I would call myself an intermediate user and have by no means tested all of the functionality but just wanted to add my experience and the missing client issue to the repository.

 

[Fringe09]

Updated mine yesterday and noticed a few clients temporarily disconnecting. Windows laptop, MacBook Pro, and at least one iPhone. The disconnect happens for maybe 10-20 seconds before re-establishing.

I also have the RP-AC1900.

Rebooted both today morning. Let's see how it goes.

What is the process just in case I want to downgrade to the previous firmware 3.0.0.4.386.46065?

 

[doodlybop]

I got about 2-3 mass disconnects per day with this firmware. Every time the log would show a "FW Trap" event, so it appeared as if the system itself was crashing and restarting itself each time. I downgraded to 3.0.0.4.386.46065 by simply flashing it over the current version, seemed to work fine. Will wait for the next release before upgrading again.

 

[Fringe09]

I got about 2-3 mass disconnects per day with this firmware. Every time the log would show a "FW Trap" event, so it appeared as if the system itself was crashing and restarting itself each time. I downgraded to 3.0.0.4.386.46065 by simply flashing it over the current version, seemed to work fine. Will wait for the next release before upgrading again.

So the process to downgrade is to login to the Asus GUI (http://router.asus.com/), Administration, Firmware Upgrade, and then using the Upload button to downgrade? Of course after downgrading the older firmware first.

 

[doodlybop]

So the process to downgrade is to login to the Asus GUI (http://router.asus.com/), Administration, Firmware Upgrade, and then using the Upload button to downgrade? Of course after downgrading the older firmware first.

I assume you meant "Of course after *downloading* the older firmware first.", but yeah. Gotta extract the .w file out of the zip and upload that.

 

[Fyew-jit-tiv]

For me I upgraded with the GUI option and it worked fine; I haven't upgraded my firmware in a long time, so the version I came from I don't know exactly but it was probably at least 12 months old. The new version seems to have improved the speed for my primary devices like my phone which seems to have gained nearly 100 Mbps.

So far the connection seems very stable and I was having some strange glitches with my Nvidia shield (before update) that seemed to be resolved after updating.

The only issue I have noticed so far is that I do not see any of my clients connected in that Android app.. the device I'm writing this on is connected and working great but the only thing I see is the AX58U.

I would call myself an intermediate user and have by no means tested all of the functionality but just wanted to add my experience and the missing client issue to the repository.View attachment 41046View attachment 41047

Hey dude. Can you do a test for me? Can you enable WPA3 Personal as the only Authentication Method and see if your wifi devices are prevented from connecting you the nodes.

If anyone else using AIMESH fancy testing this and letting me know i'd much appreciate it.

 

[visortgw]

Hey dude. Can you do a test for me? Can you enable WPA3 Personal as the only Authentication Method and see if your wifi devices are prevented from connecting you the nodes.

If anyone else using AIMESH fancy testing this and letting me know i'd much appreciate it.

I have WPA3 personal only enabled for primary wifi network, and WPA2/WPA3 personal for guest network 1 (2.4 and 5 GHz with single SSID) for router with four (4) AiMesh nodes (three wired plus one wireless backhaul). All is good!

 

[PR3MIUM]

Aren`t Asus and Merlin using "uClibc (dnsmasq)" ?

Spoiler: DNS-Poisoning-CVE-2022-05-02

Unpatched DNS bug affects millions of routers and IoT devices

A vulnerability in the domain name system (DNS) component of a popular C standard library that is present in a wide range of IoT products may put millions of devices at DNS poisoning attack risk.

www.bleepingcomputer.com

https://securityboulevard.com/2022/...pular-c-standard-library-putting-iot-at-risk/

 

[autopilot]

Anyone got a link to the previous firmware?

Something is broken with the Dual WAN feature - all devices are being routed through the wrong WAN connection, ignoring my routing rules. Need to roll back until I have time to look into this properly.

Edit - Now downgraded and all working again. The previous version I’ve gone back to is rock solid for me. I run a dual WAN setup, in load balancing mode, but using routing rules to manually force devices to use certain connections (I’m streaming video over LTE as its fast, gaming over my slow VDSL which although slow has much better latency, but I still want a single unified network). That’s broken for me in this lasted version, everything going over WAN1 and the router rules are ignored. I’m not technical enough to say exactly why though, but enough to know it is.

 

[RMerlin]

Aren`t Asus and Merlin using "uClibc (dnsmasq)" ?

uClibc and dnsmasq are two totally separate things.

AFAIK, Linux uses source port randomization.

Also, newer routers are based on glibc, not uClibc.

 

[neil0311]

Anyone got a link to the previous firmware?

RT-AX88U｜WiFi Routers｜ASUS USA

ASUS gaming routers provide the very best gaming experience, with an arsenal of features and tools designed to improve online gaming performance and give you the competitive edge you need to win.

www.asus.com

 

[Fyew-jit-tiv]

I have WPA3 personal only enabled for primary wifi network, and WPA2/WPA3 personal for guest network 1 (2.4 and 5 GHz with single SSID) for router with four (4) AiMesh nodes (three wired plus one wireless backhaul). All is good!

Thanks for info. I should have ask for those who are using the same Hardware config as i am. 2 x AX88u.

 

[d5aqoep]

A year ago, WPA3 wasn't allowed and router changed encryption to WPA2 if we added a node.
WPA3 allowed for AiMesh now?

 

[Fyew-jit-tiv]

A year ago, WPA3 wasn't allowed and router changed encryption to WPA2 if we added a node.
WPA3 allowed for AiMesh now?

I been using WPA3 with nodes since oct 2021 when i introduce my 2nd AX88u.