AC68 keeps slowing down, killing my connection (Fork)

[jhferry]

I am running Fork 373.43. For the last month or more I have to reboot the router to get internet speed back. We use a ton of devices and it slows to a crawl. If I test the connection right to the cable modem its fine.
1) Any troubleshooting tips?
2) I have never tuned this AC68, is there a guide somewhere?
3) What are my options to go back to stock or Merlin?

 

[john9527]

A couple of questions....
- I don't recognize an N68....did you mean an AC68 or an N66?
- What's a 'ton of devices' (number)? Are they the same set of devices or clients which just connect once or sporadically?
- What level of the fork are you running?

-Depending on your answer to the first question will determine how you would move to a different code, but you can definitely get to any code level you wish..

 

[jhferry]

Sorry, I did mean AC68. By ton of devices I mean 2 kids with Kindles, 2 PCs streaming and possibly and ipad, all wireless. There are also game systems plugged directly into the router. My firmware is listed as 374.43_2-07j9527. I have done nothing to tune it, just loaded it and let it go. I didn't even boost the antenna, I couldn't find it so I left it alone.

 

[john9527]

That sounds like a pretty typical setup....so we should be able to figure out what is going on.

Sorry, but another couple of questions. Do your kids have friends come over who connect as well? There is a problem you can start running into when you get around 40-50 different clients that have connected over time.

Do you have any VPN Servers or Clients running?

How many wireless clients are connected at one time? The thing to remember about wireless is that the available bandwidth is shared amongst everyone who is connected. If you have a lot at the same time, it would probably help to distribute them across both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz radios.

One of the first things to check when you start encountering a problem is to look at the Tools tab under NVRAM usage.....if it's anywhere near about 60K you can start running into difficulties and we would need to look at what is using up the space. Also check the free memory to see if it's low. Low (say <50M) isn't necessarily bad, but can indicate that some process is getting out of hand if you are not running something that accounts for it, like Media Server.

With respect to being able to change code, can you provide what level of is listed under Bootloader (CFE), again on the Tools page. This is needed if you want to move to an ASUS OEM code, where you may need to make an intermediate (stepping stone) code load.

You can move to any later fork level (and I'd recommend it at some point just for some security fixes over the V7 you have now), or to any level of Merlin code without a problem. If moving to Merlin, you need to do a reset to factory defaults after loading the code.

 

[jhferry]

That sounds like a pretty typical setup....so we should be able to figure out what is going on.

Sorry, but another couple of questions. Do your kids have friends come over who connect as well? There is a problem you can start running into when you get around 40-50 different clients that have connected over time.

Not really

Do you have any VPN Servers or Clients running?

Nope

How many wireless clients are connected at one time? The thing to remember about wireless is that the available bandwidth is shared amongst everyone who is connected. If you have a lot at the same time, it would probably help to distribute them across both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz radios.

Let's say it is possible to have up to 8 devices running but not likely at the same time. I do split them somewhat when possible. I have noticed even if my main PC is the only one using 5G I still have the issue though.

One of the first things to check when you start encountering a problem is to look at the Tools tab under NVRAM usage.....if it's anywhere near about 60K you can start running into difficulties and we would need to look at what is using up the space. Also check the free memory to see if it's low. Low (say <50M) isn't necessarily bad, but can indicate that some process is getting out of hand if you are not running something that accounts for it, like Media Server.

With respect to being able to change code, can you provide what level of is listed under Bootloader (CFE), again on the Tools page. This is needed if you want to move to an ASUS OEM code, where you may need to make an intermediate (stepping stone) code load.

You can move to any later fork level (and I'd recommend it at some point just for some security fixes over the V7 you have now), or to any level of Merlin code without a problem. If moving to Merlin, you need to do a reset to factory defaults after loading the code.

Wait, there is a newer version? Where do I get that? I'd like to start there.

 

[john9527]

Wait, there is a newer version? Where do I get that? I'd like to start there.

Sticky near the top of this forum....
http://www.snbforums.com/threads/fork-update-for-374-43-available.18914/

 

[jhferry]

Sticky near the top of this forum....
http://www.snbforums.com/threads/fork-update-for-374-43-available.18914/

This is very strange. Prior to updating the firmware above I would get the following after connecting to the router through a browser:

Settings have been updated. Web page will now refresh.
Changes have been made to the IP address or port number. You will now be disconnected from RT-AC68U.
To access the settings of RT-AC68U, reconnect to the wireless network and use the updated IP address and port number.

Then I get locked out (wired or wireless). If I reboot the router, I get back in but once I go to tools the page formatting gets weird and I have to reboot again. Each time I get the above message. Clients can still connect, its just the admin page that gets locked out.

 

[john9527]

If I reboot the router, I get back in but once I go to tools the page formatting gets weird and I have to reboot again. Each time I get the above message.

If the tools page is being formatted incorrectly, that means that there is a bad value in nvram (which I haven't been able to track down, I can't recreate the problem). The only way to get out of the situation is to do a reset to factory defaults and reconfigure your router settings.

 

[steve500]

I have a question about having "too many devices," and this thread looks like a good one to piggyback on.

I have a Netgear Nighthawk and I'm planning on switching to an Asus AC68U once V12 of your forked firmware is out, but I'm wondering if that setup would work for my usage case:

We have about 20 wired devices (TiVos via MoCA, a bunch of Sonos speakers, etc) and about 35 wireless devices (4 laptops, 4 cell phones, 2 TVs, 2 Chromecasts, 2 desktops, an Xbox, and a bunch of wall mounted Android tablets that are used as home automation controllers - very low bandwidth usage).

Would splitting the wireless devices between two access points be enough to avoid issues, or would our setup have too many overall devices for the AC68U to handle?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Hawk]

I have a question about having "too many devices," and this thread looks like a good one to piggyback on.

I have a Netgear Nighthawk and I'm planning on switching to an Asus AC68U once V12 of your forked firmware is out, but I'm wondering if that setup would work for my usage case:

We have about 20 wired devices (TiVos via MoCA, a bunch of Sonos speakers, etc) and about 35 wireless devices (4 laptops, 4 cell phones, 2 TVs, 2 Chromecasts, 2 desktops, an Xbox, and a bunch of wall mounted Android tablets that are used as home automation controllers - very low bandwidth usage).

Would splitting the wireless devices between two access points be enough to avoid issues, or would our setup have too many overall devices for the AC68U to handle?

Thanks in advance!

Steve, I have RT-AC68U myself and I have close to 36 devices on it with mix of cellphones, laptop, tablet and game consoles. However do bear in mind how well it going to work depends on bandwidth requirement and resources. Also I am not using forked firmware instead by Merlin

 

[jhferry]

If the tools page is being formatted incorrectly, that means that there is a bad value in nvram (which I haven't been able to track down, I can't recreate the problem). The only way to get out of the situation is to do a reset to factory defaults and reconfigure your router settings.

Well this might help you. I did reset to factory, after loading the newest Fork. Just for giggles, I did a backup and restored then went through any differences. It didn't like my simple class C 10.10.x.x scheme. When I went to reset and went through setup again I was fine. After restoring from backup, same issues. I also noticed for whatever reason I had a static entry pointing back to the gateway for DNS. I guess I just did that out of habit. So my DNS was 10.10.1.1 which should have been fine but might have contributed to being locked out. I saw many threads on that issue and wonder how many played with the IP addressing. I left it out of the box 192 and its fine.

Whew, hopefully this actually addresses the original issue but I am curious, anyone have a tuning guide for this firmware. Everything from antenna power to jumbo frames? My guess is their is a lot of power unlocked for someone like me.

 

[john9527]

It didn't like my simple class C 10.10.x.x scheme.

There are some parts of the code that are 'hardcoded' to a /24 netmask if indeed you have a larger subnet.. AFAIK it mainly affects the networkmap showing the connected devices, but there may be something we don't know about.

 

[jhferry]

There are some parts of the code that are 'hardcoded' to a /24 netmask if indeed you have a larger subnet.. AFAIK it mainly affects the networkmap showing the connected devices, but there may be something we don't know about.

It was a /24, just a 10.