RT-AC87U - WoL only works sometimes

[Tario70]

Okay, I'm seriously at the end of my rope & broke down & created an account because I am at a complete loss of what to do next.

I just picked up an RT-AC87U & am coming from a D-Link DIR-825. Wake-On-LAN worked flawlessly on the D-Link via the internet & my internal network. It does not on the AC87. I updated from the latest Stock firmware to Merlin's FW 378.50. I've reset the router several times to try different setups. Both the stock & Merlin's FW gave the same results. WoL is at best inconsistent & at worst doesn't work.

My Desktop PC is hardwired to the router. Always has been & still is.

Here's a few of the things I've tried.

• I set port forwarding to the broadcast IP on my network 192.168.1.255 (same as I had it on my D-Link) with UDP port 9 being forwarded.
• I tried setting port forwarding directly to my PC's IP instead of the broadcast IP
• I setup AiCloud with DDNS. Yay it works... Once or twice. Try it about 30 minutes later & now it doesn't work.
• Even within my network the AiCloud app is intermittent. It will work one time & then not the next.
• I have this app https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/net-master-it-tools-lan-scanner/id470646694?mt=8 which I got for free one day. With the dlink it works flawlessly via my network & via the internet. With the AC87 it doesn't work at all.

This should be a simple port forward of the WoL packet. No other router I've owned has given me such a headache. WoL is a must for me so if I can't get this working I'm going to end up returning this router to NewEgg & going back to the DIR-825 for the time being.

 

[L&LD]

If I'm not mistaken, WoL needs the MAC address of the device, not the IP (there is no IP if it is not on, right).

 

[Tario70]

If I'm not mistaken, WoL needs the MAC address of the device, not the IP (there is no IP if it is not on, right).

It does, Perhaps I should have been clearer, my fault as I'm frustrated as all hell right now.

Everything that is sending the WoL packet has my correct MAC address in it. For example, I can literally switch out the 2 routers, use the app I mentioned in the original post & it will work with the DLink. If I switch out to the AC87U, it doesn't work.

In the AiCloud app, I've used the main page that shows my PC "offline" to wake my PC but it will work once or twice & then fail after that. I've also tried via the manual Wake On LAN setup (in the AiCloud app) with similar results.

IP addressing was only for port forwarding.

So, Via the Net Master App, with the ASUS, WoL fails via the internet & via the internal network. The PC NEVER wakes up. The AiCloud App will work once or twice via the internet or on the internal network & then fail a half hour later & the PC won't wake up via internal or external means.

The DLink doesn't have an app, so I use the Net Master App. Whether via the internet (DDNS) or via my internal network, the PC immediately wakes up. This Always happens.

So my question is, why doesn't the ASUS act like the DLink & How can I get it to WoL reliably?

 

[Tario70]

Just another update.

WoL worked via AiCloud this morning while on my internal network. It has failed via the internet (even though I am connected to the router through AiCloud).

 

[tommyv2]

My WoL works perfectly. May I ask why you have all that complicated stuff set up? Don't you just go to the network tools router page, select the computer and select "Wake Up"?

I don't have any type of forwarding or DDNS that has anything to do with WoL for me. As long as the computer in question has a MAC entry on that page, it works. I use it 20x a week from a remote site; never once failed.

 

[Tario70]

My WoL works perfectly. May I ask why you have all that complicated stuff set up? Don't you just go to the network tools router page, select the computer and select "Wake Up"?

I don't have any type of forwarding or DDNS that has anything to do with WoL for me. As long as the computer in question has a MAC entry on that page, it works. I use it 20x a week from a remote site; never once failed.

I have it setup there too, but do not have my router page setup to login remotely from the internet. I'd prefer not to have to do that.

As for it being complicated, I never thought that doing a simple port forward of UDP 9 to my broadcast IP of 192.168.1.255 was complicated. DDNS just gave me a static address I could use to send the wake packet to.

Also, DDNS is essential if you want to use AiCloud outside of your internal network. Again, this shouldn't be complicated but for some reason ASUS's setup is making it far more difficult than it should be.

 

[tommyv2]

Don't get me wrong, I do use DDNS to get onto the router, obviously. As for not making the router accessible remotely, why not use HTTPS and made a stupidly complex password?

The router's WoL page is way too convenient to ignore. I used to do what you do with my old D-Link and I prefer this method by leaps and bounds, minor security be damned.

 

[Rankdropper84]

I don't even have mine setup I don't think. TBH I didn't know you had to set it up since it has just always worked on my PCs

 

[john9527]

This is just a guess, but try entering the following command via telnet/ssh and see if it makes a difference.

iptables -D FORWARD -m state --state INVALID -j DROP

 

[Tario70]

This is just a guess, but try entering the following command via telnet/ssh and see if it makes a difference.

iptables -D FORWARD -m state --state INVALID -j DROP

I'll give that a shot when I get home, but I'm already completely frustrated that something so simple is becoming so difficult. Why won't the router just forward the traffic via the udp port I have set to forward? It makes zero sense.

 

[Tario70]

So before leaving the house I powered down the router & unplugged it. After about a 1 min I plugged it in.

The ASUS AiCloud app woke my computer up about 5 or 6 times today remotely over the internet. BUT, now it's not working at all again.

I think I'll just return the router. This was an amazing router as far as speed & throughput, but if it can't do something as simple as WoL, I can't use that router nor support that company.

Thanks for trying to help everyone.

 

[AdvHomeServer]

So before leaving the house I powered down the router & unplugged it. After about a 1 min I plugged it in.

The ASUS AiCloud app woke my computer up about 5 or 6 times today remotely over the internet. BUT, now it's not working at all again.

I think I'll just return the router. This was an amazing router as far as speed & throughput, but if it can't do something as simple as WoL, I can't use that router nor support that company.

Thanks for trying to help everyone.

Sorry to hear of your troubles. If it means anything, you are not alone. WOL is finicky. Sometimes it works for some people, sometimes it doesn't. It might be the router. It might not be the router. TeamViewer, somewhere in their documentation, has a good wake on lan tutorial that can be generalized. It might be helpful, although it's also possible you've tried everything in it.

I could only get it working on computers from downstairs to upstairs, not over the internet. Plus, I needed to set an event program that kept it awake (I used caffeine, a fake mouse jiggler to start on the wake event). I haven't tried lately with my current router.

 

[RMerlin]

A common cause of issues with WOL is how aggressive power management is with modern switches, where they almost completely cut down traffic transmission on ports that are in low-power state.

I suspect that aggressive ARP flushing from some of these switches can also be a problem.

And I've seen at least one case myself where the driver used by the Ethernet adapter was the problem - updating to a newer version coming from the manufacturer's website rather than from Windows Update or the motherboard manufacturer (I forgot which one I had previously) resolved my issues.

 

[Tario70]

A common cause of issues with WOL is how aggressive power management is with modern switches, where they almost completely cut down traffic transmission on ports that are in low-power state.

I suspect that aggressive ARP flushing from some of these switches can also be a problem.

And I've seen at least one case myself where the driver used by the Ethernet adapter was the problem - updating to a newer version coming from the manufacturer's website rather than from Windows Update or the motherboard manufacturer (I forgot which one I had previously) resolved my issues.

It was just so weird that the only change was the router itself & that it would work sometimes but not other times. I already had the latest drivers for my Ethernet card (I checked prior to posting as I read on some other forums to try that) & still had the same issues.

It baffles me that even with port forwarding enabled it wouldn't wake the PC up at all. Using any app, webapp or the iPhone app, would not work at all. Then the AiCloud app working intermittently on top of that. I'm just baffled.

I've decided to see what D-Link is coming out with this year as I see the AC3100 will their version of the RT-AC87 & the AC5300 will be a souped up version of that.

Thanks again.

 

[erdnuesse]

Well, you should know that WOL is not supposed to work over the internet.
Wikipedia states:
Subnet directed broadcasts
A principal limitation of standard broadcast wake-on-LAN is that broadcast packets are generally not routed. This prevents the technique being used in larger networks or over the Internet.

So it's not a bug, your fault or mistake, it's made by design.
You need to implement mechanisms, to trigger a WOL from inside the Broadcast domain wich is inside your Network.