
- #ASUS RT AC88U DOWNGRADE FIRMWARE HOW TO#
- #ASUS RT AC88U DOWNGRADE FIRMWARE INSTALL#
- #ASUS RT AC88U DOWNGRADE FIRMWARE DRIVERS#
That’s called “stock firmware,” and in most cases, you can’t change it. Stock router firmwareīy default, the networking vendor ships their routers its firmware already installed. Note the differences when it runs Merlin firmware below. Here’s the web interface of an Asus RT-AC88U running stock firmware. But if you want to call that an operating system, that’s fine with me, too. So, for the most part, Wi-Fi routers use firmware.

And advanced devices, such as smartphones, tablets, or computers, use an operating system (on top of a firmware layer). For example, the firmware of Synology routers or Netgear’s gaming ones is so advanced that folks call those operating systems.īut generally, devices with limited functions, like the Internet of Things (IoT) gadgets, use firmware. In some situations, though, the line between firmware and an operating system is blurred, and you can call the two interchangeably.
#ASUS RT AC88U DOWNGRADE FIRMWARE INSTALL#
On a computer, the motherboard itself uses firmware, called BIOS, that decides what kind of computer it is and which operating system - Windows, Linux, or macOS, for example - you can install on it and how.
#ASUS RT AC88U DOWNGRADE FIRMWARE DRIVERS#
Most drivers only care about the latter and have no interest in the former, which, among other things, will make their hands dirty. It’s user-friendly and about giving users what they want instead of dealing with hardware components’ basic functions.Ī crude analogy: Firmware is like the wiring and switches under the hood of a car, while the operating system consists of the driving wheel, control buttons, and other shiny things inside the cabin. On the other hand, an operating system has higher, safer, and more refined access to the hardware. It’s geeky and closely related to a device’s physical components. Specifically, firmware has low-level - more direct and crude - access to the hardware.

operating systemīoth firmware and operating systems are software that manipulates the hardware to deliver specific results. It decides how (well) the router functions and dictates what you can do with it. So firmware to a router is kind of like Windows 10 to a computer. Every piece of tech gadget or electronics has to have run on a piece of software. Download the (Merlin) firmware for your routerįirmware is like a mini operating system.
#ASUS RT AC88U DOWNGRADE FIRMWARE HOW TO#
How to manually flash (Merlin) firmware on an Asus router.Notes on moving between Asus stock firmware and Merlin.The list of Asus routers that can run Merlin.
