GT-AC5300 New Firmware July 13 2020 - 3.0.0.4.384_81974

[ForkWNY]

New firmware was released for the ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AC5300 some time this morning, July 13th 2020. Will post release notes shortly.

Updated via the Router's web GUI this morning and so far everything is working fine (GT-AC5300 is my primary router). CPU cores seem stable with minimal loads, Web GUI loads fine in HTTP or HTTPS mode, no performance issues or WiFi client drop-outs.

The new firmware is likely a security update, I have not read the release notes yet. It's been awhile since ASUS has released an update for the GT-AC5300 (no firmware update since March 26th, 2020 - version 3.0.0.4.384.81695 was the previous official release for this router).

The update is available through the Router Web GUI as of now.

** Release Notes:

ASUS GT-AC5300 Firmware version 3.0.0.4.384.81974
Security update
- Fixed CVE-2020-12695 (CallStranger)
- Fixed Reflected XSS vulnerability.
- Fixed Directory traversal vulnerability.
- Fixed CVE-2017-15653.

The update server transport layer security was upgraded and the old protocol was removed.
If your router firmware version is lower than 3.0.0.4.384_81686, please refer to the "Update Manually" section in https://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/1008000 to update the firmware.​

As expected, this firmware update is primarily a security update, fixing a number of security vulnerabilities.

 

[drabisan]

On my router both 5GHz radios are using 20MHz channels. So no the best speed. I didn't reset the router's config. I may have to do that

 

[ForkWNY]

I have mine manually set to use 80Mhz on both 5Ghz channels, wireless mode set to N/AC mixed. Speeds seem pretty solid using WiFi Speed test (from a Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra - Android), nearly up to the rated link speed (700-800Mbps) when in nearby proximity to the GT-AC5300.

@drabisan - are you using defaults in your Wireless - General settings or have you set your bands manually? YMMV based on where you live. I'm in a rural area so no interference issues.

 

[drabisan]

Well, I'm also using AiMesh, so I can't actually pick the channels.
It used to be default, 20/40/80 and before this upgrade both were choosing 80. Not anymore.
I manually picked 80. Still 20
I may need a reload and when I have time a factory reset.

 

[drabisan]

Yeah, not enough time for a factory reset and reconfig.
But enough time for downgrade. Back to 81695, back to 80MHz.
If your router works at 80MHz (manual or automatic), maybe it's related to AiMesh.
Maybe one day I'll do the upgrade and open a ticket to Asus.

 

[ForkWNY]

I'm also using AiMesh - four (4) AC-68U and one (1) AC-86U. The GT-AC5300 router is definitely set manually to 80Mhz (N/AC mixed, control channel at 48) and the AiMesh nodes all seem to be following suit on 5Ghz.

 

[muzykcb]

After installing clean software Version 3.0.0.4.384.81974, the read speed from the disk max 16MB / s decreased. With the software version Version 3.0.0.4.384.81695 it was 80MB / s.

I have now returned to version 3.0.0.4.384.81695 and I still have 80MB / s reading from a USB 3.0 disk.

 

[cc666]

Did a router update coming from the last firmware (695). After about 8 hours everything would freeze and the router would reboot. This happened several times in 2 hours. I then did a full factory reset, manually input all my parameters and now the router is running perfectly. It looks like no matter what firmware you were on before a reset is needed. Running perfectly and fast as hell now.

CC

 

[muzykcb]

Did a router update coming from the last firmware (695). After about 8 hours everything would freeze and the router would reboot. This happened several times in 2 hours. I then did a full factory reset, manually input all my parameters and now the router is running perfectly. It looks like no matter what firmware you were on before a reset is needed. Running perfectly and fast as hell now.

CC

And what is your reading speed after WIFI 5GHz from a disk connected to USB 3.0

I had 80 MB / s and now it is 16MB / s

 

[cc666]

And what is your reading speed after WIFI 5GHz from a disk connected to USB 3.0

I had 80 MB / s and now it is 16MB / s

I do not have a usb disk connected.

CC

 

[oldguy]

I currently use my GT-AC5300 as the primary router with a RT-AC68U AI mesh node connected by wired backhaul.
I installed 3.0.0.4.384.81974 and noticed that NAS backups slowed down over wireless.
looked at the connection speed and it was 288Mbps, down from 1176Mbps (I am very close to the router)
I down graded to Version 3.0.0.4.384.81695 and speeds were back to 1176Mbps.
I saved the configuration, and applied the 3.0.0.4.384.81974 update after which I restored the configuration, still had 288Mbps
So I have reverted back to 3.0.0.4.384.81695, as with 3.0.0.4.384.81974 downloads were very slow and NAS backups were even slower.
I tried Windows, Macs and iPads connection speeds all well down of down load speeds measured by speediest.net
ookla speedtest was 100Mbps rather that the 400Mbps i pay for, with 3.0.0.4.384.81695 I get 420Mbps, even with 52 connected wireless devices.
when connected to the GT-AC5300 by ethernet I got the same speedtest.net results regardless of the firmware loaded.
I looked for any wireless settings that might be impacting the wireless performance but could find no obvious issues.

 

[drabisan]

3.0.0.4.384.81974 tends to negotiate 40MHz channel spacing. Or even 20MHz.
3.0.0.4.384.81695 does favor 80MHz.
So much better speed for 81695.
An wifi analyzer on your Windows machine would help you. On Android there are good analyzers. I can't speak on Apple devices, I would guess they have good free ones too.

 

[oldguy]

I have the channel spacing set to auto with both software versions, so this would be automatically selected by the firmware.
I checked the 5GHz and it is indeed 80Mhz according to Android Network Signal Info app for Kaibits
I may try the new firmware and force this to 80MHz channel

 

[ForkWNY]

As long as there is not heavy interference on the 80Mhz channel and your clients are all capable of using the 80Mhz band/channel(s), I would always recommend setting the 5Ghz bands to 80Mhz manually to achieve the highest throughput.

 

[oldguy]

I just refreshed firmware 3.0.0.4.384.81974, and confirmed that my mac book pro connects with 20MHz channel bandwidth, regardless of whether I set auto selection of channel bandwidth or set the default to 40MHz for 2.4GHz and 80MHz for both 5GHz bands.
I used the Android Wifi Analyzer app to look at other activity in the 2.4Ghz and 5GHz bands
the GT-AC5300 selected best control channels for each band since I am only affected by neighbors either side of my home.

I expect to get a New RT-AX89X delivered in early August so will stay with 3.0.0.4.384.81695 until that time.

The GT-AC5300 will become a mesh node when the RT-AX-89X is installed with a 10G link from the main router to a 10G switch to connect the mesh node 1Gb and NAS 10Gb

 

[ForkWNY]

@oldguy - are you manually setting your control channel or leaving that on auto as well? I've noticed (using various Wifi analyzer tools) that when I set 5Ghz to the 80Mhz bands as well as setting a specific control channel (48 on 5Ghz-1 and 161 on 5Ghz-2). All 5Ghz AC clients are connecting to that channel on the 80Mhz band. If you're setting your channel band to 80Mhz manually on both 5Ghz bands, definitely seems like a bug in the firmware if it's still allowing client connections on channel bandwidths other than 80Mhz.

 

[oldguy]

@ForkWNY , thanks for your response

I was setting the channel bandwidth only, for the 2.4GHz and both 5GHz radios
I was able to confirm with an Android wifi analyzer the control channel did not change between 3.0.0.4.384.81974 and 3.0.0.4.384.81695 firmware's after I manually assigned the channel bandwidth.
By clicking wifi icon and holding the option key on the MAC I was able to verify the channel and the bandwidth on both 5GHz channels was 20MHz with 3.0.0.4.384.81974 firmware and 80Mhz on 3.0.0.4.384.81695 firmware.
I will try to find some time to reflash the GT-AC5300 with 3.0.0.4.384.81974, and move the control channel across to see if this impacts connection rate, but this is difficult as I am working from home.

 

[oldguy]

All, I just downloaded firmware revision Version 3.0.0.4.384.82037 released today.
5GHz connection speeds are back to the expected numbers, that is 886Mbps on the Mac and iPad.
Just updated and don’t see anything out of the ordinary so far, will post anything that I find to this thread

 

[oldguy]

I tested speed with speedtest And found the download speed was 189Mbps to 230Mbps, which is way below the service speed i pay for.
I tested multiple devices all around the same speed.
I rebooted the router and the download speed and upload speed matched the expected numbers.
will keep a close eye on this and share anything worth sharing

 

[ForkWNY]

I posted a new thread for the v82037 firmware release - for those who have virtual server/port forwarding rules configured within the WAN settings area, this firmware release will clear those out. I'm sure this was not an intended "feature" of the new firmware, and have no idea if ASUS is even aware at this point. Just something to keep in mind prior to updating the firmware...I would recommend taking a screenshot of your port forwarding rules before proceeding with the update.