ax88u strangeness

[bradbort]

After experiencing way too many firmware months a couple of months ago, I tried the AX88U again today . I installed the latest M. firmware, and everything worked without changing any of the defaults from Merlin.

(Last time I was having problems with many legacy 5g clients, and the 2.4 networking was not even showing up, so after a couple hours of futzing, I reinstalled my ac88u.)


While poking around in the defaults Merlin installed, I noticed that mode was set to N/AC/AX, but wifi 6 mode was off, as was 160mhz. I turned them both on, and promptly lost all my 5G network connections, including my dell XPS which supports wifi 6. I rolled back the changes, rebooted the router and....the 5G light on the router would not return! No joy. No 5G anywhere.

In installed the latest stock asus firmware. Still no joy, until I set wifi6 mode to off, and no 160mhz and rebooted. Now, everything seems to be working fine....but.....

Does this mean I'm just using it as an AC router? What is odd, is that my major AC clients seem to be running a bit faster, but my one wifi 6 client (Dell XPS 13 will "killer wifi 6 card") is still running at the same speed it was with the AC88U.

What caused my 5G light to go our with the last changes with the merlin firmware? Should I give that firmware another go? Will I ever be able to run my AX router in AX mode without causing all sorts of legacy client problems?

Thanks for any insight folks can give me!

Brad

Can anyone help me figure out what is really happening? Why does turning on wifi 6 kill most of my 5G clients (including smart TV).

 

[bradbort]

After experiencing way too many firmware months a couple of months ago, I tried the AX88U again today . I installed the latest M. firmware, and everything worked without changing any of the defaults from Merlin.

(Last time I was having problems with many legacy 5g clients, and the 2.4 networking was not even showing up, so after a couple hours of futzing, I reinstalled my ac88u.)


While poking around in the defaults Merlin installed, I noticed that mode was set to N/AC/AX, but wifi 6 mode was off, as was 160mhz. I turned them both on, and promptly lost all my 5G network connections, including my dell XPS which supports wifi 6. I rolled back the changes, rebooted the router and....the 5G light on the router would not return! No joy. No 5G anywhere.

In installed the latest stock asus firmware. Still no joy, until I set wifi6 mode to off, and no 160mhz and rebooted. Now, everything seems to be working fine....but.....

Does this mean I'm just using it as an AC router? What is odd, is that my major AC clients seem to be running a bit faster, but my one wifi 6 client (Dell XPS 13 will "killer wifi 6 card") is still running at the same speed it was with the AC88U.
------------------------------------------------------
Lots of folks checking out this post, but not suggestions! I did not take this to be a shy group.

I guess my net question is, is wifi 6 not really backwords compatible to AC, or does asus just need to do a lot more work on their firmware? I'd really like to be able to use my AX and AC clients on my network, without forcing the router into non wifi 6 mode.

What caused my 5G light to go our with the last changes with the merlin firmware? Should I give that firmware another go? Will I ever be able to run my AX router in AX mode without causing all sorts of legacy client problems?

Thanks for any insight folks can give me!

Brad

Can anyone help me figure out what is really happening? Why does turning on wifi 6 kill most of my 5G clients (including smart TV).

 

[bradbort]

After experiencing way too many firmware months a couple of months ago, I tried the AX88U again today . I installed the latest M. firmware, and everything worked without changing any of the defaults from Merlin.

(Last time I was having problems with many legacy 5g clients, and the 2.4 networking was not even showing up, so after a couple hours of futzing, I reinstalled my ac88u.)


While poking around in the defaults Merlin installed, I noticed that mode was set to N/AC/AX, but wifi 6 mode was off, as was 160mhz. I turned them both on, and promptly lost all my 5G network connections, including my dell XPS which supports wifi 6. I rolled back the changes, rebooted the router and....the 5G light on the router would not return! No joy. No 5G anywhere.

In installed the latest stock asus firmware. Still no joy, until I set wifi6 mode to off, and no 160mhz and rebooted. Now, everything seems to be working fine....but.....

Does this mean I'm just using it as an AC router? What is odd, is that my major AC clients seem to be running a bit faster, but my one wifi 6 client (Dell XPS 13 will "killer wifi 6 card") is still running at the same speed it was with the AC88U.

What caused my 5G light to go our with the last changes with the merlin firmware? Should I give that firmware another go? Will I ever be able to run my AX router in AX mode without causing all sorts of legacy client problems?

Thanks for any insight folks can give me!

Brad

Can anyone help me figure out what is really happening? Why does turning on wifi 6 kill most of my 5G clients (including smart TV).

1 final update. I reinstalled the merlin firmware, then set the 5g channel to 36 and it came back. Such a buggy router....but my question remains, can I use wifi 6 with legacy AC, or is that a hoax? Currently, turing on wifi 6 kills most of my legacy network

 

[L&LD]

If you're simply flashing RMerlin firmware to the RT-AX88U and using all the same SSID's and passwords on the AX router, then I can see how you have issues.

Perform a full reset to factory defaults on the RT-AX88U and make sure to select the checkbox to 'Initialize all settings...' too. After it reboots, perform a quick/temporary setup and then flash the same RMerlin firmware version again.

After a reboot, do an additional full reset to factory defaults including checking the 'Initialize all settings...' button.

When the router comes up this time, use the setup wizard to create new, never before used SSID's and new passwords that are 8 and 16 characters long, respectively. Do not use anything other than alphanumeric characters, with no punctuation and no smiley faces either.

Do not use a saved backup config file to configure your settings again. Make sure to minimally and manually configure the router to secure it and connect it to your ISP.

Finally, use the GUI to 'Format the JFFS partition on next reboot' option, make sure to hit 'Save' at the bottom of the page, and then reboot the router 3 times in the next 15 to 20 minutes, making sure to wait at least 5 to 10 minutes between reboots.

At this step, the router will finally be in a good/known state. Carefully and diligently note every setting and step you take while testing the router in this state. Others will now be able to help you better too.

I do not have any of your issues with my RT-AX88U.

RT-AX88U Upgrade: https://www.snbforums.com/threads/b...ta-is-now-available.60037/page-31#post-531024

 

[joe scian]

After experiencing way too many firmware months a couple of months ago, I tried the AX88U again today . I installed the latest M. firmware, and everything worked without changing any of the defaults from Merlin.

(Last time I was having problems with many legacy 5g clients, and the 2.4 networking was not even showing up, so after a couple hours of futzing, I reinstalled my ac88u.)


While poking around in the defaults Merlin installed, I noticed that mode was set to N/AC/AX, but wifi 6 mode was off, as was 160mhz. I turned them both on, and promptly lost all my 5G network connections, including my dell XPS which supports wifi 6. I rolled back the changes, rebooted the router and....the 5G light on the router would not return! No joy. No 5G anywhere.

In installed the latest stock asus firmware. Still no joy, until I set wifi6 mode to off, and no 160mhz and rebooted. Now, everything seems to be working fine....but.....

Does this mean I'm just using it as an AC router? What is odd, is that my major AC clients seem to be running a bit faster, but my one wifi 6 client (Dell XPS 13 will "killer wifi 6 card") is still running at the same speed it was with the AC88U.

What caused my 5G light to go our with the last changes with the merlin firmware? Should I give that firmware another go? Will I ever be able to run my AX router in AX mode without causing all sorts of legacy client problems?

Thanks for any insight folks can give me!

Brad

Can anyone help me figure out what is really happening? Why does turning on wifi 6 kill most of my 5G clients (including smart TV).

I thought this might have been a quantum effect

 

[bradbort]

If you're simply flashing RMerlin firmware to the RT-AX88U and using all the same SSID's and passwords on the AX router, then I can see how you have issues.

Perform a full reset to factory defaults on the RT-AX88U and make sure to select the checkbox to 'Initialize all settings...' too. After it reboots, perform a quick/temporary setup and then flash the same RMerlin firmware version again.

After a reboot, do an additional full reset to factory defaults including checking the 'Initialize all settings...' button.

When the router comes up this time, use the setup wizard to create new, never before used SSID's and new passwords that are 8 and 16 characters long, respectively. Do not use anything other than alphanumeric characters, with no punctuation and no smiley faces either.

Do not use a saved backup config file to configure your settings again. Make sure to minimally and manually configure the router to secure it and connect it to your ISP.

Finally, use the GUI to 'Format the JFFS partition on next reboot' option, make sure to hit 'Save' at the bottom of the page, and then reboot the router 3 times in the next 15 to 20 minutes, making sure to wait at least 5 to 10 minutes between reboots.

At this step, the router will finally be in a good/known state. Carefully and diligently note every setting and step you take while testing the router in this state. Others will now be able to help you better too.

I do not have any of your issues with my RT-AX88U.

RT-AX88U Upgrade: https://www.snbforums.com/threads/b...ta-is-now-available.60037/page-31#post-531024

Thanks. I'll do the reset activities you mention and see where I am today.

You say that you have had no 5G band issues with wifi6. What types of clients are you connected to? It seems I have 25 clients (!), although a bunch of that is sonos speakers. I had thought the "lost 5G led" was more common, since it was from this forum that I learned the fix was to set it to channel 6 instead of auto.

I'm curious as to your advice about "new never before used SSID's and passwords of 8 and 16 characters long. What is the thought process behind that?

For the person who mentioned quantum effect, was that a real comment or a joke? I'm a bit tired, so don't get it regardless.

Brad

 

[bradbort]

OK. I did the reset. It resolved most, but not all of the problems. All of my 5G devices (6 and 5) now work well with the router. The two problems not resolved:
1. I still had to move the channel to 36 instead of auto, or the 5g light would stay out and there would be no network. Others on this forum have reported the same thing.
2. Sonos systems did not play well with wifi6 enabled. The app would have trouble connecting and my rooms were lost. When I reverted to non wifi 6, most of those issues were solved (although I had to manually add the removes back. Eventually, I installed a sonos bridge I had laying around, and things were much better. For those who don't know sonos, the bridge is a connection to to router that becomes the center of a sonos mesh network. It was not necessary with my ac88u router. I'm assuming sonos will have to update its drivers somewhat for the newer wifi 6 systems. I gave them a bug report so they are aware.

 

[joe scian]

Thanks. I'll do the reset activities you mention and see where I am today.

You say that you have had no 5G band issues with wifi6. What types of clients are you connected to? It seems I have 25 clients (!), although a bunch of that is sonos speakers. I had thought the "lost 5G led" was more common, since it was from this forum that I learned the fix was to set it to channel 6 instead of auto.

I'm curious as to your advice about "new never before used SSID's and passwords of 8 and 16 characters long. What is the thought process behind that?

For the person who mentioned quantum effect, was that a real comment or a joke? I'm a bit tired, so don't get it regardless.

Brad

look up strangeness on wikipedia