Regarding Wireless - I don't know how to describe what is happening...

[agilis]

Hello,


I have an ASUS Ai-Mesh network consisting of a main router, RT-AC88U and an Ai-Mesh node which is an RT-AC86U wired directly to the 88U.

The house is 3 floors (Basement, Floor 1, Floor 2) and the main router, 88U, is located in the finished basement. The 86U is on Floor 2. Both items were bought in July of 2018.

Back Story

Recently, I would say the 3rd to last firmware update, I noticed that my router was freezing. I would see a strange error page similar to the following when trying to access to the router:

The only difference was the device name

Settings have been updated. Web page will now refresh.
Changes have been made to the IP address or port number. You will now be disconnected from ...
To access the settings of ... reconnect to the wireless network and use the updated IP address and port number.

When I searched for this error page, I did not find anything recent. My work-around was to just have the router automatically reboot daily around 5 AM using the reboot scheduler. I was not happy with it.

So my hunch was that perhaps through the several firmware updates since owning this router, a bug or glitch developed. So I reinitialized both the 88U and the 86U with the latest firmware.

But here's the reason for this long-winded plea for help.

Plea for Help:

The wireless on an iPad and iPhone XS on either 2.4 Ghz or 5.0 Ghz is unstable. It takes a bit for twitch.tv to even connect to a stream or load the preview of live streams. Once the stream is connected it will drop out. When browsing TikTok videos the videos takes 5 seconds to start playing and in the middle of the video, the video will start buffering. It's like there is an issue with negotiating or making an initial connection from these devices.

I tested the bandwidth on Speedtest.net and the results are great. I have rebooted my Comcast modem when this problem starts to persist.

No matter what I try, the behavior exists UNTIL...

I reboot the 88U. Once I log in, reboot the router and it comes back online everything works perfectly. Wifi is responsive. twitch.tv streams load instantly. TikTok videos load instantly. Everything is stable. Then, when I wake up in the morning, the same issue is back.

I have disabled all *Beaming* on 2.4 Ghz
I have disabled Universal beaming on 5.0 Ghz
I have disabled Airtime Fairness on both 2.4 Ghz and 5.0 Ghz
I have disabled Mu-Mimo on 5.0 Ghz

I have Ai-Protection and Traffic Analyzer enabled.

My wireless signal is excellent through-out the entire house.

I went to bed with the wireless responding perfectly and this morning I wake up and the wireless is having connection issues again. I did not have this issue before re-initializing the router.

Wired connection is not affected.

Can anyone offer any suggestions as to what this could be or how I could attempt to troubleshoot it? I am prepared to extensively troubleshoot this issue.

Thank you!

Edited: Updated the error page text to remove the incorrect device name.

 

[Clark Griswald]

Why don't you have the 86U as your main and the 88U as the node?
I own both of those routers, and the 86U should work better as your main router (IMHO).
I am running Main/AP so unable to assist with the Mesh.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Settings have been updated. Web page will now refresh.
Changes have been made to the IP address or port number. You will now be disconnected from RT-N66U.
To access the settings of RT-N66U, reconnect to the wireless network and use the updated IP address and port number.

That message is from an RT-N66U which is neither of the devices you've mentioned. Do you have an RT-N66U?

 

[agilis]

Why don't you have the 86U as your main and the 88U as the node?

I made the 88U the main router because it has the higher specs between the 2 routers and that is what ASUS recommends and ALSO because the 88U has several ethernet ports which I need.

 

[agilis]

That message is from an RT-N66U which is neither of the devices you've mentioned. Do you have an RT-N66U?

I copied that from someone's thread here. I will update my original post. Sorry for the confusion. It was exactly that message but the device's name was different.

 

[Clark Griswald]

I made the 88U the main router because it has the higher specs between the 2 routers and that is what ASUS recommends and ALSO because the 88U has several ethernet ports which I need.

Other than the the additional 4-Ethernet ports, which specs are greater on the 88 vs 86?

 

[Grisu]

86U is the much more powerful router and should be the master!

Please dont argument but 88U has more Wifi speed, isnt true, yes it may have 3 bands, but with Aimesh the third will be disabled, either you have ethernet-backhaul or not.

 

[agilis]

Other than the the additional 4-Ethernet ports, which specs are greater on the 88 vs 86?

86U is the much more powerful router and should be the master!

Please dont argument but 88U has more Wifi speed, isnt true, yes it may have 3 bands, but with Aimesh the third will be disabled, either you have ethernet-backhaul or not.

I would not argue. I did not understand that the 86U is more powerful router than an 88U.

Just to be clear: It is an AC3100 vs AC2900

I am using the ethernet-backhaul.

I honestly had no idea. I'm kind of upset I did not know this. If I were to switch out the 2 routers... Would this be the process?

1. Remove the Ai-Mesh node from the 88U.
2. Backup the 88U Settings.
3. Put the 86U in the 88U place.
4. Initialize 86U
5. Restore the 86U with the Settings from the 88U. (Hoping I can do this.)
6. Factory Reset 88U as an Ai-Node.

I'll need to buy an 8 port gigabit switch because I'll need more ports than the 86U offers.

 

[Clark Griswald]

What a great time for you to do an @L&LD * Nuclear Reset

Edit: Misquote fixed

 

[OzarkEdge]

Hello,


I have an ASUS Ai-Mesh network consisting of a main router, RT-AC88U and an Ai-Mesh node which is an RT-AC86U wired directly to the 88U.

The house is 3 floors (Basement, Floor 1, Floor 2) and the main router, 88U, is located in the finished basement. The 86U is on Floor 2. Both items were bought in July of 2018.

Back Story

Recently, I would say the 3rd to last firmware update, I noticed that my router was freezing. I would see a strange error page similar to the following when trying to access to the router:

The only difference was the device name

Settings have been updated. Web page will now refresh.
Changes have been made to the IP address or port number. You will now be disconnected from ...
To access the settings of ... reconnect to the wireless network and use the updated IP address and port number.

When I searched for this error page, I did not find anything recent. My work-around was to just have the router automatically reboot daily around 5 AM using the reboot scheduler. I was not happy with it.

So my hunch was that perhaps through the several firmware updates since owning this router, a bug or glitch developed. So I reinitialized both the 88U and the 86U with the latest firmware.

But here's the reason for this long-winded plea for help.

Plea for Help:

The wireless on an iPad and iPhone XS on either 2.4 Ghz or 5.0 Ghz is unstable. It takes a bit for twitch.tv to even connect to a stream or load the preview of live streams. Once the stream is connected it will drop out. When browsing TikTok videos the videos takes 5 seconds to start playing and in the middle of the video, the video will start buffering. It's like there is an issue with negotiating or making an initial connection from these devices.

I tested the bandwidth on Speedtest.net and the results are great. I have rebooted my Comcast modem when this problem starts to persist.

No matter what I try, the behavior exists UNTIL...

I reboot the 88U. Once I log in, reboot the router and it comes back online everything works perfectly. Wifi is responsive. twitch.tv streams load instantly. TikTok videos load instantly. Everything is stable. Then, when I wake up in the morning, the same issue is back.

I have disabled all *Beaming* on 2.4 Ghz
I have disabled Universal beaming on 5.0 Ghz
I have disabled Airtime Fairness on both 2.4 Ghz and 5.0 Ghz
I have disabled Mu-Mimo on 5.0 Ghz

I have Ai-Protection and Traffic Analyzer enabled.

My wireless signal is excellent through-out the entire house.

I went to bed with the wireless responding perfectly and this morning I wake up and the wireless is having connection issues again. I did not have this issue before re-initializing the router.

Wired connection is not affected.

Can anyone offer any suggestions as to what this could be or how I could attempt to troubleshoot it? I am prepared to extensively troubleshoot this issue.

Thank you!

Edited: Updated the error page text to remove the incorrect device name.

If rebooting the router clears the issue, then I would suspect the router.

Assuming the router is OK, I would suspect the firmware or its configuration.

I would install the latest acceptable firmware that others like, then reset the router, and then configure minimally (no restore). I would leave AIP and Traffic Analyzer OFF. Disable Airtime Fairness; I would leave default beamforming and MUMO settings until you have a stable network and need to troubleshoot individual wireless clients.

Given AiMesh, I would do similar for the node... firmware, reset, add to AiMesh.

Given the 86U vs the 88U, I would make the 86U the router. And consider moving it to the main level somehow, if that helps WiFi coverage.

Then go from there.

OE

 

[agilis]

What a great time for you to do an @L&LD Nuclear setup

lol a what?!

 

[L&LD]

lol a what?!

I was slightly misquoted.

Not a Nuclear setup, rather, a Nuclear Reset.

Please see my signature for the link(s).

 

[agilis]

If rebooting the router clears the issue, then I would suspect the router.

Assuming the router is OK, I would suspect the firmware or its configuration.

I would install the latest acceptable firmware that others like, then reset the router, and then configure minimally (no restore). I would leave AIP and Traffic Analyzer OFF.

Given AiMesh, I would do similar for the node... firmware, reset, add to AiMesh.

Given the 86U vs the 88U, I would make the 86U the router. And consider moving it to the main level somehow, if that helps WiFi coverage.

Then go from there.

OE

I like all these suggestions however I won't be able to put the router on the main level because the modem's coax runs into the basement. Despite that being said, I have had no wifi signal issues or coverage issues. Just this weird issue that has occurred once I reinitialized the firmware.

 

[agilis]

I was slightly misquoted.

Not a Nuclear setup, rather, a Nuclear Reset.

Please see my signature for the link(s).

Holy crap. Now I understand why it's called a Nuclear Reset!! That is really, really involved. I may try that if swapping the 86U for the 88U does not resolve this issue.

I still don't understand how rebooting the router in my current set up fixes the issue until the next morning.

 

[L&LD]

Holy crap. Now I understand why it's called a Nuclear Reset!! That is really, really involved. I may try that if swapping the 86U for the 88U does not resolve this issue.

I still don't understand how rebooting the router in my current set up fixes the issue until the next morning.

The interactions between networking equipment involving firmware, different devices, and their drivers and even plain old static electricity buildup between equipment cannot be easily be put in a box and said to be 'known'.

That is why a Nuclear Reset works for many when it seems that every other logical pursuit to fix the issue(s) failed.

What a Nuclear Reset does is get your networked equipment (hardware and software/firmware) to a good/known state from which further troubleshooting can be accomplished with a fairly high chance that you're not chasing random glitches from inter-firmware version interaction issues or other such easily fixable (even if time-consuming) steps such as a full reset offers.

I don't really care what the actual problem is. I just don't want my customers to see any issues that a proper/full setup can ensure.

 

[agilis]

The interactions between networking equipment involving firmware, different devices, and their drivers and even plain old static electricity buildup between equipment cannot be easily be put in a box and said to be 'known'.

That is why a Nuclear Reset works for many when it seems that every other logical pursuit to fix the issue(s) failed.

What a Nuclear Reset does is get your networked equipment (hardware and software/firmware) to a good/known state from which further troubleshooting can be accomplished with a fairly high chance that you're not chasing random glitches from inter-firmware version interaction issues or other such easily fixable (even if time-consuming) steps such as a full reset offers.

I don't really care what the actual problem is. I just don't want my customers to see any issues that a proper/full setup can ensure.

Perform a WPS NVRAM Erase by holding the WPS button and connecting the power plug (make sure to have left the power switch to the 'On' position). Hold for 10 to 30 seconds and the router should reboot and should take you to the setup wizard. If it doesn't, repeat the above steps (waiting at least 2 minutes with the power off) until it goes into the setup wizard when it boots up. Note: you'll be able to see the 'Asus' SSID if it worked properly.

It states that all USB devices and ethernet plugs be removed. I can only assume you're supposed to connect to the ASUS SSID and that is when you'll be presented with the Setup Wizard?

 

[Grisu]

you can do it with ethernet connection only between PC and router too, but you have to set IP on PC, much more afford to do, easier over WiFi.

 

[OzarkEdge]

OP may only need a clean install with factory default reset and leave AIP OFF. Save the witchcraft for last.

OE

 

[agilis]

OP may only need a clean install with factory default reset and leave AIP OFF. Save the witchcraft for last.

OE

So I did a complete initialize yesterday. I restored with initialization. I then restored my configuration because I do not want to lose my DHCP Server settings. I will switch out the 88U with the 86U and turn the 88U into an Ai-Node. I will also turn off Ai-Protection and the Traffic Monitor off.

I'll then report back but continue to check here for updates and suggestions. I can't do anything until the ethernet switch is delivered.

 

[L&LD]

So I did a complete initialize yesterday. I restored with initialization. I then restored my configuration because I do not want to lose my DHCP Server settings. I will switch out the 88U with the 86U and turn the 88U into an Ai-Node. I will also turn off Ai-Protection and the Traffic Monitor off.

I'll then report back but continue to check here for updates and suggestions. I can't do anything until the ethernet switch is delivered.

If you 'restored' by importing a backup config file, you effectively did not do a 'complete initialize' then.