[Release] Asuswrt-Merlin 384.13 is now available

[Makaveli]

If it was the firmware, everyone running it would have the same problem.

This 1000%

There is no mention in the changelog of a wireless driver change.

 

[ray]

You must have a setting in the 2.4GHz control panel professional settings that is interfering with your devices. Check that you have universal beamforming, airtime fairness and Roaming assistant set to disable.

Thank you very much for your suggestions. I had a look in the professional tab and universal beamforming and explicit beamforming were enabled so I disabled them. The rest are already disabled.

With those changes, my Kindle seems to connect easier and it's showing 2 wifi bars, marginally better than before when it couldn't see the SSID or it'd connect with 1 bar and drop out.

With the PS4, it also seems to see the SSID easier and is able to obtain an IP address. But it's reporting my internet connection as failed and I can't proceed with the connection test.

Edit: Did another PS4 test and it doesn't see my SSID nor get an IP. I don't understand why the 2.4ghz is so weak. I can see my neighbors' SSIDs and I can't see mine in the same room.

Is there anything else I should look out for? Here's my professional tab for 2.4ghz:

I ran the AC86U's site survey and it looks like the 2.4ghz signal strength is strong:

 

[Grisu]

For me they all over -60dbm are strong. But no reason for ch.11 left alone to work well, only problem is the very strong ch7 slightly overlapping. Whoever uses it should change to 6!
Try on ch. 1.

 

[sl4fko]

Hi.

Runnig 384.13 Merlin on AC86U, I have a problem with wireless scheduler...

I enabled this function to shutdown wifi in the night, however, it seems that it does not work at all... I checked all the fields for both bands with "Deny", clicked "OK" and finally "Apply" in the bottom. In spite of all this, the function does not work at scheduled time. Nothing happens.

Moreover, what is funny, is that the LEDs on the router started blinking again (they were previously shut down with the button on the back of the router) and now they CANNOT be shutdown again with the same button!!(?)

Thanks to you all for (any) help!

 

[CaptainSTX]

Thanks to you all for (any) help!

The AC86 for certain individuals has a record of WiFi instability issues. If you are happy with all the router's other features and it is working then I suggest you try factory reset and then not use the WiFi disable feature and be satisfied that most everything else is working.

You probably don't want to RMA the router as there is a good chance the router that ASUS sends you in exchange will have more problems than your current router.

 

[Mutzli]

Thank you very much for your suggestions. I had a look in the professional tab and universal beamforming and explicit beamforming were enabled so I disabled them. The rest are already disabled.

With those changes, my Kindle seems to connect easier and it's showing 2 wifi bars, marginally better than before when it couldn't see the SSID or it'd connect with 1 bar and drop out.

With the PS4, it also seems to see the SSID easier and is able to obtain an IP address. But it's reporting my internet connection as failed and I can't proceed with the connection test.

Edit: Did another PS4 test and it doesn't see my SSID nor get an IP. I don't understand why the 2.4ghz is so weak. I can see my neighbors' SSIDs and I can't see mine in the same room.

Is there anything else I should look out for? Here's my professional tab for 2.4ghz:

View attachment 19362

I ran the AC86U's site survey and it looks like the 2.4ghz signal strength is strong:

View attachment 19363

Try this:

 

[Mutzli]

And this under General Settings:

 

[bluepoint]

@RMerlin Noticed this in the log when working on other problem.

May  5 01:05:37 httpd: Generating SSL certificate...

httpd is creating SSL certificate when the clock hasn't sync yet luckily it's for 10 years it created an 8 year certificate instead.

 

[sl4fko]

The AC86 for certain individuals has a record of WiFi instability issues. If you are happy with all the router's other features and it is working then I suggest you try factory reset and then not use the WiFi disable feature and be satisfied that most everything else is working.

You probably don't want to RMA the router as there is a good chance the router that ASUS sends you in exchange will have more problems than your current router.

Are you f****** kidding me?! I sold my 2 other routers and got AC86U in hope, that I am buying one of the best AC routers there is... And now you tell me that? Oh boy, me and my luck...


EDIT: I turned wifi scheduler off on both bands and with it LEDs were also turned off when I disabled it, so basically a previous state of the router. Strange...

 

[Netbug]

Are you f****** kidding me?! I sold my 2 other routers and got AC86U in hope, that I am buying one of the best AC routers there is... And now you tell me that? Oh boy, me and my luck...

I've owned my RT-AC86U since march 2018 and have never had wifi instability issues.

 

[QuikSilver]

I've owned my RT-AC86U since march 2018 and have never had wifi instability issues.

First one I bought had an issue. Returned it and got new one. No issues.....even bought another after that.

 

[CaptainSTX]

I've owned my RT-AC86U since march 2018 and have never had wifi instability issues.

That is the case for many AC86 owners but I have gone through five RMAs trying to get a stable unit. There are multiple posts on this forum with people having issues with their AC86s.

On Amazon 28% of the reviews for this router are one star and the common denominator of many of those posts are problems with the WiFi and in particularly the 2.4 Ghz radio. While all routers have some unfavorable reviews the AC86 has a much higher percentage than most.

Hopefully you will get many trouble free years out of your AC86 but one of the other frequent complaints is that this router craps out soon after the warranty has expired.

 

[Val D.]

That is the case for many AC86 owners but I have gone through five RMAs trying to get a stable unit.

You are the RT-AC86U killer. Go to an astrologist, see if you two are compatible.

 

[Val D.]

only problem is the very strong ch7 slightly overlapping. Whoever uses it should change to 6!

Common 1-6-11 scheme is not that important anymore. Today's routers deal better with interference and use channels more efficiently. Auto channel selection on newer routers often jumps on channels 2-3-4 and 8-9-10 and actually pushes more data than on usually recommended 1-6-11. I personally never had any success with 1-6-11. In my area the best throughput channels on 2.4GHz band are 4 and 8. I only use 2.4GHz for my Guest Network and channel 8 is the only one providing about 30-50Mbps to clients. Channel 1 is dead, cant do any better than 2Mbps.

 

[CaptainSTX]

You are the RT-AC86U killer. Go to an astrologist, see if you two are compatible.

The problem is once you get into RMA purgatory ASUS keeps sending out what they consider a refurbished router without adequate testing. To find the stability issues people report, you need to do more than just turn the router on and see if the LEDs light up. The worst exchange router from ASUS came to me with no working 2.4 Ghz radio out of the box.

They don't seem to test the routers to operate as more than a simple AP. If they were willing to run a VPN client, VPN server, and both guest and regular SSIDs along with some other advanced settings enabled and then let the router run for a couple of days on the bench they might find some of the problem units with hardware issues and scrap them instead of continuing to send them back to customers.

The last router I returned to ASUS along with a long list of issues and problems was received by them on Monday, put it on the bench on Tuesday where they claimed no issues found and it was back on the truck Tuesday afternoon.

When it arrived back at my home six days later and I minimally set it up to test it the my VPN clients died after less than two hours. You could not do a factory reset without erasing NVRAM first. I didn't wait to see if the radios would crap out so I put the router back in the box and RMAed it again.

The settings and VPNs I use along with scripts run fine on my AC1900P and also my N66 with the limitation you can't run Entware on a N66.

I'm stubborn and have the time now to continue to battle ASUS until they get me one of the "good" AC86s. If they won't fix my router, eventually the clock will run on the warranty and I will file a claim with AMEX as an extended warranty claim and get a cash refund.

 

[Val D.]

They don't seem to test the routers

No wonder if some contractor company is handling returned products.

I'm stubborn and have the time

If the router craps out I'll just throw it away. I have no time to deal with all this.

 

[ray]

@Mutzli , @Grisu thank you for your suggestions again.

I've tried all of them and unfortunately my 2.4ghz is still bad. It seems very random or the connection is too tenuous. The PS4 is seeing the SSID. It randomly gets an IP sometimes, and other times not. Very rarely, it'll get an internet connection and then fail at PlayStation Network Sign-In. Just one time, it managed to test uploasd speed but failed the download speed test. And it's going through the steps in the test at a crawl, clearly the tests are timing out, this used to zip through quickly.

This is really really bad, I've never encountered this before and don't know how else to troubleshoot.

Edit: I'm attaching a syslog. In the mean time I think I'll do a factory reset and try again.

 

[CaptainSTX]

If the router craps out I'll just throw it away. I have no time to deal with all this.

Presently I have the time so I will continue to play RMA roulette. I have gotten good at the game, good enough that ASUS has been paying for the return shipping on the bad routers after the first two that I returned on my dime.

I also think that ASUS operates under the assumption that the majority of their customers are morons so there really isn't anything wrong with the returned routers so they can just wipe them off and send them on to some other fool.

And for the rest of their customers they hope that they will be like you and give up and just throw the damn router away and move on. If I was still working 40+ hours a week and had kids at home that is probably what I would do.

 

[MDM]

@Mutzli , @Grisu thank you for your suggestions again.

I've tried all of them and unfortunately my 2.4ghz is still bad. It seems very random or the connection is too tenuous. The PS4 is seeing the SSID. It randomly gets an IP sometimes, and other times not. Very rarely, it'll get an internet connection and then fail at PlayStation Network Sign-In. Just one time, it managed to test uploasd speed but failed the download speed test. And it's going through the steps in the test at a crawl, clearly the tests are timing out, this used to zip through quickly.

This is really really bad, I've never encountered this before and don't know how else to troubleshoot.

Edit: I'm attaching a syslog. In the mean time I think I'll do a factory reset and try again.

I noticed you newer acknowledged trying to change the channel.. Did you try it?
And I do mean ALL of them.

 

[ray]

I noticed you newer acknowledged trying to change the channel.. Did you try it?
And I do mean ALL of them.

Hi, I've tried that. I've also done a site survey using the router's built-in tool. The odd thing is it shows the signal strength as very strong. Here's a screen cap from earlier: