Sustained packet loss, intermittent. Ready to pull hair out.

[theirongiant]

Hello Small Network Builders,

This issue has plagued me through multiple firmware updates. Occasionally the Internet will become extremely slow and unresponsive on several computers, but at different times. Pages time out, videos buffer, etc.

Tonight, the Mac Pro (desktop) was having all kinds of issues, but the MacBook Pro (laptop) was fine.

I have begun leaving terminal windows open with a constant ping to the router (192.168.11.1). I would expect ping times of <1ms, but I have seen many sequences ranging from 10 - 5000ms (yes, five thousand), and in some cases numerous dropped packets in succession.

Logs and screenshots are attached to the post.

I have tried removing most devices from the network and adding them back one at a time. It does not make a difference.

Physical Environment:
* Air-conditioned apartment in Los Angeles, CA.
* Router near center of apartment, mounted on wall, antennae pointing up.
* Router average temp is 55°C on both frequencies.
* About ~8 concurrent active wireless devices, sometimes as high as 12.
* About 12 APs nearby broadcasting on 2.4GHz
* About 3 APs nearby broadcasting on 5GHz (including me).

5GHz Devices:
- MacBook Air
- MacBook Pro
- iMac 2011
- Mac Pro*
- iPad 3rd Gen
- iPad Mini
- Apple TV
* AR5BXB112 miniPCIe, Atheros 9380 chipset. Works 100% native, recognized as Apple Airport Extreme.

2.4GHz Devices:
- iPhone 4
- iPhone 4S
- Sony Blu-Ray Player + wi-fi dongle
- Apple Airport Express (2008 model)
- Brother HL-2170W wireless printer

LAN devices:
- Synology NAS ds413j
- Mac Mini

Attachments:
#1 includes ping logs of various lengths, with packet transmission summary at the end. Also a 30 second ping flood.
#2 Shows network utility reporting no send/recv errors on Wi-Fi.
#3 Shows detail about this interface in System Profiler.


I want to throw this Dark Knight out the window because it has been almost a year since I've owned it. I had this problem with the first unit and promptly exchanged it at the store within a few days. I've been having this issue for many months.

That said, I really enjoy this router: its looks, its raw speed (when it works), extensive feature set (thank you Merlin), and most of all, ensuring that I don't have to mess around with DD-WRT again.

I will be very sad if I have to go back to the store and buy another N66U, or upgrade to an AC66U. Or buy an Apple Airport Extreme (because, ya know, it will "just work" with all the Apple products in our environment.)

Please have sympathy on a seasoned IT professional who just wants his shirt to work when he comes home; I already do enough troubleshooting at the office.

Thank you.

 

[mikeg]

I feel sad that you have had this problem for so long and wonder if you have got any respons from Asus support ?

I have had miy share of problems with the N66U too. I just wonder what firmwares have you tried : Asus own , Merlins and anything else ?

Just to comfort you , I have problems with mine AC66U - the 5 GHz signal drops.
I took some off my hard earned money and bought a N66U just to compare between them regarding the 5 GHz drops.

When I initially tried to set up the brand new N66U I got nowhere. Tried the lastest Asus f/w , Merlins f/w without success. When I installed the Tomato USB Shibby f/w I could set it it up and get it rumming too.

So my advice to you is to try the Tomato USB Shibby f/w before you get tempted to throw the unit out through the window.

 

[theirongiant]

Hi Mike,

I had tried the Asus stock firmware (260, 270, 272, 354, 370) and all of Merlin's variations of the same.

This morning, at your advice, I installed Tomato USB Shibby K26-RT AIO (all-in-one) Build 5X-109. The wireless networks are much more stable than they have been in a long while. I'm going to keep an eye on things for the next week or so.

I ran into two snags during the initial setup:
1) I tried the latest build 5x-110, but there is a bug that prevents changing any basic network settings; when you press Save, an error appears that says "wl_key is invalid. please report this." Downgraded to 5X-109 and the problem went away.

2) I have Charter Cable. At first the modem refused to hand out an IP address to the router, so I had to unplug the cable modem's power and coax cables for at least one minute, power cycle the router, then reconnect the cable modem.

I might enable Tor, but I probably won't be using OpenVPN or Transmission since I don't want to overburden the router.

I feel sad that you have had this problem for so long and wonder if you have got any respons from Asus support ?

I have had miy share of problems with the N66U too. I just wonder what firmwares have you tried : Asus own , Merlins and anything else ?

Just to comfort you , I have problems with mine AC66U - the 5 GHz signal drops.
I took some off my hard earned money and bought a N66U just to compare between them regarding the 5 GHz drops.

When I initially tried to set up the brand new N66U I got nowhere. Tried the lastest Asus f/w , Merlins f/w without success. When I installed the Tomato USB Shibby f/w I could set it it up and get it rumming too.

So my advice to you is to try the Tomato USB Shibby f/w before you get tempted to throw the unit out through the window.

 

[theirongiant]

I had another small problem with the firewall: couldn't forward ports, UPNP not working, couldn't hit the VPN from outside, and there was an error on any of the firewall screens in the GUI: "iptables-restore line 47 failed."

Thankfully, a Google search told me to run iptables -F from the shell and reboot the router. It happens when you change the default LAN IP from 192.168.1.1 to something else.

 

[mikeg]

You were to fast for me now - if you had written that you were going to try
the Tomato f/w I could have warned you about the latest f/w not working correctly. Hope you will get a more stable and reliable connection now.

Hi Mike,

I had tried the Asus stock firmware (260, 270, 272, 354, 370) and all of Merlin's variations of the same.

This morning, at your advice, I installed Tomato USB Shibby K26-RT AIO (all-in-one) Build 5X-109. The wireless networks are much more stable than they have been in a long while. I'm going to keep an eye on things for the next week or so.

I ran into two snags during the initial setup:
1) I tried the latest build 5x-110, but there is a bug that prevents changing any basic network settings; when you press Save, an error appears that says "wl_key is invalid. please report this." Downgraded to 5X-109 and the problem went away.

2) I have Charter Cable. At first the modem refused to hand out an IP address to the router, so I had to unplug the cable modem's power and coax cables for at least one minute, power cycle the router, then reconnect the cable modem.

I might enable Tor, but I probably won't be using OpenVPN or Transmission since I don't want to overburden the router.

 

[RogerSC]

Hi Mike,

This morning, at your advice, I installed Tomato USB Shibby K26-RT AIO (all-in-one) Build 5X-109. The wireless networks are much more stable than they have been in a long while. I'm going to keep an eye on things for the next week or so.

I ran into two snags during the initial setup:
1) I tried the latest build 5x-110, but there is a bug that prevents changing any basic network settings; when you press Save, an error appears that says "wl_key is invalid. please report this." Downgraded to 5X-109 and the problem went away.

I had the same "wl_key" problem that you had when I installed tomato 110 firmware recently. Had forgotten to "thoroughly" clear the nvram before setting the router up after flashing the new firmware, and went back and did that, and that got rid of the problem for me.

If you didn't do that, you might try it, the option is under "Administration" -> "Configuration".

Glad that you got the 109 version going, though.

 

[theirongiant]

Just one day later, and the problem has reappeared. What the hell...

My apartment is not being bombarded with microwaves, and I don't own any cordless phones. This piece of shirt is defective. It took several minutes to load the pages on the forum, and nearly 5 minutes to attach three measly text files.

 

[TonyH]

Hmmm,
It may not be the problem with the router. One component of your network could be the culprit. Quick way to prove this is to borrow or get another router and see what happens with it. Shot gun approach but to save time.

 

[theirongiant]

I had turned the transmitters up to 100mW on 2.4GHz and 80mW on 5GHz. I'm backing them down to 50mW and 60mW to see if that makes a difference.

So far the only device that seems to be having any real significant issues is the Mac Pro.

Tomato Shibby has a tool that will take background noise floor measurements. Not sure if it's of any use, but here are the numbers:

2.4GHz: -67dBm
5GHz: -84dBm

My Mac Pro is on the 5GHz band, and it has the Atheros 9380 card (AR5BXB112), which is recognized as an Apple card by the system.

Hmmm,
It may not be the problem with the router. One component of your network could be the culprit. Quick way to prove this is to borrow or get another router and see what happens with it. Shot gun approach but to save time.

 

[theirongiant]

Frame Burst was set to "Enable." I switched it to Disable. I also turned down the transmission power, which seems to have brought stability back to the Mac Pro's connection. The ping times are still very bad (133ms average).

 

[mikeg]

If I understand you crrectly you have problems with the Apple devices ?
Sorry I can noot help you as I have only 1 IPod with no problems rest is none Apple devices.....
I have in front of me : 1 Asus RT-N66U, 1 Asus RT-AC66U and a TP.Link WDR4300 which I have just because I started with Asus N66U and was not satisfied and the router with no problems is the TP Link...

Frame Burst was set to "Enable." I switched it to
Disable. I also turned down the transmission power, which seems to have brought stability back to the Mac Pro's connection. The ping times are still very bad (133ms average).

 

[coffeeghost]

I had a such occasion once. My customer had ipad, iphone, macbook pro, old macbook, and generic dell laptop(xp). As soon as the macbook pro in question connects to wifi, all network devices struggles, ping to local gateway go up over 100~ms or times out. If turn off that macbook pro, all back to normal. I just pointed it, then left and do not know how he solved after. So it is possible, one of your own device is making the problem.
While pinging your router with a known good pc or mac, then try to connect your devices one by one...
PS> we tested with 3 different wifi routers including Airport and Linksys.