RT-AC88U

[Puppa]

Earlier in the thread, if I remember right, this was acknowledged as a known issue with some ASUS routers.

I'm also seeing the issue with my RT-AC88U as a media bridge (with a RT-AC3100 as my main router and a RT-AC87U as an access point). Usually have to do a power cycle on the RT-AC88U once or twice a day. Fortunately, this has never (knock on wood) happened when streaming music or video media with the bridge.

When the issue happens, the AC88U also does not show up as a client when logged into the RT-AC3100. Nor does it show up with ASUS Device Discovery tool.

I've had good luck (so far...) using AC68 on firmware 1031 as a media bridge to my 5300. In fact, I'm kind of in disbelief that it's still working, lol. Used to have problems daily. Also, my connect rate is stellar 1300/1300!

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

 

[winb83]

anyone using an AC88 as a media bridge, with another AC88 as AP? the media bridge would eventually lose connection with the AP, LEDs are all showing up fine, and a power cycle will fix it.

My second one has been connected for about a week now with no resets. The first week I had to reset daily.

 

[Gerry Wasiluk]

My second one has been connected for about a week now with no resets. The first week I had to reset daily.

Gee, you're making me jealous . . .

I contacted Asus support just to see what they said about the issue. Got this back.

The possible cause of the issue could be associated with the settings or firmware.

Can you please follow the below procedures to fix this issue:

1. Please try to Update the firmware again.
2. After the firmware update, reset the router to factory defaults
3. Reconfigure the router from scratch
4. Remove all of your old wireless profiles from computers, phones, etc
5. Make sure 2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz have unique SSIDs
6. For 2.4 Ghz, change the channel width to "20/40 Mhz"
7. Please try to keep control channel from 1 to 6 and check which one is giving you the stable and fastest connection.
8. Authentication method as WPA2- personal.
9. Save these settings and check the connection is stable.​

I tried most of that yesterday--except I don't know how to do Steps 6 and 7 when the router is in bridge mode. (Do those steps with the router in wireless router or access point mode and then switch to media bridge?) Also not sure about Step 4 - removing old wireless profiles - what profiles?

Anyway, after that, things were working fine last night. This morning I now have to do power off/power on hula dance.

Will probably try Merlin's new alpha firmware for my RT-AC88U this weekend . . . .

 

[nightfly]

Got my replacement AC88 today. Did the fw upgrade after power-on and then the factory defaults. Also decided to enable only needed features: Samba, DDNS, a 2.4 Guest network; to help ensure stability.

Something I noticed: after the upgrade and factory defaults, I setup a minimal config for just wireless and Samba and did a wired client test and got ~104-110MB/sec NTFS read speeds. This is with the USB3.0 interference option disabled. Later I finished setting up the remainder of the config and did a re-test and got mid-80s MB/sec.

So something unrelated is affecting USB3.0 peformance. would love to get the 100 MB/s + back... but could not find anything to revert that makes sense...

New AC88 up now for a week and it's been stable - no reboots, crashes, or hangs. Also NAS performance has been great: been getting ~100+ MB/s from Win 7 wired client.

Will now use my N66 as a AP for wired/2.4 ghz wireless clients and use the 5Ghx for the back-haul connection to the AC88. Will off load my G and slower N clients onto this AP. Looks like the I got to DD-WRT do this as I don't want to run a cable for a standard repeater setup.

 

[ronan_zj]

Router from Asus with Merlin FW is always stable

 

[nightfly]

Router from Asus with Merlin FW is always stable

I'll run Merlin once the AC88 version is out of experimental/beta to release.

 

[sm00thpapa]

Where's the smart connect on the AC88U that Asus and JJ were talking about. I don't see it in the firmware.

 

[punkinduster]

I wish someone with a RT-AC88 would let me know if they see the the same issue with Real-time Traffic Monitor graph 5 GHz receive showing a flat line and the WAN graph showing incorrect data going out to the Internet. I'm tempted to send this thing back if it is only my problem. I even did a factory reset and configured from scratch to no avail.

 

[nightfly]

I wish someone with a RT-AC88 would let me know if they see the the same issue with Real-time Traffic Monitor graph 5 GHz receive showing a flat line and the WAN graph showing incorrect data going out to the Internet. I'm tempted to send this thing back if it is only my problem. I even did a factory reset and configured from scratch to no avail.

Just did a quick test for you. Running 858, Got accurate on WAN and 5Gz results in monitor. No flat lines and variable graphs on each.

 

[nightfly]

I am noticing my USB drive (WD Elements) is not going to sleep on the AC88; had no issues with this on the N66...

Bueller?

 

[sm00thpapa]

I wish someone with a RT-AC88 would let me know if they see the the same issue with Real-time Traffic Monitor graph 5 GHz receive showing a flat line and the WAN graph showing incorrect data going out to the Internet. I'm tempted to send this thing back if it is only my problem. I even did a factory reset and configured from scratch to no avail.

Just checked and it is normal no flat lines.

 

[Uri]

I bet none of you have the pair of MU-MIMO enabled clients that would be necessary to take any benefit out of a MU-MIMO enabled router.

So I got a bagful of MU-MIMO clients under my hand and I am looking to see how they behave together (research purposes)...
Trouble is - I'm unable to run them in promiscuous mode so I can't combine their packet traces.
Trouble No. 2 - I don't know my left hand from my broadcom chipset (and what I've learned is credited to @sfx2000).

Does the RT-AC88U (or the AC3100) actually has MU-MIMO "activated" already, or is it still disabled waiting for future firmware? Does Asuswrt -Merlin? or dd-wrt? Can I run tcpdump on either of them to collect the "Sounding" frames and to see to which groups it transmits simultaniously?

I know SNB are using VeriWave for testing, but if someone is interested in these packet-traces I will be more than happy to share.

 

[sm00thpapa]

So I got a bagful of MU-MIMO clients under my hand and I am looking to see how they behave together (research purposes)...
Trouble is - I'm unable to run them in promiscuous mode so I can't combine their packet traces.
Trouble No. 2 - I don't know my left hand from my broadcom chipset (and what I've learned is credited to @sfx2000).

Does the RT-AC88U (or the AC3100) actually has MU-MIMO "activated" already, or is it still disabled waiting for future firmware? Does Asuswrt -Merlin? or dd-wrt? Can I run tcpdump on either of them to collect the "Sounding" frames and to see to which groups it transmits simultaniously?

I know SNB are using VeriWave for testing, but if someone is interested in these packet-traces I will be more than happy to share.

No MU-MIMO on the 88U or AC3100 currently.


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[Uri]

No MU-MIMO on the 88U or AC3100 currently.

Thanks a lot for the information.
Back to the drawing board...

 

[sm00thpapa]

Thanks a lot for the information.
Back to the drawing board...

ASUS stated a Beta MU-MIMO firmware by end of 2015 and we're still waiting. I spoke to JJ from ASUS and he stated an official MU-MIMO working firmware could be available anytime between Jan-Jun time frame of 2016.


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[thiggins]

The VeriWave system can do complete packet traces on the wired and wireless interfaces. In fact, the packet trace data is how the test program tells whether the STA was actually in MU or SU mode.

Not a cheap solution, however.

 

[punkinduster]

RMerlin:
If this is of any help to identify a potential bug then it was well worth the effort I put into it using a RT-AC88.

I ran an Internet speed test on a wired PC, a 2.4 GHz connected phone and a 5 GHz connected phone. I ran these tests against 5 different versions of firmware (380-664, 380-858, alpha 2,3,4). No other devices were connected to the LAN at the time of testing after a reset to defaults.

The real-time device traffic monitor data appears correct for the individual wired and wireless devices. The global graphs are not matching this data.

I viewed the Global Real-time Traffic Monitor graphs and observed the following:
380-664
Graphs:
WAN = OK
Wired = OK
2.4GHz = OK
5GHz transmit = OK
5 GHz receive = zero/no data

380-858
Graphs:
WAN = OK
Wired = OK
2.4GHz transmit = OK
2.4 GHz receive = zero/no data
5GHz transmit = OK
5 GHz receive = zero/no data

The WAN and Wired graphs show the correct transmit and receive data on the Asus builds even with the missing receive data on their corresponding wireless graphs.

Now here is where the graphs gets really goofy.
all Merlin alpha builds
Graphs:
WAN = shows 2.4 GHz data all the same color(outgoing) during 2.4 test, shows double the actual transfer rate for the 5 GHz data during the 5 GHz test, and double the transfer rate for data during the wired test.
Wired = shows 2.4 GHz data during 2.4 test, shows 5 GHz data all the same color(incoming) during the 5 GHz test, and shows double the transfer rate of wired data during the wired test.
2.4GHz transmit = OK
2.4 GHz receive = zero/no data
5GHz transmit = OK
5 GHz receive = zero/no data

Please let me know if I can supply any other information. Thanks

 

[NSNE]

Slightly OT (apologies), but I've just purchased my RT-AC88U and am waiting for it to arrive. In the meantime I've been following this thread with interest.

Up to now I've been a longtime (7+ years) DrayTek user. I'm a bit apprehensive about the signal drops and reboots that seem to be a common theme with Asus routers — although, to be fair, this was my very early experience with DrayTek too — but I'm hoping things go smoothly and our newer devices will enjoy some welcome speed boosts.

 

[kloxxe]

Hi,

I'm just upgrading my home network (kids need the bandwidth ) to 100/5mbps cable connection (Teksavvy/Rogers Canada) and a new router. First I have ordered the Linksys EA6900 (AC1900) which was on sale (149 CAD ~107 USD), but after reading all the raving reviews I also ordered the RT-AC3100 (which supposed to be the same as RT-AC88U less 4 LAN ports) (349 CAD ~250 USD @ BestBuy Canada).

Right now I have two routers (the RT-AC3100 is expected to arrive in 2 days) and I am well within the 2 weeks window to return one of them.

My girlfriend's ASUS ROG GL552VW-DH71 is the latest hardware in the house, it has built-in Intel Wireless-AC 7265 (up to 867 Mbps). I have 3 desktop PCs currently connected via LAN cables. I may consider changing them to wireless, but so far I could not find any desktop network adapter capable for anything beyond AC1900... I also have a Chromecast and several tablets / phones hanging on the network (those are not speed critical).

The purpose of the network is simple sharing the internet connection (gaming, netflix, etc..), I don't have internal file servers, etc...

I really would like to keep the RT-AC3100, if nothing else, because of the coolness factor, but I think (I might be wrong here) there is no real benefit of it without matching network adapters... and the linksys EA6900 costs less than half...

So which route should I go, EA6900 or RT-AC3100, any advice?

Thanks and BR,

Rudy

 

[faur]

Hi,

I'm just upgrading my home network (kids need the bandwidth ) to 100/5mbps cable connection (Teksavvy/Rogers Canada) and a new router. First I have ordered the Linksys EA6900 (AC1900) which was on sale (149 CAD ~107 USD), but after reading all the raving reviews I also ordered the RT-AC3100 (which supposed to be the same as RT-AC88U less 4 LAN ports) (349 CAD ~250 USD @ BestBuy Canada).

Right now I have two routers (the RT-AC3100 is expected to arrive in 2 days) and I am well within the 2 weeks window to return one of them.

My girlfriend's ASUS ROG GL552VW-DH71 is the latest hardware in the house, it has built-in Intel Wireless-AC 7265 (up to 867 Mbps). I have 3 desktop PCs currently connected via LAN cables. I may consider changing them to wireless, but so far I could not find any desktop network adapter capable for anything beyond AC1900... I also have a Chromecast and several tablets / phones hanging on the network (those are not speed critical).

The purpose of the network is simple sharing the internet connection (gaming, netflix, etc..), I don't have internal file servers, etc...

I really would like to keep the RT-AC3100, if nothing else, because of the coolness factor, but I think (I might be wrong here) there is no real benefit of it without matching network adapters... and the linksys EA6900 costs less than half...

So which route should I go, EA6900 or RT-AC3100, any advice?

Thanks and BR,

Rudy

I would go with AC3100 for future proof reasons... especially that it's quite stable now. (mine have 15 days uptime now and no issue...)... plus, Asus support is light years before the competition, as far as I saw...