AC68U wireless connection issues on 2.4GHz

[opark]

Hey all,

To the point: my router seems to intermittently 'disable' (not disconnect) a wireless N connection on 2.4 GHz. This lasts about 2-5 minutes, during which I don't have internet access, and the router is unresponsive to pings. I haven't observed the same issue on 5 GHz. After a few minutes, it will work again.

It appears that the wireless connection itself is maintained; Windows just shows it as limited (no internet access).

During one of these outages, I can simply disconnect/reconnect to the network and the issue is fixed, so I don't normally wait the 5 minutes mentioned above.

This happens across laptops and wireless chipsets (so not a client issue).

I've tried: reset to factory defaults on Asus' latest firmware with minimal config; Merlin with minimal config; wireless mode to 'N' only; set channel bandwidth to 20 MHz; disabled beamforming; set key rotation interval to 0; and the latest, change auth method to WPA.

Any ideas what else I can try?

Thanks!

PS. I know it's not a WAN issue because when an outage happens on one laptop, the other laptops/devices work just fine.

 

[L&LD]

Use search and you'll see this is common on the latest builds (Asus and RMerlin).

You may want to try hggomes firmware which has a build that includes the older WiFi drivers and should alleviate this issue. PM @hggomes for a link to the downloads.

380.57.4_HGG-FINAL
==================


RT-N16 - READY. (UPLOADED)
3bc0eef9d675176bf696ba8339556ec06566516dcf013c3a67017b2d0d39f86e RT-N16_380.57.4_HGG-FINAL.trx

RT-N18U - READY. (UPLOADED)
1419b852b8e084ed170984f42b5bb812b42eeda6d72927707fbe6b87e3708473 RT-N18U_380.57.4_HGG-FINAL.trx

RT-N66U - READY. (UPLOADED)
976b0447de4166313b65063dcef6f067ec274566e4206100b90a595b1d4b7d98 RT-N66U_380.57.4_HGG-FINAL.trx

RT-AC66U - READY. (UPLOADED)
5e0473d4e2551c515a580ce5f9d518dc253d92d465b1e6da97bbe23db7f5c634 RT-AC66U_380.57.4_HGG-FINAL.trx

RT-AC56S - READY. (UPLOADED)
3e928f8b1a65f13a5f3543a3096ef43e7bc93c411960d8abda688ff6fc290279 RT-AC56S_380.57.4_HGG-FINAL.trx

RT-AC56U - READY. (UPLOADED)
563609b3ed591bdd698adc34ae2f2322774093e18693693b23791804ba20a26a RT-AC56U_380.57.4_HGG-FINAL.trx

RT-AC68U - READY. (UPLOADED)
fb96cbd40cefc77c7bb973837e736b9354a86c6ec34b229fc3d81e6e27c85684 RT-AC68U_380.57.4_HGG-FINAL.trx (NEW DRIVER)
6d631f0430440de6bcb6914dd0a69744262da7e86283c5f93d563d006d9098d2 RT-AC68U_380.57.4_HGG-FINAL.trx (OLD DRIVER)

- There are some reports on the new driver causing issues (unable to connect and disconnects), specially on 2.4GHZ band.
This doesn't affect everyone but it seems reproducible on some specific devices.
If that's the case use old driver instead, it will fix it.

RT-AC87U - READY. (UPLOADED)
e18121ea8dd5a587428671c6dd37b52ea644a60ed383199fd18eadf91363d813 RT-AC87U_380.57.4_HGG-FINAL.trx

RT-AC3100 - DELAYED, IN TEST.

RT-AC3200 - READY. (UPLOADED)
a6bd0f7a9c5e06dd1c2b5509dc4f817b5990c0e832a00cc4eb88f3b6508126b9 RT-AC3200_380.57.4_HGG-FINAL.trx

RT-AC88U - DELAYED, IN TEST.

RT-AC5300 => DELAYED, IN TEST.

 

[opark]

Unfortunately the old drivers didn't help. By the way, by going to Tools in the GUI, I see this as the driver version: 'wl0: Nov 6 2015 10:49:46 version 6.37.14.105 (r485445)' -- are these the old drivers?

Any other ideas? Maybe I should try the oldest firmware I can find.

Edit: I also tried channels 1, 6, 11, and the issue persists

 

[opark]

so the connection dropped twice just now (at 19:00 and at 19:05) and here's a log:

Feb 13 18:54:52 dnsmasq-dhcp[721]: DHCPREQUEST(br0) 192.168.1.14 74:e5:0b:52:ac:18
Feb 13 18:54:52 dnsmasq-dhcp[721]: DHCPACK(br0) 192.168.1.14 74:e5:0b:52:ac:18 default
Feb 13 19:00:40 miniupnpd[971]: upnp_event_process_notify: connect(192.168.1.14:2869): Connection timed out
Feb 13 19:00:40 miniupnpd[971]: upnp_event_process_notify: connect(192.168.1.14:2869): Connection timed out
Feb 13 19:01:53 dnsmasq-dhcp[721]: DHCPREQUEST(br0) 192.168.1.14 74:e5:0b:52:ac:18
Feb 13 19:01:53 dnsmasq-dhcp[721]: DHCPACK(br0) 192.168.1.14 74:e5:0b:52:ac:18 default
Feb 13 19:01:57 miniupnpd[971]: upnp_event_recv: recv(): Connection reset by peer
Feb 13 19:05:19 dnsmasq-dhcp[721]: DHCPREQUEST(br0) 192.168.1.14 74:e5:0b:52:ac:18
Feb 13 19:05:19 dnsmasq-dhcp[721]: DHCPACK(br0) 192.168.1.14 74:e5:0b:52:ac:18 default

 

[jogl]

If you find a solution please report it back. I just returned a 68U because I could not resolve a somewhat similar issue. Thanks.

 

[opark]

i've ordered a new AC68U. if I have the same issue with it, I'm moving on to a TP-Link Archer.

 

[L&LD]

i've ordered a new AC68U. if I have the same issue with it, I'm moving on to a TP-Link Archer.

TP-Link and DLink, I would avoid at all costs (or savings).

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/router-advice.30053/#post-236297

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/ra...e-routers-cripple-security.29893/#post-232348

 

[opark]

So, a brand new AC68U is exhibiting the same issue on 3.0.0.4.378_9313. What other firmware should I try?

 

[TheManFromUncle]

So, a brand new AC68U is exhibiting the same issue on 3.0.0.4.378_9313. What other firmware should I try?

After each installation of new or old firmware, have you reset the router? If not, that would be a good place to start.

 

[opark]

I think that for whatever reason, the AC68U just couldn't handle the interference on 2.4GHz in my apt. complex. I've been using an Archer C7 for a few days and it's been fine. Issue resolved...