You might remember that a few weeks ago I put out a public service announcement for owners of The ASUS ZenWiFi XT8 to not install firmware 3.0.0.4.388.21099 as it was incredibly unstable. In fact, it was so unstable that I recommended rolling back to the previous firmware and provided instructions on how to do so. Earlier this week, ASUS released an updated firmware which is listed as version 3.0.0.4.388.21617 that claims to optimize memory usage and improve stability among other things. You can read the release notes here. Since I suggested to people that they shouldn’t try the previous firmware, I decided to try this firmware. Now first, let me describe how to update the firmware as for whatever reason, if you don’t follow this method you will have issues. More on the issues that you will have in a minute. But here’s my process:
- Log into the router using a computer and a web browser
- Backup the configuration using these instructions.
- Update the firmware using method 1 from these instructions.
- After updating do a factory reset of the router using these instructions.
- Using a computer and a web browser, connect to the router and using the advanced options in the setup wizard, upload the backup of the configuration that you saved in the first step.
The reason why I recommend going this route is that for whatever reason, ASUS routers do not cleanly update the firmware. And that leads to all sorts of weird issues that are hard to track down. In my case, it breaks HomeKit unless I go through the steps above. Going this route avoids all of that.
Now I have been testing this firmware for a few days, and so far it has been stable for me. And it has been stable for others based on reports from places like SNB Forums. Thus I am cautiously optimistic that you should be okay to update your ZenWiFi XT8 to this firmware. Though I would wait another week or maybe two to see if any issues appear by monitoring the thread in SNB Forums just to be safe.
If you have any feedback about this firmware, please share them in the comments below. And if I notice anything that is a deal breaker, I will will post an update.