Cannot access router admin page & some websites

[TanyaC]

Two days ago I added a MAC address to my WiFi whitelist, everything was fine
Today I go to log in to my router (An RT-AC88u on 384.7.2 IIRC), and I cannot access it.
I can access the login page. After typing credentials, I get either a blank browser page, or a partial display of some of the admin page elements.

I've rebooted the router several times.
I've power cycled the router
I've power cycled all PCs and switches
I run IPCONFIG /FlushDNS on all PCs.
I tried IE and Firefox 60.6.2esr and Firefox 56.0.2

The only thing I have changed is I added an ASUS XG-C100C adapter to one of my PCs. I already had 3 of my 10 PCs on these adapters. But I have reverted all PCs to their motherboard gigabit NICs.

I am not running any A/V at this time.
When I turn the router off and ping it's address I'm not getting a response from any other device on that address, so I believe this is not a duplicate address issue.

I can ping the router when it's powered up
The Internet is working fine.
There are no known outages according to my ISP
The issue is the same when connected to my VPN and when not connected.
Some website will also not load properly... this site is one of them. Took half a dozen attempts to create this thread.

I don't have a current back up of my settings, which are quite extensive, so I really don't want to have to factory reset this unless I absolutely have to. It takes over an hour to enter the settings from scratch.

 

[martinr]

You don’t explicitly say if it’s the same from all/any device.

Are you connecting via http or https?

Do you run Diversion or Skynet?

Did you try turning off the Windows firewall on the PC?

 

[TanyaC]

No Diversion or Skynet
No Download Master, torrent clients or download managers of any sort. In fact, zero activity on any PC at all.
All PCs exhibit the same issue
All PCs had firewall on, turned off, then back on again. Always the same symptoms
http - I simply type the IP address into the address bar. HTTPS of course comes back with a "server not found" error.
Same on Windows 7, Windows 10 1709, 1809 and Windows 2012 R2
Server (win 2012 R2), has a static IP address. All others are assigned by MAC address from the router. They all have their correct addresses.

 

[Diamond67]

I don't have a current back up of my settings, which are quite extensive

Can you connect to your router using SSH? (Also depends on if you have enabled SSH from Administration - System, or not...)

I'm not sure if these instructions are valid (at least telnet is no longer an option) with current firmwares, but

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/faq-nvram-and-factory-default-reset.22822/

How to I use get a text-based backup?
Connect to your router over SSH/telnet, and run the following:

nvram show | sort

If you have a USB disk plugged as /mnt/sda1/, then you can save the output to a text file:

nvram show | sort > /mnt/sda1/settings.txt

How do I restore a specific setting?
If you noted down a particular setting (or have a complete text dump of them), the syntax would look like this example:

nvram set dhcp_staticlist="what is saved in your text file output"
... do all others nvram set here ...
nvram commit

 

[dave14305]

Enable the Developer Console in Firefox by hitting F12 first, then login to the router. Look for any unusual errors in the console. Could be that something (e.g. device name) is breaking the HTML on the page.

 

[TanyaC]

@Diamond67 ssh responds "connection refused"

@dave14305 Nothing is shown in the console. The only tab with anything in it is the network tab with several dozen GETs for images and scripts etc. Most of which are showing absurdly long load times (Eg 63491ms)

 

[Diamond67]

@Diamond67 ssh responds "connection refused"

Seems to behave exactly as when Enable SSH is set to "No" from Administration - System. Do you remember if you ever have had it enabled (= LAN only)?

 

[L&LD]

Does it let you associate a new wireless client? Does a new Ethernet client connect? Try logging on from those.

Have you tried connecting via HTTP or HTTPS?

 

[TanyaC]

Does it let you associate a new wireless client? Does a new Ethernet client connect? Try logging on from those.

Have you tried connecting via HTTP or HTTPS?

I added a MAC address for my son's girlfriend's Macbook on Wednesday. It worked fine. Friday- no access to router.

Access to the Internet from here for Wireless requires the whitelisting of a devices MAC address. As I can't get into the router, I can't add another address.

Every PC here has all of their NICs whitelisted. No one can bring a device into this house and expect to connect to the Internet, wireless or wired.

All connections are over http. See post #3.

Yes - SSH, Telnet etc are all Disabled.

 

[TanyaC]

I think I may have figured it out.

The XG-C100C uses an aquantia chip. The drivers that come with the adapter are 2.1.8, which has an annoying bug of dropping the link if there is no activity every 5 minutes.

A newer driver version 2.1.17 fixes that problem, but breaks access to the router, and even the ASUS website. Even disabling the adapter and using the motherboard's gigabit NIC didn't work. I had to roll back to an older Windows image that didn't have the latest driver and I could then access the router.

Even though the driver was installed on 04/21/2019?

Yet another problem with this 10G NIC. Buyer beware!

UPDATE: I've now verified this across all PCs. The 2.1.17 Aquantia drivers are causing the problem.

 

[Bartman]

I think I may have figured it out.

The XG-C100C uses an aquantia chip. The drivers that come with the adapter are 2.1.8, which has an annoying bug of dropping the link if there is no activity every 5 minutes.

A newer driver version 2.1.17 fixes that problem, but breaks access to the router, and even the ASUS website. Even disabling the adapter and using the motherboard's gigabit NIC didn't work. I had to roll back to an older Windows image that didn't have the latest driver and I could then access the router.

Even though the driver was installed on 04/21/2019?

Yet another problem with this 10G NIC. Buyer beware!

UPDATE: I've now verified this across all PCs. The 2.1.17 Aquantia drivers are causing the problem.

Using the same NIC with the GT-AX11000 and have no problems with the latest drivers from ASUS, Version 5.0.1.6. System is Windows 10 Pro 1903 64bit, I am using a CAT6 cable. All networks and Internet sites work as they should. Have you tried using the drivers from ASUS, after all it is an ASUS product.

EDIT: Now using the 2.1.18 Aquantia drivers without any problems with the XG-C100C.

Regards

 

[TanyaC]

Using the ASUS driver 5.0.1.6, sure I can access everything. What motivated me to try the Aquantia drivers are three issues (1). 12 second connect time after restart before network and Internet are accessible (2). Erratic Transfer speeds. (3). Link disconnects every 5 minutes if there is no Internet traffic. Using the latest Aquantia drivers resolved the 5 minute disconnect issue.

So, I've just received my genuine Aquantia NIC. Updated it to latest drivers and firmware and BAM!! No access to router. I can access this site, but it takes several minutes to load, and often things simply timeout and I have to click more than once to do something, such as type this reply.

Aquantia have asked me to use the stock ASUSWRT firmware... Their feeling is that the Merlin firmware and the Aquantia drivers are not compatible with each other. I won't be able to prove that until Sunday monring.

 

[martinr]

.. .
Their feeling is that the Merlin firmware and the Aquantia drivers are not compatible with each other. I won't be able to prove that until Sunday monring.

You’ll need to carry out a reset to factory default settings after flashing with Asus stock firmware. L&LD’s guide is here:
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/n...l-and-manual-configuration.27115/#post-205573
It should be followed to the letter: no shortcuts.
Let us know what happens.

 

[TanyaC]

You’ll need to carry out a reset to factory default settings after flashing with Asus stock firmware. L&LD’s guide is here:
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/n...l-and-manual-configuration.27115/#post-205573
It should be followed to the letter: no shortcuts.
Let us know what happens.

Thanks for that. I don't plan on spending an hour adding all my configurations. I'll just flash it, reset it per your link and test it, then put the Merlin firmware back. I hope it doesn't work with the ASUSWRT firmware, I really prefer the Merlin firmware

 

[martinr]

Thanks for that. I don't plan on spending an hour adding all my configurations. I'll just flash it, reset it per your link and test it, then put the Merlin firmware back. I hope it doesn't work with the ASUSWRT firmware, I really prefer the Merlin firmware

By all means try it, but if there are any glitches at all, don’t waste time troubleshooting, reset according to the guide. We all know the attraction of the hoped-for quick fix over the possibly daunting thought of a full and proper manual and minimal reset, but it happens so often that the full reset is the quicker option compared to fruitless troubleshooting and posting back and forth on the forum. And then having to do the full reset in the end, anyway.

I’ve printed off L&LD’s guide (and his AMTM Setup guide) which allows notes to be scribbled down for next tine.

Apart from the warm feeling of having a rock solid router after a proper reset, there’s the bonus of getting reacquainted with all the settings on each page and seeing what’s changed since you last looked,

 

[TanyaC]

All we're trying to achieve is prove that the Aquantia driver software is blocking access to the router. I don't even need to set up an ISP connection. I'll be connecting my PC directly to the router, upgrading to the latest Aquantia 2.1.18 drivers and then seeing if the router login page is accessible, and if so if I can login and navigate the various screens. Whilst doing this I'll have Wireshark running. They want the capture file.

If I can access the router page, they will insist that the issue is with with Merlin. If this is the case I can't use the Aquantia or ASUS 10G NICs until someone resolves the issues.

The Aquantia 2.1.8 drivers work fine with Merlin, so personally, I think it's Aquantia's problem.

This has been going for 3 months. I've spent many dozens of hours doing tests with Netgear. ASUS of course are useless and simply say "RMA the NIC", now Aquantia are pointing the finger at Merlin. Just a massive blame game with no one willing to take ownership.

 

[martinr]

Can I clarify? In Post #9 you said:

“I added a MAC address for my son's girlfriend's Macbook on Wednesday. It worked fine. Friday- no access to router.”

So the Macbook could access the router’s webui on the Weds but 2 days later, it too could no longer access the router?

 

[TanyaC]

Can I clarify? In Post #9 you said:

“I added a MAC address for my son's girlfriend's Macbook on Wednesday. It worked fine. Friday- no access to router.”

So the Macbook could access the router’s webui on the Weds but 2 days later, it too could no longer access the router?

Sorry... too many things happening at the same time.

In Post #1 I said "Added an XG-C100C". (This was the cause of the problem, which I did not determine until some time later, after posts here). I then said I reverted PCs to onboard NICs, which work fine. Once I downgraded to v2.1.8 of the Aquantia drivers I could access the router, but other issues fixed by the later drivers came back.

Over the last several months I've been posting on Netgear, ASUS, Aquantia and here trying to solve the issue.I even posted on the MSI forums in case the BIOS or motherboard might have been an issue.

No one except me logs into the router. I haven't given anyone the password. Once her MAC address was added she could surf the 'net. The problem wasn't that she couldn't access the router, it was that I could not access the router, and by "access" I mean the webui.

So as it stands now there seems to be two vendor issues.

1. The Aquantia drivers > 2.1.8 block access to the router. Later drivers fix a 5 minute inactivity issue which causes Internet to disconnect for 15 seconds.
   
2. The Netgear MS510TX Multigig switch has connection issues with all tested 10G NICs (12 seconds to connect and erratic speeds).

Since I bought the switches and 10G NICs at the same time I initially had no idea where the problems lay, and now it's narrowed down to the two above.

Hopefully that add some clarity to the situation. Sorry for the confusion.

 

[martinr]

Sorry... too many things happening at the same time.

In Post #1 I said "Added an XG-C100C". (This was the cause of the problem, which I did not determine until some time later, after posts here). I then said I reverted PCs to onboard NICs, which work fine. Once I downgraded to v2.1.8 of the Aquantia drivers I could access the router, but other issues fixed by the later drivers came back.

Over the last several months I've been posting on Netgear, ASUS, Aquantia and here trying to solve the issue.I even posted on the MSI forums in case the BIOS or motherboard might have been an issue.

No one except me logs into the router. I haven't given anyone the password. Once her MAC address was added she could surf the 'net. The problem wasn't that she couldn't access the router, it was that I could not access the router, and by "access" I mean the webui.

So as it stands now there seems to be two vendor issues.

1. The Aquantia drivers > 2.1.8 block access to the router. Later drivers fix a 5 minute inactivity issue which causes Internet to disconnect for 15 seconds.
   
2. The Netgear MS510TX Multigig switch has connection issues with all tested 10G NICs (12 seconds to connect and erratic speeds).

Since I bought the switches and 10G NICs at the same time I initially had no idea where the problems lay, and now it's narrowed down to the two above.

Hopefully that add some clarity to the situation. Sorry for the confusion.

Not confusion at all. I’d misinterpreted: I thought that whilst her Macbook was connected, you were able, using her Macbook, to access the webui on the Weds, but when you tried again through her Macbook on the Friday, you couldn’t.

 

[TanyaC]

OK, how bizarre is this..

I went to create some baseline wireshark captures on the router as it is with Merlin.
v2.1.8 of the Aquantia drivers work fine. V2.1.17+ don't.
So imagine my frustration when running wireshark with the v2.1.17 and .18 drivers and it worked fine.
After hours of proof of concept, the situation is that if Wireshark is running or has been run prior to attempting to access the router's UI using v2.1.17+ then I can access the UI. Don't run Wireshark and the UI is inaccessible, websites load slowly and some don't load at all.

Any guesses as to what Wireshark does that "fixes" the problem? (Promiscuous mode, packet fragmentation??)

Kind of makes it hard to prove to Aquantia that there is a problem.

In the end I didn't get as far as trying the stock firmware. I just did the tests with Merlin.