Chromecast and RT-AC3200 with 384.13

[Locksmith]

Reporting this there to see whether others have similar problems and/or solutions to suggest.

Issue:
Chromecast v1 devices (the ones which only support 2.4 GHz band) are constantly being ejected from the wireless network. Reconnecting them requires a reboot to the Wi-Fi router so that they can successfully reconnect, otherwise they will endless attempt to reconnect, and fail. The chromecasts will remain connected for 1 day or so, and then the problem reappears.

I have observed the issue when the Chromecast is turned on and attempts to join the network. I have not seen the chromecast being ejected from the wireless network while they are actually streaming something, but that might just be an unrelated observation.

I do not see the same behavior with an embedded chromcast within a Vizio tv (which connects through the 5GHz band) and with Fire cast devices, which connect to the 5GHz band. Other devices connected to the 2.4 GHz band do not have issues.

Details:
RT-AC3200, asuswrt merlin v 384.13.
I have been using asuswrt merlin for several years. I have began noticing the chromecast issue about one month ago and I keep up-to-date with merlin versions. As such, I suppose the issue began with merlin between versions 384.13 and 384.11.

There is an average of 30-40 devices actively connected to my Wi-Fi router distributed over all bands.
Smart connect is enabled with default configuration.
In addition to the smart connect configuration, I have 3 guest networks with IP isolation, all on the 2.4 GHz band. One is for human guests, the other 2 are for IoT devices and cameras. (This number of guest networks is what has been preventing me from installing a mesh system, since I have yet to find one that supports more than one guest network, or v-lan.)

About 40% of the devices are in the 2.4 GHz band, 30% on the 5 GHz-1, and 30% on the 5 GHz-2 band.

The chromecasts are connected to the main network, not the guest ones. DHCP.

IGMP snooping is disabled in all bands. I tried enabling it in the 2.4 GHz band. The chromecasts initially start working, only to being ejected after hours. And then I begin seeing other devices having problems with connection in the 2.4 GHz band (for instance, Nest thermostats). I assume that the chromecasts start working because there is some reinitialization upon enabling IGMP snooping, but the issue persists, and in general IGMP snooping is resulting in a more unstable configuration for me.

Also tried enabling Bluetooth coexistence, did not help.

During troubleshooting, I did fully reset the router, erasing all configuration, loading default configuration, and then manually redoing all my custom configuration. It only helped for 1 day or so, therefore I believe what helped was the reboot process of the router, not the actual erasing of all configuration.

My neighborhood has a fair amount of active routers. I can see advertisement of some 15 SSIDs nearby among all bands. Obviously the 2.4 GHz band is the most polluted.

 

[Zastoff]

Know there was a issue with Chromecast v1 when using higher channels for 2.4Ghz band, Try set channel 1 or 6 for your 2.4Ghz and see if that helps

 

[OzarkEdge]

Reporting this there to see whether others have similar problems and/or solutions to suggest.

Issue:
Chromecast v1 devices (the ones which only support 2.4 GHz band) are constantly being ejected from the wireless network. Reconnecting them requires a reboot to the Wi-Fi router so that they can successfully reconnect, otherwise they will endless attempt to reconnect, and fail. The chromecasts will remain connected for 1 day or so, and then the problem reappears.

I have observed the issue when the Chromecast is turned on and attempts to join the network. I have not seen the chromecast being ejected from the wireless network while they are actually streaming something, but that might just be an unrelated observation.

I do not see the same behavior with an embedded chromcast within a Vizio tv (which connects through the 5GHz band) and with Fire cast devices, which connect to the 5GHz band. Other devices connected to the 2.4 GHz band do not have issues.

Details:
RT-AC3200, asuswrt merlin v 384.13.
I have been using asuswrt merlin for several years. I have began noticing the chromecast issue about one month ago and I keep up-to-date with merlin versions. As such, I suppose the issue began with merlin between versions 384.13 and 384.11.

There is an average of 30-40 devices actively connected to my Wi-Fi router distributed over all bands.
Smart connect is enabled with default configuration.
In addition to the smart connect configuration, I have 3 guest networks with IP isolation, all on the 2.4 GHz band. One is for human guests, the other 2 are for IoT devices and cameras. (This number of guest networks is what has been preventing me from installing a mesh system, since I have yet to find one that supports more than one guest network, or v-lan.)

About 40% of the devices are in the 2.4 GHz band, 30% on the 5 GHz-1, and 30% on the 5 GHz-2 band.

The chromecasts are connected to the main network, not the guest ones. DHCP.

IGMP snooping is disabled in all bands. I tried enabling it in the 2.4 GHz band. The chromecasts initially start working, only to being ejected after hours. And then I begin seeing other devices having problems with connection in the 2.4 GHz band (for instance, Nest thermostats). I assume that the chromecasts start working because there is some reinitialization upon enabling IGMP snooping, but the issue persists, and in general IGMP snooping is resulting in a more unstable configuration for me.

Also tried enabling Bluetooth coexistence, did not help.

During troubleshooting, I did fully reset the router, erasing all configuration, loading default configuration, and then manually redoing all my custom configuration. It only helped for 1 day or so, therefore I believe what helped was the reboot process of the router, not the actual erasing of all configuration.

My neighborhood has a fair amount of active routers. I can see advertisement of some 15 SSIDs nearby among all bands. Obviously the 2.4 GHz band is the most polluted.

It sounds like you have more than one failing... perhaps a Google update has upset them. Or they are dying from heat fatigue.

WiFi interference? With Smart Connect and Auto channel settings, rebooting the router may change the 2.4 channel for awhile. Recent Asuswrt firmware since 45713 performs excessive Auto channel scanning and changes... you can see this happening in the General Log. If Merlin incorporates this behavior, then maybe changes to channels with more interference is affecting some clients.

If using Smart Connect and same SSIDs, maybe they are having trouble connecting to the 2.4 SSID. You could try no Smart Connect and a separate 2.4 SSID and a fixed channel that seems to work or has the least ambient WiFi competition. 2.4 is problematic because it travels far.

You could downgrade router firmware to rule that out. You could disable Wireless/Professional Airtime Fairness and Universal Beamforming per band, although I think AF is already disabled on Merlin.

You could upgrade to 5.0 GHz Chromecasts. Buy one and if it works... it might be worth it to get past this issue.

OE

 

[Locksmith]

Chromecast is the only one device that has issues. I do have 3 Chromecasts v1, all of them have the issue, and all of them started having the issue around the same time (is Google killing them? ). Because of this behavior, I did suspect either (1) Merlin version was breaking the chromecasts, or (2) an update to all chromecasts was misbehaving. I did not check whether the chromecasts updated around the time the issue appears, to be honest.

Upgrading to chromecasts with 5 Ghz might be the way to go... Since I do use smart connect, do not want to stop using it, and cannot manually set channels, I could also attempt to configure a guest network (without isolation) at 2.4 Ghz just for the chromecasts. Since I do use all 3 available 2.4 ghz guest networks, I need to reconfigure my whole thing, but at least serves as troubleshooting.

I observe that Airtime fairness is disabled by default in all bands. Disabling beamforming would be harmful to the overall performance, I would rather kill the chromecasts.
Right now the 2.4Ghz is operating at channel 8. Hmm...

 

[Locksmith]

One update.

Following a thread in Google forums on the Chromecast issue with overloading Wi-Fi routers upon waking up (https://www.engadget.com/2018/01/16/google-chromecast-messing-wifi-connections/), I note that the behavior I am experiencing with the Chromecasts v1 are somewhat similar, however they have not happened before with my Wi-Fi router until about a month ago. I power-cycle the Wi-Fi router, and then the Chromecasts do connect. And then what I observe is that other devices begin losing their connection, as if the router/network is being overloaded.

Perhaps the most cost/time effective solution here is to toss the Chromecasts, go for a newer model. My last attempt is to force the Chromecasts into the "preview" program to allow them to get a newer firmware.

 

[Vexira]

Chromecast is the only one device that has issues. I do have 3 Chromecasts v1, all of them have the issue, and all of them started having the issue around the same time (is Google killing them? ). Because of this behavior, I did suspect either (1) Merlin version was breaking the chromecasts, or (2) an update to all chromecasts was misbehaving. I did not check whether the chromecasts updated around the time the issue appears, to be honest.

Upgrading to chromecasts with 5 Ghz might be the way to go... Since I do use smart connect, do not want to stop using it, and cannot manually set channels, I could also attempt to configure a guest network (without isolation) at 2.4 Ghz just for the chromecasts. Since I do use all 3 available 2.4 ghz guest networks, I need to reconfigure my whole thing, but at least serves as troubleshooting.

I observe that Airtime fairness is disabled by default in all bands. Disabling beamforming would be harmful to the overall performance, I would rather kill the chromecasts.
Right now the 2.4Ghz is operating at channel 8. Hmm...

Have you set them to the beta program for it, see if that helps the most issue I had was on the high frame rate videos the 60fps ones my chrome cast seems to have issue with it's a gen one also.

 

[Locksmith]

Have you set them to the beta program for it, see if that helps the most issue I had was on the high frame rate videos the 60fps ones my chrome cast seems to have issue with it's a gen one also.

I just configured two of the Chromecasts for the "preview" program in an attempt to have a newer firmware than the stable one. The pain now is to actually have these chromecasts connect and sustain a connection to the network until they upgrade themselves. It is a game of reboot/try/reboot/retry.

I tested assigning a fixed IP address to one of the chromecasts (actually having the router assign a fixed IP to the Chromecast, while the Chromecast still uses DHCP). Did not help.

Another idea here that I might try is to setup an old router to handle the chromecasts in their own 2.4 GHz SSID, and have that router connect as a client to the main router. But if the second router just forwards whatever excess multicast packets to the primary router (if that is the issue), it will probably not help either.

 

[Vexira]

I just configured two of the Chromecasts for the "preview" program in an attempt to have a newer firmware than the stable one. The pain now is to actually have these chromecasts connect and sustain a connection to the network until they upgrade themselves. It is a game of reboot/try/reboot/retry.

I tested assigning a fixed IP address to one of the chromecasts (actually having the router assign a fixed IP to the Chromecast, while the Chromecast still uses DHCP). Did not help.

Another idea here that I might try is to setup an old router to handle the chromecasts in their own 2.4 GHz SSID, and have that router connect as a client to the main router. But if the second router just forwards whatever excess multicast packets to the primary router (if that is the issue), it will probably not help either.

If I remember correctly the 3200 is very close to the 87u, which brings to mind all the issues that unit has, I'm just wondering if it would be best to replace with an 86u, also try disabling spanning tree protocol see if that helps and using 20 MHz on the 2.4 GHz.

 

[Locksmith]

Update.

Many attempts of having the Chromecasts come alive in a stable manner (they would only work immediately after rebooting the router). I tried the suggestions offered by people here, including disabling the STP (I could not get past CTF enabled for level 2 acceleration, however), IGMP snooping, etc. The only thing I did not investigate was an actual hardware issue. Nothing worked short of rebooting the router to have the chromecasts work for a while, and the attempts often resulted into more instability for other devices.

I have finally reached the point of equilibrium between time spent and cost, and let go of the Asus RT-AC3200 and upgraded to a Netgear Orbi RBK-50. Besides having better coverage, all my devices, including the Chromecast, connect to the wi-fi within seconds. I did lose Asus' multiple guest networks, the more flexible VPN, NAS through USB, but at least wi-fi connectivity does not have to populate my list of issues to solve. The RT-AC3200 is now connected in cascade to the Netgear to provide one additional, low-priority guest network (the Netgear's one is dedicated to IoT devices) for actual human guests for occasional internet access.