ASUS RT-AC68U Firmware version 3.0.0.4.374.4561 is out

[jim769]

I came from Netgear, shocking support. few and far between on firmwares that didn't fix many issues.

I think all these new routers have issues because they try and pack to many features in a router, forget about all these features and get back to the basics of a router and thats routing.

 

[Buck115]

Well after thinking carefully about it I decided to let Asus have go to the competition, I have chosen the Netgear R7000, sorry for asus, but I think that the development of their devices is not taking seriously and this is to the detriment of users like us, thank you all for the wonderful information that has given me this forum you are phenomenal!

Just the opposite for me, I kept the ASUS RT-AC68U and sent back the Netgear R7000.

I'm using the latest firmware (3.0.0.4.374_4561) and I'm not experiencing any reboot issues, but some folks are. I have a mix of 12 wired and wireless devices connecting to the router, including two Apple devices that some folks suspect may be contributing to the reboots. No issues here and the ASUS gives configuration controls, like actually turning off WPS, that the R7000 doesn't provide. For my application, the RT-AC68U outperformed the R7000, but obviously that opinion will vary by user. Good luck!!!!!

 

[RMerlin]

If you check the Netgear forums you will see there new flagship router R7000 has just as many issues right now as the 68U. Good luck with it.

Since the Wifi code is from Broadcom and both routers use the same chipsets from Broadcom, I would explain a lot of wifi issues to be common between both.

 

[RMerlin]

I think all these new routers have issues because they try and pack to many features in a router, forget about all these features and get back to the basics of a router and thats routing.

Sadly, bulletpoints sell. You can't put a bulletpoint on your marketing material that says "this router is 87.5% more stable than the competitor's router". But you can put a bulletpoint that claims "Share your USB disks over the Internet".

And that's why routers have turned into jack-of-all-trade network devices, with all the potential issues that comes with it. Because from a marketing's point of view, it allows to add more bulletpoints.

 

[RMerlin]

I'm using the latest firmware (3.0.0.4.374_4561) and I'm not experiencing any reboot issues, but some folks are.

My RT-AC68U had an uptime of 9 days when I rebooted it last night (to flash a test build). That shows how random those reboot issues can be

 

[speedingcheetah]

I think all these new routers have issues because they try and pack to many features in a router, forget about all these features and get back to the basics of a router and thats routing.

That's what Tomato firmware is for....i have over 3 dozen routers i have setup for clients...and flashed tomato to. Every single one of them, never had any issues and are blazing fast. Cisco e2000 and e3000....love them. If only they were AC routers

 

[Buck115]

My RT-AC68U had an uptime of 9 days when I rebooted it last night (to flash a test build). That shows how random those reboot issues can be

Yep, I completely understand; I'm on day 21 and realize it can happen at any time. I guess this router is a little more tolerant given my particular network configuration, usage, and devices.

 

[GoNz0]

So far I managed a week then 4 days then a day between crash and restart. It is in AP mode so the only common ground I can find is having a USB3 drive plugged in.

The USB code is terrible, it can see the drive but shows as unmounted until you replug the USB cable.

 

[Trentelshark]

Since there was no 374_2050 release for the RT-AC68U, I assume you are talking about a different router. In which case this probably won't help - the driver is completely different (6.30 vs 6.37).

Shoot, and sorry yes this is for the ac66u. I submitted it to Asus in any case and they indicated I should downgrade furthe than I have and they will address it "immediately" in a firmware update. Maybe everyone will get lucky and similar code exists across all routers and it will clear up the issues on the 68 as well. Can only hope .

 

[fcosenti]

I tested this low signal theory with my S3 and my laptop...doesn't affect me on the AC56U....and the time friend was connected with iphone...he was in same room as router...or one room over...mad no difference then...router rebooted anyway..

Don't forget that source of interference (and even corrupted packets) could come from other routers/devices on the same or close channel.
So you can continue to try and test forever, when the issue comes from a neighbour.
It is not the first time that I noticed a drop in performances on wireless, because a neighbour decided to move to my frequency.

 

[NickJ]

Update : re-checking my router interface (under firmware 3.0.0.4.374_4561), I noticed that the router's "system" clock was 1 hour ahead, despite having set the correct GMT timezone (in my case GMT+1). I had to select GMT without any + or - adjustment to get the WIFI system to be identical to my Mac, i.e. the current time over here.
This has to be a bug in the firmware. The good news seems to be in that the WIFI "reboot" has nearly ceased : just one in the past 48 hours over 3-4 times daily before ...

 

[Horrorfrost]

probably is your router rebooting..check the System log page in the setup web page to see the uptime right after u notice the dropout...if is only a min or 2 or less uptime...then router rebooted.

If your router is rebooting...only thing u can do is downgrade the firmware( or flash the correct Merlin build) and wait for a fix.

Indeed this is what I had to do. Right after upgrading to 374.4561 I began to experience reboots 3-4 times per day. Usually in the middle of a hot Planetside 2 battle -- very annoying. I gave it a couple weeks, then I tried the Merlin software based on the same build -- the 40.beta3 version... the Merlin build seemed okay for a few hours but then really went crazy with reboots when I was trying to do some scanning with my wireless Epson -- as in rebooting every 4-5 minutes... I quickly downgraded back to 374.583 and no have no reboots occurring. Not sure what's going on here.

 

[jim769]

If you want a stable Merlin build use either 374_39 or 374_40-alpha4 those versions are stable and dont have the reboot issues.

 

[5994fps]

Has anyone had any reboots with 40_beta 3? Mine's been up for over 10 days now without a hitch. I've been doing all sorts of crazy stuff with various Wi-Fi devices and I can't make it fail.

 

[JerryZ72]

I'm running 40_beta three with mixed Apple, Android, and Windows 8.1 clients, and I'm currently rebooting about 3-5 times per day at random intervals. I really like everything about this router, but the rebooting is making me nuts... I replaced a Netgear R6300 that would often drop the WAN link to Comcast and needed to have the cable unplugged and re-plugged in order to get the connection back, and I'm not in much better shape $200 + later :-/

 

[Fenseven]

Installed the 374.40 alpha and now the router bootloops when i have my Western Digital essential my book plugged into the usb 3 port. unplugged it stops the bootloop. i installed it just over 24 hours ago and it hasn't randomly rebooted since i unplugged the external hdd. kind of a bummer as i liked having a 3TB storage network drive that all my computers are mapped to.

HW acceleration is on, all of the aicloud stuff is off.

on a side note how hot is this thing suppose to be running at:

2.4 GHz: 51°C - 5 GHz: 57°C - CPU: 88°C

spoke too soon, it just rebooted itself. had 3 devices connected to it wirelessly 2 on the 5.0 and 1 on the 2.4. A laptop with 2 very slow torrents going on it on the 5.0 and my xbox one. on the 2.4 i had a laptop that was running WoW.

Dec 31 20:00:23 ddns update: ez-ipupdate: starting...
Dec 31 20:00:23 ddns update: connected to ns1.asuscomm.com (103.10.4.108) on port 80.
Dec 31 20:00:25 WAN Connection: WAN was restored.
Mar 18 21:54:05 rc_service: ntp 513:notify_rc restart_upnp
Mar 18 21:54:05 rc_service: ntp 513:notify_rc restart_diskmon
Mar 18 21:54:05 rc_service: waitting "restart_upnp" via ntp ...
Mar 18 21:54:06 ddns update: Asus update entry:: return: HTTP/1.1 299 |Invalid IP format| 192.168.0.5^M Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2014 00:36:35 GMT^M Server: Apache/2.4.3 (Unix) PHP/5.4.14^M X-Powered-By: PHP/5.4.14^M Content-Length: 0^M Content-Type: text/html^M ^M
Mar 18 21:54:06 ddns update: retval= 1, ddns_return_code (,299)
Mar 18 21:54:06 ddns update: asusddns_update: 1
Mar 18 21:54:06 kernel: tun: Universal TUN/TAP device driver, 1.6
Mar 18 21:54:06 kernel: tun: (C) 1999-2004 Max Krasnyansky <maxk@qualcomm.com>
Mar 18 21:54:06 kernel: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): tun21: link is not ready
Mar 18 21:54:06 kernel: device tun21 entered promiscuous mode

Is that saying it tried to do an DDNS update through asus and then lost connected and rebooted? I see under Wan that DDNS is enabled.

I've had this RT-AC68U for under a week now, if it seems like it's a factory reject router i could easily take it back to Staples and exchange for a new one.

 

[speedingcheetah]

Don't forget that source of interference (and even corrupted packets) could come from other routers/devices on the same or close channel.
So you can continue to try and test forever, when the issue comes from a neighbour.
It is not the first time that I noticed a drop in performances on wireless, because a neighbour decided to move to my frequency.

nobody near me has 5ghz and that is what i was using.

Anyway....same friend with iphone came over today...with his ipad as well. Been online most of the day with no issues. No reboots like last time. Nothing here has changed.

My AC56U Router been up 17days now.

Just shows how random this issue is.

For those who have the AC68U and suffering from the reboot issue....try switching to the AC56U and see if u have the same issues. I have not seen any reports of folks with the 56u having so many issues.(As long as going down to a 2 stream AC router is ok for you).

 

[Fenseven]

Asus also seems to have an OC tool on the site for this router to bump the ram from 533MHz to 666MHz. has anyone messed around with that?

 

[5994fps]

I'm starting to wonder if there's a link between upgrading firmwares and doing a factory reset that may cause reboots. The last time I changed firmware, I reset the settings to factory default and I haven't had any reboots.

 

[rtcomputersinc]

I'm starting to wonder if there's a link between upgrading firmwares and doing a factory reset that may cause reboots. The last time I changed firmware, I reset the settings to factory default and I haven't had any reboots.

I asked the same question was told no there wasn't enough of a change to warrant a reset. I didn't factory reset and I have reboots. Im sure the ASUS people factory reset (and why they cant recreate) when they load a FW and why I began to think that may fix the issue. Im waiting for the weekend to try.