ASUS RT-AC87U 5Ghz connection issues

[giopas]

Hi all,

I think/hope I am not the only one, but I keep having significant problems using 5GHz wifi connection on my RT-AC87U with latest Merlin's FW (but also before).

In particular, even if I am really close to the router, it is very difficult to access from my phone same network resources or to surf internet on 5GHz. If I switch to 2.4GHz, the connection is almost immediately established and everything works fine.

Of course, once the connection is established, data transfer from my phone to my NAS via 5GHz is much faster than 4GHz, but since the connection is so problematic it makes me wanting to switch off 5GHz altogether.

What could be the reason for this?

Thanks,

giopas

 

[bctripster]

My 87U has always had bad 5GHz support, I almost did a return on it via Asus but didn't bother.

In the 87U's case it seemed that I could get 5GHz working by shutting off the router, waiting about 15 seconds and restarting, then it would work but like you it seemed to have issues with clients once in a while, after I mess with the router settings that required a full restart I'd lose it again, as in 5GHz network wouldn't even be live even though the light would be on and config said it should be on.

Eventually gave up on it .. I've setup an Ubiquiti AP AC Lite to handle the wifi side of things now, works much better. Still using the 87U for routing the network in general but still encountering other issues. Namely, when a VPN client needs to restart it's mistakenly routing all traffic thru it until I restart that VPN client (I have all 5 enabled to various providers/locales). Irritating to say the least.

 

[Veldkornet]

Can't really say that I've had any issues on 5Ghz for a couple of months already.

I assume you've done a hard reset since the newest drivers have been out?


Sent from my  iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[bctripster]

Can't really say that I've had any issues on 5Ghz for a couple of months already.

I assume you've done a hard reset since the newest drivers have been out?


Sent from my  iPhone using Tapatalk

You bet, reset a few times to try and fix it .. I can get it to work by shutting down and waiting a 15 seconds or so and holding my tongue the right way, may take a few resets. But I also never found it all that stable with times I'd have to disable wifi on my phone, for example, and let it reconnect to work again. Since adding the unifi not an issue, band steering works great, clients connect to the network and will switch to 5ghz when they have a strong enough signal or go to 2.4ghz when not. Seamlessly. I've also finally managed to get max internet speed from wireless during speed tests which I couldn't manage before.

I will say, I love the AsusWRT-Merlin firmware though - so I'm keeping the 87U as the router for now and just offloading the wifi to a dedicated AP that performs better. I've also offloaded some duties like DHCP to my NAS and added a proxy, also looking at moving the VPN server to the NAS as well.

 

[yorgi]

You bet, reset a few times to try and fix it .. I can get it to work by shutting down and waiting a 15 seconds or so and holding my tongue the right way, may take a few resets. But I also never found it all that stable with times I'd have to disable wifi on my phone, for example, and let it reconnect to work again. Since adding the unifi not an issue, band steering works great, clients connect to the network and will switch to 5ghz when they have a strong enough signal or go to 2.4ghz when not. Seamlessly. I've also finally managed to get max internet speed from wireless during speed tests which I couldn't manage before.

I will say, I love the AsusWRT-Merlin firmware though - so I'm keeping the 87U as the router for now and just offloading the wifi to a dedicated AP that performs better. I've also offloaded some duties like DHCP to my NAS and added a proxy, also looking at moving the VPN server to the NAS as well.

Why don't you just buy a new router all together?
I have the 87U and I have yet to see any problems with 5ghz as many people claim to have.
I use it for everything including VPN with PIA and over 12 clients on the router from 2.4ghz to 5ghz and i have to 4 TB hard drives on the routers USB and i am using .59 firmware. I have yet to see a glitch on this router. I never have to reboot.
Besides myself my brother and best buddy both have the 87U and no problems on their end either.
The only thing I can say is that either some 87U where defective and they upped the revision and whoever got the previous revision got a lemon
Did you ever call ASUS and tell them to return it? They do have a return policy on their warranty.
It doesn't make seance why you have to put another router for AP wi fi and another router for VPN
why not buy a 88u at that point.
I must say one thing and maybe this may help.
When you flash the Merlin Firmware you should do a factory reset and Unplug it from the power supply,
Leave the power button ON on the router so it can discharge the capacitors.
Then turn on the router and setup everything fresh.
Just powering off the router wont change the VRAM. you need to clear it completely from the previous Firmware.
This is a major factor when upgrading Firmware it has to be done right.
And do NOT load any previous config files, do it all from scratch.
If you do all this and you still have the same issues then return the router to ASUS even if you have to pull a fit with one of their reps
They will have to give you another one. There is no way that all the 87u's are lemons so don't give up just get them to give you another one
and also ask about revisions on the mother board. I am sure there are a few and perhaps the router you got even though it was new could have been an older router that came from a return and re packaged.

Good luck.

 

[giopas]

Thank you all for your advices. I have just did a factory reset and connection seems a bit better, but I am still experiencing some problems with 5GHz. I have bought the router 1 year ago and therefore I am not planning to spend other moneys on another one. However I am currently working in adjusting my wireless setup at home (beside this router, I have two Asus repeaters, a RP-N53 and a RP-AC56) as I could probably already get better and more stable results... Hopefully

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk

 

[yorgi]

Thank you all for your advices. I have just did a factory reset and connection seems a bit better, but I am still experiencing some problems with 5GHz. I have bought the router 1 year ago and therefore I am not planning to spend other moneys on another one. However I am currently working in adjusting my wireless setup at home (beside this router, I have two Asus repeaters, a RP-N53 and a RP-AC56) as I could probably already get better and more stable results... Hopefully

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk

Do you have problems with all 5 ghz devices?
If your 5ghz is not usable, the router is on Warranty, just call them up and they will replace it.
Don't settle for a lemon.
If your problems are with android phones or devices only then you are not alone. There is a 5ghz problem with draining of power on some devices of android.
Although I have a an nexus 6p which I just bought last week,
And I have it on the 5 ghz and its not giving me any problems at all or draining my battery.
I have a surface and an ipad on 5 ghz and they are not giving me problems.
So please let us know which devices are giving you the problem and maybe we can figure out if your router is a lemon or if its a device issue.
Don't give up and don't go the route of adding more repeaters to fix a problem that should not be there.
I for one can vouch for 3 87u that work flawlessly so don't lose hope, lets get it fixed.

 

[J0N4TH4N]

Hi

I recently became an owner of a AC88U and i experienced the problem of unstable 5Ghz connections on all firmware versions.

After googling allot i found out that the 5Ghz chip used in this device starts having performance issues when it reaches temps over 82 Celsius, so i've decided to actively cool the Unit and temps are now around the 60 Celcius and the router performs great again.

I hope this will also work with your unit.

Kind regards

 

[giopas]

Do you have problems with all 5 ghz devices?
If your 5ghz is not usable, the router is on Warranty, just call them up and they will replace it.
Don't settle for a lemon.
If your problems are with android phones or devices only then you are not alone. There is a 5ghz problem with draining of power on some devices of android.

Yes, I could only test it on an Android device (oneplus one), I don't know if my other iPhone 5 supports 5GHz..

I will test it..

I haven't test if this is due to heating problems..

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk

 

[MarioCaires]

If your problems are with android phones or devices only then you are not alone. There is a 5ghz problem with draining of power on some devices of android.
Although I have a an nexus 6p which I just bought last week,
And I have it on the 5 ghz and its not giving me any problems at all or draining my battery.

The battery drain bug was fixed on latest QTN drivers released a few weeks ago!

 

[yorgi]

It maybe fixed for .60 but I am still on .59 and I have no problems with the Android on 5 ghz which is at 54 C atm
My cpu is 82 C is that too hot?

 

[yorgi]

Yes, I could only test it on an Android device (oneplus one), I don't know if my other iPhone 5 supports 5GHz..

I will test it..

I haven't test if this is due to heating problems..

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk

When you check in Administrating/Performance tuning what temp reading do you get for your 5ghz?
Mine reads 54 C my apartment temp is at 27 C which is hot.
so if you are getting a lot higher temps then this on a 87U then you should get it checked. Maybe the heat sync is not making good contact.
I have seen some pictures where the heat syncs where literally out of the CPU.
So get that checked.

 

[giopas]

This is what I get:

Legend: 2.4 GHz - 5 GHz - CPU
Current Temperatures: 46 °C - 69 °C - 77 °C

 

[yorgi]

This is what I get:

Legend: 2.4 GHz - 5 GHz - CPU
Current Temperatures: 46 °C - 69 °C - 77 °C

54 to 69 is a big difference. We are getting a very hot summer here and my router is sticking to 54 C
so maybe your routers heat syncs is not mounted properly.
I have seen pictures of 87 u where the heat sync is almost completely off.
it is normal if something over heats, that it wont function correctly.
The problem is not the 5ghz. get it checked out

 

[ChocolateGiddyUp]

I know this is an old thread, but I wanted to post something that I figured out with my router, and this thread comes up when you google search this issue. I have the same one. It worked great at my old house, then I moved, and all of the sudden constant 5ghz issues.
After days and days of messing with it I realized something. At my new house, I have a subwoofer in the same room as my Router. I noticed when I hooked up the home theater subwoofer, that it was occasionally making a "helicopter" noise. All my research for that lead me to believe that there's a ground fault somewhere, or some other hardware issue in the powered sub.
After messing with the router settings for the 40th time, I realized that I had the 5hgz set to run at 80hz. Which is all well and good. Nice and far away from the 20hz I set the 2.4 at. HOWEVER.... it sudden hit me... I also set my powered sub frequency to 80hz. because that's when my satellite speakers cut out.
The router and the sub are fairly closet to each other at my new house. So, to test, I got the sub to start making the "helicopter" sound again. I could get it to come and go depending on how I placed it in the room. Even just a couple of inches made a difference. What I immediately noticed is... the "helicopter" sound went away as soon as I killed the router. So... I bumped the sub frequency to around 100hz. It's not as clean on the home theater, but it still sounds fine for me.
Low and behold... my router has been up with no issues for 2 days now.

I would suggest... if you are having issues with the 5hgz on this router.... make sure that you don't have anything else nearby that is causing interference. I may still have an issue with the sub. It's entirely possible. But so far, so good.

 

[TRS_80]

I know this is an old thread, but I wanted to post something that I figured out with my router, and this thread comes up when you google search this issue. I have the same one. It worked great at my old house, then I moved, and all of the sudden constant 5ghz issues.
After days and days of messing with it I realized something. At my new house, I have a subwoofer in the same room as my Router. I noticed when I hooked up the home theater subwoofer, that it was occasionally making a "helicopter" noise. All my research for that lead me to believe that there's a ground fault somewhere, or some other hardware issue in the powered sub.
After messing with the router settings for the 40th time, I realized that I had the 5hgz set to run at 80hz. Which is all well and good. Nice and far away from the 20hz I set the 2.4 at. HOWEVER.... it sudden hit me... I also set my powered sub frequency to 80hz. because that's when my satellite speakers cut out.
The router and the sub are fairly closet to each other at my new house. So, to test, I got the sub to start making the "helicopter" sound again. I could get it to come and go depending on how I placed it in the room. Even just a couple of inches made a difference. What I immediately noticed is... the "helicopter" sound went away as soon as I killed the router. So... I bumped the sub frequency to around 100hz. It's not as clean on the home theater, but it still sounds fine for me.
Low and behold... my router has been up with no issues for 2 days now.

I would suggest... if you are having issues with the 5hgz on this router.... make sure that you don't have anything else nearby that is causing interference. I may still have an issue with the sub. It's entirely possible. But so far, so good.

You may have just saved me RMAing my 87U!!!!! Moved it away from my sub /speakers and so far no drops.