RT-AC5300 Issues With Printer & Sonos Wi-Fi Dropout - HELP!

[nucleartrousers]

Hi,
I am hoping someone can help me before I start flashing my routers with DD-WRT or Tomato in the hope that it fixes the issue!

So, I am running 2x ASUS RT-AC5300 routers; one as the primary router connected to a BT OpenReach Modem and another as a hard-wired AP connected to the primary router via Cat 5 Ethernet. Both routers are running a 2.4Ghz and a SMART rule controlled 5Ghz channel, all networks are configured with the same SSID's.

The problem - I have 2x Wi-Fi printers that repeatedly drop off of the network and need their Wi-Fi switched off and back on again to reconnect. When I say repeatedly I mean literally within the hour of their Wi-Fi being power cycled!

I also have a SONOS sound setup of 2x Play:1 and 1x Play:5 units connected to the 2.4Ghz Wi-Fi. These also repeatedly drop off of the network.

If I check my local ARP cache on my PC I invariably cannot see some or all of the printers and SONOS device IP addresses and associated MAC addresses. Sometimes even when I can see the devices in my ARP cache and can ping them, specifically the Wi-Fi printers I still cannot use them from any of the PC's on the network or any of the iphones or ipads via Airprint. The router needs a reboot before the printers work again momentarily.

The reason that I have 2x RT-AC5300's as because I thought that the 2.4Ghz radio on the original one may be failing so replaced it with a new unit only to find that the new unit displays exactly the same symptoms.

I have tried:
- the default ASUS firmware with just one of the routers. I have tried with 2 routers using AiMesh and as a primary and AP
- with Smart control enabled and when it is disabled
- with the 5Ghz radios switched off so everything is on the 2.4Ghz network
- changing the Wi-Fi key rotation interval for the networks from 3600 (an hour) to 0 and also 604,800 (a week)
- with individual SSID's for the 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz networks
- with triple band SMART control across all radio channels
- with the AP running and with it not running
- I have reset to factory settings more times than should be necessary
- with Merlin's latest firmware
- different control channels 1, 6, 11 etc and channel bandwidths 20Mhz, 20Mhz/40Mhz, 20Mhz/40Mhz/80Mhz

I have to reboot the routers at least once a day if not more in the vain hope that I can use the SONOS sound system or the printers but it is simply not reliable and I can guarantee that when I or the missus just want to play some music or print an email we can't use Airprint and the app on our iphone or on the PC cannot find the existing SONOS system.

SONOS support has even looked and said that 'something doesn't look right with the network' but they don't know what it is!!!

Internet seems fine and most of the other devices on the network seem to communicate ok. Even the IP cameras all work ok.

Something about the Wi-Fi printers and how SONOS works seems to just be wrong and I am running out of ideas apart form to try another router firmware.

I work in IT and am familiar with the pros and cons of my Wi-Fi network and it's current configuration hence why I have tried most conceivable variations of SSID and router config but believe me when I say that I am at a total loss as to what the problem is... I guess my next step is to run a Wireshark trace and see if I can see an issue but the traces from Wireshark can be MASSIVE and a nightmare to search through, even with a top-spec machine available.

Any advice or discussion would be appreciated...

 

[Sanna1967]

Try disabling Airtime Fairness and Universal Beamforming. Asuswrt firmware

 

[skeal]

Hi,
I am hoping someone can help me before I start flashing my routers with DD-WRT or Tomato in the hope that it fixes the issue!

So, I am running 2x ASUS RT-AC5300 routers; one as the primary router connected to a BT OpenReach Modem and another as a hard-wired AP connected to the primary router via Cat 5 Ethernet. Both routers are running a 2.4Ghz and a SMART rule controlled 5Ghz channel, all networks are configured with the same SSID's.

The problem - I have 2x Wi-Fi printers that repeatedly drop off of the network and need their Wi-Fi switched off and back on again to reconnect. When I say repeatedly I mean literally within the hour of their Wi-Fi being power cycled!

I also have a SONOS sound setup of 2x Play:1 and 1x Play:5 units connected to the 2.4Ghz Wi-Fi. These also repeatedly drop off of the network.

If I check my local ARP cache on my PC I invariably cannot see some or all of the printers and SONOS device IP addresses and associated MAC addresses. Sometimes even when I can see the devices in my ARP cache and can ping them, specifically the Wi-Fi printers I still cannot use them from any of the PC's on the network or any of the iphones or ipads via Airprint. The router needs a reboot before the printers work again momentarily.

The reason that I have 2x RT-AC5300's as because I thought that the 2.4Ghz radio on the original one may be failing so replaced it with a new unit only to find that the new unit displays exactly the same symptoms.

I have tried:
- the default ASUS firmware with just one of the routers. I have tried with 2 routers using AiMesh and as a primary and AP
- with Smart control enabled and when it is disabled
- with the 5Ghz radios switched off so everything is on the 2.4Ghz network
- changing the Wi-Fi key rotation interval for the networks from 3600 (an hour) to 0 and also 604,800 (a week)
- with individual SSID's for the 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz networks
- with triple band SMART control across all radio channels
- with the AP running and with it not running
- I have reset to factory settings more times than should be necessary
- with Merlin's latest firmware
- different control channels 1, 6, 11 etc and channel bandwidths 20Mhz, 20Mhz/40Mhz, 20Mhz/40Mhz/80Mhz

I have to reboot the routers at least once a day if not more in the vain hope that I can use the SONOS sound system or the printers but it is simply not reliable and I can guarantee that when I or the missus just want to play some music or print an email we can't use Airprint and the app on our iphone or on the PC cannot find the existing SONOS system.

SONOS support has even looked and said that 'something doesn't look right with the network' but they don't know what it is!!!

Internet seems fine and most of the other devices on the network seem to communicate ok. Even the IP cameras all work ok.

Something about the Wi-Fi printers and how SONOS works seems to just be wrong and I am running out of ideas apart form to try another router firmware.

I work in IT and am familiar with the pros and cons of my Wi-Fi network and it's current configuration hence why I have tried most conceivable variations of SSID and router config but believe me when I say that I am at a total loss as to what the problem is... I guess my next step is to run a Wireshark trace and see if I can see an issue but the traces from Wireshark can be MASSIVE and a nightmare to search through, even with a top-spec machine available.

Any advice or discussion would be appreciated...

This really sounds like wifi interference IMHO. To much going on.

 

[kfp]

Which firmware version is this? Tried 384.6?

 

[nucleartrousers]

Which firmware version is this? Tried 384.6?

Hi kfp,
Both routers are running 384.5.

Thanks

 

[nucleartrousers]

Try disabling Airtime Fairness and Universal Beamforming. Asuswrt firmware

Hi Sanna1967,
I tried with beamforming disabled but it made no difference. Will try disabling Airtime Fairness.

Thanks

 

[nucleartrousers]

This really sounds like wifi interference IMHO. To much going on.

I did think that but even when using 1 router with just the 2.4Ghz radio switched on, the 5Ghz disabled and having ensured that the Wi-Fi control channel isn't overlapping or sharing channels the problem still occurs.

There's a number of other devices on both the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz networks that simply don't have issues with Internet or other network services like connecting to the NAS, the IP cams, the XBOX, Nintendo Switch, PS4 and such have no problems working... very occasionally the NAT type on the XBOX goes a little awry so we reboot the router and all is back to normal. But as I say, this is very occasional.

Thanks

 

[kfp]

Hi kfp,
Both routers are running 384.5.

Thanks

Definitely give 384.6 a try.

 

[RMerlin]

Airtime Fairness is the most common source of problems with wireless printers so far.