When it comes to home routers, do you prefer using the testing or stable firmware versions? Share your experiences, reasons behind your choice, and any noteworthy benefits or challenges you’ve encountered with either option.
I tend to run stable on my home Mikrotik devices unless there is a feature/bug fix I need, then I will switch the device to the testing branch until it is rolled into a stable release.
To give an idea what that looks like for my situation:
- CRS309 - Always been on stable
- CRS305 - Had a couple testing releases installed but mostly on stable
- RB5009 - Was on testing for most of 2021-2022, been on stable since the end of 2022
- hAP ax2 - Pretty much always been on testing
For me, with the ax2s, it is easy to upgrade one at a time without much disruption since most devices can get some signal from the other unit in a pinch. The core switch/router, on the other hand, need more consideration since an issue there could take down all access until it is resolved.
I’ve found Mikrotik to be reasonably responsive to reports posted in the official forums for the testing releases, so jumping on the testing branch for bug fixes has helped get some fixes implemented in the next testing version. I’ve had a couple times with my ax2s that I’ve had to downgrade after a testing release caused an issue. One release completely broke wireless for my country, but after the reporting on the forums and having it confirmed by others/Mikrotik, it was resolved the following update.
