ASUS AX68U 5GHz Band Dropping / Disappearing

[OzarkEdge]

In 86U Master, the node management of the 68U shows often this behaviour, it depens how often you switch off/on an radio or unplug the power source. Is this behaviour only in combination with the AX86U???

I'm not sure what behavior you are referring to.

But I wonder if enabling AiMesh\Ethernet Backhaul Mode releases the node WiFi so that you can disable a band without the node malfunctioning? If not, then you may have to wait for a firmware fix.

OE

 

[OzarkEdge]

I made the mistake of ticking the ‘Disable 11b’ box in Wireless settings, thinking that would tweak performance. It had the opposite effect, and the box cannot be unticked, presumably a bug.

I also disabled 11b but did not notice any client issues. I am also unable to re-enable 11b (untick the box) using the latest Asuswrt 46061, so must be a bug.

OE

 

[MotR]

Can you please unplug your node from power source once and check if 5GHz is still coming back?

I am not sure your question was for me, but when I remove the powerplug for 10 seconds and put it back, my AX68 still has working 5 Ghz wifi. But as I said in my previous post I’ll wait a few days before concluding that using the AX68 as accesspoint instead as AImesh node solves the issue.

 

[MrAsusIsBack]

Sorry, this was not a question. I only want to say, that the AX68 works well as AP, but as Node the 5Ghz is useless. I now use the AX68U as single AP for my guest network. ASUS support don't help me.

 

[zjuljin]

hello, i have same issue here with latest Asuswrt-Merlin 386.4 firmware. disconnect only appear on 5GHz Band, no issue with 2.4GHz.
smart connect is off.
did try to set control channel to a fix value but not change anything

issue seems to appear few days after the firmware update.
never do a factory reset after a firmware update

i think i'm going to try to go back previous firmware (386.3_2)

After downgrade to Asuswrt-Merlin firmware 386.3_2, no more disconnect with 5Ghz band.
i'm going to monitor this a few days to confirm this.

just going to disable Roaming Assistant too cause don't need it, thx @AlleyCat for explanation

 

[Dezzo]

I have always had problems with 5ghz dying on my AC68U, and now also the AX68U.
Firmware version doesn't seem to matter, but it was worse with the 386.4_0 Merlin so I rolled back to the previous one, which in itself has the issue too but a lesser extent.

That said, My 5ghz usually goes down every day or two and only a reboot of the router fixes it.
Sometimes some devices will lose the connection, but others will remain connected, but with very slow speeds. NO idea what's triggering it. But the 5ghz has been an issue with ASUS routers for a very long time.

 

[OzarkEdge]

5ghz has been an issue with ASUS routers for a very long time.

I have not noticed that here using the RT-N66U, RT-AC68U, RT-AC86U, and RT-AX86U. I must be lucky.

OE

 

[Dezzo]

I also downgraded to 386.3_2 and the 5ghz is still disconnecting.
I also did a factory reset on the AX68U and left the wireless settings at default this time, but it still happened.

The FireTV was able to reconnect itself, but the Google Mini speakers can never reconnect on their own until they are rebooted separately. I've been using the Google Mini speakers as a way to tell if the 5ghz dropped that day since they will be disconnected if it had. This is driving me nuts.

 

[Dezzo]

I have not noticed that here using the RT-N66U, RT-AC68U, RT-AC86U, and RT-AX86U. I must be lucky.

OE

You are indeed!

 

[MotR]

I also downgraded to 386.3_2 and the 5ghz is still disconnecting.
I also did a factory reset on the AX68U and left the wireless settings at default this time, but it still happened.

The FireTV was able to reconnect itself, but the Google Mini speakers can never reconnect on their own until they are rebooted separately. I've been using the Google Mini speakers as a way to tell if the 5ghz dropped that day since they will be disconnected if it had. This is driving me nuts.

Do you use the AX68 as AImesh node? Do you have multiple Asus routers?

 

[MotR]

For me, switching off 2.4 ghz in the node settings of the AX68 does not help, 5 ghz wifi is still not working with firmware 45934. Even downgrading to 42808 did not work any more. Also there 5 ghz was gone (using AImesh).

After that I WPS-reset the AX68 and did a setup as an Access Point. Now 5 ghz worked again. Even after upgrading to 45934 again. I will now wait for a few days and see how 5 ghz behaves. If this does work I will probably hard reset my AX86 too and setup everything new again.

After more than a week of testing the 5 Ghz band of my AX68 in Access Point mode, with firmware 45934 I can say it works very stable, no issues at all. Also after upgrading to 46055 it was fine for two days.

Then I did a WPS hard reset, and I installed the AX68 again as an AImesh node. After between 5 to 20 minutes a device connected to the 5 Ghz band disconnects. The interesting thing is that when a device is not able to connect to the 5 Ghz band, another device can still connect to the 5 ghz band. Until it also disconnects. Even a power down/up of devices will not result in renewed abilty to connect to 5 ghz. So any device can connect once but after that it needs a restart of the AX68 itself.

The only thing I still need to test is a reset and fresh reinstall of my main AImesh node, an AX86u.

What might be the cause of this? Are there particular settings I might look at?

 

[MrAsusIsBack]

After more than a week of testing the 5 Ghz band of my AX68 in Access Point mode, with firmware 45934 I can say it works very stable, no issues at all. Also after upgrading to 46055 it was fine for two days.

Then I did a WPS hard reset, and I installed the AX68 again as an AImesh node. After between 5 to 20 minutes a device connected to the 5 Ghz band disconnects. The interesting thing is that when a device is not able to connect to the 5 Ghz band, another device can still connect to the 5 ghz band. Until it also disconnects. Even a power down/up of devices will not result in renewed abilty to connect to 5 ghz. So any device can connect once but after that it needs a restart of the AX68 itself.

The only thing I still need to test is a reset and fresh reinstall of my main AImesh node, an AX86u.

What might be the cause of this? Are there particular settings I might look at?

Hello MotR,

as i wrote in my threads before, i have exactly the same problem. (It don't depence from firmware version, i checked it with all version, also Merlin, also switch off all special wifi functions etc. it will never will work correct. )
I use the RT-AX86U in AP-Mode/AiMesh-Master and the RT-AX68U as wired node.
The same problem exist also on RT-AX55.
Also if you remove the RT-AX68U in node mode from power source and plug in again, the 5GHz Band often never comes back.
If you like some more strange effects you can disable the 2.4GHz radio in the node menue at AiMesh Master and restart the node again. Then both bands off the RT-AX68U node going off and the WebGUI from AiMesh Master is buggy.

I contact Asus again with this bug. I do often this before, but always the same stupid answer to make a reset and check firmware, thats really bad.
Actually i use a second RT-AX86U as node which works. The RT-AX58U works also well as node. With boths bands or only 5Ghz band.

In normal AP-Mode etc. the RT-AX68U works well (same experience as you).

As i see you also has the same config with RT-AX86U as AiMesh Master and the RT-AX68U as node. Please keep me up to date if you find a solution etc. Thx.
Sometimes i saw that it give some AiMesh differences if the AiMesh-Master works in Router-Mode or AP-Mode.

 

[achanwl]

Exact same problem here...

Has an AX86U as AiMesh master, and AX68U & AX3000 (AX58U) as nodes. AX3000 does not exhibit such issue. Only on AX68U node, it does have such issue. Clients connecting to its 5ghz would be disconnecting.

Tried various stuff. Including soft & hard reset (using WPS button), and reconfiguring from scratch. Disable all the fancy wifi features. But doesn't seem any combinations of settings would work. Eventually, after certain period, 5ghz devices would get dropped from AX68U.

The only ways to recover this... reboot just the AX68U node, reboot the whole AiMesh, trigger some sorta wireless setting changes (which I assume cause the restarting of the wireless radios on all nodes in the mesh), or turn on and off the radio just on the AX68U node.

What I haven't tried, is to turn off WiFi6 mode, cuz I do have WiFi6 clients. It would be a waste to have AX routers without running AX modes, and being mad at paying for AX routers but can't run AX mode.

Another thing I haven't tried is to run the AX68U as the AiMesh master. But I prefer AX86U to run as the master because of more processing power. Having 1gb fiber plus I turn on the trendmicro stuff which I notice that AX68U takes a slight hit on the speed.

ASUS, please look into this...

Thanks.

 

[L&LD]

ASUS, doesn't work here.

Use their official feedback channels if you want them to hear your comments and concerns.

 

[MotR]

My RT-AX68u is still having the issue of not being able to connect with 5 ghz in AP mode (channel 36, no smart connect, 80 mhz channel width, wpa2-personal, fixed IP address, Merlin 386.4 but the 5 ghz issue is present in the latest AsusWRT firmware, and also using AImesh).

My Samsung Tab S4 shows a wifi error: “couldn’t authenticate connection” and “there was a problem authenticating the connection from your phone to the network”.

Below is an example of the logging from the AX68. It deauthenticates for an “unspecified reason” and a “4-way handshake timeout”. The A0:4E:CF is an iPhone but I have the same logging for the Samsung Tab S4.

Feb 9 14:33:24 hostapd: eth6: STA a0:4e:cf:xx:xx:xx IEEE 802.11: disassociated
Feb 9 14:37:42 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(527): eth6: Auth A0:4E:CF:xx:xx:xx, status: Successful (0), rssi:0
Feb 9 14:37:45 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(491): eth6: Deauth_ind A0:4E:CF:Xx:xx:xx, status: 0, reason: Unspecified reason (1), rssi:0
Feb 9 14:37:45 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(527): eth6: Auth A0:4E:CF:Xx:xx:xx, status: Successful (0), rssi:0
Feb 9 14:37:48 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(491): eth6: Deauth_ind A0:4E:CF:xx:xx:xx, status: 0, reason: Unspecified reason (1), rssi:0
Feb 9 14:37:48 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(527): eth6: Auth A0:4E:CF: xx:xx:xx, status: Successful (0), rssi:0
Feb 9 14:38:06 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(491): eth6: Deauth_ind A0:4E:CF:xx:xx:xx, status: 0, reason: Unspecified reason (1), rssi:0
Feb 9 14:38:06 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(527): eth6: Auth A0:4E:CF:xx:xx:xx, status: Successful (0), rssi:0
Feb 9 14:38:21 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(491): eth6: Deauth_ind A0:4E:CF:Xx:xx:xx, status: 0, reason: Unspecified reason (1), rssi:0
Feb 9 14:38:21 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(527): eth6: Auth A0:4E:CF:Xx:xx:xx, status: Successful (0), rssi:0
Feb 9 14:38:21 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(491): eth6: Deauth_ind A0:4E:CF:Xx:xx:xx, status: 0, reason: Unspecified reason (1), rssi:0
Feb 9 14:38:21 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(527): eth6: Auth A0:4E:CF:Xx:xx:xx, status: Successful (0), rssi:0
Feb 9 14:38:21 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(491): eth6: Deauth_ind A0:4E:CF:Xx:xx:xx, status: 0, reason: Unspecified reason (1), rssi:0
Feb 9 14:38:21 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(527): eth6: Auth A0:4E:CF:Xx:xx:xx, status: Successful (0), rssi:0
Feb 9 14:38:21 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(491): eth6: Deauth_ind A0:4E:CF:Xx:xx:xx, status: 0, reason: Unspecified reason (1), rssi:0
Feb 9 14:38:21 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(527): eth6: Auth A0:4E:CF:Xx:xx:xx, status: Successful (0), rssi:0
Feb 9 14:38:21 hostapd: eth6: STA a0:4e:cf:xx:xx:xx IEEE 802.11: associated
Feb 9 14:38:21 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(537): eth6: ReAssoc A0:4E:CF:Xx:xx:xx, status: Successful (0), rssi:-57
Feb 9 14:38:21 kernel: br0: received packet on eth6 with own address as source address
Feb 9 14:38:21 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(491): eth6: Deauth_ind A0:4E:CF:Xx:xx:xx, status: 0, reason: 4-way handshake timeout (f), rssi:0
Feb 9 14:38:21 hostapd: eth6: STA a0:4e:cf:xx:xx:xx IEEE 802.11: disassociated

After a change in wifi settings 5 ghz works for some time again, in the log: rc_service: httpd 1019:notify_rc restart_wireless

Any thoughts or suggestions?

 

[MrAsusIsBack]

Hello folks,
maybe i have some new info.
I have now again exchanged some emails with the Asus support :-( . It's really a very very tough affair. I have also described several times how to reproduce the error case exactly etc..
Now i finally got the feedback that the case will be reported to Taiwan and i will get an info in the next few days if they can understand the case there and maybe solve it.
I hope something happens, but nothing is certain and I will keep you informed.

 

[MotR]

I hope Asus can solve it MrAsusIsBack. In the meantime I am back to firmware 42808 which seems stable, but is from a security perspective not ideal. Thanks for taking the time to inform Asus.

 

[MrAsusIsBack]

Hi there, i will give you an update!
Asus is actually really working on that issue.
The first bad answer from Taiwain is:

All are on the latest FW version, reset done. GT-AX11000 as Wan source in front of RT-AX86U. router mode. RT-AX86U AP mode as AiMesh router. RT-AX68U as a node, connected to the RT-AX86U via Ethernet cable. - The backhaul between the mesh router and the node has been set to "ethernet backhaul" in the WEB GUI. I tried disabling the RT-AX86U for cross testing on both bands while the RT-AX68U node enabled both bands. worked. RT-AX86U 5G band enabled, RT-AX68U 2.4G band disabled. No error found. Still functional. The WEB GUI of the Wireless - Professional - Radio site still works properly. Corresponding screenshots can be found in the attachment. For customer's problem. Please provide us the video/screenshots showing the problem. Also send us feedback mail from WEB GUI while RT-AX68U was connected to mesh router. And then a second feedback mail while duplicating the issue. Let us know the time the problem occurred so we can match it in the logs."

With all my logs and info's they aren't able to reproduce the issue :-(.
Next step is that they also make some tests with unplugging the node an plug it again, in my case the error occurs immediatelly. If this don't help i will support Asus with some more informations.
Hope that they keep working on that issue, so that i can use the RT-AX68U as stable node.

 

[rgnldo]

For some unknown reason (maybe due to the Canadian regulations), my AC68U & AX11000's 5GHz has the best coverage with channel 149 80MHz (didn't try DFS), and the lower band has much worse coverage at any distance (up to -20dBm). I have repeated the tests many times with identical results. However, my WiFi has never had any disconnect once I finalized the settings (work for both official FW and Merlin). Maybe you can replicate my settings and see if they work for you.

Agradeço sua postagem. Ajudou em um problema com a frequência 5ghz do AC68U, modo AP, que estava indisponível na firmware 386.4.
Acredito que @RMerlin já esteja com sabendo deste problema. Acho que tenha relação com o driver e o kernel.

Verifiquei os logs.

Feb 12 14:33:15 kernel: br0: topology change detected, propagating
Feb 12 14:33:15 kernel: br0: port 3(eth2) entering forwarding state
Feb 12 14:33:15 kernel: br0: port 3(eth2) entering forwarding state

 

[ColinTaylor]

Agradeço sua postagem. Ajudou em um problema com a frequência 5ghz do AC68U, modo AP, que estava indisponível na firmware 386.4.
Acredito que @RMerlin já esteja com sabendo deste problema. Acho que tenha relação com o driver e o kernel.

Verifiquei os logs.

Feb 12 14:33:15 kernel: br0: topology change detected, propagating
Feb 12 14:33:15 kernel: br0: port 3(eth2) entering forwarding state
Feb 12 14:33:15 kernel: br0: port 3(eth2) entering forwarding state

English only please.