Serious problem with 2.4ghz and recent firmware versions?

[dreadnought]

Hello All,

I have a RT-N66U and at some point I noticed 2.4ghz-only devices were not connecting successfully to it while 5ghz devices connected fine. I thought the 2.4ghz radio might be dead, so I recently bought a RT-AC3200. The first thing I did with the new router is install Merlin 384.5 and perform a factory restore.

I noticed over the course of the day while configuring (including some reboots) that sometimes the 2.4ghz SSID would show up as an available network on my cell phone and laptop, but most of the time it would not. It seemed that when it did show up, sometimes after a reboot, none of my devices could connect to it. For example, when typing in the correct WPA2 password, I would immediately be asked for the password again. In other cases I would just get some kind of "can't connect to network" error.

Anyway, both 5ghz networks from the RT-AC3200 have been rock solid. The 2.4ghz network seems to be a mess, and now I doubt that there really was a hardware problem with my RT-N66u? I have tried setting the RT-AC3200 2.4ghz channel manually, no improvement. I have also tried removing anything but alphanumeric characters from the SSID and WPA2 password, no improvement. It doesn't matter whether I am 5 feet away from the device or 50 feet away. Most of the time, the 2.4ghz network simply doesn't show up in the available networks on my devices, and when it does, I have not been able to successfully connect to it (from phone or laptop) even a single time.

I have seen some references on this forum to the 2.4ghz issues possibly being hardware related? This would seem like it would be a pretty massive hardware failure? My RT-N66U (Merlin 380.70) is quite old and my RT-AC3200 is new.

Has anyone dealing with this issue been able to resolve it, short of buying a non-ASUS device?

Thanks!

 

[yk101]

I’ve had a similar issue. It turned out to be related to router not being able to find a channel to use due to local band congestion. Try setting the channel for 2.4Ghz manually.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[dreadnought]

I’ve had a similar issue. It turned out to be related to router not being able to find a channel to use due to local band congestion. Try setting the channel for 2.4Ghz manually.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I had tried that earlier today without improvement after spending quite a bit of time troubleshooting this, going from auto to 6 for 2.4ghz. After your reply I tried it again, going from 6 to 3. No improvement unfortunately. The 2.4ghz SSID simply does not show up on any of my devices, whether 5feet or 50feet away... and when it does (it seems like after a reboot it will for some period of time) I am never able to actually connect to it.

 

[yk101]

BTW, this issue is not specific to ASUS devices - it also happens on G1100 from Fios (albeit on 5Ghz band for me!)

 

[Stewart Sandro]

Hello All,

I have a RT-N66U and at some point I noticed 2.4ghz-only devices were not connecting successfully to it while 5ghz devices connected fine. I thought the 2.4ghz radio might be dead, so I recently bought a RT-AC3200. The first thing I did with the new router is install Merlin 384.5 and perform a factory restore.

I noticed over the course of the day while configuring (including some reboots) that sometimes the 2.4ghz SSID would show up as an available network on my cell phone and laptop, but most of the time it would not. It seemed that when it did show up, sometimes after a reboot, none of my devices could connect to it. For example, when typing in the correct WPA2 password, I would immediately be asked for the password again. In other cases I would just get some kind of "can't connect to network" error.

Anyway, both 5ghz networks from the RT-AC3200 have been rock solid. The 2.4ghz network seems to be a mess, and now I doubt that there really was a hardware problem with my RT-N66u? I have tried setting the RT-AC3200 2.4ghz channel manually, no improvement. I have also tried removing anything but alphanumeric characters from the SSID and WPA2 password, no improvement. It doesn't matter whether I am 5 feet away from the device or 50 feet away. Most of the time, the 2.4ghz network simply doesn't show up in the available networks on my devices, and when it does, I have not been able to successfully connect to it (from phone or laptop) even a single time.

I have seen some references on this forum to the 2.4ghz issues possibly being hardware related? This would seem like it would be a pretty massive hardware failure? My RT-N66U (Merlin 380.70) is quite old and my RT-AC3200 is new.

Has anyone dealing with this issue been able to resolve it, short of buying a non-ASUS device?

Thanks!

I also have a 3200 and have tried everything that has been suggested on these and other forums. I rolled back my firmware to Merlin 384.3 and have not had any problems with 2.4ghz for over a month.

 

[dreadnought]

I also have a 3200 and have tried everything that has been suggested on these and other forums. I rolled back my firmware to Merlin 384.3 and have not had any problems with 2.4ghz for over a month.

Did you need to factory reset? I just tried this and after the ASUS rebooted I see the 2.4ghz SSID (which is not unusual after a reboot I guess), but when I try to connect to it from my iPhone I just get a spinning circle and no connection. When I try to connect from a MacBook Pro, I get asked for the password, enter it correctly (I am absolutely sure), and get asked for it again - and so on, just like before. I will reboot the ASUS one more time, and then maybe a factory reset, before bailing on 384.3 as a solution to the 2.4ghz issue. Thanks!

 

[dreadnought]

Did you need to factory reset? I just tried this and after the ASUS rebooted I see the 2.4ghz SSID (which is not unusual after a reboot I guess), but when I try to connect to it from my iPhone I just get a spinning circle and no connection. When I try to connect from a MacBook Pro, I get asked for the password, enter it correctly (I am absolutely sure), and get asked for it again - and so on, just like before. I will reboot the ASUS one more time, and then maybe a factory reset, before bailing on 384.3 as a solution to the 2.4ghz issue. Thanks!

It's been a little while, maybe 15 minutes or so, and I no longer see the 2.4ghz SSID as an available network. Interestingly enough I can see other companies 2.4ghz SSIDs in various parts of my building, and they always show up on my laptops and phone reliably.

 

[yk101]

It may be a stupid question, but have you tried disabling AiRadar under professional features in the UI? If not, then it is worth a try.

 

[dreadnought]

It may be a stupid question, but have you tried disabling AiRadar under professional features in the UI? If not, then it is worth a try.

I don't see anything about AiRadar there, maybe because I downgraded to 384.3?

 

[yk101]

I don't see anything about AiRadar there, maybe because I downgraded to 384.3?

Neah, maybe it is disabled in Merlin’s implementation or it might be called something else like “beam forming”. I do not have access to my router at the moment, and therefore can’t check.

 

[dreadnought]

It's been a little while, maybe 15 minutes or so, and I no longer see the 2.4ghz SSID as an available network. Interestingly enough I can see other companies 2.4ghz SSIDs in various parts of my building, and they always show up on my laptops and phone reliably.

Another interesting thing that happens... every time I make a change to the 2.4ghz settings, my SSIDs go away in my available networks on laptops and phones for a bit (less than a minute I think), I'm assuming while the ASUS applies the new settings. Every time this happens, the two 5ghz SSIDs on my 3200 come back quickly in the available networks and the 2.4ghz network still never shows up (though I see 2.4ghz SSIDs of companies around us), regardless of whether I'm next to the 3200 or down the hallway. Incredibly frustrating.

 

[yk101]

Another thing I would try is to reset the router and load stock firmware to see if the issue persists. This way you will know for sure if it is caused by hardware or environment rather than Merlin’s firmware.

 

[dreadnought]

There are a couple beamforming options... I disabled them both, no improvement. I did see the 2.4ghz SSID for a bit after applying this, but tried to connect and got into the password loop again on my laptop when I was definitely entering the correct password. In less than a minute or two the 2.4ghz SSID went away again.

 

[dreadnought]

Another thing I would try is to reset the router and load stock firmware to see if the issue persists. This way you will know for sure if it is caused by hardware or environment rather than Merlin’s firmware.

I'm about to try 380.70 and will report back after going through the factory reset and reconfiguration.

 

[kfp]

I'm about to try 380.70 and will report back after going through the factory reset and reconfiguration.

It might not be stable after a downgrade though, and it’s not advisable to downgrade from 384 -> 380 unless you really know what you’re doing.

Factory resetting 384.3 didn’t work for you? Did you do ‘Factory Defaults’ or ‘Initialize’?

 

[dreadnought]

I'm about to try 380.70 and will report back after going through the factory reset and reconfiguration.

No improvement... also tried the latest ASUS firmware and one of the interesting things about that was even after factory reset on latest ASUS firmware, the two factory SSIDs that showed up on all my devices were ASUS_5G-1 and ASUS_5G-2. No ASUS_24G or anything like it. All while being less than a few feet away from the 3200 and seeing neighbors 2.4ghz SSIDs from around our building.

At this point (over 5 hours of troubleshooting) my patience is long gone. I turned the 3200 off and I'll be ordering a new router from a manufacturer other than ASUS later today. The only thing that sucks about that is losing the Merlin firmware... but for some 2.4ghz-only devices, I don't have much choice other than to get a router with reliable 2.4ghz hardware and firmware.

 

[Carnbroe]

The other thing I've noticed is that when the code thread changed then I can only get 10 devices to connect at the same time on 2.4Ghz. Ive done some testing and the issue started with the 382 release. It would be very interesting to find out if those who are having issues with 2.4Ghz have more or less than 10 devices connected.

 

[makkie2002]

Dreadnought,

I have EXACTLY the same issues as you! I was experiencing connectivity issues on my trusted n66u and was convinced that the 2.4 radio had died from 'old age'. I bought a second hand ac3200 but to my horror this also had connectivity issues. Being still under warranty I managed to get a brand new ac3200 from ASUS. And also this one experiences connectivity issues. I always flashed merlin fw directly on the devices. I once reverted back to stock, but that didn't help. What does help is to manually force channel 1 (works for both n66u as well as ac3200). Up to today i was convinced that i had some sort of interference of an unknown device in my house. However i was not able to pinpoint any device. I even went into the back if my garden with the router, to be far from interference in my house, and in that location i could connect to the wifi on the normally troubled higher channels (i did not test internet because my cable was not long enough). This somehow convinced me of the interference being the main cause of troubles. Now I am not sure anymore.

 

[Carnbroe]

I've had loads of issues on 2.4Ghz and have done lots of checking and finally found the root cause of my issues. The issue is that I cant get more than 10 devices connected on this band at the same time. if I have 10 connected and disconnect one then I can get any other device to connect but after that, with 10 connected, no more will connect up. Might be worth doing the same on your device. i.e.drop an existing device off then see if you can connect up with another. took me 4 week to work out what the issue was! By the way the issue started with the 382 firmware and is present in the ASUS firmware as well so I dont think its a Merlin issue. For all the time it will take to test this then give it a go and see if its the same issue.

 

[agilani]

I've had loads of issues on 2.4Ghz and have done lots of checking and finally found the root cause of my issues. The issue is that I cant get more than 10 devices connected on this band at the same time. if I have 10 connected and disconnect one then I can get any other device to connect but after that, with 10 connected, no more will connect up. Might be worth doing the same on your device. i.e.drop an existing device off then see if you can connect up with another. took me 4 week to work out what the issue was! By the way the issue started with the 382 firmware and is present in the ASUS firmware as well so I dont think its a Merlin issue. For all the time it will take to test this then give it a go and see if its the same issue.

There are a few folks experiencing wireless issues with the new code base. I had the issue with my ac3100 and now my ac88. I'm trying stock right now and it seems to be fixed. If so, we will need to wait until the merlin gpl code catches up with the current asus release.