[Beta] Asuswrt-Merlin 384.16 beta (and 384.13_5) are available

[TheLyppardMan]

I have just taken delivery of an AX58U as a replacement for my AC87U and have several observations on running this with 384.16_beta2. I would be very grateful for any feedback on what is 'normal', what is a result of how I have configured the router and what may be issues with the firmware.

Having previously taken notes / screenshots of the old settings, I booted up the AC58U, did a very basic setup and then installed 384.16_beta2.
I then formatted the JFFS partition and then manually added basic settings (separate SSID for 2.4 & 5), enable WPA2/3, 802.11ax / Wi-Fi 6 mode, re-added various manual addresses into DHCP and reconnected my wifi clients. I have also disabled the Asus DDNS while I wait for it to be removed from my old router and setup one client VPN for a specific device and this seems to be working fine

I have not yet enabled AI Protection or QOS or added a USB card.

The first and most noticeable difference between the old and new routers is the substantial drop in WiFi signal - I predominantly use the 2.4 band (as the construction of the house is not so good for 5). The RSSI signals (2.4) reported in WiFi logs show deterioration of between 10 and 15dBm per device and (in case this was a difference in reporting) this is verified by the signals been noticeable weaker as seen on each device, with some parts of the house now becoming voids. Should I expect such a marked difference between an AC87 and an AX58 and if not what should I check next?

I have also tried reverting to WPA2 and disabling 802.11ax / Wi-Fi 6 mode but neither made any difference.

I have also tried to see if I could disable Protected Management Frames and to set the Extension channel to 'below'. However as soon as I 'Apply', the settings revert to 'capable' and 'above'.

Finally I am trying to understand how to use Wifi Radar - the only APs that are visible are the SSIDs on the router. if I look at the channel statistics I get
Current Channel : 8l
Current Channel BandWidth : 40 MHz
Current Available Capacity : 0%
and
Current Channel : 36
Current Channel BandWidth : 20 MHz
Current Available Capacity : 0
and all the graphs beneath are empty as are all the counters in Advanced Troubleshooting.

I would be very grateful for any assistance in understanding whether the AX58 is just much less powerful, I am setting things up badly or these are software/firmware issues.

Thanks Archie.

I have a new AX router myself (RT-AX88U) and I also noticed a drop in signal strength from my previous RT-AC86U, particularly on the 2.4GHz band so perhaps there is a connection (seems too much of a coincidence to me). I did mention this in a previous thread and others have commented on it too, so you're not alone.

 

[RMerlin]

When dealing with wifi, remember that a LOT of things will influence Wifi performance and stability. Make sure you are comparing oranges with oranges: use the same channel, same location, same antenna orientation, same settings, etc...

To me, it seems that for everyone who upgrades their router and reports improved performance, there is an equal number of users who report the complete opposite. They can't both be right, so my personal conclusion is that people aren't comparing things within identical scenarios.

Heck, just testing wifi performance at a different time of the day can yield different results. Someone might not be using an interfering Bluetooth device while you are testing the new router, for example.

 

[Deleted member 22229]

Heck, just testing wifi performance at a different time of the day can yield different results.

This is a fact..

 

[heysoundude]

beta 3 means Release shouldn't be too far off...my 86u is vibrating in anticipation.

 

[JSinFCVA]

86U - first attempt to flash to B3 did not work. Had to hard-boot and try flashing a second time. 2nd time was fine. Seems to be running fine on B3.

 

[Ozymandias]

RT-AX56U / 384.16_beta3 dirty upgrade working ok

- usb 2.0 connector recognised

 

[nzwayne]

Dirtly upgrade of beta3 over beta2. All operational without incident on my RT-AX88U and AiMesh'd 2x RT-AC86U's. Thanks again @RMerlin. Awesome.

 

[JWoo]

Can't speak for the 2.4 GHz band on my AX58 as i keep it disabled unusable were i live. But the 5 GHz band has a very good signal every bit as good as my AC3100 and very close to my NG R7800. Maybe your drop is due to the AX58U being a 2x2 and your 87U is a 4x4, You are the first to report low signal on the AX58U. I wonder if others are having the issue on 2.4 band.

I am using mostly 5Ghz and the signal seems very good. I am only using a small number of 2.4 Ghz devices. I have a 2.4 Ghz camera in my garage which is pretty far from the router in the house and separated by several walls and the signal there is still pretty good (-69 dBm).

 

[JWoo]

Dirtly upgrade of beta3 over beta2. All operational without incident on my RT-AX88U and AiMesh'd 2x RT-AC86U's. Thanks again @RMerlin. Awesome.

I dirty flashed my RT-AX58U from beta 2 to beta 3. All working good so far.

 

[FTC]

Hi, another dirty flash of beta3 over beta2 on my RT-AX88U and all I use (wan access, IPTV, samba, ddns, minidlna, diversion, ..) seems like still working fine. Thanks Merlin and team!!

 

[JohnD5000]

Dirty flash Beta2 to Beta3 on RT-AC86U. So far, no issues

 

[LimJK]

Dirty Flash 384_beta3 over 384_beta2, all seems good

• I have AiMesh Router (AX88U) + 2x AiMesh Nodes (AC86U)
• Always use Fixed WiFi Control Channel & bandwidth: Ch 11 2.4GHz 20MHz, Ch 36 5.0GHz 80MHz, no problems so far
• I have AiProtection, Asus DDNS, OpenVPN Server configured with GUI
• Scripts - Amtm, Diversion, Skynet, Unbound Manager, connmon

Thanks for all the help in this forum

 

[5stringdeath]

What is supposed to be here? If I click rescan, I get the disk inactivity warning, its seems to do something, but there are no results in the box.

 

[HorseCalledHorse]

86U - first attempt to flash to B3 did not work. Had to hard-boot and try flashing a second time. 2nd time was fine. Seems to be running fine on B3.

Same thing happened on my RT-A6U flashing over 384.15, except I didn't have to hard re-boot. Got the message the upgrade had failed and it exited gracefully. Worked (without a reboot) when I tried the upgrade again. I checked the sha256 checksum and got a clean bill of health on the download so I'm not sure what might have caused the issue.

 

[RMerlin]

so I'm not sure what might have caused the issue.

The most common reason is lack of free RAM to download the image to the temporary folder.

 

[HorseCalledHorse]

The most common reason is lack of free RAM to download the image to the temporary folder.

That makes perfect sense. Running Diversion and Skynet (as well as uiDiv Stats) my RAM is typically over 90% in use. As I said, it exited very gracefully and nothing went wrong on the second attempt.

 

[kernol]

That makes perfect sense. Running Diversion and Skynet (as well as uiDiv Stats) my RAM is typically over 90% in use. As I said, it exited very gracefully and nothing went wrong on the second attempt.

"Dirty Flashers ..." beware - dump the raincoat ... and take note of this post for a trouble free experience ...
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/ac86u-update-from-384-13-to-384-14-beta-3-hangs.60516/#post-531167

 

[Val D.]

What is supposed to be here?

Are you trying to scan your ext4 formatted USB stick where Diversion/Skynet live?

 

[RejZoR]

@RMerlin
What extent of access do you have to AiProtection/QoS and IPTV functionality? I'm having massive problems with AiProtection/QoS and IPTV being used together on RT-AX58U, which just breaks everything entirely to a point WiFi connected clients are just dropping off constantly and are unable to reconnect. This happens with official and your FW.

I can use AiProtection and/or QoS fine if I don't touch IPTV (I need to manually configure LAN4 to VID value of 2000 for TV data to go through to my STB, and it's not Multicast). And I can use IPTV if I don't touch AiProtection and/or QoS. Just can't use both together. It's weird because any combination worked fine on RT-AC87U and I was wondering if you have the powers to check it out why this is happening on RT-AX58U but didn't on RT-AC87U.

 

[archiel]

58X/87U 2.4 performance - in my case the settings were as near identical as possible (allowing for the differences between the routers) - same physical location, same channels, same antenna positions (nb moving these made almost no difference at all on the AC87) yet a very marked signal drop. About to try beta 3.