Over the last few months, I’ve been telling out to either avoid or be cautious about firmware updates for the ASUS ZenWiFi XT8. And in the latter case, I said this:
ASUS really needs to get a firmware release out that stabilizes things for the vast majority of their users. And unfortunately, this specific firmware doesn’t seem to be it. Based on what I am reading in the Reddit threads that I linked to above, some people are getting fed up with being treated as “beta testers”. That in the long term will affect the probability that these users will buy another ASUS product in a negative way. Thus ASUS would be well advised to get on getting a firmware out that is stable for all.
Well we might, key word MIGHT have that firmware. Last week ASUS rolled out version 3.0.0.4.388.22525 of their firmware and it from all reports has been stable for most. Specifically, the connection between the nodes which has been a source of grief for many. I’ve been testing this for the last few days and have found zero issues with it myself. But I should note that I found zero issues with the last firmware that ASUS put out before Christmas, while many other had issues. But what gives me hope that this is stable is that looking at places like SNB Forums, the majority of users seem to be having a good experience with this firmware.
My firmware upgrade process for ASUS routers is as follows:
- Log into the router using a computer and a web browser
- Backup the configuration using these instructions.
- Update the firmware.
- After updating I 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 I saved in the first step.
I do this because I have found that simply upgrading to the latest ASUS firmware can create problems. And doing this while taking up to 30 – 40 minutes to perform results in zero issues.
I would be very interested to hear the experience of other XT8 owners with this firmware. Is it better? Is it worse? Please leave a comment and share your thoughts.