AX88U loses Internet connection every couple of weeks

[cap33444]

I have ASUS UX6000 RT-AX88U since March 2020, horrible experience overall (only my satellite AE-N66 was worse)... 3 months in, the device could not connect to the internet with more than 15 MBs download (I have 300 MBs) service, device went back under warrantee for replacement - 6 weeks w/o router (obviously that forced me to buy a stand in).

Over the past 4 months (at least) I've been dealing with intermittent loss of Internet service... INET LED is red, local LAN service is fine. Cable modem is fine.

Reboot of device clears the problem. I can't find anything useful in the log to point to a cause.

With people working from home, this is unacceptable. Frankly, I'm ready to pitch the thing, chalk it up to a $300 loss and go something dependable (suggestions). I have a UniFI WAP that is flawless and a Tenda router than was the stand-in, now used as a WAP - less functions, but was OK as a temp router. I would go for a mesh network, but these two would likely be wasted. Have to look into what Unifi offers i the router world... One nice feature of the ASUS was the number of wired ports - which I use 5 - most vendors only have 4.

I'm going to upgrade firmware tonight to latest version and cross my fingers. Already doing scheduled reboots on Sat & Sunday at 4 am.... would do that everyday, but afraid I'd be interrupting scheduled cloud backups.

Any suggestions would be welcomed... attaching log for most recent 5/12/21 about 10:15 am EDT

 

[Kaver163]

would it be possible to set your AX88 to run in access point mode instead of router mode? If so you might try that, in my AX86U setup that works, while using router mode (in a double NAT setup) the internet connection is not stable.

 

[SoCalReviews]

I'm not sure if this will make any difference with your particular problem but you could try it... Under WAN > Internet Connection... try setting DHCP Query Frequency to Normal Mode.

You could try the latest firmware and do a full hard factory reset. You could also try Merlin firmware also with a reset. However it's not officially supported by Asus support.

 

[cap33444]

Thanks, That's my current setting... I don't think I'd experiment with non-support firmware w/o a reasonable out... what's the potential for bricking the router trying 3rd party firmware?

 

[cap33444]

would it be possible to set your AX88 to run in access point mode instead of router mode? If so you might try that, in my AX86U setup that works, while using router mode (in a double NAT setup) the internet connection is not stable.

Well possible, but that would be a waste of a $300 router. Yes, I could swap back the Tenda as the router and use the AX88 as a WAP, but there's a lot of capabilities I'd be giving up - starting with WPA3, plus having to go back to an intermediate hub to handle the additional wired ports the Tenda can't support. An option... but not something I'm enamored with. Going to have to see how often this occurs... if it was daily, the thing would be flying out the window!

 

[Kaver163]

@cap33444 I have been going back and forth between Asus and Merlin firmware on my AX86U using router mode a lot of times with full resets trying to get my internet connection stable using many types of settings (including DHCP normal and continuous modes) but with no luck.

If I connect a Chromecast Ultra wirelessly to my AX86U in router mode it will in my then double NAT setup (which I can’t avoid) kill my internet connection immediately (also tried many wireless settings to avoid this from happening, again with no luck) while the internet connection otherwise can work for days before suddenly stopping (unless I stress it with e.g. 4K UHD Blu-ray LAN streaming which can also after some hours kill my internet connection). In WAP mode I found out that the Chromecast connected wirelessly does not affect my internet connection at all.

Yes you’re giving up on capabilities in WAP mode, but the wireless speed is at least still very good and I got like you very tired of spending time on getting a stable internet connection for especially working from home including avoiding losing internet calls. With the latest official 386.42840 firmware for my AX86U in WAP mode it is in my setup rock stable, hopefully future firmwares will improve on the internet issues in router mode in certain setups.

 

[Neil Smith]

Sorry to jump in on this. Whats the defualt IP of this router? 50.1 or 1.1?

 

[SoCalReviews]

Thanks, That's my current setting... I don't think I'd experiment with non-support firmware w/o a reasonable out... what's the potential for bricking the router trying 3rd party firmware?

Merlin firmware has the same base code and familiar interface as official Asus firmware but with some modifications and extra features added on. It is a nice third party firmware option to try if you want but obviously using it is more of a preference than a necessity. Merlin himself is a member of this forum and is often available for suggestions if you need them. It's known to be one of the most stable third party firmwares available for Asus routers. Most users don't have problems with it which is why it's utilized by so many Asus router owners. Realize that there is always a potential for bricking a router when upgrading your router with any firmware including stock firmware if you don't follow recommended firmware updating procedures carefully. If you follow procedures with any upgrade you should be fine.

 

[Kanji-San]

...
Over the past 4 months (at least) I've been dealing with intermittent loss of Internet service... INET LED is red, local LAN service is fine. Cable modem is fine.

Reboot of device clears the problem. I can't find anything useful in the log to point to a cause.

...

I have exactly the same problem with my RT-AX88U of losing the WAN connection intermittently. Only a reboot of the router resolves this. However, my router worked flawlessly from August 2020 until a month ago when my ISP upgraded me to gigabit service. Then these intermittent drops started to happen usually in an interval of hours to up to five days.

I used Merlin 384.19 for months and have never experienced these WAN drops before. I kept the same firmware during the gigabit upgrade therefore I attributed the WAN drops to something my ISP did. After lots of debugging together with my ISP, I found out that my router is really the culprit.

I upgraded to Merlin 386.2_4 which still exhibits these drops of Internet connectivity. I have not tried the latest Asus firmware versions 3.0.0.4.386.42819 which explicitly mentions WAN fixes or 3.0.0.4.386.42820. I will try this next.

I can highly recommend this script that checks for Internet connectivity and if needed reboots the router. I think you need to be on custom (Merlin) firmware in order to use it.

Did your warrantee replacement improve or change the situation in any way?
What kind of Internet service do you have? Automatic IP?

Can you message me so we can talk offline and maybe find a way to fix this?

 

[cap33444]

I set my router to reboot every night at 3 am, so far, that has appeared to reduce the issue and didn't seem to cause problems to my overnight cloud backups. I'm going to stay with the ASUS firmware for now Firmware Version:3.0.0.4.386_42820

 

[Kanji-San]

I set my router to reboot every night at 3 am, so far, that has appeared to reduce the issue and didn't seem to cause problems to my overnight cloud backups. I'm going to stay with the ASUS firmware for now Firmware Version:3.0.0.4.386_42820

In the meantime I replaced my AX88 with an AX86 and so far everything seems to be stable. The only conclusion I can draw is that there is something wrong with the AX88 under certain conditions. I don't believe my AX88 suddenly developed a defect but rather that there is a systematic problem. I cannot say if this is firmware or hardware related.

 

[Talmon]

I have the same issue with my AX88. I just had Cox replace the modem and same problem. I did find a few interesting things:

1. Changing the DNS allowed the router to reconnect without a reboot.
2. When the router says 'Internet Disconnected' the connection is still up. How do i know? My wife and I WFH and both have VPN connections. These VPN connections stay up when this happens, but smart devices, phones, and anything that doesn't have an established connection fails.

This all being said, I wonder if the router is getting something from DNS or the ISP's DHCP that is causing the router to freak.