AX88U WiFi6 Issues

[miker33]

Hi All,

Just got new iPhone 15 Pro and now my AX88U suddenly seems to lose WiFi data connection to the phone (and other devices) after a few hours\day at most. The WiFi itself remains connected at full strength but just can't access anything. This only seems to be an issue when WiFi 6 is enabled on the router, once disabled it's ok. The AX88U is the main router in a wired mesh setup with AX86S and AX5400 nodes, the WiFi continues working fine on the 2 nodes (ie if you move into that zone and connect to the node) which appear to be in WiFi 6 mode it's just the AX88U which stops working. No errors are visible that I can see at least.

Is it just me or does anyone else have issues with the WiFi6 on the AX88U?

If it's just me then looks like maybe a hard reset needed as next step but with the amount of setup\config it's a bit of a pita to reconfigure from scratch lol

Could also be the phone I guess but it seems to knock out all the 5Ghz devices when it stalls (strangely enough it's been enabled for months if not years without issue until the iPhone started to use it and the WAN speed was upped from ~45mbps to ~950mbps about the same time).

Kind Regards,
Mike

 

[drinkingbird]

Hi All,

Just got new iPhone 15 Pro and now my AX88U suddenly seems to lose WiFi data connection to the phone (and other devices) after a few hours\day at most. The WiFi itself remains connected at full strength but just can't access anything. This only seems to be an issue when WiFi 6 is enabled on the router, once disabled it's ok. The AX88U is the main router in a wired mesh setup with AX86S and AX5400 nodes, the WiFi continues working fine on the 2 nodes (ie if you move into that zone and connect to the node) which appear to be in WiFi 6 mode it's just the AX88U which stops working. No errors are visible that I can see at least.

Is it just me or does anyone else have issues with the WiFi6 on the AX88U?

If it's just me then looks like maybe a hard reset needed as next step but with the amount of setup\config it's a bit of a pita to reconfigure from scratch lol

Could also be the phone I guess but it seems to knock out all the 5Ghz devices when it stalls (strangely enough it's been enabled for months if not years without issue until the iPhone started to use it and the WAN speed was upped from ~45mbps to ~950mbps about the same time).

Kind Regards,
Mike

I believe that phone supports 160mhz channels, perhaps it is your first device using that, and when radar kicks on in the area it goes into the 10 minute scan. Do you have 160mhz enabled on the router? If so drop it to 80 and see if the problem goes away. 160mhz is more trouble than it is worth.

Nodes typically do not run at 160 which would explain why it only affects that one router.

 

[Morris]

I believe that phone supports 160mhz channels, perhaps it is your first device using that, and when radar kicks on in the area it goes into the 10 minute scan. Do you have 160mhz enabled on the router? If so drop it to 80 and see if the problem goes away. 160mhz is more trouble than it is worth.

Nodes typically do not run at 160 which would explain why it only affects that one router.

If this is what's happening, the event should be in the log. Nodes defiantly can run 160 wide. In general unless you have links faster than 1-Gb Ethernet, even with everything perfect, 160 wide will only provide 10% more throughput and at the cost of a lot of issues that you must avoid.

 

[drinkingbird]

If this is what's happening, the event should be in the log. Nodes defiantly can run 160 wide. In general unless you have links faster than 1-Gb Ethernet, even with everything perfect, 160 wide will only provide 10% more throughput and at the cost of a lot of issues that you must avoid.

According to a few here apparently when the main node drops from 160 to 80 it takes the other nodes down to 80 with it, and a 160 device won't make them go back up, so unless you have a 160 on the main all the time, the nodes run at 80. I was guessing that this person only had one 160 device, which may or may not be the case.

 

[Wadadli]

And just as a reminder; turn off Private Wi-Fi Address on the iPhone. It will gum up your DHCP.

 

[drinkingbird]

And just as a reminder; turn off Private Wi-Fi Address on the iPhone. It will gum up your DHCP.

It only uses one MAC per network. Mine is on and has never grabbed more than one IP.

 

[miker33]

Thanks for the feedback, I already disable the private MAC option as a norm. Think i'll just leave it wifi6 off, it's not messed up once since switching it off and the difference in speed isn't really going to be noticable for home use (about 850mbps wifi6 on and 550mbps with it off). It's just weird how it remains working ok on the nodes when the main router just won't let any data through the wifi6 connection (confirmed the nodes were still on wifi6 160mhz when the main node stopped working).

Will give it another go after a new FW is rolled out. Also of note is that the nodes are on latest stock Asus FW.

 

[drinkingbird]

Thanks for the feedback, I already disable the private MAC option as a norm. Think i'll just leave it wifi6 off, it's not messed up once since switching it off and the difference in speed isn't really going to be noticable for home use (about 850mbps wifi6 on and 550mbps with it off). It's just weird how it remains working ok on the nodes when the main router just won't let any data through the wifi6 connection (confirmed the nodes were still on wifi6 160mhz when the main node stopped working).

Will give it another go after a new FW is rolled out. Also of note is that the nodes are on latest stock Asus FW.

Did you try wifi6 with 160mhz and DFS disabled? Set it to 20/40/80mhz with DFS and 160 unchecked.

 

[miker33]

Thanks, didn't realise you could do 160 without DFS as it auto ticked that when enabling, will give that a go when I get some testing time which doesn't upset the family with the wifi going off and on lol

 

[drinkingbird]

Thanks, didn't realise you could do 160 without DFS as it auto ticked that when enabling, will give that a go when I get some testing time which doesn't upset the family with the wifi going off and on lol

You can't do 160 without DFS. I'm saying disable both.

 

[Ripshod]

You can't do 160 without DFS. I'm saying disable both.

I don't recall seeing the OP mention what region they're in. In the uk you certainly can.

 

[drinkingbird]

I don't recall seeing the OP mention what region they're in. In the uk you certainly can.

Hadn't heard that, if anything thought it was more restrictive there but I'm not UK wifi expert.

But why does it say "cleared for radar" if it isn't extending into DFS?

 

[Ripshod]

I believe that is fixed text, I don't recall ever seeing it change with any changes to the settings.

 

[Tech9]

36/160 does use DFS channels.

 

[Ripshod]

Maybe it does. These are my current settings.

 

[Tech9]

It uses channels 36-64 or also called channel 50.

 

[drinkingbird]

Maybe it does. These are my current settings.

Unchecking that box doesn't stop 160 from using DFS (since 160 has no choice). It may stop it from picking DFS for control channel, but not extension.

 

[Ripshod]

So it does, I stand corrected.

Makes sense now. ISM - Channel Availability Check only kicks in when the control channel is within DFS. Penny dropped.

 

[Morris]

Hadn't heard that, if anything thought it was more restrictive there but I'm not UK wifi expert.

But why does it say "cleared for radar" if it isn't extending into DFS?

If your router was on a DFS channel and this can be at 20, 40, and 80 wide and it heard Weather Radar or Aircraft Radar, it will report that it did and change channel.

 

[Wadadli]

It only uses one MAC per network. Mine is on and has never grabbed more than one IP.

I'll meet you half way on this. I have multiple APs on my network. If my iPhone switches from one AP to another, it will change MAC & pull a new ip. (on my single network)