Issues running two RT-AC87U

[Hagler55]

I seemed to be having a unique issue that has challenged Asus support. Hoping someone can help and/or has seen similar situation. I went out and bought two RT-AC87U routers. Which provide outstanding performance when up and running! Very impressed! My problem is I can’t seem to keep them up. I’ll explain…

I have a two-story home. On the first floor I have one unit setup as a router. On the second floor I have another unit setup as an AP. What happens at least 3-4 times a day is my network goes down and Internet is lost. Well mostly lost if not completely lost. What I mean by that is when the issue arises Internet is down from the AP for sure. Sometimes I can switch to the router (wirelessly or LAN) and I will still have Internet. Other times its down for my entire network. What’s strange is I seem to maintain access to all devices on the network no matter if connected to router or AP. Now incoming traffic to my Plex server on my network is blocked. Here is what is strange… if I power off the AP all is fine. Router returns to normal, internet is restored and remote access is granted. Power the AP back on and works great until next crash.

Let me explain what I have done and/or tried to eliminate the problem:
1. Updated both units to latest firmware on Asus support to 3.0.0.4.376.2769. And now Merlin's 376.47
2. When setting up second unit in AP mode I have tried the following:
a. Set LAN to obtain IP automatically – No luck
b. Set LAN to static IP – No luck
c. Set LAN to static IP on different subnet – No Luck
d. Set LAN to static IP and configure router to skip the IP in DHCP – No luck
e. Configured unique SSID names for not only 2.4 & 5g bands but also unique of what router is using.
f. Manually set channel for 2.4 bands. Channel 4 for router and 9 for AP.
g. I have also rebooted both units after every settings change and have done a factory restore on both units multiple times.
3. When speaking with Asus tech support I was at one point advised to replace the router with a new unit as it was defective. I have done this. No luck. I have also switch the two current units I have to see if maybe my other unit was the issue. So unit that was a AP is now a router. Same problem.

What I have noticed is when the issue comes up I can no longer ping the router through the AP. I feel like the AP locks up the router and the minute I power off the AP everything returns to normal.

Something that I had come across a few times during setup of the AP is when I set the LAN IP to static and assign an IP, there are times that the IP changes on its own and takes on a new IP from the router even though its set to static. One time even though the UI showed a LAN IP I had assigned I was accessing it through the browser through its default setting of 192.168.1.1

My gut feeling is there is some kind of firmware bug and the AP is switching IP and conflicting on the network thus taking the Internet down. At one point I lowered the lease time on the routers DHCP to 2 minutes to see if it happens when the AP obtains a new lease and that didn’t seem to affect it. It just happens randomly and can be anywhere from after 15 minutes to after 1 hour to after 5 hours. But eventually it will go down and powering off the AP returns everything back to normal. Even without rebooting the router.

If anyone has any suggestions that would be great! I have called Asus support many times and been emailing their support team back and forth for two weeks now. No luck. ☹

 

[john9527]

Something that I had come across a few times during setup of the AP is when I set the LAN IP to static and assign an IP, there are times that the IP changes on its own and takes on a new IP from the router even though its set to static. One time even though the UI showed a LAN IP I had assigned I was accessing it through the browser through its default setting of 192.168.1.1

☹

Simple question, but are your sure your static ip's are outside of the DHCP address range? And that there is only one DHCP server on the network? What you are describing sounds like two systems/clients ending up with the same ip.

 

[Hagler55]

When I setup a static IP for the AP I did change the DHCP address range on the router so it would not include the IP I assigned to the AP. I also tried adding the static IP I set on the AP to the static table of the router so it would always assign that IP by the router just in case.

One other suggestion by ASUS support which I tried was to assign a static IP outside of the subnet (192.168.2.1). I was instructed to first set the static IP and then configure the mode of this unit to act as a AP. I had found doing this several times I still would set the AP change its LAN IP to something else during AP mode configuration. It would never hold static IP. After AP setup I would go back in and change LAN IP again. Still crashed.

Only DHCP that I know of on my network is the one AC87U that is setup in router mode. It seems like the second unit (AP) just changes its LAN IP at will.

I will add these two ASUS routers replaced two Linksys EA4500 routers setup same way. One a router and one a AP. This is the only change on my network. Had no issues prior to installing the ASUS units.

 

[HackitZ]

I have similar issue's as this, just not the ip changing on my ap.
I have my rt-ac87r set as the main and setup my old rt-n66u as the ap.

I just spent a whole day messing with both routers to be no further ahead than i was when i started. internet goes down within 3 hours and sometimes the intranet still works.

i need to turn off the ap (rt-n66u) or reboot the main (rt-ac87r).

I'm sure it's a software glitch as i had the rt-ac87r connected to an old asus rt-n16 router for about 2 months and it would take a few days for this to happen.
In my bright wisdom i thought changing my old rt-n16 with my newer rt-n66u would be more stable but it is worse. both the rt-ac87r and rt-n66u are running the latest version of merlins firmware.
asus has advised to use their firmware and roll back to 3.0.0.4.376.2061 and see what happens. i will try this but maybe later in the week. to many hours wasted already.

Sorry not trying to steal your thread, just felt we kinda have similar issues. i'll report back when i downgrade the firmware and share if it's better.

 

[HackitZ]

Just noticed that i have the r variant you have the u variant and both models have different firmwares.
The rt-ac87u have 3 available firmwares.
the rt-ac87r has 2 available.
Not sure if this means anything, just figured I'd share.

 

[Hagler55]

Just noticed that i have the r variant you have the u variant and both models have different firmwares.
The rt-ac87u have 3 available firmwares.
the rt-ac87r has 2 available.
Not sure if this means anything, just figured I'd share.

My understanding is both units as exactly the same. Strange about the firmware though.I have tried two of the 3 firmwares listed for mine and then also Merlins. Made no difference unfortunately for me.

Glad to see I am not the only one having issues setting up an AP. ASUS told me at one point that I was. We probably are experiencing the same thing. Mine isn't always showing a changed LAN IP on the second unit. Just sometimes. But I feel regardless of what it shows when you go into the setup I think the AP is changing to a conflicting IP and thats what locks the network down. And the minute you power of the AP everything restores to normal without rebooting the router.

 

[cwickstylz]

Pretty sure I am experiencing the same issue with an AC87 setup as an AP & then my AC66 as a repeater. When I have both running, they work for a bit, but then things become unresponsive, especially the AC66 in repeater mode, which I cannot connect to whatsoever without a reboot.

Once I take the repeater out of the equation things return to normal. I've setup both devices on static IP's & have a TZ215W SonicWall running DHCP for my network.

Must be a software bug I'm assuming...

 

[ctonylee]

Same Issue

I am experiencing this same issue and finally have just turned off the 2nd router (AP). Hopefully they will fix this in the next firmware as a have a $200 router that I cant use yet. Very frustrating to say the least.

 

[Hagler55]

I am experiencing this same issue and finally have just turned off the 2nd router (AP). Hopefully they will fix this in the next firmware as a have a $200 router that I cant use yet. Very frustrating to say the least.

I agree except in my case its a $270 router just sitting on the shelf. I am at the point where it has to be a firmware issue.

By the way, are you guys using the same SSID for both router and AP? Or are they different? I had them the same at first. First time I called ASUS they told me that was the reason and they had me create different SSID names for both units and on both bands. So I now have 4 SSID names. Just curious on your setup.

 

[HackitZ]

I turned off the wifi on my ap (rt-n66u) so it's just acting like a switch. I have my security camera going through the ethernet ports and need it, the wifi part just makes sure we have wifi in the whole house.
So with the wifi radials off my rt-ac87r is having no issue's.
I'll wait a few more days and if no issue's arise i'll turn on the 2.4 and see what happens.
sad thing is asus's is quick to want to replace the rt-ac87r and it sure feels like a firmware issue, maybe the new chipset is the issue.
I had my rt-n66u as the main and my old rt-n16 as the ap for about 2 years with no issue's, I'm a geek and like to have new technology even knowing the new stuff comes with bugs.
I'm going to email tech support back and send them this link.

 

[HackitZ]

Just a thought, maybe merlin can chime in on why the 2 versions of the rt-ac87r and u have different versions of firmware. the r version only has 2 firmwares as the u version has 3. maybe nothing.

 

[Hagler55]

I turned off the wifi on my ap (rt-n66u) so it's just acting like a switch. I have my security camera going through the ethernet ports and need it, the wifi part just makes sure we have wifi in the whole house.
So with the wifi radials off my rt-ac87r is having no issue's.
I'll wait a few more days and if no issue's arise i'll turn on the 2.4 and see what happens.
sad thing is asus's is quick to want to replace the rt-ac87r and it sure feels like a firmware issue, maybe the new chipset is the issue.
I had my rt-n66u as the main and my old rt-n16 as the ap for about 2 years with no issue's, I'm a geek and like to have new technology even knowing the new stuff comes with bugs.
I'm going to email tech support back and send them this link.

What SSID naming are you using for the AP? Is it the same as the router? Or close to it? First I had them both the same. Now I have XXX & XXX_5G for the router and XXX2 & XXX2_5G for the AP. XXX=my actual name. I work out of town and can't mess with it until the weekend but last thing support said is I should change names to something totally different of one another....struggle to understand why that would matter.

 

[ctonylee]

I'm using 2 different SSID names. AC68 worked so much better in the AP configuration. And by the way I did pay 270 for mine as well......

 

[paraplu]

Static IP assignment for AP does not seem to work with recent firmware; try to use dhcp only. I fixed (most of) my AP issues by using reserved dhcp assignment.

 

[Hagler55]

Static IP assignment for AP does not seem to work with recent firmware; try to use dhcp only. I fixed (most of) my AP issues by using reserved dhcp assignment.

I have tried that as well. In my case doesn't seem to matter if I assign or allow DHCP to assign using the reserved DHCP table. Either way the AP appears to change on its own from whatever the original IP it has regardless how it got it.

 

[cwickstylz]

Yeah, I've tried much of the above & spent an hour & a half with support tonight trying to get any fix with zero luck. The support rep I worked with was completely useless...

I've tried both using same SSID(which should absolutely work, especially with roaming assistance on, but I've tried with it off as well) & have tried 2 totally different SSID's. Neither work & lock everything up entirely. The moment I remove the repeater, everything magically comes to life.

It's definitely a bug & I'm thinking it's something wacky with how IP addressing is being handled. The way it acts it's almost as if one of the two is handling DHPC, when I've got DHCP turned off on both actually(a TZ215W handles DHCP for my network). Both have static IP's being assigned by the TZ & have tried setting on each of the Asus's along with trying to allow them to obtain their IP's.

I've looked at my log on the AC87 & see the following message 20+ times in a row when I have the repeater plugged in. Assuming it's got something to do with the issue...

kernal1: br0: received packet on vlan1 with own address as source address

Anyone care to interpret that?

 

[Hagler55]

I've looked at my log on the AC87 & see the following message 20+ times in a row when I have the repeater plugged in. Assuming it's got something to do with the issue...

kernal1: br0: received packet on vlan1 with own address as source address

Anyone care to interpret that?

So I checked my 87U (Router) and I have the same entry in my log file. Very interesting. May be onto something here.....anyone understand this?

 

[cwickstylz]

Doing some searching on the web, that message can possibly appear when hopping back & forth from your 2.4Ghz channel to the 5Ghz & vice versa, along with from one AP to the repeater/other AP, creating a layer 2 loop I guess?

I found the below on this topic from another forum with someone using ASUS routers...

"The simplest way for a wi-fi repeater to work is to listen out for wi-fi traffic, copy any it receives, wait for the airwaves to go quiet then broadcast a pretty much verbatim copy of the original transmission. The "repeat" transmissions are highly likely to be received by the original transmitter also, which means it will be receiving a wi-fi packet with it's own address as the "senders" address. (There are a few "wrinkles, so I'm generalizing somewhat for the sake of brevity.)

By way of example, let's have a router "R" and a repeater "A" and client station "C". To send a packet from R to C, R will construct a packet with destination address "C" and source address "R" which will be transmitted by R...

R: sends packet [C][R][Data]

The repeater/extender will "hear" this, copy it, thence send exactly the same packet...

A: sends packet [C][R][Data]

Because your repeater (A) is "in range" of R, then R will "hear" this frame and complain that "someone else" is sending data using R's address as it's source address."

Does that make sense? The only part I don't get, is that I'd assume firmwares are developed to handle this sort of "complaint" from your network, right?

 

[Hagler55]

My case with ASUS has been sent over to the testers along with my logs to try to reproduce the problem...I will post their response when I get it. Keep your fingers crossed.

 

[HackitZ]

I had both routers using the same name and password, just changed the channels.

I last tested the ac87r with the ac66u as the ap and the ac66u with the wireless radios to off, so the ac66u was acting as just a switch. all was great until day 5, my ac87r locked up again. i had to power cycle the ac87r and hit the reset button on my modem to get internet back. just to be clear, i still had internet over ethernet but no wireless devices could get online. but i never lost my intranet on both wired and wireless.
I'm starting to loose any faith in this expensive router.

What SSID naming are you using for the AP? Is it the same as the router? Or close to it? First I had them both the same. Now I have XXX & XXX_5G for the router and XXX2 & XXX2_5G for the AP. XXX=my actual name. I work out of town and can't mess with it until the weekend but last thing support said is I should change names to something totally different of one another....struggle to understand why that would matter.