Android troubles on ASUS RT-N56

[tomvd]

** UPDATE April 8, 2013: problem solved; see last post

*****

In a family/home office environment, we have about 8 PC's on Ubuntu, Windows and so on. In addition we have Galaxy Nexus, Android 4.2.1, Samsung Galaxy Note 1, Android 4.0.1, Samsung Galaxy Note 2, Android 4.1.2, SGS Android 2.x. Living in the country side we see no other Wifi signals.

The problem

None of the Android phones can maintain a stable connection, neither on 2.4G nor on 5G. Right after connecting we are on 150Mbps and then rapidly it drops to 13Mps and stops completely. Very consistent and always reproducable. Especially the Jelly Bean devices are hopeless. Note: I only have tested with Samsung Galaxy's of various generations.

The latest firmware 3.0.0.4.342 does not help. Trying about every setting in vain, as an IT expert, I do not give up quickly :

- Different channels
- Whether or not DHCP / fixed IP on the phones
- 2.4 and / or 5G
- Wide or narrow channels
- Various security protocols
- switch off all PC, just one Android, Etc.

During testing regularly as the router completely to the factory settings ... but no result.

The reason

The main pulpit seems to be the security and Wifi sleeping. With "sleeping" I not only mean "deep sleep" but also during browsing the phones try to save battery and that is something Asus does not like at all.

The "Solution"

If I select "Open Network" all problems seem gone and the 150Mbps connection shines on the phone using 5G. It is a little early to declare victory as I still saw a few hickups. But for now it seems to be a lot better.

For a little security, you could:

1- Enable Mac filtering (Wireless -> Wireless MAC Filter -> Freq = 5GHz; Mac Filer Mode "accept"; add your devices to the Mac filter list ). A little Mac spoofing however will break this security layer in 10min.
2- "Set AP Isolated" (Wireless -> Professional -> 5G -> Set AP Isolated to "yes" ): If someone breaks in your network, they at least can not access the other devices, but only use your connection to go out on the Internet.


End result

I ended my dusty old Linksys WRT-54G as a bridge / switch set. All phones keep stable wifi connection to this switch. So ... if you did buy an ASUS, it is wise to dig up an old Linksys or so. Within 5 minutes you have a permanent connection that neatly gives you 54Mbps.

Conclusion: Android and Asus are currently (winter 2013) a bad combination, avoid it.

Keep the Asus exclusively as main router, NAS and PC's but avoid the mobiles.


PS: I highly recommended App "Wifi Link Speed Monitor" for testing, by the way.

 

[kayakj]

I have multiple jelly bean Android tablets and phones on my network and experience no issues at all in terms of connecting.

That being said, the official firmwares from Asus have major issues and tend to drop connections over wifi etc. I suggest you try out Padavan's firmware (just google rtn56u and it should be the top option https://code.google.com/p/rt-n56u/downloads/detail?name=RT-N56U_3.0.3.3-042_full.zip&can=2&q= ) The newest firmware "RT-N56U_3.0.3.3-042 (en-ru). IPv6+IPv4. Linux kernel 3.0.61." may fix your disconnection issues. (treat the files like a regular official asus update after unzipping the folder and upload it under the firmware update section in the router)..Hope this helps!

 

[RogerSC]

I've also had no issues with my Android phone (JB update as well) with either Asus .342 or Padavan's firmware using WPA2/AES.

 

[tomvd]

@RogerSC: do you use Samsung Galaxy devices ? It is weird many people like me have this issue always on multiple devices, all Samsung Galaxy types, and some do not have it ever...

 

[Beanz]

I have 2 Galaxy S2 phones and a laptop that won't even connect to the Asus.
The phones just come up with 'Saved, Secured with WPA2' and the Laptop gives a connection error. I've tried every option under the sun including padavan and various versions of official firmware, numerous settings etc with no difference.
My router also has a problem with the 5Ghz network as even with Radio On and SSID Hide Off none of my devices even pick it up.
Unfortunately i bought off ebay pretty much sold as seen so can't send back and Asus support is useless.

I've ended up buying a wifi bridge and have that wired as an access point to my Asus and my phones and laptop connect through that no problems, only irritating thing is that i could also have it set up as a client so i could use the ethernet connection for a wireless connection from my Raspberry Pi whilst connecting to the Asus wirelessly AND having my phones etc bridging through it ...... Unfortunately the only wifi signal in the neighbourhood it won't pick up for some reason is the Asus so that idea went out the window.

All in all it seems if you have these issues and aren't going to send it back for any reason your gonna have to fork out for more hardware to connect thru or hope you have some old stuff that can be reused.

 

[tomvd]

@Beanz: Did you try the idea I posted to try without security? Just to see if that works or not?

 

[Beanz]

@Beanz: Did you try the idea I posted to try without security? Just to see if that works or not?

Yeah tried pretty much everything.
Without security it would show the network but just show Saved, it wouldn't even get as far as Connecting or Obtaining an IP Address.

I thought i was gonna have a similar problem when setting up my Wifi Bridge as my Galaxy S2 would go through the stages of Authenticating then Obtaining an IP address and back in a continual loop, luckily once the bridge was connected to the internet through the router my phone connected immediately and has worked perfect ever since.

 

[RogerSC]

@RogerSC: do you use Samsung Galaxy devices ? It is weird many people like me have this issue always on multiple devices, all Samsung Galaxy types, and some do not have it ever...

Yes, Samsung Galaxy S3.

 

[iamstillvince]

we have two galaxy s2x phones on android 4.0.4, a windows 8 laptop, a acer iconia a510 running jelly bean, a Samsung wifi camera, two kobo ereaders. all connect with wifi no problems, no drops, no speed problems. Running the latest 42 firmware. been totally stable for a few weeks now.

 

[tomvd]

So many different experiences. I tested with complete new firmware & factory wipe for SGS Note (4.1.2) on stock *and* router reset, with *no* other WIFI signals... same thing.

Hardware issue? Maybe but I doubt as all runs fine as long as I disable security....

 

[iamstillvince]

So many different experiences. I tested with complete new firmware & factory wipe for SGS Note (4.1.2) on stock *and* router reset, with *no* other WIFI signals... same thing.

Hardware issue? Maybe but I doubt as all runs fine as long as I disable security....

i would try swapping/exchanging your hardware.... i have had troubles but never with my android phones

 

[Guz]

Have you tried updating or just considered that it might be an issue with Android?

I've always found it it odd that the router get's the blame when someone say's "I have all these different devices connecting fine, except for X, so it's the router's fault." Maybe X is the issue.

 

[tomvd]

@Guz: If you read the intial post you would have seen:
1- old LinkSys runs excellent
2- problem presists on 6 different phones in various Android versions

 

[tomvd]

Problem Solved....

Finally after 3 months we figured out the problem... and seem to have solved it.

One of our HP laptops got a new WIFI Driver update... and now all the Android phone on the network keep their connection!!

Appearantly the ASUS is more sensitive than older routers for the behaviour of bad behaving WIFI clients...

It is still puzzling us why we did not found this solution earlier. It seems that even after the HP laptop was shut down, the problem persisted for a while, hence not giving us the clue that the problem might indeed be there... Dont know... but .. end result is connection stability for all devices

 

[WereWolf]

I have similar problem with my android phone and Asus router - actually not the same model, but I think it might be related. Anyway.. from the beginning. I'm not a network expert, so sorry for any mistakes (and also for my English, I know it's not perfect...)

I have ASUS RT-AC68U and I've noticed high battery drain on my phone, but actually I didn't relate it to the router on the beginning. I've tried almost anything on my phone trying to prevent wakelocks - frozen/uninstalled dozens of applications etc. but nothing helped. I was fighting with it all the weekend and... nothing. On Monday I went to work and... everything stopped - no strange wakelocks, no battery drainage. Simple conclusion - something with my router settings...
I found that thread and tried the solution with another access point for the android device. I have my old WRT-54GL - I've set it up only as a simple router, within the same subnet as the primary router and it didn't actually helped. I've disconnected WRT from the ASUS, trying to figure out if it's still something from the ASUS router, or maybe because of the noise in the neighborhood. With the android device connected only to linksys everything was fine, so I thought that it might be something sending out by ASUS router to all subnet. I was going to set up linksys as a secondary router with different subnet but I've tried other solution.

ASUS has the ability to create guest wifi networks. I've tried to set it up with the restriction not to access intranet and... now almost no wakelocks on android. When I switch the restriction to allow intranet access, the wakelocks returns, so there must be something sending by the router, maybe to entire subnet, but I don't know how to figure it out.

I was trying tcpdump on the router itself, but I don't see anything strange sending out. I was thinking about ARP requests, which are very often when ASUS'es AiCloud is turned on, but even with it turned off the same things happen, so I'm out of ideas now.

I'd be grateful for any advice, maybe there is some simple explanation of that...