Mixed Firmware Airmesh AC88u with AX3000

[Hawker]

Hey all,

I have two air mesh systems. I've always assumed I needed to have all the units on the same firmware revision to avoid issues and have done so up to now, but that doesn't seem possible for one system anymore. What is the best practice?
The router is an AC88u and the newest firmware available is 386.11.
The airmesh nodes are AX3000 (AX58u). there is no firmware 386.11 for this. There is 386.7.2 as the highest 386.x build then it jumps to 388.x builds.

So should I use

• 386.7.2 for both (the highest mutual firmware number)
• 386.11 on the AC88u and 386.7.2 on the AX3000
• 386.11 on the AC88u and 388.2.2 on the AX3000

Can I mix 386.x and 388.x builds moving forward?
My other system both the router and mesh networks are AX units so there is still mutual firmware and this is not yet an issue.

Thanx
Hawker

 

[L&LD]

Same-level firmware is ideal.

The latest firmware is always the goal (I would be running 388.xx on the RT-AX58Us).

You may want to experiment to see if your network is better when the RT-AX58U is the main router instead of the RT-AC88U. You'll also benefit by having the internet-facing router with the latest firmware by doing so.

Consider running the RT-AC88U in Media Bridge mode to the farthest clients that are wired capable too (and not part of the AiMesh setup. You may find that doing the two points above may help get your network running better.

Before you do any changes, the following steps will help you get back to where you are now, quickly.

Is it a good idea to keep up with Firmware updates?

I have had issues in the past when updating firmware and Internet speed, But it may have just been a fluke, Should I keep up with the updates? If so On all routers or the nodes as well? What about ones acting as access points? Thanks

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[bbunge]

Keeping up with firmware is a very good idea!

However, it may be best to run Asus firmware on the AiMesh nodes. The nodes do not need the Merlin enhancements as they are not usually needed and can add overhead.

 

[Hawker]

Same-level firmware is ideal.

The latest firmware is always the goal (I would be running 388.xx on the RT-AX58Us).

Yep but when these two things conflict not sure which one to default to

You may want to experiment to see if your network is better when the RT-AX58U is the main router instead of the RT-AC88U. You'll also benefit by having the internet-facing router with the latest firmware by doing so.

Consider running the RT-AC88U in Media Bridge mode to the farthest clients that are wired capable too (and not part of the AiMesh setup. You may find that doing the two points above may help get your network running better.

I guess I didn't get into tall that, but the AC88U and AX-58U are are indeed connected by CAT-6E not wireless. I live in the sticks so only get 20MBS internet (I hear we may get 100MBS ala 2010 this year!) so speed is not the issue at all.

The AC88U needs to be the main router as it has way better range and works way better on 2.4GHz than the 58U (which is in a remote guest house only) and I'm using 7 of the 8 switch ports so if I swapped I would have to add a switch to the network as the 4 ports of the AX58U are not enough. I'm sure I'll update it to a newer router at some point, the system at my office is both AX systems but for now it's working and I just want to keep the firmware updated. There are two bugs in my system my 100% AX system with newer firmware fixed so I'm hoping they are now fixed.

 

[L&LD]

Same firmware; ideal. Latest firmware; always. There is no doubt about this in my mind.

Be happy you're able to use ports 5-8 on your RT-AC88U. Many have wonky experiences with those ports in use on Asus 8 port routers.

Yes, the 4x4:4 antennae/streams of the RT-AC88U surpass the 2x2:2 antennae/streams of the RT-AX58U.

With your additional info, you may want to leave your setup alone as it is working as you expect for now (there will be a possible final/last 386.12 update in the near future for it).

But I would be shopping for a new main router soon.

Asus updates its EOL list, adds RT-AC1750, AC1900P, AC88U, AC5300

This update adds quite a few AC (WiFi5) devices, including 802.11ac Wave 2 devices such as the RT-AC86U variants RT-AC2600 and GT-AC5300. Basically, variants of the most classic model RT-AC68U have entered the EOL list, such as RT-AC1900P, and variants RT-AC1750 and RT-AC1750U of RT-AC66U_B1...

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[drinkingbird]

Hey all,

I have two air mesh systems. I've always assumed I needed to have all the units on the same firmware revision to avoid issues and have done so up to now, but that doesn't seem possible for one system anymore. What is the best practice?
The router is an AC88u and the newest firmware available is 386.11.
The airmesh nodes are AX3000 (AX58u). there is no firmware 386.11 for this. There is 386.7.2 as the highest 386.x build then it jumps to 388.x builds.

So should I use

• 386.7.2 for both (the highest mutual firmware number)
• 386.11 on the AC88u and 386.7.2 on the AX3000
• 386.11 on the AC88u and 388.2.2 on the AX3000

Can I mix 386.x and 388.x builds moving forward?
My other system both the router and mesh networks are AX units so there is still mutual firmware and this is not yet an issue.

Thanx
Hawker

Guess I'm not saying anything that hasn't already been said, but is there something particular in 388 that you need? Short of a major security issue being identified (none currently), there isn't anything against 386 - personally I'd run 386.11 on the main router and the latest asus stock 386 firmware on the nodes (merlin not needed on nodes and can actually cause issues sometimes).

But if what you have now is working, probably no need to do anything really. You could try running 386.11 on main node and the latest asus 388 stock on the 58U and see how it performs (if you want to be latest and greatest on everything).

 

[heywire]

I run official AsusWRT on my Aimesh nodes. The official firmware is more frequently updated and - in my experience - less prone to issues. I run different models on main and node, though.

According to Merlin, he has no access to the Aimesh code because it is closed, so he can only trust that it doesn't interfere with any of his additions.

That being said, Asus QA is also shirt, so I guess it's a toss up. The nice thing about the official firmware is the ability to file a report w/log when there are issues, but only if you run it on the main node, so it doesn't apply in this situation (it should be your first step when encountering issues tho - verifying if they happen on the latest official firmware as well (running on both main and alle the nodes), and if they do, file ut in the webgui under "Administration/Feedback".. - this is obviously an easier switch if the nodes already run official fw)

I can speculate that in theory there is an argument for running Merlin on nodes if they are the same model as the main running Merlin (for example, both main and node AC86U) because they are identical, but I could also see it tuning both ways: it could introduce (the newer official fw), negate or amplify a particular issue with Aimesh on that particular Merlin fw version. But I don't actually know...