Asus RT-AC56U: USB Traffic Monitoring bug kills router

[Pila]

Curent Merlin fw RT-AC56U_380.57_0. Never used any other fw on this router.

I have had great problems with utilising USB stick to save Traffic Monitoring data. After killing my router 4-5 times, I am certaing this must be a bug.

1. I was trying to save Traffic Monitoring data to disk. I connected USB 2.0 32 GB stick (normally, it works perfectly)

Stick would often dissapear after few seconds or would not even be recognized. I would move it a bit or remove it and connect it again. On USB 2 port I never can get it to be recognized, on USB 3 port it gets recongized and sometime gets lost.

2. When I enabled Custom Location and pointed it to my USB stick, it got my router killed. In few seconds router did reset and I got the page which normally is shown after a reset (upload fw, delete NVRAM, reboot options). But, the router went into continous reboot cycle.

I had to set manually IP address for my LAN to get connected (got it as router 192.168.1.1). I tried uploading fw (original and Merlin) several times, no go. I tried Asus fw restore, after it was done, it said firmware can not be restored. After few more reboots and resets, I deleted NVRAM and returned it to normal life.

But, whenever I tried to configure my Traffic Monitoring to be saved to my USB, I killed my router again. Now, I just tried to reset the NVRAM, and reset it back to life. After 4 times, I gave up. When history is set to RAM, all is well. Monitor all IPs by default is set to Yes on all cases.

Two times router was killed even without my USB attached, possibly just by turning on Monitor all IPs.

Different ways to kill it but all related to monitoring traffic. My USB problem may very well be a separate bug.

3. If a router is on a network and I have server with TB disks on that network, why shouild I add USB stick to the router to save traffic data? Why not enter NFS path to my server? Router should accept NFS shares to save its data.

 

[L&LD]

Unless the router came with RMerlin firmware, you had to flash to this firmware at least once.

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/rt-n66u-to-rt-ac68u-restore-config-possible.30010/#post-233819

I suggest doing a full reset to factory defaults before you go digging too far into this issue.

 

[Pila]

I will check the sugested thread. Saw it before, did most items myself. Ccurrently stil fighting to get a good signal for g and n on 2.4 ghz.

But my resets seem different than other problems described in the forums. I can use IPtraffic as long as it is internal mem. Now for 2 days it works perfectly. I will have to break it intentionally to pinpont the issue.

I did all resets many times. But, flashed Merlin directly to the new router as soon as I booted it and was able to flash it via web interface. But after resets, it would also die on me.

I would actualy prefer to be able to save trafic to my server using NFS. This should be naturally to a Linux router connected to the network. Plus, our cats are bound to find the stick at the back of the router and think it is a toy ment for them

 

[_me_myself_and_i_]

Curent Merlin fw RT-AC56U_380.57_0. Never used any other fw on this router.

I have had great problems with utilising USB stick to save Traffic Monitoring data. After killing my router 4-5 times, I am certaing this must be a bug.

1. I was trying to save Traffic Monitoring data to disk. I connected USB 2.0 32 GB stick (normally, it works perfectly)

Stick would often dissapear after few seconds or would not even be recognized. I would move it a bit or remove it and connect it again. On USB 2 port I never can get it to be recognized, on USB 3 port it gets recongized and sometime gets lost.

2. When I enabled Custom Location and pointed it to my USB stick, it got my router killed. In few seconds router did reset and I got the page which normally is shown after a reset (upload fw, delete NVRAM, reboot options). But, the router went into continous reboot cycle.

I had to set manually IP address for my LAN to get connected (got it as router 192.168.1.1). I tried uploading fw (original and Merlin) several times, no go. I tried Asus fw restore, after it was done, it said firmware can not be restored. After few more reboots and resets, I deleted NVRAM and returned it to normal life.

But, whenever I tried to configure my Traffic Monitoring to be saved to my USB, I killed my router again. Now, I just tried to reset the NVRAM, and reset it back to life. After 4 times, I gave up. When history is set to RAM, all is well. Monitor all IPs by default is set to Yes on all cases.

Two times router was killed even without my USB attached, possibly just by turning on Monitor all IPs.

Different ways to kill it but all related to monitoring traffic. My USB problem may very well be a separate bug.

3. If a router is on a network and I have server with TB disks on that network, why shouild I add USB stick to the router to save traffic data? Why not enter NFS path to my server? Router should accept NFS shares to save its data.

I reproduced this same problem on my RT-AC68P. To fix the reboot loop you have to hold Power button + WPS for 30 seconds to wipe NVRAM. Then you have to restore from backup (see: http://www.snbforums.com/threads/user-nvram-save-restore-utility-r22.19521/) or redo all settings. The bug seems related to "Enable IPTraffic (per IP monitoring)" - with that option set to "no" I am getting data recorded. As soon as I set it to yes (and then specify IP to monitor), the router goes into an infinite reboot and I have to wipe NVRAM.

 

[Pila]

After quite a few resets, my situation stabilized when I changed my USB stick from Transcend 32 gb USb 2 to Sandisk 32 gb USB3.

But, I was not able to plug anything into USB 2 port. It would not be seen.

After a month of stabile saving to Sandisk USB 3 on USB 3 port, I tried replacing it with an 8 GB Lexar MicroSD card plugged into one small 1$ reader. I plugged everything into USB 2 port. Then I transferred saving to new location with creation of new files. Then I copied over files manually from Sandisk at USB3 port.

Seems to work for a few days not.

 

[evh909]

I have a similar issue with an rt-ac68u. Was running asus asus 380_1842 and decided to upgrade to merlin 380.85 for the iptraffic monitoring (IPTM). However, whenever I enable that feature (and only that feature), the router seems to just hang and have to do the firmware restoration, clear nvram and restore. I have entered everything by hand at first, then saving and restoring settings up until I set the IPTM.

This is the message I see in the gui after IPTM is set (which takes as long as a firmware ugrade almost, is that the way it is supposed to be?):
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-AC68W.
To access the settings of RT-AC68W, reconnect to the wireless network and use the updated IP address and port number.

Cannot ping it, and when you power cycle it will ping once or twice then it is unreachable again. I at first thought it was my 3tb usb drive since it has issues sometimes mounting it on the first try, so I inserted a 32gb usb stick formatted to ext3 and that was recognized just fine, and normal logging worked to it. However, when I set the IPTM, same issue, router needed to be reset.

I do have CTF(Cut Through Forwarding) and FA(Flow Acceleration) enabled, however I am not really sure turning those off would really fix the issue as I dont want to spend another 1/2 resetting the router as I have seen other posts where those have been enabled with IPTM and working fine.

I can attach logs and other info (fdisk, etc) if you like, any thoughts and suggestions are welcome.

 

[RMerlin]

Enabling IPTraffic causes NAT acceleration to be automatically disabled as the two are not compatible. This then triggers the well known bug of recent RT-AC68U builds, causing the router to become unstable. Downgrade to 378.56_2 for now.

 

[evh909]

thanks, will try that and reply with the results. can you tell me if I should clear nvram going back to 378.56_2, or should I just be able to update? I so wish that the forums would allow me to search for just the firmware version, doesnt work. One final question, I thought that the ability to save the login information was changed to be allowed, but doesnt seem to be anymore (autocomplete is now off for some reason), is that something that will fixed in a new release?

One final thing, in switching to assigned dhcp addresses, there was no way for me to expire an address so I could add the static entry without rebooting (which I think answered a question earlier in the week as to why you would need to do this) for tracking purposes, ie, they client seemed to hold the dhcp address until the lease expired unless reboot or changing the lease time to one. Thanks, Nick

 

[RMerlin]

thanks, will try that and reply with the results. can you tell me if I should clear nvram going back to 378.56_2, or should I just be able to update?

You shouldn't need a factory default reset, but be prepared to do one if you still experience any odd issues.

I so wish that the forums would allow me to search for just the firmware version, doesnt work.

Most forum software have half-useless search capabilities. I recommend using Google instead to search the forums. Here's how to specify a site in Google:

Asuswrt-merlin site:snbforums.com

One final question, I thought that the ability to save the login information was changed to be allowed, but doesnt seem to be anymore (autocomplete is now off for some reason), is that something that will fixed in a new release?

It works for me, using Chrome and Lastpass.

One final thing, in switching to assigned dhcp addresses, there was no way for me to expire an address so I could add the static entry without rebooting (which I think answered a question earlier in the week as to why you would need to do this) for tracking purposes, ie, they client seemed to hold the dhcp address until the lease expired unless reboot or changing the lease time to one. Thanks, Nick

Ultimately, only a client can decide to relinquish a DHCP lease. A server cannot tell a client to do so. So in case of any DHCP scope change, you need to restart all your clients afterward.

 

[evh909]

was able to downgrade to 378.56_2 without a problem. i see the local cstats file in my custom directory and can get traffic by ip information now, thanks. Am aware of the google search using the sitename, however it is still really cluttered. Would be nice to just see a result set of main threads that had your search terms in it rather than every single post as its own entry. I dont use lastpass, I have another password manager. The only reason I asked is it would be nice to have that option so those fields filled in. I think when you go through the recovery or original setup it will save them for the site, but not in the main login page. Anyway, should be using ssh keys...

Some additional things....
1) I had to manually turn off nat acceleration, but sure you know that as it is done in later releases
2) In the traffic analyzer section under the traffic monitor tab I am seeing IP data. However in the statistic tab I am not seeing anything and the message of "*You should turn on the Traffic Statistic to record the traffic information" appears. Am I missing something here?
3) What exactly is the bug that I was running into? Was it related to the "Added RT-AC68U HW Revision C1 support"?
4) I'd be happy to debug/test if you need assistance. I'd also volunteer to do the tooltips on your options as it appears that many are missing.

Thanks.

 

[RMerlin]

2) In the traffic analyzer section under the traffic monitor tab I am seeing IP data. However in the statistic tab I am not seeing anything and the message of "*You should turn on the Traffic Statistic to record the traffic information" appears. Am I missing something here?

Slider button top right corner.

3) What exactly is the bug that I was running into? Was it related to the "Added RT-AC68U HW Revision C1 support"?

Asus upgraded to a newer SDK with the 380_1xxx builds, and there was a bug in that SDK causing the router to either be unstable or flat out crash when NAT acceleration was disabled. It was fixed in GPL 380_2695.

 

[evh909]

Slider button top right corner.

Feel like an idiot, thought that was related to turning the demo on/off. Do I have to recreate the databases or will it just start collecting?

Asus upgraded to a newer SDK with the 380_1xxx builds, and there was a bug in that SDK causing the router to either be unstable or flat out crash when NAT acceleration was disabled. It was fixed in GPL 380_2695.

So I could technically download that source and compile my own then using your git repository?

 

[RMerlin]

Feel like an idiot, thought that was related to turning the demo on/off. Do I have to recreate the databases or will it just start collecting?

Traffic Analyzer will automatically create its database.

So I could technically download that source and compile my own then using your git repository?

No, the RT-AC68U cannot be compiled at this time, because Asus hasn't released the necessary components for it.

 

[evh909]

I did see the gpl source for 9.0.0.4.380.2695 (beta) on the website, is that worth a try?

 

[RMerlin]

I did see the gpl source for 9.0.0.4.380.2695 (beta) on the website, is that worth a try?

Half of the GPL archives Asus uploaded for 2695/2697 are incomplete.