Why Asus can't get the basics right like PPPoE

[primitivo]

I really don't understand. First they screwed up dual wan for years and I am not sure if they ever fixed it, I gave up and bought Synology AC2600 for this purpose which works rock solid. PPPoE on AC68U was also hit and miss and as I can see from Synology AC2600 it was definitely not down to my ISP but down to some sh*tty implementation of this protocol by Asus.

In another place I have been using AC86U (before AC56U) and honestly on both the PPPoE works far from how it should work. I had PPPoE before with VLAN and they way it worked especially during connection establishing was flaky at best. Later my other ISP was using Automatic IP assignment, so no PPPoE - at least Automatic setting they got right. Now this other ISP have changed fiber optic modems to support PPPoE and AC86U simply struggles. I got it working 1-2 times at the beginning, when I disable WAN manually and enable, it will never re-connect. At least it WAS connecting via PPPoE upon reboot 2-3 times. After that it doesn't work either, regardless of how many times I reboot or how long will I leave it to negotiate the connection.

I was about to call my ISP, but first I tried 2 things: direct PPPoE on my MacBook Pro - it worked. Then I tried my dusty R9000 and guess what - it just works.

Seriously Asus what the hell. Plenty of users report PPPoE issues on this forum which are not necessarily down to their ISP. Btw, latest 384.10 here. Log says no particular errors and the GUI WAN status is stuck on "renewing"...

 

[Vexira]

Have you tried Merlin firmware?

 

[primitivo]

Have you tried Merlin firmware?

I am only on Merlin FW on all of my Asus routers. But Merlin doesn't touch WAN as I remember, so it is not up to him or his FW.

 

[AndreiV]

Weird that you have so many problems.
I have used 4 different models of ASUS router over the last 8 years, all PPOE connections and have had 4 different ISP's in that time, never once seen an issue .
I look after @ 20 other routers for friends/family/neighbours , all PPOE connections and never see any problem.

 

[RMerlin]

Asus's PPPoE is fairly standard, it's just your typical PPP + rp-pppoe client as used by the majority of routers out there.

 

[primitivo]

Weird that you have so many problems.
I have used 4 different models of ASUS router over the last 8 years, all PPOE connections and have had 4 different ISP's in that time, never once seen an issue .
I look after @ 20 other routers for friends/family/neighbours , all PPOE connections and never see any problem.

There is a possibility that the PPPoE implementation itself may vary slightly depending on the country / ISP etc. It just works for some and doesn't work well for others. I would never make it up if things were stable.

Asus's PPPoE is fairly standard, it's just your typical PPP + rp-pppoe client as used by the majority of routers out there.

There must be a reason, why other brands e.g. Netgear or Synology in my experience work solid with PPPoE, while Asus not really. And it is not down to just one router or firmware, I have 3 different Asus routers and they all have been far from solid on PPPoE. The log itself, apart from some typical PADO, says nothing in particular about the cause of failure.

 

[Vexira]

There is a possibility that the PPPoE implementation itself may vary slightly depending on the country / ISP etc. It just works for some and doesn't work well for others. I would never make it up if things were stable.



There must be a reason, why other brands e.g. Netgear or Synology in my experience work solid with PPPoE, while Asus not really. And it is not down to just one router or firmware, I have 3 different Asus routers and they all have been far from solid on PPPoE. The log itself, apart from some typical PADO, says nothing in particular about the cause of failure.

The better question is are you using Mac clone?
See if that helps with the issue also check with your ISP to see if there is any problems on their end.

 

[primitivo]

Here is the update, yes, it is still happening. What I tried so far:

RT-AC56 running OpenWRT - guess what? It just works, every, single, time, on reboot, on demand, on request. No issues.
R9000 running stock - your pick? It works, every, single, time.

RT-AC86? Guess? Asus has screwed PPPoE implementation I am pretty sure. I know this could be ISP specific issue but still why the hell it works with other routers / FWs but not Asus is beyond me. We are talking basics here.

I can manage to connect via PPPoE on RT-AC86U but when I reboot the router, it doesn't pick up the connection anymore. I have to trigger it WAN settings page. The most successful option for this is MAC address. Hitting "MAC Clone" button and "Apply" triggers the PPPoE connection. If I reboot the router at this point or disable WAN manually (and re-enable it), it won't restore the PPPoE connection.... I have to go to WAN settings page again, remove "MAC Clone" and hit "apply" - this will trigger the PPPoE connection again...

Any ideas?

 

[Hawk]

Here is the update, yes, it is still happening. What I tried so far:

RT-AC56 running OpenWRT - guess what? It just works, every, single, time, on reboot, on demand, on request. No issues.
R9000 running stock - your pick? It works, every, single, time.

RT-AC86? Guess? Asus has screwed PPPoE implementation I am pretty sure. I know this could be ISP specific issue but still why the hell it works with other routers / FWs but not Asus is beyond me. We are talking basics here.

I can manage to connect via PPPoE on RT-AC86U but when I reboot the router, it doesn't pick up the connection anymore. I have to trigger it WAN settings page. The most successful option for this is MAC address. Hitting "MAC Clone" button and "Apply" triggers the PPPoE connection. If I reboot the router at this point or disable WAN manually (and re-enable it), it won't restore the PPPoE connection.... I have to go to WAN settings page again, remove "MAC Clone" and hit "apply" - this will trigger the PPPoE connection again...

Any ideas?

I am not defending Asus, I currently use RT-AX with pppoe with vlan 35 and have no problems with connection being establish and re-establish after reboot, in my case no need to mac clone or anything like that. Though I do find interesting that other brands router works for you.

 

[AndreiV]

If this was down to ASUS there would be 100,000's of people screaming the same thing.

Think about how many ASUS routers are in use all over the world .......

If other routers are okay on your connection then you need to be checking the ASUS router you are using, maybe that has a fault.

Test it on another connection, try to borrow another ASUS router to test on your line.

 

[primitivo]

I am not defending Asus, I currently use RT-AX with pppoe with vlan 35 and have no problems with connection being establish and re-establish after reboot, in my case no need to mac clone or anything like that. Though I do find interesting that other brands router works for you.

Yes, I completely understand you. My previous provider was using PPPoE with VLAN ID and it worked well on Asus routers (I have two RT-AC56U & RT-AC86U). I find it interesting too but there is a reason for it: Asus has many many things screwed up, like dual wan for years, PPPoE is another one and although Merlin is defending Asus of some standard PPPoE implementation - it is not. Standard implementation is something which you plug, set PPPoE login and pass and it works, like in case of Netgear R9000 (I don't like Netgears but they got the basic things right)...

If this was down to ASUS there would be 100,000's of people screaming the same thing.

Think about how many ASUS routers are in use all over the world .......

If other routers are okay on your connection then you need to be checking the ASUS router you are using, maybe that has a fault.

Test it on another connection, try to borrow another ASUS router to test on your line.

People are screaming but silently and then they give up, like with dual wan. Look, no one screams anymore. Those who wanted dual wan badly working properly, have bought another router like Synology RT2600AC and switched their super hyper Asus routers into AP. The only reason why I stick with Asus is Merlin + Astrill applet support, which is buggy on DD-WRT (Kong has dropped support for R9000).

Anyway, I found a fix.

Enable VPN + DHCP Connection: NO
+ MAC Address: Mac Clone

Now, to be clear, my ISP does not require specific MAC address. So any MAC address will work but the bug in Asus and PPPoE must be with the way Asus transmit MAC address of the device/router to ISP for PPPoE session authentication (if MAC clone is empty). Neither Netgear R9000 running stock or RT-AC56U running OpenWRT do require changing any settings to make the PPPoE connection working properly. So it must be Asus "standard" implementation of PPPoE broken.

 

[AndreiV]

People are screaming but silently and then they give up, like with dual wan. Look, no one screams anymore.

Ironic then that you are here doing just that



Sorry but that still sounds specific to your case.
I use PPOE and don't have to alter anything to make it work, it is all default ASUS settings, the same applies to all the other 20+ routers I look after.

And Dual Wan works fine for the people I have seen using it.

 

[primitivo]

Ironic then that you are here doing just that

Sorry but that still sounds specific to your case.
I use PPOE and don't have to alter anything to make it work, it is all default ASUS settings, the same applies to all the other 20+ routers I look after.

And Dual Wan works fine for the people I have seen using it.

What matters here is not the numbers of routers, but the experience in multiple countries handling such setup. In another country I have PPPoE fiber connection, it was initially running on RT-AC68U but it has sometimes dropped PPPoE session without any reason. It was switching to 2nd WAN but never restored back to WAN1 when it was up and running. I am not sure which cases have you seen but seeing and experiencing something is totally different. What looks great on paper, does not always have the same appearance in real life. I replaced it with Synology RT2600AC, which is absolutely the best home router for dual wan setup. Works rock solid for many months already, sending me email notifications about the current WAN state. They had one bug related to DNS which I submitted to them, it was causing DNS to fail due to dual wan watchdog. They acknowledged the bug and fixed it. If I would not require Astrill applet (which btw doesn't come from my inability to setup ovpn manually), I would be only using these routers. Synology is amazing in keeping up with firmware releases. Their SRM firmware is excellent. I am sorry to say but Asus is in a different league than Synology.

There is nothing specific about my ISP, since no specific setup is required from standard PPPoE implementation in Netgear stock FW and OpenWRT. It just works. So if it works well on 2 different routers, running 2 different firmwares, while ASUS (after NVRAM + latest Merlin loaded from the recovery gui after WPS reset) requires tweaking some options to make it work properly, then just think again about what you wrote. It is easy to write things when they are working, but if you would be seated here, having mine problems with this simple setup, then I am not sure if you would be so happy about ASUS.

 

[maxbraketorque]

I too have been frustrated by ASUS support in the past, so I sympathize with you. Hopefully this will eventually get resolved.

 

[L&LD]

There is nothing specific about my ISP, since no specific setup is required from standard PPPoE implementation in Netgear stock FW and OpenWRT. It just works. So if it works well on 2 different routers, running 2 different firmwares, while ASUS (after NVRAM + latest Merlin loaded from the recovery gui after WPS reset) requires tweaking some options to make it work properly, then just think again about what you wrote. It is easy to write things when they are working, but if you would be seated here, having mine problems with this simple setup, then I am not sure if you would be so happy about ASUS.

If you set up the router as you wrote above (and, I'm understanding it right now), then you have done it wrong.

This may be the cause of all the Asus issues you're facing and finding workarounds for.

 

[anon748]

I'm experiencing issues with PPPoE as well. I had the RT-AC68U before and I had noticed that at some point later on (NOT in the early stages of ownership), if I had to reboot the router, it would have trouble reconnecting with PPPoE. It would seem to reconnect after another 1 or 2 reboots.

I am now running an RT-AX88U and am suddenly getting a bunch of seemingly random PPPoE disconnects on most days, and multiple times per day. At first, I thought it was my ISP but they didn't see anything wrong. I got a new modem and new cables just in case, but the problems persisted. I then plugged a computer into another port on the modem and used my computer to authenticate the PPPoE credentials and it worked WHILE the RT-AX88U was still disconnected and would not reconnect.

I tried reverting back to the latest Asus stock firmware rather than Merlin and it didn't help. I changed it back to Merlin firmware and, after talking to Asus support to try to get an advanced RMA, I ended up factory resetting my router, which did not help. Now, I actually have 2 × RT-AX88U's - I use one in Media Bridge mode. So I swapped the 2 routers and their configurations, but the PPPoE disconnects persisted.

Tonight, I've finally searched more and hopefully have found the solution, though I can't say for sure yet as it's not been long enough for me be able to actually test anything, especially since the disconnects happen randomly. For now, I have set "Enable VPN + DHCP Connection" to "No", which I saw in another forum fixed a PPPoE disconnection issue for someone else using an Asus router. That lead me to search more, where I found this thread. Setting this setting to "No" also fixed a PPPoE issue for primivito, when combined with Mac Address: Mac Clone. I will add the Mac Clone part if I experience another disconnect.

Assuming that setting of "Enable VPN + DHCP Connection" is indeed responsible for these PPPoE issues, I'm not sure why Asus would turn it on by default. It's great that they have a setting like this for people who need it, but it seems like a very specific case that people who need it would probably know about and turn on if they actually do need it.

 

[sanke1]

I'm experiencing issues with PPPoE as well. I had the RT-AC68U before and I had noticed that at some point later on (NOT in the early stages of ownership), if I had to reboot the router, it would have trouble reconnecting with PPPoE. It would seem to reconnect after another 1 or 2 reboots.

I am now running an RT-AX88U and am suddenly getting a bunch of seemingly random PPPoE disconnects on most days, and multiple times per day. At first, I thought it was my ISP but they didn't see anything wrong. I got a new modem and new cables just in case, but the problems persisted. I then plugged a computer into another port on the modem and used my computer to authenticate the PPPoE credentials and it worked WHILE the RT-AX88U was still disconnected and would not reconnect.

I tried reverting back to the latest Asus stock firmware rather than Merlin and it didn't help. I changed it back to Merlin firmware and, after talking to Asus support to try to get an advanced RMA, I ended up factory resetting my router, which did not help. Now, I actually have 2 × RT-AX88U's - I use one in Media Bridge mode. So I swapped the 2 routers and their configurations, but the PPPoE disconnects persisted.

Tonight, I've finally searched more and hopefully have found the solution, though I can't say for sure yet as it's not been long enough for me be able to actually test anything, especially since the disconnects happen randomly. For now, I have set "Enable VPN + DHCP Connection" to "No", which I saw in another forum fixed a PPPoE disconnection issue for someone else using an Asus router. That lead me to search more, where I found this thread. Setting this setting to "No" also fixed a PPPoE issue for primivito, when combined with Mac Address: Mac Clone. I will add the Mac Clone part if I experience another disconnect.

Assuming that setting of "Enable VPN + DHCP Connection" is indeed responsible for these PPPoE issues, I'm not sure why Asus would turn it on by default. It's great that they have a setting like this for people who need it, but it seems like a very specific case that people who need it would probably know about and turn on if they actually do need it.

Yup. Exact same PPPOe random disconnect issues on all 3 of my Asus RT-AX88u models. They all disconnect and reconnect but upon reconnect, they fail send updated WAN IP to Asus DDNS service causing portforwarding to fail and my routers being inaccessible from outside of LAN.

However,firmware 9.0.0.4.386_40947 which is v386 RC2 Beta8 is showing promise. For the first time, none of the routers have disconnected themselves from PPPOe session. Try that first if your model supports it.

 

[anon748]

Unfortunately, turning "Enable VPN + DHCP Connection" to "No" did not fix the issue. I will try the Beta v386 RC2 beta firmware as sanke suggested.

Edit: Even with that firmware, PPPoE disconnects are still on the fritz. I don't even know what to do any more. Maybe I should just unbridge my modem and let that handle the PPPoE connection. I don't want to be behind a double NAT though.

 

[S01]

I too found something is wrong with Asus' PPPoE. In my case, it is fairly simple to replicate this problem. I pick 2 additional routers to create a wireless bridge, set up the PPPoE Relay at the main router, then connect the Asus router to the wireless bridge router.

<modem> - <main router (PPPoE relay)> - <wireless bridge router> - <Asus router (PPPoE)>

When I use a PC or a Tomato/Pandavan/Openwrt router connect to the wireless bridge router, then do PPPoE, it just works. But none of my Asus routers will do. I have tried using Tomato/Pandavan/Openwrt as the wireless bridge router, all have a similar problem on my Asus routers while the PC just works fine.

I am no expert on the network protocol, but I am suspecting Asus messed up something about PPPoE when doing so with MAT involved, or maybe the ARP table?

Asus's PPPoE is fairly standard, it's just your typical PPP + rp-pppoe client as used by the majority of routers out there.

I agree with you, but there has to be something off when others just doing fine but Asus will stop working right away in my case.

 

[Frankflash]

I too found something is wrong with Asus' PPPoE. In my case, it is fairly simple to replicate this problem. I pick 2 additional routers to create a wireless bridge, set up the PPPoE Relay at the main router, then connect the Asus router to the wireless bridge router.

<modem> - <main router (PPPoE relay)> - <wireless bridge router> - <Asus router (PPPoE)>

When I use a PC or a Tomato/Pandavan/Openwrt router connect to the wireless bridge router, then do PPPoE, it just works. But none of my Asus routers will do. I have tried using Tomato/Pandavan/Openwrt as the wireless bridge router, all have a similar problem on my Asus routers while the PC just works fine.

I am no expert on the network protocol, but I am suspecting Asus messed up something about PPPoE when doing so with MAT involved, or maybe the ARP table?


I agree with you, but there has to be something off when others just doing fine but Asus will stop working right away in my case.

if you think their is something wrong log a Ticket and send feedback to Asus then