Must have gotten a lemon of a RT-BE96U

[GunSmoke]

Bought a new RT-BE96U thinking now is a good time to update my old existing Asus unit. I have AT&T Fiber so I use passthrough for the WAN IP from their BGW320 router, but I only got the 96U to work with it once. Then I (foolishly?) updated the firmware to the latest and it stopped working. Multiple restarts, factory resets and reconfigurations, and a Merlin install of 3006.102.1 changed nothing. Saying there was an issue with DHCP. There wasn't a configuration issue, I've done this many times and it's not complex. I noticed the BE96U would restart randomly when changing settings like the internet on/off when trying to do a release/renew. My unit says hardware revision 1.0 and manufactured in 2023.

Plugged in my old router, redid the passthrough configuration and it picked up and worked immediately. It was past 5AM at this point and we needed our internet for work today so I gave up on this thing.

In my limited time with the 96U, it wasn't clear if MLO and AFC were enabled yet, there's a wifi7 option for all 3 bands so perhaps that's MLO. But I don't think I saw anything relevant to AFC. The list of firmware updates this year are sparse (1 release). I'm going to wait until both MLO and AFC are in place (edit- never getting AFC, requires a barometer), and sometime next year buy this model again and see where it's at. Seems like the perfect router for someone needing to update. I'm looking forward to a single unified MLO wifi network. Just needs to work!

That's my story with this thing. I waited a while to allow the firmware to bake, but I either got unlucky or something in my setup just didn't play well together. We'll see how they work for me in 2025. And maybe Asus will release a newer model by then too.

 

[RogerSC]

MLO is implemented and ready to use, it's the rightmost tab under "Wireless" in the web admin interface. From what you're describing, yours doesn't work at all like the one I'm using right now. Don't have MLO turned on at the moment, but I could do that *smile*. I have experienced none of the issues that you've listing. So if a full factory reset doesn't fix it, I'd say that it sounds broken. I've had very little to no trouble with mine, has worked well with both the Asus and RMerlin firmware. Was up to about 7 weeks of uptime with the Asus firmware, and about 14 days with RMerlin when I decided to try the latest GT-AX6000 firmware. Using RMerlin firmware on this thing at the moment, since it has later fixes and all than the latest Asus firmware does. If you can return yours, sounds like you can, I would do so, and re-buy it if and when you're ready.

Best performing router I've had, including the GT-AX6000. And it has been very reliable. Sorry that yours didn't work out for you.

 

[GunSmoke]

I was hoping to hear someone else either confirm or deny issues with this router. I've seen different experiences and hard to tell if this is closer to normal or abnormal. I am returning it today and decided I'm going to check the hardware revision on the units at Best Buy and Microcenter to see if there was a newer revision or not. I'm wondering if I got an older one as I was surprised to see it was manufactured in 2023.

I've been determined to get this unit since it launched. The only thing that has changed for me since I posted that is I learned AFC is only going to be possible on the 98 Pro. Unsure if I should wait for the price on that one to go a bit lower, or just forgo AFC.

What I was really after with this upgrade was MLO for a single access point on 2.4, 5 and 6Ghz. My cameras, laptops, phones, all using the same regardless of distance from the router would be nice.

 

[RMerlin]

What I was really after with this upgrade was MLO for a single access point on 2.4, 5 and 6Ghz. My cameras, laptops, phones, all using the same regardless of distance from the router would be nice.

MLO is a Wifi 7 features, something your cameras are unlikely to support.

What you are looking for here is Smart Connect.

 

[GunSmoke]

MLO is a Wifi 7 features, something your cameras are unlikely to support.

What you are looking for here is Smart Connect.

I did see Smart Connect in the software. Thanks, I was not aware of this feature. It would be interesting to see how that handles 5/6 and 2.4Ghz handoffs if you walk out of range.

What I assumed was that wifi 7 was backwards compatible with all prior standards, so a single tri-band wifi7 AP would do the same thing.
Not sure on my cameras, I know they're 2.4Ghz only but can't find if they're 802.11N or AX. I would put my money on N.

Sure wish my 96U experience had been smoother. I'll probably buy it again for one more try with another unit, after I check stores to see if there is a newer hardware revision than the one I have here.

 

[RMerlin]

What I assumed was that wifi 7 was backwards compatible with all prior standards, so a single tri-band wifi7 AP would do the same thing.

It's backward compatible, not forward. If a Wifi 6 and a Wifi 7 devices connect together, they will use the lowest common standard. In this case, that's Wifi 6.

The only way to use any Wifi 7 feature like MLO is for both the AP and the client to be Wifi 7.

Sure wish my 96U experience had been smoother. I'll probably buy it again for one more try with another unit, after I check stores to see if there is a newer hardware revision than the one I have here.

I have no problem with my own RT-BE96U, which is probably an early revision. I doubt that a newer hardware revision would change anything if you are having client-specific issues.

 

[GunSmoke]

It's backward compatible, not forward. If a Wifi 6 and a Wifi 7 devices connect together, they will use the lowest common standard. In this case, that's Wifi 6.

The only way to use any Wifi 7 feature like MLO is for both the AP and the client to be Wifi 7.


I have no problem with my own RT-BE96U, which is probably an early revision. I doubt that a newer hardware revision would change anything if you are having client-specific issues.

No client specific issues, but wouldn't get an IP for itself. Restarted itself at times. I'm hoping it was just a bad unit. I may step up to the 98 Pro though for AFC. Tough call, the price is annoyingly high and I don't care about the differences in ports or the 2nd 6Ghz band.

Yes I do not expect a wifi6 node to become wifi7 just because the AP is 7. I just meant a wifi 7 AP with 1 network should have compatibility with older standards so my 802.11N cameras can connect on the 2.4Ghz portion of the tri-band network. Same as an 802.11G node can connect to a 802.11AC network. My hope was that tri-band enabled wifi7 functioned like Smart Connect. I didn't know this problem was solved long ago with SC.

I would be very interested to compare how SC handles walking out of 6Ghz range with that single network. I'm guessing it just drops the connection from the one the handshake agreed to. Not ideal.
Versus how wifi7 is advertised to handle it seamlessly, which sounds great going forward for mobile devices. I would enjoy being able to walk out to my truck in the front of the house and not have to disable my wifi or switch to 2.4 and have my phone work.

 

[GunSmoke]

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Do you or anyone else here have any opinions or strong feelings on AFC? I do live 0.8 miles from an international airport if that matters. I think I'm willing to get the 98 Pro when I try this again but I've always wondered how the airport affects my wifi and AFC seems like it could potentially be affected.