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AC68U 380.x upgrade

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henry8866

Occasional Visitor
I have an old AC68U running 380.x version earlier. I want to upgrade it to the latest 384.17. Is there any guide how to do upgrade with such large gap?

Thank you.
 
What is the specific version? It may be significant as at some point the JFFS partition size was increased. :)
 
I have an old AC68U running 380.x version earlier. I want to upgrade it to the latest 384.17. Is there any guide how to do upgrade with such large gap?

Thank you.

Put a check in the box to wipe the jffs partition. scroll to bottom hit Apply, put a check in the box to Factory Reset and reboot.

Enter basics, SSID and Password.

Use GUI to flash new .17

Factory reset again.

Enter basics again, and add from there.
 
It is 380.64

If you run into trouble, after trying to flash, try stock asus firmware first. Make sure to factory reset between flipping from asus stock to merlin and after.(lots of factory resets)

If this is a beast of another nature (not a true ac68u) I can point you in another direction.
 
If you run into trouble, after trying to flash, try stock asus firmware first. Make sure to factory reset between flipping from asus stock to merlin and after.(lots of factory resets)

If this is a beast of another nature (not a true ac68u) I can point you in another direction.

Careful: the ice on that section of the pond might be pretty thin.


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Careful: the ice on that section of the pond might be pretty thin.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

More like a wet hole, wait that didn't sound quite right.:)
 
Quicksand is where your head is at, correct?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Quicksand is where your head is at, correct?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

When ice gets reeely thin the water starts to lap through to the surface and you get the picture.
 
swampy quagmire. I think that just about covers all the possibilities of falling down the well you might not get pulled from, Timmy.
 
Well, I was in a similar situation to you henry.

I am using an AC88U that was on 380.58 for the longest time.
Up to now it has been rock solid. At one point my longest uptime was 401 days. yes, that was 401, lol
Wired and wireless devices, were rock solid, zero issues.
The only reason it stopped there, was because I powered it down to move it to a more central location. From there I was able to lower signal strength on both bands and still have a solid wifi signal indoors and for my exterior cameras.

Seeing as it was long past due for an update (Security reasons) I figured I'd jump to one of the latest, which was 384.16 at the time.

Here's how I did mine and I had zero issues in the upgrade process.

1. Factory reset.
2. Flash 382.10 - Enter basic settings, then factory reset.
3. Flash 384.4 - enter basic settings, then factory reset.
4. Flash 384.16 - Enter basic settings, factory reset, then manually redo all of my settings, including SSID's, DHCP, etc..


Overall this went fine, however, a few things to note:

1. WiFi strength. Not good. on 380.58 I had 5G at 50% and 2.4 at 80% and everything was rock solid.
on 384.16 WiFi strength is much weaker, even using same channels as before. I have to do Performance (100%) on both bands to get the same signal strength as before, so keep that in mind. You may need to do a bit more research and see where that fell off, and any Pros/Cons of having an older firmware that could have security flaws, if signal strength is a concern.
2. Reliability on 2.4G - Not good at all for me. There's a post on it here: https://www.snbforums.com/threads/ac88u-wireless-problems-deauth.64158/

Not saying you will have these WiFi issues, as you have an 86U, but wanted to give a heads up just in case. Beyond that, no issues noted. Hope this helps.
 
Thanks Ricky!

looks 384.16 has wifi strength and reliability weaker than older version? this is very concerning as reliability is more important than ever as we all trapped at home.

My 380.64 was rock solid as well. Recently I had one wifi bulb in the further side of the house and it can't get the wifi connection. I was plan to upgrade it so I can add mesh node to extend coverage.
 
I have to do Performance (100%) on both bands to get the same signal strength as before, so keep that in mind. You may need to do a bit more research and see where that fell off, and any Pros/Cons of having an older firmware that could have security flaws, if signal strength is a concern.

can you please explain more in detail what do you mean "do Performance (100%) on both bands to get the same signal strength as before"?
 
can you please explain more in detail what do you mean "do Performance (100%) on both bands to get the same signal strength as before"?
At the bottom of the Wireless - Professional pages there is a "Tx power adjustment" slider which adjusts the output power and can be set to "Performance". This slider is not present in some firmware versions.

http://demoui.asus.com/Advanced_WAdvanced_Content.asp
 
Yep. Thanks Colin, saved me a bit of typing, lol

On the older AC88U firmware, slider did %, new slider uses words instead. Don't remember what percent was lowest, but now it's Power Saving, Fair, Balance, Good, Performance.
So short answer I have to keep both bands at max (Performance) and they don't quite have the strength I could get with the power being lower on the older firmware.
I had 5G at 50% and 2.4 at 80% on the old firmware, now I need to max both of them and strength is still bit weaker.
 
@henry8866 you may want to experiment with setting it one or two notches lower, then. :)
 
Over the weekend I decided to dust off my old 68U and try it out as an AiMesh node with my 86U. The 68U was on 380.69, as I haven't used it for a few years, so I did a factory reset first, then just updated it via the admin pages.
 
@MarkyPancake I hope you did a full reset to factory defaults again afterward. :)

Time to update your signature as well. :)
 

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