Asus RT-AX88u Pro - Odd Product??

[ollimoe]

Just upgraded my RT-AX88u to an RT-AX88u Pro - oddly enough there seem to be no manuals avail at this point in time, also when trying to register the product with Asus the system tells me that the router has ran out of warranty - very strange and odd customer experience yet, support ticket is open. Hope I m not yet sitting on a dead-end street product. Maybe I should wait a bit further before selling the AX88u ... :-(

 

[OzarkEdge]

Just upgraded my RT-AX88u to an RT-AX88u Pro - oddly enough there seem to be no manuals avail at this point in time, also when trying to register the product with Asus the system tells me that the router has ran out of warranty - very strange and odd customer experience yet, support ticket is open. Hope I m not yet sitting on a dead-end street product. Maybe I should wait a bit further before selling the AX88u ... :-(

If you require a manual, it should be on your purchase requirements list.

Product registration is not required and serves no purpose for the customer... you'll get the same Support with or without product registration... you just need the product serial number.

The product warranty period is noted on the box and literature and begins when you purchase the product.

Wait as long as you want before selling your old router.

OE

 

[ollimoe]

I do not need a manual nor the satisfaction to be able to register the router - it was just about product maturity as the whole package feels a bit incomplete or maybe rushed with the go-to-market- have not experienced this with my previous Asus products - especially at this pricepoint.

 

[OzarkEdge]

I do not need a manual nor the satisfaction to be able to register the router - it was just about product maturity as the whole package feels a bit incomplete or maybe rushed with the go-to-market- have not experienced this with my previous Asus products - especially at this pricepoint.

The pricepoint is a function of our times... the remainder of your concerns are 'normal' across many consumer technology product sectors... so, I think you're just piling on unnecessarily here.

You made a reasonable purchase... run with it. The only odd thing about it is the 8-port switch, known to fail prematurely on the previous model... I think its more practical to use a separate switch to manage cabling.

OE

 

[drinkingbird]

I do not need a manual nor the satisfaction to be able to register the router - it was just about product maturity as the whole package feels a bit incomplete or maybe rushed with the go-to-market- have not experienced this with my previous Asus products - especially at this pricepoint.

The fact that the "Pro" features are still only in the beta firmware (VLANs and advanced guest) definitely tells you this router was rushed and is not ready for prime time yet.

At this point all you have is a slightly faster processor over your other router and a couple 2.5 gig ports replacing 4 of the 1G ports (which may or may not be needed in your case, not sure).

However once they do release the Pro features that could certainly be very useful for many who want true segmentation of the guest networks, VLAN support on the wired ports, etc.

Agreed that it is a weird move on their part, guess they saw some competition and had to get something out to catch up.

 

[OzarkEdge]

Agreed that it is a weird move on their part, guess they saw some competition and had to get something out to catch up.

Seems like the normal course of events for bleading edge consumer technology... first hardware, then software, and then documentation if you're lucky. Maybe some OEMs do it better, but then there is some other likely reason why we're not buying their product, like application performance and life cycle cost.

OE

 

[ElmerFudd]

I just bought an AX88U Pro last night and documentation came in the box. At first, it seemed much faster than my original ax88u from when I brought up the web management GUI but once I loaded it with a skynet and Ad Guard Home, it seems only marginally better. ASUS errored in not adding more memory to accompany the “Pro” label and the New chipset IMHO. After testing on several devices including a M1 IPAd pro and M1 MacBook Pro, WiFi speeds of the new unit were comparable to the old Router (maybe a marginal 30mbps gain). The web interface was much faster until I loaded Scripts / Entware and cached file usage went up to near 200MB. E.G. Another Gig of memory would sure help put this in more of a “Pro“ league.

Very few will benefit from multi-gig ports as a single WIFI connection will likely never take advantage of it. Sure, it does not hurt to have a 2.5G connection to my Asustor NAS, but that benefit will only be realized in rare circumstances like when multi users in my household are putting a load on it. You would need to have a multigig WAN and wired multi gig client to see much benefit in real world usage. I would have preferred a 10gbs port to add a real switch.

YMMV but I do not feel like it was worth a $300 expense. Also, I agree that the release seems a bit immature. A router like this should not be shipping with beta firmware and software features line VLAN not turned on at release. Why did Asus not simply integrate YazFi for that? It would have been quicker and as I’m already using it for VLANs.

I could be wrong, but it seems like Asus simply refreshed or improve commonality of components in their performance router line. Its likely less about giving the consumer an upgrade and more about their profit model. That being said…. They still make the best routers with the Merlin add-on on being available. They would adopt RMerlin’s model into the factory baseline if they were smart. We all fear the day @RMerlin retires.

I just wish a waited another 2 years until the BE routers became more mainstream before upgrading. At least I’ll have some peace of mind that there should not be a hardware failure for a few years given it’s all new.

 

[OzarkEdge]

YMMV but I do not feel like it was worth a $300 expense.

I was barely willing to pay $234 for the AX86U Pro on sale... to retire an AC86U node with a reputation for hardware failure, and to learn how to use the coming 3.0.0.6 firmware. I did not expect this WiFi6-to-WiFi6 upgrade from an AX86U router to an AX86U Pro router to make much difference in my network performance... but it is a little snappier. I got what I paid for... I did not buy it for its third party platform... that's too much overhead for my network management goal to keep it simple and most reliable for my users... me and few others.

OE

 

[ColinTaylor]

Why did Asus not simply integrate YazFi for that? It would have been quicker and as I’m already using it for VLANs.

YazFi doesn't use VLANs and is incompatible with AiMesh.

 

[ElmerFudd]

YazFi doesn't use VLANs and is incompatible with AiMesh.

So how does it work if not a vlan? I always assumed Yazfi created Vlans as it seemed to work on some of the same principles. E.G. you can set your own IP ranges for guests networks, control routing between guest networks, within up spaces, and main IP space.

 

[ColinTaylor]

So how does it work if not a vlan? I always assumed Yazfi created Vlans as it seemed to work on some of the same principles. E.G. you can set your own IP ranges for guests networks, control routing between guest networks, within up spaces, and main IP space.

YazFi removes the wireless interfaces (wl0.1, wl0.2, etc.) associated with each guest network from the router's LAN bridge (br0) and creates separate networks for them. Therefore it's just a simple routed network with access between them controlled by firewall rules. This is why it cannot work with AiMesh nodes.

 

[Tech9]

oddly enough there seem to be no manuals avail at this point in time

GT-AX6000 online manual become available just recently. This router is on the market for >1 year.

...definitely tells you this router was rushed and is not ready for prime time yet.

This is common on the consumer market. Marketing first strategy, fixing it later whenever possible.

 

[drinkingbird]

I just bought an AX88U Pro last night and documentation came in the box. At first, it seemed much faster than my original ax88u from when I brought up the web management GUI but once I loaded it with a skynet and Ad Guard Home, it seems only marginally better. ASUS errored in not adding more memory to accompany the “Pro” label and the New chipset IMHO. After testing on several devices including a M1 IPAd pro and M1 MacBook Pro, WiFi speeds of the new unit were comparable to the old Router (maybe a marginal 30mbps gain). The web interface was much faster until I loaded Scripts / Entware and cached file usage went up to near 200MB. E.G. Another Gig of memory would sure help put this in more of a “Pro“ league.

Very few will benefit from multi-gig ports as a single WIFI connection will likely never take advantage of it. Sure, it does not hurt to have a 2.5G connection to my Asustor NAS, but that benefit will only be realized in rare circumstances like when multi users in my household are putting a load on it. You would need to have a multigig WAN and wired multi gig client to see much benefit in real world usage. I would have preferred a 10gbs port to add a real switch.

YMMV but I do not feel like it was worth a $300 expense. Also, I agree that the release seems a bit immature. A router like this should not be shipping with beta firmware and software features line VLAN not turned on at release. Why did Asus not simply integrate YazFi for that? It would have been quicker and as I’m already using it for VLANs.

I could be wrong, but it seems like Asus simply refreshed or improve commonality of components in their performance router line. Its likely less about giving the consumer an upgrade and more about their profit model. That being said…. They still make the best routers with the Merlin add-on on being available. They would adopt RMerlin’s model into the factory baseline if they were smart. We all fear the day @RMerlin retires.

I just wish a waited another 2 years until the BE routers became more mainstream before upgrading. At least I’ll have some peace of mind that there should not be a hardware failure for a few years given it’s all new.

This definitely will be only a marginal upgrade from standard AX88U. If you don't specifically want VLANs/advanced guest functions (once available) and 2.5G ports then it is a waste. Bit faster CPU is the only other difference.

 

[ElmerFudd]

I just bought an AX88U Pro last night and documentation came in the box. At first, it seemed much faster than my original ax88u from when I brought up the web management GUI but once I loaded it with a skynet and Ad Guard Home, it seems only marginally better. ASUS errored in not adding more memory to accompany the “Pro” label and the New chipset IMHO. After testing on several devices including a M1 IPAd pro and M1 MacBook Pro, WiFi speeds of the new unit were comparable to the old Router (maybe a marginal 30mbps gain). The web interface was much faster until I loaded Scripts / Entware and cached file usage went up to near 200MB. E.G. Another Gig of memory would sure help put this in more of a “Pro“ league.

Very few will benefit from multi-gig ports as a single WIFI connection will likely never take advantage of it. Sure, it does not hurt to have a 2.5G connection to my Asustor NAS, but that benefit will only be realized in rare circumstances like when multi users in my household are putting a load on it. You would need to have a multigig WAN and wired multi gig client to see much benefit in real world usage. I would have preferred a 10gbs port to add a real switch.

YMMV but I do not feel like it was worth a $300 expense. Also, I agree that the release seems a bit immature. A router like this should not be shipping with beta firmware and software features line VLAN not turned on at release. Why did Asus not simply integrate YazFi for that? It would have been quicker and as I’m already using it for VLANs.

I could be wrong, but it seems like Asus simply refreshed or improve commonality of components in their performance router line. Its likely less about giving the consumer an upgrade and more about their profit model. That being said…. They still make the best routers with the Merlin add-on on being available. They would adopt RMerlin’s model into the factory baseline if they were smart. We all fear the day @RMerlin retires.

I just wish a waited another 2 years until the BE routers became more mainstream before upgrading. At least I’ll have some peace of mind that there should not be a hardware failure for a few years given it’s all new.

So after using the router for longer, it does seem snapper on web page loading and AdGuard Home DNS processing time was cut considerably (averaging 4ms now, used to be 8-9 Ms) so I would update this to say there is a noticeable improvement vice marginal. Last night my wife could not tell the difference but this evening she finally said there’s an improvement. Im betting it took a bit for the AdGuard DNS cache to rebuild.

Also, I setup a WireGuard VPN server set to use Max encryption (with additional shared key) and it handled two inbound connections over 5G Verizon with ease (processor load was idling 20-30%). I was impressed that it was able to handle two simultaneous speed tests (one on each tunnel) and still get 30-40 mbps down and 10-20 mbps up with all the VPN overhead. That’s plenty enough to watch some 4K and securely access NAS files.

The jury is still out on wether it was worth the $300. Maybe it will get even better as the firmware matures. Still wishing they packed in a bit more memory for us power users.

 

[drinkingbird]

So after using the router for longer, it does seem snapper on web page loading and AdGuard Home DNS processing time was cut considerably (averaging 4ms now, used to be 8-9 Ms)

I'm a car guy, and every modification I make adds a very noticeable improvement In other words, sometimes it is just perception.

That seems a pretty significant improvement for what is effectively a small bump up in processor speed. Have you tried doing a DNSbench with both routers to see if there is in fact a substantial, sustained difference? If so, great, maybe they've made some under the hood improvements that aren't being advertised, just curious really since it seems to be mostly the same router hardware wise.

 

[ElmerFudd]

I'm a car guy, and every modification I make adds a very noticeable improvement In other words, sometimes it is just perception.

That seems a pretty significant improvement for what is effectively a small bump up in processor speed. Have you tried doing a DNSbench with both routers to see if there is in fact a substantial, sustained difference? If so, great, maybe they've made some under the hood improvements that aren't being advertised, just curious really since it seems to be mostly the same router hardware wise.

That would require time which I don’t have right now. AdGuard Home was configured the same on both though with same servers (cloud fare, quad 9, AND GOOGLE) with parallel requests (fastest out of the groups wins), DNS Sec with tls, and a Caching mode so it sure seems to me that the pro has an edge. Sure, one of those servers could have upgraded but I doubt it as things did not get really fast until the cache was built up,

 

[Tech9]

fastest out of the groups wins

Your ISP, Cloudflare, Quad9 and Google all win your browsing habits with this setup.

 

[ElmerFudd]

Your ISP, Cloudflare, Quad9 and Google all win your browsing habits with this setup.

Well someone will no matter who you use…. Hard to prevent that. At least all those DNS providers have a privacy policy for not retaining long term logs. If one has it, why not 3….. no difference at that point. ISP will not gain much as I’m not using their DNS and query’s are encrypted.

 

[Tech9]

ISP will not gain much as I’m not using their DNS

After the query is resolved the ISP gets the IP address you connect to no matter what DNS service you use.

 

[ElmerFudd]

After the query is resolved the ISP gets the IP address you connect to no matter what DNS service you use.

if I was worried about that, I’d be tunneling everything through a VPN. Nothing to hide in my home though other than keeping the bad guys from stealing financials.