ASUS 384.3 bug? AC3200 & RT68U

[TheLegend]

Hello,

I have been using asuswrt-merlin for couple years now. I have an AC3200 as main router and a AC68U set up as media bridge with a computer connected to it (ethernet).
I noticed after the upgrade that the computer connected to AC68U through ethernet UPLOAD speed dropped to 2Mbps from 100Mbps (Tested with Speedtest.net). I replicated it with another laptop directly connected to AC68U with a different ethernet cable as well. AC68U connects to AC3200 main router through 5GHZ. My iPhone X gets 300Mbps down/ 100 Mbps up through same 5GHZ, so I know it's not the AC3200 settings either. I also tried the latest alpha build, same outcome.

Bug on AC3200, shows my ASUS68U connected with cable whereas it's connected through 5GHZ (client list.PNG)
Bug on AC68U, upload speed problem on Media Bridge.

PS. The Smart CONNECT rules are identical between 5GHZ-1 & 2, and I have been using the router with no problems for years so I have ruled out that being a problem as well. Especially since the routers don't get disconnected & the download speeds are great. Only upload speed suffered since last update.

Images attached.

 

[TheLegend]

Anyone? Am I forgetting anything? Lol


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[Hunterx]

Anyone? Am I forgetting anything? Lol


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I had that extreme speed issue, but only after connecting through a VPN client from my PC through the ac68u bridge. Speed without VPN was 120Mbps, with it ON with wifi(through the main router AC3200) a respectable 60Mbps, and WIRED through the AC68U bridge with VPN ON I get only .3-1Mbps. That was the 1st issue I noticed and reported. I flashed maybe one too many times, and now my router is unstable? I posted mainly on the original release thread, but now I'm almost convinced there is a issue with my router. It came close to being bricked twice. it failed flashes, and issues persisted on older firmware until aggressive resets to factory and NVRAM clears. Until I figure out what is wrong, I can't afford to flash again. Stable on 380.69_2.

 

[Hunterx]

This is not exactly related to the speed issue, but its related to the unstable behavior I experienced: https://www.snbforums.com/threads/rt-68u-firmware-version-3-0-0-4-384-20287.44348/
It basically says that bridge more and repeater modes are broken for now. I'm just going to wait for a fix. I can't duplicate the above behavior anymore because similar to the people in this link, the wifi connection to the main router could not be established, and the bridge defaults to 192.168.1.1, and the new UI just keeps cycling and forcing me to go though the new setup wizard again to define a connection. The only way out is to setup as router mode with fake SSID's. From there you can get access to the main UI. I would just avoid.

 

[TheLegend]

This is not exactly related to the speed issue, but its related to the unstable behavior I experienced: https://www.snbforums.com/threads/rt-68u-firmware-version-3-0-0-4-384-20287.44348/
It basically says that bridge more and repeater modes are broken for now. I'm just going to wait for a fix. I can't duplicate the above behavior anymore because similar to the people in this link, the wifi connection to the main router could not be established, and the bridge defaults to 192.168.1.1, and the new UI just keeps cycling and forcing me to go though the new setup wizard again to define a connection. The only way out is to setup as router mode with fake SSID's. From there you can get access to the main UI. I would just avoid.

Yes! Thats exactly what happened to mine.
I found a workaround to that UI cycling problem for mine though, I noticed it brings up the new setup wizard if i try to connect to it right away.

I solved it by letting it do its thing at the “You will now be disconnected for new settings” part. I noticed it takes long but if you wait couple minutes and then connect, it works.

But thank you for your reply, I thought I was doing something wrong, this way I know i just need to wait.

I also remember reading merlin write 384 firmware cannot be rolled back to 380, but cant remember if that was only for AC3200 or if it included RT-68U. Either way I ordered a USB wireless AC stick to bypass the media bridge and connect to AC3200 directly for now. Lol


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[Hunterx]

Yes! Thats exactly what happened to mine.
I found a workaround to that UI cycling problem for mine though, I noticed it brings up the new setup wizard if i try to connect to it right away.

I solved it by letting it do its thing at the “You will now be disconnected for new settings” part. I noticed it takes long but if you wait couple minutes and then connect, it works.

But thank you for your reply, I thought I was doing something wrong, this way I know i just need to wait.

I also remember reading merlin write 384 firmware cannot be rolled back to 380, but cant remember if that was only for AC3200 or if it included RT-68U. Either way I ordered a USB wireless AC stick to bypass the media bridge and connect to AC3200 directly for now. Lol


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The release notes mention that ONLY the RT-AC3200 had its NVRAM size increased, and could not be rolled back. The really weird part of all of this is that I own a RT-AC3200 as my main router (384.3), and its running more stable than it ever has (see below). I didn't dig too deep, but the router is performing extremely well on 384.3, so i am not worried about leaving it. I have reverted my RT-AC68U multiple times testing this before I gave up. Its currently stable on 380.69_2, so its perfectly safe to downgrade.

That RT-AC3200 has had a long troubled life too. It died when I tried to flash the firmware to merlin over wifi because connecting direct was difficult (I have learned the hard way never to do this). The thing got bricked pretty hard. No external resets or connections would work. I recovered it with a USB to serial adapter over a COM port. It was crashing mid boot, and would just cycle forever. It made it easy to get in with CTRL-C to stop the CFE to give me a prompt. I was able to erase the NVRAM and get it to boot. It successfully took a flash and came alive. The only issue is that it had this weird boot cycle. It would take 6 or more reboots to stabilize itself. That cycling issue was FIXED by flashing to 384.3, so whatever was done to the router in the firmware was just what I needed.

 

[TheLegend]

Downgraded to 380.69.2 and heres the result lol something is really fked up in this router at the moment ill try to do a full reset when i have time this weekend. How do you clear NVRAM?



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[Hunterx]

Downgraded to 380.69.2 and heres the result lol something is really fked up in this router at the moment ill try to do a full reset when i have time this weekend. How do you clear NVRAM?



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I found this recently. It's really good info: https://www.snbforums.com/threads/faq-nvram-and-factory-default-reset.22822/

 

[st3v3n]

That you downgraded it at all is pretty amazing considering Merlin's notes are specific and say you won't be able to do it on the 3200. That's why we're sitting on the older stable 380.68_4 (no problems on that one):
re:
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/b...84-3-beta-is-now-available.44438/#post-378699

#1: Merge with GPL 384_10007 (note: AiMesh is NOT supported)
Added RT-AC3200 support. Note that with both this firmware and Asus's official 382_xxxxx for this model, you will no longer be able to downgrade to a 380.xx release due to the CFE/nvram upgrade done by the 382/384 releases for this model. Also due to the nvram upgrade, the RT-AC3200 once again allows up to 5 OpenVPN clients

I used to be an early adapter but not being able to revert at all, under any circumstances to a prior stable release isn't progress (no offense or criticism). Maybe someday when the kinks are ironed out....Cheers

 

[TheLegend]

That you downgraded it at all is pretty amazing considering Merlin's notes are specific and say you won't be able to do it on the 3200. That's why we're sitting on the older stable 380.68_4 (no problems on that one):
re:
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/b...84-3-beta-is-now-available.44438/#post-378699

#1: Merge with GPL 384_10007 (note: AiMesh is NOT supported)
Added RT-AC3200 support. Note that with both this firmware and Asus's official 382_xxxxx for this model, you will no longer be able to downgrade to a 380.xx release due to the CFE/nvram upgrade done by the 382/384 releases for this model. Also due to the nvram upgrade, the RT-AC3200 once again allows up to 5 OpenVPN clients

I used to be an early adapter but not being able to revert at all, under any circumstances to a prior stable release isn't progress (no offense or criticism). Maybe someday when the kinks are ironed out....Cheers

Hey St3v3n,

I didn’t downgrade 3200, i downgraded the ac68u. But with the last release 384.4, both routers are on it and they seem to be working fine so far!


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[prAsco]

hello,
i can confirm problems in briged mode with the newer firmware version 384.3 and 384.4 with my 2x ASUS RT-AC68U.
got huge speed drops and also a high ping. normally i got 150 mbit down and 5 mbit up cable broadband. after upgrading it differs between 2-3 mbit up to 12ombit. further problem is while gaming i got normally a ping with about 10-20ms. after upgrading it variates between 10-900ms, but most of the time about 200-400ms.
also i got a qnap 1gb nas in my network. file transfers variating now between 10- max. 50mb/s. before upgrading it was constant 113mb/s.
after downgrading to firmware 380.69_2 all the problems were fixed again. i also tried it with different options - only upgrading one router and the other one with the older firmware but that doesn t fix it.
also i tried it with resetting the routers to default after upgrading like it s recommended. but this doesn t also fix it.

so stay at 380.69_2 and you ll be fine!