Release ASUS ZenWiFi AX (XT8) Firmware version 3.0.0.4.388.22525

[Petie]

For those who have AiProtection enabled, has the check signature icon (for Trend Micro) on the firmware upgrade page disappeared which used to be right above the check firmware icon? Maybe this was by design with the newer release?

 

[Kalis909]

Iot devices offline again, rollback and everything works again. Aqara and netatmo don’t like this new firmware

 

[dnedeltchev]

Iot devices offline again, rollback and everything works again. Aqara and netatmo don’t like this new firmware

Hi there,
Quick question, are you referring to Wi-Fi Aqara devices?

 

[chilu00000000]

For those who have AiProtection enabled, has the check signature icon (for Trend Micro) on the firmware upgrade page disappeared which used to be right above the check firmware icon? Maybe this was by design with the newer release?

Mine is still there on the latest firmware.

 

[Kalis909]

Hi there,
Quick question, are you referring to Wi-Fi Aqara devices?

Yes, all my WIFI IOT devices, I didnt try with Sonos because they use Sonos Net.

 

[Dodgydrains]

Yes, all my WIFI IOT devices, I didnt try with Sonos because they use Sonos Net.

Did you try performing a hard factory reset after updating without restoring settings?

[Wireless Router] ASUS router Hard Factory Reset - Method 6 | Official Support | ASUS Global

There were others who had different issues which were resolved after doing this.

 

[bradbort]

Yes, so far so good for me in terms of stability. In addition, my ooma voip set up is now much more useable. The sound quality has improved significantly.

 

[slrt]

Yes, all my WIFI IOT devices, I didnt try with Sonos because they use Sonos Net.

I used to have plenty of issues with IOT devices a year ago. Once I defined a separate SSID for 2.4GHz and disabled AX on it, it became very stable, including the latest firmware. You should never have your "normal" devices to use the 2.4GHz band anyway, so that mandates the separation.

 

[Kalis909]

Did you try performing a hard factory reset after updating without restoring settings?

[Wireless Router] ASUS router Hard Factory Reset - Method 6 | Official Support | ASUS Global

There were others who had different issues which were resolved after doing this.

I didn't test it, in my own experience it never solves this kind of problem, my setup is boring, I'd rather not waste time and wait for future stable firmware. Asus routers are great but they have a big problem with their software.

Thanks.

 

[Kalis909]

I used to have plenty of issues with IOT devices a year ago. Once I defined a separate SSID for 2.4GHz and disabled AX on it, it became very stable, including the latest firmware. You should never have your "normal" devices to use the 2.4GHz band anyway, so that mandates the separation.

I don't want to have another WI-FI fighting for bandwidth and resources, correct me if I'm wrong. Another thing is isolate your IOT devices for security.

Many people solve iot device problems by using guest network or second WI-FI AP from other brand, but asus should give us stable frimwares

Nobody have similar issues?

 

[slrt]

I don't want to have another WI-FI fighting for bandwidth and resources, correct me if I'm wrong. Another thing is isolate your IOT devices for security.

Many people solve iot device problems by using guest network or second WI-FI AP from other brand, but asus should give us stable frimwares

Nobody have similar issues?

Guest networks are using the same channel and configuration as the main network. In fact, the only difference is in the routing logic. Generally it's best to prevent IOT devices from having access to the Internet at all, and then they can be in the main network. If you have a smart home controller like HomeAssistant, you need to allow it to access the IOT devices, so the network isolation breaks. If you must allow these devices to have Internet access, then a dedicated guest network is the best option. However, security is a totally separate issue from stability.

Simply put, the crappy radio in ESP32 doesn't handle modern protocols like WiFi 6 well. Being very slow, it also significantly hurts the allocated bandwidth for other clients, whether they are on the same network or on another one that shares the same channel. This issue is not specific to Asus, I've seen them with other brands as well. Many suggest to have a dedicated WiFi 5 router for IOT, using a different channel, but I don't see a reason to not use the existing 2.4GHz band for that, after disabling WiFi 6, as phones and laptops should never be using it.

 

[Brian Long]

I rolled out this firmware yesterday to my 4-router AIMESH home network (with ethernet backhaul) with about 75 devices on it. So far seems very stable. Devices include a mixture of laptops, phones, tv's, and IOT devices. Seems to be one of the better firmware releases Asus has put out lately. I did not factory reset the devices after installation, but had recently reset all 4 after the last firmware release (which needed it to make the network stable again).

 

[kelmi2022]

3.0.0.4.388.22525 is the first firmware version for my pair of XT8 HW version 1.0, which really works. Wireless backhaul is stable with 160MHz, does not eat memory, connections do not go back and fort h with nodes. Unless, there is major security issues fixed with becoming firmwares, I will stop updating. One year continuous updates and issues is enough for me.

K

 

[kelmi2022]

Iot devices offline again, rollback and everything works again. Aqara and netatmo don’t like this new firmware

I have Netatmo indoor weather station connected. No issues.

K

 

[BeansBaxter]

Wireless backhaul is stable with 160MHz

Is there a way to confirm the channel bandwidth? I have looked in the web interface and haven't found anything.

 

[j4y-t]

Is there a way to confirm the channel bandwidth? I have looked in the web interface and haven't found anything.

I think you can see it under System Log --> Wireless Log. Scroll down and look for Chanspec in the 5GHz-2 section.

 

[pantsontoast]

I tried this firmware version and experienced the same problem described here with 3.0.0.4.388.21617. Wireless devices won't connect to the secondary node, and a wired device on the secondary node can't reach the primary node. According to the admin interface, the backhaul is "Great". I tried the mesh optimization process and rebooting the node, but not luck. I don't have the time or patience to do a full system reset at the moment, so I'm going to rollback to 21099 again.

 

[kelmi2022]

I tried this firmware version and experienced the same problem described here with 3.0.0.4.388.21617. Wireless devices won't connect to the secondary node, and a wired device on the secondary node can't reach the primary node. According to the admin interface, the backhaul is "Great". I tried the mesh optimization process and rebooting the node, but not luck. I don't have the time or patience to do a full system reset at the moment, so I'm going to rollback to 21099 again.

Did you let the system be some hours? It seems to take some time, before the clients are set to the most optimal node.

K

 

[pantsontoast]

Did you let the system be some hours? It seems to take some time, before the clients are set to the most optimal node.

K

Only about 20min or so. The fact that a client wired directly into the secondary node lost connectivity to the primary node made me skeptical that anything other than a rollback or hard reset would work. Oddly enough the secondary node could still be pinged by any host on the network and showed up in the admin interface normally.

 

[bradbort]

Guest networks are using the same channel and configuration as the main network. In fact, the only difference is in the routing logic. Generally it's best to prevent IOT devices from having access to the Internet at all, and then they can be in the main network. If you have a smart home controller like HomeAssistant, you need to allow it to access the IOT devices, so the network isolation breaks. If you must allow these devices to have Internet access, then a dedicated guest network is the best option. However, security is a totally separate issue from stability.

Simply put, the crappy radio in ESP32 doesn't handle modern protocols like WiFi 6 well. Being very slow, it also significantly hurts the allocated bandwidth for other clients, whether they are on the same network or on another one that shares the same channel. This issue is not specific to Asus, I've seen them with other brands as well. Many suggest to have a dedicated WiFi 5 router for IOT, using a different channel, but I don't see a reason to not use the existing 2.4GHz band for that, after disabling WiFi 6, as phones and laptops should never be using it.

A lot of my IoT issues (nest thermostat, govee home sensors) were solved by putting them all on a 2.4 guest network. I have no idea why it worked, but it did work.