Asus RT-AC56U worth reviving?

[SomeWhereOverTheRainBow]

I also had a AC56U but am now happy with a AC86U.

You can try to load the AC68U firmware on the AC56U. This two routers were introduced at the same moment and have almost the same hardware. So it is strange that the AC56U is already discontinued while the AC68U is still receiving updates until now.

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/aimesh-on-rt-ac56u.55732/

That is because the 68u is really what the 56u should have been. The 56u was an attempt at being ahead of times.

 

[speedlever]

I loaded the Asus FW from Nov 2019 (3.0.0.438.51641) and all seems well. I figure that should have the latest fixes.

But now you have me curious about the AC68U. I'll have to see how it differs from the 56U. Might be worth getting if it continues to get updates. On 2nd thought, for $130, I think I'll pass for now.

The AC56U with that FW is running fine. I turned the 2G power to 50% and left the 5G at full power. Great coverage throughout the apt and hopefully neighbor friendly as well. (although a quick glance using WiFi Analyzer shows a dirty 2G environment with some residents using a 40MHz instead of a 20MHz bandwidth setting).

 

[speedlever]

However, I'm still curious about the separate SSIDs for 2G and 5G bands. I'm used to my Unifi USG3P being able to use a single SSID and prefer 5G which I find works quite well for automatic band switching.

I'd forgotten the AC56U separated the bands with different SSIDs. Can I not use a single SSID that employs both the 2G and the 5G bands and have it switch between them automatically?

 

[hoang51]

I have an old AC56U I retired several years ago and replaced with a Ubiquiti system. It was running a version of Merlin... 380.62. (edited to correct the version)

I have a daughter that just moved into an apartment and needs a decent router. Would it be worth reviving the AC56U and putting the latest Merlin (384.6) on it? Or is it too old to be securely useful?

I acknowledge that this is about a year old thread, but it's worth noting that AC56U can be repurposed as a AC68U clone (with some minor issues that might be fixable) and allow the router to have extended life with Merlin's current 386 firmware (2021+).

 

[SomeWhereOverTheRainBow]

I acknowledge that this is about a year old thread, but it's worth noting that AC56U can be repurposed as a AC68U clone (with some minor issues that might be fixable) and allow the router to have extended life with Merlin's current 386 firmware (2021+).

If someone can figure out how to get the wan port and switch parts to work correctly, this would actually be worth it.

 

[Adooni]

everything is working correctly - that WAN is LAN1 port and LAN4 is WAN port is not an issue. I have 2 AC56U mods working for few months now.

 

[Nick_J]

Quick question about the AC56U. It is dual band, but in setup, it offers separate SSIDs for the dual bands. Does the AC56U not offer the ability to automatically switch between bands? IE, as you approach your house, you connect to the longer ranging 2G band, but once inside and in a strong enough 5G signal, automatically switch to the 5G band?

The AC56U doesn't have that feature.

 

[Adooni]

if Band Steering (BS) is what you need you can try FreshTomato https://freshtomato.org/ - it was implemented there about 0.5 year ago.