ASUS RT-AC88U suddenly dropping remote access

[ags]

I have an ASUS RT-AC88U that has been in service for a couple of years, providing good functionality. It is running the OEM firmware, and is updated to 3.0.0.4.384_45149.

Without any change that I'm aware of, it has suddenly started to disconnect from the WAN. Initially I thought it was an issue with my modem (Arris SB6019). Comcast is my provider, and there was some work going on in the area (and possible outages). I had them access my modem and their checks (whatever they are) were said to show no problem.

This was several weeks ago. I've been struggling trying to diagnose and debug this problem. It is perplexing. I see nothing in the router log, other than the disassociated/associated pairs that I have seen others make note of after a relatively recent firmware update. I've checked the modem log and oddly, it (alone) is not readable, instead being HTML source code. Copying the content and saving as *.html and then opening reveals no recent events. The last entry is:

No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx;CMTS-MAC=xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;​

The mysterious part is that the problem is that when attempting to connect remotely to my LAN, I am often unable to access anything on my LAN. The router, NAS, VPN, etc. When I arrive home, if I attempt to access internet with Roku, for instance, it reports no internet connection available. As soon as I connect my laptop (Macbook Pro) and navigate to any external site with my browser, the internet connection is re-established, and all other devices on my LAN have proper connectivity. This works fine, until I remove my Macbook from the LAN and go to work. It's now become almost constant that as soon as I try to access my home LAN from work, there is no response - although sometimes (10%?) I'm lucky and things work. I've tried this from other networks (not my office LAN) and the behavior is the same. The only thing I've seen out of the ordinary on my router is the following - but after I navigate to any off-premise site things are restored. Any suggestions where to start with this bizarre problem? I can't even formulate a theory that is remotely reasonable. Thanks!

*I have rebooted the modem and router several times with no effect. I've examined all the router settings and found nothing that looks incorrect (or different than it has been set for many months while functioning properly)

 

[OzarkEdge]

I have an ASUS RT-AC88U that has been in service for a couple of years, providing good functionality. It is running the OEM firmware, and is updated to 3.0.0.4.384_45149.

Without any change that I'm aware of, it has suddenly started to disconnect from the WAN. Initially I thought it was an issue with my modem (Arris SB6019). Comcast is my provider, and there was some work going on in the area (and possible outages). I had them access my modem and their checks (whatever they are) were said to show no problem.

This was several weeks ago. I've been struggling trying to diagnose and debug this problem. It is perplexing. I see nothing in the router log, other than the disassociated/associated pairs that I have seen others make note of after a relatively recent firmware update. I've checked the modem log and oddly, it (alone) is not readable, instead being HTML source code. Copying the content and saving as *.html and then opening reveals no recent events. The last entry is:

No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx;CMTS-MAC=xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;​

The mysterious part is that the problem is that when attempting to connect remotely to my LAN, I am often unable to access anything on my LAN. The router, NAS, VPN, etc. When I arrive home, if I attempt to access internet with Roku, for instance, it reports no internet connection available. As soon as I connect my laptop (Macbook Pro) and navigate to any external site with my browser, the internet connection is re-established, and all other devices on my LAN have proper connectivity. This works fine, until I remove my Macbook from the LAN and go to work. It's now become almost constant that as soon as I try to access my home LAN from work, there is no response - although sometimes (10%?) I'm lucky and things work. I've tried this from other networks (not my office LAN) and the behavior is the same. The only thing I've seen out of the ordinary on my router is the following - but after I navigate to any off-premise site things are restored. Any suggestions where to start with this bizarre problem? I can't even formulate a theory that is remotely reasonable. Thanks!

*I have rebooted the modem and router several times with no effect. I've examined all the router settings and found nothing that looks incorrect (or different than it has been set for many months while functioning properly)

View attachment 16244

Have you tried resetting and re-configuring the router from scratch lately?

OE

 

[L&LD]

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/n...l-and-manual-configuration.27115/#post-205573

The link above will bring your router to a known state from which you can successfully troubleshoot (if still needed).

Right now? Just because our network setup/settings seemingly didn't change doesn't mean that the surrounding devices haven't.

If you find the same symptoms after doing a minimal and manual configuration after a full reset to factory defaults as outlined in the link above; I would recommend using RMerlin's firmware over Asus'.

 

[ags]

I understand that a factory reset is something that is often recommended. The symptoms I see are so bizarre I was wondering if anyone else has experienced something like this and found a solution that I could try, rather than falling back on the factory reset strategy. Performing a factory reset is such a big effort, and so error-prone to put back to desired configuration manually (at least for me) that I hate to go through that on a hope, only to find I'm no closer to a solution (other than ruling out that a factory reset will provide the solution). [I went down that path once before] Not complaining/whining, just sharing my thinking.

 

[L&LD]

I understand that a factory reset is something that is often recommended. The symptoms I see are so bizarre I was wondering if anyone else has experienced something like this and found a solution that I could try, rather than falling back on the factory reset strategy. Performing a factory reset is such a big effort, and so error-prone to put back to desired configuration manually (at least for me) that I hate to go through that on a hope, only to find I'm no closer to a solution (other than ruling out that a factory reset will provide the solution). [I went down that path once before] Not complaining/whining, just sharing my thinking.

The reason that it is recommended often is because of how the changes from one firmware to another works on the router. If variables are stored or recalled/used differently between firmware versions; a full reset is the only thing that will fix it for a particular network setup. Not to mention the microcode that the clients pick up from old settings from the router (on WiFi) that may break things with the new firmware.

You say you went down that path once before? How many firmware versions have you flashed without a full and proper reset?

 

[ags]

Wait ...what? Firmware from the router is pushed to clients and executed? I had no idea. That is scary - a single source for a potentially big problem. Makes me even more paranoid about security of the router.

I have upgraded (updated??) the router firmware once or twice without a factory reset. They were each "dot releases" not major, based on the version numbering.

 

[L&LD]

Wait ...what? Firmware from the router is pushed to clients and executed? I had no idea. That is scary - a single source for a potentially big problem. Makes me even more paranoid about security of the router.

I have upgraded (updated??) the router firmware once or twice without a factory reset. They were each "dot releases" not major, based on the version numbering.

No, I didn't say firmware is pushed to clients and executed.

The 'handshake' they use though to connect wirelessly may have settings that are no longer used, have changed in expected behavior, or are actually detrimental to the new firmware with old clients.

 

[ags]

No, I didn't say firmware is pushed to clients and executed.

I was trying to understand what this meant:

Not to mention the microcode that the clients pick up from old settings from the router (on WiFi) that may break things with the new firmware.

The 'handshake' they use though to connect wirelessly may have settings that are no longer used, have changed in expected behavior, or are actually detrimental to the new firmware with old clients.

Does that mean that a robust process includes removing and re-creating the WiFi connection from each client also?

 

[L&LD]

I was trying to understand what this meant:


Does that mean that a robust process includes removing and re-creating the WiFi connection from each client also?

Yes. Many (including myself) have noticed superior network performance by doing this simple step in the 'sanitize' network I outlined.