Asus RT-AC3200 issues and impressions

[mikeisu]

Just curious what everyone's experience has been so far with the 4129 firmware. I am still getting regular 5ghz drops even with smart connect disabled. Hopefully the next firmware provides more stability....

 

[jerry6]

Just curious what everyone's experience has been so far with the 4129 firmware. I am still getting regular 5ghz drops even with smart connect disabled. Hopefully the next firmware provides more stability....

No drops here using 5 ghz radios , using merlin FW no smart connect , 5 days no drops . After update did you do a factory reset ?
Look up past post where Asus tech suggested a method of resetting the router after a FW upgrade if you're still getting drops .

 

[firegeier]

I got this router from Amazon.com (well, someone from U.S. bought it and send it to me for a small fee, the final price being 377$).
After initial setup and update to v3.0.0.4.378.4129 firmware that was downloaded from softpedia, because the router says "The router's current firmware is the latest version.", even it had the stock firmware, every time I powered the router, after ~100 seconds, the interface of the router is opened in default web browser with this screen:

and after another 20 seconds (without touching anything in router's interface), the internet connection is established. So, it takes 2 minutes and an unwanted web interface pop-up to connect to internet.
My internet connection is PPPOE.
Settings done in router's interface:

Anyone know a cure for these?

 

[jerry6]

not sure what the problem is , after you turn off the router , then turn it on it takes a while until it re establishes a connection with the modem , sounds normal .
Why you would download FW from Softpedia is another issue , why ??

 

[firegeier]

Why you would download FW from Softpedia is another issue , why ??

I didn't find it on ASUS support the first time. Now, I found it and the zip file has the same sha-1 like the one downloaded from softpedia: c7960415a9146c0a847be03824efa23ecb00e481

 

[RMerlin]

I got this router from Amazon.com (well, someone from U.S. bought it and send it to me for a small fee, the final price being 377$).
After initial setup and update to v3.0.0.4.378.4129 firmware that was downloaded from softpedia, because the router says "The router's current firmware is the latest version.", even it had the stock firmware, every time I powered the router, after ~100 seconds, the interface of the router is opened in default web browser with this screen:
and after another 20 seconds (without touching anything in router's interface), the internet connection is established. So, it takes 2 minutes and an unwanted web interface pop-up to connect to internet.
My internet connection is PPPOE.
Settings done in router's interface:

Anyone know a cure for these?

You can disable the web redirection on WAN down on the System -> Administration page. All it will do is when the WAN is down you will get an error message from your browser rather than the router's error page.

 

[firegeier]

I disabled "Enable WAN down browser redirection" from Administration>System and I don't have the pop-up after router power on, but I think that pop-up appears because of a conflict or something.

2 minutes to establish internet connection on a gigabit PPPOE connection is too much. The older Asus WL-520gC does it in 30 seconds.

Edit: how fast is your ASUS RT-AC3200 in terms of establishing internet connection from power on, with Windows already logged on?

 

[jerry6]

it takes a while , never timed it as I never turn off the router , only do FW updates and that takes over 3 minutes , then another bit of time until everything re-syncs . I don't see a problem

 

[firegeier]

it takes a while , never timed it as I never turn off the router , only do FW updates and that takes over 3 minutes , then another bit of time until everything re-syncs. I don't see a problem

I have this router for almost 2 days and I test it to see if it's OK. It's strange that an older router connects faster to internet. Since during night no one from home use internet, it's no need to leave the router on. I can do this only to test how fast will drop wireless connection.

 

[Deleted member 22229]

I have this router for almost 2 days and I test it to see if it's OK. It's strange that an older router connects faster to internet. Since during night no one from home use internet, it's no need to leave the router on. I can do this only to test how fast will drop wireless connection.

Routers are not really suppose to be powered off at night generally most people leave them on 24/7.

 

[L&LD]

A home network is supposed to give you seamless access to connected equipment or devices and of course, usually, to your ISP. Of which your router is the heart of.

Powering this off is like disconnecting your HDD, Optical Drive and your Keyboard and Mouse every time you have finished using the computer.

Does not compute...


3 minutes to bootup the router once every few weeks or months at a time is a fair trade off.

 

[mikeisu]

No drops here using 5 ghz radios , using merlin FW no smart connect , 5 days no drops . After update did you do a factory reset ?
Look up past post where Asus tech suggested a method of resetting the router after a FW upgrade if you're still getting drops .

I just tried a factory reset through the GUI tonight. We will see if it makes a difference or not. I am guessing not..

 

[thiggins]

I have this router for almost 2 days and I test it to see if it's OK. It's strange that an older router connects faster to internet. Since during night no one from home use internet, it's no need to leave the router on. I can do this only to test how fast will drop wireless connection.

Older routers are simpler beasts, without all the additional code that needs to be loaded to support fancy features. Some take longer to boot.

Turning the router off at night is perfectly ok. Just put it on a lamp timer and set it to turn on before you get up in the morning and you won't be bothered by the boot time.

 

[mikeisu]

I just tried a factory reset through the GUI tonight. We will see if it makes a difference or not. I am guessing not..

I'm still experiencing 5 GHz drops on a fairly regular basis even though I factory reset it through the web interface. Any other suggestions anyone may have? Just wait for the next firmware release?

 

[dlandon]

I'm still experiencing 5 GHz drops on a fairly regular basis even though I factory reset it through the web interface. Any other suggestions anyone may have? Just wait for the next firmware release?

Overall I am very happy with the AC3200 router and have generally had a good experience. Until recently I have had no major issues. I have some iPads that seem to go searching for a band to use when I am in a weaker signal area of the house. Eventually they come out of it, but the wireless icon on the iPad will blink several times. I have Smart Connect turned on and have made a few minor adjustments in the settings.

One major annoyance to me is the Bandwidth Monitor not working. When I first boot the router it shows the Internet usage on each device, but goes away when devices drop off and reconnect to the router. I have reported this to ASUS.

 

[jsquaredz]

I'm still experiencing 5 GHz drops on a fairly regular basis even though I factory reset it through the web interface. Any other suggestions anyone may have? Just wait for the next firmware release?

Drops stopped for me when I shut off smart connect. If you are running it, try shutting it down and manually setup the radios. I have 2.4GHZ and 5GHZ-1 radios as SSID1, and the 5GHZ-2 radio as SSID2. I let most devices connect to and negotiate the SSID-1 for frequency, etc. SSID2 is reserved for some high speed media bridges I am using for streaming video.

Theoretically this would all be automatic once smart connect is working better, but today the manual approach seems more reliable.

 

[jsquaredz]

Another issue with Traffic monitor

Aside from the issue I reported about traffic monitor statistics incorrectly displayed in the GUI I found a new one today. It seems that traffic monitor does not show the traffic for the 5GHZ-2 radio in the 5GHZ window. It only shows up in the WAN stats.

See the attached file. Traffic from 5GHZ radio 1 seems to show up fine. Reported this to ASUS as case WTM20150301004859006, but I have had no luck with ASUS support.

 

[jerry6]

I'm still experiencing 5 GHz drops on a fairly regular basis even though I factory reset it through the web interface. Any other suggestions anyone may have? Just wait for the next firmware release?

Which devices are dropping connection ? I notice Apple and some android devices drop connections and have a harder time re-establishing a connection , and not just on the 3200 but other routers as well .
Now using Beta 2 , all seems to be working well so far .

 

[dlandon]

Which devices are dropping connection ? I notice Apple and some android devices drop connections and have a harder time re-establishing a connection , and not just on the 3200 but other routers as well .
Now using Beta 2 , all seems to be working well so far .

There is no beta2 available on the download site. I am using beta1 and the only issue I've seen so far is NAT Loopback doesn't work when "Merlin" is selected. I have to use "ASUS" for NAT Loopback.

I do have an issue with the Bandwidth Monitor. The clients stop showing their traffic after a few clients drop off the network. This is not RMerlin's issue though. It is with ASUS, so I am waiting for them to get it fixed. I have reported it to ASUS.

 

[jerry6]

There is no beta2 available on the download site. I am using beta1 and the only issue I've seen so far is NAT Loopback doesn't work when "Merlin" is selected. I have to use "ASUS" for NAT Loopback.

I do have an issue with the Bandwidth Monitor. The clients stop showing their traffic after a few clients drop off the network. This is not RMerlin's issue though. It is with ASUS, so I am waiting for them to get it fixed. I have reported it to ASUS.

Sorry beta 1 is right