5Ghz Stops Broadcasting on Merlin 380.68_2 and above - AC3100

[jim769]

As for the RT-AC3100, not having one, I cannot test it and therefore cannot tell if that one has working binary blobs or not.

Send me the 382 code for the 3100 i will see if it works...

 

[RMerlin]

Send me the 382 code for the 3100 i will see if it works...

I`ll have to compile it first. Are you comfortable in using firmware recovery if it gets stuck at boot time? (unless you got serial attached, and can kill the acsd process when it gets stuck).

 

[RMerlin]

I`ll have to compile it first. Are you comfortable in using firmware recovery if it gets stuck at boot time? (unless you got serial attached, and can kill the acsd process when it gets stuck).

You'll have to forget about it. The RT-AC3100 GPl is missing part of its wireless driver. Sigh.

Getting so tired of dealing with this... Incomplete 3100 GPL. Corrupted AC88U GPL, replaced by one that contains the wrong files.

 

[jumpycalm]

@ScottW @webgrease @Kruegs @jim769 @DAVIZINHO Thank you so much for your effort. As per your suggestion, I changed to 80MHz from 20/40/80MHz. I also disabled universal beamforming. My 5GHz lasted for over 1 week until today, it stopped broadcasting. That's far better than before. As I mentioned before, my 5GHz never lasted more than a day! So my issue was not completely resolved, but much better than before. As I mentioned before, 80MHz is a must have function for me as I have gig internet in my home. 40MHz does cannot carry the throughput as 80Hz channel. I hope all of us can come up with a complete solution. I upgraded my firmware to 380.68_4 last week, I will keep 80MHz and monitor this issue. For now, I will call my issue has been partially resolved.

 

[jim769]

You'll have to forget about it. The RT-AC3100 GPl is missing part of its wireless driver. Sigh.

Getting so tired of dealing with this... Incomplete 3100 GPL. Corrupted AC88U GPL, replaced by one that contains the wrong files.

That's unfortunate i was looking forward to giving it a try. If you ever get the missing code i would still be willing to give it a shot. If worse comes to worse i will just use the recovery tool and load a different code.

And i certainly can understand your frustration in dealing with incomplete and corrupted sources. 382 may prove to be a major headache for you if Asus don't get there act together.

 

[DAVIZINHO]

@ScottW @webgrease @Kruegs @jim769 @DAVIZINHO Thank you so much for your effort. As per your suggestion, I changed to 80MHz from 20/40/80MHz. I also disabled universal beamforming. My 5GHz lasted for over 1 week until today, it stopped broadcasting. That's far better than before. As I mentioned before, my 5GHz never lasted more than a day! So my issue was not completely resolved, but much better than before. As I mentioned before, 80MHz is a must have function for me as I have gig internet in my home. 40MHz does cannot carry the throughput as 80Hz channel. I hope all of us can come up with a complete solution. I upgraded my firmware to 380.68_4 last week, I will keep 80MHz and monitor this issue. For now, I will call my issue has been partially resolved.

the temporaly solution is set the chanel in 40mhz. other solutions not works :-(

 

[ScottW]

@ScottW @webgrease @Kruegs @jim769 @DAVIZINHO Thank you so much for your effort. As per your suggestion, I changed to 80MHz from 20/40/80MHz. I also disabled universal beamforming. My 5GHz lasted for over 1 week until today, it stopped broadcasting.

Wait, I never suggested setting 80MHz. I suggested setting 40MHz, as that is the only setting that has provided me stable 5GHz operation.

With the 80MHz setting, I continued to have 5GHz shutdowns -- often within minutes, although sometimes it lasted as long as 6 days. Just because it lasted 1 week this time, doesn't mean it will last that long the next time.

If you don't have a requirement for features in RMerlin, there are reports here that the problem is addressed in the latest stock firmware -- have you tried that?

Otherwise, as long as you have a requirement for 80MHz, this router is likely to continue giving you random 5GHz shutdowns -- until and unless a future firmware release contains a fix.

 

[RedBatman89]

Happened to my laptop today. Wouldn't connect to 5ghz upon wake from sleep. I had to put laptop into airplane mode then back off for it to be recognized

 

[ScottW]

Happened to my laptop today. Wouldn't connect to 5ghz upon wake from sleep. I had to put laptop into airplane mode then back off for it to be recognized

If restarting the client wifi fixed it, then that is a completely different problem than discussed above.

The problem discussed here is a complete shutdown of the router's 5GHz radio -- all clients are dropped, and no client can see any 5GHz transmission from the router. The router then has to be rebooted (or 5GHz toggled off and back on) to get it working again. Once the problem occurs, nothing done at any client fixes it.

 

[RedBatman89]

If restarting the client wifi fixed it, then that is a completely different problem than discussed above.

The problem discussed here is a complete shutdown of the router's 5GHz radio -- all clients are dropped, and no client can see any 5GHz transmission from the router. The router then has to be rebooted (or 5GHz toggled off and back on) to get it working again. Once the problem occurs, nothing done at any client fixes it.

Still there is a chance they are related.

 

[ScottW]

Still there is a chance they are related.

Doubtful, as it is a completely different behavior. What you describe sounds like a client driver having a problem after sleep (not uncommon). It wasn't an issue with the router's 5GHz broadcast, which was evidently still up because the laptop reconnected successfully after you toggled its airplane mode.

The problem we've been discussing above is a complete 5GHz shutdown at the router. All 5GHz clients are dropped, because there is no signal, and the signal is not restored until the ROUTER or its 5G radio is reset. Resetting clients doesn't affect it, because the router simply isn't broadcasting any valid 5GHz signal at all.

 

[RMerlin]

Happened to my laptop today. Wouldn't connect to 5ghz upon wake from sleep. I had to put laptop into airplane mode then back off for it to be recognized

This is a problem with your laptop, not the router. It's not uncommon with some buggy wireless drivers to have issues when coming out of sleep mode. Upgrade your driver.

 

[RedBatman89]

This is a problem with your laptop, not the router. It's not uncommon with some buggy wireless drivers to have issues when coming out of sleep mode. Upgrade your driver.

Well it hasn't happened again for awhile so I think it was just a minor bug or something. Plus last time I updated my wifi driver it caused my laptop to crash in sleep mode. So I'm using stock wifi driver.

 

[DAVIZINHO]

anyone tries the 382.1_beta1 ??

 

[webgrease]

anyone tries the 382.1_beta1 ??

I'm eagerly waiting for the official release. Based on previous successful tests of the 382 Asus official firmware, I'm expecting it will work.

 

[LeeM]

Just wanted to add that I'm seeing this same issue with my N66U on firmware 380.68_2. I changed channel to 40 and it seemed to last longer, but then in the past few days its dropped all clients a couple of times per day.

 

[monosoul]

I'm having the same problem with RT-N66U on fw 380.68_4 . Hadn't had that issue with 380.67_0 .

 

[Joboo7777]

I had these same issues when I originally set up my AC3100. Can't remember the Firmware version but the fix was to adjust some of the settings. Below are the settings I adjusted. No issues since making these changes

Under Wifi Settings:
Set Channel Bandwidth to 40Mhz for 5Ghz Band
Set Control Channel to 149(this was based on my Wifi Site assessment) seemed to be the least busy Channel

Under Professional tab:
turned Off Airtime fairness
turned Off Multi user MIMO

 

[ckong]

I'm going to add a "me too" to this thread. Last week, I installed a 2nd RT-Ac3100 Refurbished unit (first one received was missing a part so sent it back). It worked great initially, but started having 5G problems a few hours later. Watching it with a wifi analyzer, I can actually see the 5 Gz channel either 1) drop in/out continuously (10 seconds on, 30 seconds off) or 2) be completely absent (5G light on the AC3100 is on, but no 5G signal can been seen). Different stock and merlin firmwares, and hard-setting the channel & width and other mention parameters hasn't helped much. A simple google search on "asus ac3100 5g" has numerous posts with the same/similar issues going back to January 2016. I'm beginning to think I have a bad unit, or Asus has faulty 5G wireless drivers (perhaps an over aggressive algorithm protecting the DFS 5G radar channels), or both. I purchased a Netgear R8000 last night (still in the shrink-wrap), but am leaning towards returning that and getting a new Ac3100 as I like the Asus-Merlin firmware/features/interface so much. Decisions decisions....

 

[e38BimmerFN]

Sounds like a faulty unit. Would be a good test to try a NEW AC3100 out of the box and see if the same thing happens.

I'm going to add a "me too" to this thread. Last week, I installed a 2nd RT-Ac3100 Refurbished unit (first one received was missing a part so sent it back). It worked great initially, but started having 5G problems a few hours later. Watching it with a wifi analyzer, I can actually see the 5 Gz channel either 1) drop in/out continuously (10 seconds on, 30 seconds off) or 2) be completely absent (5G light on the AC3100 is on, but no 5G signal can been seen). Different stock and merlin firmwares, and hard-setting the channel & width and other mention parameters hasn't helped much. A simple google search on "asus ac3100 5g" has numerous posts with the same/similar issues going back to January 2016. I'm beginning to think I have a bad unit, or Asus has faulty 5G wireless drivers (perhaps an over aggressive algorithm protecting the DFS 5G radar channels), or both. I purchased a Netgear R8000 last night (still in the shrink-wrap), but am leaning towards returning that and getting a new Ac3100 as I like the Asus-Merlin firmware/features/interface so much. Decisions decisions....