Merlin firmware and 2.4GHz band drops on AX88u and BE88u

[snevs]

Hi Everyone,

I'm a pretty new member of this forum, even though I've been an old-time passive reader.
I've been using the Merlin firmware with an RT-AX88u, and now RT-BE88u.
The reason why I purchased the BE88u is that I started to believe the AX88u was faulty, but now I don't believe that anymore, since the BE88u is acting the same way.

I just wanted to say that I've been encountering some issues with the latest firmware releases, such as wifi drops of the 2.4GHz band, and I wouldn't have noticed if some of my IoT devices complained of this, because I never connect my laptop or phone to the 2.4GHz wifi.
I also didn't restore the settings from a backup, but I renamed the networks as I previously used to have them, to avoid re-configuring all the devices with the new SSID.
I'm not really sure what details to provide, as I've never went into the router's console via SSH and do some troubleshooting, as I didn't want to mess with it, but the idea is:

- The router started to drop the WiFi 2.4GHz band
- Speedtests revealed a ~10mbps download, while I have a gigabit subscription
- I installed the firmware on the the BE88u router a few days ago. When I enabled the HTTPS protocol for the Web UI, the 2.4GHz band went completely missing from my laptop's and iphone's wireless AP list.
What is strange, though, is that even when my phone or laptop was not able to see the 2GHz bands, some IoT devices were connecting to that band (I have a Macbook Pro, an iphone 14, and my wife's iphone SE. none of them were seeing the wifi).
I also have an Intel NUC, and it was able to intermittently see the 2.4GHz band.

Below are the settings for the wifi networks, nothing out of the ordinary, maybe except for the authentication method, which is a mix of WPA2 and 3 personal, which I don't think should affect the visibility of the network to any of the devices. Worst case scenario would be that the devices would not be able to authenticate, if I'm not mistaken.

Also, I don't have smart connect of MLO enabled, as I'd like to keep my networks as separate as possible.

I'd really appreciate some hints on how to properly troubleshoot this issue, or any details/logs that I can provide for someone to look at and give me a piece of advice.

P.S. I'm aware that the current version for BE88u is in a beta status, but the same behaviour I've been experiencing with the AX88u, which was a stable release.

 

[Ripshod]

This is not a fix, just a test.
Manually set 2.4GHz to channel 6 and 20MHz only, then disable 160MHz on the 5GHz and set the channel to 36. See how that runs.

 

[snevs]

I'm still not sure what the problem was with the AX88u, but for the BE88u the fix was to entirely disable WiFi7.
Thanks for the reply.

 

[vanarebane]

I had the same problem with BE88U with original firmware. Reseting the router did not fix it. The solution was to contact ASUS and get a replacement trough warranty. No problems since

 

[matthew_eli]

Have you guys a USB3 device plugged to the router eventually?

 

[vanarebane]

Have you guys a USB3 device plugged to the router eventually?

nope

 

[Milan]

It is due to USB3 mode, I have same issue. When you switch to USB2 mode, then the 2,4 will be back.

 

[snevs]

Looking back, I think I’m finding new things about myself I wasn’t aware of, such as being so insistent in trying the same model more than once.
This is, now, my third BE88u router. All of them exhibiting the same behaviour. Although the third one seems to be a bit more stable, I see my HomePod mini starts to complain of network disconnects quite often now.
I do use USB in USB3 mode, let me try USB mode 2 and see if that changes anything.

Thanks everyone.

 

[northumberland]

Experienced this on a new BE88U this week, No 2.4ghz available, though according to thge GUI it was on.

Factory resetting via the GUI - still no 2.4ghz
Turn off wifi 7 - still no 2.4ghz
Reverted to Asus firmware - still no 2.4ghz

* Factory reset via the WPS button - 2.4ghz is back up and running.

I've not yet tried again with Merlin, but you can be sure I will. Just giving it a good test to be sure hardware is stable.

I've a bit of a feeling that this is country/territory related, it wasn't my router so I didn't get a chance to fully examine NVRAM etc, but here is where I think the problem is. I'm in the UK with a UK bought router.

Wish I'd tested 2.4ghz before putting Merlin on,, everything else appeared to work*1. I'm now curious as to whether it was some NVRAM corruption.

*1. One thing I noticed with the Asus software out of the box, the agreement boxes, you'd scroll down, click AGREE.. and it would hang... and hang...

Now to search for more on the same. Incidentally, I've an AX88U and that seems to be working fine, different build altogether though.

S
.

 

[northumberland]

It is due to USB3 mode, I have same issue. When you switch to USB2 mode, then the 2,4 will be back.

Tried without a USB plugged in and was no different, I didn't however change the dropdown to USB2 so perhaps this is linked.

 

[vanarebane]

Tried without a USB plugged in and was no different, I didn't however change the dropdown to USB2 so perhaps this is linked.

If you have any other router available, I'd suggest you to remove the router from your network - totally unplug the router, do a factory reset and let it sit overnight. Next day power it on and see if the 2.4GHz works.
I had my problems with new AX88U and when getting the RMA from ASUS, I reset and disconnected the router and next day did a quick check and discovered the 2.4GHz started to work again. Only after 2~3h it disappeared again without any configuration.

Also you can check in the router menu System Log -> Wireless Log and in the Wireless 2.4 GHz section notice the Utilization percentage. When mine 2.4GHz lacked working, I noticed the utilization was always 100%.
After RMA this problem has not appeared again [knocking the table] and I have Merlin 3006.102.3_beta1. So I suspect ASUS had a problematic patch.

 

[snevs]

I'm still having these issues.
What I did so far:
- Disabled USB3 mode
- Even removed the USB stick completely
- Disabled WIFI7
- Disabled MLO
- Disabled smart connect
- Multiple factory resets
- Replaced 2 RT-BE88u routers already

Maybe I should switch to a TP-Link (Archer BE800)?

 

[vanarebane]

Maybe I should switch to a TP-Link (Archer BE800)?

Definitely not TP-Link ! Rumours are that TP-Link is the next Huawei with integrated security holes and Chinese spying.

I just looked at my settings and I remembered something. The Wi-Fi Authentication setting was WPA3 when I had problems. Right now I have WPA2/WPA3 selected.
I remembered I had some problems with older devices.

- Replaced 2 RT-BE88u routers already

Oh wow! Did you get those routers from same retailer or from ASUS? You might be going trough some rough patch

 

[northumberland]

If you have any other router available, I'd suggest you to remove the router from your network - totally unplug the router, do a factory reset and let it sit overnight. Next day power it on and see if the 2.4GHz works.
I had my problems with new AX88U and when getting the RMA from ASUS, I reset and disconnected the router and next day did a quick check and discovered the 2.4GHz started to work again. Only after 2~3h it disappeared again without any configuration.

Also you can check in the router menu System Log -> Wireless Log and in the Wireless 2.4 GHz section notice the Utilization percentage. When mine 2.4GHz lacked working, I noticed the utilization was always 100%.
After RMA this problem has not appeared again [knocking the table] and I have Merlin 3006.102.3_beta1. So I suspect ASUS had a problematic patch.

Be interesting to see what it says for utilisation, after the fix I mentioned it's been stable since Friday so am hopeful, next test will be reinstalling Merlin, though part of me wants to wait until he has the latest GPL to compile from.

S