HELP ,asus RT-AC66U_B1 major problems 2.4 gone

[aross1976]

hello i am a noob and my asus router has got a major problem after i installed a wifi extender that used the same SSID and password as my router , it was a 2.4 ghz band only repeater
after i installed it i had all kinds of problems with my smart home devices dropping so i got rid of it and then
i noticed that i could not connect to the 2.4 band or it would just not show up at all
after hours of tech support with asus it finally came back and was working with some but not all of my clients i had one last client that would not connect still so i rebooted the router and now the 2.4 GHZ channel is gone again
the router has not been right since and now i am really screwed because all my lights ,fans and AC can not be controlled at all , my smart home is very extensive and includes smartthings, HUE, broadlink, android box with bridge apps ,several echo dots, and GH mins etc. and most of it runs only on the 2.4ghz ban

 

[ColinTaylor]

Given your other post about your USB HDD the first thing I would suggest is that you leave that disconnected for the time being.

Then I would setup your 2.4GHz WiFi so that it is on a fixed Control Channel (not auto), either 1, 6 or 11. You can use a free phone app (WiFi Analyzer) to find the least busy channel. Also, set the channel bandwidth to 20MHz, not 40.

 

[aross1976]

Given your other post about your USB HDD the first thing I would suggest is that you leave that disconnected for the time being.

Then I would setup your 2.4GHz WiFi so that it is on a fixed Control Channel (not auto), either 1, 6 or 11. You can use a free phone app (WiFi Analyzer) to find the least busy channel. Also, set the channel bandwidth to 20MHz, not 40.

no that does nothing
i don't think you understand the problem
there is something fundamentally broken here , i have like 20 2.4 clients and NONE of them can connect this is not an issue of signal strength this range extender totally broke 2.4 somehow the ways it worked was really strange too , when it was plugged in i would see a badge with a number in it over the icon for one of my 2.4 devices and then the IP for the device next to the name would be fluctuating.
it made the router tread one device as 3 ,4 5 6 or 8 devices and all my 2.4 clients were jumping between the extender and the main router and would constantly become unresponsive and need to be reset
nothing can connect to 2.4 now where i have like 20 clients connecting fine before
i power cycled the router a bunch of times and i got a few 2.4 clients back
then i just tried what you suggested and now i am back to ZERO 2.4 clients again
nothing can connect to 2.4 again

 

[ColinTaylor]

I thought I understood the problem but your description is jumbled and confused. It doesn't help that you're writing in one continuous stream of text rather than using sentences.

Yes the router will show multiple devices connected to the extender/repeater, that's normal it's how they work. If the clients are hopping between the repeater and the router then they are too close to each other.

Regardless of the issues you had with the repeater you said that you're not using it anymore, so now you can concentrate on trying to get the router to work. You said that none of the clients can connect. Log onto the router and look at the System Log > Wireless Log. It should show a) whether the radio is working at all, b) what clients are connected, and c) what channel is being used. Make sure you're not using channels 12 or 13.

After that go to one of the clients that can't connect and get it to "forget" its current WiFi connection. Create a new WiFi connection to the router. Check the Wireless Log to see if it's worked. If it has do the same thing for all your devices.

If you can't connect at all using the steps above you have a faulty unit. Return it for a replacement.

 

[aross1976]

I thought I understood the problem but your description is jumbled and confused. It doesn't help that you're writing in one continuous stream of text rather than using sentences.

Yes the router will show multiple devices connected to the extender/repeater, that's normal it's how they work. If the clients are hopping between the repeater and the router then they are too close to each other.

Regardless of the issues you had with the repeater you said that you're not using it anymore, so now you can concentrate on trying to get the router to work. You said that none of the clients can connect. Log onto the router and look at the System Log > Wireless Log. It should show a) whether the radio is working at all, b) what clients are connected, and c) what channel is being used. Make sure you're not using channels 12 or 13.

After that go to one of the clients that can't connect and get it to "forget" its current WiFi connection. Create a new WiFi connection to the router. Check the Wireless Log to see if it's worked. If it has do the same thing for all your devices.

If you can't connect at all using the steps above you have a faulty unit. Return it for a replacement.

Thanks, yeah sorry i was in a panic.
I backed up my settings and did a factory reset and restored settings and that seems to have fixed the issue.

I was just afraid to do a factory reset because i have lots o smart home devices and lots of custom stuff, static IP's ,and port forwarding/open ports
and lots of devices that are not easy to change the log in credentials of.
Like ESP8266 lighting controllers with CFW etc.
seems like most everything works now with a few minor bugs.

I learned my lesson, never use a repeater / extender that uses the same SSID and password.

 

[ColinTaylor]

If you still encounter problems you might have to bite the bullet and do a factory reset followed by a manual setup. When problems are caused by incorrect/corrupted settings, doing a factory reset and then restoring those same corrupted settings doesn't usually help. Hopefully you won't need to though.

 

[aross1976]

If you still encounter problems you might have to bite the bullet and do a factory reset followed by a manual setup. When problems are caused by incorrect/corrupted settings, doing a factory reset and then restoring those same corrupted settings doesn't usually help. Hopefully you won't need to though.

thanks yes it worked
i restored the .CFG file and it works now
i was afraid of the same thing too that is why i hesitated to do it for as long as possible
thankfully it all worked out
guess i better take another backup now just in case since the last one was taken when it was broken even though it still restored everything ok or as it seems so far