Beta Asuswrt-Merlin 386.1 Beta is now available

[CaptnDanLKW]

FWIW, I spent countless hours over the years tweaking and testing and reverting QOS settings, Trying the QOS addons, things acting wonky, random reasons why HW acceleration would show off (or on) when it shouldn't be based on what I know and what settings were in place. At the time my cable ISP speed was 200/10 and after a start from scratch setup, I decided to try operating without QOS. After testing and using for a while, I never looked back. Its been 3 years and 2 different models (AC68U and AC86U) and still running without QOS. ISP Speeds are now 650/20.

There might be a little increase in response time (8ms to spikes in the ~25ms-35ms range) when one of the directions is continually saturated, but still not enough to cause any VOIP, web meetings or streaming quality issues. So focusing on numbers vs. your experience may be 'fun' and techy but it doesn't amount to much. YMMV. Obviously if your latency jumps into the 100ms range, then that's another story.

 

[beerglass007]

Not sure what problems you are facing, SmartConnect has been tremendous for me. It did take a bit for me to tune it, but has been stable for over a year now.

I tuned smart connect to stay on 5GHz till signal drops below -75dBm, and go back to 5GHz when 2.4GHz is stronger than -55dBm. Keep it simple and it will work well for you.

My settings for smart connect are as below:

View attachment 29179

Just looked into smart connect and this doesn't help my issue. When enabling this feature you can't turn off AX mode per 2.4Ghz and or 5Ghz. When enabled you can only turn it off fully and that's it.

So turns it off for ALL wireless devices. So what is the point of having a AX router when you disable this because not all device support AX like Google speakers

 

[sbsnb]

I decided to try operating without QOS. After testing and using for a while, I never looked back. Its been 3 years and 2 different models (AC68U and AC86U) and still running without QOS. ISP Speeds are now 650/20.

How many users are on your network simultaneously? I have 100/100 and just a couple of kids in the house mandates QoS if I ever want to do anything reliably, like have a WiFi call or Zoom meeting. Kids are using Snapchat, streaming Youtube for music, leaving their TV on playing Disney+, and playing video games all simultaneously almost all the time. Networking without QoS in my house is frustrating at best.

 

[Soul_]

Just looked into smart connect and this doesn't help my issue. When enabling this feature you can't turn off AX mode per 2.4Ghz and or 5Ghz. When enabled you can only turn it off fully and that's it.

So turns it off for ALL wireless devices. So what is the point of having a AX router when you disable this because not all device support AX like Google speakers

Why would you wish to disable AX? Devices that don't support AX fall back on AC anyway. I only have 2 devices with AX and rest with AC and N, all work just as well they should. What problems are you facing with AX enabled?

EDIT: I think I know what you are talking about over here. HE Frames are not supported on devices with older firmware. I had a work laptop which wouldn't work on HE Frames till I updated its drivers. All modern devices, regardless of AX support should support HE Frames. If they don't, (which seems to be true in your case) look for manufacturer to provide a firmware update for it. Again, this is not a support for AX issue, it is a support for HE Frames issue.

On a side note, I think ASUS should change that switch back to saying "Enable HE Frames", rather than "Enable AX". Otherwise it just confuses people.

 

[Deleted member 72428]

There is quite a bit of misinformation here about QoS and it's role. Part of is to prioritize bandwidth, sure, but the other part is latency which causes bufferbloat and can effect any connection including 1GB fiber (which I have). Anyone saying otherwise either does not play video games or has no kids that play video games. One can easily have enough bandwidth to stream 15 Netflix HD streams simultaneously with no issue but for time sensitive applications like games and voip, even with 2 streams which is a common use case, your latency will go up. Feel free to run the bufferbloat test on dslreports.com with QoS/Cake/Any other SQM (set up properly) and without.

 

[jsbeddow]

Can we get back on to the topic of this thread, and move the QOS discussions elsewhere?

 

[Makaveli]

There is quite a bit of misinformation here about QoS and it's role. Part of is to prioritize bandwidth, sure, but the other part is latency which causes bufferbloat and can effect any connection including 1GB fiber (which I have). Anyone saying otherwise either does not play video games or has no kids that play video games. One can easily have enough bandwidth to stream 15 Netflix HD streams simultaneously with no issue but for time sensitive applications like games and voip, even with 2 streams which is a common use case, your latency will go up. Feel free to run the bufferbloat test on dslreports.com with QoS/Cake/Any other SQM (set up properly) and without.

On my fiber connection i'm already getting sub 10ms pings.

When I have twitch open and viewing a stream and have other things running bufferbloat is still a+ on that test.

I've been on fiber for 2+ years now and have done all this testing with multiple apps on my connection I don't need QOS.

For a house with multiple heavy users then yes I would recommend it.

And yes this is getting off topic now for this thread.

 

[bradbort]

Even after you read RMerlin's description of the bug you ran into, due to differences between the firmwares and how they handle missing options? Perhaps you might want to read it again.

That was about a different issue. In this case, the option is not missing. Also, it is data that moving from the ASUS prod version to the Merlin beta requires a complete reset. Merlin may be able to use that to fix how installs are handled.

 

[somms]

I've been on fiber for 2+ years now and have done all this testing with multiple apps on my connection I don't need QOS.

Ditto...With quality 1GE WAN throughput enabling QoS would be redundant

 

[gspannu]

this is specific to the AU.

When most people are referring to fiber connections in NA and EU they are talking about 500+ mbps

Not really specific to AUS.
Even in UK, Fibre speeds can vary from 25 mbps upwards. UK too has the same sort of issues - FTTC and VDSL2+ based fibre connections.

 

[Makaveli]

Not really specific to AUS.
Even in UK, Fibre speeds can vary from 25 mbps upwards. UK too has the same sort of issues - FTTC and VDSL2+ based fibre connections.

This will be my last post on this since we are going off topic, if someone would like to create a thread discussing QOS and internet connections speeds I would join in.

Due to companies and their marketing departments they all have different defintions of what a fiber connection is. For me i'm referring to FTTH or FTTP only. So I have a fiber line coming into the residence and that is it, there is no conversion into another connection. And i'm not talking about something that is fed fiber to the node then using Docsis/dsl/vdsl etc coming into the home.

 

[LaMpiR]

At which point does QOS need to come into play? I have 250/50 in Austria. Two people at home, one tv only and we didn't have any problems so far. Would be curious to look into it. My ping to google.com is around 30ms, but when I am doing speedtest it jumps to over 100 then comes down to 80-90ms.

 

[bradbort]

It looks like ASUS has rolled back the stock firmware from 386 to 384 version for the AX88U.

 

[heysoundude]

this is specific to the AU.

Look again - you might find it much closer to home.
Ma Bell's Fibe here in (Central) Canada is often this way too, and I believe a large number of their cable cabal colleagues are as well.
I'm sure it can be found in many, many places as the fiber infrastructure continues to be built out to replace copper...because they know we react to marketing to justify the ridiculous bills they send us to build that infrastructure and give shareholders the quarterly profits/dividends they expect.

 

[beerglass007]

Why would you wish to disable AX? Devices that don't support AX fall back on AC anyway. I only have 2 devices with AX and rest with AC and N, all work just as well they should. What problems are you facing with AX enabled?

EDIT: I think I know what you are talking about over here. HE Frames are not supported on devices with older firmware. I had a work laptop which wouldn't work on HE Frames till I updated its drivers. All modern devices, regardless of AX support should support HE Frames. If they don't, (which seems to be true in your case) look for manufacturer to provide a firmware update for it. Again, this is not a support for AX issue, it is a support for HE Frames issue.

On a side note, I think ASUS should change that switch back to saying "Enable HE Frames", rather than "Enable AX". Otherwise it just confuses people.

Yes this is my problem. When the AX mode is enabled my 3 google speakers and 1 LG sound bar doesn't see any SSID. When I disabled AX on the 2.4Ghz range my LG sound bar and google speakers work

So if I enable smart connect they wouldn't see any SSID unless I disable AX and that's on everything

When you say HE frames are you saying that's what disabled and not AX ?

I cant get google or LG to provide upgraded drivers I doubt they ever will

 

[taffeys]

Jesus! This thread is about Asuswrt-Merlin 386.1 Beta.

 

[beerglass007]

Jesus! This thread is about Asuswrt-Merlin 386.1 Beta.

Wow calm down

I'm posting on here because i'm running beta code and now having issues with 3 devices which i'm working out what's going on and why here

 

[ugandy]

beta4 will get it on track

 

[taffeys]

Wow calm down

Wasn't directed at you.

 

[beerglass007]

Wasn't directed at you.

No worries