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RT-AC88U Internet Problem: ISP's DHCP did not function properly.

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This is a known issue for many years. I'll share my experience. Using normal or aggressive or continuous mode didn't help me. Nor did flashing different stock or merlin firmware versions. Nor did factory resets. Only after I got rid of my Dynamic Public IP and ordered a Static Public IP from my ISP did the problem go away. So I think that whether or not it's due to hardware or due to firmware, the AC86U Asus router model has major compatibility issues in how it uses DHCP to negotiate IP address leases with many ISPs. Perhaps it is true for other models, like yours.

When I had the persistent internet disconnections, hourly or weekly, I wrote a script to automatically reset the WAN interface and restore connectivity. It's in the Merlin Wiki. Without that script I was forced to be at home to physically unplug and replug the ethernet in the WAN interface so that the lease would renew.

I hope this info can help you.
 
So I contacted Asus Germany and they told me that they don't offer repairs outside of the warranty time. Which sucks big time. This will influence my future Router purchases, as I am not sure if it is a good idea to buy a expensive router.

Anyway I suspected that there is a connector problem with the WAN port on my RT-AC88U Router and that is the reason I am not getting a IP-Address from my ISP provider.

After some time I remembered that my router offers Dual Wan option. So I changed the WAN Port to the Ethernet Lan Port 1. And the Router works !

So maybe in the future this helps somebody.

rt_ac88u_DUAL_WAN.png
 
So I contacted Asus Germany and they told me that they don't offer repairs outside of the warranty time. Which sucks big time. This will influence my future Router purchases, as I am not sure if it is a good idea to buy a expensive router.

Anyway I suspected that there is a connector problem with the WAN port on my RT-AC88U Router and that is the reason I am not getting a IP-Address from my ISP provider.

After some time I remembered that my router offers Dual Wan option. So I changed the WAN Port to the Ethernet Lan Port 1. And the Router works !

So maybe in the future this helps somebody.

If that solved it for you then that is awesome, however I suspect you will begin to see the issue again within a few days when your DHCP lease expires. Likely switching the WAN port changed the MAC (and the DHCP lease).

I suffered this same issue and you can read about it here.
In my case I changed absolutely nothing on my side, but what fixed it for me was changing ISPs. Exact same coax cable, last-mile cable, everything. All that changed was the ISP and I haven't had this issue now in over a month.

It really seems to just be case of a bug in the WAN code in ASUS with certain ISP DHCP providers.
 

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