Merlin 380.65_2 - Both Wifi Dropping In and Out

[Shandley]

Greetings,

I have recently updated my firmware to 380.65_2 Merlin from ~370. Since then, my wifi has been dropping in and out. It will run for a few minutes, then drop out for a minute (timing could be off... I'm not running a stopwatch when it happens).

When I update the firmware, I always restore to default settings, update, then manually re-enter my settings. I never skip any steps.

I am running the AC66U.
I have read and applied the wifi troubleshooting guide.

Before I go and start ripping new software apart, do you have any suggestions?

Thanks in advance,
Shandley

 

[chrisinsocalif]

I have a similar situation where the wifi randomly drops out randomly. Usually it happens after a couple hour of use or when downloading larger files and using multiple devices. Would it be better to use John's fork for older models like the ac66u/w or is there a problem with the drivers asus has provided? Which log would be most beneficial to post to help alleviate this issue?
I also did a reset when installing the firmware and entered in everything manually. I am also using ipv6, custom login id/password and custom wireless names with long passwords. Otherwise, everything else is stock.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

[Shandley]

I have installed the newer _4 version released on March 28th and it seems to work. I haven't put it to the test yet but so far so good!

 

[chrisinsocalif]

I have installed the newer _4 version released on March 28th and it seems to work. I haven't put it to the test yet but so far so good!

Good to know, I will reset and install and see how it goes.

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

 

[DickyDck]

I have recently upgrade to _4 and it was great for about 16 hours, but the Wifi started doing that drop thing it likes to do... just my input to add to the testing pool.

 

[Shandley]

I have been having problems with both the _2 and _4 of the 380.65 release. I reverted back to 380.64_2 and I am still getting some drop outs but not nearly as many.

I wonder if 380.65 caused a bit of unstableness or damage to the radios. Further testing will be needed on my router.

 

[DickyDck]

well that would be terrible if firmware causes irreversible hardware damage...

 

[Makaveli]

Has anyone tried with Airtime Fairness off?

 

[FatherLandDescendant]

So guess I'm not the only one with this issue...

I've been having an ongoing issue.

So I moved this past December, went from a DSL provider to a BB provider. I have 2 routers in my apartment, one of which I host as an separate network for a friend who likes to DL music A LOT. So I set up my ASUS AC66U with the Merlin Firm Ware so I could keep the router on PIA VPN, that way he doesn't disable it and forget and get me hammered because he's DLing music.

From the start I noticed I had connectivity issues. The friend who is the only one using this router was constantly telling me he'd lost internet connectivity, power cycle the router and all was good, a day or two later I'd have to do it again. So after a couple of weeks of this I jacked into the router, updated the FW, and the issue died down a bit, I could go three weeks without a reset. I also installed an ASUS RT-N12D1 N router and set it into repeater mode, it's running the stock FW from ASUS, I updated the FW in it tonight as well as my AC-66U.

Last week the need to reset the router was happening again on a daily basis, it's become multiple times a day now, I updated the FW again tonight and am hoping this helps the issue.

If it doesn't help the issue I'm wondering if there is anything else I can do to improve signal reliability? The friend can only access the 2.4GHz band.

I have the AC66U set to only run its' 2.4GHz radio as nothing else would utilize the 5GHz band.

Wireless Mode is set to Legacy, it was in auto mode and I still had this issue.

Bandwidth is 20MHz

Control Channel is set to auto and it has me on 5 right now, and I'm the only one on 5, I had it on C11 but still had the current issue. 1,6,&11 are pretty congested here, there are 6-APs on C1, 4-APs on C6, and 3-AP on 11, and all of them are close enough to register a full signal strength in not only the site survey tool, but on a PC, phone, tablet ect.

I also set the tx power level to max, it's a pretty good distance from here to his apartment. The signal has to traverse a hallway, another apartment, his bathroom.

All 4 antennas are aimed in his direction.

So aside from forcing him to upgrade to a better NIC, or cutting him off and eliminating the headache all together, which then he wouldn't pay half of my internet bill. Is there anything else I could do to mitigate this issue? Is it a known FW issue your working on, is it the 2.4GHz woes, to much distance? I personally am out of ideas ATM and hoping others more experienced than I can help.

Thanks
FLD

 

[FatherLandDescendant]

Alright so I got up this morning and had no WIFI what so ever, even a reboot would not solve the problem. I finally had to go and roll back the FW update (380.65_4) I did last night. According to the log it looks like what my issue may be in part do to my VPN. These were the two most logged entries on the router.

openvpn[568]: WARNING: No server certificate verification method has been enabled. See http://openvpn.net/howto.html#mitm for more info.


openvpn[568]: RESOLVE: Cannot resolve host address: us-east.privateinternetaccess.com:1198 (Name or service not known)

I've since rolled back to the 308.65_2 version because even having to reset it constantly is better than no internet access at all.

I'm really new to advanced routing. Until a few months ago I was just a plug and play user. Since getting into a CIT program with the local Community Collage I've started dabbling a little more into an advanced users realm. Any help I could get would be much appreciated, I have the log file on hand if that helps anyone, but didn't want to post a 13 page word document.

I'll be in and out of the forum all weekend, I have 2 final projects to work on, plus some other classes to catch up on.

 

[DickyDck]

Has anyone tried with Airtime Fairness off?

I have just killed Airtime Fairness, and will monitor throughout the day. If anyone else has suggestions or ideas I am game to be the guinea pig

 

[DickyDck]

ok, came home earlier to no WiFi. I also noticed when this happens trying to access the router through web GUI is really tediously slow. each section eventually comes up but it is slow like downloading MP3s on Napster using dial-up back in the day so I think we can rule out the airtime fairness having any effect

 

[steve.g.]

I also have issues with the AC66U. I went to this firmware because the ASUS one was giving me headaches... I had to revert to 380.65.2 because the .4 was causing huge issues with wifi. It would constantly stop working...

I have 2.4 and 5ghz stuff on my network, but nothing fancy going on the router, however from time to time I have to change from the 2.4ghz to the 5ghz wifi because the other stops working on my iphne6s

It used to be much worse with the ASUS firmware, but the .4 is really bad for my AC66U...

I'm considering buying another router, but I don't really see anything good and affordable

 

[FatherLandDescendant]

I also have issues with the AC66U. I went to this firmware because the ASUS one was giving me headaches... I had to revert to 380.65.2 because the .4 was causing huge issues with wifi. It would constantly stop working...

I have 2.4 and 5ghz stuff on my network, but nothing fancy going on the router, however from time to time I have to change from the 2.4ghz to the 5ghz wifi because the other stops working on my iphne6s

It used to be much worse with the ASUS firmware, but the .4 is really bad for my AC66U...

I'm considering buying another router, but I don't really see anything good and affordable

I was having similar issues on the AC66u. Over the weekend I horsed around with it, ended up going back to the 380.65_4 and have been up and running with no WIFI issues for over two days now. Personally I'm starting to think it was the process I was using to flash the router.

 

[Reinvented]

Checked my AC66U, and it's running fine with 380.65_4. No wifi drops. And uptime is over 7 days.

 

[steve.g.]

View attachment 9019

Checked my AC66U, and it's running fine with 380.65_4. No wifi drops. And uptime is over 7 days.

so what did you do to update the firmware differently?

 

[Reinvented]

so what did you do to update the firmware differently?

Since I am very familiar with my own settings that I use, I always make sure to reboot the router first before flashing, and after flash once it boots back up, I do a factory defaults from within the GUI. I don't bother ever using a restore/config file, as you never know what kind of old settings might be in there that could corrupt something. Only takes me about 15 minutes to set back up again.

Also, if you are having problems updating the firmware then use the ASUS Restore Utility. That'll usually force a flash if you are having problems.

But anyway...no problems flashing, ever. Just follow simple rules for flashing, and minimal setup and you will be good.

 

[Gregory Phillips]

I've been seeing my cell phone getting kicked off both 2.4 and 5ghz and onto the second router. I just flashed to 380.65_4 and have acrylic running on my laptop to monitor the signal quality where this is happening at. AF is disabled and I surely wish I had control over the radio broadcast strength.

 

[Reinvented]

I've been seeing my cell phone getting kicked off both 2.4 and 5ghz and onto the second router. I just flashed to 380.65_4 and have acrylic running on my laptop to monitor the signal quality where this is happening at. AF is disabled and I surely wish I had control over the radio broadcast strength.

If its being kicked, then you either have Smart Connect enabled, or you have roaming assist on. And if you are covering a large area and have multiple with the same SSID, then it's doing what it's supposed to be doing. You aren't going to get a seamless transition, as it needs to hand off the signal somehow to the next available router that's stronger.

 

[Gregory Phillips]

If its being kicked, then you either have Smart Connect enabled, or you have roaming assist on. And if you are covering a large area and have multiple with the same SSID, then it's doing what it's supposed to be doing. You aren't going to get a seamless transition, as it needs to hand off the signal somehow to the next available router that's stronger.

No I don't have either of them enabled but what I do have are neighbors with super strong Wi-Fi networks on all sides of me. I have at least 30 competitors around me which doesn't make for a great environment for me. This is one of those times where I wished that I was isolated. When I monitored acrylic a little while ago some of their networks were stronger in my house than my own routers so I'm at their mercy.

I've spaced my channels out to minimize overlap but if they're on auto they will roam around and jump on me which seems to be happening. I move around and then I recheck and they've shifted over with me with at least 5 networks on the same 5ghz channel as me. At least my cell phones are falling back to one of my networks.