Release ASUS ZenWiFi XT8 Firmware version 3.0.0.4.386.48706 (2022/05/03)

[GBee]

I too have had nothing but issues with this firmware, and worse still I had just moved so my initial assumption was that it was everything _except_ a silent firmware upgrade on the router which wasted the best part of two days of trial and error.

Like others I was seeing issues with wireless backhaul continually disconnecting (flashing blue). When I finally got around to setting up a cable for wired backhaul (my preferred config), everything seemed fine until I realised that no devices were able to maintain wireless connections to the node(s). My laptop was the clearest example of this, it would connect just fine immediately after I rebooted the node, but after a few minutes it would lose connection (deauth) and then subsequent attempts to connect were rejected, my laptop's logs suggest authentication was failing even though it was initially able to connect fine.

Even while wireless was failing on the node(s), I could establish a reliable connection to the router just fine, which suggests the issues are with wireless on a node only.

 

[Joners]

Ok, probably not the best place to ask but does anyone have any recommendations for a mesh system that’s both reliable and gets regular updates. I’ve been through four CT8s and four XT8s and I’m either stuck with outdated insecure firmware or something so buggy that I can’t use it. I don’t care about the speed at this point just reliably.

Posting this after just reverting back to 42095 from this mess.

 

[slrt]

Ok, probably not the best place to ask but does anyone have any recommendations for a mesh system that’s both reliable and gets regular updates. I’ve been through four CT8s and four XT8s and I’m either stuck with outdated insecure firmware or something so buggy that I can’t use it. I don’t care about the speed at this point just reliably.

Posting this after just reverting back to 42095 from this mess.

You don't have to go all the way to 42095. Version 46061 from January works very well. It's just this latest one that is buggy.
As for security, your concern should be only with the router, rather than the nodes. If you have wired backhaul, the AX86 would probably work best, with the XT8s as leaves.

 

[GBee]

You don't have to go all the way to 42095. Version 46061 from January works very well. It's just this latest one that is buggy.
As for security, your concern should be only with the router, rather than the nodes. If you have wired backhaul, the AX86 would probably work best, with the XT8s as leaves.

Just want to second this, I rolled back to 46061 and that works perfectly for me, with my setup.

 

[karma]

Just want to second this, I rolled back to 46061 and that works perfectly for me, with my setup.

it's a lottery.. 46061 didn't work well for me and others but this version does.

 

[Joners]

it's a lottery.. 46061 didn't work well for me and others but this version does.

Same I’ve not had a stable version since 42095 and I’ve tried every release that’s come out (excluding betas).

 

[Joners]

You don't have to go all the way to 42095. Version 46061 from January works very well. It's just this latest one that is buggy.
As for security, your concern should be only with the router, rather than the nodes. If you have wired backhaul, the AX86 would probably work best, with the XT8s as leaves.

The issue is I don’t have a wired back haul, if I did I would just use some standalone APs. I appreciate that the router is the one that needs the up to date firmware. The issue is that every version I’ve tested since 42095 has given me major issues. Either IoT devices not working, wireless backhaul falling over, or random disconnects on the WAN.

 

[areyouben]

I've just installed 48706 on the main. Clients and node connect without issues. I also upgraded the node to 48706, but then the same issues reappeared. No clients could connect to the node, at least not to its 5G network. This time some smart lamps managed to connect to its 2.4G network. So I've now downgraded the node to 46061 and this setup (with the main still on 46980) seems to work for now. I'm going to test this for the coming weekend and if problems will apear I will also try 46061 on the main. Using it in wired ethernet backhaul BTW.

 

[Dodgydrains]

I am having the first set of issues with FW 48706. The main router has randomly rebooted and uptime reset. This has happened 2/3 times in the past 3 days. The first time was after over 7/8 days uptime.

The latest was after 6/7 hours, but this time I had enabled ‘Web and App Filters’ under ‘Parental Control’ for the first time.

I have sent feedback via UI.

 

[areyouben]

I’m not sure if this is firmware related, as I bought the XT8 only a week ago, but both of my nodes broadcast two separate SSIDs on the same channel. The one of the main router node is hidden whereas the one of the secondary node is visible as a wifi network on my devices. They can’t connect to that SSID however. The name of the second SSID has got nothing to do with the name of my Wifi network, it looks like some hashtag and I think it’s probably the same as the default SSID of the backhaul just out of the box (when you choose to unhide it). I use the set in ethernet backhaul mode, with Tri-band smart connect turned on. So all SSIDs should have the name of my WiFi network, I would presume. I thought this all might have something to do with using the 5Ghz-2 on 160Mhz, but after having switched that off, the SSIDs remain. Do you recognize this as normal behavior of the XT8 or should I factory reset or even revert back to 42095?

 

[Thirteen]

Yes. That's normal.

 

[KailBland]

0. Turn off the router
1. Turn on the node
2. Let the node stay on for like 2 min
3. Take something where you can press the reset button with
4. Press and hold the reset button for 20-30 seconds
5. Release the reset button
6. Wait 2 minutes
7. The light on the node should stay blue
8. Connect it through WAN and LAN to update the FW
9. Start the pairing process all-over. My advice: do reset the router too.

Thanks!

 

[Bobdobolina]

Ok, probably not the best place to ask but does anyone have any recommendations for a mesh system that’s both reliable and gets regular updates. I’ve been through four CT8s and four XT8s and I’m either stuck with outdated insecure firmware or something so buggy that I can’t use it. I don’t care about the speed at this point just reliably.

Posting this after just reverting back to 42095 from this mess.

Many will of course react negatively to this but yes there is. Eero Pro 6 is simple (5-10 min install), stable (0 drops/reboots), great coverage (both 2.4/5Ghz), they’ll provide regular (monthly or more) updates and support your device 5 years post end of sales.

Regarding trust - almost all companies as TP-Link etc have the config in the cloud. Same goes for Aruba, Cisco, Zyxel, Ubiquity and so on. Management layer and traffic layer are different things.

Have a look at Evan’s blog and tests and then make up your own mind. https://evanmccann.net/blog/2022/4/eero-6-plus-and-eero-pro-6e-review

I have both the XT8 and the Eeros - one will stay around and one will not. Good luck with your decision.

 

[acc3d]

I took a chance and downgraded only the node to 3.0.0.4.386_46061, and everything also seems back to norm.

 

[tgl]

Regarding trust - almost all companies as TP-Link etc have the config in the cloud. Same goes for Aruba, Cisco, Zyxel, Ubiquity and so on.

I think that's an overstatement. In the past year I've had Netgear Orbis, ASUS XT8s, and Zyxel NWA210AXs, and not one of them required you to keep your config in the cloud --- which I didn't. They all have the option, and you might want to use it if you are responsible for enough nodes that managing each one by hand would be a pain. But if paranoia trumps convenience for you, you can do the local config bit.

(With both the Netgear and ASUS units, assuming that you set them up in mesh mode, most of the configuration happens on the base unit anyway, and propagates to the satellites automatically. So the PITA factor is less than it might be.)

I'd give Netgear a demerit on this score because they make it extremely unobvious that you don't have to use their phone app or their cloud-based config stuff. But it is possible.

 

[RogerSC]

Many will of course react negatively to this but yes there is. Eero Pro 6 is simple (5-10 min install), stable (0 drops/reboots), great coverage (both 2.4/5Ghz), they’ll provide regular (monthly or more) updates and support your device 5 years post end of sales.

Regarding trust - almost all companies as TP-Link etc have the config in the cloud. Same goes for Aruba, Cisco, Zyxel, Ubiquity and so on. Management layer and traffic layer are different things.

Have a look at Evan’s blog and tests and then make up your own mind. https://evanmccann.net/blog/2022/4/eero-6-plus-and-eero-pro-6e-review

I have both the XT8 and the Eeros - one will stay around and one will not. Good luck with your decision.

Well, as the owner of a couple of eero pro 6's that I've tried to use as a mesh, can't say that I can agree with just about anything that you've said. My eeros, using wireless backhaul, are not stable. They may have a reasonable speed for up to 2 days, then they always drop to half speed. I test them every time a new firmware version comes out, and they've never worked reasonably for more than a day or two at my house. I had the eero wifi-5's for about a couple of years, and they were mostly stable and worked fine. I got the eero pro 6's shortly after they came out, and they've never worked well enough to actually use long term. In addition to that, you have no control over your own data, no web admin interface, just a smart phone interface that requires internet to be connected to be good for anything. No system log, or any other useful monitoring tools. So pretty useless for troubleshooting problems, since eero central has all the information that you would expect to have to fix problems. For troubleshooting problems you call eero customer support, and the results from that vary widely. I've called them, and they were never able to help me...they were friendly, but that really doesn't help a lot as a method of fixing problems. You also have the trial-and-error method for fixing problems, but that's not my preferred model, either.

So I have two meshes, the ZenWiFi AX and eero pro 6's. One works, the other doesn't, and I'll bet you can guess which one I use.

Thought I should present the point of view of a long term user of eero products.

[Oh yeah, one more thing (this is next morning), you can't pick which firmware version you currently are using with eero. You cannot revert to a more stable version, if a firmware version that doesn't work for you is pushed to you. You have to call eero support (of course), and see if there isn't a fix for your problems. If not, you have to live with your problems until the next firmware version...I'm a choice person, I want to control which firmware I'm running, not have to run whatever eero pushes to me. One of the reasons that I got rid of the Netgear Orbi.]

 

[comlab]

No stable 160 Mhz connection on the backhaul even with this release. After the first DFS event, the connection remains at 80 Mhz or even goes down to 2.4 Mhz.

I noticed that scp does not work now, the scp-binary on the router is missing.

Yeah, same here, last week tried again with 160 Mhz on the backhaul with 48706, was running okay for a few day until the first DFS events, then it started to act crazy again. Today I noticed that the backhaul was dropping to 40Mhz... I will go back to fix the WiFi backhaul to 80Mhz, at least that way the connections to my 3 nodes stay stable.

 

[tgl]

...I'm a choice person, I want to control which firmware I'm running, not have to run whatever eero pushes to me. One of the reasons that I got rid of the Netgear Orbi.]

I hear you on that --- the main reason I moved off Netgear was they pushed a couple of unstable updates, with no way to revert back to the previous version. I don't do auto updates anymore on any of this gear; AFAICT not one of these manufacturers has adequate software quality control.

 

[nr92cp]

I hear you on that --- the main reason I moved off Netgear was they pushed a couple of unstable updates, with no way to revert back to the previous version. I don't do auto updates anymore on any of this gear; AFAICT not one of these manufacturers has adequate software quality control.

Yeah, I feel you on that. Though credit to Asus, while their proprietary firmwares have caused me frustration, apparently they're extremely supportive of @RMerlin and his work, which isn't always the case across manufacturers. So at least we can flash some awesome firmware one way or another

 

[Bobdobolina]

Well, as the owner of a couple of eero pro 6's that I've tried to use as a mesh, can't say that I can agree with just about anything that you've said. My eeros, using wireless backhaul, are not stable. They may have a reasonable speed for up to 2 days, then they always drop to half speed. I test them every time a new firmware version comes out, and they've never worked reasonably for more than a day or two at my house. I had the eero wifi-5's for about a couple of years, and they were mostly stable and worked fine. I got the eero pro 6's shortly after they came out, and they've never worked well enough to actually use long term. In addition to that, you have no control over your own data, no web admin interface, just a smart phone interface that requires internet to be connected to be good for anything. No system log, or any other useful monitoring tools. So pretty useless for troubleshooting problems, since eero central has all the information that you would expect to have to fix problems. For troubleshooting problems you call eero customer support, and the results from that vary widely. I've called them, and they were never able to help me...they were friendly, but that really doesn't help a lot as a method of fixing problems. You also have the trial-and-error method for fixing problems, but that's not my preferred model, either.

So I have two meshes, the ZenWiFi AX and eero pro 6's. One works, the other doesn't, and I'll bet you can guess which one I use.

Thought I should present the point of view of a long term user of eero products.

[Oh yeah, one more thing (this is next morning), you can't pick which firmware version you currently are using with eero. You cannot revert to a more stable version, if a firmware version that doesn't work for you is pushed to you. You have to call eero support (of course), and see if there isn't a fix for your problems. If not, you have to live with your problems until the next firmware version...I'm a choice person, I want to control which firmware I'm running, not have to run whatever eero pushes to me. One of the reasons that I got rid of the Netgear Orbi.]

I fully trust your assessment and the results from your conditions. Having tested many mesh networks my takeaway is that in order for you to be success with the deployment you need to have a Wi-Fi signal tool (NetSpot etc) so you can validate signal strength from the router to learn where you can and cannot place a node if you want to make sure the node will backhaul to the router using the 5Ghz/6Ghz rather than the 2.4.

Some vendors, as ASUS, have a built in meter to show you the band and signal strength while others, as Eero doesn’t. So for Eero I would recommend to validate that the 5GHz signal strength from the router is good / stable enough to learn where to place the first node. Then repeat for the next aso.

Sorry for the semi-off topic but I just wanted to give more detail to Joners.