I need help with RT-AC86U issues I am having now!

[LdDrew]

Hello, SNB Community.

I am looking for help,
I have a RT-AC86U with latest RMerlin Stable Firmware.

Issue is my WiFi is dropping and my connection is not very stable.
I was looking into was I could configure my address pool, so changing from 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.500.1. This was the start in a issue when I done this where you can change it on the page where the subnet is on the lan page.

I could not load into my router at all, so after two reboots, still the same issue.

Now I held the reset button to hopefully restart it to defaults, and to input what I had before, and now the issue is the stability of my network is very dropy and unstable.

I have reflashed merlins' firmware, and still have the same issues.

I have 8 WiFi devices and before I did not have the issue but, now I do.

I am unsure what to do, never used putty and pretty much kept my settings unchanged since I bought my RT-AC86U part from putting merlins' firmware on it.

Hopefully SNB can help me with this, as I have ran out of options.

Screenshots are upcoming

 

[LdDrew]

Screenshots

 

[L&LD]

Welcome to the forums!

First, 192.168.500.1 is not an allowed IP address.

The M&M Config and the Nuclear Reset guides should be able to help you get back to a stable and good/known state.

The first link below may also be useful too.

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/ax88-packet-loss.62891/#post-563326

M&M Config https://www.snbforums.com/threads/n...l-and-manual-configuration.27115/#post-205573

Sanitize Network https://www.snbforums.com/threads/rt-ac66u-slow-wan-to-lan.12973/page-3#post-269410

WPS NVRAM Erase https://www.snbforums.com/threads/b...eta-is-now-available.55520/page-9#post-473141

Nuclear Reset https://www.snbforums.com/threads/major-issues-w-rt-ac86u.56342/page-4#post-495710

Why a new SSID? https://www.snbforums.com/threads/i...-ax88u-rt-ac86u-node.60551/page-2#post-532915

 

[LdDrew]

More screenshots

 

[dave14305]

The only thing I suggest based on your screenshots is to go into both 2.4 and 5 GHz WiFi and switch channels from Control Channel = Auto to 1, 6 or 11 for 2.4GHz and 36 for 5 GHz. Prevent the auto channel changing your syslog is showing on 5GHz.

 

[LdDrew]

Welcome to the forums!

First, 192.168.500.1 is not an allowed IP address.

The M&M Config and the Nuclear Reset guides should be able to help you get back to a stable and good/known state.

The first link below may also be useful too.

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/ax88-packet-loss.62891/#post-563326

M&M Config https://www.snbforums.com/threads/n...l-and-manual-configuration.27115/#post-205573

Sanitize Network https://www.snbforums.com/threads/rt-ac66u-slow-wan-to-lan.12973/page-3#post-269410

WPS NVRAM Erase https://www.snbforums.com/threads/b...eta-is-now-available.55520/page-9#post-473141

Nuclear Reset https://www.snbforums.com/threads/major-issues-w-rt-ac86u.56342/page-4#post-495710

Why a new SSID? https://www.snbforums.com/threads/i...-ax88u-rt-ac86u-node.60551/page-2#post-532915

Tried your tips and it did not have any effect, still dropping.

Tried WPS erase as well, but seem it did not do anything.

After doing a nuke, and reflashing, still the same drops.

But all my clients are the same IP Address, as well.

My router has been fine since I got it under recommendation from rmerlin, and to now since I was getting trouble few days before I done the stupidest thing ever, it was acting up, cpu was erratic and such, and I could notice my online games was acting up, very jittery.

If I cannot get this to how it was, any recommendations for other Asus, RmMerlin Firmware compatible routers?

And how do you do them scripts on Windows and what type of flash pen or thing you need for amtm? And skynet, not sure if I need all that unsure what it all does.

 

[LdDrew]

The only thing I suggest based on your screenshots is to go into both 2.4 and 5 GHz WiFi and switch channels from Control Channel = Auto to 1, 6 or 11 for 2.4GHz and 36 for 5 GHz. Prevent the auto channel changing your syslog is showing on 5GHz.

Tried and still flickers

 

[L&LD]

@LdDrew you may want to try the links/suggestions one more time. If it is truly dropping the connection afterward it would seem to indicate a hardware issue for sure.

If the WPS method did not 'seem to work', then you did not do it properly.

The important steps to getting to a good/known state are:

• Flash the same version of the firmware more than once to the router.
• Reset the router every possible way between flashing the firmware (reset button, via the GUI and the WPS button too).
• Do not use a saved backup config file to set up the router after doing the above.
• Use new, never before used SSID's, at least while testing.
• Do not customize any settings except as what's indicated in the M&M Config guide for your tests.
• Do not use a VPN.
• Do not use any scripts.
• Do not insert a USB drive.

HTH.

 

[LdDrew]

I have given all the guides a try, a few times, and still no luck.

I did try on the amtm one, seemed promising, but noticed a the issue went temporarily, then came back after a few hours. Even after a reset.

I think I might need to buy a new router, not sure if I should go for the same RT-AC86U or wait for the RT-AX86U (unsure when that will be out), or which is quite popular on the forums RT-AX88U.

I mainly play online games, and like control. Trying to learn how to use scripting with this half dead router, but am on Windows and am stuck.

On the router if I try to look to see if my swap file is being used or adding up on the ram, I put #free but it tells me I do not have permission.

And I have also ran into this on the screenshot in my syslog.

Plus my CPU is going crazy. Hitting 100% frequently on both cores.

 

[dave14305]

And I have also ran into this on the screenshot in my syslog.

“dcd tainted” is a well-known but relatively harmless message. It looks scarier than it is.

 

[L&LD]

If the steps suggested above were carried out fully and in order, a hardware fault seems likely at this point.

The CPU hitting 100% 'frequently' doesn't sound right. What are your ISP speeds? What, if any, QoS have you implemented?

Are you running a torrent server? Is anything pegging your upload speed?

Does the router behave if you connect a single device? Try adding one device at a time until you find the one that may be causing issues.

HTH.

 

[LdDrew]

If the steps suggested above were carried out fully and in order, a hardware fault seems likely at this point.

The CPU hitting 100% 'frequently' doesn't sound right. What are your ISP speeds? What, if any, QoS have you implemented?

Are you running a torrent server? Is anything pegging your upload speed?

Does the router behave if you connect a single device? Try adding one device at a time until you find the one that may be causing issues.

HTH.

I don't use any QoS, my connection speeds are 320Mbps Down and 32Mbps Up. I do have between 4-8 jitter, 8-18 ping.

I am running the router at most vanilla as possible, with merlins firmware, no VPN, running WiFi as separate and with different names to the default ones.

Only new thing I have done was try your guides on amtm and the automated scripts within the builtin amtm. Seems interesting.

Got diversion, pixelserv, skynet, sc, sp, scribe. Pretty standard what I notice what people use on the forums.

Weirdly enough I have had a bit of success with having all that running, but after a few hours, it goes back to how it has been, after a reboot it still is like it has been, so I am unsure what is going on.

The processor is erratic even before using amtm, and a swap with the add ons.

 

[LdDrew]

Seems odd