WiFi drops devices and won't reconnect until restart - RT-AC86U

[FlyRicho]

Hi all - I have an Asus RT-AC86U running Merlin 386.9. This was installed with a full, clean install (factory default, firmware upgrade, factory default again, restart, etc. etc.).

Periodically, a number of devices get booted off the WiFi network and are unable to reconnect until I restart the router. This doesn't happen for all devices though which seems a bit strange. The log shows a heap of authorisation events occur once this starts happening (see attached log file from Feb 17 at 19:13:02 onwards).

Not sure how to tackle this one, appreciate any suggestions!

Cheers,
Richard

 

[OzarkEdge]

Hi all - I have an Asus RT-AC86U running Merlin 386.9. This was installed with a full, clean install (factory default, firmware upgrade, factory default again, restart, etc. etc.).

Periodically, a number of devices get booted off the WiFi network and are unable to reconnect until I restart the router. This doesn't happen for all devices though which seems a bit strange. The log shows a heap of authorisation events occur once this starts happening (see attached log file from Feb 17 at 19:13:02 onwards).

Not sure how to tackle this one, appreciate any suggestions!

Cheers,
Richard

The AC86U has a history of radio and power circuit failure, particularly earlier builds (2018-2020?). If this begins, weird things can happen. If you have re-commissioned the router and it misbehaves with a minimal configuration and nothing connected except your test wireless clientS, then maybe your AC86U is failing. The trick then is to not spend too much time troubleshooting dying hardware.

OE

 

[lindros2]

Funny - my AC68U (still running 386.7_2 and earlier) are rock-solid stable.
My AX11000, however... I'm on my fourth one... due to drop-outs.

But as per the post above, I wouldn't put it past radio failure.

 

[Tech9]

Not sure how to tackle this one, appreciate any suggestions!

I would revert to 386.7_2 first and see how it goes. I had to restore one AC86U locked up on 386.9 after about a week seemingly normal operation.

 

[heywire]

Have you set the 2.4Ghz band to 20mhz under the "Wireless" tab? The default is 20/40, known to cause disconnection problems in many if not all use-cases.

 

[FlyRicho]

Thanks all - appreciate the suggestions. I'll try a couple of the ideas and provide some feedback.

 

[drinkingbird]

Funny - my AC68U (still running 386.7_2 and earlier) are rock-solid stable.
My AX11000, however... I'm on my fourth one... due to drop-outs.

But as per the post above, I wouldn't put it past radio failure.

The 68U is probably one of the best ones they made. I have a AC1900 (same thing) and it has been very solid for years.

 

[drinkingbird]

Thanks all - appreciate the suggestions. I'll try a couple of the ideas and provide some feedback.

It seems 386.9 has some issues. As @Tech9 mentions, I'd probably just go back to 386.7_2 and see how it goes. Unfortunately you probably need to do factory reset and manually reconfigure (unless you have a backup from that version). At least then you can rule out if it is radio failure or just firmware.

 

[heywire]

If the aforementioned setting of 2.4ghz to 20mhz doesn't solve it:
- ry running the latest official firmware for a while to see if that solves it.
- If the problems persist in the latest official firmware, describe the problem in "Administration/Feedback". This is important, so Asus can scan your log for errors and get to work on a permanent fix.

 

[Teletran]

I've noticed that my wireless network devices are also dropping since upgrading the 386.9. I saw this thread and reverted back to 386.7_2. I'll see if that makes things more stable...
Thanks Tech9 and Good luck OP.

 

[heywire]

It seems 386.9 has some issues. As @Tech9 mentions, I'd probably just go back to 386.7_2 and see how it goes. Unfortunately you probably need to do factory reset and manually reconfigure (unless you have a backup from that version). At least then you can rule out if it is radio failure or just firmware.

Well... there seems to be a few people lately complaining lately that insist on taking the advice to downgrade before they've explored the other answers they get, and fail to report back if it worked or not

Hard to know if it's an aversion to reading or a lack of reading comprehension. But in the weeks after release, i seem to recall that just about everybody that upgraded from a working 386.7_2 setup to .9 experienced no new issues with regards to stability of the connections.

 

[John Fitzgerald]

Well... there seems to be a few people lately complaining lately that insist on taking the advice to downgrade before they've explored the other answers they get, and fail to report back if it worked or not

Hard to know if it's an aversion to reading or a lack of reading comprehension. But in the weeks after release, i seem to recall that just about everybody that upgraded from a working 386.7_2 setup to .9 experienced no new issues with regards to stability of the connections.

And to go a step further, the OP said "a number of devices" which was never clarified or specified.

If these were phones, I would do a hard reboot then if that didn't work I would "forget this network" and re-add and if that didn't go then I would reset the network stack by wiping all the network settings, a full network reset.

If these are house items, cameras and such I would investigate those separately and consider age and compatibility in conjunction with Post #5.

 

[drinkingbird]

Well... there seems to be a few people lately complaining lately that insist on taking the advice to downgrade before they've explored the other answers they get, and fail to report back if it worked or not

Hard to know if it's an aversion to reading or a lack of reading comprehension. But in the weeks after release, i seem to recall that just about everybody that upgraded from a working 386.7_2 setup to .9 experienced no new issues with regards to stability of the connections.

I've seen dozens of threads with various issues around this release. At the very least, people need to do a full factory reset and reconfigure from scratch but most don't seem willing to do that. If you look in the release thread there are a plethora of issues with NVRAM being full, I'd say just about everyone had issues, the opposite of what you're saying.

 

[drinkingbird]

And to go a step further, the OP said "a number of devices" which was never clarified or specified.

If these were phones, I would do a hard reboot then if that didn't work I would "forget this network" and re-add and if that didn't go then I would reset the network stack by wiping all the network settings, a full network reset.

If these are house items, cameras and such I would investigate those separately and consider age and compatibility in conjunction with Post #5.

Why - you aren't changing anything to do with the wifi network - same encryption, same hardware, etc. The only thing your phone remembers is the SSID and the encryption type/key. Everything else is dynamically learned and can change anytime without causing problems - my phone can roam between multiple different brands of APs on the same SSID no issue, they're designed to do that.

If upgrading to a new firmware causes a bunch of devices to stop working, logic says look at the thing you made the change on, not assume that you had some huge coincidence of a bunch of devices having unrelated issues right after that.

 

[John Fitzgerald]

I've seen dozens of threads with various issues around this release. At the very least, people need to do a full factory reset and reconfigure from scratch but most don't seem willing to do that. If you look in the release thread there are a plethora of issues with NVRAM being full, I'd say just about everyone had issues, the opposite of what you're saying.

A factory reset was done by the OP, that's post #1.

So you are saying roll back to previous release or roll onto the alpha build.

Why - you aren't changing anything to do with the wifi network - same encryption, same hardware, etc. The only thing your phone remembers is the SSID and the encryption type/key. Everything else is dynamically learned and can change anytime without causing problems - my phone can roam between multiple different brands of APs on the same SSID no issue, they're designed to do that.

If upgrading to a new firmware causes a bunch of devices to stop working, logic says look at the thing you made the change on, not assume that you had some huge coincidence of a bunch of devices having unrelated issues right after that.

So the phones shouldn't have the option to reset when things go wrong? They specifically carved out a network reset for some unknown reason?

First post says that it works then it stops. Then a router reboot makes it work again.
It could be a radio starting to go bad, it could be the firmware, it could be the end device needs resetting, lots of information was left to the imagination.

Oh Mighty Crystal Ball....

 

[thx]

(long time user, 2 time donater, first time poster)

At the very least, people need to do a full factory reset and reconfigure from scratch but most don't seem willing to do that.

In my case, I didn't know that I had to do a factory reset first. Am I not reading the release notes carefully enough or...?

If you look in the release thread there are a plethora of issues with NVRAM being full, I'd say just about everyone had issues

Not sure if this is the right thread for this, but I want to share a "me too!" on the NVRAM issue. My usual workarounds (clearing unused settings, etc.) aren't doing the trick.

--

edit: I posted my failed NVRAM troubleshooting steps on the 389.10 pre-release thread.

 

[bennor]

In my case, I didn't know that I had to do a factory reset first. Am I not reading the release notes carefully enough or...?

The installation instructions from the README-merlin.txt file (below) typically included with the Asus-Merlin firmware (below is from the RT-AC68U_386.9_0.zip firmware file). It "suggests" several places to do a reset to factory default or factory default reset. Particularly if one is having trouble.

Installation
------------
Simply flash it like any regular update. You should not need to
reset to factory defaults (see note below for exceptions).
You can revert back to an original Asus firmware at any time just
by flashing a firmware downloaded from Asus's website.

If the firmware upgrade fails, try rebooting your router to free
up sufficient memory, without any USB disk plugged in,
then try flashing it again.

NOTE: resetting to factory default after flashing is
strongly recommended for the following cases:

- Updating from a firmware version that is more than 3 releases older
- Switching from a Tomato/DD-WRT/OpenWRT firmware

If you run into any issue after an upgrade and you haven't done so,
try doing a factory default reset as well.

Always read the changelog, as mandatory resets will be mentionned
there when they are necessary.

In all of these cases, do NOT load a saved copy of your settings!
This would be the same thing as NOT resetting at all, as you will
simply re-enter any invalid setting you wanted to get rid of. Make
sure to create a new backup of your settings after reconfiguring.

Also similar suggestions in the Asus-Merlin Wiki Installation entry:
https://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin.ng/wiki/Installation

Since Asuswrt-Merlin is mostly a variant of the original Asuswrt, it means that there is no special procedure to flash it. Just flash it the same way you would flash any regular Asus firmware. A few notes:

• Starting with Asus's 3.0.0.4.380_3000, a new firmware format is used. To flash Asuswrt-Merlin on one of these newer firmwares, you will need 380.61 or newer. Likewise, downgrading to an older version is not supported. (Try firmware recovery mode if you really need to downgrade.)
• The RT-AC68U and RT-AC56U need to be at least on firmware 378.55 (or the last 378.xxx version from Asus) before you can flash 380.xx or newer, due to the partition size change.
• It's recommended to reboot the router before flashing it, to free up sufficient memory. Otherwise, there's a chance the router might reject the firmware, due to running too low of free RAM.
• If coming from a non-Asuswrt firmware, you will have to do a factory default reset.
• While it is generally not necessary to restore to factory defaults, it's not a bad idea, especially if there is a big jump in version number (e.g. from 112 to 178). No need to do the 30/30/30 dance as required by DD-WRT - just do a plain Factory Default reset, or turn the device on while keeping the WPS button pressed. (The procedure can be different from one model to another.)
• It is very hard to brick an Asus router. If something goes wrong during flashing, you can put your router in Recovery mode by powering it on while you keep Reset pressed. After your release it, the power LED will either blink or stay off (depending on the model). At that point, you can either access it through http://192.168.1.1 (make sure you first give your PC a static IP within the same range, e.g. 192.168.1.100), or through the Firmware Recovery Tool provided on Asus's support CD. You will then be able to flash a working firmware.
• If something looks weird, don't waste too much time: save your settings, reset to factory default, reconfigure the basics, and see if the issue is resolved. If not, you can always restore your saved settings and do some more advanced troubleshooting.
• It is not recommended to restore settings saved under a different firmware version. It might work, but there is no guarantee.
• Some archives contain two firmware image files, one of them with the _rog suffix. This image uses the original ROG themed UI from Asus. This is only available for ROG models (with the GT- prefix), and is provided as experimental alternative. The only difference between the two files is the UI interface itself.

 

[Jings]

Hi all - I have an Asus RT-AC86U running Merlin 386.9. This was installed with a full, clean install (factory default, firmware upgrade, factory default again, restart, etc. etc.).

Periodically, a number of devices get booted off the WiFi network and are unable to reconnect until I restart the router. This doesn't happen for all devices though which seems a bit strange. The log shows a heap of authorisation events occur once this starts happening (see attached log file from Feb 17 at 19:13:02 onwards).

Not sure how to tackle this one, appreciate any suggestions!

Cheers,
Richard

I've seen something similar on my RT-AC86U after upgrading to 386.9 as well. Devices failing to authenticate, with "wrong password" error message on the device., and/or not re-authenticating when they come into range. Sometimes it helps to just manually try ty reauthenticate, but for devices where that's not an options, as my AC for example, I've had to reconfigure the wifi on the device to get it working again.

 

[drinkingbird]

A factory reset was done by the OP, that's post #1.

So you are saying roll back to previous release or roll onto the alpha build.


So the phones shouldn't have the option to reset when things go wrong? They specifically carved out a network reset for some unknown reason?

First post says that it works then it stops. Then a router reboot makes it work again.
It could be a radio starting to go bad, it could be the firmware, it could be the end device needs resetting, lots of information was left to the imagination.

Oh Mighty Crystal Ball....

Right, since they already tried a factory reset (not sure if they manually reconfigured or not) and suspect radio failure, the next natural step is try the previous version to confirm if it is hardware or firmware related. The issue is clearly with the router since it only started after the upgrade of firmware.

Network reset on a phone resets everything (wifi, cellular, bluetooth) and is for when something is totally FUBAR on that specific phone. Having multiple devices start having issues when you change something on your router, the end devices are not the place to focus. You'll just end up re-entering wifi and bluetooth stuff for no reason.

 

[FlyRicho]

Hi all - thanks for your suggestions. I have tried a few things over the last 2 weeks and seem to have got some stable performance for the last week. I completed a full factory reset (still using Merlin 386.9) and manual re-configuration of the router. I managed to isolate the issue down to a couple of specific devices - a Google Nest Doorbell (battery version), a Zigbee Bridge and a couple of Sonos speakers. When the authentication issues started, it usually kicked off with one of these devices and I can't say for certain, but it seemed like the Google Nest Doorbell was the one having the most issues connecting to the 2.4GHz network (it just ended up an endless authentication loop and then didn't allow other devices to connect). There wasn't anything in particular that triggered it, it just seemed after several hours or a couple of days that lots of devices were getting kicked off the WiFi network and couldn't reconnect without a reboot of the router. I used the settings suggested by Ozark Edge (https://www.snbforums.com/threads/dsl-ac68u-wi-fi-setting.60983/post-537700) and progressively re-connected devices and so far it seems to be stable. I don't have a really clear picture of exactly what was causing the problem, but my best guess is the Google Nest Doorbell didn't like one of the router settings and caused a bit of a cascade of other issues.

Glad to have some stability and hopefully if anyone else is having a similar issue they can try the combination of a fully reboot, manual reconfiguration using the settings in the post above and have some luck!