It's teaser-time. Because why not.

[Morris]

I've just heard back from Asus Tech Support regarding my crap download/upload wired speeds on 10Gbps broadband and this was what they said verbatim:

'Dear Valued Customer,

If you recently encounter limited speed acceleration, or unable to reach maximum connection speed, please try to disable the following features: AiProtection, Traffic Analyzer, Web History, Adaptive QoS, Game boost, Web & apps filters, bandwidth monitor, Mobile Game Mode to maintain the optimal internet speed.

Sincerely,
ASUS Team'

Seems to tally with what RMerlin said of it being a NAT/CPU limitation throttling my wired speeds.

They did not tell you to disable NAT

 

[RTWZ80]

They did not tell you to disable NAT

That's because we can't? Most ISPs including mine don't support 'pure router' mode anyway. In any case, I'm back on my RT-AX89X with the full AiProtection suite enabled and close to ISP-advertised wired speeds, plus zero wifi issues to date. That's good enough for me until Wifi 7 routers hit the market.

 

[Morris]

That's because we can't? Most ISPs including mine don't support 'pure router' mode anyway. In any case, I'm back on my RT-AX89X with the full AiProtection suite enabled and close to ISP-advertised wired speeds, plus zero wifi issues to date. That's good enough for me until Wifi 7 routers hit the market.

Glad you found a working config. Did you have to disable anything on the RT-AX89X?

 

[mikezilla2]

wait so is the AX89X all of a sudden going to become a supported device ? @RMerlin

 

[RTWZ80]

Glad you found a working config. Did you have to disable anything on the RT-AX89X?

On the RT-AX89X, enabling any of the VPN functions be it iPSec or Asus' InstantGuard would limit wired speeds to the +1.4Gbps range which seems to be an acceptable tradeoff given that the paid App-based VPN services I've used gave me about half that speed. So that only comes on when I need it. Enabling QoS-related functions like GameBoost and Mobile Game Mode also dropped wired speeds to that same +1.4Gbps range. I left QoS off as per the default setting which worked well enough for everyday use. Everything else on the router seems to play nice with 10Gbps broadband. I switched over to Asus from Linksys/Belkin partly for the AiProtection suite so being able to use it full-time is a must, despite the inherent privacy issues.

 

[Morris]

At 10Gbe it is unlikely you will need QOS.

 

[RTWZ80]

wait so is the AX89X all of a sudden going to become a supported device ? @RMerlin
[/QUOTE]

I don't think so. I just mentioned it because it worked for me and my use case while the two AXE16000s I recently purchased didn't, so I returned them.

 

[RTWZ80]

At 10Gbe it is unlikely you will need QOS.

Indeed. At that speed, I realised even use of the 6Ghz band/Wifi6E isn't necessary. Wifi has a ways to go before it actually catches up to wired ethernet. Hence, the decision to stick with the RT-AX89X.

 

[RTWZ80]

If you are referring to NAT throughput, I don't expect this to be changed by a hardware revision. It's simply a hardware limitation. At those speeds, you'd need either a business-class router, or at the very least IPv6 to get rid of the NAT overhead.


Keep in mind that my test was done by running iperf on the router itself (without NAT - I was doing LAN to LAN test, with the "client" being a second router connected in AP mode)). CPU usage was showing all three cores (I ran three threads) were 100% occupied by iperf itself, and the scaling was about right when compared to running iperf in a single thread.

For NAT throughput, I have no idea what can be expected. We'd need an expert with the necessary equipment to do a review/benchmark.


BCM4916 is designed for Wifi7. Maybe it could still be coupled with a BCM6715 to provide a faster Wifi 6 product (since that's connects over PCI-Express), but I doubt Broadcom is already mass producing the BCM4916 at this point. I don't know either if their SDK would support that kind of hybrid design (Wifi 6 and Wifi 7 generation products).

The fact that Asus is launching a series of Pro models using a BCM4912 (there is a third Pro model yet to be announced that is expected to launch this autumn) makes be believe that BCM might be slowing down production of the BCM4908, but they haven't fully ramped up production of BCM4916 yet - or that product cannot be used in a Wifi 6 design.

Just a thought. I was looking at the LAN-Switch Control tab on the RT-AX89X and there is a NAT Acceleration function. Enabling that allows me to turn on Ai Protection and still get close to 10Gbps broadband speeds from my ISP. Perhaps the AXE16000 needs such a function as well. On current firmware, it doesn't have it.

 

[RMerlin]

Just a thought. I was looking at the LAN-Switch Control tab on the RT-AX89X and there is a NAT Acceleration function. Enabling that allows me to turn on Ai Protection and still get close to 10Gbps broadband speeds from my ISP. Perhaps the AXE16000 needs such a function as well. On current firmware, it doesn't have it.

NAT acceleration is automatically enabled/disabled by the router based on compatibility. You can view the current state on the Tools -> Sysinfo page.

 

[RTWZ80]

NAT acceleration is automatically enabled/disabled by the router based on compatibility. You can view the current state on the Tools -> Sysinfo page.

Got it thanks.

 

[heysoundude]

Speaking of teasers, I wonder if @RMerlin has started to noodle with any of this:

ASUSWRT 4.0

version 388

routerkb.asuscomm.com

There are only a few months left of this year, so it must be coming soonish...

 

[XIII]

ASUSWRT 2022 Supported models:

ZenWiFi XT9

RT-AX88U

RT-AX86U Pro

RT-AXE7800

That’s a small list…

 

[mromero]

* ASUSWRT 2022 Supported models:

ZenWiFi XT9

RT-AX88U

RT-AX86U Pro

RT-AXE7800

 

[chuchihpin]

I've just heard back from Asus Tech Support regarding my crap download/upload wired speeds on 10Gbps broadband and this was what they said verbatim:

'Dear Valued Customer,

If you recently encounter limited speed acceleration, or unable to reach maximum connection speed, please try to disable the following features: AiProtection, Traffic Analyzer, Web History, Adaptive QoS, Game boost, Web & apps filters, bandwidth monitor, Mobile Game Mode to maintain the optimal internet speed.

Sincerely,
ASUS Team'

Seems to tally with what RMerlin said of it being a NAT/CPU limitation throttling my wired speeds.

As far as I know, the above list of functions requires redirecting packets to the kernel. ASUS uses Trendmicro software routing solutions to handle these functions. In this case the runner processor does is do cpu load balancing and packet preprocessing like parsing and crc checking...

 

[delaveganz]

* ASUSWRT 2022 Supported models:

ZenWiFi XT9

RT-AX88U

RT-AX86U Pro

RT-AXE7800

* ASUSWRT 2022 Supported models:
ZenWiFi XT9
GT-AXE11000
RT-AX88U
RT-AX86U
RT-AX86U Pro
RT-AXE7800

 

[Viktor Jaep]

Has anyone heard anything more about the specs for the RT-AX86U Pro? That thing seems to be a "mystery machine". I'm getting really antsy wanting to upgrade from the AC86U, and there are so many good choices...

 

[Tech9]

So far we know it has the CPU/radio as in GT-AX6000*, the rest all the same. Perhaps Pro price.

* - like almost everything new released lately with different marketing, shape, size, ports, etc.

 

[SomeWhereOverTheRainBow]

So far we know it has the CPU/radio as in GT-AX6000*, the rest all the same. Perhaps Pro price.

* - like almost everything new released lately with different marketing, shape, size, ports, etc.

I bet you got yours on pre-order.

 

[elorimer]

I'm getting really antsy wanting to upgrade from the AC86U, and there are so many good choices...

I finally decided on the AX88, used from Amazon for $190. Arrived in perfect shape without the fliers or the plastic film. Went straight to 386.8 though, without trying the 8/30 Asus 2022 firmware.