RT AC66U Merlin randomly forgetting settings

[ryanoc75]

I recently purchased an RT AC66U and flashed it with the most recent merlin firmware. Since then, the router will randomly forget some settings but not others. It frequently loses the port forwarding rules with no apparent reason for it. You can restore the settings by reloading a save (the save I am reloading is from a fresh configuration) Yesterday it suddenly forgot all of the device names and DHCP reserved addresses and today the Samba server settings are all gone but the port forwarding table and DHCP reservation tables are fine. I’m getting very frustrated as I’m not sure why it is doing this. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance

 

[RMerlin]

I recently purchased an RT AC66U and flashed it with the most recent merlin firmware. Since then, the router will randomly forget some settings but not others. It frequently loses the port forwarding rules with no apparent reason for it. You can restore the settings by reloading a save (the save I am reloading is from a fresh configuration) Yesterday it suddenly forgot all of the device names and DHCP reserved addresses and today the Samba server settings are all gone but the port forwarding table and DHCP reservation tables are fine. I’m getting very frustrated as I’m not sure why it is doing this. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance

You might have corrupted settings. Do a factory default reset, and manually reconfigure everything without reusing any existing saved backup.

Also make sure you don't run out of NVRam. This can be monitored on the Tools -> Sysinfo page.

 

[ryanoc75]

Thanks for the advice - I have now reset everything from scratch and the system seems to be stable, from a remembering settings standpoint or at least has been for the past 48 hours or so. A few more issues and quick questions as a result of the excercise though:

1)Why won't wireless devices connect if using the same SSID and security protocol and password? I've got a outdoor cam that is 60 feet up a pole and now I have to reset it to get it to join the network which is a bit of a pain.

2)You mention watching my nvram. Mine sits at around 74% used constantly. Is there anything that I can do to reduce the nvram usuage if it gets higher? Is 74% normal when I've got 2 1TB usb drives connected, one empty and one full of media, about 12 devices with static IPs and half a dozen port forwards?

3) I now have this constant recurring entry in the log file where the IP address changes and the ports change but something is constantly trying to log in. Before resetting everything this issue wasn't present

ct 30 01:04:32 dropbear[8745]: Login attempt for nonexistent user from 122.225.109.111:22102
Oct 30 01:04:32 dropbear[8750]: Exit before auth: Disconnect received
Oct 30 01:04:32 dropbear[8755]: Child connection from 144.0.0.63:35659
Oct 30 01:04:32 dropbear[8744]: Login attempt for nonexistent user from 122.225.109.111:19565
Oct 30 01:04:32 dropbear[8748]: Login attempt for nonexistent user from 122.225.109.111:23991
Oct 30 01:04:33 dropbear[8744]: Login attempt for nonexistent user from 122.225.109.111:19565
Oct 30 01:04:33 dropbear[8746]: Bad password attempt for 'admin' from 122.225.109.111:23616
Oct 30 01:04:33 dropbear[8745]: Login attempt for nonexistent user from 122.225.109.111:22102
Oct 30 01:04:33 dropbear[8748]: Login attempt for nonexistent user from 122.225.109.111:23991
Oct 30 01:04:33 dropbear[8744]: Login attempt for nonexistent user from 122.225.109.111:19565
Oct 30 01:04:33 dropbear[8756]: Child connection from 122.225.97.70:45947
Oct 30 01:04:33 dropbear[8752]: Login attempt for nonexistent user from 122.225.97.70:4350


Any ideas? Thanks for your time and your help with this as its much appreciated.

 

[RMerlin]

1)Why won't wireless devices connect if using the same SSID and security protocol and password? I've got a outdoor cam that is 60 feet up a pole and now I have to reset it to get it to join the network which is a bit of a pain.

Some devices will sometime store additional low-level information when they are configured as a wireless client. That's why you should always delete and reconfigure any wireless profile when changing router. Ideally the same should be done if there was any major change by the router manufacturer (for example switching to a completely different wireless driver in the firmware).

2)You mention watching my nvram. Mine sits at around 74% used constantly. Is there anything that I can do to reduce the nvram usuage if it gets higher? Is 74% normal when I've got 2 1TB usb drives connected, one empty and one full of media, about 12 devices with static IPs and half a dozen port forwards?

Should be fine. Usage will vary very little over time, unless you start adding a lot of additional settings, most specially large things such as OpenVPN certificates.

3) I now have this constant recurring entry in the log file where the IP address changes and the ports change but something is constantly trying to log in. Before resetting everything this issue wasn't present

ct 30 01:04:32 dropbear[8745]: Login attempt for nonexistent user from 122.225.109.111:22102
Oct 30 01:04:32 dropbear[8750]: Exit before auth: Disconnect received
Oct 30 01:04:32 dropbear[8755]: Child connection from 144.0.0.63:35659
Oct 30 01:04:32 dropbear[8744]: Login attempt for nonexistent user from 122.225.109.111:19565
Oct 30 01:04:32 dropbear[8748]: Login attempt for nonexistent user from 122.225.109.111:23991
Oct 30 01:04:33 dropbear[8744]: Login attempt for nonexistent user from 122.225.109.111:19565
Oct 30 01:04:33 dropbear[8746]: Bad password attempt for 'admin' from 122.225.109.111:23616
Oct 30 01:04:33 dropbear[8745]: Login attempt for nonexistent user from 122.225.109.111:22102
Oct 30 01:04:33 dropbear[8748]: Login attempt for nonexistent user from 122.225.109.111:23991
Oct 30 01:04:33 dropbear[8744]: Login attempt for nonexistent user from 122.225.109.111:19565
Oct 30 01:04:33 dropbear[8756]: Child connection from 122.225.97.70:45947
Oct 30 01:04:33 dropbear[8752]: Login attempt for nonexistent user from 122.225.97.70:4350

You enabled WAN access to your SSH server, so it's getting hit by a bunch of random port scanners looking for non-secured SSH servers. Disable SSH Wan access unless you really need to be able to access it remotely (in which case, make sure you use a secure password, ideally switch to key-based authentication).

 

[cdouglass]

I have learned not to use Firefox to configure the router with the newest firmware.

I'm guessing that some of the scripts are not completely compatible with Firefox and IE doesn't have the problem.

FYI... I install a lot of these so I see the problem more than most others.