Loss of network

[rob0729]

For the past few months, not totally sure ho long now, but think possibly since September last year, I have been experiencing the network connection on the router pausing for 10-30 seconds, 2 or 3 times a day.

All network connections, both Wi-Fi and cabled stop and we lose connection to the internet.

The red internet light does not come on when this happens and I can see no sign of any errors in the logs.

I thought this may have been an issue with my ISP, but I have had a new 500mbps FTTP connection installed last week to replace the previous FTTC connection i was using and this error is still present.

I have tried restarting, factory reset, replacing cables, factory default settings to test and upgrading firmware th the latest versions as they were realased, but have not resolved the issue.

The issue has existed for a few versions of the Merlin Firmware. I have updated the router to the Asus 3.0.0.4.388_22525 instead of the Merlin Firmware and so far have not had any issues.

Has anyone ever had any issue like this with the Asus RT-AX88U with the Merlin Firmware of might have an idea of what is casuing it?

These are my observations so far:

1. The Wi-Fi stays connected
2. The Ethernet stays connected
3. The WAN connection stays connected (No red light or disconnection on admin page)
4. I am unable to ping the router at 192.168.0.1
5. I am unable to connect to the router admin portal
6. I am unable to ping anything on the internet (e.g. 8.8.8.8)
7. DNS stops working (Unable to do a NSLookup (e.g. bbc.co.uk)
8. I can still ping all other devices on my network that are not connected via the router, but are connected via an external switch
9. All internet connections are dropped, including VPNs, Teams Meetings, RDP connections and any other remote sessions open via the internet.
10. The router stays in this state for 20-30 seconds
11. The router is still powered on and has not rebooted
12. All status light on the router continue to stay on for Wi-FI, Internet and Power.
13. I have connected a laptop directly to the router with an ethernet cable and the issue still exists.
14. We have two internet connections to the property, one FTTC and one FTTP circuit. The FTTC is ADSL running at 47/16mbps and the FTTP is full fibre running at 500/500mbps. The FTTP circuit was installed last week. I thought this issue was with the original FTTC circuit, but since I have swapped to using the new FTTP circuit installed last week, the issue is still present proving it is an issue with the router rather than the circuit or hardware external to the router.

Thanks for any help.