Help Required RT AC 88U & RT AC 86U on SKY Fibre

[Vapouriser]

Good evening SNB
First time poster, but LT occasional lurker - I have a little technical knowledge, but not much with networking......

I have a medium sized 1900 house with thick walls and troublesome WIFI

I am on Sky fibre and over the years have been using first a Dark Knight RT N 66U then about 18 months ago I upgraded to an RT AC 88U - mainly to try and improve the wifi accross the whole house, and it did make a BIG improvement!

Both ran on Merlin FW to allow option 61.

3 weeks ago I started having lots of issues with network visibility on devices, which then led to issues with the 2.4GHZ radio, showing as off, and broadcasting on 5GHZ channel numbers....... and when I tried to log in to my Asus router I was met with a message that the firmware was not supported and I was not able to access any settings.

"the router you are using is not an ASUS device or has not been authorised by ASUS. ASUSWRT might not work properly on this device"

I spent a day trying everything I could find, not limited to:

Reinstalling Merlin (various versions)
Uninstalling Merlin
Complete factory resets
Installing Asus factory FW

Every time I got the Merlin software installed I would get the error message once logging back in to router.
No such problems on the Asus stock FW, but I can't find a way to run with my SKY fibre without Merlin......

So now I have ordered a RT AC 86, and want to know what is the best way to configure.

ASUS Ai-Mesh sounded like a great way to re-utilise my 88 on stock f/w as a node, but it doesn't look like I can get mesh with Merlin. So my current thinking is using the 86 on Merlin latest stable release on its own. OR
adding the 88 upstairs as an AP to improve the wifi in the bedrooms. I can connect this wired as I have a Netgear GS108 switch that I can connect to.

My only other thought was to dig out the sky router, allowing me to run the two Asus routers on stock Asus FW, as 2 AP's, but that sounds even more of a minefield, just to try and use MESH?

Forgive my ignorance, as I mentioned earlier, this is not my field of expertise, but I would really appreciate any guidance or assistance you can offer..

 

[Vapouriser]

Thank you.
I haven’t tried that process, but just for my sanity I tried logging in to the 88 just now.
Again, it kept dropping the 2.4 channel every time I made a change (even switching multi user MIMO off) Then after leaving 5 minutes and changing something else it would come back on ......,.

I’m going to try the 86 tomorrow and see how that goes - any tips on which version of Merlin to use ?

 

[Vapouriser]

The last v384.4_2 but you can try v380.69_2. (Always make a Factory Reset)

https://sourceforge.net/projects/asuswrt-merlin/files/RT-AC88U/Release/

Is there a reason not to use the latest stable release ?

And this is probably router setup 101 - but should you always factory reset before installing new firmware ?

And is that a ‘hold down reset button on back of router reset?’

Again apologies for my ignorance!

 

[OzarkEdge]

Is there a reason not to use the latest stable release ?

And this is probably router setup 101 - but should you always factory reset before installing new firmware ?

And is that a ‘hold down reset button on back of router reset?’

Again apologies for my ignorance!

Read this https://www.snbforums.com/threads/faq-nvram-and-factory-default-reset.22822/

The 86U might serve your whole house. If not, you could try fully refreshing your 88U (power cycle/drain, reset, AiMesh firmware, reset) and adding it as an AiMesh node to your 86U router.

OE

 

[Vapouriser]

Thanks I think. And thank you OE.
It must be a little frustrating having to spell things out for novices all the time!

When taking the new 86 out the box for the first time, do I need to do any resets when flashing to Merlin?

(I have to use Merlin to allow it to work with my ISP - option 61)

And do I understand correctly that I won’t be able to use AI Mesh if one/both routers are running merlin?

 

[OzarkEdge]

Thanks I think. And thank you OE.
It must be a little frustrating having to spell things out for novices all the time!

When taking the new 86 out the box for the first time, do I need to do any resets when flashing to Merlin?

(I have to use Merlin to allow it to work with my ISP - option 61)

And do I understand correctly that I won’t be able to use AI Mesh if one/both routers are running merlin?

I can't advise on using Merlin other than that Merlin does not support AiMesh at this time.

AiMesh is a WiFi system... all nodes/firmware need to be of the same system. You may be able to have an AiMesh system of node APs operating through a Merlin router, but someone else will need to qualify this usage.

OE

 

[arthurlien]

Good evening SNB
3 weeks ago I started having lots of issues with network visibility on devices, which then led to issues with the 2.4GHZ radio, showing as off, and broadcasting on 5GHZ channel numbers....... and when I tried to log in to my Asus router I was met with a message that the firmware was not supported and I was not able to access any settings.

"the router you are using is not an ASUS device or has not been authorised by ASUS. ASUSWRT might not work properly on this device"

If this happened in RT-AC88U, please send feedback with system log, wifi log by feedback function.

 

[Vapouriser]

If this happened in RT-AC88U, please send feedback with system log, wifi log by feedback function.

Hi Arthur - yes it did happen in 88
I contacted Asus 2 weeks ago but no reply at all - disappointed for a 14 month old 300 pound router.

 

[Vapouriser]

About the nrand new new rt 86
Should I factory reset that prior to Merlin update ?

 

[arthurlien]

About the nrand new new rt 86
Should I factory reset that prior to Merlin update ?

My suggestion is "Yes".

Hi Arthur - yes it did happen in 88
I contacted Asus 2 weeks ago but no reply at all - disappointed for a 14 month old 300 pound router.

Could you send it again and add your nickname@SNB in description/suggestion field ?