EA-AC87: Beacon loss errors

[Naifu]

My EA-AC87 acting as a bridge to my RT-AC3200 reports tons of beacon loss errors in the log. Sometimes it's error free for a couple of hours then again it throws out lots of errors in a short time frame.

Link speeds seams to go down if a lot of these errors occur. The WLAN then get's unresponsive with streaming (for example Netflix) starts stuttering. Also the web interface of the EA-AC87 get's really slow.

A reset of the EA-AC87 fixes this problem for a while. Although I did find a beacon loss error almost immediately after a device restart.

Is there anything I can do? Searching the web I didn't find much useful. One source suggested that maybe an antenna is damaged. Could that be?

Help to solve this would be highly appreciated.

Oct 19 08:11:01 iwevent: 08:11:01.822334   wifi0    08:11:01.822334   wifi0    Custom driver event:Dot11Msg:Missed at least 10 consecutive beacons [14:DD:A9:71:7E:58] [Beacon loss] Custom driver event:Dot11Msg:Missed at least 10 consecutive beacons [1
Oct 19 08:11:02 iwevent: 08:11:02.752321   wifi0    08:11:02.752321   wifi0    Custom driver event:Dot11Msg:Missed at least 20 consecutive beacons [14:DD:A9:71:7E:58] [Beacon loss] Custom driver event:Dot11Msg:Missed at least 20 consecutive beacons [1
Oct 19 08:11:03 iwevent: 08:11:03.682274   wifi0    08:11:03.682274   wifi0    Custom driver event:Dot11Msg:Missed at least 30 consecutive beacons [14:DD:A9:71:7E:58] [Beacon loss] Custom driver event:Dot11Msg:Missed at least 30 consecutive beacons [1
Oct 19 09:18:45 iwevent: 09:18:45.948956   wifi0    09:18:45.948956   wifi0    Custom driver event:Dot11Msg:Missed at least 10 consecutive beacons [14:DD:A9:71:7E:58] [Beacon loss] Custom driver event:Dot11Msg:Missed at least 10 consecutive beacons [1
Oct 19 09:45:19 iwevent: 09:45:19.899607   wifi0    09:45:19.899607   wifi0    Custom driver event:Dot11Msg:Missed at least 10 consecutive beacons [14:DD:A9:71:7E:58] [Beacon loss] Custom driver event:Dot11Msg:Missed at least 10 consecutive beacons [1
Oct 19 09:50:15 iwevent: 09:50:15.219714   wifi0    09:50:15.219714   wifi0    Custom driver event:Dot11Msg:Missed at least 10 consecutive beacons [14:DD:A9:71:7E:58] [Beacon loss] Custom driver event:Dot11Msg:Missed at least 10 consecutive beacons [1

Cheers
N.

 

[Naifu]

The EA-AC87 was very unstable. When it ran it was awesome but quite often it would slow down to a crawl and show those beacon errors in the log. Also the web interface of the EA-AC87 would then become unresponsive indicating a problem with the wifi connection to the router.

Did an RMA on the original unit and just got back the replacement. Well it's the same, so it's a problem with the device itself. At least in combination with a RT-AC3200 router it doesn't seem to work.

Attached it to my main PC which is about 2m away from the router. The speed would go down quite fast as soon as I download a large file. Speed would then go down to less than a couple of kb/s. Also those beacon errors do show up as well.

Don't know if it's the combination with the RT-AC3200 or a general problem with the EA-AC87. Allthough I love ASUS products and have been using ASUS network devices for ages, I must say that the EA-AC87 is a piece of junk imho.

Cheers
N.

 

[Naifu]

Ok I feel very stupid. After trying to figure out what is wrong I finally found a simple solution to the problem: Factory reset.

The EA-AC87 is sold with the initial firmware 2814 something. At ASUS site there is a slightly newer firmware available for manual install. That firmware is essential cause without it the 100+ channels do not work.

What I didn't do after firmware upgrade is a factory reset. That was causing all the troubles I had. After a factory reset everything is working without any errors and freezes. Should have tried that first ...

Cheers
N.

 

[arabesc]

My EA-AC87 acting as a bridge to my RT-AC3200

I have the same setup.

The WLAN then get's unresponsive with streaming (for example Netflix) starts stuttering. Also the web interface of the EA-AC87 get's really slow.

Yep, same issue here.

After a factory reset everything is working without any errors and freezes.

Is it stable after long time, eg. several days of work?

 

[Naifu]

After tweaking a lot with the settings I finally got it stable. I believe the solution was to turn off beam forming. According to the web interface it achieves something around 700-900 Mbps link speed. It switches every 10-20 seconds. What's more important is that it's absolutely stable now and the real live speed is very good. Haven't tested the actual speed but PS4 and XBOX One store downloads are now capped by the other side and my internet connections.

My basic setup is:

• Smart Connect off
• All three bands have a unique SSID
• 5GHZ-2 reserved for the bridge to the EA-AC87
• Every other 5GHZ device is using 5GHZ-1

Also I reboot the RT-AC3200 every night with the feature available in the Merlin firmware. That is not necessary but I had the feeling that the 5GHZ speed was degrading over time. It doesn't hurt anyway so that's cool

I've attached pics of my settings. Unfortunately they are in German but I guess the order is the same in English.

Hope this helps!

 

[Kuro]

Thanks Naifu! This information fixed the stability problems with my RT-68U and EA-AC87.

 

[chrissyboy]

I am having weird issues with my EA-AC87 which I have wired to an Asus RT-N66U. Basically when streaming HD video from my server using the AC87 I get all sorts of breakups to the stream. If I switch to the RT-N66U wireless it streams fine through its N network.

I have tried it with different machines but the outcome is the same. Anyone any ideas how to fix it as it should be perfect using the AC network?

Thanks
Chris

 

[nnike]

I am having weird issues with my EA-AC87 which I have wired to an Asus RT-N66U. Basically when streaming HD video from my server using the AC87 I get all sorts of breakups to the stream. If I switch to the RT-N66U wireless it streams fine through its N network.

I have tried it with different machines but the outcome is the same. Anyone any ideas how to fix it as it should be perfect using the AC network?

Thanks
Chris

I just went back to the original FW that came from the factory (NOT AVAILABLE ON ASUS SUPPORT PAGE) and the connection is much more stable and now I can enable 802.11ac Beamforming and TX Bursting

Read more with download link to the firmware: http://www.snbforums.com/threads/quiet-release-of-ea-ac87.24865/page-2#post-268004

 

[doc octopus]

Support and updates for this product are already terminated? In a year is only one firmware upgrade was made available, support the MU-MIMO has not arrived yet, and the devices attached to the bridge does not detect the DLNA server within my home network.