Major Issues w/RT-AC86U

[DaveMishSr]

I can report that I had decided to 'upgrade' from my 68U running Merlin (rock solid BTW) to an AC-86U running the same firmware version. All was well for two days, then the dreaded wireless drop outs which then progressed to many, many reboots. After a week of digging into this issue ( researching, modifying settings, resetting, restoring, reverting firmware to earlier versions, wash, repeat, then frustration) I have given up. I have had a dozen ASUS routers running Merlin over the years and I can clearly state that there is indeed something amiss with this router.
My RMA is in, but I am skeptical of the reliability.
As far as debugging, it was frustrating not to be able to zero in on a set of circumstances that trigger the Linux reboots. If you can reliably cause the problem then you have a chance. But this issue is elusive. The Loch Ness of Merlin if you will.
SO that is my experience, and it left me frustrated and less comfortable with trusting ASUS routers going forward.
Regards
Ed

Did you start from scratch and manually enter everything? That is the only safe way to do it. Otherwise you may have gotten a bad apple which is possible with any manufacturer. My experience is that my AiMesh kicks butt using open box equipment from NewEgg. However you're locked and loaded with ditching Asus so good luck with D-Link, Netgear, TrendNET or TP-Link. Or you can put down some major coin for a Cisco unit.

Good luck.

 

[hokiez97]

I'm on my 2nd RT-86U after the first had the 2.4G radio die completely a few months back. ASUS replaced it with a refurb unit and I fear this one may be dying now as well. I was having problems with my Brother wi-fi printer (after months of being stable) so I decided to set it up from scratch. Now the Brother SW can't find the printer from any PC.

My Google Home devices constantly show as offline/unavailable in the phone app. A router reset fixes it temporarily, then they eventually disappear again.

I have a TP-Link I may have to set up and see if these issues go away. Not sure if there is something I should be looking for in the 86U logs that would help troubleshoot?

EDIT: Just set up the old TP-Link, and all PCs can immediately see the wireless printer. Can also see my Google Home devices from the app. I'll leave the TP-Link installed for a few days to try to see if the same problems come up over time, but I suspect something is going south with my 86U. I will do a full reset of it before contacting support. *sigh*

 

[frooty]

I can confirm similar issues with my new 86U - dodgy wifi, printer not seen, slow thruput speeds, etc. It's only a few weeks old but I'm sending it back & reverting to my trusty 66U instead. Big shame.

 

[RMerlin]

I can confirm similar issues with my new 86U - dodgy wifi, printer not seen, slow thruput speeds, etc. It's only a few weeks old but I'm sending it back & reverting to my trusty 66U instead. Big shame.

Disable Airtime Fairness.

 

[hokiez97]

Disable Airtime Fairness.

I know you didn't direct this at me - but in my case it is already disabled.

 

[OzarkEdge]

I know you didn't direct this at me - but in my case it is already disabled.

Did you do the reset and configure from scratch?

OE

 

[hokiez97]

Did you do the reset and configure from scratch?

OE

Yes - running back on the 86U again for now. I have seen some flakiness with the Google Home devices but printer has been stable. Will keep an eye on it for now. Also confirmed I am on the current (Asus) firmware.

 

[maxbraketorque]

Have any of you been monitoring radio temperatures? I'd be curious to know if the failing radios are due to poor thermal contact with the heat sink.

 

[hokiez97]

Have any of you been monitoring radio temperatures? I'd be curious to know if the failing radios are due to poor thermal contact with the heat sink.

I haven't but would be happy to do so, if there's any easy explanation of how to do it.

I'm back to having some flakiness but I just can't put my finger on it. Right now all my Google Home devices are again unavailable in the app. Earlier today, everything on the Network Map was showing connected to 2.4G even though several of my devices are like 5 feet from the router and typically are rock solid on 5G. And one of the GH devices dropped off completely until the router was reset.

I think I need to turn off the Smart Connect to force separate 2.4 and 5G networks, and see if one or the other is going offline intermittently or something.

 

[maxbraketorque]

I haven't but would be happy to do so, if there's any easy explanation of how to do it.

...

The easiest way to get temperature is to run Merlin FW. There is an info tab that provides temperature of the CPU and radios. There are also command line commands, but I don't remember them anymore.

 

[curlysir]

I recently took a gamble on an Amazon Used Very Good RT-AC86. It lasted less then a week before the 5Ghz radio died completely and then went into a endless reboot on power off/on. The next 2 replacements had the 2.4 Ghz radio dead out of the box, the light on the front was not on on initial power up, the channel was stuck on 0 and auto. I tried factory reset, firmware changes with no change. These units were complete in original boxes, the first still had the warranty card. So there are some bad unit out there. The RT-AC86U that I purchased new in September 2018 has been trouble free and was the reason I choose to try another one for an access point. I will buy another one sometime in the near future but it will be new.

 

[follower]

I'm on my 2nd RT-86U after the first had the 2.4G radio die completely a few months back. ASUS replaced it with a refurb unit and I fear this one may be dying now as well. I was having problems with my Brother wi-fi printer (after months of being stable) so I decided to set it up from scratch. Now the Brother SW can't find the printer from any PC.

My Google Home devices constantly show as offline/unavailable in the phone app. A router reset fixes it temporarily, then they eventually disappear again.

I have a TP-Link I may have to set up and see if these issues go away. Not sure if there is something I should be looking for in the 86U logs that would help troubleshoot?

EDIT: Just set up the old TP-Link, and all PCs can immediately see the wireless printer. Can also see my Google Home devices from the app. I'll leave the TP-Link installed for a few days to try to see if the same problems come up over time, but I suspect something is going south with my 86U. I will do a full reset of it before contacting support. *sigh*

Check this out.
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/users-who-have-strange-internet-or-wifi-issue.57996/

 

[HakunaMatmata]

I used to have a RT-68U without any problem.
I switched to the RT-86U and experience 5GHz wifi unstability and intempestive reboots (due to Xbox wire speed auto negociation).

I checked temperatures:
80°C for CPU (176°F)
60°C for 5Ghz (140°F)
55°C for 2,4Ghz (131°F)

Is it something normal?

 

[Grisu]

very high but "should" still be in range, my 86U ran at 66°C CPU, 50/54 Wifi, and 68U has been about 10° more.

 

[maxbraketorque]

I used to have a RT-68U without any problem.
I switched to the RT-86U and experience 5GHz wifi unstability and intempestive reboots (due to Xbox wire speed auto negociation).

I checked temperatures:
80°C for CPU (176°F)
60°C for 5Ghz (140°F)
55°C for 2,4Ghz (131°F)

Is it something normal?

For my three AC86U routers, the CPUs runs at anywhere between 60-75C, and the 5 GHz radio runs anywhere between 54-58C.

 

[HeadBanger]

I have returned my RT-AC86U today due to failing 2.4GHz WiFi after 16 months. I'm inclined to think that there is (or was on the earlier releases) a hardware issue.

HB

 

[xuvisku]

I have a problem with my AC86u ... I can't access it, all lights are off with the exception of the ETH4 that is on. Already tried reset but it did not work. Has anyone had this problem? Thanks
https://imgur.com/a/AIvnaqF

 

[koaly]

Hi guys, I am Asus RT-AC user for years and tried AC66u, AC68U, AC5300, GT-AC5300, AC86U, AC88u as Aimesh router. Main requirements are - stable 2,4 GHz (for smarthome devices), Open VPN as a client, stable WAN to LAN throughput, DDNS, QoS, traffic analyser and access from WAN.
All routers except AC86U gave poor WiFi 2,4 Ghz signal quality. So, I sold them or returned. VPN client with AC86U works also flawlessly. QoS is also good. Only two issues I face for now: if I have VPN client connected, I have no access from WAN to LAN (simply no response from the router). Then, no access router settings from outside the network. If no VPN, works well.
And the traffic analyser does show zero instead of downloaded data. Uploaded traffic statistics work fine.
I also left AC88U as Aimesh node, because it has the second strong wifi signal out of all others. But I see now that with time the connection quality degraded from 3 bars to 1 bar. Maybe it's because of the new firmware or just WiFi chips are dying. I do not know.
May you give an advice if the BRT-AC828 may be a good alternative for this setup? May be Qualcomm WiFi chips are more stable than Broadcomm? May be then I do not need Aimesh in my 2 floors' house? But Asus did not update 828's FW since Dec 2018 and it conserns me a lot. By RT-AC86u VPN client does not allow WAN to LAN connections. I do not get how to solve it.

 

[Val D.]

VPN client does not allow WAN to LAN connections. I do not get how to solve it.

You have to exclude router’s internal IP address from VPN, Asuswrt-Merlin, OpenVPN Client, Policy Rules. Other (better) option is to disable WAN access and use VPN Server to connect to the router. IPSec Server works very well with iOS devices, for instance.

 

[koaly]

You have to exclude router’s internal IP address from VPN, Asuswrt-Merlin, OpenVPN Client, Policy Rules. Other (better) option is to disable WAN access and use VPN Server to connect to the router. IPSec Server works very well with iOS devices, for instance.

Thanks for the advice. I used to have Merlin's FW in the past and worked well. For now I need Aimesh and then must stick to Asus FW. There is no such a feature in the Asus FW.
I tried to start OVPN server and connections from outside also do not work. I do not know why. DDNS with noip.com works well. I am going to test other VPN types.