ASUS ZenWiFi XT8 Firmware version 9.0.0.4.386.46980 (2022/02/22)

[RogerSC]

how do i do that?

You don't have to do anything. You can simply use all the radios if you only have one XT8, and no other AiMesh nodes. You can separately name and use all the radios as separate networks, or you can use "smart connect" that groups them together into one SSID and then does band steering, or whatever. Configuring the radios is quite flexible. You can try various configurations and see what works best for you.

You don't have a mesh or backhaul, so don't worry about that part...just don't fiddle with the AiMesh settings, you'll only get frustrated *smile*. There's no other node out there for the AiMesh controls to find, but the router will be happy to try if you ask it to. It'll just time out trying to find other mesh-able nodes, but nothing bad will happen. You'll just waste time. If you don't configure an AiMesh, like if you try and it fails because you don't have any other nodes, the router won't configure a "dedicated backhaul", since that has no meaning without a mesh.

So just relax and enjoy your XT8 without worrying about the AiMesh that you're not using, it's a good tri-band router.

 

[ChibaK]

Hi - fairly new to the forum but have been reading about the XT8 as I have it.

Does this beta firmware resolve the random lag spikes/dropped internet? (note no change in color on the XT8 when it spikes/drops). I have no issue IoT devices.

 

[bradbort]

I have not had those issues before or after the Beta.

 

[bradbort]

Its possible I posted too soon. I just had the nest thermostat show the same behavior…the thermostat itself thought it was online. The router showed it as being online, but the nest and google apps showed it offline. Resetting router did not help. Resetting nest did not help. I ended up moving it back to the guest network. Then I reset the nest again. Then I rebooted the iphone. Now it is back on line. Unfortunately, I can’t tell what actually fixed the problem, or whether there was just a momentary problem with the app.

 

[tgl]

Tried this version today --- it failed within a few minutes of operation. The wireless side still seemed to be alive, but the wired side didn't respond to pings nor pass any data from wireless clients. I'd done a hard factory reset (because the thing seemed entirely bricked right after the f/w upgrade) and put in a fairly basic access-point configuration.

I kind of wonder which operating modes ASUS actually tests, because from my experience, neither access-point nor media-bridge modes work with any reliability. I've had reasonable success with access-point mode with the 42095 firmware, but not with any later release. media-bridge mode seems to be a fail in 42095 too.

 

[bradbort]

That is not a failure I’ve experienced. I have one node hard wired to the main route. It all works as expected, except IOT issues, which seem to clear up if I put IOT devices on a guest network.

 

[sgoldswo]

Tried this version today --- it failed within a few minutes of operation. The wireless side still seemed to be alive, but the wired side didn't respond to pings nor pass any data from wireless clients. I'd done a hard factory reset (because the thing seemed entirely bricked right after the f/w upgrade) and put in a fairly basic access-point configuration.

I kind of wonder which operating modes ASUS actually tests, because from my experience, neither access-point nor media-bridge modes work with any reliability. I've had reasonable success with access-point mode with the 42095 firmware, but not with any later release. media-bridge mode seems to be a fail in 42095 too.

No failures at all here. No node drops, all IoT devices stay connected. No issues at all. I have 3 XT8 units and a powerline network for Ethernet.

 

[sgoldswo]

No failures at all here. No node drops, all IoT devices stay connected. No issues at all. I have 3 XT8 units and a powerline network for Ethernet.

Should also say that the wireless backhaul has been flawless with this firmware. Very impressed. Strongly encourage a WPS button reset and one more power cycle once all nodes are set up.

 

[Saveliy410]

Should also say that the wireless backhaul has been flawless with this firmware. Very impressed. Strongly encourage a WPS button reset and one more power cycle once all nodes are set up.

Yeah, I was also surprised that wireless backhaul is stable on this firmware - no traffic losses at all.

 

[RogerSC]

Yes, this firmware is the most stable since 42095 for me. Everything is working well, aside from the drop-dead dumb messages in the system log ("not mesh client, ..."). I can ignore those, some day Asus might get rid of them. Using wireless backhaul, and performance is excellent and consistent.

 

[Bobdobolina]

Running this version together with iOS devices does not sit well.

A couple of times per day the XT8 will stop transmitting packages to the client. Specifically easy to notice when watching streaming media. First you will try to reload the webpage or clip.
Then you will check w Speedtest to see if everything is ok. That will tell you a first run where download will taper off and then stop. Upload will fail.

After a while the system will crash and force restart and try to locate channels.
Then everything is back to normal for half a day or so depending on how many people are home.

Setup w wireless backhaul as is the purpose w mesh. Signal strength is reported between -49 through -53 between router and node.

I just hope someone from ASUS picks this up because it must be fixed before it goes in to official release.

 

[RogerSC]

We have 2 - 4 Apple phones, an iPhone SE 2020, iPhone 12, and iPhone 13's depending on who's home, plus 2 or 3 iPad's (one old iPad Pro, a new iPad Pro, and an iPad Air), no problems with any of them on this firmware. So I'm not sure what's up with your Apple devices. You might try turning off the "private wi-fi address" on the iOS devices for your home network, that might help. If you've already done that, sorry, wanted to mention it. No problems with "private wi-fi address" here, but I have heard of problems with that.

A few more ideas...Did you do a "reset to factory defaults" on the ZenWiFi when you flashed this firmware? That can help to normalize odd behaviors. Also, you could try selecting specific channels on the 2.4GHz and 5GHz-1 and 5GHz-2 radios, and channel widths as well, rather than letting the ZenWiFi do that ("auto"). Oh yes, one more thing, try the 5GHz-2 radio with 160MHz. channel width disabled if you haven't tried that, DFS channel behavior can be a problem.

Sorry that you're seeing these problems, it would be nice to get to the bottom of them.

 

[Bobdobolina]

We have 2 - 4 Apple phones, an iPhone SE 2020, iPhone 12, and iPhone 13's depending on who's home, plus 2 or 3 iPad's (one old iPad Pro, a new iPad Pro, and an iPad Air), no problems with any of them on this firmware. So I'm not sure what's up with your Apple devices. You might try turning off the "private wi-fi address" on the iOS devices for your home network, that might help. If you've already done that, sorry, wanted to mention it. No problems with "private wi-fi address" here, but I have heard of problems with that.

A few more ideas...Did you do a "reset to factory defaults" on the ZenWiFi when you flashed this firmware? That can help to normalize odd behaviors. Also, you could try selecting specific channels on the 2.4GHz and 5GHz-1 and 5GHz-2 radios, and channel widths as well, rather than letting the ZenWiFi do that ("auto"). Oh yes, one more thing, try the 5GHz-2 radio with 160MHz. channel width disabled if you haven't tried that, DFS channel behavior can be a problem.

Sorry that you're seeing these problems, it would be nice to get to the bottom of them.

Hi!
Those are great suggestions! I will try them all.

However, I think ASUS benefits from getting to know what doesn’t work so they can hopefully fix these things.

Hope ASUS picks these issues up as when the system crashes I cannot find anything written to log
that could help me by providing these to them for analysis.

Again thanks for your advice. Enjoy a hopefully sunny Sunday!

 

[sgoldswo]

Running this version together with iOS devices does not sit well.

A couple of times per day the XT8 will stop transmitting packages to the client. Specifically easy to notice when watching streaming media. First you will try to reload the webpage or clip.
Then you will check w Speedtest to see if everything is ok. That will tell you a first run where download will taper off and then stop. Upload will fail.

After a while the system will crash and force restart and try to locate channels.
Then everything is back to normal for half a day or so depending on how many people are home.

Setup w wireless backhaul as is the purpose w mesh. Signal strength is reported between -49 through -53 between router and node.

I just hope someone from ASUS picks this up because it must be fixed before it goes in to official release.

Not seeing that at all in my use with this firmware. We have many iOS devices, all are performing flawlessly with this firmware (better than 42095). Try reinstalling the firmware and another WPS button reset on all units.

 

[Bobdobolina]

Not seeing that at all in my use with this firmware. We have many iOS devices, all are performing flawlessly with this firmware (better than 42095). Try reinstalling the firmware and another WPS button reset on all units.

Great to hear that everything is working out for you.
Will try the proposed actions.
Would be great if we could be able to update our devices w/o factory reset every time.
Guess this is the result of stacking many open source components w integration issues.
Again thanks for the advice.

 

[Dodgydrains]

This has been the most stable firmware for me. If you are having problems try the WPS full reset to factory reset. Do not restore any saved settings and make sure to forget network on all devices (mobile, pc etc) and set them up again.

If all this doesn't work, send feedback to Asus via web GUI.

 

[ctash]

I’ve been very happy with this firmware. I’ve got two XT8s with wired backhaul. I left my nests on the guest network after upgrading, partly because I have three and hate changing the WiFi setup on them.

Things seem stable with a variety of devices, including iPhones, iPads, XBox, Rokus, and more.

I also have an old RT-AC68R running in repeater mode out in my garage. Usage is low and I wanted to use the extra 5Ghz band on the XT8 for devices, hence not running it as an AiMesh node.

I highly recommend doing the full factory reset and entering all configuration by hand (not from backup) when installing the firmware.

 

[Bobdobolina]

We have 2 - 4 Apple phones, an iPhone SE 2020, iPhone 12, and iPhone 13's depending on who's home, plus 2 or 3 iPad's (one old iPad Pro, a new iPad Pro, and an iPad Air), no problems with any of them on this firmware. So I'm not sure what's up with your Apple devices. You might try turning off the "private wi-fi address" on the iOS devices for your home network, that might help. If you've already done that, sorry, wanted to mention it. No problems with "private wi-fi address" here, but I have heard of problems with that.

A few more ideas...Did you do a "reset to factory defaults" on the ZenWiFi when you flashed this firmware? That can help to normalize odd behaviors. Also, you could try selecting specific channels on the 2.4GHz and 5GHz-1 and 5GHz-2 radios, and channel widths as well, rather than letting the ZenWiFi do that ("auto"). Oh yes, one more thing, try the 5GHz-2 radio with 160MHz. channel width disabled if you haven't tried that, DFS channel behavior can be a problem.

Sorry that you're seeing these problems, it would be nice to get to the bottom of them.

Hi!
Have tested a set of different things. Updated to this version, restored settings from 46061, disabled QoS & 160 on 5GHz-2 as recommended. Node signal strength btwn -48/-50 and approx 50ft from router. Lowered signal strength on 2.4 (width 20) and full signal strength on 5Ghz-1&2, roaming assistant on w disconnect set to -65dBm.
Surprisingly stable + handoff of devices not work as intended without issues of VPN disconnects. Thanks a lot for your advice. Hope my feedback can be of value to someone else experiencing challenges.

 

[rsnhakan]

I had 46061 and could not get this one stable (did a lot of factory resets, wps method and reset button without restoring settings). So updated to this new FW and guess what? Everything is working fine!

 

[Pmlonewolf68]

Ive just updated to this version, seems pretty stable so far, but I've noticed an issue with dynamic dns registration - it always fails. Anyone else have this issue?