RT-AC68U doesn't play nice with WiFi or AirPrint printing

[ualdrivr]

I've tried everything. I believe it's a Firmware issue. The WiFi printing sometimes works flawlessly and some times it doesn't.

I have re-installed the printer driver for my Epson all in one WorkForce 845 and it seems to be working all right. But when it comes to AirPrint form my iPhone or iPad then all bets are off.

The printer shows on my Network fine, I even gave it a Static IP. When I check Confirm Network setting on the printer, everything looks great. I pick a PDF document to print from my iPad or iPhone and all hell breaks lose. It prints one to three lines and then it stops, the router reboots and throws everything off the Network and then it restarts it self.

This is very annoying and needs to be addressed ASUS!!! I have contacted Support with very little help. All I heard is that they are working on new Firmware. I put a 3 star review on the router on Newegg, because of this problem. More testing is required on the router, so it plays nice with everything and all printers.

Firmware version: 3.0.0.4.374_4561

Having said that, I do love the power and range of this router. I've had it for over a month now and it has stabilized significantly from the first couple of days. My wife's laptop which is at the furthest point from the router with four walls in between and equipped with the AC-51 USB Asus adapter gets 117 to 88 Mbps consistently, if I get near the router 433.3 Mbps is not out of reach.

Any other guys have experienced problems with Airprint?

 

[Buck115]

I have two Canon AirPrint enabled printers (MG6220 and MG8220) on my network, both connected wirelessly. So far I haven't noticed any issues printing from my iPad. I'm currently using the Beta 4887 firmware, but AirPrint worked fine for me on 4561.

 

[ualdrivr]

I have two Canon AirPrint enabled printers (MG6220 and MG8220) on my network, both connected wirelessly. So far I haven't noticed any issues printing from my iPad. I'm currently using the Beta 4887 firmware, but AirPrint worked fine for me on 4561.

Hmm, I wonder what's causing this. It just prints one to three document lines and then all hell breaks lose. The router drops everything and everyone off the Network and restarts. By that time of course, the printer is frozen and I have to cancel the print job, in order to eject the paper.

 

[RMerlin]

Hmm, I wonder what's causing this. It just prints one to three document lines and then all hell breaks lose. The router drops everything and everyone off the Network and restarts.

Probably same issue discussed in other threads. FW 374.4561 has an issue where some people's RT-AC68U will randomly reboot themselves. Update to the recently released 374.4887, it should resolve the crashing issues.

 

[ualdrivr]

Probably same issue discussed in other threads. FW 374.4561 has an issue where some people's RT-AC68U will randomly reboot themselves. Update to the recently released 374.4887, it should resolve the crashing issues.

what about yours RMerlin? Should I go that route?

 

[RMerlin]

what about yours RMerlin? Should I go that route?

The 374.40-alpha 4 build doesn't have the issue (but 374.40 Beta 3 does).

Depends on what you need out of the firmware. 374.4887 seem fairly solid, but it will lack my own changes.

 

[ualdrivr]

The 374.40-alpha 4 build doesn't have the issue (but 374.40 Beta 3 does).

Depends on what you need out of the firmware. 374.4887 seem fairly solid, but it will lack my own changes.

Well, I did install the 374.40-alpha 4 and it went smoothly. Got stomped when it asked to reboot the router "manually" but I figured it out. Good thing the 68U has an ON/Off switch It works great and I noticed that menus on the Web interface load a lot faster than before. Haven't done the AirPrint test yet, but shortly, after I build my courage up with a beer....!

OK had a DirtWolf by Victory brewery..., very nice double IPA! Fired up my Adobe app on the iPhone, launch a file and printed a single page from it...lo and behold, the page printed no hiccups, no reboots. I am very happy so far.

RMerlin what is the "Overclock" for? I mean, I know what overclocking is, my water-cooled rig is overclocked to the max, but did you find a way to overclock the chip in the router??? That would be so great, is it stable, or I need to water-cool it?

 

[RMerlin]

Well, I did install the 374.40-alpha 4 and it went smoothly. Got stomped when it asked to reboot the router "manually" but I figured it out. Good thing the 68U has an ON/Off switch

This is because the RT-AC68U only has one firmware partition. So after you have overwritten the flashed firmware with the new one, if there are bits of the firmware code that aren't in cache, the router will get stuck trying to access the overwritten filesystem. That's when you require to do a manual power cycle.

RMerlin what is the "Overclock" for? I mean, I know what overclocking is, my water-cooled rig is overclocked to the max, but did you find a way to overclock the chip in the router??? That would be so great, is it stable, or I need to water-cool it?

During development, Asus implemented a Turbo mode that would overclock the router from its stock 800 MHz to 1 GHz. During development they found it wasn't stable enough, so that feature got dropped from the final product. However most of the code related to turning the LED button into the Turbo button was still present, so I simply re-enabled that code.

Note that it does not work on every router, so if your router fails to boot after you enable it, just disable it by un-pressing the button, and power cycling your router.

 

[whitey019]

This is going to sound a bit odd; I didn't fully understand it, but it worked. I originally had a Linksys E4200V2 and upgraded to the ASUS RT-AC68U and configured it the same as the Linksys during installation. Everything worked fine, 20+ devices, except my printer (HP Officejet Pro 8600), which would timeout and occassionally do unexpected things. I had a static IP set for the printer, so I deleted the reserved address and reconnected the printer to the router via the printer's front panel and ever since it has worked perfectly. I suspect it had something to do with security settings, because the printer doesn't provide all the options as it walks through network configuration, opting to auto-configure some settings. Anyhow, I thought I'd pass on my expereince.

 

[ualdrivr]

This is going to sound a bit odd; I didn't fully understand it, but it worked. I originally had a Linksys E4200V2 and upgraded to the ASUS RT-AC68U and configured it the same Linksys during installation. Everything worked fine, 20+ devices, except my printer (HP Officejet Pro 8600), which would timeout and occassionally do unexpected things. I had a static IP set for the printer, so I deleted the reserved address and reconnected the printer to the router via the printer's front panel and ever since it has worked perfectly. I suspect it had something to do with security settings, because the printer doesn't provide all the options as it walks through network configuration, opting to auto-configure some settings. Anyhow, I thought I'd pass on my expereince.

Thank you for that. After the 370.40 alpha 4 Merlin Firmware install, everything has been working great, including AirPrint. Over 13 hours of up time now.

 

[Paralel]

I've noticed a problem with WiFi printing if you have the 2.4 GHz radio set to anything but "N-Only" and the printer you are trying to print to has an 802.11n radio.

If you're not operating in "N-Only" mode, give that a try.

 

[patkremer]

Working on RT-N66U

After reading this thread, I updated my RT-N66U to 374.40 Beta2 and my Airprint problems disappeared.

 

[ualdrivr]

I've noticed a problem with WiFi printing if you have the 2.4 GHz radio set to anything but "N-Only" and the printer you are trying to print to has an 802.11n radio.



If you're not operating in "N-Only" mode, give that a try.

After reading this thread, I updated my RT-N66U to 374.40 Beta2 and my Airprint problems disappeared.

Problem is solved with RMerlin's 374.40 alpha 4. Router is much more stable now. WiFi printing and AirPrint work flawlessly.
Tomorrow might try the new Asus Firmware, I hear it's out.