RT-AC68U Gone, Next?

Long story short:

Bought a 68U, installed 378... Merlin fork. Great GUI interface, seemed OK but then started noticing ADSL drop outs.
Updated to 380... Merlin fork, same. Noticed that ADSL dropped when a 2.4G device connected to 68U. Any 2.4G device, tried 3 different ones.
Tried changing every setting that I could find, same.
Called Asus and tried a few different revisions of their firmware, same.
Tried HGGomes' fork, old driver, same.
Returned 68U before the 30 days was up.
Put my old Ciso/Linksys E4200 back in, still working OK, but, of course, not near as snappy as the 68U. No 2.4G/ADSL problems, of course.

All I really wanted was better monitoring features and the 68U with Merlin forks definitely did the job. I just couldn't keep it knowing that the 2.4G was not working right, especially when I plan to start experimenting with wifi (ESP 8266) Arduino type devices. So now I will be looking at other consumer router/AP's, maybe low end business hardware, and looking at x86 with something like PFSense, although a consumer wifi router is really all I need. The war horse 4200 will do for now.

Anyway, have to move on to other projects, any advice appreciated.

Thanks to all who helped me,
JP.

There is a lots of knowed issues for AC68 since the release of 380.57

Read all this tread, you are not alone
http://www.snbforums.com/threads/asuswrt-merlin-380-57-is-now-available.29308/
Revert back to 378.56_2 is the solution for now and the only one , or go with jonh Fork or with HGgomes 380.57(old driver version)

Blinkyz said:

There is a lots of knowed issues for AC68 since the release of 380.57

Click to expand...

interestingly here in OZ i havnt heard much complaining on the whirlpool forums about the rt-ac68u with the latest fw which from our au web site is Version 3.0.0.4.380.1842

From what I have learned there is not "much complaining", however there are other complaints similar to mine. Everything that I tried indicated that the 68U was the problem. I was tempted to bring a replacement home to try, hoping that the issue was a hardware problem with the 2.4G radio. But I didn't, as mentioned, I have way too much time into this already and must move on for now.

The problem is Asus has released so many different versions of the 68 that you just dont know what your going to get. Some have issues with the latest code some dont. This is one of the reasons it's probably not a good idea to purchase the 68 any longer and why i got rid of mine for the 3100. BTW if you have a 68 that dont work right on 2.4 GHZ the problem is still there despite the fact Asus knows of the issue and has yet to fix all different revisions.

If the store I went to had had an 88U (3100, right?) in stock I probably would have brought it home to try, but they didn't.

jogl said:

If the store I went to had had an 88U (3100, right?) in stock I probably would have brought it home to try, but they didn't.

Click to expand...

I will say the RT-AC88U and the RT-AC3100 are over priced and frankly just huge for a home router BUT they have been solid right out of the box with very few complaints if you browse the forums here. I do not regret spending the money on 3100 it works good !!

pete y testing said:

rt-ac68u with the latest fw which from our au web site is Version 3.0.0.4.380.1842

Click to expand...

bashing the ASUS forums here, seems that the 380 builds have been a bit troublesome in NA and other regions...

sfx2000 said:

bashing the ASUS forums here, seems that the 380 builds have been a bit troublesome in NA and other regions...

Click to expand...

This seems true (that 380.x is having uncommon troubles). Numerous (4?) respected members have said similar things.

(Purely subjective, as a daily forumite. I have no data to present.)

jogl said:

Long story short:

Bought a 68U, installed 378... Merlin fork. Great GUI interface, seemed OK but then started noticing ADSL drop outs.
Updated to 380... Merlin fork, same. Noticed that ADSL dropped when a 2.4G device connected to 68U. Any 2.4G device, tried 3 different ones.
Tried changing every setting that I could find, same.
Called Asus and tried a few different revisions of their firmware, same.
Tried HGGomes' fork, old driver, same.
Returned 68U before the 30 days was up.

Click to expand...

Did you do a factory reset after each firmware change? Then the device is faulty - otherwise the fault is on...

Absolutely did reset. I did the GUI factory "restore" or whatever its called and then did a manual push button reset and then after it stabilized from the reset cycled the power, just for good measure, every time.