ASUS – DSL-AC88U / DSL-AC3100 Firmwares (beta's) etc. Looks like a new Beta Release for the DSL-AC88U is available, this version has Telnet enabled and improved 2.4GHz wifi (I believe). DSL-AC88U_v9.10.06_build581_debug.w.zip https://www.asuswebstorage.com/navigate/s/604D61534F2541D1B3CE1CC031A697E4Y UK Sentinel In a completely...

[oxygen8]

UK Sentinel wrote:

 

If money is no object, then I would go for the new ASUS RT-AX88U and this is newly supported by RMerlin, early days yet for ASUSWRT-Merlin, but 4 core 1.8GHz CPU and 1GB Ram

Oh, I just saw that beast maybe I will buy it when it is on sales, it looks very similar to the RT-AC3100, so my next question is, would you recommend the RT-AC3100?

You need to login in order to vote

[UK Sentinel]

The RT-AC3100 is a dual core 1.4Ghz unit with 512MB Ram, nice unit, but nothing special, the RT-AC86U has dual 1.8Ghz processors,  slightly newer wifi chips, but only has three antennas, so depends how many wifi client’s you plan to use and wifi usage in general?

Both have strengths and weaknesses,

In a completely sane world, madness is the only freedom (J.G.Ballard).

You need to login in order to vote

[oxygen8]

UK Sentinel wrote:

The RT-AC3100 is a dual core 1.4Ghz unit with 512MB Ram, nice unit, but nothing special, the RT-AC86U has dual 1.8Ghz processors, slightly newer wifi chips, but only has three antennas, so depends how many wifi client’s you plan to use and wifi usage in general?

Yeah, you are right, the only logical upgrade I see is the RT-AX88U, good antennas, no TriBand, high CPU speed, I would had never discovered if it wasn’t for this forum, at least I owe that to the DSL-AC88U

You need to login in order to vote

[UK Sentinel]

Some good coming from not so good ;)

In a completely sane world, madness is the only freedom (J.G.Ballard).

You need to login in order to vote

[oxygen8]

Back to my RT-AC3200, it feels so fast with Merlin UI and stuff, back to my 240mb/s with AiProtection active, my next target will definitely be the RT-AX88U, the difference in gigantic.

You need to login in order to vote

[KitsuneDave]

UK Sentinel wrote:

As you are one of those lucky users on G.fast, if you use the ASUS UI – Feedback form and send ASUS a message saying, speeds issue with AiProtection and mention UK Sentinel and tick all check boxes, then I will after you confirm you have done this, I will drop ASUS an email also to advise this is what you are doing, this way they have another DSL-AC88U user with AiProtection throughput issues to look at

 

I did as you requested, mentioned the issue and your name with all the info collected. Whether the firmware team listen is another matter. At this moment in time i feel like they’ve given up in terms of quality of firmwares. I know the DSL models have been problematic with firmwares compared to the RT’s. It would not surprise me if they’ve already been building/testing a new DSL model for 2019, thus giving up on the 88u. As the all in one modem/routers are a good idea, the lack of support for a product of that type can be tiresome. Which is why im now looking into getting separate router/modem. I keep seeing Merlin’s firmware being recommended so im looking forward to experiencing that. Only thing im not sure on is what modem would be best to choose for my G.Fast connection?

You need to login in order to vote

[UK Sentinel]

@KitsuneDave – Thanks you, I have dropped ASUS DSL team an email to ask them to keep an eye out for your email, I will let you know if they feed anything back to myself.

Your current ISP, what kit did you get from them and yes, RMerlin is a breath of Fresh Air, especially if you are technically curious ;)

Note: Even the ASUS RT routers are a little buggy using ASUSWRT (stock) firmware, RMerlin provides the Q and A which makes using RMerlin’s firmware (ASUSWRT-Merlin) a positive experience.

 

In a completely sane world, madness is the only freedom (J.G.Ballard).

You need to login in order to vote

[KitsuneDave]

With my ISP being BT, they supplied me with a Ultrafast smart hub all in one. It was ok at time of installation but the wi-fi signals were very poor. Frequent disconnections every 3-5 days lead me into buying the 88u in the first place.

Ive did further research and when BT were rolling out the G.Fast to testers, they supplied a separate modem Huawei MT992-10 to users. I can’t find concrete info but maybe the modem chip from the Huawei is present in the all in one smart hub. Maybe worth looking into the Huawei MT992-10 unless i find something better as a modem :)

You need to login in order to vote

[oxygen8]

I’ll tell you my short story, 6 years ago when I contracted UPC in Ireland I got a Cisco EPC3925 which is a decent router with WiFi, and that was the problem -with WiFi- so I was never able to get the speed I contracted through the WiFi so this is what I did:

• Bought the RT-AC56U and put Merlin in it (not at the beginning, after some research)
• I completely disabled the WiFi radio on the Cisco router.
• Set the Cisco router to bridge mode.
• Got greedy and bought the RT-AC3200 which is better than the RT-AC56U but the TriBand is not a good thing because trying to do too many things usually ends in bad.
• Got even more greedy and bought the DSL-88U which was a bad decision, I didn’t do my homework to find out that the firmware is not the standard AsusWRT that Merlin supports, Merlin doesn’t support ANY Asus DSL router

What I have learned so far:

• When dealing with the ISP don’t ever get a router with WiFi because of their lack of CPU and RAM.
• Buy a good extra WiFi router and configure the ISP router in bridge mode and that’s it, profit.

If I were you and you can return the DSL-88U do it because I don’t think there is hope for it, if you have some router working use it until the RT-AX88U is fully supported by Merlin (in progress) and buy that one combined with a non-WiFi ISP router.

If you don’t have such money you can buy the RT-AC86U which has nice high speed dual CPU.

Here is the spec of every Asus AC router RAM and CPU which is what I use when deciding what to buy next, look at the last two tables which are the AC and AX router(s): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Asus_routers

You need to login in order to vote

[UK Sentinel]

KitsuneDave wrote:

With my ISP being BT, they supplied me with a Ultrafast smart hub all in one. It was ok at time of installation but the wi-fi signals were very poor. Frequent disconnections every 3-5 days lead me into buying the 88u in the first place. Ive did further research and when BT were rolling out the G.Fast to testers, they supplied a separate modem Huawei MT992-10 to users. I can’t find concrete info but maybe the modem chip from the Huawei is present in the all in one smart hub. Maybe worth looking into the Huawei MT992-10 unless i find something better as a modem

ASUS said they would get in contact with you, so let us know how it goes, they may want you to install a new (unlocked) firmware to enable Telnet, which is nothing to worry about ;)

In a completely sane world, madness is the only freedom (J.G.Ballard).

You need to login in order to vote

[KingfisherUK]

@KitsuneDave Curious to know if you’ve tried IPv6? I’m also on BT and simply can’t get it to work – it picks up the wrong PD (/64 instead of /56) and when it’s enabled the wifi constantly drops and reconnects on all devices.

You need to login in order to vote

[KitsuneDave]

KingfisherUK wrote:

@kitsunedave Curious to know if you’ve tried IPv6? I’m also on BT and simply can’t get it to work – it picks up the wrong PD (/64 instead of /56) and when it’s enabled the wifi constantly drops and reconnects on all devices.

 

Exactly the same, even when i was on firmware 503. Yet when i plugged in the ISP’s smart hub last week the ipv6 was displaying and working correctly. So definitely Asus firmware at fault :)

You need to login in order to vote

[KingfisherUK]

That’s what I suspected but nice to have it confirmed it’s not just me being stupid ;-)

Smart Hub works fine with IPv6 as does an Openreach modem with an Asus RT-AC66U running RMerlin. If you haven’t already done so, it might be worth mentioning the IPv6 issue in your feedback as well – the more of us that report it, the better.

You need to login in order to vote

[KitsuneDave]

Yeah i’ll assist Asus when they contact me, however if the problem still has not been resolved for both IPv6 and Ai Protection then i will be looking into getting rid of the unit and looking towards a 2 box solution ;)

You need to login in order to vote

[KitsuneDave]

UK Sentinel wrote:

ASUS said they would get in contact with you, so let us know how it goes, they may want you to install a new (unlocked) firmware to enable Telnet, which is nothing to worry about

Sitrep ;)

Asus contacted me and provided a debug firmware, also gave me telnet commands to use etc. Ive just done all the testing they wanted with screenshots, hopefully it helps and not been a waste of time on this glorious sunny day.

Time for a beer ;)

 

You need to login in order to vote

[Author]

Posts