Asus XT8 LAN 3 problem

[T816B]

Hi,

I have 4 units of XT8 at home. 1 unit (Main Unit) is used as the router connected to the modem via WAN port. The other 3 units are connected to the Main Unit via LAN ports (wired) as AiMesh.

My issue is, whichever unit is connected to the LAN Port 3 (third LAN port) of Main Unit will not be able to have wired backhaul. The blue light will keep blinking and not able to connect to internet. If I pull the cable off from LAN Port 3, the AiMesh will work but via wireless.

I have swapped the units, reboot, reset and etc. The problem remains the same.

Any suggestion please?

 

[tgl]

Dead port, evidently. Easy fix is to swap your main unit with one of the nodes that doesn't need all its ports working.

 

[T816B]

Dead port, evidently. Easy fix is to swap your main unit with one of the nodes that doesn't need all its ports working.

I tried. It is the same, exactly on LAN Port 3 too.

 

[tgl]

All of them? That's bizarre.

Which hardware generation are these, v1 or v2? (I believe the model-and-serial-number stickers on the bottom will tell you.) Which firmware version are you running?

 

[T816B]

Thanks. I am not at home now. Will revert with the serial numbers when back in home.

Firmware is 3.0.0.4.388_22525-gd35b8fe

 

[tgl]

Hmm ... there are different versions of 388.22525 for v1 and v2 XT8, so I was kind of wondering if you could have the wrong version installed and that was leading to it not knowing how to drive the LAN 3 port. But I just downloaded those two files to check, and they don't even have the same filename extension after unzipping:

$ unzip -t FW_ZENWIFI_XT8_300438822525.zip
Archive: FW_ZENWIFI_XT8_300438822525.zip
testing: FW_ZENWIFI_XT8_300438822525.w OK
No errors detected in compressed data of FW_ZENWIFI_XT8_300438822525.zip.
$ unzip -t FW_ZENWIFI_XT8_V2_300438822525..zip
Archive: FW_ZENWIFI_XT8_V2_300438822525..zip
testing: FW_XT8_V2_300438822525.pkgtb OK
No errors detected in compressed data of FW_ZENWIFI_XT8_V2_300438822525..zip.

So it seems unlikely that you could even have persuaded the units to load the wrong version.

Nonetheless, if all four are behaving the same then that sounds more like a firmware problem than anything else, unless you managed to fry all four units' LAN 3 ports while testing . Maybe it'd be worth trying a different firmware revision.

Or actually ... if we think in terms of "where is the single point of failure that would explain this?" ... maybe it's not the ports at all. Are you doing all these tests with the same cable leading to the main unit's LAN 3 port? Try a different cable. Or plug something other than one of the ASUS nodes into LAN 3, and see if it lights up a good connection.

 

[T816B]

Sorry for late reply. Was busy at work.


Or actually ... if we think in terms of "where is the single point of failure that would explain this?" ... maybe it's not the ports at all. Are you doing all these tests with the same cable leading to the main unit's LAN 3 port? Try a different cable.

I have tried using different cables into LAN 3 Port. The same cable works for LAN 1 & 2, just not not LAN 3.

Or plug something other than one of the ASUS nodes into LAN 3, and see if it lights up a good connection.

I am yet to try this. Let me find a laptop that has ethernet port tonight.


How can I upload a different firmware onto the XT8?

 

[tgl]

How can I upload a different firmware onto the XT8?

Download a compatible firmware file from ASUS' support page, and unzip it. Visit the Administration/Firmware Upgrade page in the router's GUI, click the manual "upload" button, select the file you want to upload. If you have a version that knows about automatic firmware upgrades, make sure that's turned off, or your work might get undone.

 

[T816B]

Thank you. I will check whether mine is V1 or V2 later.

Will update here on the progress.

 

[tgl]

Oh, I forgot to mention an important detail: make sure you have full records of the non-default configuration options you use. You might find yourself needing to do a factory reset and reconfigure-from-scratch, particularly after a downgrade: the older firmware version might not understand the configuration data left behind by the newer one. By the same token, don't assume reloading a saved configuration file will work; you might well have to re-enter things by hand. Be prepared.

 

[T816B]

All my settings are by default. Consider lucky on this part.

 

[T816B]

Hi, here are some updates. Mine is XT8 V1.

Before I started to upload the firmware, I plugged a laptop into LAN 3 of:

Asus Router - no connection
Asus Node - works well

This really puzzles me because when the Asus Node unit was used as Router, the LAN 3 didn't work as well.


After that, I did 4 firmware upload (only on Asus Router):

ASUS ZenWiFi XT8 Firmware version 3.0.0.4.388.22525
ASUS ZenWiFi AX XT8 Firmware version 3.0.0.4.388.22068
ASUS ZenWiFi XT8 Firmware version 9.0.0.4.386.46980
ASUS ZenWifi_XT8 Firmware version 3.0.0.4.386.45934

The LAN 3 no connection problem persists.

 

[Smokey613]

I know the later XT8 firmware support wired backhaul whereas originally the ZenWiFi units had very poor or non existent support for wired backhaul. I have found that on my XT8 v1 units, even with latest firmware, wireless backhaul still works the best.

Your other option would be to try an unmanaged cheap switch like a TP-Link on port 1 and connect your other units to the switch.

 

[T816B]

I know the later XT8 firmware support wired backhaul whereas originally the ZenWiFi units had very poor or non existent support for wired backhaul. I have found that on my XT8 v1 units, even with latest firmware, wireless backhaul still works the best.

Your other option would be to try an unmanaged cheap switch like a TP-Link on port 1 and connect your other units to the switch.

The wireless backhaul of XT8 works fine so far. It is just me that would feel wired backhaul is more stable and faster.

I will consider getting a switch too if that works.

My last resort will be 2 nodes using wired backhaul and 1 node using wireless backhaul.

 

[tgl]

Cheap switch sounds like good solution. Don't worry about losing performance because you're not exploiting all the main node's LAN ports --- testing that I did a year ago showed that the v1 XT8s have only about 1Gbps total bandwidth available to all the LAN ports anyway.

 

[T816B]

Tha

Cheap switch sounds like good solution. Don't worry about losing performance because you're not exploiting all the main node's LAN ports --- testing that I did a year ago showed that the v1 XT8s have only about 1Gbps total bandwidth available to all the LAN ports anyway.

Once again, thanks for your input.

Good finding about total 3 LAN ports are only kept at 1Gbps.