Can't SSH from Windows 10, but can from other machines

[mundodisco8]

Hi!

I was running 380.59 in a RT-AC56U happily for years until yesterday, when I realised that I couldn't SSH into the router. Thinking that I messed up a config somewhere, I did a factory reset and installed the latest stable (380.69), and found out that still couldn't connect. I activated the WAN access and could connect with putty once with the public IP address, but it only worked once. I tried with an ssh client for android phones and could connect without an issue. I don't see any errors in the log, and I have played with the different SSH settings, but couldn't find a combination that worked.

Has somebody had something similar in the past? ssh is too short to search for it in the search bar :S

Regards!

 

[skeal]

Hi!

I was running 380.59 in a RT-AC56U happily for years until yesterday, when I realised that I couldn't SSH into the router. Thinking that I messed up a config somewhere, I did a factory reset and installed the latest stable (380.69), and found out that still couldn't connect. I activated the WAN access and could connect with putty once with the public IP address, but it only worked once. I tried with an ssh client for android phones and could connect without an issue. I don't see any errors in the log, and I have played with the different SSH settings, but couldn't find a combination that worked.

Has somebody had something similar in the past? ssh is too short to search for it in the search bar :S

Regards!

You should use Xshell for ssh on a windows box imho!

 

[DonnyJohnny]

Using SSH Wan is high risk... lots of port scanner and bruteforce Attack out there... please make sure u use only authorised key to access.

 

[mundodisco8]

Using SSH Wan is high risk... lots of port scanner and bruteforce Attack out there... please make sure u use only authorised key to access.

Thanks for the advice, I know, and it was only set on WAN to test it. It's normally running in LAN only, and with an SSH key.

You should use Xshell for ssh on a windows box imho!

Thanks for the tip, but I don't see how changing my client would affect the behaviour. Is not like putty is an unknown piece of software. And it was working before, for years. I wonder why it doesn't work know. I also tried with the new ssh client in windows 10, but didn't work either. Just to reiterate, I can connect to other machines with my Windows 10 computer, and I can connect to the router from other machines. The only thing I can't do is connect to the router with my windows 10 machine, the connection times out (except on that odd case where ssh-ing to the public IP worked, but it only worked once). Also, a complete firmware reset and upgrade didn't help, so my main suspect is the windows computer. I know this is not a W10 support forum, but if somebody has an idea about why it might be timing out, I would appreciate it.

 

[ColinTaylor]

The only thing I can think of is to turn on the logging of all packets on the router and also turn off the Windows firewall (and any other security software) and try connecting again. See if there's something in the logs that might give you a clue. You could also turn on logging of SSH packets and raw data in PuTTY.

The recent versions of the firmware have a "protection server" which runs all the time and protects again repeated Telnet and SSH attempts, but I can't see how that would effect you.

 

[martinr]

I’ve just successfully tried it from a remote location on my Windows 10 laptop using XShell and Putty.

I turned on Putty logging for you (set to printable version). Here’s my output:

=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~= PuTTY log 2018.02.07 10:43:22 =~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=
Using username "deleted for security".
Authenticating with public key "rsa-key-20140622"
Passphrase for key "rsa-key-20140622":


ASUSWRT-Merlin RT-AC68U 380.68-4 Wed Oct 4 19:01:14 UTC 2017
deleted for security@RT-AC68U-C760:/tmp/home/root#



So I suggest you turn on Putty logging and then see if the log tells which brick wall it hit.

(And I’ve told the world I’ve been lax in updating my firmware in the process.)

 

[mundodisco8]

Hi guys,

I woke up this morning to solve this once and for all, so I got in front of my machine, fired putty... and everything worked.

So no need to turn on logs, it worked straight out of the box. My guess is that something about my machine's ID was being locked for a particular reason and maybe connecting from my Android phone unlocked it or got it out of that particular state. Sadly I can't reproduce. So this problem goes solved unsolved. Thanks all for your help, i really appreciate that you took the time to give me your advice.

cheers!

 

[martinr]

Clearly, your machine sensed that you weren’t going to be messed around any longer. Thanks for the feedback; now have a look at XShell: it s clear favourite SSH client with many people including Merlin.