Release ASUS RT-AX86 Series(RT-AX86U/RT-AX86S) Firmware version 3.0.0.4.388.23285 (15-05-2023)

[iFrogMac]

I did not change the phone, I have the same device.

I didn't change any physical devices. The problems I had were with my smart bulbs disconnecting because they were being flooded from traffic from other devices on the main network. So the solution was to put them on the guest network that has a different Subnet from the main network, and they've been fine since. So that wasn't router related, that was client related and needing a different config from the defaults. Your issue sounds different.

 

[ryan806]

I'm losing my WiFi connection. After a while, the phone re-connects to the rourer. On the previous firmware this situation never happened.

I have noticed the same issue with my mobile (Google Pixel 7) I am not sure if it's just a WIFI thing but this morning in the early hours, wirelesss dropped on my phone for about 15 mins. Eventually it reconnected, I am unsure if its just my phone or the router/firmware which is at fault here.

 

[drinkingbird]

I did not change the phone, I have the same device.

Do you recall if you had customized anything in the previous firmware? Disabling universal beamforming on both bands is typically recommended so you can try that. If still seeing disconnects, probably drop back to the previous version and see if they go away.

 

[Andro]

Do you recall if you had customized anything in the previous firmware? Disabling universal beamforming on both bands is typically recommended so you can try that. If still seeing disconnects, probably drop back to the previous version and see if they go away.

No, I did not make any modifications to the default settings. As you suggested I changed the "Universal beamforming" setting to disable on both bands. I will check if there is an improvement and let you know.

EDIT:
After disabling the "Universal beamforming" option, the problem does not occur

 

[iFrogMac]

Just thought I would post that the TP-Link AX4400 Router I kept as a fallback to if the Asus ever has unsolvable issues is still getting firmware updates. Locally connected it to the computer and manually flashed the latest update from June. Thankfully, the RT-AX86U isn't haven't any issues right now, though it's nice to know I have an alternative router as a backup that is also still getting updates. Last year Asus released a new firmware in July thought they might also do that, this year as well.

 

[Portalnet]

What's wrong with the "Universal beamforming" option that it should be turned off?

 

[L&LD]

Known to cause issues. Never worked as intended. A feature 'check mark' when introduced for devices that did not support Implicit Beamforming options.

Almost always best to turn it off and forget about it (I've never found a situation where it helped).

 

[iFrogMac]

Known to cause issues. Never worked as intended. A feature 'check mark' when introduced for devices that did not support Implicit Beamforming options.

Almost always best to turn it off and forget about it (I've never found a situation where it helped).

I've read it's best to turn off both universal and explicit beamforming, and simply use ac beamforming on 5ghz because neither of the other two really work. Maybe explicit is OK, but I've read it's best to turn them both off.
I just checked my settings, and I have both explicit and universal beamforming off. explicit is only under 2.4ghz professional while universal is under both 2.4, and 5ghz.

 

[RMerlin]

What's wrong with the "Universal beamforming" option that it should be turned off?

It's not standard, and therefore more likely to cause compatibility issues.

Explicit however is part of the 802.11 standard, and requires both the client and the AP to agree on using it.

 

[iFrogMac]

It's not standard, and therefore more likely to cause compatibility issues.

Explicit however is part of the 802.11 standard, and requires both the client and the AP to agree on using it.

@RMerlin Is that also true about Explicit beamforming? I've read, as mentioned above to disabled both universal and explicit and simply stick to acbeamforing under 5ghz.

 

[drinkingbird]

@RMerlin Is that also true about Explicit beamforming? I've read, as mentioned above to disabled both universal and explicit and simply stick to acbeamforing under 5ghz.

Explicit and AC beamforming are the same.

Both are fine to leave enabled, not many devices support them but the ones that do will often get some benefit.

 

[iFrogMac]

Explicit and AC beamforming are the same.

Both are fine to leave enabled, not many devices support them but the ones that do will often get some benefit.

Thanks, was a bit unclear on explicit especially for 2.4 ghz. I was pretty sure on the universal, so that's why I disabled it. That's what I remembered from previous conversations is that especially on 2.4ghz things just didn't support explicit, so there was no reason to enable it. Sounds ike it's ok, to leave it enabled, and it won't be used unless something can support it.

 

[drinkingbird]

Thanks, was a bit unclear on explicit especially for 2.4 ghz. I was pretty sure on the universal, so that's why I disabled it. That's what I remembered from previous conversations is that especially on 2.4ghz things just didn't support explicit, so there was no reason to enable it. Sounds ike it's ok, to leave it enabled, and it won't be used unless something can support it.

AC and before (AC 2.4ghz is just N) I don't think anything supports it. AX 2.4 could have stuff with support. Either way it won't kick in unless a device supports it so no harm.

 

[iFrogMac]

AC and before (AC 2.4ghz is just N) I don't think anything supports it. AX 2.4 could have stuff with support. Either way it won't kick in unless a device supports it so no harm.

Thanks @drinkingbird I enabled it under 2.4 and since i had some devices not reconnect, i power cycled the router, and now everything is back up on a fresh reboot. Hadn't rebooted for a while, so thought it would be a good time to flush the ram, and cache on the router after making changes.

 

[iFrogMac]

@drinkingbird What about the MU-MIMO settings? I have read several articles by @thiggins and others that suggest that with the state of devices today, it really doesn't help, and in some cases might hurt the network performance. Is that still true of today, or have things changed to the point where turning those on, will actually help?

 

[drinkingbird]

@drinkingbird What about the MU-MIMO settings? I have read several articles by @thiggins and others that suggest that with the state of devices today, it really doesn't help, and in some cases might hurt the network performance. Is that still true of today, or have things changed to the point where turning those on, will actually help?

That one is a bit more difficult to give a firm answer on. If none of your devices support it, it has no impact. If you have at least two devices that support it and they are both doing big transfers, it will help get more total bandwidth. If only one device supports it, it could potentially reduce throughput for that device a bit.

Then there's the fact that there are many different flavors of it (AC, and several AX). Personally I have it disabled, but if nothing you have supports it it probably doesn't matter.

 

[iFrogMac]

That one is a bit more difficult to give a firm answer on. If none of your devices support it, it has no impact. If you have at least two devices that support it and they are both doing big transfers, it will help get more total bandwidth. If only one device supports it, it could potentially reduce throughput for that device a bit.

Then there's the fact that there are many different flavors of it (AC, and several AX). Personally I have it disabled, but if nothing you have supports it it probably doesn't matter.

That's pretty much the way I understood it, and have it disabled as well. I only use my iPhone on Wifi 6, my Apple TV is hard wired and the Chromecast and TV are wifi 5 so not sure if they'd use Mu-Mimo or not. Either way Thanks for the feedback, sounds like it's better just to leave it off since I'm not sure if I could actually use it or not.

 

[drinkingbird]

That's pretty much the way I understood it, and have it disabled as well. I only use my iPhone on Wifi 6, my Apple TV is hard wired and the Chromecast and TV are wifi 5 so not sure if they'd use Mu-Mimo or not. Either way Thanks for the feedback, sounds like it's better just to leave it off since I'm not sure if I could actually use it or not.

Unless you have multiple clients using 100+ mbit at the same time, no need to really even think about it. Doesn't sound like that's your use case.

 

[iFrogMac]

Unless you have multiple clients using 100+ mbit at the same time, no need to really even think about it. Doesn't sound like that's your use case.

No, the most I would pull is on the iMac over Ethernet, beyond that, it would be maybe one stream to the TV, either locally, or from online, and then whatever other traffic the Echos and smart lights use. So I have constant data but most of the time it's small amounts unless I do something on the computer such as download an OS, or update, etc Even YouTube downloads can be large if i want videos to watch offline. However, like we agree on, doesn't sound like MuMimo would really benefit me since most of my high traffic is on wired anyway.

 

[drinkingbird]

No, the most I would pull is on the iMac over Ethernet, beyond that, it would be maybe one stream to the TV, either locally, or from online, and then whatever other traffic the Echos and smart lights use. So I have constant data but most of the time it's small amounts unless I do something on the computer such as download an OS, or update, etc Even YouTube downloads can be large if i want videos to watch offline. However, like we agree on, doesn't sound like MuMimo would really benefit me since most of my high traffic is on wired anyway.

Yup, useless, leave it off. Completely unrelated to wired devices, and what you're doing wirelessly won't benefit.