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Release Asuswrt-Merlin 388.1 is now available for all supported Wifi 6 models

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Disastrous upgrade with my RT-AX88U router (loss of Internet, ect). I had to revert back to the 386 firmware and restore many of my settings manually, even though I had a backup configuration for that firmware version. It took me several hours to get everything back to normal, in between doing many other domestic tasks, so I won't be upgrading again in a hurry.
Changed my mind - I decided to give it another go by using a clean install. The only problem I've encountered so far is I cannot export the VPN configuration file. I've tried using Edge & Chrome and also temporarily disabling Avast antivirus and associated browser plugins, although I've not had a problem with those before, except that I now have to disable it when updating the firmware. What happens is that the download just hangs and if I exit the browser, I get a warning message saying that the download hasn't finished and closing my browser will terminate it. I'll try rebooting my laptop to see if that makes any difference, but has anyone else had this problem?
 
Changed my mind - I decided to give it another go by using a clean install. The only problem I've encountered so far is I cannot export the VPN configuration file. I've tried using Edge & Chrome and also temporarily disabling Avast antivirus and associated browser plugins, although I've not had a problem with those before, except that I now have to disable it when updating the firmware. What happens is that the download just hangs and if I exit the browser, I get a warning message saying that the download hasn't finished and closing my browser will terminate it. I'll try rebooting my laptop to see if that makes any difference, but has anyone else had this problem?
Rebooting my laptop has fixed the problem. All seems to be OK now, but I will continue to monitor the situation and report back if I notice anything else.
 
IPv6 support for asuscomm ddns doesn't work with ISP's IPv4 PPPoE and HE's IPv6 6in4 tunnel. It seems to be a bug of the ddns client, not ddns provider. Log says
Code:
ddns: ppp0 has not yet obtained an WAN IPv6 address.
and ddns would refuse to update. There is no IPv6 from ISP's IPv4 PPPoE so obviously it can't find an IPv6 address. Temporary workaround is simply disabling IPv6 support in ddns setting so at least it updates ddns with IPv4 address.

Otherwise dirty upgraded from 386.7_2 to 388.1 with no problems at all. Thanks again for this wonderful firmware.
 
I use HE's 6in4 service. I found I had to remove the DDNS domain from noip's server the re-add it as an AAAA domain. Then select Ipv6 in the DDNS client on the router.
 
@skeal Thank you for your post (https://www.snbforums.com/threads/a...all-supported-wifi-6-models.82084/post-808618)
It forced me to re-research & clarify a-few of my own WiFi misunderstandings.
What I was missing was...
Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS) is NOT ONLY used for the Weather Radar Channels of (120-128) [Maybe channels 116-132]
DFS can be used for Channels 52-144
So some of what I was referring to as Auto is in-fact DFS.
Soooo much of the DFS documentation is specifically written about Radar this & Radar that...
Yah ya I get it, when Radar is detected... you can't use those Channels for at least 30minutes (Not very stable IMO).
But the router should re-assign you to a channel OUTSIDE of the Weather Radar Channels yet still within the DFS block.
Part of what was confusing me was the checkbox:
_ Auto select channel including DFS channels
ONLY appears if you select the Channel Bandwidth to: 20/40/80 MHz (Or) 20/40/80/160 MHz (with 160MHz enabled)

So in short...
DFS was not specifically tied to 160Mhz (Although it can be inclusive)
DFS can also be used for...
Channel Bandwidth to: 20/40/80 MHz

(I really hope that made sense)
 
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Back to Wifi, an observation - since picking a channel for both frequencies vs Auto and loading the stock firmware on the AX86s mesh nodes while running 388.1 on the AX88, everything continues to be increadibly stable from a connectivity perspective. But running Ookla Speedtest (and others) from my iPhone 12 while connected to the router or the mesh nodes the results are very different. Note that the Mesh nodes are wired backhaul, running 160Mhz/DFS and 802.11ax.

At every run, at random times of the day/night and random servers for a better average. I've observed an average 100Mbps, to as much as 250Mbps difference in the results on download and upload results. For example, yesterday afternoon running both Speedtest (Ookla) and FAST (Netflix) while connected to the AX86s, got as high as 840Mbps down / 780Mbps up, best run. Then connected to the AX88 - wireless log on router shows 2 (ax) 80Mhz - 650Mbps down / 560Mbps up, also best run. This is just one result but on average represents the delta between being connected via the AX86 mesh nodes running stock firmware vs the AX88 router on 388.1 - as all the streaming devices (TVs and DTV boxes) are wired (to the AX86s as well as the AX88), wireless performance is mostly for the Alex Echo, IOT devices/cameras, Tablets and a couple of Laptops, so not too big of a deal, the results are more than enough bandwidth for those. I'll add that router CPU averaging in the single digits, spdMerlin results 920-940Mbs in either direction on average. Prior releases firmware, most recently when running 386.7-2 on all three, the results were almost the same regardless which device I was connected to, any difference was negligable when averaged out.

Just sharing the observation because of the large and consistent delta of the results while connected to specific devices running specific firmware and all the wireless stability issues that have been reported with the WiFi driver used in the various firmware releases.

Your mieage may vary...
 
@aex.perez Interesting observation (I'm just going from my memory) but didn't the older AiMesh firmware(s) use to allow us to actually set the Wired Ethernet backhaul?
The newer firware allows: Auto & 5G
My Point is...
Auto would still be inclusive of radio AKA WiFi-Mesh (Good intent would be Self Healing Wifi Mesh from a broken or bad ethernet cable).
Reality Check, A hardwired Ethernet cable is always faster & not very likely to go bad.
Hence setting: ONLY wired Ethernet backhaul should free up some bandwidth
Shouldn't it?
But apparently we can no longer do so...
 
Yah ya I get it, when Radar is detected... you can't use those Channels for at least 30minutes (Not very stable IMO).
But the router should re-assign you to a channel OUTSIDE of the Weather Radar Channels yet still within the DFS block.
There's no requirement that the new channel has to be within the DFS block. In fact, in my experience I've never seen it do that. It's always chosen a primary channel between 36 and 48 (usually 48).
 
@aex.perez Interesting observation (I'm just going from my memory) but didn't the older AiMesh firmware(s) use to allow us to actually set the Wired Ethernet backhaul?
The newer firware allows: Auto & 5G
My Point is...
Auto would still be inclusive of radio AKA WiFi-Mesh (Good intent would be Self Healing Wifi Mesh from a broken or bad ethernet cable).
Reality Check, A hardwired Ethernet cable is always faster & not very likely to go bad.
Hence setting: ONLY wired Ethernet backhaul should free up some bandwidth
Shouldn't it?
But apparently we can no longer do so...
Here, this will help
Wired back haul does free up wireless from having to support that traffic/connectivity.

AiMesh:
1671127226201.png
1671127265776.png


Wireless General:
1671127302362.png


Wireless Log 5Ghx (subset)
1671127749372.png


Running Firmware:
1671127342056.png
 
@ColinTaylor Thanks for the correction, appreciated.

@aex.perez I think you missed my point & I'm not sure I understand what you are trying to (show/tell) me.
I certainly do see a successful hardwired Ethernet connection between the RT-AX88U into TWO different RT-AX86U Nodes highlighted one says 1Gbps.
And the Wireless log 5GHz seems to show... ((Hang-on is the wording confusing some of us people.))
Channel Cleared for Radar
This likely means the channel was checked & no radar was found hence it's being used.
It doesn't mean that Radar was found on this channel recently... so it was cleared/vacated.

Anyways your screen shots seem to show your WiFi working as expected however what a single screenshot misses is...
The speeds of the Rx/Tx are not STATIC...
They will change (both up & down) accordingly as associated with network traffic & noise.

But I'm probably still missing your point.
Perhaps you were trying to show me that if your router is using WiFi Mesh it should indicate so within the GUI.
But what I was theorizing is...
Perhaps some resources are occasionally being utilized to periodically check the WiFi despite being connected via Ethernet backhaul.
(In fact) Isn't that what DFS need to do, check almost constantly?

IMO Mesh will never be able to outperform a true AP.
Because all components share the same channel, while AP's can be put on separate channels & used to their full potential.
Even if AiMesh uses hardwired back-haul, the router & nodes will still cue up their WiFi requests.
Notice how the SSID waveforms overlap...
It's very similar to sharing the channel with thy neighbors, isn't it?

EDIT: Sorry all the graphics confused me...
I understood from the previous post: You thought the previous firmware gave you better speeds & performance, right?
 
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GT-AX11000 - Cant dirty upgrade, disable adguard, tried in chrome and edge. Over 10 times, still says upgrade unsuccessfull. Downloaded again, extracted - same issue

Any help
 
@aex.perez Interesting observation (I'm just going from my memory) but didn't the older AiMesh firmware(s) use to allow us to actually set the Wired Ethernet backhaul?
The newer firware allows: Auto & 5G
My Point is...
Auto would still be inclusive of radio AKA WiFi-Mesh (Good intent would be Self Healing Wifi Mesh from a broken or bad ethernet cable).
Reality Check, A hardwired Ethernet cable is always faster & not very likely to go bad.
Hence setting: ONLY wired Ethernet backhaul should free up some bandwidth
Shouldn't it?
But apparently we can no longer do so...
You can choose exclusive Ethernet backhaul: AiMesh > System Settings > Ethernet Backhaul Mode.

And the popup tooltip says exactly why you're espowsing its use:
1671140205845.png


It is isolated from the place in the UI where you see the other backhaul config choices i.e. in the node management panel. When ethernet backhaul mode is enabled the popup help in that section says this:
1671140399154.png


The 2.5G ports on the AX86 devices work perfectly for this purpose.
 
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Did the behavior of guest network 1 change in 388.1?

I'm migrating from AC86U/386.7_2 to AX6000/388.1 and I notice that devices on guest network 1 do not get their manually assigned IP addresses (DHCP setting in router) and that devices on that network can't see each other?

Or did I just forget to mark down a setting that controls this? If so, which?

(If not I might have to backtrack router/firmware; I need devices on guest network 1 to see each other for working from home)
 
Super nice to get this update and wireguard specifically, though I noticed tonight that my overall bandwidth seems reduced when any WG VPN is connected, even to devices not on the VPN. Seems to be right around 330mbps. On my wired PC when I disconnected the VPN bandwidth shot back up to 1gbps on the steam download I was doing. I didnt have this with OpenVPN connections. Early days I suppose.

GT-AX6000
 
Sometimes I wonder why I bother devoting so much time writing changelogs. Sigh. Maybe I should do like Google and others, and just write "Fixed bugs, improved performance and added new features".
 
Sometimes I wonder why I bother devoting so much time writing changelogs. Sigh. Maybe I should do like Google and others, and just write "Fixed bugs, improved performance and added new features".

Please continue to provide change logs. They are helpful.

If they were to go away, I suspect you would have even more imagined problems reported
 
I know, I don`t plan to change that. But it`s still... frustrating.
You are doing gods works sir please keep it up. You are appreciated.

"you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink"
 
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