What's new

RT-N66U Lemon? Anyone else needing unplugging?

  • SNBForums Code of Conduct

    SNBForums is a community for everyone, no matter what their level of experience.

    Please be tolerant and patient of others, especially newcomers. We are all here to share and learn!

    The rules are simple: Be patient, be nice, be helpful or be gone!

lanman

Occasional Visitor
Just bought the RT-N66U at newegg because of a combo sale and my dlink dir-655 was having issues.

Anyway, it took over an hour of unplugging/replugging my cable modem and the new Asus in until finally the asus page at 192.168.1.1 registered that it got an IP from my cable modem and got online. Very frustating. Unplug everything... wait 2 minutes, plug in cable modem, wait 'till online, plug in Asus, go through "quick internet setup"... nothing... start over... for an hour. Finally it is online and working, and the wireless strength is great. I upgraded to latest firmware through the admin page to 3.0.0.4.270. This was a few days ago and I've left it untouched until today.

Today I did two pretty basic things FROM WIRED CONNECTIONs.
  1. First thing was I have a WHS server and I wanted to manually reserve/assign it its own IP address. After hitting "apply" the Asus page at 192.168.1.1/advanced_dhcp_etc... "hung". It didn't count to 100%. Additionally, all the wired and wireless connections in the house were "hung" or disconnected. I had to physically unplug the Asus and plug it back in.
  2. After this I wanted to set up a simple port forward. After hitting "Apply"... same problem. All wired and wireless HUNG and after waiting 5 minutes had to physically power cycle the router again (yank from the wall).

Also, when I hit apply it counts up by % and the changes seem rather basic (add a port forward) but it takes like 45 seconds to a minute for it to apply such a simple change. IS this normal?

I'm on current firmware. I bought this based on all the great reviews. I'm pretty frustrated. I don't want to go to non-stock firmware because my needs are pretty simple... But one need is *not* physically unplugging and re-plugging the power all the time and having simple changes disconnect everyone

Is mine a lemon? Anyone else with similar?
 
Last edited:
I would try doing a Factory Default reset in case your settings are containing garbled entries, and reconfiguring from scratch.

Also make sure that every Ethernet cable connected to it (including the WAN cable) is either Cat5e or Cat6.

You mention your DLink also had issues - maybe it's something else on your network causing troubles with your routers?
 
Thanks for the reply Rmerlin, I take from your reply that what I'm experiencing should be unexpected (not normal).

I should have noted in the original thread:
After the firmware upgrade, I did do a factory reset and it did not help.
I used the original Cat-5e cable, and earlier this week when I was having trouble initially installing I replaced that with another cat-5e cable I knew to work.

The dlink issues were it was dropping wireless connections every 5 minutes. This is a known problem on that dlink and I used a replacement router until I received this rt-n66u and the wireless no longer drops. Also, the wireless no longer drops on this rt-n66u. It just has the other issues mentioned (every few setting changes disconnect all, and require a hard power cycle).
 
What you are describing isn't common, fortunately (which means it should be resolvable for you).

One thing I would try is to reduce your network to its simplest setup: the router, and one single computer. Reboot the router with only these connected together. Try again configuring it - is the webui freeze issues resolved? If yes, then it might be a specific device on your network causing the issue. Try adding your devices one at a time until you can isolate the culprit.

Also, some people have experienced issues with the webui and their security software (I forgot if it was Avast or Antivir that caused that issue that one person reported). Try disabling any security software on your PC and see if the issues disappear.
 
Good Idea. In the meantime I have also contacted Newegg and they agreed to do an advance replacement of the router. The dlink-dir655 did have issues but only dropping wireless connections and no other problems. The replacement I had in place, until I selected this asus router, was a dlink dgl-4300 router and other than weak wireless signal, it had no issues. So had this temporary router (dlink gaming router) had issues, I'd agree with you perhaps it is something on my network. Still willing to try it though with just a single wired computer.

Oh, I just use MSE with the defaults for security software. Nothing else.

I had asked another question... adding a new port forward, or assigning a fixed IP address to a device (simple stuff) and saving on the Asus router takes over a minute of watching the screen count up to 100% on the Asus firmware. Is that normal? On my old dlink making a port change saved in mere seconds.
 
Good Idea. In the meantime I have also contacted Newegg and they agreed to do an advance replacement of the router. The dlink-dir655 did have issues but only dropping wireless connections and no other problems. The replacement I had in place, until I selected this asus router, was a dlink dgl-4300 router and other than weak wireless signal, it had no issues. So had this temporary router (dlink gaming router) had issues, I'd agree with you perhaps it is something on my network. Still willing to try it though with just a single wired computer.

Oh, I just use MSE with the defaults for security software. Nothing else.

I had asked another question... adding a new port forward, or assigning a fixed IP address to a device (simple stuff) and saving on the Asus router takes over a minute of watching the screen count up to 100% on the Asus firmware. Is that normal? On my old dlink making a port change saved in mere seconds.

Asuswrt is often a bit overzealous with its reboot and service restarts unfortunately. A lot of webui changes that should only trigger a simple firewall reload will actually restart other services as well. Part of the reason is that the same webui page also allows you to change other settings, and the firmware isn't intelligent enough to check which actual setting was changed, and only restart the associated services.

This is something that could be improved, but I'm not sure it could be entirely resolved without some major architecture changes.
 
Just wanted to pop in I did a RMA to Newegg of the original router. Received the new router (replacement) maybe 2 weeks ago. The replacement has been running without any of the original problems. It was definitely the router. Not my network.

So if you happen to find this post via google and have the same problems, get a replacement.
 
I own three RT-N66us that I purchased at different times from different vendors last year. They have the latest .270 firmware. They run 24/7 and have been going non-stop for more than seven months on multiple ISPs. They normally never need to be rebooted unless I make a major settings change. Along with the famous Linksys WRT-54G routers of which I purchased more than five through the years... these three AsusRT-N66Us are by far the best and most reliable routers I have owned.

Lemons are always possible but it's much more likely you are having configuration/settings problems or conflicts. Diagnose the basics... Make sure your ISP modem is not using the same IP address of 192.168.1.1 or just to make sure try changing the default router address to a different IP such as 192.168.2.1 . Check your Ethernet cables and make sure they are all Cat5e or better. Use the router default settings first to make sure if those work before adding any of your own settings...such as QoS, etc.. You shouldn't have to keep restarting your router to establish internet connection.

I am sure others in this forum have other suggestions for you. If you can't get it solved try Asus support. Your ISP's tech support might also have suggestions for you. There is also that remote possibility that you did get a defective router which would mean you could request a replacement but that would be the last consideration I go with until I try to debug the problem. If you decide to replace it just make sure you get it returned before the replacement window expires.
 
Last edited:
Hi,
Also I am wondering if syslog has any funnies showing??!! I had numerous routers and all kinds of stuffs over the years but have not experienced funnies. Had couple bad AC
adapters, that's all. I always keep spare AC adapter and when something is acting up, that is the first one I replace with known good spare. Checking with meter is often not good enough. I use 'scope. Female cable connector pins can be loose too.
 
Hi,
Also I am wondering if syslog has any funnies showing??!! I had numerous routers and all kinds of stuffs over the years but have not experienced funnies. Had couple bad AC
adapters, that's all. I always keep spare AC adapter and when something is acting up, that is the first one I replace with known good spare. Checking with meter is often not good enough. I use 'scope. Female cable connector pins can be loose too.

I also got an extra Asus OEM 30W AC power adapter which is available through the Asus store. I have one as a spare in case any of my three working Asus RT-N66U routers needed to have their AC power adapter replaced in the future. It's a bit of an odd type of AC adapter with unusual specs (Output: 19V, 1.58A, 30W) and it might not be very easy to find a conventional non-Asus replacement. Asus also uses it to power their extreme small form factor Eee PC machines. This specific OEM Asus AC power adapter isn't cheap. It costs about $50 USD shipped.

http://us.estore.asus.com/index.php?l=product_detail&p=5711
 
Last edited:

Similar threads

Latest threads

Sign Up For SNBForums Daily Digest

Get an update of what's new every day delivered to your mailbox. Sign up here!
Top