Asus RT-AC68U dropping packets on wired connection.

[Plastic_Fork]

Hey all, new here and hoping maybe I can get some insight. I've had this router two days and it's dropping packets on my wired connections. Don't seem to have any problem with wireless. Strangely, it will not drop packets if I am logged into the router's UI, but if I am not logged into the router I will experience packetloss. This seems to only be affecting my wired device and not wireless. Running the latest AsusWRT-Merlin firmware (v374.43_2) and did a factory reset after updating and configuring the router. I've tried two different network cards and I have no issues with packetloss with my 8 year old Linksys WRT54G router (using the last available Linksys firmware), so it is not my network cards or PC. I've tried both routers with the same setup and only the RT-AC68U is dropping packets.

I have a Motorola SB6141 modem which goes to the router (which is my gateway). Then I have my one PC connected to a LAN port on the router. This is my only wired device. Everything else in the house is wireless. Wireless devices don't seem to have any issues. Just my wired PC is dropping packets. But only if I'm not logged into the router's UI. Which is strange.

Here are two seperate 10 minute ping tests. The first one was done with Firefox open but not logged into the router UI. The second one was done with Firefox open and was logged into the router UI.

First test - not logged into the router UI:
----------------------------------------------------
Pinging www.dslreports.com [64.91.255.98] with 32 bytes of data:

Ping statistics for 64.91.255.98:
Packets: Sent = 291, Received = 218, Lost = 73 (25% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 42ms, Maximum = 3000ms, Average = 91ms


Second test - logged into the router UI:
----------------------------------------------------
Pinging www.dslreports.com [64.91.255.98] with 32 bytes of data:

Ping statistics for 64.91.255.98:
Packets: Sent = 552, Received = 552, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 42ms, Maximum = 76ms, Average = 45ms


Almost half the total amount of data packets were sent on the first test compared to the second due to all the timeouts and dropped packets. I don't understand why being logged into the router UI makes any difference in relation to not dropping packets. I'm not using DHCP for my LAN though. All my devices are hardcoded to a certain IP (other than the router pulling an IP for the WAN from the modem).

After some additional testing there's been no change. I've been using it with IPv6 disabled, but I turned it on and configured IPv6 and there's no change. I've also tried switching LAN ports on the back of the router in case I had a bad port. Tested with wireless turned off and turned on. Nothing I do seems to fix the problem. I don't care for the prospect of leaving Firefox minimized in the background while logged into the router UI just to stop my packetloss.

In addition to this, I was having the same problem with the new Linksys WRT1900AC. I bought it a few weeks ago and after dealing with the same issue, I thought it was a bad unit (or firmware - the router is brand new and only a few months old) so I returned it and got the Asus instead since it's been out longer with tuned firmware. So two brand new routers doing the same thing, although the Asus seems to cope much better as my latency isn't spiking way up on my online games or Ventrilo like it was with the Linksys WRT1900AC. And my 8 year old WRT54G isn't experiencing any of the packetloss these two routers are. Any suggestions are welcome.

 

[pcbrand]

This is not necessarily your router... More likely the internet itself.

Try a test site like pingtest.net or something similar. They usually give you a metric on how reliable your connection is.

 

[Plastic_Fork]

According to pingtest.net, I'm not getting any packetloss:
Pingtest Report

What I don't understand is that the Linksys WRT1900AC was doing the same thing from a sustained ping from the DOS shell in Windows (which I was using to test with the Asus router too) and was getting the same dropped packets from the DOS shell ping test. The difference between the two is that the Asus doesn't appear to have any problems with it and my latency isn't suffering whereas with the Linksys my online gaming and Ventrilo, etc. had horrendous latency. In addition to that, my old Linksys WRT54G had no packetloss with a DOS shell ping test and no latency issues.

So I guess my question is then, why does the old router not drop packets with the DOS shell ping, and the two new routers do, with one of them having terrible latency as a result but not the other? In addition to that, from a DOS shell ping test, I get no dropped packets as long as I'm logged into the Asus router's UI from my web browser. I don't get that either.

Other than the fact I can see it dropping packets in the DOS shell, I can't even tell there's a problem with the Asus router.

 

[Plastic_Fork]

I did some additional testing and looks like the problem is ZoneAlarm. If I leave it on, I will get dropped packets during a DOS shell ping test (in addition to some occasional bumps in the road while online gaming. Forwarding ports the game requires seems to help, but I still have problems with dropped packets in a DOS shell ping test.

Disabling ZoneAlarm didn't seem to help either, until I closed the program completely. Once I shut it down and closed it, I stopped losing packets in the DOS shell. So, apparently ZoneAlarm Free Firewall 2015 and the RT-AC68U don't play nice together. And I'm not sure why. I had no problems with it and my WRT54G.

So, any suggestions are appreciated. I could not use a firewall, but I don't like leaving my PC exposed to some of my roommates' devices - they can sometimes get... "things" on them and I don't want it coming across the network. So I could try a different firewall, but I don't know which one to go with. Or maybe someone knows a workaround with ZoneAlarm and the Asus router?

 

[sinshiva]

if you used a cheapish router in a double nat, you'd essentially have an independent network for your own stuff. no mucking about with software solutions

 

[Plastic_Fork]

I can use the WRT54G as an AP to make a second network like you said but it somewhat defeated the point of my buying the new router as an upgrade, plus I think ZA is more comprehensive as a firewall than the NAT firewall built into the router which is one reason I wanted to use it. I've made a couple rules in the default Windows firewall to block all the other devices on the network out of this PC, but I still would be happier with a better firewall the cooperates with the new router.

The Asus has a built-in NAT firewall, but also has the option to enable an IPv6 firewall. Not sure if that would be causing the problem since I was getting packetloss with IPv6 both turned off and on.

I asked about it on the ZoneAlarm forum and it was suggested I tell Asus about the problem. I guess that's as best as I can get with ZA and just hope Asus cares enough to bother trying to make their router play nicer with software firewalls. My only other option is a different program or, like you said, a double-NAT.