ASUS RT-AC68U bizarre behavior - and apologies for long post.

[nodrog]

OK (apologies if too much detail - but I don't know what's relevant).

ASUS RT-AC68U running latest Merlin firmware
Teksavvy Cable 28 Pro
Teksavvy VOIP
Torrent running via PIA VPN from a WIFI-connected Windows box

The problem(s):
Every so often (not clearly at peak times) - bandwidth grinds to a halt. It is always fixed (temporarily) by rebooting the router.
I can no longer reach my modem page (192.168.100.1) via the router but CAN if I directly connect via Ethernet.

Another incidental observation:
My WAN IP on router is different than the public one - I think this is because Teksavvy is assigning me something 198.84.x.x and my public IP (via whats my IP) is different (Choola?). This is on the non-VPN machines of course. I had not noticed this before - but maybe it was always this way.

What I've tried:
1) Bought a new router (this was happening with my old one)
2) Installed latest firmware
3) Turned on/off torrent **Sometimes I can convince myself that it is torrent that causes this - but really the bandwidth loss can occur whether torrent is on or off**
4) I've reset the modem 4 or 5 times to factory settings by connecting my laptop via Ethernet to the modem and by unplugging it.
5) I've tried a bunch of things I've read on the net:
- killall -1 dnsmasq
- I've set the DNS to opendns and google rather than the teksavvy ones
- service restart_wan
6) Disconnected the ATA

**Sometimes the above seem to fix the problem but always temporarily**

No matter what:
- I cannot reach the modem via the router (this may have nothing to do with the bandwidth issue)
- Rebooting the router always fixes the problem (sometimes very briefly)
- Even when working "well" (ie ping times to google are <30 msec), my bandwidth via dslreports is like 2

I've emailed Merlin who, as usual, is awesome and some of the above were his suggestions (anything that looks ridiculous, of course, were my own ideas).

Anyway, I'm 5 minutes away from changing ISP - but I've been very loyal to teksavvy and don't want to blame them for something stupid I am doing (default assumption)

Thanks for any help!

Gordon

 

[agilani]

try using the firmware dated 56_2 from November. I had a lot of issues the latest version and the latest alpha as well.

And of course, you read the release notes right?

"A factory default reset is required specifically for the RT-AC68U, due to the switch to a new SDK + wireless driver. Some people reported having issues with the 2.4 GHz band with this new SDK - if that's your case, the only solution at this time is to revert back to 378.56_2."