Frequent WIFI dropouts on 384.6

[Zonkd]

Today I realised we have been getting random WiFi dropouts on 2 different AC86U's that reside in 2 different households since upgrading them both to 384.6. It first became apparent because Apple TV's and PS4's were disconnecting disrupting Netflix and late night online gaming sessions aggravating a lot of people. Now I've been paying attention it seems to be affecting all devices, though most of them reconnect quickly enough that it won't be a problem. The Apple Tv's cope, but PS4's can't handle it and crash online games.

I've definitely tried everything else; doing factory resets and initialising, clean firmware flashing, flushing nvram, simply using all default settings. I see nothing weird in the system logs.

I decided to abandon ship and flash one of the 86's back to the official firmware. Note I used the latest Firmware version 3.0.0.4.384.32797 rather than the version it originally shipped with. The problem still exists.

My next step will be reverting 1 router to the original firmware version it shipped with 3.0.0.4.382_15098 and see if that fixes it.

Has anyone else seen these Wifi problems and what might be causing it? It can't be an isolated problem because it's happening to 2 different models in 2 completely different households.

 

[Zonkd]

Nobody else has this issue?????? What crazy world is this!?

 

[M@rco]

What crazy world is this!?

It is, indeed. But no, I don't have any issues as described by you. I do know that some people have reported wifi related issues with 384.6, but I can't recall what kind of issues. You should probably go through the 384.6 thread for more info on that. I do recall that those who were having issues, didn't have them after updating to 384.7 alpha. I've ran alpha 1 and 2 for a while, both were rock solid, so you could give that a try.

 

[Easy Limits]

Maybe this: Read the CONS part......

https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wir...86u-dual-band-ac2900-wireless-router-reviewed

 

[skeal]

I would disable:
1 Mu-Mimo
2 Explicit Beamforming
3 Universal Beamforming
This will further stabilize your 2.4G network..

 

[M@rco]

In addition to @skeal's suggestions, see this post by @scjr for more settings to optimize your wifi. Check whether the channels suggested are not too crowded. I did a wifi survey and left both bands at auto at first to see which channel was preferred by the router. I chose channel 52 for the 5Ghz band as channel 44 was already being used by both my neighbors. This setup seems to work very well for me.

 

[supe]

I saw this too on my 86u with Merlin's 384.6. I notice my google home devices would drop out for a couple seconds randomly while streaming music. I loaded the wifi QOS patch version 384.32683 and there is no more wifi drops, but its no longer available.
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/s...limited-by-qos-on-rt-ac86u.44952/#post-418433

You can try 384.21140 though as the developer says its the same except for the QOS fix.

-Supe

 

[WMConey]

Today I realised we have been getting random WiFi dropouts on 2 different AC86U's that reside in 2 different households since upgrading them both to 384.6. It first became apparent because Apple TV's and PS4's were disconnecting disrupting Netflix and late night online gaming sessions aggravating a lot of people. Now I've been paying attention it seems to be affecting all devices, though most of them reconnect quickly enough that it won't be a problem. The Apple Tv's cope, but PS4's can't handle it and crash online games.

Has anyone else seen these Wifi problems and what might be causing it? It can't be an isolated problem because it's happening to 2 different models in 2 completely different households.

I'm seeing it here on my AC86U as well. It started with the *.6 alpha, but continued through the release and into the .7 alpha and beta. I mostly am aware of it on the 2.4G band, as I have several smart LEDS, power switches, etc. I've tried all the settings listed here in as many combinations as I could to no avail. Today I punted and did a factory reset as I had not done one in quite a while. I know its not interference as I live in a rural area and there are literally no other networks detectable.

If the reset doesn't work, I'm out of ideas.

 

[supe]

I'm seeing it here on my AC86U as well. It started with the *.6 alpha, but continued through the release and into the .7 alpha and beta. I mostly am aware of it on the 2.4G band, as I have several smart LEDS, power switches, etc. I've tried all the settings listed here in as many combinations as I could to no avail. Today I punted and did a factory reset as I had not done one in quite a while. I know its not interference as I live in a rural area and there are literally no other networks detectable.

If the reset doesn't work, I'm out of ideas.

I loaded the latest official and it hasn't had the random drops with my google home devices, you can give it a try:
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/asus-rt-ac86u-firmware-release-3-0-0-4-384_32799.48842/

 

[Zonkd]

I loaded the latest official and it hasn't had the random drops with my google home devices, you can give it a try:
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/asus-rt-ac86u-firmware-release-3-0-0-4-384_32799.48842/

I made the changes and disabled all the things they suggested and also upgraded to ASUS MERLIN RT-AC86U_384.7_beta1 and I have not seen any more wireless dropouts yet. The 5G network is definitely stable now. I need to keep watching the 2G network. Hopefully this is fixed. I will post my settings at a later date.