AX86U 100/100 Fios WAN does not connect with 386.1_2

[bbunge]

My ONT for Fios. Interent and Phone, is located outside the house. The CL tech split the CAT5e cable from the inside to the ONT and used 2 pair for internet and two pair for phone. My prior AC66U_B1 and AC86U routers connected successfully and I had a 100 Meg connection to the router.
Started the new AX86U with factory installed firmware with no issues. WAN connected to the Fios.
Flashed Merlin 386.1_2 and the WAN did not connect. Flashed back to Asus Beta 386.41994 and the WAN connects.
Back to Merlin 386.1_2 and no WAN connection.
I installed an unmanaged GIG switch between the AX86U and the ONT and I got a connection.
I know Asus routers can be picky about cables. But the 100 Meg Ethernet only uses 2 pair of the wires in the cable and it worked before. So, why is this router under Merlin causing issues? I can add a second cable to the ONT and I know there is a UTP connector in the box for internet and phone but I'll have to call the ISP to have a tech unlock the box. Would like a firmware fix for this if possible.

 

[jpthsd]

My ONT for Fios. Interent and Phone, is located outside the house. The CL tech split the CAT5e cable from the inside to the ONT and used 2 pair for internet and two pair for phone. My prior AC66U_B1 and AC86U routers connected successfully and I had a 100 Meg connection to the router.
Started the new AX86U with factory installed firmware with no issues. WAN connected to the Fios.
Flashed Merlin 386.1_2 and the WAN did not connect. Flashed back to Asus Beta 386.41994 and the WAN connects.
Back to Merlin 386.1_2 and no WAN connection.
I installed an unmanaged GIG switch between the AX86U and the ONT and I got a connection.
I know Asus routers can be picky about cables. But the 100 Meg Ethernet only uses 2 pair of the wires in the cable and it worked before. So, why is this router under Merlin causing issues? I can add a second cable to the ONT and I know there is a UTP connector in the box for internet and phone but I'll have to call the ISP to have a tech unlock the box. Would like a firmware fix for this if possible.

That doesn't sound like peripheral issue rather than the software. You tested and already proved it right?

Yeah something odd with recent 386.1 & (maybe) 386.1_2 as you experienced. My case was AX86U AiMesh router , AC86U AiMesh node, both were on 386.1. The AC86U AiMesh node kept buffering Wifi devices at least 5 times a day or many more., AiMesh node sometimes rebooted itself. Additionally, some changes in AX86U such adding roaming client MAC caused the AX86U reboot itself.

I installed latest AsusWRT official release (not beta) for AX86U and AC86U and re-established my AiMesh network, it's been solid stable, no buffering, no reboot. As being said, the current AsusWRT fw is pretty stable unless you wanted some other features offered by Merlin not in AsusWRT fw ...Good luck!

I have no special need to use Merlin fw at this time such VPN other add-ons so I am staying off Merlin fws a few version and would come back since I like monitoring/logging capabilities from Merlin fws offered rather than AsuWRT fw.

 

[ckennylin]

Interesting - I've been experiencing similar WAN / DHCP issues with a AC68U and Fios running 386.1_2, WAN connection seem to be unstable and intermittent. When I add a router in-between the AC68U and the ONT's RJ45 (happened to be an old Actiontec Fios router) and make the AC68U the DMZ, the connection seem stable. I didn't consider using a switch in-between but am somewhat surprised this works.

I have 2 other sites, AC68U and AX88U to ONT running latest stock Asus, no problems.

This was fine with 384.19, so I'll either have to reflash 386.1_2 to the latest stock or roll back to 384.19. I'm finding out the hard way that rolling back to 384.19 messes up the admin password so that router needs to be reset and reconfigured.

My home and my neighbor are both also using an AC68U running 386.1_2 but are Double NATed since the ONT is going to a Quantum Gateway via Coax, so we don't see the problem at all. Only if the Asus DDNS client works properly with a private WAN address.....

In short, on Merlin 386.1_x, there seem to be an adverse interaction between the WAN port and the RJ45 on a Fios ONT.

 

[ckennylin]

...The CL tech split the CAT5e cable from the inside to the ONT and used 2 pair for internet and two pair for phone.

Wha? The ONT has a separate RJ45 jack for GbE and RJ11 jack for voice. You will need all 4 pairs to go beyond 100Mbps, so I would definitely have that redone so that voice and data are on separate physical cables.

 

[bbunge]

Wha? The ONT has a separate RJ45 jack for GbE and RJ11 jack for voice. You will need all 4 pairs to go beyond 100Mbps, so I would definitely have that redone so that voice and data are on separate physical cables.

Actually my FIOS is 100/100 so the single cable with phone and Ethernet works. Splitting the cable is an old trick that I have used for years to get two connections when there is only one 4 pair UTP cable. And the AX86U works this way with Asus firmware!
Does not work with Merlin 386.1_2 and I was hoping to get some resolution to this from the dev. Nothing?

 

[ckennylin]

Actually my FIOS is 100/100 so the single cable with phone and Ethernet works. Splitting the cable is an old trick that I have used for years to get two connections when there is only one 4 pair UTP cable.

You may be leaving some speed on the table. I had 50/50 that Verizon bumped up to 75/75 then to 100/100 and when I run Speed Test, I get a bit more than that!

I support 4 sites for a local nonprofit and recently got Fios installed at all sites. All were supposed to be 200/200 but one site got 300/300 when I ran a speed test from the router!!!

I wouldn't give @RMerlin a hard time on this since many of these problems are impossible to recreate given such a wide variation in each of our networks and our WAN technology / providers. This one bugged me for most of this week since Verizon saw no problems up to the ONT and there were old posts on Asus's DHCP WAN settings (Aggressive [default], Normal, Continuous) that could possibly make a difference, and my diagnostic process on this was less-than scientific, trying to blame Fios (of course!) when the real problem is the router and possibly the latest release of Merlin - it had been stable with 384.19. It is good that we now have a data point for the same problem on a different router model so hopefully it will lead to an eventual fix.

These are the risks we take by not running stock firmware!

 

[ckennylin]

Just another symptom - Once I reflash from 386.1_2 back to the latest stock this intermittency will still happen, it seems to be fixed after a hard reset. For sanity sake, I'll reflash back to 384.19 and do another hard reset - that seems to be stable right now.

 

[bbunge]

Fixed my problem and am back on Merlin 386.1_2. Ran a new CAT5 cable from the router to the ONT. Router now shows 1 GIG connection to the ONT and speed test shows over 100 Mbps up and down with bufferbloat A+. Net improvement of about 10%. Happy camper for now.