Wireguard RT-AC88U Compatibility

[Stick]

I've installed the latest firmware, diversion/entware and wireguard manager packages to my RT-AC88U. However, when I run wireguard manager from amtm I get the following message:

***ERROR: Router RT-AC88U (v386.10_0) is not currently compatible with Wireguard®️!

Is this to be expected?

 

[Tech9]

You need a router with newer CPU and firmware kernel. Your router will be 8-years old model in Oct 2023. This means about 10-years old technology.

 

[bennor]

I've installed the latest firmware, diversion/entware and wireguard manager packages to my RT-AC88U.
....
Is this to be expected?

Yes. Did you see the requirements for WireGuard Manager?

Requirements: HND or AX router with Kernel 4.1.xx or later
e.g. RT-AC86U or RT-AX86U etc.

One can see the Asus-Merlin about page for a general list of Asus HND routers:
https://www.asuswrt-merlin.net/about
The RT-AC88U is apparently not HND, and it is not an AX series router.

 

[Stick]

Yes. Did you see the requirements for WireGuard Manager?

One can see the Asus-Merlin about page for a general list of Asus HND routers:
https://www.asuswrt-merlin.net/about
The RT-AC88U is apparently not HND, and it is not an AX series router.

Okay .... I thought I'd seen others on the forum using Wireguard with AC88U, but maybe they achieved this without the Wireguard Manager?

 

[bennor]

Okay .... I thought I'd seen others on the forum using Wireguard with AC88U, but maybe they achieved this without the Wireguard Manager?

Are you sure it was the RT-AC88U and not the RT-AX88U?

 

[Stick]

Are you sure it was the RT-AC88U and not the RT-AX88U?

This thread https://www.snbforums.com/threads/more-wireguard-oddities-with-ac88u.82559/post-811110
He probably meant AX88U but mistyped it

 

[Tech9]

He probably meant AX88U but mistyped it

The poster it talking about VPN Fusion - it's a 388 firmware option available for RT-AX88U.

 

[Stick]

This thread https://www.snbforums.com/threads/more-wireguard-oddities-with-ac88u.82559/post-811110
He probably meant AX88U but mistyped it

This thread https://www.snbforums.com/threads/l...ith-bidirectional-wireguard.82303/post-808322 shows a screen shot with AX88U clearly visible... so it is confirmed that the text AC88U is mistyped.

Thank you for your putting me straight.

 

[Tech9]

Time for RT-AX88U Pro?

RT-AX88U Pro｜WiFi Routers｜ASUS Global

ASUS gaming routers provide the very best gaming experience, with an arsenal of features and tools designed to improve online gaming performance and give you the competitive edge you need to win.

www.asus.com

 

[Stick]

Time for RT-AX88U Pro?

RT-AX88U Pro｜WiFi Routers｜ASUS Global

ASUS gaming routers provide the very best gaming experience, with an arsenal of features and tools designed to improve online gaming performance and give you the competitive edge you need to win.

www.asus.com

Your avatar showing placement of an IC is also the recent history of my AC88U !

I already have 2 x AX88U which are happily linked site2site via wireguard. But my old AC88U had a blown USB power chip. So last week I managed to replace the chip (FR9618) to resurrect the USB ports. This was successful (I guess I'll still use it as an AP in my garage ... didn't really need to repair the USB ports for that!)

Cheers

 

[bennor]

This thread https://www.snbforums.com/threads/more-wireguard-oddities-with-ac88u.82559/post-811110
He probably meant AX88U but mistyped it

Yes they mistyped it. Very common mistake that people are making, confusing similar numbered Asus AC or AX series with each other. VPN Fusion is a feature in the 388.x firmware that the RT-AC88U and other AC series routers do not support: https://asus.click/vpnfusionmodel
See the bottom of the link for the list of 388.x (and VPN Fusion) supported routers.

 

[rezlop]

I know that you can use DD-WRT or OpenWRT in particular for Wireguard support as a Server on my Router. But I don't want to mess with Bricking ( recently I bricked my old Netgear WNDR3700).
I also know that MerlinWRT is a tuned version of the stock firmware. And I want the features of the MerlinMRT.
I know that the AC88U is old BUT I need all 8 LAN ports so that's why I got this Router and won't buy the AX88U because of lacking LAN ports and I'm also not interested to have many devices for having more LAN ports.

OpenVPN is good enough for me get into my Home Network but its to slow for using it to reroute traffic from my PC over a VPN. My upload speed from my ISP is 56mbps while with OpenVPN running on the Router download speed shrinks to 31mbps. Without VPN I get almost 300mbps.

I only want to know why it is - I read here a lot of opinions because of old hardware of this Router and no HND - not possible to get Wireguard Server functionality on my Asus RT-AC88U Router with MerlinWRT ?

The hardware itself could not be the problem because if I would use dd-wrt I could use Wireguard and it worked with my much older WNDR3700 with no probs.

So I'm only interested why exactly its not possible to get it on the MerlinWRT ?
Because its not supported from Asus itself and MerlinWRT is only a tuned Firmware that not integrate features that not natively supported from stock ?

I don't want to criticize but only want to understand the exact case. As I read in other threads there is no extension also, which could bring in this functionality.

 

[Tech9]

So I'm only interested why exactly its not possible to get it on the MerlinWRT ?

I know why, but @RMerlin can answer this question better than anyone else.

 

[Viktor Jaep]

I know why, but @RMerlin can answer this question better than anyone else.

I'm going to take a wild stab at this and guess that Wireguard is 64bits and the AC88U can only handle a max of 63bits... amiright?

 

[Jeffrey Young]

It is a kernel age issue. Wire guard requires at least kernel version 3.1. even then, it needs to be built with specific options.

The AC68U and AX88U uses a version 2.xx kernel.

 

[Tech9]

So I'm only interested why exactly its not possible to get it on the MerlinWRT ?

Here:

Announcement: 3006 progress report - it's a go

Asus does not need me, they already have a number of developers whose programming skills are away ahead of my limited hobbyist-level skills. I'm primarily an IT guy, not a software engineer. Yes, I know your position there. Hopefully at least they throw hardware at you to work with. It's...

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