I tried a fire tablet that I added the play store to. Same thing. It does say it can't connect to the server instead of the waiting for download message I get on the phones.
No VPN or firewall. Verizon safe is running, but I turned all of that off, no change. Note 8 is same phone I've been using, the other is new about the same time as router upgrade. So I know the note 8 used to do updates and youtube ok
UPDATE: Plugged the old linksys router back in. Changed the subnet from 10.0.0.1 to 10.0.1.1 so I could have both routers up at the same time. Connected to Linksys, phone connects to play store and downloads updates and new apps just fine. Connected to Asus, it just sits there waiting for...