Strange thing happened with my AC5300 - Can anyone shed light?

[ionblue]

Hi all. I recently managed to get my 5300 and all clients happy using Smart Connect. Everything was connecting and working great. Until sometime today that is.

The problem manifested itself with being unable to access most ports on a Mac (on a 5G channel) on the network (running several services) from anything else on the network. I also wasn't able to ping the Mac or ping anything from the Mac except the router. The Mac could access the web just fine.

I basically rebooted everything since I didn't know what the hell was going on. That did squat except confuse me more.

Before turning off Smart Connect, I decided to disable the MU-MIMO feature on the 5G bands to see if that helped. As soon as I disabled that everything started working again. This is great except I have no idea WHY!

And that kills me. So if anyone can explain this, please do. Also, why did everything work fine for several days and then crap out? Perplexing.

Thanks all.


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[ionblue]

Not that it matters since nobody helped, but I had to revert back to using 3 SSIDs. The router up and did the same damn thing again and I didn't know what else to do get it working. Have no clue why that would cause the access issue I mentioned though. Never had any issues with my 66U... frustrating.

 

[joegreat]

...I had to revert back to using 3 SSIDs. The router up and did the same damn thing again...

Did you do the basic 3 steps to narrow down the problem:

1. Install latest firmware available from Asus site - currently dated from Feb. 15th.
2. Do a factory reset after the update(under Administration & Restore/Save/Upload Setting & Factory default / Restore).
3a. Re-configure the router manually at absolute minimum*) and test!
3b. Finalize the configuration with all the features you like to have and test again!​

Report back your results from 3a and 3b and we will see what a can do to make you happy!!!

*) do not touch things you do not really need or fully understand!

 

[TonyH]

Not that it matters since nobody helped, but I had to revert back to using 3 SSIDs. The router up and did the same damn thing again and I didn't know what else to do get it working. Have no clue why that would cause the access issue I mentioned though. Never had any issues with my 66U... frustrating.

Keep the smart connect off.
do you use some WiFi analyzer to survey your neighborhood? Is the band crowed?

 

[ionblue]

Did you do the basic 3 steps to narrow down the problem:

1. Install latest firmware available from Asus site - currently dated from Feb. 15th.
2. Do a factory reset after the update(under Administration & Restore/Save/Upload Setting & Factory default / Restore).
3a. Re-configure the router manually at absolute minimum*) and test!
3b. Finalize the configuration with all the features you like to have and test again!​

Report back your results from 3a and 3b and we will see what a can do to make you happy!!!

*) do not touch things you do not really need or fully understand!

I'm using Merlin's Firmware, not Asus stock - hence the post here. I haven't run stock firmware for several years on my Asus routers and would rather not since Merlin's is superior.

I upgraded the router the same day I bought it and configured it prior to the upgrade. I did not do a factory reset as that usually isn't required. I can if I must though.

 

[ionblue]

Keep the smart connect off.
do you use some WiFi analyzer to survey your neighborhood? Is the band crowed?

I live in a townhouse and next to a small apartment building. There's a LOT of wifi traffic around, but I haven't gone sniffing for frequencies. I've been letting the router do it's thing.

What I don't get is how EVERYTHING works perfectly fine until at some point I can't access the services running on my Mac. I can't VNC into it, can't access Plex running on it, can't access any other web service on it. But it can access everything else on the network and Internet just fine and it doesn't appear to be anything to do with the Mac itself. It's truly bizarre.

I don't mind leaving the smart connect off, but it kind of pisses me off. It's supposed to make thing simpler, not be a PIA.

 

[ionblue]

Alright - I just did a factory reset and set things back up without not-so-smart connect. I also changed the 2.4g channel since I can see another router on the same one and changed the second 5G as well, again since I can see another router on it. No idea if any of that is going to keep this problem from recurring, but at least now I can I did all the normal steps.

 

[TonyH]

Alright - I just did a factory reset and set things back up without not-so-smart connect. I also changed the 2.4g channel since I can see another router on the same one and changed the second 5G as well, again since I can see another router on it. No idea if any of that is going to keep this problem from recurring, but at least now I can I did all the normal steps.

If two signasl occupy same channel the stronger one wins. Also use 20MHz bandwidth on already crowded 2.4GHz band.

 

[ionblue]

If two signasl occupy same channel the stronger one wins. Also use 20MHz bandwidth on already crowded 2.4GHz band.

Correct. But it doesn't explain the internal network service problem.


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[Cycle Mycle]

I can only speak for the N66U but I started having problems when I ticked the box for the "Auto select channel including DFS channels" on the 5G page in the Control Channel section. The problem only showed up with an S7 which would work fine for one, two or even three days following a reboot of the router but then suddenly lose sight of the SSID. I broke that rule of "Don't change it unless you know that you need to".