RP-AC68U repeater and RT-AC68U setup issues

[Diana D]

I'm getting far too old, lol

I just got hold of an RP-AC68U today, and for the life of me, cannot figure out how to get this thing connected? It sits there with the (white) flashing lights on rear of unit, and looks rather lovely in its red glow, lol, but unless some kind soul could explain how to get it to do something else, it's going in the bin?

Set up is as follows:

AC68U router all working grand with John's fork (19E). 2 & 5Ghz all at peak. RP-AC68U sitting two rooms above, blinking. No access via web as per instructions, but I'm guessing it's something to do with the main router settings?

Laymans guide I'd like, if possible, lol, to connect, and have best speed on repeater.

Thx guys.

I set one of these up for my mom for Christmas, and ran into the same problem. Some digging around online revealed a design flaw where the plastic from the bottom keeps pressing on the reset button, thus making it impossible to truly set it up. I removed the bottom plastic piece and had my dad file down the part that was pressing down on the reset button, reset the device, and voila! I was able to set it up properly via WPS and its up and running now with no problems. If you haven't gotten yours working yet, I hope this solution helps!

 

[margolbe]

I set one of these up for my mom for Christmas, and ran into the same problem. Some digging around online revealed a design flaw where the plastic from the bottom keeps pressing on the reset button, thus making it impossible to truly set it up. I removed the bottom plastic piece and had my dad file down the part that was pressing down on the reset button, reset the device, and voila! I was able to set it up properly via WPS and its up and running now with no problems. If you haven't gotten yours working yet, I hope this solution helps!

I'm very disappointed in this product.

There are major problems with it. The signal gets dropped at least twice a day.

ASUS hasn't issued a firmware update in almost a year, yet many complain of problems with this unit.

Common ASUS, support your customers. Please fix this unit!!

 

[galen2]

Seems Asus will give to RP-AC68U same support as EA-AC87... thats is... no support, 0 firmwares released. I have both (and asus RT-AC66U) and will never buy again a network product from Asus, they only update routers and forget this devices that cost same as a router.

 

[margolbe]

Seems Asus will give to RP-AC68U same support as EA-AC87... thats is... no support, 0 firmwares released. I have both (and asus RT-AC66U) and will never buy again a network product from Asus, they only update routers and forget this devices that cost same as a router.

I too share your sentiment.
I am no longer using this crappy device.
I went back to a Netgear EX7000, which with the latest firmware, has been rock solid thus far.
ASUS, look yourself in the mirror and do something about fixing this product!!

 

[Naifu]

I too was a long time ASUS customer. I bought the EA-87 and was disappointed. Thought it was a one time incident and bought the RP-AC68. What a mistake. Unreliable as hell and only after a lot of tweaking I was able to have a somewhat stable ExpressWay connection to my RT-AC3200.

Replaced it with a Netgear EX7000. Now I got a stable and much faster Fastlane connection (basically same as ExpressWay) than before.

The RP-AC68 went to a friend of mine who needed a simple AP. Well turned out that the crappy device can't even work as a AP properly.

The RT-AC3200 will stay as long as Merlin supports it. The moment the support is dropped or technology evolves is such a way that it is obsolete, I will look for a replacement from another brand. I'll not buy any Asus network products again if their product support doesn't improve a lot.

Cheers
N.

 

[d08z]

If you're still experiencing issues with the RP-AC68U I ran into what sound like the same problems too (using it with the RT-AC5300). After a bit of investigation I realised it kept auto assigning itself to the same IP as my router, which destabilised my entire home network. To solve it I had to do the following:

Turn off the repeater to free up 192.168.1.1 for the router
Go to router settings. Change the DHCP allocation table to start at 192.168.1.3 and apply
Turn off the router to free up 192.168.1.1 for the repeater
Go to repeater settings, LAN settings. Turn off auto assign IP. Set IP to 192.168.1.2, subnet mask 255.255.255.0, default gateway 192.168.1.1 (the router), apply
Turn on the router and you're working.
If you then change from repeater to expressway or other, the repeater seems to forget that you've told it not to auto assign IP, and you have to restart the process.

Annoying and I don't know whether it's ASUS' fault designing their products in that way or if I did something stupid in the initial set up to cause the clash, but once its fixed they run stable *touch wood*.

Interestingly I had the same problem with the PL-AC56 that I have out in my garage, it was also auto assigning itself to the same IP as the router and was fixed in the same way.

 

[jegesq]

I've used several repeaters and media bridges on my network for a number of years. I saw an RP-AC68U at Fry's for a pretty cheap price so I grabbed it to test it out.
Terrible product. Experienced similar issues, particularly with trying to repeat both 2.4 and 5ghz signals (which is a "feature" of this repeater) to those that others describe here. I could only reliably get it set up to repeat a single channel (either 2.4ghz or 5ghz). And when enabling both the 2.4 and 5ghz radios in the "repeating" side (i.e., the signals being rebroadast by the repeater) the max throughput and speeds were limited by the max speeds of the 2.4ghz radio.

Took it back and bought another RT-66U, a much more reliable repeater that is far easier to set up as a repeater.

 

[Alexander Abbott]

I am running into a nearly similar problem, but have not been able to solve it through multiple reboots.
My setup is:
ASUS RT-AC87U with firmware: 3.0.0.4.380_7266

I just bought an ASUS RP-68U which is updated to firmware 3.0.0.4.378_394.

I have tried multiple time to connect it via the wizard to both the 2.4 and 5 networks, but it will only ever latch onto the 2.4, which it then repeats as a 2.4_RPT and a 5_RPT networks.

As seen here:

I tried the method suggested in post #26, and now have the repeater assigned to 192.168.1.2 manually, and the router's DHCP server starting at 192.168.1.3, but to no avail.

Any more advice? I've tried resetting 3 or 4 times, and confirmed it will connect to the 5ghz if I use the Express Way method, but I would like both networks to be extended.

UPDATE: I left it overnight and it looks like it IS connecting, but is really continuously reconnecting and disconnecting. Most of the time is list the 5g speed as 175.5Mbps, but very occasionally will just to what I expect at 800-1200Mbps.

 

[Asmodaeus]

Hi,

I just registered to write that I have the exact same issue. Alexander Abbot's screenshot might as well be from my repeater :|
Did any of you guys figure out this?

-Miguel

 

[margolbe]

ASUS should be ashamed of itself for putting out this piece of crap.

I could never get it to work correctly and they have seemed to abandon it with firmware updates. Mine sits in my closet.

I will never again buy an ASUS router.

 

[techhead]

I'm getting far too old, lol

I just got hold of an RP-AC68U today, and for the life of me, cannot figure out how to get this thing connected? It sits there with the (white) flashing lights on rear of unit, and looks rather lovely in its red glow, lol, but unless some kind soul could explain how to get it to do something else, it's going in the bin?

Set up is as follows:

AC68U router all working grand with John's fork (19E). 2 & 5Ghz all at peak. RP-AC68U sitting two rooms above, blinking. No access via web as per instructions, but I'm guessing it's something to do with the main router settings?

Laymans guide I'd like, if possible, lol, to connect, and have best speed on repeater.

Thx guys.

RP-AC68U review / experience / issues / reliability.
Yes. I just bought one (June 2017). Setup the 2.4GHz Expressway connect via the built in firmware admin interface. Followed the steps....walla....no clients connect. It mapped it's own IP to one totally outside the home RT-AC88U DHCP range. So...I manually change it. Okay...walla....oh...wait....no clients connect... So I give a Windows 10 laptop a fixed IP address.......Connected! Walla...connected, secure...but oh wait....no Internet. What a peice of rubbish! So...got an RMA replacement. Walla....maybe...oh...no. Same issues all over again....!!! Totally rubbish. This RP-AC68U from ASUS is trash...at least for an Expressway setup.

Contacted support. Escalated. One week later they are still asking me to send trace route data! I will be seeking a refund and pulling out my ASUS stuff for another brand.

Do not buy any ASUS RP-AC68U. They are boat anchors!