Here's a Wi-Fi puzzle

I've tried the new 3.0.0.6 firmware but ran into big problems after trying Smart Connect, so I loaded the official 3.0.0.6 firmware, reset everything (including WPS reset), and all seemed to be OK, except for one thing, My Honeywell controller, which only has 2.4 GHz capability, refused to connect to Wi-Fi. Everything else connected without issues. I tried several different things such as: changing the Wi-Fi channel; disabling ax; simplifying the password to the point of only using numbers; trying the guest and IoT networks and rebooting the router, but it still refused to connect. So now, I've reloaded the last official build of Merlin 3.0.0.4 firmware (without resetting anything) and the device has connected without any issues. Any ideas why this could have happened? It doesn't make any sense to me.

i think there have been issues like this reported in the threads for some IOTs if both bands have the same SSID name. i think someone just created a unique and dedicated SSID on the 2.4 GHz band to solve the issue.

TheLyppardMan said:

so I loaded the official 3.0.0.6 firmware

Click to expand...

If you loaded the stock Asus firmware and are asking about a settings issue with that stock firmware, why are you asking a question in the Asus-Merlin subforum? But anyway...

As has been indicated repeatedly in other posts, sometimes Smart Connect isn't very smart. Some are finding they have to disable Smart Connect and give each WiFi band a unique SSID and unique password that are different than was previously used. One may also have to configure their IoT or WiFi client device to "forget" the previously saved WiFi connection information. Further some have found that using WPA2/WPA3 for what ever reason causes an issue, typically dropping back to WPA2-Personal seems to fix it for some. If I remember right (use the search feature) some even found that changing the 2.4Ghz WiFi channel bandwidth to 20MHz seemed to help.

bennor said:

If you loaded the stock Asus firmware and are asking about a settings issue with that stock firmware, why are you asking a question in the Asus-Merlin subforum? But anyway...

Click to expand...

I've added it here because the issue relates to both firmwares, although granted, the problem was with the ASUS 3.0.0.6 firmware.

bennor said:

As has been indicated repeatedly in other posts, sometimes Smart Connect isn't very smart. Some are finding they have to disable Smart Connect and give each WiFi band a unique SSID and unique password that are different than was previously used. One may also have to configure their IoT or WiFi client device to "forget" the previously saved WiFi connection information. Further some have found that using WPA2/WPA3 for what ever reason causes an issue, typically dropping back to WPA2-Personal seems to fix it for some. If I remember right (use the search feature) some even found that changing the 2.4Ghz WiFi channel bandwidth to 20MHz seemed to help.

Click to expand...

I didn't use Smart Connect after I loaded the ASUS 3.0.0.6 firmware, because of all the problems I had with the Merlin Alpha firmware after I tried to "escape" from Smart Connect. So, after that, I went back to what I normally use, i.e., two separate names for each SSID and a different one for any guest/IoT networks. My Honeywell device doesn't have an option to "forget" previous connections but it does that automatically if you tell it to disconnect from the current network.

One other weird thing unrelated to this: I sometimes use the web site https://qifi.org/ to generate a QR code if there isn't one available from the router's GUI. Using the ASUS 3.0.0.6 firmware, the QR Code from qifi.org matched that shown in the router's GUI, but using the same SSID and password in Merlin 3.0.0.4 shows a different QR code. Very strange.

Are you using WPA2/WPA3-Personal? Some clients do not like that combo. Some clients also work better on 2.4 GHz with 20 MHz bandwidth. And, as had been said, setting up a guest WIFI for those touchy old clients usually works.

The unsolved puzzle for me is swapping routers from still supported and quite capable RT-AX88U to the newer RT-AX88U Pro and then sort of downgrade to RT-AX86U Pro. All of the above devices provide about the same user experience on up to Gigabit ISP line. If all of the above devices have some sort of issue with existing clients - perhaps time to explore other options for router or clients. Tinkering for about 2 years and frequently disrupting the Internet service for everyone else using this connection is obviously not working well.

bbunge said:

Are you using WPA2/WPA3-Personal? Some clients do not like that combo. Some clients also work better on 2.4 GHz with 20 MHz bandwidth. And, as had been said, setting up a guest WIFI for those touchy old clients usually works.

Click to expand...

I always use 20 Mhz on the 2.4 GHz band and I also always use just the WPA2 option. I also tried both the mian networks and the guest networks and nothing worked. As soon as I reloaded the latest Merlin 3.0.0.4 firmware, the problem disappeared. I might try an experiment in the morning, when the network is quiet; reflash the latest official 3.0.0.6 firmware but without wasting too much time configuring everything, only to find there is a problem with the Honeywell device. I'll report back when I've got anything further to add.

Tech9 said:

The unsolved puzzle for me is swapping routers from still supported and quite capable RT-AX88U to the newer RT-AX88U Pro and then sort of downgrade to RT-AX86U Pro. All of the above devices provide about the same user experience on up to Gigabit ISP line. If all of the above devices have some sort of issue with existing clients - perhaps time to explore other options for router or clients. Tinkering for about 2 years and frequently disrupting the Internet service for everyone else using this connection is obviously not working well.

Click to expand...

I don't generally disrupt other users because they are usually in bed until lunchtime, so I have a few hours of quiet time in the mornings.

I gave the official 3.0.0.6 firmware a brief try yesterday morning and inititially the Honeywell controller connected to Wi-Fi but very soon in the setup procedure, it again refused to connect. So, I've returned to the latest Merlin release firmware and will leave it like that until either the Merlin release 3.0.0.6 is announced or MerlinAU notifies me (currently set to defer upgrades for 10 days).