RT-N66U merlin losing network shares and hanging

[DiscoStu_75]

Hello, this is my first post in the forum, so thanks in advance for any help I can get.
I have an RT-N66U with the latest merlin firmware and a 4TB hard drive attached. I use this hard drive as a media server for plex running on a mac mini. Additionally I also use the router for OpenVPN connections to the US and Spain, so that I can access region restricted content (mainly Netflix and sports).
Everything was working perfect for over three months until somehow my router would start hanging every two hours or so. I thought it was a matter of some minor adjustment so I reset to factory settings and reinstalled the firmware. After this, the hanging issue seemed to solve itself, but a new issue has come up: I lose the network share every half hour or so on my mac and on my PC. The only way I can reconnect is if I adjust any of the settings for the disk share (turn on/off WINS, easy file sharing...) and apply the settings.
In addition to this, the router has started hanging again every two or three hours.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks

 

[JohnNerd]

Hello Disco!

Can you copy/paste the log from the Asus please?

 

[DiscoStu_75]

Hi John, thanks for your fast reply!
I just got home from work and I have noticed that the router has just reset itself. It had been offline all day, probably due to one of these crashes I mention, so this is the only log I have. BTW, right now I can't connect to my shared hard drive. Thanks for your help!

 

[JohnNerd]

You get an error mounting the disk. Try to connect another disk/USB. I woud bet a beer this is causing the problem.

 

[elorimer]

This may not be all that helpful, but I had something similar. In my case, a 4TB NTFS drive on an N66U using .53 Merlin.

I had a Windows application transcoding a video file from a local drive to a share on the 4TB drive. Along the way, the process would fail out, and the N66U would partially hang. That is, the WebGUI and SSH would be unresponsive, but the router would continue to function. A power reset would fix it. That happened whether I was using a mapped letter to refer to the drive or a network reference.

I never figured out what might have been going wrong but instead began transcoding to the local drive and then copying it over to the 4TB drive. I also had been running the firmware media server but have since stopped.

 

[DiscoStu_75]

You get an error mounting the disk. Try to connect another disk/USB. I woud bet a beer this is causing the problem.

Thanks for the info, but the problems started before upgrading to the final version of merlin. Also, I can never access the log before the router crashes. Is there a way of saving the log somewhere so that it doesnt get erased upon rebooting?

 

[DiscoStu_75]

This may not be all that helpful, but I had something similar. In my case, a 4TB NTFS drive on an N66U using .53 Merlin.

I had a Windows application transcoding a video file from a local drive to a share on the 4TB drive. Along the way, the process would fail out, and the N66U would partially hang. That is, the WebGUI and SSH would be unresponsive, but the router would continue to function. A power reset would fix it. That happened whether I was using a mapped letter to refer to the drive or a network reference.

I never figured out what might have been going wrong but instead began transcoding to the local drive and then copying it over to the 4TB drive. I also had been running the firmware media server but have since stopped.

Thanks for your reply, but the network share crashes even without being used.

 

[JohnNerd]

Ok. The next Merlin FW should be right aroubd the corner. If you can't wait go back to previous FW and try that.