Admin page cached web db causes issues

[Mr Zippy]

I see the following error when trying to access the router admin page in either Safari (Mac/iPhone) or Firefox, only way round is to clear the local db cache which is very annoying. I know I asked Merlin and he said that Safari wasn't a supported browser, but surely Firefox is?

Issue seems to be with the router admin page local db cache, this never used to be an issue so at some stage the admin page has been changed that causes this bug.

Settings have been updated. Web page will now refresh.
Changes have been made to the IP address or port number. You will now be disconnected from RT-N66U.
To access the settings of RT-N66U, reconnect to the wireless network and use the updated IP address and port number.

Any ideas to resolve this?

RT-N66U with 3.0.0.4.374.33 Beta 6
Safari 6.0.5 (Mac)
Safari iPhone iOS 7.0.2
Firefox 24.0 (Mac)

 

[RMerlin]

I see the following error when trying to access the router admin page in either Safari (Mac/iPhone) or Firefox, only way round is to clear the local db cache which is very annoying. I know I asked Merlin and he said that Safari wasn't a supported browser, but surely Firefox is?

Issue seems to be with the router admin page local db cache, this never used to be an issue so at some stage the admin page has been changed that causes this bug.



Any ideas to resolve this?

RT-N66U with 3.0.0.4.374.33 Beta 6
Safari 6.0.5 (Mac)
Safari iPhone iOS 7.0.2
Firefox 24.0 (Mac)

That page gets shown if you are trying to access the router and are unable to view the webpage. Most common reasons are:

- Wrong IP
- WebUI was changed to a different port than the default 80
- Trying to access as HTTPS, but not providing the proper port (default is 8443)
- Having a port forward preventing access to port 80
- Security software that blocks access to the router
- Accidentally disabling HTTP access on the System page

Start by confirming you have the correct IP. Try sending pings to it, for example.

 

[Mr Zippy]

That page gets shown if you are trying to access the router and are unable to view the webpage. Most common reasons are:

- Wrong IP
- WebUI was changed to a different port than the default 80
- Trying to access as HTTPS, but not providing the proper port (default is 8443)
- Having a port forward preventing access to port 80
- Security software that blocks access to the router
- Accidentally disabling HTTP access on the System page

Start by confirming you have the correct IP. Try sending pings to it, for example.

I am using https but it's a stored bookmark including the port number.

1. Bookmark used - https://router.asus.com:8443/
2. Port specified as 8443 as above
3. Port is specified
4. No port forwarding set
5. No security software installed
6. Not using http access, set to https only.

If I clear the local web cache for asus.com and refresh it works.

 

[nmt1900]

One possible cure - on Safari you will get certificate warning. Store "always trust" exception for router homepage - ONLY if you're really know, what you're doing...

P.S. Clearing cache is actually convenient to do on Safari, as it can be done with keyboard shortcut (Command+Option+E) - no need to use these pesky menus. Router home page tab would better be closed when doing this.

 

[PrivateJoker]

Try your bookmark on the router's IP address + port instead of the funky subdomain to internal LAN forwarding/NAT(?) situation that using router.asus.com invokes. If that works it means your browser is unwilling to follow a re-direct to an HTTPS address whose certificate it cannot verify (because it doesn't have one), that is a good thing.

Either way, I think the end user ability to tell a router they want admin connections to happen locally exclusively over HTTPS is a false sense of security with no security advantage over using HTTP locally, and as about one person posts a week, it just causes confusion & problems.


Use the WAN side firewall, turn off the port forwards/UPnP you don't need, disable SSH & telnet if you don't need them, disable WAN side admin. Internally if you connect to your router w/ WPA2 your connection is encrypted end to end when you're on it's admin page. Someone could plug a cable into your router and still have to pull some serious magic to sniff packets *through a switch* to use the LAN as an attack vector.

The biggest vulnerabilities Asus routing hardware has ever had, in my memory, was through the (well documented in tech news circles) shoddy implementation of AiCloud features that could allow a hacker a much easier vector than existed thus far.

Making certificate exemptions in the browser is definitely not a good security best practice.

 

[nmt1900]

One other thing - if there'd be simple way to change HTTP port for LAN access, then the use of HTTPS would not be so "tempting".

...instead of the funky subdomain to internal LAN forwarding/NAT(?) situation that using router.asus.com invokes.

I still can not understand why this domain name is used internally for this - it is inappropriate practice. By the way - in public internet namespace this domain name redirects to Asus homepage.

 

[Mr Zippy]

I have previously set a certificate exception for the router, although this needs to be re-set every reboot (such as firmware updated) so I don't have it set currently.

I used to use 192.168.1.1 but when this issue started I tried router.asus.com and that worked so I changed the bookmark, thinking the issue was fixed. Obviously not but I didn't change the bookmark back. I have just done that now.

If continues I will switch back to http access and see if the ssl is the issue.

Thanks for all your comments.