ASUS RT - AC86U no client list

[Kazionator]

Hello,
Few days ago I moved to a new apartament for which I bought RT - AC86U few months back.
I set it up with merlin firmware (384.13), it worked great but yesterday I noticed my wi-fi region is set to China so I changed it to Europe. After that router stucked in bootloop. Restart did not help, Asus recovery soft did not help, hard reset with WPS button fixed it.

Again I set everything up, this time region change worked and my router did not end up in bootloop but I have another problem for which I don't see a solution. Client list is empty. Every device that was connected to the router is offline and it does not show in client list. Sadly I don't have any new device to test if it shows on the list.

So far I tried:
-going back to China as Wi-Fi region - did not help.
-manually changing DHCP leases (I tried going back to IP that two devices had before and I also tried setting new lan IP and IP pool) - did not help.
- I though about upgrading firmware but that would mean going to beta and I am not sure about this.


Strange thing is that despite few resets router still remembers some hostnames I set before (like "PC" form my computer or OnePlus for my phone) but some devices are back to original hostnames. I can see this is SystemLog/DHCP leases.
I noticed that before cliend list was refreshing very fast. Now then I click on it's logo "Client status" window appears and it shows "Searching, please wait..." but sadly waiting does not do the trick.

My question is how can I fix my client list?

 

[OzarkEdge]

Hello,
Few days ago I moved to a new apartament for which I bought RT - AC86U few months back.
I set it up with merlin firmware (384.13), it worked great but yesterday I noticed my wi-fi region is set to China so I changed it to Europe. After that router stucked in bootloop. Restart did not help, Asus recovery soft did not help, hard reset with WPS button fixed it.

Again I set everything up, this time region change worked and my router did not end up in bootloop but I have another problem for which I don't see a solution. Client list is empty. Every device that was connected to the router is offline and it does not show in client list. Sadly I don't have any new device to test if it shows on the list.

So far I tried:
-going back to China as Wi-Fi region - did not help.
-manually changing DHCP leases (I tried going back to IP that two devices had before and I also tried setting new lan IP and IP pool) - did not help.
- I though about upgrading firmware but that would mean going to beta and I am not sure about this.


Strange thing is that despite few resets router still remembers some hostnames I set before (like "PC" form my computer or OnePlus for my phone) but some devices are back to original hostnames. I can see this is SystemLog/DHCP leases.
I noticed that before cliend list was refreshing very fast. Now then I click on it's logo "Client status" window appears and it shows "Searching, please wait..." but sadly waiting does not do the trick.

My question is how can I fix my client list?

I would put stock firmware on it, reset it, configure it, and then if it misbehaves, call it defective. That said, the client lists are a bit dodgy, but usually show something close to reality.

If it seems to work ok, then return to Merlin, reset it, and try again.

OE

 

[Kazionator]

@OzarkEdge
Since this is my first Asus router can you confirm to me that flashing stock formware is the same as as flashing an update to existing firmware? There is no problem with going back?

 

[OzarkEdge]

@OzarkEdge
Since this is my first Asus router can you confirm to me that flashing stock formware is the same as as flashing an update to existing firmware? There is no problem with going back?

A firmware flash should be a firmware flash. Download it and flash it. Then reset it before configuration.

Merlin users correct me if I'm wrong.

OE

 

[Marin]

A firmware flash should be a firmware flash. Download it and flash it. Then reset it before configuration.

Merlin users correct me if I'm wrong.

OE

Yes, I agree. I always reset/initialize every time AFTER I flash the router with the a new stable/main Merlin firmware and manually configure everything from scratch (for example, if going from 384.13 to 384.14). This also means that I don’t reset/initialize when I am gradually moving from any alpha to beta firmware releases in between. But once the stable/main FW is released, then I go into a full “LD&D” configuration mode and slowly take my time to manually set up everything while at the same time giving the router a chance to stabilize through any new updates/changes.

Taking notes and screenshots of your current configuration while on a stable firmware and especially when your router is working very well definitely helps when you decide to set everything up from scratch.

This doesn’t mean that everyone follows the same strategy but this is what I usually do. There are also recommendations in the forums that reset/initialize processes should occur when you are jumping to a stable/main FW that is 2-3 releases newer than your current one.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Kazionator]

@OzarkEdge @Marin
So I came back to stock firmware. Right after I set up wifi and router account I noticed that the client list is back. I made a reset in webui anyway - client list was still working.
Then I flshed merlin... and it was not working anymore. Again I made a reset in webui after which router did not come back to life. It wanted me to log out and then log in (without quick internet setup as always). I tried logging out in telnet but I could not connect so I made WPS reset. It was strange becouse power led did not blink after few seconds of holding WPS as it should but went dark. I waited an hour and router was not coming back so I turned it off and on... and I got Internet setup page. Again I set everything up and client list is not working. Everything else is.

Right now I don't know what to do. Maybe I should report this to merlin creators? I am also thinking about waiting for a new version of Merlin that maybe will fix this - as changing soft did help today... but I don't know. It is strange that this version worked well for me after initial set up and now it won't work despite many resets.

 

[Marin]

@OzarkEdge @Marin
So I came back to stock firmware. Right after I set up wifi and router account I noticed that the client list is back. I made a reset in webui anyway - client list was still working.
Then I flshed merlin... and it was not working anymore. Again I made a reset in webui after which router did not come back to life. It wanted me to log out and then log in (without quick internet setup as always). I tried logging out in telnet but I could not connect so I made WPS reset. It was strange becouse power led did not blink after few seconds of holding WPS as it should but went dark. I waited an hour and router was not coming back so I turned it off and on... and I got Internet setup page. Again I set everything up and client list is not working. Everything else is.

Right now I don't know what to do. Maybe I should report this to merlin creators? I am also thinking about waiting for a new version of Merlin that maybe will fix this - as changing soft did help today... but I don't know. It is strange that this version worked well for me after initial set up and now it won't work despite many resets.

Incomplete client list is a known issue. It goes back several Merlin firmware releases as far as I know (384.9 perhaps?) and it is my understanding that are outside his control.

My client list is not complete either. However, I have found that rebooting each of of the clients every once in a while can help.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Kazionator]

Well, It's a shame then.
While not necessity it was very useful feature. Now things like QoS bandwidth monitor and few others simply won't work...

 

[RMerlin]

Note that networkmap only supports a /24 network (unless Asus has since changed this). Therefore any wider netmask than a /24 (255.255.255.0) will cause clients to be missing on the networkmap.

 

[Kazionator]

Wait, I don't get it. If asus router supports network map only in /24 network how can a wider netmask prevent clients from going missing?
For the record since the first set up (when everything was working) I am on 255.255.255.0 and I didn't change that. Should I?

 

[ColinTaylor]

Wait, I don't get it. If asus router supports network map only in /24 network how can a wider netmask prevent clients from going missing?

Merlin misspoke. He meant to say that using a LAN network larger than /24 will cause clients to go missing. So you should keep your current netmask as /24 to avoid any additional problems.

 

[Val D.]

Incomplete client list is a known issue.

I don't know where the issues you guys see are coming from, but the Client List on my RT-AC86U running Asuswrt-Merlin 384.12 is spot on. The moment a client device registers on the network it pops up in the Client List few seconds after. Client List never worked better for me, actually. Icons, client name, link speed, access time - everything is correct.

 

[RMerlin]

Merlin misspoke. He meant to say that using a LAN network larger than /24 will cause clients to go missing. So you should keep your current netmask as /24 to avoid any additional problems.

Right, edited my post.

I don't know where the issues you guys see are coming from, but the Client List on my RT-AC86U running Asuswrt-Merlin 384.12 is spot on.

Firmware releases from around last year would frequently miss some clients. Asus gradually improved things over the course of the last few releases to address that specific (random) issue.

 

[Kazionator]

So I kinda fixed my problem but I also got another.
Since day one I was running dual-band with smart connect and I am sure 5Ghz network was running fine - client list was working so I saw some of them used 5Ghz. Today I turned on led icons and I noticed 5Ghz wifi was off. I tried getting it on without sucess. I disabled dual-band and set another ssid for 5Ghz - still off.
In the wifi/General I can see that it is on Current Control Channel: 0, there is also "no Wireless 5GHz MAC address" in network map and in administration/temperature I can see 5Ghz is disabled.

I noticed that there is a new beta for my router so I flashed it hoping it will help and it fixed (a little) my client list - now it is in state you guys mentioned - it works but does not show every client. 5Ghz however still does not work. Any tips how to fix that?

 

[Grisu]

In the wifi/General I can see that it is on Current Control Channel: 0
Any tips how to fix that?

Return or RMA if possible.

 

[GuruGuy]

So I kinda fixed my problem but I also got another.
Since day one I was running dual-band with smart connect and I am sure 5Ghz network was running fine - client list was working so I saw some of them used 5Ghz. Today I turned on led icons and I noticed 5Ghz wifi was off. I tried getting it on without sucess. I disabled dual-band and set another ssid for 5Ghz - still off.
In the wifi/General I can see that it is on Current Control Channel: 0, there is also "no Wireless 5GHz MAC address" in network map and in administration/temperature I can see 5Ghz is disabled.

I noticed that there is a new beta for my router so I flashed it hoping it will help and it fixed (a little) my client list - now it is in state you guys mentioned - it works but does not show every client. 5Ghz however still does not work. Any tips how to fix that?

New beta from where

 

[Grisu]

New beta from where

Probably Merlin 384_14_beta: https://www.snbforums.com/threads/beta-asuswrt-merlin-384-14-beta-is-now-available.60037/

 

[Kazionator]

Return or RMA if possible.

Sadly not possible. As I understand this is a hardware issue?

I went back to stock to see if that helps - no - and I came back to beta. 5ghz still won't work, client list works but I can't manualy change DHCP for 3 clients... It works for others but 3 of them are stucked on deafult ip but showing it as manual on client list.
At this point I am done with asus. When I bought this router I expected reliability and stability and my experience is quite the opposite. I will be looking for another router asap.