No firmware updates available for the ZenWifi ET8?

[opq]

Has anyone else noticed how Asus has never released any firmware updates at all for the ZenWiFi ET8?

ASUS ZenWiFi ET8｜Whole Home Mesh WiFi System｜ASUS Global

AXE6600 tri-band WiFi 6E (802.11ax) whole-home mesh WiFi system, up to 5500 sq. ft. coverage, new 6 GHz band, Seven 160 MHz channels, 6 GHz and Ethernet backhaul, free VPN security, lifetime free internet security, AiMesh support, ASUS Router app for easy setup and management

www.asus.com

It’s been 6+ months since the “initial release” and since the devices were released. In that time, its predecessors like the XT8, and even much older AC routers, have received several FW updates, including what seem to be some pretty key security fixes.

 

[L&LD]

Yes. With these many models that Asus supports, patience is all that is required.

Are you having any issues? Have you reported them to Asus?

The squeaky wheel gets the grease (and there are more vocal owners of the older hardware today).

 

[opq]

Thanks! That's fair, but also unfortunate.

Yes, since Day 1, we have been having issues where every 12-24 hours the nodes reboot by themselves, often disrupting work in the middle of the day. I have been writing about them here in the only other ET8 thread and had a few others reporting the same. I had issues reporting this to Asus in the first few months since it wouldn't accept the ET8 serial numbers, but recently that seemed to be fixed. However, I can't seem to get past Tier 1 tech support, and they claim I need to send the ET8's in for repair. Since they don't cross ship, and we don't have any of our old routers/access points anymore, it would mean that we would not have any means to connect to our home Internet for a few weeks or possibly longer. Since other folks also reported this issue, unless the whole batch of early devices were bad, I'm wondering if it could possibly be a software/firmware issue instead...

 

[L&LD]

Hmmm. To me, it seems like Asus doesn't know either (whether it is hardware or firmware).

I would suggest you buy as cheap a router as you can get by with and send those units in as asked for. Yes, we're not just beta testers for their (stock) firmware, but with bleeding-edge equipment, for the hardware too.

 

[aurizn]

I have the XT8 and I face the same issue. It's really fast when it works but it is unstable on mesh wireless backhaul mode.

You can use a LAN cable and run them on Ethernet backhaul which will fix it but it is definitely not ideal.

 

[opq]

I have the XT8 and I face the same issue. It's really fast when it works but it is unstable on mesh wireless backhaul mode.

You can use a LAN cable and run them on Ethernet backhaul which will fix it but it is definitely not ideal.

Thanks! I am actually using a wired backhaul using the LAN cable. But that’s a good point, maybe we should try the wireless backhaul…

 

[nicholb]

Have you tried adding a scheduled daily reboot? Maybe rebooting at night will stop the day time reboots.

 

[opq]

Have you tried adding a scheduled daily reboot? Maybe rebooting at night will stop the day time reboots.

Yeah, that's what I'm doing right now. But the problem is that these are happening more often than every 24 hours, so we'll still get at least 1-2 more interruptions during the day.

 

[CPngN]

new 386 release candidate RC3-3 https://www.snbforums.com/threads/a...beta-for-ipv6-ddns-and-ipv6-vpn-server.75829/ has helped considerably. I wouldn't say it's perfect, but the reboot/hiccup things have died down noticeably.

 

[Tech9]

Perhaps Asus is having some technical difficulties with 6E chipsets:

Beta - Asuswrt-Merlin 386.4 beta is now available

Dirty flashed Beta 4 from 386.3 on AC88U and all is fine. Only issue is the known Adaptive QoS not working and OpenVPN speed is half (20 Mbps vs 40 Mbps) of what it used to be. Thanks for the continued support RMerlin.

www.snbforums.com

It's a new W-Fi system and will be supported for sure, just more patience is needed.

 

[RMerlin]

Perhaps Asus is having some technical difficulties with 6E chipsets:

Beta - Asuswrt-Merlin 386.4 beta is now available

Dirty flashed Beta 4 from 386.3 on AC88U and all is fine. Only issue is the known Adaptive QoS not working and OpenVPN speed is half (20 Mbps vs 40 Mbps) of what it used to be. Thanks for the continued support RMerlin.

www.snbforums.com

The issue is only with the generated GPL archives (which is what is most puzzling). It does not affect regular firmware builds that they do for releases.

 

[opq]

new 386 release candidate RC3-3 https://www.snbforums.com/threads/a...beta-for-ipv6-ddns-and-ipv6-vpn-server.75829/ has helped considerably. I wouldn't say it's perfect, but the reboot/hiccup things have died down noticeably.

Thank you! Giving this a try and seeing how things go.

 

[o-l-a-v]

Asus ZenWiFi ET8 review: Wi-Fi 6E might not be an upgrade

Amazing performance spoiled by frequent bugs

www.androidpolice.com

I remember passing on XT8 because they were buggy. Too bad Asus still don't nail stability before putting some of the most expensive mesh routers out there to market.