Major internet issues PPPOE

[Tech9]

I don't know about newer Asus models, sorry. Not too many home routers arrive through recycling channels, mostly enterprise gear. I do repairs for fun and education only and I'm not allowed to re-sell anything. Repaired units sooner or later go back for recycling. I've seen AC/N66U, AC86U, AC87U, R7000/6200, E1200/2500, EA6500/6900 etc. One AC5300 is on CPR now. If you want built quality better look for SMB equipment from liquidators on eBay. Not the latest and greatest but built to last. For business purposes I use mainly Cisco and Ubiquiti, at home Netgate with Ruckus. My latest experiment was TP-Link Omada. The router TL-R605 is not great, but the PoE switch TL-SG108PE and APs EAP245 are good and cheap.

 

[bilboSNB]

I nuked my modem today, new gui and firmware. Same result, still waiting for a new power cable to arrive.

Could this ac86u router fail in such a way that it only effects pppoe connections? I ask because it seemed to be okay when its wan was set to auto ip and connected to the old netgear lan port.

I have had it 3 and a bit years by the way, not really had any issues with it apart from the gui not loading in recent months with a reboot. (httpd restart didn't fix)

 

[Tech9]

Is your ISP equipment a modem only or modem/router? Can you let it do the connection and use your router with static IP as a workaround? Don't worry about double NAT, put your router's IP in DMZ to avoid port forwarding on two devices.

 

[john9527]

Could this ac86u router fail in such a way that it only effects pppoe connections?

This is really unlikely....it does sound like a configuration issue. I know you probably have....but for the umpteenth time check pppoe userid, password....is enable VPN-DHCP connections set? try unset or vicea-versa. Do you need to set up a vlan for connection? Option 60/61 required? Just throwing out things to think about.

 

[bilboSNB]

Is your ISP equipment a modem only or modem/router? Can you let it do the connection and use your router with static IP as a workaround? Don't worry about double NAT, put your router's IP in DMZ to avoid port forwarding on two devices.

Thanks yes this is an option I could go for.

This is really unlikely....it does sound like a configuration issue. I know you probably have....but for the umpteenth time check pppoe userid, password....is enable VPN-DHCP connections set? try unset or vicea-versa. Do you need to set up a vlan for connection? Option 60/61 required? Just throwing out things to think about.

I agree, the thing is I did nothing to my settings other than setup a new vpn client the day it started happening and I have setup the pppoe wan connection a million times previously, details all correct. It normally works with VPN-DHCP set to yes or no and I have tried both several times since last Saturday. No vlan requirement from my isp. It does connect, gets a public ip and browsing intermittently works fine then stalls completely and starts again, teams seemed to work ok, downloads will start downloading and get to about 0.6 MB then immediately stop, or continue at a ridiculously slow speed.

It feels like an issue we had at work before where a router on the MPLS network had its MTU settings changed by the vendor, but that's all the same per the gui, ISP confirmed no config change and other people do not appear to be having the issue. It really is odd. It's disconnected now and the netgear is doing the routing again, no issues apart from being ancient and no where near as good.

 

[bilboSNB]

My new psu finally arrived!

Initially the same issue but I tried ANOTHER wps button reset with the new plug and it seems to have cleared the problem, pending further testing and config as I had to disconnect and plug the old router back in as wfh and dont have time atm.

Thoughts on what has happened here? Half tempted to try the original psu + fw update to see if the issue re-occurs.

I am thinking, changing vpn providers resulted in the fastest throughput ever achieved on vpn for me and hence greatest cpu use / power draw potentially affecting an already sub par psu causing some kind of nvram corruption. (maybe)

Multiple factory resets did not fix the issue due to the plug causing resets not to complete properly (plug squeal on reboot). (But it looked like it had as all settings had cleared)

New plug has enabled nvram reset to complete properly, thereby clearing the corruption?

Or the planets aligned allowing the reset to fix the problem today.

 

[Tech9]

Thoughts on what has happened here?

The power adapters may go bad too. Good news is your router is fine. Stop playing with it for while.

 

[bilboSNB]

Nightmare, its doing the same thing again. Back to the drawing board.

 

[bilboSNB]

I am now running in auto ip mode with the modem doing the pppoe , asus in the dmz all working fine but double nat and private ipaddress, bizarre.

I have ordered an ax86u pending it being back in stock which I had been thinking about anyway, hopefully that will resolve the issue.

 

[Nesalex]

Hi. I solved a problem with PPPoE on my RT-AC68U. The PPPoE connection was lost or did not start after the router was restarted. I tried everything possible but I couldn't figure out what the problem was. Now I have been going for 384.19 for 5 days now and everything works perfectly. I have tried all versions of the merlin 386 and even the last official FW without success before. Now 100% functional also with VPN tunnel. I'm watching now that merlin has released 386.2 but I won't try it yet. I'm still testing 384.19 ...

 

[bilboSNB]

Thanks for the suggestion but I had already tried that older firmware to no avail, and that wouldn't make much sense anyway as it has always been fine with every firmware before / through 384 and up to and including 386.2 beta 1 when the issue "randomly" appeared, (alpha was fine). I always update to new firmware as it becomes available.

Seems Nord VPN jinxed us both lol.

I am wondering is there any command/check that can be performed to check for corruption?

 

[Nesalex]

I am wondering is there any command/check that can be performed to check for corruption?

Well, I have no idea ..

My problem was solved by moving to 384.19 I will also wait and later try to update to 386_3 maybe . Good luck

 

[bilboSNB]

I updated to latest Rmerlin release and had some more attempts at getting it to work (no reset this time) for a moment I though it was fixed again as everything was a lot smoother and stuff did download, the only problem was download wouldn't go above 20~ mbps, so back to auto ip I go and back to 170~ download. So strange.

 

[bilboSNB]

My AX86U finally turned up.

The AC86U had been working absolutely fine in dhcp mode with all the bells and whistles turned on with no issues whatsoever, tried PPPOE one last time, same issues, connects but shi* connection.

The AX86U is not having the same issue, both on original Asus firmware and now the latest RMerlin release working as expected on PPPOE mode thankfully.

Any last ideas on the AC86U before I put it in storage, ideally I would like to sell it, no use for mesh in my home.