Anyone Using an Asus DSL-AC68U

PlumpMonkey · 24 Mar 2015 at 18:19

That does about sum up my experience. Used to be on about 70-72 with the HH5 initially. But after all the faffing about with the Asus it never seems to really get back to above 62-65.

I did make it back to 70 once with the HH5 back on the line, and I tested the last Asus firmware again which destroyed my sync rate. Ever since then I've been stuck on 62'ish.

Evil Shubunkin · 24 Mar 2015 at 18:53

bitsNbobs said:
BT based DLM is useless im wondering what sub-unbundled Talk Talk, Sky and and couple of others would perform like on my linee as from those providers it is apparently a different system and algorithm which does not take weeks but rather days to make up its mind.

My understanding is that for fibre all connections, irrespective of the ISP, are controlled by Openreach DLM so everyone is at its mercy.

For ADSL it would be the ISPs DLM in use - Sky were always ultra cautious in my experience compared to other ISPs.

Ixel · 24 Mar 2015 at 22:14

Evil Shubunkin said:
My understanding is that for fibre all connections, irrespective of the ISP, are controlled by Openreach DLM so everyone is at its mercy.

For ADSL it would be the ISPs DLM in use - Sky were always ultra cautious in my experience compared to other ISPs.

100% correct. BT Openreach manage DLM on FTTC services, regardless of ISP. Eventually it's likely the ISP will have some greater control over DLM, however all they can do for now is just alter the profile. It can't be switched off, it can't be reset (only an engineer can reset it in a 'hard fault' situation, otherwise if no fault has been found then they aren't authorised to reset it).

Jim99 · 25 Mar 2015 at 09:52

Quick update for everyone:

I've just received a message from the technical team saying that thanks to some recently submitted logs, they have been able to identify a line stability improvement and are currently working to develop it and test it in-house. I have no information about when this might filter through to a beta firmware or similar, and in all honesty have probably told you before I should have done, but I did want you all to be aware that your reports have been useful, and to thank you again for your support.

Ixel · 25 Mar 2015 at 09:57

Jim - ASUS said:
Quick update for everyone:

I've just received a message from the technical team saying that thanks to some recently submitted logs, they have been able to identify a line stability improvement and are currently working to develop it and test it in-house. I have no information about when this might filter through to a beta firmware or similar, and in all honesty have probably told you before I should have done, but I did want you all to be aware that your reports have been useful, and to thank you again for your support.

That's good to hear, thanks Jim, I look forward to trying this update when it's available.

cuke2u · 25 Mar 2015 at 11:03

Hopefully some positive news...

bledd · 25 Mar 2015 at 13:12

Great stuff.

I wish more vendors would be proactive like this in keeping in touch with the customers.

After all, without customers, there is no company!

Elim · 25 Mar 2015 at 14:11

ive just ordered this router despite the reported issues

does anyone have a link to a guide on to how i can setup this unit with my sky adsl connection? i have the username/password

bitsNbobs · 25 Mar 2015 at 17:02

Jim - ASUS said:
Quick update for everyone:

I've just received a message from the technical team saying that thanks to some recently submitted logs, they have been able to identify a line stability improvement and are currently working to develop it and test it in-house. I have no information about when this might filter through to a beta firmware or similar, and in all honesty have probably told you before I should have done, but I did want you all to be aware that your reports have been useful, and to thank you again for your support.

Very good news, once the firmware hits if it does solve all the issues it would be nice if you came back and explain what exactly was altered, id be fascinated to know and sure a could have others would. Could i also suggest that the people you have spoken to working on the issue take a look back at the DSL-N66U once the fix has happened for the DSL-AC68U and see if the changes made may also benefit that device as apparently that has similar problems on VDSL/FTTC in the UK.

Fingers crossed this solves things once and for all.

bitsNbobs · 25 Mar 2015 at 17:11

Elim said:
ive just ordered this router despite the reported issues

does anyone have a link to a guide on to how i can setup this unit with my sky adsl connection? i have the username/password

With firmware after version 2072 all you should have to enter is username and password.
For firmware earlier.... see this page...
http://www.skyuser.co.uk/forum/sky-...res-how-asus-dsl-ac68u-working-sky-fibre.html

Elim · 25 Mar 2015 at 18:12

bitsNbobs said:
With firmware after version 2072 all you should have to enter is username and password.
For firmware earlier.... see this page...
http://www.skyuser.co.uk/forum/sky-...res-how-asus-dsl-ac68u-working-sky-fibre.html

thank you much appreciated.

RedBull2k · 26 Mar 2015 at 07:47

hey guys i bring some good news.
paul3_lee "We found the root cause is due to sudden impulse noise, thus adopted some settings to further enhance noise protection, seems work well. Updated firmware will be provided later. Thanks."

ive now been connected 1 day 15hours.

Ixel · 26 Mar 2015 at 08:52

That's good news. Hopefully this is the golden firmware update that a majority of people have been waiting for.

Jim99 · 26 Mar 2015 at 10:48

bitsNbobs said:
Very good news, once the firmware hits if it does solve all the issues it would be nice if you came back and explain what exactly was altered, id be fascinated to know and sure a could have others would. Could i also suggest that the people you have spoken to working on the issue take a look back at the DSL-N66U once the fix has happened for the DSL-AC68U and see if the changes made may also benefit that device as apparently that has similar problems on VDSL/FTTC in the UK.

Fingers crossed this solves things once and for all.

I have been given a partial explanation, but can't claim to fully understand it! My take right now is to wait for this firmware to come out, and hope that it does solve all of the issues. If not, then we'll carry on working to resolve those that still remain.

At that point, I'll definitely speak to them and see if I can get some information to provide that explains the situation, and I will also discuss the possibility of other affected models and see what is happening to those.

babis3g · 26 Mar 2015 at 10:50

Long time for me to come back here, busy
Fist great news to hear about the new beta coming ...

off topic & sorry guys ...

preetkk said:
I have Sky Fibre and was using my Dreytek 2750vn until it recently broke, used to work very well too! Had it for three years (used it with BT infinity prior to Sky).

Currenty I am having to use the Sky Sr102 which is rubbish and would like to switch to Asus DSL-AC68U. With the latest firmware is this a good (stable) choice of router?

... whats wrong with it ? whats the symptoms?

Jim99 · 26 Mar 2015 at 11:48

Beta firmware available

If you aren't having problems with your modem, then I strongly recommend that you do not install this firmware. It's a beta designed specifically to resolve issues that users have been having, so if everything's working fine this won't benefit you.

If you do have problems, however, please follow this link and download the beta: https://www.asuswebstorage.com/navigate/s/E68556C267D94D96B2730B4872991F59Y (DSL-AC68U_3.0.0.4_376_20150326_ESNP_DSL.trx)

There is a new setting available which is located at Administration > DSL Setting page, ESNP - Enhanced Sudden Noise Protection (VDSL). You should set this to Stable to enable the fix.

In certain special cases, setting this to Stable may lead to a SNRM drop (around 1 to 3dB, which may cause line drop if you initially sync at around 6dB). If this occurs, the solution is to configure "Stability Adjustment (VDSL)" to a higher value (such as 10dB) to counteract it.

Please let us know how you get on.

Ixel · 26 Mar 2015 at 11:50

Jim - ASUS said:
Beta firmware available

If you aren't having problems with your modem, then I strongly recommend that you do not install this firmware. It's a beta designed specifically to resolve issues that users have been having, so if everything's working fine this won't benefit you.

If you do have problems, however, please follow this link and download the beta: https://www.asuswebstorage.com/navigate/s/E68556C267D94D96B2730B4872991F59Y (DSL-AC68U_3.0.0.4_376_20150326_ESNP_DSL.trx)

There is a new setting available which is located at Administration > DSL Setting page, ESNP - Enhanced Sudden Noise Protection (VDSL). You should set this to Stable to enable the fix.

In certain special cases, setting this to Stable may lead to a SNRM drop (around 1 to 3dB, which may cause line drop if you initially sync at around 6dB). If this occurs, the solution is to configure "Stability Adjustment (VDSL)" to a higher value (such as 10dB) to counteract it.

Please let us know how you get on.

Thanks Jim! I'll install it this afternoon and manually set my connection to fastpath for a little while to see what kind of results I have. Will post comments once I have some.

LordBarrass · 26 Mar 2015 at 13:23

I am on the 2187 firmware version and after installing this router in my New house and taking over from the BTO modem that had been connected for a week it was giving me a 64Mbps connection speed. But after remembering to change it back to 6dB from 10dB it has steadily worked its way back up to 74Mbps connection. Path Mode is Interleave.

I have not had a disconnect for a while now. Over 24 hours. but that was because i changed the dB setting.

I might will look to download and try the new BETA if I get any connection issues.

Ixel · 26 Mar 2015 at 13:47

I'm now on the ESNP firmware, with ESNP at stable and SNRM target equivalent to what it was before I switched to the firmware (9.5-10 dB).

Initial observations:
- Target SNRM here wasn't impacted by setting ESNP to stable
- Attainable rate is slightly lower (a few megabits, e.g. was over 100Mbps somewhere, 105Mbps I think, it's currently 95Mbps

My first test is to leave INP, delay and maximum sync rate alone, so presently DLM has me on 67M/20M, INP 5, delay 16ms. The test is mainly to see if the abnormal FEC errors occur still and whether anything else has significantly changed.

My second test will be to manually set the modem to do the following: 80M/20M, 10dB SNRM, INP 0, delay 1ms. This will be to determine if fastpath is any more stable in comparison to other firmware versions.

My final test, if the second test yields much better results, will be to reduce the target SNRM to 6dB, effectively running 80M/20M, target SNRM 6dB, INP 0, delay 1ms, THis will run identical conditions that I once had with the ECI /r and HG612 before DLM intervened.

Test 1 so far:

Code:

Opmode=ITU G.993.2(VDSL2)
SNRMarginDown=9.8 dB
AttenDown=10.3 dB
SNRMarginUp=12.2 dB
AttenUp=0.1 dB
DataRateDown=61045 kbps
DataRateUp=20000 kbps
FECDown=22546
FECUp=46
CRCDown=2
CRCUp=6
HECDown=0
HECUp=0
ADSLUpTime= 3:07, 5 secs
PowerDown=12.8 dbm
PowerUp=6.1 dbm
AttainUp=29194
AttainDown=95160
InterleaveDepth=1630
AdslStandard=VDSL2
AdslType=ANNEX_B

I'll move on to the second test when uptime has reached 3 hours. This doesn't mean test 1 is a success but looking at the actual rate of FEC errors it's a steady 8000~ per hour, which is quite low and consistent. Additionally the FEC errors have recently gone flying upwards on various re-syncs within a mere hour of so of uptime, so either ESNP is helping or this is just one of those lucky re-syncs where FEC errors don't fly upwards in a hurry. I'll come back to this test at a later time I expect.

So far so good.

RedBull2k · 26 Mar 2015 at 14:11

didnt expect a new firmware this quick but glad its here. b4 i change the firmware i want to wait it out to see if any possitive changes occur, like fastpath or increase in sync.