Release ASUS ZenWiFi AX (XT8) Firmware version 3.0.0.4.388.23285

[ASUS Sufferer]

Woke up and the node is yellow

Sad. Seems I'll need to wait for the next firmware update

 

[kaktus]

Woke up and the node is yellow

Sad. Seems I'll need to wait for the next firmware update

If I were you I would just revert back to firmware version: 3.0.0.4.386_48706
18 day's rock solid without any backhaul issues. I'm completely done and lost confidence with the Asus firmware updates.
I will stay at 48706 for now, despite the security fixes within the new builds.

 

[ASUS Sufferer]

If I were you I would just revert back to firmware version: 3.0.0.4.386_48706
18 day's rock solid without any backhaul issues. I'm completely done and lost confidence with the Asus firmware updates.
I will stay at 48706 for now, despite the security fixes within the new builds.

Thankyou! I don't actually know what I've done but currently with smart connect on and 3 nodes, all at latest, it's working fine


I'm going to just not touch it - if it breaks again I'll do as you suggested!

Same here, so done with Asus upgrades


I've actually got am electrician over and going to run a wire around the house through the walls since I work from home a lot

 

[wt2828]

Woke up and the node is yellow

Sad. Seems I'll need to wait for the next firmware update

My experience was Yellow at Node after I applied latest firmware (version same as this post subject) through the Asus Router App. So far for past 10 days my connection is now normal white. Here's how,
- update latest firmware through Asus App. If the Node is not detectable by the App, I guess need to redo setup via App before you apply latest firmware
- via App, apply Factory Reset. (Yes need to re setup the name, password etc)
- During new setup, select DHCP, select split bands (2.4G, 5G-1, 5G-2)
- Select Backhaul "5G-2 first"
- Connect all devices to 5G-1 (some devices eg. my Sonos speaker cannot find 5G so I connected 2.4G was fine)

My router to node is 20m apart only same level. Works for me hope it works for you.

 

[michel30]

My experience was Yellow at Node after I applied latest firmware (version same as this post subject) through the Asus Router App. So far for past 10 days my connection is now normal white. Here's how,
- update latest firmware through Asus App. If the Node is not detectable by the App, I guess need to redo setup via App before you apply latest firmware
- via App, apply Factory Reset. (Yes need to re setup the name, password etc)
- During new setup, select DHCP, select split bands (2.4G, 5G-1, 5G-2)
- Select Backhaul "5G-2 first"
- Connect all devices to 5G-1 (some devices eg. my Sonos speaker cannot find 5G so I connected 2.4G was fine)

My router to node is 20m apart only same level. Works for me hope it works for you.

I used this now more than 31 days : https://github.com/gnuton/asuswrt-merlin.ng
Since it is set up like this no problem anymore everything stays on green.

 

[walt]

I've successfully used this firmware for roughly 45 days with no issues. 3 XT8's, all wireless backhaul, 1 Gbps fiber Internet service. No node drops/downgrades, no wireless or wired client disconnects, decent-ish performance.

But to achieve that, I had to configure the XT8's for a daily early morning reboot, disable Smart Connect and use the 5Ghz-2 band hard set to 80 MHz bandwidth for the wireless backhaul.

Yay?

 

[djrbx]

I've been running on 388_22525 and have had no issues. I currently have 114 days uptime. I have 2 nodes with a wired backhaul connection. Is this firmware safe to upgrade to?

 

[michel30]

If you have no issues, Don't upgrade...

 

[walt]

Completely agree. I've found the quality control for the ASUS XT8 firmware to be really bad. Even compared to other consumer grade networking gear. If the 388_22525 version works great for you, I'd stick with it for now.

I only upgraded to the 388_23285 release because ASUS Tech Support insisted on it before they would investigate the intermittent downgrades of my wireless backhaul from the 5 GHz band to the 2.4 GHz band when running at 160 MHz channel bandwidth. No improvement with the 388_23285 firmware. As it happens, ASUS Tech Support were no help at all. Not a big surprise.

After I tried hard setting my wireless channel bandwidth to 80 MHz the downgrades disappeared. It's been around 45 days now, and no more downgrades. I'm giving up some performance, but gaining the stability that I needed.

 

[Zenbum]

I've been running version 23285 on a 3-node XT8 mesh system for almost 2 months now with no problems.
Until yesterday, when several issues suddenly occurred all at once.

One of the satellite nodes insisted on using 2.4 GHz for backhaul, even though it should have had a strong 5 GHz signal. And the DHCP server on the main node was misbehaving, refusing to process lease renewals.

Another problem was that the "dcd" process (/usr/sbin/dcd) on the main node kept crashing every 20-30 minutes with the log message "dcd Tainted". Searching through other threads on this site reveals this has been a recurring annoyance with several Asus routers over the past few years.

Is "dcd" still used to implement the TrendMicro AiProtection features? If so, I'm puzzled why it would be running at all since I have all those features disabled. Using ssh, I see "dcd" has 6 threads running under the main process. Is there an easy way to stop it from running? So far I haven't been able to figure out how processes get started and stopped on the flavor of Linux used by Asus.

After shutting down all nodes yesterday and restarting them one by one, I haven't seen any problems in the 24 hours since. The "dcd" process is still running but it hasn't crashed. Yet.

 

[thx10]

So I have been running 3.0.0.4.386_46061 since installation of my mesh have a wired backhaul used for home streaming, gaming, etc.

it seems i have no issues and is stable. only had to reset the remote node once in several months.

should i just continue with current firmware or should I update?

 

[kaktus]

So I have been running 3.0.0.4.386_46061 since installation of my mesh have a wired backhaul used for home streaming, gaming, etc.

it seems i have no issues and is stable. only had to reset the remote node once in several months.

should i just continue with current firmware or should I update?

I would not dare to update if everything is working fine right now. There is a fair chance that an update will break a stable backhaul. I’m completely cured when it comes to Asus firmware updates and (despite the security fixes and new features) will stay on 3.0.0.4.386_48706, which provides me a rock solid backhaul connection.

 

[walt]

I would definitely not update if everything is working fine. Unless you need more excitement in your life. I've found the XT8's to be pretty fragile in operation with very poor quality control of firmware updates. And their tech support is completely useless.

I have managed to achieve totally stable operation for 58 days so far with the 3.0.0.4.388_23285 firmware. But that's after much tinkering with configuration settings and making backhaul performance compromises. Happy to share my settings if anybody is interested. But there's no guarantee that they would work in your environment.

 

[Seven Up]

I finally have a stable and super fast Wifi setup, I kept running into backhaul issues but it seems it was due to mixing RT-AX86U with RT-AX58U for mesh. First off the Rt-AX86U firmware is horrible, memory issues, crashing etc. I went all new hardware. Main router/wifi GT-AX11000Pro 3.0.0.4.388_23556-gfef4962, mesh unites 2 - XT8 v2 hardware 3.0.0.4.388_23285-g5068da5 and 1 RT-AX92u 3.0.0.4.388_23630-g9d6ee22. 5gh-2 backhaul dedicated. I have the GT-AX11000Pro connected 2.5Gb to my Xfinity gateway with 1.4Gb down and 40Mb up, 16ms pings. It's been running two weeks and not a single family member yelling at me due to Internet slow or game lag. I have a 4,500 Square foot home the setup covers basement, main and upstairs. I have 45 devices connected between wired and wireless all the time. Sure the setup was a bit pricy, I was able to get the dual XT-8 v2 hardware on Amazon because I ordered it in white and got v1, sent it back ordered the XT8 dual in black and it's v2 hardware. My RT-AX92u is old but works great now that I have the dedicated 5Ghz-2 backhaul. I am not going to update my firmware unless I am having an issue I hope this helps someone.

 

[Seven Up]

I finally have a stable and super fast Wifi setup, I kept running into backhaul issues but it seems it was due to mixing RT-AX86U with RT-AX58U for mesh. First off the Rt-AX86U firmware is horrible, memory issues, crashing etc. I went all new hardware. Main router/wifi GT-AX11000Pro 3.0.0.4.388_23556-gfef4962, mesh unites 2 - XT8 v2 hardware 3.0.0.4.388_23285-g5068da5 and 1 RT-AX92u 3.0.0.4.388_23630-g9d6ee22. 5gh-2 backhaul dedicated. I have the GT-AX11000Pro connected 2.5Gb to my Xfinity gateway with 1.4Gb down and 40Mb up, 16ms pings. It's been running two weeks and not a single family member yelling at me due to Internet slow or game lag. I have a 4,500 Square foot home the setup covers basement, main and upstairs. I have 45 devices connected between wired and wireless all the time. Sure the setup was a bit pricy, I was able to get the dual XT-8 v2 hardware on Amazon because I ordered it in white and got v1, sent it back ordered the XT8 dual in black and it's v2 hardware. My RT-AX92u is old but works great now that I have the dedicated 5Ghz-2 backhaul. I am not going to update my firmware unless I am having an issue I hope this helps someone.

View attachment 51930View attachment 51931

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Forgot to post this last snap, make sure you go to the ai mesh and see that backhaul is dedicated and select the preferred AP is selected. As in my case, all three should be going direct to the GT-AX11000Pro

 

[Slipsager]

If I were you I would just revert back to firmware version: 3.0.0.4.386_48706
18 day's rock solid without any backhaul issues. I'm completely done and lost confidence with the Asus firmware updates.
I will stay at 48706 for now, despite the security fixes within the new builds.

A bit of a newbie question but where can I downgrade the firmware from? I've got major issues with my four units. Cheers

 

[michel30]

A bit of a newbie question but where can I downgrade the firmware from? I've got major issues with my four units. Cheers

Do you want the original or the custom firmware https://github.com/gnuton/asuswrt-merlin.ng/releases/tag/388.2_2_0-gnuton1 and choose the right firmware for your routers.

 

[Slipsager]

Do you want the original or the custom firmware https://github.com/gnuton/asuswrt-merlin.ng/releases/tag/388.2_2_0-gnuton1 and choose the right firmware for your routers.

I did read your post above and might give that a go if this original 3.0.0.4.386_48706 one doesn't make a difference. I take it the downgrade option is somewhere in the browser version but haven't spotted it so far.

 

[Slipsager]

I would definitely not update if everything is working fine. Unless you need more excitement in your life. I've found the XT8's to be pretty fragile in operation with very poor quality control of firmware updates. And their tech support is completely useless.

I have managed to achieve totally stable operation for 58 days so far with the 3.0.0.4.388_23285 firmware. But that's after much tinkering with configuration settings and making backhaul performance compromises. Happy to share my settings if anybody is interested. But there's no guarantee that they would work in your environment.

I would very much like to learn from your experience, so if you wouldn't mind sharing your settings please do so

 

[Seven Up]

I would very much like to learn from your experience, so if you wouldn't mind sharing your settings please do so

Are you using the 5Ghz-2 channel for backhaul? Also, are all 4 units XT8 or are you mixing Asus routers?