ASUS N66U 2.4Ghz dead, 5GHz not connecting.

[MANswers]

Hi all,

I have a Asus N66u router, and everything has been working great for the last 2 or 3 years. Today morning when i wake up, i see my all of my devices were not connecting to the internet.
I have a comcast cable internet, with my own Motorola Arris Surfboard 6141 modem.

Upon investigating, i see that the the led on the router looked odd, the led on the 2.4ghz wasnt on, and only 5ghz was working, I usually use 2.4ghz on all of my devices, but upon switching over to 5ghz, internet connection was still dead.
On the Modem as well, the LAN connection LED was off.
I unplugged the ethernet cable and plugged it directly to the working PC, which i mainly used, and internet was working fine directly.

So i assume my router is dead? WHY? end of lifecycle, do routers run for 2-3 years only? yes i do download and stream a lot of stuff.. but not sure, if its wear and tear.

Now if i have to buy a new router, should i go with an Asus, or Netgear nighthawk?
If asus, is ac3100 a better choice or ac3200 or even the rt-ac88u
The house is about 1800 sqft, but in two years we will be moving to a 5000 sqft house.

Apart from that i have atleast a dozen things connected to the wifi. Please guide/suggest.

 

[hggomes]

Have you power cycle it?

If yes then try a factory defaults (press RESET button 10-15sec without releasing), what FW version are you using? If RMerlin FW you can check the radios status on Sysinfo page.

 

[MANswers]

No, i cannot even log into the admin page.
Looks like the router is not at all beaming any wifi or even wired lan connection.
I pressed that small button for over 20 seconds couple of times, and no result. Firmware always had been stock.

 

[hggomes]

Do this:

1. Power OFF.
2. Press RESET button without releasing and Power ON.
3. Check if the POWER LED on the router is ON in a blinking loop (recovery mode).

 

[MANswers]

Ok, thanks i am gonna try this when i get home, at work right now.
But while we are at this, as I mentioned earlier, that i download a lot. My PC is hooked up to the network, and keeps downloading like 24/7, i stream on netflix, i have two laptops that connect, and also stream through youtube atleast couple of times in a hour.
I have a 72tb headless media server, but thats connected to my pc using the ethernet cable.
The thing is, my pc literally uses the download and upload stream. its a 70mbps comcast line.
For this whats a good router. I do not want to spend more than 150 bucks, but i can add another 50 bucks or so if there is something really required. its just WAF. She wont get the fact of spending 400 dollars for a router.

 

[hggomes]

RT-AC56U/RT-AC68P/RT-AC68U is your best deal.

 

[MANswers]

RT-AC56U/RT-AC68P/RT-AC68U is your best deal.

Thanks for your reply, My neighbour uses a AC1900 and raves about it. he mentions its for about 170 dollars. the router RT-AC68U is for about 159, for about 20 dollars more, is the ac1900 a good choice for my use, or u still suggest ac68u?

 

[MANswers]

ok, it looks like both are the same?

 

[hggomes]

They are very similar, but not equal, you should first confirm that your N66 is really dead, it's still a decent router.

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/ha...model-asus-rt-ac68a.31354/page-11#post-263560

 

[MANswers]

They are very similar, but not equal, you should first confirm that your N66 is really dead, it's still a decent router.

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/ha...model-asus-rt-ac68a.31354/page-11#post-263560

Hello,

I repeated the procedure multiple times as you mentioned in your post above. But that didnt help.
When i clicked on Asus_5G (the new assigned default ssid), even though everything was connected correctly the admin page kept showing

I remember before i attempted the factory reset, two days back.. only 5Ghz would show up, and when i tried connecting to it, it would ask for the password, the password never worked. It would just never connect. Kept saying.. cannot connect to the internet.

Out of sheer frustation, i brought the RT-AC68U today morning, and hooked it up. Definately the range is so much better on this, and for some reason i think the pages are loading faster, though the upload and download speeds are the same, even the speedtest is similar to as it was before. But the pages load very quick.

I have updated the firmware. Now where do i go from here. Are there settings i need to turn on and disable in the admin page. I am sure there are fantastic tips and suggestions for people like me who get a new router, and they need to enable and disable items in the admin page. My neighbour mentioned to turn of wps, but that was already turned off for me.

Do u recommend using the Merlin firmware instead? or shud i stick with what i have.

 

[hggomes]

That's a really weird scenario you've got there.

Regarding the range on RT-N66U vs AC68U it could be a placebo effect, they are very similar, RT-AC68U is slighly better I would say.

I would definitely suggest RMerlin FW instead, but if you only use the basics you will probably not miss anything on ASUS stock FW.

 

[MANswers]

That's a really weird scenario you've got there.

Regarding the range on RT-N66U vs AC68U it could be a placebo effect, they are very similar, RT-AC68U is slighly better I would say.

I would definitely suggest RMerlin FW instead, but if you only use the basics you will probably not miss anything on ASUS stock FW.

Thank you for your responses sir.
I am not sure i did understand that part though.. I am a heavy internet user, I stream a lot of movies, using Plex, Netflix and youtube.
My downloads or uploads are connected like 24/7 The bandwith is constantly moving. Have 3 phones, couple of tables, Amazon Echo, Micasaverde Vera 3 Home Automation all connected thru wifi.
Will that be normal usage? Can i live with the stock firmware or do u recommend me to move to RMerlin? What kind of user would prefer moving to RMerlin FW

 

[hyelton]

Thanks for your reply, My neighbour uses a AC1900 and raves about it. he mentions its for about 170 dollars. the router RT-AC68U is for about 159, for about 20 dollars more, is the ac1900 a good choice for my use, or u still suggest ac68u?

If you look in the right places the AC68U can be gotten at certain walmarts for $50 and some for $99. On clearance


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[hggomes]

RMerlin FW is the same as ASUS FW but with several new features / options, so see it as an enhanced version, you can read the ReadMe/Changelog files to have an idea or even better, give it a try.

My "normal" usage means not advanced features, like JFFS boot scripts for example or any others inside RMerlin FW.

 

[sfx2000]

Oh wow - they still have devices pointed at www(dot)asusnetwork(dot)net - thought Asus fixed that in later builds across all the product lines.

(don't go to that domain, it's a malware host) - even my little WL-300NUL travel router got a fix there sometime back...

 

[RMerlin]

That domain is hardcoded throughout the firmware (especially AiCloud), and in the router's host file. If Asus kept using it in the FW while failing to retain ownership of that domain, then this is really BAD...

 

[sfx2000]

They missed the expiration back in 2012, and someone grabbed it - the fix I had on my WL-330NUL changed the access/internal lookup to router.asus.com

Domain Name: ASUSNETWORK.NET
Registry Domain ID: 1709708356_DOMAIN_NET-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.above.com
Registrar URL: http://www.above.com
Updated Date: 2012-03-29 13:21:50.197172+11
Creation Date: 2012-03-29 13:21:50.197172+11
Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2017-03-29 13:21:50.197172+11

So yes, I would concur, this is kinda bad...