Question for RT-AC3100 Owners

[LongRangeSkeet]

Has anyone experienced totally dead 2.4g radios?

I've been reading online that it's a common issue with this model.

Has Asus fixed the issue with newer hardware revisions, or is there still a risk when picking one of these up from a store?

Thanks

 

[LongRangeSkeet]

I may have answered my own question. After perusing the recent Amazon reviews, I see that these ship with defective 2.4 radios that die in less than 6 months.

This is obviously a no-no.

I'm just shocked that Asus let's this happen.

 

[OzarkEdge]

I may have answered my own question. After perusing the recent Amazon reviews, I see that these ship with defective 2.4 radios that die in less than 6 months.

This is obviously a no-no.

I'm just shocked that Asus let's this happen.

You should have bought a Belkin router! They never fail and have twice the WiFi range of all other routers.

OE

 

[Deleted member 22229]

I bought a AC3100 back in 2015 and never had any issues still works today although it has been retired.

 

[LongRangeSkeet]

I bought a AC3100 back in 2015 and never had any issues still works today although it has been retired.

I'm a bit leery of Asus routers at the moment. I've owned an old Asus N router in the past that worked great.

Recently I bought the ax58u and had nothing but issues with the WiFi and QoS, so I returned it.

I was hoping being that the ac3100 is older that it is more stable, but while doing my research I see that the most common issue people have is the 2.4g radio burning out.

 

[LongRangeSkeet]

You should have bought a Belkin router! They never fail and have twice the WiFi range of all other routers.

OE

Didn't mean to trigger you.

 

[Deleted member 22229]

Recently I bought the ax58u and had nothing but issues with the WiFi and QoS, so I returned it.

Interesting. I got a AX58U and it works excellent here don't use QOS, but the wifi works very well.

 

[LongRangeSkeet]

Interesting. I got a AX58U and it works excellent here don't use QOS, but the wifi works very well.

We got at least 16 devices blasting here, so a functional QoS is a must.

I experienced severe sudden slowdowns on at least 2 wireless devices, not to mention high jitter on one of them during speed test.

The wireless coverage was also not great. Worse than the XR500 that I replaced.

 

[Cranium]

I've had the AC 3100 installed for about 2 years and it has been really a very good router. Then again I never set anything " weird " up.

However, if you see my post over the last couple of weeks, I bought an AX58U and just yesterday I set up an AI mesh using the AX58U as the router and the AC3100 as the node. I did this with the help of the kind folks here in the forum.

It really did the trick. So far now for 24 hours I've had rock solid signals and speed. Especially on my back patio where I was not getting any 5Ghz signal and an extremely low 2.4 signal.

I am outside right now enjoying my cup of coffee, my cigar, and great 5Ghz performance. My speed test shows that I'm getting 189 out of my 300 internet speed. I am connected to the AC3100 node in my dining room. The AX-58U is up in my attic.

I couldn't be happier with either router.

 

[L&LD]

I haven't seen a single issue with any RT-AC3100 routers that I or my customers had/have. Many are still working without issues. Just a very stable router with great range (for its time).

 

[LongRangeSkeet]

I haven't seen a single issue with any RT-AC3100 routers that I or my customers had/have. Many are still working without issues. Just a very stable router with great range (for its time).

Thanks.

Just picked it up two hours ago. Got the 2 year plan. Just in case.

The sticker on the box says that it's a version A6 manufactured in 2020.

So hopefully it's a hardware revision with all the issues resolved.

Fingers crossed.

 

[LongRangeSkeet]

I got a really dumb question though.

The IPv4 WAN page has 2 lines for DNS.

The IPv6 WAN page has 3 lines for DNS.

Is there a reason why there would be 2 and 3? Both of these options are talking about Internet DNS lookup, as in Cloudflare or Google, right?

The IPv6 DNS is not for LAN I hope.

 

[LongRangeSkeet]

Well. It hasn't even been 24 hours since I've first unboxed the device and it's already periodically disconnecting on the 5g band. I first noticed it with YouTube when the green "back online" message kept appearing on the bottom. Haven't had a chance to check the 2.4 yet.

I've also noticed that the top is excessively warm to the touch. It's pretty hot to the touch. Much hotter than any other router that I've owned in the past.

I have it sitting in a well ventilated area on top of a table. I did notice that the router itself has very poor ventilation design overall, especially when compared to the X6S, which has almost a completely open top. In fact you can easily see the heatsinks and the PCB through the plastic grates on the Netgear.

I guess all the online reviews are 100% spot on. The rt-ac3100 runs hot and has issues with the radios. I feel that it's just a matter of time with these things before they melt the WiFi from all the heat.

Darn, I was really hoping this was finally the one. Been through 3 routers in less than a month.

 

[L&LD]

Running warm is normal for this router. I have a customer with a tiny, hot, office with no A/C in a commercial kitchen that has an RT-AC3100 in use for a few years now and no issues. The CPU regularly idles at 91C for this customer. This is still running within specs, as per Asus.

The 'disconnecting' issue is interesting though. How are you setting up the router? Specifically?

Are you;
- using/testing with new, never before used, and non-hidden SSID's that are 8 alphanumeric characters with no spaces, no punctuation, no special characters, and no smiley faces?
- flashing the firmware you want to use and then doing a full reset to factory defaults, including checking the 'Initialize all settings' checkbox?
- using Auto Control channels?
- using a VPN?
- using defaults different than the suggested in the M&M Config guide (link in my signature below)?

The RT-AC3100 has been a workhorse router. The issues you describe are not any I have seen personally with many different units.

 

[LongRangeSkeet]

I didn't set it up any different than I would any router.

I set 2.4 to Ch 1.

5g is set to Ch 36.

SSID is not hidden and the password is letters, numbers, and alphanumerical. No spaces.

Smart Connect is OFF.

No VPN but Adaptive QoS is enabled.

It updated itself on first bootup, but I factory reset it (with the checkbox) just to be safe before finishing the setup.

Wireless devices have no issues connecting. The signal is pretty strong.

On at least one of my devices I would completely lose the WiFi connection for a few seconds before it would reconnect.

This is something new between the 4 different routers that I owned in the past 1month.

 

[L&LD]

I have found that the best control channel (and channel bandwidth) varies from router to router. Picking what you always use isn't a good rule, particularly when you're consistently getting issues as you are within a small time frame.

How many characters is the SSID?

Can you test with a never before used (for any of your wireless devices) SSID?

Can you test without using Adaptive QoS?

Flash the firmware once more to the latest (even if it is the same version as the router currently has installed).

Are you using a USB drive? Any scripts? Did you format the JFFS partition after resetting the router?

I can't see how 4 different routers give you issues, it must be how you're setting them up or something else on the network or in the environment that is producing non-WiFi based interference that is affecting your WiFi experience.

 

[LongRangeSkeet]

9 characters in SSID, same I've been using for years. I picked, what seemed to be, the less congested channels for both bands. I live in a 3 story townhome, so the choices are very limited.

No VPN, no USB storage. There is a USB laser printer but its powered off 99% of the time until we need to use it.

I can attempt to use the router without QoS; however, that feature is a must.

I'm on stock firmware and I'm not using any scripts. Honestly, I have no idea what the JFFS partition even is or how to format it.

I basically updated the thing. Full factory reset it with the checkbox marked and set it up without restoring the config file.

 

[L&LD]

Using an app to see 'least congested channels'? I suggest instead to just manually try every one available on 5GHz and only 1, 6, or 11 on the 2.4GHz band.

You seem to be repeatedly missing the point of using a 'never before used SSID'. Client devices using the old SSID may have certain preconceived expectations of the router they're connecting to, which can easily be much different since the first time you used that SSID with the old router.

 

[LongRangeSkeet]

Using an app to see 'least congested channels'? I suggest instead to just manually try every one available on 5GHz and only 1, 6, or 11 on the 2.4GHz band.

You seem to be repeatedly missing the point of using a 'never before used SSID'. Client devices using the old SSID may have certain preconceived expectations of the router they're connecting to, which can easily be much different since the first time you used that SSID with the old router.

Definitely a project for the weekend then. So many devices. Almost a monumental task

I did disable roaming assistant in the meantime. No disconnects yet

 

[Vincent Clement]

My RT-AC3100 is 3 years old using the latest official ASUS firmware and no issues with the radios. QOS off.