Asus RT-AX88U Pro - problem with mobile devices except laptops

[vidfamme]

My basic situation is the following:
- a brand new Asus RT-AX88U Pro router
- my internet connection is 1 Gbit by contract, my router measures 900+ Mbit up and download
- on my intranet there are only 1 Gbit switches
- all my computers (wired or wireless) can download at 500+ Mbit on a wired or a 5 Ghz wireless network (got abt 20 on the network) / the wired ones download speed is close to 1 Gbit

Now comes the hard part:
- all my android and apple phone devices (and one android tablet) are stuck at between 0.3-2 Mbit download speeds, actually those connections are so slow they struggle to download a single picture in FB or messenger application
- the problem persists on a 5GHz and 2.4 GHz network also

Other possible issues which I have already tried and not worked:
- I have an AiMesh network set up, with 3x Lyra Mini devices, all hardwired. The problem persists even if I remove them from the network - all my computers are working just fine, but none of my phone or tablet devices are
- I tried enabling and disabling wifi 6, makes no differences.
- I disabled 5 GHz and used solely the 2.4 Ghz, not working
- I disabled 2.4 GHz and used only 5 Ghz, not working (the 2.4 and 5 Ghz wireless networks are not using the smartconnect features, they are separated in two distinct networks)
- I have tried different devices, old, new, different android and iphone devices, the issue remains on all of them
- configured a guest wifi network, same issue after connecting thru that for mobile phones
- signal strength is excellent, I basically stand right near the router (or any of the Lyra Mini's)
- the problem existed from the start, with stock firmware, then is still present with newest asus firmware then with newest asus wrt merlin firmware (now running on newest Asuswrt-Merlin - 388.3)
- I have tried all different scenarios on 2.4 GHz 20, 40 or 20/40 MHz, all different channels from auto select to manually forced 1 thru 13, none of the helped
- I have tried all different scenarios on 5 GHz 20, 40, 80,160 or 20/40/80/160 MHz, all different channels from auto select to manually forced 36 thru 140, none of the helped
- no other 5 GHz network in my area to cause interference
- only a few other 2.4 GHz network around me, nothing too invasive
- the problem persists with adaptive QoS on or off - now it's off
- I have tried AiProtection on/off didn't make any difference, now is ON tho
- parental controls for web & app filters were never in use
- I did reset one mobile phone's network settings totally, didn't help
- I had the chance to use a brand new out of box Samsung mobile phone to set up on the network, the same issue
- i tried on a Sunday, with nobody around, just a single wireless device connected, with the Lyra Mini devices turned off - worked on the laptop, not working on the phone

- I have added a TP-Link router, hardwired to the AX88U router, created a subnet - my download speeds on the mobile phone devices are good (80-90 MBit on 2.4 GHz network)!!!

So I am here, and slowly going insane. I have no clue where to look, but I would like to have a working internet on the mobile phones in my network, can anyone help where to look further?

Thank you in advance.

PS: I had no issues like this whatsoever with Asus AC88U, I decided to upgrade for security and safety reasons, AC88U was 5+ years old already.

 

[vidfamme]

I know patience is a virtue, yet I got no response in a week.
In the meantime I installed the oldest firmware I got, so now I'm running in 3.0.0.4.388_23110 and it's still the same issue.

Does it help if I post some screenshots from my Wireless settinss Professional tab? I have disabled almost everything there, one by one, and nothing seems to help...

 

[bbunge]

I know patience is a virtue, yet I got no response in a week.
In the meantime I installed the oldest firmware I got, so now I'm running in 3.0.0.4.388_23110 and it's still the same issue.

Does it help if I post some screenshots from my Wireless settinss Professional tab? I have disabled almost everything there, one by one, and nothing seems to help...

Sorry but I missed your post.
You have done a reset and initialize after switching firmware? It is possible that the Lyra nodes are slowing things down. I believe they are WIFI 5 and may restrict the performance of the main router. That happened to me when I ran an AC66U_B1 with an AX rouuter. One recommendation is to use the WIFI defaults including SmartConnect. Then again you could have a defective router.

 

[vidfamme]

Thank you for your reply.

I did not reset the router after switching firmware, it takes some time to re set everything, but will do it later this afternoon, when most of our devices are not in use.
In most of the threads I have read, I have seen it a lot the advice: "Stop reseting your router" so I have avoided this step.
After reset, I plan to not add any Lyra to the network before I will test it on mobile phones, but currently it does not work at all on any type of mobile phone of tabelt which is really weird.
On laptops (new and older ones) it still works, still get 500+ Mbit up/down on 5GHz and around 70-80 Mbit on 2.4GHz which are fair values I guess.
I have avoided using the SmartConnect, my old router (AC88U) did not performed well with that enabled.

In worst case I will put back my old router, until I/We can figure it out what is happening.

Thank you again for your help, I will keep posting what I'll experience.

 

[Kingp1n]

What modem are you using? Might to power it off for about 1 minute.

At this point....is best to start new and reset the router. The AX11000 Pro is a powerful router and you may not need the Lyras connected at all. You can try the latest stock fw or asus-wrt merlin fw.

Once you reset and setup the router (do not backup from old file), also do not setup Smart Connect, and do not change too may settings at 1st and test your connection. Connect phones/nest devices etc... to the 2.4ghz, Streaming devices to 5.1ghz and gaming devices to 5.2ghz as an example.

If you continue to have issues with a default setup...you might have a defective unit.

Try disabling only these options (very minimal)

Definitive WiFi Settings

Have searched and can't find anything definitive. Can we agree the 'best' settings for 2.4/5-1/5-2 for 'General' and 'Professional' tabs and then make the result a sticky post at the top of the forum.

www.snbforums.com

Definitive WiFi Settings

Have searched and can't find anything definitive. Can we agree the 'best' settings for 2.4/5-1/5-2 for 'General' and 'Professional' tabs and then make the result a sticky post at the top of the forum.

www.snbforums.com

 

[L&LD]

The problem may be the router itself (you may need to exchange/RMA it).

I don't see posts saying repeatedly to not reset the router to factory defaults. Do you mean 'reboot' here?

The following link will quickly let you know if the new router has issues. If so, simply return/exchange it.

Nuclear Reset https://www.snbforums.com/threads/major-issues-w-rt-ac86u.56342/page-4#post-495710


Don't do any advanced configuration. Don't add any nodes. Simply test the router on its own for an extended period on the latest firmware and make a decision then if the hardware or your combination of settings is causing or contributing to the issues you're facing.

 

[OzarkEdge]

I did not reset the router after switching firmware

The Reset/Hard Reset is for the installed firmware, not the hardware. Install the firmware, Hard Reset it, and configure it minimally from scratch to commission the router/network. Then you can proceed to troubleshoot the actual issue, not firmware comissioning glitches. Removing nodes to automatically Reset them before adding them back to the Hard Reset router is sufficient.

FW Reset FAQ

Reset button/webUI Restore/node removal - clears settings in NVRAM; reboot restores fw defaults from CFE

Hard Reset via WPS button/webUI Restore+Initialize - also clears data logged in /jffs partition

OE

 

[vidfamme]

So here we are:
- reset the router simply from the GUI (Advanced Settings \ Restore/Save/Upload Settings \ Factory Default - Restore)
- reconfigured all the basics I needed for testing (WAN + LAN + Wireless connection, WiFi is using SmartConnect now, brand new network name and brand new password)
- added 1 VPN user for trying VPN access

Until now everything worked correctly.

This is where I have made a mistake, I tried to speed things up, and something has gone wrong - I added DHCP reserved IP-s in bulk, like 5 a time, and also I added multiple VPn users before hitting "Apply" - and I have lost connection to the WiFi network, got the "Limited connection" with no internet access.

So I have reset the router again (it's much faster to set up everything after at the 12th time in 3 weeks), made the same steps as I have written before, then after every step I pressed the Apply button, and then tried when will I loose WiFi again, but nothing happend...

So I haved saved my working setting .cfg file, and started adding the Lyras. Thx for the tip K1ngpin, but I do need my Lyras up and running, I need to cover a wide area in an old building with thick walls.

Adding the Lyras on by one, and now I have my whole network up and running at awsome speeds (tested on two laptops and two phones, don't have any other at this time). Unfortunetly I still have no idea what has gone wrong at first place...

Yet I do have realised where I made the mistake, I should have reseted the router at the first signs of problems, but I have trusted to much the router's default settings as it came out of the box.
One more thing I have learned is that I can trust the Lyras compatibility with the AX88U Pro, they work well - at least after 1 hour the setup.

So thank you everyone with all your help!

PS: another big problem what I had before and did not mentioned it here, yet I managed to solve bnefore, is that over the VPN connection I had really slow yet fixed 350 kbps speed when copying a file - this was solved by enabling "Extend the TTL value" at Advanced settigns \ WAN \ Special Requirement from ISP - I hope this will help someone else at one time somewhere

 

[vidfamme]

The Reset/Hard Reset is for the installed firmware, not the hardware. Install the firmware, Hard Reset it, and configure it minimally from scratch to commission the router/network. Then you can proceed to troubleshoot the actual issue, not firmware comissioning glitches.

FW Reset FAQ

Reset button/webUI Restore/node removal - clears settings in NVRAM; reboot restores fw defaults from CFE

Hard Reset via WPS button/webUI Restore+Initialize - also clears data logged in /jffs partition

OE

Thank you again everyone for the all the help. I will leave it like this for a few days, and if everything works then I'll upgrade the firmware to the newest Asuswrt-Merlin.

 

[Kingp1n]

I'll be honest with u...I've never messed around with the "Extend the TTL value" settings before but I'm glad all is working out for you.

 

[vidfamme]

Just the latest update, as I have promised before: everything is in order, everything is working fine, now running on Merlin 3004.388.4
Thank you all again!