ASUS RT-AC86U Firmware version RT-AC86U_3.0.0.4.384.32797

[OzarkEdge]

I had noticed some wifi drop out recently and just updated to 32799 too. Was that a known issue?

I've noticed WiFi signal briefly drop and return on an irregular basis since March 2018. I was not sure if it was my signal analyzer app or what. So far, I have not seen this activity on 32799.

OE

 

[maxbraketorque]

I've noticed WiFi signal briefly drop and return on an irregular basis since March 2018. I was not sure if it was my signal analyzer app or what. So far, I have not seen this activity on 32799.

OE

My first AC86U did this occasionally only on the 5 GHz band and only when I first got it around Jan 2018. After applying first or second firmware upgrade using the initialization method, I haven't seen the issue. This AC86U is serving as my main router, so I'm sure I would have seen it if it were still occurring. Its interesting that you are still seeing the issue, but are you running AiMesh?

 

[OzarkEdge]

My first AC86U did this occasionally only on the 5 GHz band and only when I first got it around Jan 2018. After applying first or second firmware upgrade using the initialization method, I haven't seen the issue. This AC86U is serving as my main router, so I'm sure I would have seen it if it were still occurring. Its interesting that you are still seeing the issue, but are you running AiMesh?

Yes, I'm running a 2x86U mesh. And setup another for a neighbor. I have not seen the momentary WiFi drop out since 32799... yet. It has been irregular, so I've ignored it. It does not seem to affect my few clients. When I first saw it, I re-installed thoroughly, swapped node and router... and it would clear, but eventually show again... but not often. I've seen it on all four 86Us I've worked on. I've also seen the 5.0 GHz drop and stay off on two units, one here (LED steady ON), one elsewhere... resetting cleared that. It feels like a firmware issue. I'm still on 32799 so I will watch for the WiFi drop out...

Update 9/22/2018: The WiFi has been very stable... 32799 seems to have improved this WiFi stability issue.

But my other issue is more concerning. It's very reproducible... install 21140 and it's fixed; upgrade and it's broken... here and there. So, I may be downgrading to 21140 since everything I've tried on 32977 has had no affect... it's a firmware defect, imo. I don't understand why the ASUS rep here has shown absolutely no interest in my report...

OE

 

[arthurlien]

I have a 2xRT-AC86U AiMesh with a wireless backhaul. I recently installed another 2xRT-AC86U AiMesh at another location. After upgrading to 32797, we discovered that speed tests on several wireless PC clients at the node yielded irregular results. Some results were nearly normal, but then the throughput would jump around and fall off... sometimes it would not complete (socket error). This is after repeating the test multiple times in succession.

I spent today re-configuring my system more than once. I re-installed with plenty of resets, initialization, and power cycles. I swapped router and node. I installed a temporary wired backhaul. And I speed tested with a wired PC from both router and node. Performance was normal at the router for all clients. Performance was normal at the node for wired clients with wired and wireless backhauls. The problem affects only wireless clients at the node regardless of backhaul type. Three 86Us were tested at two locations (same ISP, different cable modems) and all three as nodes exhibited the issue.

So, I downgraded to the previous release 21140 and now the speed tests for a wireless client at the node are normal. I think the release notes indicate that 32797 is a significant change, and I think something was been broken... I will hold at 21140.

Update 9/15/2018: This AiMesh defect remains in firmware 3.0.0.4.384_32799.

OE

Which band (2G or 5G) and channel you tested?

 

[shelleyevans]

Which band (2G or 5G) and channel you tested?

I have observed exactly the same thing, detailed on my post on the thread about the 32799 firmware. 1/2 speed for wireless client on wireless node, full speed for wired client on wireless node. I was testing 5GHz band only. Channel 153.

 

[OzarkEdge]

Which band (2G or 5G) and channel you tested?

My laptop tested here and on neighbor's AiMesh using Intel Tri-Band Wireless-AC 18265 adapter on 5.0 GHz band. I can try retesting 32799 later on 2.4 GHz.

Neighbor's laptop tested on his AiMesh using Atheros AR5B125 Wireless-n/2.4 GHz adapter on 2.4 GHz. Link rate 72.2 Mbps... could not reach ISP speed of 115 Mbps, but still varied wildly from 54 Mbps and down. Edit: I forgot... we then upgraded his laptop to the USB-AC53 Nano (link rate 866 Mbps on 5.0 GHz) and observed same issue at node.

I don't recall the channels... they varied, I'm sure, given the re-installs and reboots involved.

Downgrade to 21140 reliably clears the issue.

OE

 

[arthurlien]

My laptop tested here and on neighbor's AiMesh using Intel Tri-Band Wireless-AC 18265 adapter on 5.0 GHz band. I can try retesting 32799 later on 2.4 GHz.

Neighbor's laptop tested on his AiMesh using Atheros AR5B125 Wireless-n/2.4 GHz adapter on 2.4 GHz. Link rate 72.2 Mbps... could not reach ISP speed of 115 Mbps, but still varied wildly from 54 Mbps and down.

I don't recall the channels... they varied, I'm sure, given the re-installs and reboots involved.

Downgrade to 21140 reliably clears the issue.

OE

Hi OE,
You don't need to test 32799, I just clarified your test environment.

Could you send feedback with system log, WiFi log in your test failure condition?

Please provide some information with feedback

1. SNB Nick Name
2. Your test client's MAC address


我從使用 Tapatalk 的 ASUS_Z01RD 發送

 

[OzarkEdge]

Hi OE,
You don't need to test 32799, I just clarified your test environment.

Could you send feedback with system log, WiFi log in your test failure condition?

Please provide some information with feedback

1. SNB Nick Name
2. Your test client's MAC address


我從使用 Tapatalk 的 ASUS_Z01RD 發送

Router feedback has never been able to send anything (my POP e-mail client works fine) (I'm not going to bind the router to my gmail account... what is that for?). It suggests e-mailing the feedback but this does not appear to include system and WiFi logs. So, please explain what you need and where to send it... I can save the General log to file... do I just copy the Wireless log... there's not much to it? Any debug logging required?

I repeated the wireless client speed tests today at the node and observed that the client's wireless adapter link rate fluctuates wildly in correlation with the speed test fluctuating wildly. I'd say the node client WiFi connection is unstable on firmware 32797 and 32799 only.

And again, another wireless client exhibits the same issue on another AiMesh system. Downgrading to 21140 clears the problem.

OE

 

[arthurlien]

Router feedback has never been able to send anything (my POP e-mail client works fine) (I'm not going to bind the router to my gmail account... what is that for?). It suggests e-mailing the feedback but this does not appear to include system and WiFi logs. So, please explain what you need and where to send it... I can save the General log to file... do I just copy the Wireless log... there's not much to it? Any debug logging required?

I repeated the wireless client speed tests today at the node and observed that the client's wireless adapter link rate fluctuates wildly in correlation with the speed test fluctuating wildly. I'd say the node client WiFi connection is unstable on firmware 32797 and 32799 only.

And again, another wireless client exhibits the same issue on another AiMesh system. Downgrading to 21140 clears the problem.

OE

I received your feedback email and will discuss with the team. Someone will contact you if need some help.

 

[OzarkEdge]

I received your feedback email and will discuss with the team. Someone will contact you if need some help.

Great, thanks! That will save another day's delay.

To clarify for lurkers, I did not send e-mail so the router feedback must have transmitted despite it complaining that it could not.

OE

 

[arthurlien]

Great, thanks! That will save another day's delay.

To clarify for lurkers, I did not send e-mail so the router feedback must have transmitted despite it complaining that it could not.

OE

According to the issue as "the router feedback must have transmitted despite it complaining that it could not.", the fixed patch will be released in 384-4xxxxx or newer version.

 

[shelleyevans]

the fixed patch will be released in 384-4xxxxx or newer version

You guys work very hard! It's appreciated.

 

[LD500]

Still no remedy???, as I'm likely affected by the same issue described in a different thread.
Had to resort to going back to Router/Media Gateway setup instead of AiMesh for now. Tried everything to fix it but my Homekit devices constantly lose connection.
Router/Media Gateway seems to work although I don't get the enhanced range I originally purchased my 2 x RT-AC86U for AiMesh to attain.

 

[supe]

@arthurlien I know RMerlin is a regular contributor, and was hoping that Asus would implement his cpu affinity update that boosts SMB performance significantly on the AC86U. Could this be looked at as a possible performance enhancement?, Merlin implemented it for quite awhile now without any reports of issues related to it.
Right know I'm stuck between stable Wifi with the official 32799 or better SMB and QOS performance with RMerlin 384.7_2.
I guess eventually RMerlin will get the 32799 gpl for the ac86u, its released for other models by the way, maybe you can check to see is you can nudge the ac86u 32799 gpl release for us?

 

[RMerlin]

@arthurlien I know RMerlin is a regular contributor, and was hoping that Asus would implement his cpu affinity update that boosts SMB performance significantly on the AC86U. Could this be looked at as a possible performance enhancement?, Merlin implemented it for quite awhile now without any reports of issues related to it.

AFAIK the same affinity tuning is also present in the stock firmware now. I actually exchanged a few emails with an Asus dev working on this, a few months ago.

Something else has been degrading Samba performance over the past few years, I'm also experiencing the same degradation in my firmware (I lost 10-15 MB/s over the past few years). Unsure what is causing it, could be the Trend Micro engine - I didn't dig any further than rechecking the Samba configuration.

 

[supe]

AFAIK the same affinity tuning is also present in the stock firmware now. I actually exchanged a few emails with an Asus dev working on this, a few months ago.

Something else has been degrading Samba performance over the past few years, I'm also experiencing the same degradation in my firmware (I lost 10-15 MB/s over the past few years). Unsure what is causing it, could be the Trend Micro engine - I didn't dig any further than rechecking the Samba configuration.

Strange indeed then.
I just tried your 384.8 alpha1, and I get about ~80MB SMB transfer speeds from my W7 machine to a seagate USB3 drive on the AC86 compared to ~50MB on the official 32797 and 32799 builds.

 

[RMerlin]

Strange indeed then.
I just tried your 384.8 alpha1, and I get about ~80MB SMB transfer speeds from my W7 machine to a seagate USB3 drive on the AC86 compared to ~50MB on the official 32797 and 32799 builds.

That's odd, stock RT-AC86U should be able to pull more. I was getting 75 MB/s from the early stock releases from Asus (and 100 MB/s from my own finetuned build). Those numbers were before I discussed optimization with them.

 

[LD500]

Ozark, I just noticed the new firmware for the RT-86U is finally up apparently this one should fix our problem. I will hopefully get a chance to test it by late this weekend. Let me know if you get a chance to test it before then. Fingers crossed. Since my repeat problems I've shutdown AiMesh and just ran my two RT-86U in router/media gateway combination. My Homekit devices have worked 98% of the time

 

[OzarkEdge]

Ozark, I just noticed the new firmware for the RT-86U is finally up apparently this one should fix our problem. I will hopefully get a chance to test it by late this weekend. Let me know if you get a chance to test it before then. Fingers crossed. Since my repeat problems I've shutdown AiMesh and just ran my two RT-86U in router/media gateway combination. My Homekit devices have worked 98% of the time

Just tuning back in today... been in the hospital and now have two weeks of down time. I should be able to give it a try this weekend. I'm hoping to remove that silly warning in my signature.

OE