Asus Blue Cave EOL

[ubimea]

I was just advised by Asus by email that the Blue Cave has reached end of life and will no longer receive firmware updates.

That news is a little disappointing.

 

[L&LD]

4.5 years. It had a good run (I don't believe these were ever sold at any volume).

 

[ubimea]

It appears that support ended in May of 2021, at least that's the date of the last firmware currently available at the website.

I have only ever used it as an access point, since the Blue Cave has a considerable high WAF.

But I'm surprised that Amazon and even the Asus website are still selling the product as new without a warning or mention of the EOL.

 

[L&LD]

As an AP, it's life span is indefinite. Keep using it in that way as long as it lasts.

As I said, I don't think this ever sold at volume. I'm sure they are new. Buyer beware (is always true). Particularly in this age of persistent stock shortages (and anything will eventually sell).

 

[Justinh]

This is sad: ASUS is still selling it on their site.

 

[Tech9]

It depends where this email is coming from. Who from Asus? Average customer service representative is reading questions and answers from a computer screen and sending a reply with incorrect information is not unusual. There were examples here on SNB Forums.

 

[wouterv]

It is not shown in this list:

End-of-life product list

And the URL for firmware download is still "standard":

https://www.asus.com/us/Networking-IoT-Servers/Whole-Home-Mesh-WiFi-System/AiMesh-WiFi-Routers-and-Systems/Blue-Cave/HelpDesk_knowledge/

Where for e.g. the RT-N66U the URL is in the "supportonly" part of the website:

https://www.asus.com/supportonly/RT-N66U%20(VER.B1)/HelpDesk_BIOS/

 

[ubimea]

It is not shown in this list:

End-of-life product list

And the URL for firmware download is still "standard":

https://www.asus.com/us/Networking-IoT-Servers/Whole-Home-Mesh-WiFi-System/AiMesh-WiFi-Routers-and-Systems/Blue-Cave/HelpDesk_knowledge/

Where for e.g. the RT-N66U the URL is in the "supportonly" part of the website:

https://www.asus.com/supportonly/RT-N66U%20(VER.B1)/HelpDesk_BIOS/

I wrote to Asus customer support that it seemed odd to continue selling a product as new and not listed on any EOL yet no firmware since May 14, 2021.

This is one of the replies I received :

Hello

Thank you for contacting ASUS Product Support.

My name is and I am here to assist you.

"With the escalation that was made for this concern, here is the response from our higher team.
"Please be advised that we'll advise the RD team to update the list shortly and our RD team had confirmed that this model is on the EOL list now."

"Please keep in mind that we are available for any future questions or concerns, so please reach out to our technical support team here: Chat with Us . This will allow us to gather more details on the description of the issue you are experiencing directly, especially on more complex and targeted situations."

If anyone thinks they can get a different answer out of ASUS, or better yet, some new official firmware for the Blue Cave, please do so.

 

[wouterv]

Well right, the best measure to see if a product is still supported is to compare the firmware releases.
Compared to the RT-AC68U, the BlueCave is way behind, specially with security fixes. It can only mean the BlueCave was set aside by ASUS.

 

[Tech9]

This is one of the replies I received :

Thank you for the update.

This router's main selling point was the looks, but perhaps the sales didn't very well.

 

[RMerlin]

I wrote to Asus customer support that it seemed odd to continue selling a product as new and not listed on any EOL yet no firmware since May 14, 2021.

EOL often really means end of manufacturing. This is why for instance a few EOL routers still got security updates from Asus these past few months despite being on the EOL list. That happened recently with the RT-AC3200 and RT-AC87U.

If they still have inventories, then it makes sense for them to keep selling them until they get rid of it. They can't just destroy inventories just because they no longer manufacture a product.

A few manufacturers like QNAP actually have different "end of life" dates, one is for active development and manufacturing, and a second one is for security updates.

 

[sfx2000]

EOL often really means end of manufacturing. This is why for instance a few EOL routers still got security updates from Asus these past few months despite being on the EOL list.

Exactly - EOL doesn't mean End Of Support

Other vendors do similar things, and that usually indicates that the product is moved out of the active retail channel, and the EoS timeline starts from that date.