RT-AX88U Guest Network connection issue when Access Intranet is set to Disable

This is an odd issue. I recently upgraded from an RT-AC87U to an RT-AX88U Pro and installed the latest Merlin firmware version 3004.388.7. For the most part, everything works well. Except for one device on the Guest Network that keeps dropping and reconnecting every 30 seconds or so.

I was able to narrow down the cause to it being when the Access Intranet option for the Guest Network is set to Disable. When the Access Intranet option is set to Enable, there's no issue.

I've attempted two factory resets, and reconfigured the router three times using the same settings. I've also tried rebooting the router and restarting the device after changes to settings.

Can't figure out why the device keeps resetting its connection when the Access Intranet option is set to Disable. I appreciate any insight you folks might be able to provide.

Thanks in advance.

Try using Guest Network #2 instead of #1.

Are you running any adblocking on the router?

wcoastsands said:

This is an odd issue. I recently upgraded from an RT-AC87U to an RT-AX88U Pro and installed the latest Merlin firmware version 3004.388.7. For the most part, everything works well. Except for one device on the Guest Network that keeps dropping and reconnecting every 30 seconds or so.

I was able to narrow down the cause to it being when the Access Intranet option for the Guest Network is set to Disable. When the Access Intranet option is set to Enable, there's no issue.

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Not an odd issue. Your issue sounds similar to what many other people have experienced and posted about in earlier discussions. For example; see here, and here, and here, and here, and here for some earlier discussions on this issue.

Asus supposedly released a fix for this issue to some of their routers back in January of this year. For example the RT-AX86U Pro:

ASUS RT-AX86U Pro Firmware version 3.0.0.4.388_24199
Version 3.0.0.4.388_24199 52.74 MB 2024/01/04
Bug Fixes and Enhancements：
- Resolved guest network connectivity issues on AiMesh nodes by disabling guest network internal access.

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As already suggest by @ColinTaylor try using Guest Network #2 (or #3) if you are currently using Guest Network #1.

Another option is to try using the YazFi script addon. That script sets Access Intranet to Enable and then uses IPTables to restrict access to the intranet (main LAN/main WiFi clients). YazFi GitHub. Note: YazFi does not work with AiMesh nodes or with AP nodes.

A further option is to roll back to earlier firmware where this issue wasn't present.

Thank you so much! YazFi works like a charm.

I read through all the threads you linked to. I had no idea how common this issue was. It's such a weird issue. I also had no idea that functionality for Guest Network 1 was different from that of Guest Networks 2 and 3. I really appreciate you folks pointing this out to me. I did do some searching prior to posting, but wasn't really sure what I was looking for. I ran across YazFi, but book marked it for later since I wasn't confident I'd found the root cause of the issue. The additional info was a huge help. So thank you.

After getting up to speed with the back history of posts, I got to work on the issue. First I attempted using Guest Network 2 instead of 1, but encountered the same issue as before. Perhaps worse this time with the cycle occurring every 5 seconds instead of every 30 seconds. From there, I re-enabled Access Intranet for all Guest Networks. Then installed and configured YazFi.

Works perfectly now.

Thanks again!

So far, everything seems to be well behaved. The only oddity is that Network Map doesn't list any YazFi connected devices. Which I suppose is one of the tradeoffs.

wcoastsands said:

The only oddity is that Network Map doesn't list any YazFi connected devices. Which I suppose is one of the tradeoffs.

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It's not an oddity. Generally, according to the YazFi developer, the Network Map only shows devices within the same subnet or network. Because YazFi uses different IP subnets than the main LAN clients, the YazFi Guest Network clients don't show up in the Network Map. Its an often asked about issue in the YazFi discussions that one can find using the search feature and the terms; "YazFi Network Map".

To view YazFi connected clients see the System Log > Wifi Log page. Or see the YazFi tab's Connected Clients under Guest Network. Or access the YazFi CLI and select option #2 via SSH. Or issue the cat /var/lib/misc/dnsmasq.leases command via SSH (or a batch file).

There are a number of past YazFi discussions that can be found, mostly in the addon's subforum, using the subforum filter or subform search. Among those discussions are how to configure manual IP reservations for YazFi clients (see this post for example) and how to use custom scripting to allow specific YazFi clients to access main LAN clients (see this post for example).