AX88U driving me crazy because it keeps crashing

[dornadeluxe]

Maybe you can post your complete WIFI-Settings?

I've got an AX88U too. Works with 386.3 MerlinWRT without any errors. I've got an ipad air 2020 and iphone11 on wifi 6 and some AC-devices on 5GHz. Some IOTs at 2.4GHz guestnet. All without any errors or abnormilities.
On WAN: 600/600 FTTH with native DHCP ipv6 and (unfortunatly) cgnat ipv4 DHCP adressing.
No VPN, no QOS, no scripts at all.
On LAN-side there is a list with about 30 devices manually assigned IP-adresses.
Router works perfekt...

Sure can do, see attached. Currently as you can see I am back to the stock ASUS firmware but the problem is the same with both the latest Merlin and the official ASUS. My WiFi settings are mostly on the standard values.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Can you check my first few posts? Lot's of logs there with the time of the crashes. I don't see anything conspicuous in them though. 5Ghz never comes back just like the internet connection. The only thing that helps is to reboot the router.

There is nothing in any of your log files that indicates anything crashed.

June 13th 2010 - Router appears to have been powered off and on
June 14th 650 - Router appears to have been powered off and on
June 14th 824 - cfg_server initiated a reboot at 08:30
June 14th 1000 - Router was rebooted manually from the web interface.
July 17th 900 - Router appears to have been powered off and on
July 18th 2240 - Router appears to have been powered off and on

 

[Morris]

Can you check my first few posts? Lot's of logs there with the time of the crashes. I don't see anything conspicuous in them though. 5Ghz never comes back just like the internet connection. The only thing that helps is to reboot the router.

I went through the first log in your first post. I don't know what caused your crash yet it's probably some sort of compatibility issue between a client and your AP with the settings you are using. After the crash, 5Ghz came up before the want did on channel 100. Later I observed minor DHCP arguments between some of your clients and the Router. They all resolved so not an issue. I'm not sure where you are located, in the US Channel 100 is a DFS channel and per the FCC, the router must wait 60 seconds before it can transmit on that channel. Have you gene back to default settings and only changed what is necessary to connect WAN and Clients?

 

[Deleted member 76736]

Sure can do, see attached. Currently as you can see I am back to the stock ASUS firmware but the problem is the same with both the latest Merlin and the official ASUS. My WiFi settings are mostly on the standard values.

Here are my settings. Maybe they will help you?

 

[Morris]

I was looking through my change logs and noticed that when I'd enabled WiFi Multiband my router was crashing. If you have it enabled, try turning it off and see if it helps.

Morris

 

[dornadeluxe]

There is nothing in any of your log files that indicates anything crashed.

June 13th 2010 - Router appears to have been powered off and on
June 14th 650 - Router appears to have been powered off and on
June 14th 824 - cfg_server initiated a reboot at 08:30
June 14th 1000 - Router was rebooted manually from the web interface.
July 17th 900 - Router appears to have been powered off and on
July 18th 2240 - Router appears to have been powered off and on

Exactly that is the problem. I had to power the router off and on due to the issue but it does not show up in the log files.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Exactly that is the problem. I had to power the router off and on due to the issue but it does not show up in the log files.

As you have now replaced all the equipment connected to the Vodafone Station and the problem persists I'm inclined to think that the problem is with the Vodafone Station. I suggest that the next time it happens you try connecting a laptop directly to the Vodafone Station and seeing if you still have internet connectivity. Also check the Vodafone Station logs for error messages.

 

[juko]

As you have now replaced all the equipment connected to the Vodafone Station and the problem persists I'm inclined to think that the problem is with the Vodafone Station. I suggest that the next time it happens you try connecting a laptop directly to the Vodafone Station and seeing if you still have internet connectivity. Also check the Vodafone Station logs for error messages.

As reported before, I have exactly similar problem. I'm using Zyxel LTE7480-M804 for the internet connection. I've connected to the WIFI provided by Zyxel and checked that my WAN connection works when the problem happens. Also when the problem happens, the router is not accessible with its local IP address at all. I'm also not able to ping any local devices with their (fixed) ip addresses (that are connected to the router with LAN or WLAN). The problem never resolves itself. I've had it happen two or three times when we were on a trip and the router was basically down for days. Everything comes online as soon as the router is powered off and on. I would say it's clearly a problem with AX88U. I've done setting changes suggested by Morris, and so far haven't had crashes.

 

[Morris]

As reported before, I have exactly similar problem. I'm using Zyxel LTE7480-M804 for the internet connection. I've connected to the WIFI provided by Zyxel and checked that my WAN connection works when the problem happens. Also when the problem happens, the router is not accessible with its local IP address at all. I'm also not able to ping any local devices with their (fixed) ip addresses (that are connected to the router with LAN or WLAN). The problem never resolves itself. I've had it happen two or three times when we were on a trip and the router was basically down for days. Everything comes online as soon as the router is powered off and on. I would say it's clearly a problem with AX88U. I've done setting changes suggested by Morris, and so far haven't had crashes.

I'm glad I was able to help

Morris

 

[juko]

I'm glad I was able to help

Morris

I spoke too early (I was writing the reply while you replied). The router crashed again today. I was using a windows computer (first time in many days), left it running and went to place where wifi signal is weak while I was streaming net radio with my iPhone. Soon I got a notification that my home automation is disconnected, and noticed that iPhone had switched to 4G network. That's the signal that the wifi doesn't work anymore. I checked all wifis (the "main" wifi and 2 guest wifi's). None of them worked (no IP address was assigned when I switched to another wifi). My WAN connection was fine. Also I wasn't able to ping the router nor any other local computers. The problem happened at 14.27. I powered off the router at 14.42 and immediately powered it on again.

I attached the log from today. Sadly it starts at 14.38 even though I saved the log only about 20 minutes after the crash right after the router booted up (I edited my static IP address and hostname out from the file). I can see lots of "CONSOLE: 108482.057 HWA1x RxPATH: Got rph count 0, pending_rph_req<0>" in the log

 

[juko]

I don't know if this matters at all, but this is how my MacBook shows the Wifi in "normal" condition and while the wifi didn't work at all. The MacBook sits in the same place both times.

 

[Morris]

HI Juko,

That's a shame. Possibly there is more than one issue. Time will tell with the frequency of events. The log showed nothing interesting. The MacBook interface shows normal low power states.

When this happens can you get to the router via WiFi?
Via Wired connection?
If you can get onto the router, is it showing the WAN up?
If the wan shows up, try toggling the wan off, wait a few seconds and then toggle it back on. Did that correct the issue?

How old is your router?

Morris

 

[juko]

HI Juko,

That's a shame. Possibly there is more than one issue. Time will tell with the frequency of events. The log showed nothing interesting. The MacBook interface shows normal low power states.

When this happens can you get to the router via WiFi?
Via Wired connection?
If you can get onto the router, is it showing the WAN up?
If the wan shows up, try toggling the wan off, wait a few seconds and then toggle it back on. Did that correct the issue?

How old is your router?

Morris

When this happens there's no way to connect to the router. I've tried from wireless, wired and also from WAN. I have enabled Web access to the router from WAN, also that doesn't work when the "crash" happens. My WAN modem has its own wifi. If I use that, I can tell the WAN connection is working fine. It's just the AX88U which is not responding on any network interface. Also it doesn't give an IP address to any devices that are connecting to wifi. I tried switching to guest network. I can see the computer fetching IP address but doesn't get one. I have several apps running in Raspberry Pi which send data (e.g. my EV charge status, personal weather station data, etc.) to several cloud services. The raspberry PI is connected to the AX88U with ethernet cable and has fixed local IP address. It seems also not being able to connect anywhere when this "crash" happens. My macbook (with it's local IP 192.168.50.133) couldn't ping its own IP address (I tried "ping 192.168.50.133" in the terminal) right after the router had "crashed". I bought the router 11 months ago.

In summary I've verified these at least these statuses right after the "crash":
- devices that already were connected to the Wifi have their IP addresses but are not able to connect anywhere (cannot ping any local IP, cannot ping the router nor even their own IP)
- new devices can find and connect Wifi but are not getting an IP address from the DHCP running in the router
- WAN is up (if I connect directly to the WAN modem, it has connection up)
- router is not accessible from WAN
- WAN or router is not accessible from devices connected via wired connection to the router

 

[dornadeluxe]

As you have now replaced all the equipment connected to the Vodafone Station and the problem persists I'm inclined to think that the problem is with the Vodafone Station. I suggest that the next time it happens you try connecting a laptop directly to the Vodafone Station and seeing if you still have internet connectivity. Also check the Vodafone Station logs for error messages.

To be honest I don't think it's the Vodafone Station. I already checked the logs and there is nothing out of the ordinary there. I also don't have to reboot the Vodafone Station to receive connection via the AX88U again, it's just the router that needs to reboot...

 

[dornadeluxe]

When this happens there's no way to connect to the router. I've tried from wireless, wired and also from WAN. I have enabled Web access to the router from WAN, also that doesn't work when the "crash" happens. My WAN modem has its own wifi. If I use that, I can tell the WAN connection is working fine. It's just the AX88U which is not responding on any network interface. Also it doesn't give an IP address to any devices that are connecting to wifi. I tried switching to guest network. I can see the computer fetching IP address but doesn't get one. I have several apps running in Raspberry Pi which send data (e.g. my EV charge status, personal weather station data, etc.) to several cloud services. The raspberry PI is connected to the AX88U with ethernet cable and has fixed local IP address. It seems also not being able to connect anywhere when this "crash" happens. My macbook (with it's local IP 192.168.50.133) couldn't ping its own IP address (I tried "ping 192.168.50.133" in the terminal) right after the router had "crashed". I bought the router 11 months ago.

In summary I've verified these at least these statuses right after the "crash":
- devices that already were connected to the Wifi have their IP addresses but are not able to connect anywhere (cannot ping any local IP, cannot ping the router nor even their own IP)
- new devices can find and connect Wifi but are not getting an IP address from the DHCP running in the router
- WAN is up (if I connect directly to the WAN modem, it has connection up)
- router is not accessible from WAN
- WAN or router is not accessible from devices connected via wired connection to the router

Juko could you check if you are still able to connect to the router if you are connected to the 2.4Ghz network? For me that seems to work. Before I reset everything I had actually two disctint SSIDs for 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz and most of my devices were connected to the 5Ghz network. Now I am using one SSID and I'm still able to connect it's the just the internet that stops working.

 

[juko]

Juko could you check if you are still able to connect to the router if you are connected to the 2.4Ghz network? For me that seems to work. Before I reset everything I had actually two disctint SSIDs for 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz and most of my devices were connected to the 5Ghz network. Now I am using one SSID and I'm still able to connect it's the just the internet that stops working.

My guest network is 2.4GHz and today when the crash happened I tried to connect to the guest network but it didn’t work. My device didn’t get an IP address at all when connecting to the guest network

 

[dornadeluxe]

My guest network is 2.4GHz and today when the crash happened I tried to connect to the guest network but it didn’t work. My device didn’t get an IP address at all when connecting to the guest network

I also don't know if I can still join however if I am already connected I can still soft reboot the router which eases the pain at least a bit...

 

[Morris]

Hi Juko,

I'm surprised that clients are able to get the WiFi handshake to connect yet everything points to a bad router or a firmware issue. As there are many that have the RT-AX88 and don't have this issue I'm leaning towards hardware. Try contacting Asus and let them know what is going on. You have all the evidence to be able to convince them to do a RMA.

Good luck,

Morris

 

[Morris]

Hi Dornadeluxe,

It sounds like you have a different issue than Juko that is related to your 5Ghz radio. I see you have enable DFS channels checked. Try unchecking that and see if it helps. Can you post the log the last time 5Ghz stopped working?

Morris

 

[dornadeluxe]

Thank you all again for your support but unfortunately nothing has helped in the end. I am still loosing internet connection, almost always when moving into areas around the house with bad wifi reception on my iPhone 12 Pro Max. I have no idea how internet connectivity and bad wifi reception can be relation as they should not be but that's the way it is, must be some weird bug of the router.
Some final remarks:
- I switched again between Merlin and official ASUS firmware and learned that on Merlin my router behaves the same as Jukos. In addition to internet connection, I will most of the times also loose complete access to the router and have to hard reboot it. All router LEDs will remain white.
- On official ASUS, only internet connection will be lost and I can still connect and reboot via the web interface. The internet LED will turn to red.

I will sell both of the routers now and move to another brand.