2 x RT-AX68U: lots of errored packets

[fantom]

Hi, I have setup a mesh with 2 x rt-ax68u (running the latest Merlin build) and seeing a lot of dropped packets on both nodes. Below is from the main router, but the other one is very similar. The counters never stop increasing: the router were up for ~1h. The longer they are up, Is this normal?

eth5          TX packets:301283 errors:255 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
eth6          TX packets:268921 errors:396 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
wl0.1          TX packets:3174 errors:257 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
wl1.1          TX packets:108558 errors:688 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

 

[joegreat]

I have 100s of millions (with up to 1.1 Billion) RX/TX on the main router interfaces with 0 errors. You should check your cabling: Make sure you have CAT6 certified cables all over...
To find software related issues, you should do a 'Factory default' reset of the router and do a minimal config (just WAN and WLAN) and check again for errors.

TX packets:562422561  errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
RX packets:1171424784 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:646156718  errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
RX packets:1145614626 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:166119995  errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
RX packets:13304546   errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:13304546   errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
RX packets:71495645   errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

 

[fantom]

You should check your cabling: Make sure you have CAT6 certified cables all over...

It is my understanding that eth5/6 are WIFI interfaces. eth0 is WAN and eth1/2/3/4 are LAN ports. I will try a full reset and a minimal config now.

 

[fantom]

I have 100s of millions (with up to 1.1 Billion) RX/TX on the main router interfaces with 0 errors. You should check your cabling: Make sure you have CAT6 certified cables all over...
To find software related issues, you should do a 'Factory default' reset of the router and do a minimal config (just WAN and WLAN) and check again for errors.

TX packets:562422561  errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
RX packets:1171424784 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:646156718  errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
RX packets:1145614626 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:166119995  errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
RX packets:13304546   errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:13304546   errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
RX packets:71495645   errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

Are those wired or wireless? Is the single router or AiMesh?

After some reading I found that a small number of error packets on wifi is ok and there will be more if APs are closer each other. I will monitor the wifi interfaces for now.

As far as wired connection are concerned, I tried the following:

* Both RT-AX68U are configured as routers and connected to the upstream router directly
--> there are no errors/dropped on WAN interfaces nor on the upstream router.

This tells me that the wires & WAN ports on my Asus routers are fine.

* Both RT-AX68U are configured as routers and chained while one is connected to the upstream router
--> No packet loss on the connection to the upstream router
--> Dropped packets on both sides on the link between Asus routers (but different numbers).

* The same test as above, but Asus routers are swapped (still chained). The results are the same: no issues on the Ethernet link to the upstream router while there are dropped packets on the link connecting two Asus routers.

The numbers are small, but always increasing. Looks like WAN & LAN ports are ok on both routers: the observed behaviour is the same no matter the order of routers. The source of dropped packets is still a mystery.