ASUS TUF Gaming AX4200 always broadcasting WiFi, even with radio turned off

[Deleted member 91178]

Hello guys! This is driving me insane. I bought a new AX4200 and disabled all radio functionality, both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz radio.

I then realized that the router was still broadcasting a WiFi with a random name. Example: "42HCNXLDKW496M2495XRTFFN349N".

Everytime I enable the 2.4 or 5GHz WiFi this random WiFi disappears and comes back with a new random name when I disable the radio again.

I have not experienced this on any of my other ASUS routers. What is going on? A software bug in regards to Mesh functionality? I'm not using any Mesh-network functionality and the router in in the default router mode.

 

[ColinTaylor]

This has been reported before for other models. IIRC it's thought to be something to do with AiMesh support. In the following post he said he manged to solve it by turning off the "backhaul radio".

Mysterious ASUS SSID?

Hi- I'm running Asuswrt-Merlin (gnuton) 388.1 on two ZenWIFI AX aimesh units in AP mode. I have the 2.4G & 5G wireless channels running in smartconnect mode, and I'm running guest networks in 2.4G and in 5G. So when I look at available networks, I am seeing my tri-band smartconnect SSID, I'm...

www.snbforums.com

YazFi - mystery SSID keeps appearing and disappearing and changing

As one of your steps have you tried doing the reset from within the GUI and checking off "initialize variables". The other option is to do an "NVRAM Erase" from the CLI, then load the latest Asus or Merlin firmware, using recovery method and the restore tool if needed. It certainly looks like...

www.snbforums.com

EDIT:
Later on in the same thread someone said that it appeared to be a side effect of enabling WPA3 on 2.4GHz.

YazFi - mystery SSID keeps appearing and disappearing and changing

This is almost exactly how my wireless backhaul behaves, but it's hidden so I only notice it when I'm using Wifi Explorer. They all have the same 32 character SSID, but I'm quite certain it doesn't change, so I don't know what that's about. They're labeled in nvram as: wl2.5_ssid wl2_ssid...

www.snbforums.com

 

[glens]

It's on 5GHz too. It has to do with either mesh (active or not), or maybe it's something for monitoring DFS, or ...

I see it all the time on both bands from my neighbor's Eero set, occasionally from my Asus stuff (not "meshing").

 

[Amplifier]

@Ubuntu_enjoyer to add to @ColinTaylor here is another link

ASUS RT-AX59U - Unidentified Wi-Fi Network

Hi guys, Newbie here.. I have a very simple setup on my Asus RT-AX59U. A home network with WiFi + 2 x 5GHz WiFi guest networks, my 2GHz radio has been disabled. I also have a VPN configured via VPN Fusion along with a dedicated IP. I noticed in the list of available WiFi connections that there...

www.snbforums.com

Also, I used this command in Ubuntu to see which channel that mystery SSID was broadcasting from. (That is, if your username reflects your Operating System.)

nmcli dev wifi

Notes.

man nmcli

       nmcli dev wifi
           lists available Wi-Fi access points known to NetworkManager.

 

[Deleted member 91178]

This has been reported before for other models. IIRC it's thought to be something to do with AiMesh support. In the following post he said he manged to solve it by turning off the "backhaul radio".

Mysterious ASUS SSID?

Hi- I'm running Asuswrt-Merlin (gnuton) 388.1 on two ZenWIFI AX aimesh units in AP mode. I have the 2.4G & 5G wireless channels running in smartconnect mode, and I'm running guest networks in 2.4G and in 5G. So when I look at available networks, I am seeing my tri-band smartconnect SSID, I'm...

www.snbforums.com

YazFi - mystery SSID keeps appearing and disappearing and changing

As one of your steps have you tried doing the reset from within the GUI and checking off "initialize variables". The other option is to do an "NVRAM Erase" from the CLI, then load the latest Asus or Merlin firmware, using recovery method and the restore tool if needed. It certainly looks like...

www.snbforums.com

EDIT:
Later on in the same thread someone said that it appeared to be a side effect of enabling WPA3 on 2.4GHz.

YazFi - mystery SSID keeps appearing and disappearing and changing

This is almost exactly how my wireless backhaul behaves, but it's hidden so I only notice it when I'm using Wifi Explorer. They all have the same 32 character SSID, but I'm quite certain it doesn't change, so I don't know what that's about. They're labeled in nvram as: wl2.5_ssid wl2_ssid...

www.snbforums.com

I see, that's interesting! I have a few things to try there. Thank you!

 

[Deleted member 91178]

@Ubuntu_enjoyer to add to @ColinTaylor here is another link

ASUS RT-AX59U - Unidentified Wi-Fi Network

Hi guys, Newbie here.. I have a very simple setup on my Asus RT-AX59U. A home network with WiFi + 2 x 5GHz WiFi guest networks, my 2GHz radio has been disabled. I also have a VPN configured via VPN Fusion along with a dedicated IP. I noticed in the list of available WiFi connections that there...

www.snbforums.com

Also, I used this command in Ubuntu to see which channel that mystery SSID was broadcasting from. (That is, if your username reflects your Operating System.)

nmcli dev wifi

Notes.

man nmcli

       nmcli dev wifi
           lists available Wi-Fi access points known to NetworkManager.

Thank you, yes. I will check that out.