Release ASUS ZenWiFi XT8 Firmware version 3.0.0.4.386.49873 (2022/08/04)

[Chippy_boy]

I did go through 8 sets of XT8's. All of them had the same problem. The light of the 2nd node is becoming yellow and the connection drops. So in my opinion this is a FW bug which exists since 2020!! There's only one FW (the beta) which works like it should. And yes I do reset all my nodes before and after installing a new FW.

Somewhat off-topic, tbh I am glad you're not a customer of mine. Did it not occur to you after say attempt ("set") number 3, that maybe, just maybe the problem was not the hardware?

I do despair at some people's seeming disregard for the hassle and expense inflicted on retailers by the constant returning of goods which very often are not faulty at all. There's a guy on another forum who returned 6 or 7 big OLED TVs for various reasons, none of which can now be sold as new and the retailer will lose his shirt on the whole episode.

And here we are and you're on set 8 or 9 and finally deciding it's a firmware problem? Good grief.

 

[Chippy_boy]

One question, after resetting your nodes after a firmware flash, do you restore settings from a saved configuration file, or do you manually restore your settings?

Just curious...if you restore your settings from a previously saved config file, that doesn't always do what you might expect with new firmware.

You should never do that. It defeats the object of doing a full reset, so if you have done a full reset, then you need to key all the settings in again. Or, if you don't want to do that, then do not do the reset in the first place.

 

[RogerSC]

You should never do that. It defeats the object of doing a full reset, so if you have done a full reset, then you need to key all the settings in again. Or, if you don't want to do that, then do not do the reset in the first place.

Never had a problem from restoring a saved settings file that was saved for the same version of firmware and the router was running well at the time that the settings file was saved. However, I have had problems under other conditions, that's what I was trying to say. Not very well, apparently *smile*.

 

[bradbort]

Somewhat off-topic, tbh I am glad you're not a customer of mine. Did it not occur to you after say attempt ("set") number 3, that maybe, just maybe the problem was not the hardware?

I do despair at some people's seeming disregard for the hassle and expense inflicted on retailers by the constant returning of goods which very often are not faulty at all. There's a guy on another forum who returned 6 or 7 big OLED TVs for various reasons, none of which can now be sold as new and the retailer will lose his shirt on the whole episode.

And here we are and you're on set 8 or 9 and finally deciding it's a firmware problem? Good grief.

In all fairness, my own experience with ASUS tech support is that they very commonly can't diagnose firmware issues, and often default to sending new units. In my experience, these new units almost never fix the problem. It's almost always a firmware problem. They need better tools and training for sure, but its not a user's fault if they keep sending him new units.

 

[Raven76]

Somewhat off-topic, tbh I am glad you're not a customer of mine. Did it not occur to you after say attempt ("set") number 3, that maybe, just maybe the problem was not the hardware?

I do despair at some people's seeming disregard for the hassle and expense inflicted on retailers by the constant returning of goods which very often are not faulty at all. There's a guy on another forum who returned 6 or 7 big OLED TVs for various reasons, none of which can now be sold as new and the retailer will lose his shirt on the whole episode.

And here we are and you're on set 8 or 9 and finally deciding it's a firmware problem? Good grief.

I bought 6 Asus xt8 from Amazon warehouse... They were clearly used, but all of them work like a charm, in my two houses!!
I'm sooo happy there is people that return ""faulty"" systems, so that I can spend half the price! ;-p

 

[Chippy_boy]

I bought 6 Asus xt8 from Amazon warehouse... They were clearly used, but all of them work like a charm, in my two houses!!
I'm sooo happy there is people that return ""faulty"" systems, so that I can spend half the price! ;-p

I'm sure you are. Not so sure Amazon are so chuffed about it.

At least they can afford it but that's not really the point.

 

[RMerlin]

At least they can afford it but that's not really the point.

There's documentation showing that for some of the returned products, it's more economical for Amazon to destroy the returned products than to process and handle reselling them through their open box/discounted program. Consumerism at its finest...

 

[chishoik]

Sanity check here guys: Any Canadians able to turn on 80 MHz channel widths on either 5 GHz bands? I can't seem to force the XT8 to use 80 MHz channels, no matter what settings I try, the channel width appears locked to 40 MHz or below. Just curious if this is a normal result of Canadian spectrum drama or if this is a specific issue with my units.

Edit: checked the logs more carefully, looks like Wifi Analyzer apps are just wildly inaccurate, I'm 80 MHz/80MHz for both right now on auto.

 

[RMerlin]

Sanity check here guys: Any Canadians able to turn on 80 MHz channel widths on either 5 GHz bands? I can't seem to force the XT8 to use 80 MHz channels, no matter what settings I try, the channel width appears locked to 40 MHz or below. Just curious if this is a normal result of Canadian spectrum drama or if this is a specific issue with my units.

80 MHz is allowed for all regions in the 5 GHz band. It's 160 MHz that might not as it requires DFS channel availability.

 

[Chippy_boy]

There's documentation showing that for some of the returned products, it's more economical for Amazon to destroy the returned products than to process and handle reselling them through their open box/discounted program. Consumerism at its finest...

Agreed mate. The guy returning the £3,000 TVs 8x (yes 8) was returning them for the most ridiculous reasons like a bit of dirt on the screen. And on each return probably costing the retailer £500, maybe £1,000.

 

[RogerSC]

80 GHz is allowed for all regions in the 5 GHz band. It's 160 MHz that might not as it requires DFS channel availability.

Been using 160MHz. wide channel on 5GHz now for 3 solid weeks on the XT8's, no DFS channels required...the UNII-4 channels just added are really helpful. Working well. I understand that this isn't the case for all regions, but working fine in the US.

 

[OzarkEdge]

Been using 160MHz. wide channel on 5GHz now for 3 solid weeks on the XT8's, no DFS channels required...the UNII-4 channels just added are really helpful. Working well. I understand that this isn't the case for all regions, but working fine in the US.

I wonder if the U-NII-4 band can/will be enabled in the AX86U, AC86U, and other current models.

OE

 

[Chippy_boy]

How does the firmware know whether or not to enable the UNII-4 channels? Is the US hardware physically different from non-US hardware? If not, surely we could force the US firmware update (notwithstanding the fact the power output levels might be in contravention of local laws)?

 

[OzarkEdge]

How does the firmware know whether or not to enable the UNII-4 channels? Is the US hardware physically different from non-US hardware? If not, surely we could force the US firmware update (notwithstanding the fact the power output levels might be in contravention of local laws)?

If the hardware and firmware and regulatory region inwhich the router is sold all permit it, then it's a matter of the firmware enabling it for the region of sale (once it's implemented in the firmware).

Apparently the U-NII-4 band is now implemented on some US region routers.

OE

 

[RMerlin]

How does the firmware know whether or not to enable the UNII-4 channels? Is the US hardware physically different from non-US hardware? If not, surely we could force the US firmware update (notwithstanding the fact the power output levels might be in contravention of local laws)?

The bootloader contains a region code that determines which channels, what power levels and such can be used.

And no, the region cannot be changed. It's hardcoded as per FCC requirements.

 

[RMerlin]

Been using 160MHz. wide channel on 5GHz now for 3 solid weeks on the XT8's, no DFS channels required...the UNII-4 channels just added are really helpful. Working well. I understand that this isn't the case for all regions, but working fine in the US.

You also need a client that supports these channels, and these are still quite rare.

 

[Dodgydrains]

You also need a client that supports these channels, and these are still quite rare.

What are UNII-4 channels? Do these channels support 160Mhz backhaul also are they affected by DFS issues?

If not affected by DFS and supports 160MHz, would be good if enabled in UK too.

 

[OzarkEdge]

What are UNII-4 channels? Do these channels support 160Mhz backhaul also are they affected by DFS issues?

A band of unlicensed 5.0 radio frequencies becoming available for WiFi use.

https://www.snbforums.com/attachments/5ghz-unlicensed-spectrum-png.42459/

Combined with the U-NII-3 band, they permit 160MHz bandwidth without using DFS frequencies.

OE

 

[RMerlin]

If not affected by DFS and supports 160MHz, would be good if enabled in UK too.

It will require the UK to open these frequencies, assuming they aren`t already allocated to something else. So far only the US has.

 

[RogerSC]

You also need a client that supports these channels, and these are still quite rare.

Well, I do have another client, my other XT8 *smile*. I'm using the UNIII-4 channels for 160MHz. channel width mesh backhaul, works very well. Nice addition to the ZenWiFi AX.