RT-AC68U - Did I Fix My Random Reboots?/Merlin Build Recommendations?

[ahmirjames]

Hey everyone,

So from lurking on this forum for the past day, I can see that a lot of people like myself were having really odd disconnects with the AC68U (I have the AC68R - same thing, I believe?). Specifically, my router would randomly disconnect during the late hours of the night - four or five days ago it was really, REALLY bad, about 6 disconnects in the night while on a Skype conversation, then not so bad three nights ago with maybe 2 or 3 disconnects just browsing, and two nights ago the router disconnected while I was doing a product launch (which led me to not get the product!). While the router's range has been great, its been like this for a bit. I work online, so I can't have it disconnecting all the time.

So yesterday, I decided to result to the stock firmware of 3.0.0.4.374_583 - while I recognize that this is a slightly unsecure firmware due to its problems with USB drives, I don't use any on the router. So far, I have about 8 devices on the network, one wired connection, and either an Xbox One or Apple TV also through a wired connection. Thing is, I forgot to take my log down, and my current uptime is 0 days 13 hours 54 minutes 27 seconds at the moment, and I wanted to give my log to see if anyone could determine whether there was a problem at some point.

What I'm looking at is the later half - I have no idea what "Expired NAT" is, but someone said it's a normal thing? I also have no idea why it goes from March 30 to 29 to 30. Also, I hear about Merlin's wonderful builds and haven't tried them yet - does anyone know if they're more stable than the stock firmware? Do I Factory Reset and then install a Merlin firmware over it?

Thanks everyone!

[Log Begin]

Mar 30 04:07:57 dhcp client: bound 66.8.168.247 via 66.8.168.1 during 85497 seconds.
Mar 30 04:07:58 rc_service: ntp 684:notify_rc restart_upnp
Mar 30 04:07:58 rc_service: ntp 684:notify_rc restart_diskmon
Mar 30 04:07:58 rc_service: waitting "restart_upnp" via ntp ...
Mar 30 04:07:58 miniupnpd[681]: received signal 15, good-bye
Mar 30 04:07:58 miniupnpd[696]: HTTP listening on port 40906
Mar 30 04:07:58 miniupnpd[696]: Listening for NAT-PMP traffic on port 5351
Mar 30 04:07:59 disk monitor: be idle
Mar 30 04:08:14 rc_service: httpd 515:notify_rc start_autodet
Mar 30 04:08:57 rc_service: httpd 515:notify_rc start_autodet
Mar 30 04:09:09 rc_service: httpd 515:notify_rc start_autodet
Mar 29 18:10:00 syslogd started: BusyBox v1.17.4
Mar 29 18:10:00 kernel: klogd started: BusyBox v1.17.4 (2014-01-13 09:59:21 CST)
Mar 29 18:10:01 start_nat_rules: apply the nat_rules(/tmp/nat_rules_eth0_eth0)!
Mar 30 11:05:02 miniupnpd[696]: Expired NAT-PMP mapping port 35464 TCP removed
Mar 30 12:11:32 miniupnpd[696]: Expired NAT-PMP mapping port 56664 UDP removed
Mar 30 12:11:32 miniupnpd[696]: Expired NAT-PMP mapping port 56664 TCP removed
Mar 30 13:11:45 miniupnpd[696]: Expired NAT-PMP mapping port 56664 UDP removed
Mar 30 13:11:45 miniupnpd[696]: Expired NAT-PMP mapping port 56664 TCP removed
Mar 30 15:55:57 miniupnpd[696]: Expired NAT-PMP mapping port 56664 UDP removed
Mar 30 15:55:57 miniupnpd[696]: Expired NAT-PMP mapping port 56664 TCP removed
Mar 30 17:12:48 miniupnpd[696]: sendto(udp): Operation not permitted

[Log End]

 

[Kris404]

For this router, Merlin's 40 alpha 4 is the most stable so far. The security bugs are fixed in that build.

However, the new official Beta also appears to be stable now.

 

[Kris404]

You generally do not need to do a Factory Reset, but it doesn't hurt when switching back and forth between Official and Merlin builds.

 

[RMerlin]

Expired NAT mappings are perfectly normal. It means you have a device on your network that forwarded a port through UPnP. After a certain period of inactivity, your router will clean up those port forwards which are no longer used.

 

[ahmirjames]

Expired NAT mappings are perfectly normal. It means you have a device on your network that forwarded a port through UPnP. After a certain period of inactivity, your router will clean up those port forwards which are no longer used.

Thank you so much for replying! I guess I'll go try the alpha build of your stuff mentioned above...I'm just happy to not see a disconnect in that log!

 

[ualdrivr]

Thank you so much for replying! I guess I'll go try the alpha build of your stuff mentioned above...I'm just happy to not see a disconnect in that log!

I just loaded the Alpha 4 Firmware yesterday and the router is very stable, powerful and no reboots, so far, with over 14 hours of up time. The only thing you might notice is the 5GHz LED instead of blinking fast like the 2.4Ghz does, it blinks on and off at a much slower pace. Signal is strong though.