Struggling with Samba / UPnP

[Evil Hubie]

I've been successfully running Samba and a UPnP Media Server off of my RT-AX86U for over a year now (most recently on 388.2_2). All of my Windows PCs as well as my smart TVs could access the servers with no problem.

Unfortunately, suddenly (maybe coinciding with a router reboot) both the Samba server and media server are no longer visible to other devices on the network. I try to access by name (\\ASUSROUTER) and by address (\\192.168.50.1) but am greeted by the "Windows cannot find..." message.

To complicate things a bit, when I try to ssh to 192.168.50.1, my connection is refused. (I've enabled ssh through the admin GUI.)

My only clue in the system log is the same recurring messages a couple of times a minute:

Aug 20 08:37:37 rc_service: waitting "start_samba" via ...
Aug 20 08:37:51 rc_service: skip the event: start_ddns watchdog.
Aug 20 08:38:25 watchdog: start ddns.
Aug 20 08:38:25 rc_service: watchdog 1724:notify_rc start_ddns watchdog
Aug 20 08:38:25 rc_service: waitting "start_samba" via ...
Aug 20 08:38:39 rc_service: skip the event: start_ddns watchdog.
Aug 20 08:39:13 watchdog: start ddns.

Any ideas? Help very much appreciated.

 

[TheLyppardMan]

It's possible that upgrading the firmware has somehow corrupted something. If it were me, I would reflash to the latest firmware (even if it's the same version as you are currently using). I would then perform a full factory reset, set up a minimal configuration and test that the router was performing as expected. If so, I would then take a backup of the configuration and add a version number on the end like this 388.2_2_v1, so that it didn't get overwritten after making further setup changes. I would then start to add a few further original settings, taking a fresh backup each time (e.g., 388.1_2_v2, 388.2_2_v3, etc) after checking that things were working correctly up to that point and keep repeating this until I was back to my original configuration.

 

[RMerlin]

What firmware version are you currently running?

According to your log, the router tries to start samba, and it gets stuck doing it, preventing other services from properly starting.

 

[Evil Hubie]

It's possible that upgrading the firmware has somehow corrupted something. If it were me, I would reflash to the latest firmware (even if it's the same version as you are currently using). I would then perform a full factory reset, set up a minimal configuration and test that the router was performing as expected. If so, I would then take a backup of the configuration and add a version number on the end like this 388.2_2_v1, so that it didn't get overwritten after making further setup changes. I would then start to add a few further original settings, taking a fresh backup each time (e.g., 388.1_2_v2, 388.2_2_v3, etc) after checking that things were working correctly up to that point and keep repeating this until I was back to my original configuration.

Thanks for the tip. I reflashed 388.2_2, factory reset, and Samba/UPnP are back up and running.

 

[Evil Hubie]

What firmware version are you currently running?

According to your log, the router tries to start samba, and it gets stuck doing it, preventing other services from properly starting.

I'm running 388.2_2. I reflashed, factory reset, and stuff is back to normal.

Thanks for checking in.