Work Around/FIX for Wireless Bridge losing connection every 24hrs

[R1-Limited]

I have reported this issue to Asus, Merlin and posted on forums.

Asus pretty much a no answer on the tech side, well I expected less at least I got a reply from a level 1 canned response

Merlin says contact Asus

So this issue I have had after Merlin 378.50 and Asus 3.0.0.4.378.8258 is anything higher than these builds and you are setting up Media Bridge the Media Bridge simply stops responding every 24 hours. I AM ON THE LATEST FIRMWARE of Merln and tried on latest Firmare from ASUS.

From what I can tell devices connected to it will loose its IP, the bridge stops communicating with the AP and the Bridge has to be rebooted.

Unless someone else has a solution mine was to set a scheduled reboot of the Media Bridge after midnight.

Boom problem solved. Reminds me of a company I worked for, we were integrating what is now known as Unified Communications in this case a Voicemail, IM and presence server to our Class 5 Softswitch. I discovered a memory leak in the UM and the solution they came up with? a cron job to clear the memory LOL

My setup is simple
RT-ac66u Media Bridge
RT-ac68u Wireless Router Mode

No errors ever seen in logs on either indicating any problem.

 

[L&LD]

Why are you trying to fix issues on such outdated firmware?

Have you tried RMerlin's 378.56_2? Or the latest 378.9313 from Asus?

 

[R1-Limited]

Why are you trying to fix issues on such outdated firmware?

Have you tried RMerlin's 378.56_2? Or the latest 378.9313 from Asus?

I updated the post to be more accurate. Simply Anything above the firmware I stated has this bug. Its not Merlins issue it is base core issue in Asus.

I am on the latest, I wanted to have all the updates, fixes and security fixes.

 

[Puppa]

@R1-Limited : Stating the latest version you've tested with at the top of the thread will be helpful to everyone who reads it (you know, in case you don't make it back on here when an update occurs).

 

[Puppa]

Please post the wireless settings for the radio (2.4GHz or 5GHz) that you are connecting to via the bridge. I am particularly interested in the channel selection (auto or fixed) as well as the settings on the Advanced tab. Also, is the SSID you are connecting to unique (no other instances of same SSID on your network)?

 

[R1-Limited]

@R1-Limited : Stating the latest version you've tested with at the top of the thread will be helpful to everyone who reads it (you know, in case you don't make it back on here when an update occurs).

I am relying on reading comprehension to figure out what is stated


Wireless 2.4 GHz is disabled.

Wireless 5 GHz
SSID: xxxx-5 Mode: Media Bridge
RSSI: -39 dBm SNR: 0 dB Noise: -89 dBm Channel: 161/80

I have the channel fixed, SSID is unique, and the only 5 ghz is the 66u connected

The Router or 68u setup

 

[Puppa]

I don't currently have my 68U hooked up, but I think the selections (other than "Smart" Connect) are identical to the 3200's. Is it possible to change your channel bandwidth to Auto (20/40/80) and not just 80? If it is, try that first. I'm assuming there's a software bug causing your issue, and I haven't hit it using Auto. Leave control channel fixed, however. Must authentication using TKIP be supported for some device? TKIP has been cracked. If you can, set security to WPA2, only AES authentication. Then see if it still crashes. There is more that can be done on the Professional page also, but this is good for starters, if you wish.

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

 

[R1-Limited]

Oddly enough, since running the 378.56_2 I have had zero issues. Hummmmm. It is either that or something on my back bone now removed was causing issues. Removed are two Polycom IP550 phones, a cisco SPA, and a laptop, Odd

 

[Puppa]

Since I last posted, I have seen the problem on my 3200 with .9313. I tried everything I could think of to stabilize it, but no luck as it seems to be much worse in 9313. I plan to go to 378.56_2 again as well until next FW is posted.

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

 

[R1-Limited]

I have to report that since I have updated to Merlins 56_2 code this issue is no longer an issue at least for me.
So I do not know if the DNS Fix Merlin implamented or if the Public Release based ASUS firmware fixed the issue, but My Media Bridge has been rock solid not loosing connection to the AP.

 

[aicragleon]

This is still a problem in 2018 with the RT-AC66U and RT-AC68U in Media Bridge mode. My solution was just to downgrade both back to 3.0.0.4.378.4850 . This is not ideal, but at least Media Bridge no longer drops its connection. They are both connected to the router Netgear Nighthawk X6 R8000 over 5GHZ. The only thing was that I had to put them in rescue mode to get the frimware to load since it cannot be downgraded in the UI after 3.0.0.4.380 is loaded.

 

[R1-Limited]

I have found my issue, as there was a bend in the virtual WiFi Signalling cable that caused a higher than normal signal to noise ratio.

 

[xtropodx]

Save starting new thread.....
Is there any way connecting via Wifi would suddenly stop or interfere with a wired connection? ie Connecting to router via wifi, router is bridged behind a modem for internet, & suddenly/randomly internet stops working. Wifi working still & can access router just not internet, modem still connected to internet but issue exists between router & modem & only reboot of both resolves the issue until it happens again. I can't see anything in the logs (& don't know what to look for to be honest). My setup can last for days sometimes weeks but then randomly, like this morning, internet becomes inaccessible for no reason & only thing that changed was connecting via wifi.
Is there any way to program router/modem to automatically reboot on connection loss?
RT-3200 with merlin upto date.

 

[vegas_pete]

I can confirm that this continues to be an issue even with the most up-to-date firmware (3.0.0.4.384_20648). Asus support seems to be thrown for a loop. I have made a few observations. The disconnect frequency seems to be a function of control channel selection and bandwidth. This seems to confirm findings by previous posters. The connection becomes more stable at the lower control channels and with narrower bandwidth. The latter is as expected, but the former seems counter-intuitive. I seem to get the best behavior at control channel 48 with bandwidth 80. The setup is almost unusable at control channel 149 or higher. It still disconnects at (48,80) but just not at the same frequency as higher control channels. I created a daemon (linux shell script) that monitors the disconnects and triggers a reboot of the media bridge RT-AC68U whenever a disconnect occurs. At least that way when I return to the desktop after some absence the connection will be up. I will probably follow the above advice of downgrading to 3.0.0.4.378.4850 as a stable connection is more important than any other tweaks Asus may have made. One question: For the router's AP mode is the correct working setting "WDS" or "Hybrid"? That isn't entirely clear. I have it set to "Hybrid" because that was correct for the older RT-N56U media bridge. That may not be true for the RT-AC68U.

 

[KevTech]

I have no issues at all with media bridge on the latest firmware.

RT-AC1900 is the router in bridge mode.

 

[vandal968]

New user, first post. I signed-up specifically to validate the "fix" posted by aicragleon. I've been running an RT-AC1900 flashed into a RT-AC68U for the last couple of weeks. It bridges to an RT-AC86u AP running Merlin 384_5. The 68u was originally also on the Merlin 384_5 firmware. Drops were very common, my machines that were connected to the 68u were ALWAYS disconnected by the morning and required a reboot of the 68u at a minimum and reboot of BOTH routers occasionally (25% of the time?) to restore the connection. It would never go longer than about 16hrs without dropping and would never recover on its own. The link would show it as reconnected after a few minutes, but connectivity was not restored without a reboot. Occasionally, it would drop far more often, like several times in an afternoon. I flashed the 68u (really a 1900) back to 3.0.0.4.378.4850 as posted above and it's been rock-solid for 3 days so far. Thank you VERY MUCH for posting this workaround, it was driving me nuts. Hopefully Asus will squash this Bridge-mode bug soon. The 86u main AP router remains on Merlin 384_5.

cheers,
c

 

[bshth]

Mine was dropping maybe once or less per day than it became more frequent as time passed by. Now it drops every 3 minutes or less. I tried to swap router (main and media bridge), that didn't work. Connecting via 2.4ghz worked fine without dropping but I wasn't getting full speed. Flashing 3.0.0.4.378.4850 works for sure but I am really hoping that someone at Asus finds this bug and fix it...

 

[b33f]

I've been having this same issue for the past few months with my RT-AC1900P.. very frustrating.
I tried to flash it with 3.0.0.4.378.4850, but the router says the firmware is not compatible with this model. Does anyone know of any version of the firmware that would fix this issue for the RT-AC1900P?

 

[indark]

I've been having this same issue for the past few months with my RT-AC1900P.. very frustrating.
I tried to flash it with 3.0.0.4.378.4850, but the router says the firmware is not compatible with this model. Does anyone know of any version of the firmware that would fix this issue for the RT-AC1900P?

Personally, I dont have reboot issue with either merlin/stock firmware, but everytime I encounter weird issue such as this
I will first go ahead power cycle and clear nvram
doing this will require you to reconfigure everything.

first power off the router for 30 sec - 1 min,
hold the wps button while powering on
wait till power led start blinking/flashing then release the wps button
wait till it's fully rebooted and go ahead reconfigure everything
I personally wont load previous configuration as there might be something wrong and cause the reboot.

And if by doing this 2-3 time still not solve the issue, I will consider it being hardware related, contact Asus for further support / RMA.

 

[KevTech]

I have never had this issue but I make two changes from default setting.
I have no idea if it makes any difference.

Roaming assistant disabled
Airtime fairness disabled