AX86U Pro - ax/ac beamforming question in latest stock firmware

[Xboxsx4life]

Hello. The current stock firmware for the AX86U Pro is missing the ax/ac beamforming toggle under the 5GHz Professional settings tab. I believe it’s a bug in the latest firmware based on what I’ve been able to gather; and that Asus will re-implement the toggle in a later firmware release.

Does anyone know if beamforming is still enabled by default? Or would it be disabled by default until the toggle is added back? Is there any way of confirming this myself (perhaps thru the router’s logs)?

Thanks.

 

[drabisan]

If you're willing to SSH into your router
nvram show | grep bf_i
will tell you if universal/implicit beamforming is 1 or 0

nvram show | grep _bfe_
is explicit/802.11ax/ac Beamforming is 15 (enable) or 31 I think this is disable

PS: even after factory default you're not seeing the option to disable/enable? You can backup your config and do a factory reset.
Or you can downgrade, enable what beamforming you want to have in place and then upgrade.

 

[bennor]

Hello. The current stock firmware for the AX86U Pro is missing the ax/ac beamforming toggle under the 5GHz Professional settings tab. I believe it’s a bug in the latest firmware based on what I’ve been able to gather; and that Asus will re-implement the toggle in a later firmware release.

Does anyone know if beamforming is still enabled by default? Or would it be disabled by default until the toggle is added back? Is there any way of confirming this myself (perhaps thru the router’s logs)?

Thanks.

Yes it's missing, been a few past threads mentioning it...

Asus RT-AX86U Pro

I just recently brought a RT-AX86U Pro. I also have a ax86u (not Pro Version) and under the wifi profressional settings, there are two options “ 802.11 ax/ac Beamforming“ and ” Universal Beamforming“ ( I belive all asus have the two beamforming option aviable) But In the “Pro”version, those two...

www.snbforums.com

Asus RT-AX86U Pro - a few questions about WiFi settings

Hello everyone. I recently purchased an RT-AX86U Pro. Loving it so far but had a couple of questions. I’ve been going thru some of the threads on this forum and also reading other articles. There seems to be conflicting and inconsistent advice on whether or not to use MU-MIMO and OFDMA. I’ve...

www.snbforums.com

Edit to add: On my RT-AX86U Pro running Asus-Merlin firmware, on the WiFi > Professional tab, under 2.4 Ghz there are the options for Explicit Beamforming and Universal Beamforming. Both are enabled. These two options are not available/listed under 5Ghz.

 

[bennor]

If you're willing to SSH into your router
nvram show | grep bf_i
will tell you if universal/implicit beamforming is 1 or 0

nvram show | grep _bfe_

---

is explicit/802.11ax/ac Beamforming is 15 (enable) or 31 I think this is disable

As a datapoint for the OP to compare against. Under the Merlin firmware, the following:

/tmp/home/root# nvram show | grep bf_i
size: 79544 bytes (117064 left)
wl0_txbf_imp=1
wl1_txbf_imp=1
wl_txbf_imp=1

/tmp/home/root# nvram show | grep _bfe_
size: 79544 bytes (117064 left)
wl0.10_txbf_bfe_cap=15
wl0.11_txbf_bfe_cap=15
wl0.12_txbf_bfe_cap=15
wl0.13_txbf_bfe_cap=15
wl0.14_txbf_bfe_cap=15
wl0.15_txbf_bfe_cap=15
wl0.1_txbf_bfe_cap=15
wl0.2_txbf_bfe_cap=15
wl0.3_txbf_bfe_cap=15
wl0.4_txbf_bfe_cap=15
wl0.5_txbf_bfe_cap=15
wl0.6_txbf_bfe_cap=15
wl0.7_txbf_bfe_cap=15
wl0.8_txbf_bfe_cap=15
wl0.9_txbf_bfe_cap=15
wl0_txbf_bfe_cap=15
wl1.10_txbf_bfe_cap=15
wl1.11_txbf_bfe_cap=15
wl1.12_txbf_bfe_cap=15
wl1.13_txbf_bfe_cap=15
wl1.14_txbf_bfe_cap=15
wl1.15_txbf_bfe_cap=15
wl1.1_txbf_bfe_cap=15
wl1.2_txbf_bfe_cap=15
wl1.3_txbf_bfe_cap=15
wl1.4_txbf_bfe_cap=15
wl1.5_txbf_bfe_cap=15
wl1.6_txbf_bfe_cap=15
wl1.7_txbf_bfe_cap=15
wl1.8_txbf_bfe_cap=15
wl1.9_txbf_bfe_cap=15
wl1_txbf_bfe_cap=15
wl_txbf_bfe_cap=15

 

[Xboxsx4life]

If you're willing to SSH into your router
nvram show | grep bf_i
will tell you if universal/implicit beamforming is 1 or 0

nvram show | grep _bfe_
is explicit/802.11ax/ac Beamforming is 15 (enable) or 31 I think this is disable

PS: even after factory default you're not seeing the option to disable/enable? You can backup your config and do a factory reset.
Or you can downgrade, enable what beamforming you want to have in place and then upgrade.

Thanks for the command. Confirmed it's enabled (value of 15)! And yes, even after a factory default, the ax/ac beamforming option isn't there. Asus messed up, but at least they left it enabled by default

 

[Xboxsx4life]

Yes it's missing, been a few past threads mentioning it...

Asus RT-AX86U Pro

I just recently brought a RT-AX86U Pro. I also have a ax86u (not Pro Version) and under the wifi profressional settings, there are two options “ 802.11 ax/ac Beamforming“ and ” Universal Beamforming“ ( I belive all asus have the two beamforming option aviable) But In the “Pro”version, those two...

www.snbforums.com

Asus RT-AX86U Pro - a few questions about WiFi settings

Hello everyone. I recently purchased an RT-AX86U Pro. Loving it so far but had a couple of questions. I’ve been going thru some of the threads on this forum and also reading other articles. There seems to be conflicting and inconsistent advice on whether or not to use MU-MIMO and OFDMA. I’ve...

www.snbforums.com

Edit to add: On my RT-AX86U Pro running Asus-Merlin firmware, on the WiFi > Professional tab, under 2.4 Ghz there are the options for Explicit Beamforming and Universal Beamforming. Both are enabled. These two options are not available/listed under 5Ghz.

Thanks. As I mentioned to drabisan, ax/ac beamforming is, indeed, enabled (confirmed using the ssh cmd) despite the toggle not being available.

By the way, how are you finding the latest Merlin firmware for the 86U Pro?

 

[bbunge]

Don't worry about it. The default WIFI settings work very well on the AX86U Pro. Start making changes and you can mess things up!

 

[Xboxsx4life]

Don't worry about it. The default WIFI settings work very well on the AX86U Pro. Start making changes and you can mess things up!

Actually, I made a lot of changes (and disabled quite a few professional settings) per numerous recommendations from some of the wifi gurus on this forum, and I’m getting much better performance and compatibility compared to the default settings. I don’t trust the default settings because I don’t trust Asus to know what the “best settings” are by default…especially when they make silly mistakes like omitting the beamforming toggle in their latest firmware

 

[bbunge]

Actually, I made a lot of changes (and disabled quite a few professional settings) per numerous recommendations from some of the wifi gurus on this forum, and I’m getting much better performance and compatibility compared to the default settings. I don’t trust the default settings because I don’t trust Asus to know what the “best settings” are by default…especially when they make silly mistakes like omitting the beamforming toggle in their latest firmware

Maybe it wasn't a mistake. And I'm sure Asus knows a lot more about WIFI settings than 99.9% of the members of this forum. and that 0.1% who do know does not include you or me!

Edit: FWIW my system has been working a whole lot better since I quit fooling with the WIFI settings. Even running a very old G web cam with a mix of N, AC and AX clients.

 

[bennor]

By the way, how are you finding the latest Merlin firmware for the 86U Pro?

No issues running Merlin on the AX86U Pro for my use case.

 

[Xboxsx4life]

Maybe it wasn't a mistake. And I'm sure Asus knows a lot more about WIFI settings than 99.9% of the members of this forum. and that 0.1% who do know does not include you or me!

Edit: FWIW my system has been working a whole lot better since I quit fooling with the WIFI settings. Even running a very old G web cam with a mix of N, AC and AX clients.

Asus omitting the beamforming toggle in their firmware is most certainly a mistake. That’s a pretty big oopsie on their part. And if you’ve ever dealt with their (utterly lousy) customer service (including their senior tech support team), you wouldn’t be surprised by the mistake

 

[Xboxsx4life]

If you're willing to SSH into your router
nvram show | grep bf_i
will tell you if universal/implicit beamforming is 1 or 0

nvram show | grep _bfe_
is explicit/802.11ax/ac Beamforming is 15 (enable) or 31 I think this is disable

PS: even after factory default you're not seeing the option to disable/enable? You can backup your config and do a factory reset.
Or you can downgrade, enable what beamforming you want to have in place and then upgrade.

Hi @drabisan, forgot to ask…is there a way of disabling universal beamforming for the 5GHz band via an SSH command (in the absence of the toggle)? When I ran the SSH command to check universal beamforming status, I saw a 0 for one record and 1 for two or three other records. I’m assuming that means it’s disabled (0) for the 2.4GHz band (because I disabled that one myself via the toggle) and enabled (1) by default for the 5GHz band. And yes, the universal beamforming toggle is also missing for 5GHz in the firmware. I’d like to disable it myself, if possible, rather than waiting for Asus to release new firmware with the toggles added back in. Thanks again.

 

[bbunge]

Well, it looks like you got the Beamforming settings back in the 5 GHz band. Have fun messing up your settings and performance!

 

[Xboxsx4life]

AX/AC beamforming and universal beamforming are both enabled by default as confirmed via the SSH command I ran. It’s just that the toggles for those settings are missing in the GUI for the 5GHz radio. I’m fine with AX/AC beamforming being enabled but I’d like to disable universal since it’s not part of the AC/AX spec. Unfortunately, there’s no easy way of doing that. I might try installing an older firmware (a version that had the toggles), switching universal off, and then upgrading back to the latest firmware, with the hope that the “disabled” setting carries over. Or I might just wait for Asus to fix their GUI bug in the next firmware update.

By the way, I tried running the router with default settings and I had issues with some random disconnects on one of my iPhones and my wife’s Dell WiFi 6 laptop, and some signal range problems in a couple of spots in my house. After following advice from some of the experts on this forum, making changes to the general and professional WiFi setting per their recommendations (minus not being able to disable universal beamforming for the 5GHz radio), performance and stability have been pretty solid and much better than before.

 

[bbunge]

AX/AC beamforming and universal beamforming are both enabled by default as confirmed via the SSH command I ran. It’s just that the toggles for those settings are missing in the GUI for the 5GHz radio. I’m fine with AX/AC beamforming being enabled but I’d like to disable universal since it’s not part of the AC/AX spec. Unfortunately, there’s no easy way of doing that. I might try installing an older firmware (a version that had the toggles), switching universal off, and then upgrading back to the latest firmware, with the hope that the “disabled” setting carries over. Or I might just wait for Asus to fix their GUI bug in the next firmware update.

By the way, I tried running the router with default settings and I had issues with some random disconnects on one of my iPhones and my wife’s Dell WiFi 6 laptop, and some signal range problems in a couple of spots in my house. After following advice from some of the experts on this forum, making changes to the general and professional WiFi setting per their recommendations (minus not being able to disable universal beamforming for the 5GHz radio), performance and stability have been pretty solid and much better than before.

Try the new firmware.

 

[Xboxsx4life]

Try the new firmware.

The notes don’t mention anything about fixing the missing toggles. Someone on Reddit mentioned that Asus told him it might not get fixed until the next version or the version after that. I’m also currently running Merlin and don’t feel like jumping back to stock, especially since the problem is likely not fixed.

 

[bbunge]

The notes don’t mention anything about fixing the missing toggles. Someone on Reddit mentioned that Asus told him it might not get fixed until the next version or the version after that. I’m also currently running Merlin and don’t feel like jumping back to stock, especially since the problem is likely not fixed.

Well, since I mentioned it, it is fixed! I had to check so I could rub it in a bit. Your problem if you want to stay on Merlin. Asus factory firmware is pretty good these days!

 

[Xboxsx4life]

Well...great! Thanks for confirming

I couldn't resist, so I flashed with the latest firmware, did a factory reset, re-configured all settings (including disabling universal beamforming)!!! I'm happy again