GT-AX6000 lack of firmware updates

[TheLostSwede]

It's almost been six months since the last update from Asus. Now I'm starting to feel like a sucker for getting this router during the Black Friday sales, as it appears to be poorly supported, whereas other models based on the same router SoC appears to be getting regular updates. For example, the RT-AX86U Pro gone one at the beginning of the year and the RT-AX88U Pro received an update at the end of November. That said, only the RT-AX88U Pro has been updated to Asuswrt 5.0, like the GT-AX6000.
Yes, I'm aware I can use Merlins firmware and that was one of the reasons I got the router, but I'm worried Asus is looking at dropping support for the GT-AX6000 sooner rather than later.

 

[L&LD]

I don't see the half-empty glass like you do.

Unless, and until, Asus decides one way or another, needless brain cycles are wasted on this line of thought. The what-if game wasn't fun to me even as a kid.

 

[sfx2000]

IIRC - the the AX6000 has two variants...

The initial device was Qualcomm IPQ8074 based, the V2 was Broadcom BCM4912...

 

[Tech9]

This Qualcomm hardware GT-AX6000 was never released. There is only one GT-AX6000 and it's Broadcom hardware.

 

[TheLostSwede]

I don't see the half-empty glass like you do.

Unless, and until, Asus decides one way or another, needless brain cycles are wasted on this line of thought. The what-if game wasn't fun to me even as a kid.

Just feeling frustrated with the lack of support on what's a rather expensive router that I was hoping would have decent support due it closely related models seeing regular updates. It's hard not to see the glass half empty after having been burnt so many times when it comes to routers, even by the company I worked for at one point, despite knowing the underlying reason for that one.

 

[RMinNJ]

Synology updates appear to be every few months..just sayin.

If I'm honest I thought it'd get more updates but its working fine.

 

[L&LD]

@TheLostSwede, if you're having issues with stock Asus, at least you have an option with RMerln firmware too.

If you're not having any issues, updates (or lack of them) are irrelevant in the current future.

 

[RMerlin]

I suspect most BCM4912 devices will get 3.0.0.6 firmware releases after Asus is done fixing the most significant issues that they are currently still working on.

In the mean time, the current 3.0.0.4 firmware is fine. Makes little sense to rush these devices to 3.0.0.6 and introduce all the already known issues it would bring.

When you have so many models, you have to prioritize QA. It makes sense to have QA focus on a smaller subset of devices to resolve the new issues before you start gradually pushing it to all compatible devices once the codebase is more stable. This is the beauty of having a single unified firmware for all devices: debugging done on 3-4 devices will eventually benefit all other devices once you feel you have a solid enough codebase to justify pushing it to a large number of devices.

And with the Lunar New Year holiday fast approaching, I wouldn't expect much to happen over the next month or so.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Synology updates appear to be every few months..just sayin.

If I'm honest I thought it'd get more updates but its working fine.

Oh, I'm by no means expecting weekly or even monthly updates, but it's been over six months since the last update now, which is not a good sign imho.

 

[TheLostSwede]

@TheLostSwede, if you're having issues with stock Asus, at least you have an option with RMerln firmware too.

If you're not having any issues, updates (or lack of them) are irrelevant in the current future.

Irrelevant? Wow, no, hardly, I like to have a router that has up to date security patches.

 

[TheLostSwede]

I suspect most BCM4912 devices will get 3.0.0.6 firmware releases after Asus is done fixing the most significant issues that they are currently still working on.

In the mean time, the current 3.0.0.4 firmware is fine. Makes little sense to rush these devices to 3.0.0.6 and introduce all the already known issues it would bring.

When you have so many models, you have to prioritize QA. It makes sense to have QA focus on a smaller subset of devices to resolve the new issues before you start gradually pushing it to all compatible devices once the codebase is more stable. This is the beauty of having a single unified firmware for all devices: debugging done on 3-4 devices will eventually benefit all other devices once you feel you have a solid enough codebase to justify pushing it to a large number of devices.

And with the Lunar New Year holiday fast approaching, I wouldn't expect much to happen over the next month or so.

The RT-AX88U Pro got its second 3.0.0.6 update earlier this month, so maybe that's the issue then, that Asus is struggling with Asuswrt 5.0?

Not saying there was anything wrong, but as above, I would like to at least have recent security updates, which is obviously something you help provide with your custom firmwares.

 

[L&LD]

Irrelevant? Wow, no, hardly, I like to have a router that has up to date security patches.

Me too.

But if Asus hasn't patched a firmware, it probably wasn't applicable for their hardware/firmware (or, it was previously patched).

Don't forget that Asus begins with more current code, unlike the others.

 

[RMerlin]

The RT-AX88U Pro got its second 3.0.0.6 update earlier this month, so maybe that's the issue then, that Asus is struggling with Asuswrt 5.0?

SDN and VLAN support were major feature additions to the firmware, so I suspect they are still dealing with issues related to these.

 

[glens]

Plus, unless they hired more help, they've been pretty busy with the wifi7 rollout.

 

[RMerlin]

Plus, unless they hired more help, they've been pretty busy with the wifi7 rollout.

A lot of the firmware development for Wifi 7 devices will also benefit to Wifi 6 models, since it's the same code base.

 

[glens]

As well their (relatively recent?) "business-class" SDN stuff. (Unless that's just another name for 3006.x)

 

[RMerlin]

As well their (relatively recent?) "business-class" SDN stuff. (Unless that's just another name for 3006.x)

SDN features are part of 3006.

3006 contains a lot of network-related changes, with Guest Network Pro, SDN, VLANs.... All major additions on top of the very old networking code that's part of Asuswrt. Adding these on top of it is probably not simple.

 

[XIII]

3006 contains a lot of network-related changes, with Guest Network Pro, SDN, VLANs.... All major additions on top of the very old networking code that's part of Asuswrt. Adding these on top of it is probably not simple.

I hope you will be able to incorporate that into AsusWRT-Merlin when they drop a 3006 GPL!

 

[TheLostSwede]

Me too.

But if Asus hasn't patched a firmware, it probably wasn't applicable for their hardware/firmware (or, it was previously patched).

Don't forget that Asus begins with more current code, unlike the others.

Six months with no updates is not a secure router.

 

[Tech9]

Six months with no updates is not a secure router.

Frequent updates don't guarantee security. Asus had firewall broken on one of the updates exposing devices on Internet in specific configuration. It was like that for >1 month and discovered by accident. Then Asus ASD update killed perhaps millions of routers, recovery by factory reset only and on some models with extra efforts. Then TrendMicro crashes after an update, still ongoing issue. Quality over quantity is more important. Asuswrt features are still broken after years of development, but used actively for advertising purposes.