Internet/No-Internet Access On & Off Issue

[SevenFactors]

I am running ASUSWRT-Merlin version: ...374.42 on an ASUS RT-N66U. I've a WIN7 SP1 with the latest windows updates installed.

I have two password protected SSID available on the 2.4GHz antenna.
PING: The router's default.
PONG: This is the name given to the Guess Network [also on the 2.4GHz]
Note: The 5GHz radio is off.

For some reason I randomly keep loosing intenet access over WiFi. One moment everything is fine when on the next I loose internet access. When i have no internet access the best way to regain internet access is by running the system network troubleshoot or simple disable/enable the wireless connection on my PC.

For a while switching between the two AP gave me the impression that PONG was immune to this issue; I was very wrong.

With that said, when I find myself without "no internet access" the connection between my laptop and router maintains alive, I can still access the router web UI. To me thisis good news since it is not like the router has gone crazy and is rebooting itself or something like that.

This whole issue is starting to drive me bananas. Even though I have internet access I keep loosing internet access, isn't that something. I can handle issues like ISP having technical issue thus I have to wait it out OR poor wifi signal, where your laptop keeps disconnecting from the AP. This I don't know what it is. Perhaps there is something wrong with the firmware, router
I have reset the router [from withing the web UI] & reloaded my setting but still the same.

Has anybody encountered this issue or something similar?


NOTE: The only recent softwares that I've installed on my laptop are:
1) an upgrade to dnscrypt-proxy www.dnscrypt.org which I run as a windows service and it is working just fine. I've nevet had an issue with it nor I see how this would be causing this issue.
2) my moto x bluetooth drivers which happened automatically when I first connected the device to my PC via bluetooth. I only use it for audio.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks

 

[BobMCT]

You are not alone

Your situation is becoming more and more common. When I first started using my RT-N66U everything was perfect. However, my ASUS laptop and another Gateway laptop both started experiencing the exact same symptom you describe. I tried everything I could including updating all the drivers for the Wifi adapters in the laptops. Interesting I have a Roku device connected on a 5Ghz link and it never drops. I've tried numerous things in the 6+ months I've been experiencing these drops and nothing has helped.
I'm posting this so others can see that many of us are experiencing issues. As non-technicians we don't know what it might be (even though we try just about every suggestion made). Maybe someday someone will figure this out and we'll all be happy. I think the Merlin firmware is great and I certainly cannot say if that's the culprit. But if I had to guess I'd say its a driver compatibility issue with the router itself. Otherwise, why would it happen the same way on different wireless devices.
So join me is sitting patiently waiting for a resolution.

 

[cofetym]

Being Patient!

Having the same problem periodically when connected to RT-AC66u and my laptop. I'm even using the Asus wireless adapter USB-AC51 on RMerlins .42 build.

 

[Pierino]

Bloetooth can effect the 2.4ghz. Google it.
Some people found that out using a Bluetooth mouse near the router.

http://www.transformerforums.com/fo...21329-bluetooth-wifi-don-t-work-together.html

 

[drewski]

I had this issue with my A66 router (currently on 374.41) and a couple of my devices (Xoom Tab, Razr Maxx phone) while a host of other laptops, tablets, & phones connected and stayed connected.

There were no connection dropping issues with my other AC66 in AP mode so I compared settings and the AP mode one had WPS OFF and the router mode one had WPS ON.

I turned WPS OFF and connection stability is back for the Xoom & Razr Maxx

Odd, but it seems like certain chipsets (and maybe driver versions) don't play well with WPS . . . even if you're not trying to do a WPS connection setup.

YMMV

 

[SevenFactors]

There must be a DHCP Server Issue

Looking at the WireShark logs show that the router's DHCP server fails to respond to the computer's IP request.

-This is on a wireless connection. The Router & computer are 10 feet away from each other.
-Computer obtains its IP:192.168.1.177 based on MAC address.

-I started logging as soon as I noticed that the computer had lost internet access-
The attached image file titled WiFi_lostInterAccess_Start shows the lack of response from the router's DHCP server.

On the second attached image file, WiFi_lostInterAccess_End, we can see when many lines later the router's DHCP server finally responded to the computer's IP request.

To me, the kicker is how long it took for the router to reply. The bigger kicker is the late & overwhelming response from the router. It looks like the router responded to each and every request sent by the computer yet all the router's responses arrived late. Something like that, right?

Note that there are about two more screen worth of logs just like WiFi_lostInterAccess_End where we see the router's DHCP server finally responding.

Firmware issue? Router issue? Please help, advice. At this point this issue has become ridiculous.

 

[SevenFactors]

Your situation is becoming more and more common. When I first started using my RT-N66U everything was perfect. However, my ASUS laptop and another Gateway laptop both started experiencing the exact same symptom you describe. I tried everything I could including updating all the drivers for the Wifi adapters in the laptops. Interesting I have a Roku device connected on a 5Ghz link and it never drops. I've tried numerous things in the 6+ months I've been experiencing these drops and nothing has helped.
I'm posting this so others can see that many of us are experiencing issues. As non-technicians we don't know what it might be (even though we try just about every suggestion made). Maybe someday someone will figure this out and we'll all be happy. I think the Merlin firmware is great and I certainly cannot say if that's the culprit. But if I had to guess I'd say its a driver compatibility issue with the router itself. Otherwise, why would it happen the same way on different wireless devices.
So join me is sitting patiently waiting for a resolution.

I really like this router; one of the best router's I've ever owned. Everything worked perfectly. Well, still works perfectly but not over wifi.

I posted some logs. I hope they serve us well.

 

[BobMCT]

Trying alternative solution???

Well, out of frustration I decided to try a repeater. From Newegg I purchased a new Asus RT-N10P router which when all discounts and mail in rebates were applied the total cost to me was $4.99 including shipping. So I figures how can I loose.
When received I connected to it with my laptop and selected "repeater mode" and it then searched out and displayed the available Wifi networks (mine and my neighbor's). When I selected my own it asked for the passphrase and the rest was automatic. Once tested I relocated this device between my main router and my dead zone. So far after 24 hours I've NOT experienced any drop outs at all. I'm hoping that this solves my signal loss problem. Just wanted to share for anyone who may be considering this.
I'll post more updates as things change (for the good or bad).

 

[RocketMan]

I too seem to be affected by this issue on my RT-N66U. My laptop would lose connection but the wired clients are not affected.

I have a wireless Logitech K360 keyboard/mouse. I'll try turning off the mouse/keyboard and see what happens.

 

[BobMCT]

Oh Well, repeater didn't fix it...

Well, reporting as promised. What looked promising at first turned out to be not so promising anyway. With the repeater in place directly between the N66U and the "dead" zone, the laptops are still loosing internet connection. So that truly leaves me to suspect the N66U wifi adapter and/or firmware. Its happening on three different laptops (Asus, Gateway and Compaq) all with different internal wifi adapters so that would seem to eliminate individual/common adapter issues. At this point the only common is the N66U. Now for my wired devices, there is NEVER a drop out.

Just wanted to share this update. Frustra:

 

[DotNet]

Internet/No-Internet Access MediaBridge Mode

Finally I found that others have similar problems!

It was driving me crazy for long time now.


Environment

I use the AC68U connected in MediaBride-Mode to my Fritzbox 7490.

The Fritzbox (AC1300) is connected to the internet.
The ASUS AC68U connected to the Fritzbox by WLAN in MediaBride mode.
The ASUS AC68U has a FIXED IP (no DHCP)
The ASUS AC68U used multiple Merlin FW in the past: 374.42, 43,44,45 and currently 376.47
Two of my Computers (Win 8.1) are connected via LAN to the AC68U.


Problem description

My Computers are sent to hybernate or suspend mode over the night.
After some days my computer shows that it has no internet connection.
I still can access the AC68U WebGUI.
I can still connect via SSH to the AC68U.
When connected to the AC68U by ssh and then do a ping to the Fritzbox or Internet it is working for the AC68U.

Today was the first time that the webgui showed "disconnected" as state, so I don't know if my problem today was another one or the same,but it's maybe related to new Firmware 376.47.



Does not help:

• Restarting my Computer
• Disable/enable Network Adatper
• Pulling and plugin again the network cable
• changing IP
• switching to dhcp
• connect the computer to the AC68U using VPN (PPTP)
• playing with routes

Does help:

• restart AC68U
• or restart Fritzbox

 

[falconers]

No WAN access after router restart

I get similar behavior after the Router is restarted. I noticed this after implementing an init-start script to restart the router every night. What is weird is that I can connect to the router using the web interface and can successfully ping Google from the Network Tools test, however NONE of the clients can connect. The RT-AC87U is the main router, and this issue applies to wired and Wi-Fi connections. This router has NOT been very stable for me so far.

Here is how I can make the issue consistently happen:
1. Choose Restart from Web Interface
2. Wait and connect to Wi-Fi (doesn't matter if 5 Ghz or 2.4 GHz network
3. Unable to ping www.google.com from any host (connected via wire or Wi-Fi)
4. Able to ping www.google.com from router Network Tools
5. Stop or Start Firewall (or cycle on-off-on) and it starts working again

I found a couple ways to manually resolve this issue:

1. Restart Firewall (Turn from on to off or from off to on)
2. Same as above, but for IPv6 Firewall. Note that I'm not using IPv6, but it still resolves it. I'm guessing it restarts something that "fixes" the issue.
3. Disable IPTraffic. My guess is that re-enabling it would also fix it.

I'm going to do some more troubleshooting to see if I can fix this. I'm disappointed by the stability issues with this router. It works really well when it works, but my older Apple Time Capsule never had issues. Of course it was very, very light on features, too!

I'll post again if I have anything significant to add.

Some things I'm thinking of doing include:
1. Remove start-init script that schedules a daily restart and manually restart again.
2. Factory restore and manually reconfigure AGAIN!!!! :-/
3. Get a different router!

FYI - I have about 20 connected devices that are mostly N, but some AC including a bridged connection from an Asus RT-AC56U. When this router works, it works GREAT. Wi-Fi delivers about the same performance as 1Gbps wired connection. When this doesn't work, it SUCKS

 

[falconers]

Fixed for me - Removed USB drive and saving Traffic History to RAM instead of USB

This may not work for everyone, but here's what worked for me.

1. DID NOT FIX - I tried removing the startup-init script that had a daily restart job, but the issue still persisted.
2. FIXED - Removing USB and changing Traffic History location back to RAM.

In case it matters for anyone, the USB drive was a thumb drive (16 GB) formatted as ext4. I was only using it to locally save the scripts in a backup folder and copying the traffic history to that location. IPTraffic is currently disabled and the issue happened whether it was on or off, but it would temporarily give router access again if it was enabled or disabled.

My Asus RT-AC87U is in normal "wireless router" mode and is running the current 3.0.0.4.376.47_0 Asus Merlin build.

 

[john9527]

If you ever want to try something else with the USB thumb drive still connected, make sure that the USB thumb drive is excluded from spindown in Tools/Other Settings. Don't know for sure if it will do anything, but maybe worth a try.

 

[falconers]

USB Spin Down

John... Thanks for the idea. I'm going to stop messing with it and let Asus have some time to roll out some more bug fixes before I start playing with it too much. I don't NEED the USB, but WANTED it to persist the activity between reboots.

My previous router was an Apple one, so I'm VERY happy to have much more configurability back. Although, that was the most stable router I've ever had. I'm not sure I ever had to reboot it to fix anything. Of course it's easier to have a stable product when it doesn't have many features.

 

[DotNet]

Small Update:

I had the problem again that the media bridge wasn't working anymore, computer connected by lan to the AC 68 U could not reach anythin else than the ac68u, but ssh to the AC68u and ping google is ok.

This time i tried to set the option "optimize for xbox" and click apply.
It was working after that and it was way quicker than to reboot the box.
Of course it would be great if it would never happen, so what does this option trigger? A quick wireless restart somehow?

https://192.168.x.x:8443/Advanced_Wireless_Content.asp

 

[RMerlin]

Small Update:

I had the problem again that the media bridge wasn't working anymore, computer connected by lan to the AC 68 U could not reach anythin else than the ac68u, but ssh to the AC68u and ping google is ok.

This time i tried to set the option "optimize for xbox" and click apply.
It was working after that and it was way quicker than to reboot the box.
Of course it would be great if it would never happen, so what does this option trigger? A quick wireless restart somehow?

https://192.168.x.x:8443/Advanced_Wireless_Content.asp

This option disables a form of error correction that isn't properly supported by the XBox 360 wireless adapter.

 

[DotNet]

Thanks for the quick answer, good to know, too.

But what Im meant was what does it behind the scenes, because it is so quick and it makes the bridge working again by triggering it, regadless if switching from off to on or from on to off.

I am searching for something quick as a workaround maybe a command that I can automate through ssh. Is there a command that does whatever is running behind when applying this settings?

 

[RMerlin]

Thanks for the quick answer, good to know, too.

But what Im meant was what does it behind the scenes, because it is so quick and it makes the bridge working again by triggering it, regadless if switching from off to on or from on to off.

I am searching for something quick as a workaround maybe a command that I can automate through ssh. Is there a command that does whatever is running behind when applying this settings?

Changing anything on this page restarts the entire wireless service.

service restart_wireless

 

[DotNet]

Thank you very much!