New RP-AC68U repeater won't connect to RT-AC3100 Router

[ellford]

I wanted to extend my wireless signal in the upstairs of our house, so I purchased the RP-AC68U repeater. In the basement is our RT-AC3100 router.

The instructions on the RP-AC68U are horrible at best. I try the first step to connect via WPS by pushing the WPS button on the AC3100 and hold till it flashes and then push the WPS button on the RP-AC68U - Nothing. It won't connect.

I've even tried plugging it in hardwired directly to the AC3100 to no avail.

What's strange is I can see the RP-AC68U signal on my iPhone (ASUS_RPAC68U and ASUS_RPAC68U_5G).

If I go to http://repeater.asus.com to access it, I just get the Asus logo and a spinning cursor - nothing else. If I go to 192.168.1.1 I get to my main Asus AC3100 login screen.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to get this repeater to work? I'm completely frustrated with it...

Thanks,

 

[ellford]

Nobody has any ideas? I'm even having issues with ASUS themselves, as they keep thinking I'm referring to an RT-AC68U router!

Very frustrating experience here so far...

 

[FTC]

Hi, when I installed mine I had no such problems. You can attempt to reset the device (press the reset button at the bottom for >10 sec). I have also read that some units have a defect where the reset button is permanently being pressed by the case and in such units you can not connect unless you solve that issue that seems quite easy to fix (it seems like just dismounting the base and properly mounting it again fixes it).

 

[ellford]

I've tried the reset button, but all it does it give me this blank Asus page where it appears to be in an endless loop. My reset button doesn't appear to be stuck as I can press it in with a paper clip.

 

[FTC]

Hi, the blank page is where the scan for the router is being done, and should automatically be followed by the login page of the repeater once it is found.
Given that it seems like not working, and that you see the access point wifi SSID, have you connected to it (to the ASUS_RPAC68U or the ASUS_RPAC68U_6G SSID, which are open wifi points) ? Once done (the wifi connection), accessing the IP (192.168.1.1) in a navigator page should give you the login dialog. If ot does not appear, then verify your machine's TCP/IP settings.. leave everything in auto - optionally give your machine a static IP in the same subnet, i.e 192.168.1.2. and retry.

 

[ellford]

OK, I've made some real progress...

I reset the RP-AC68U and connected a PC directly to one of the ports in the back.

I was then able to connect to my 2.4 and 5g wireless networks through the RP-AC68U initial set-up (this is big progress) on my PC that I had directly connected to the RP-AC68U repeater.

I was able to go to http://repeater.asus.com and was able to update the firmware with the latest firmware that I had downloaded.

I now see the 2 wireless networks off the repeater:

<network name>_RPT
<network name>_5G_RPT

Now when I try to connect to either of these on my iPhone or iPad, it connects and then gives me an ASUS error message that states:

Unable to connect to Parent AP
RP-AC68U
We suggest you
· Please confirm Parent AP can connect to Internet.
· Change the connection setting

So this is odd, but I've made such huge progress... Any ideas on what the issue might be?

Also - is there any way that instead of having the network name amended with the _RPT, that it would just use the same network name? Or is that not how repeaters work? It just seems odd to me that at my work, I can walk all around the building wirelessly and not have to change my network... Just curious...

Thanks,

 

[FTC]

Hi, if you have been able to update the firmware, then it means you have access to the GUI (menus). In that case what you need to do is to run the 'quick internet setup' wizard (top left option in the menus main panel), and specify the mode of operation you want (access point / repeater /expressway / media bridge) and the parameters for each one (i.e the parent wifi SSIDs and connection passwords, except in access point mode where you are cabled to your router) Also there you can change the name of your repeated SSIDs (this is where you can strip the _RPT or rename as you wish).

 

[Murtaza12]

@elford

My RP-AC68U gives me the same error, but not all the time. Right now I'm using it and it's perfectly fine but at least twice a day (both times at night) it will suddenly drop the connection and it either reconnects to my main router itself or I have to get out of bed at 1 AM to go manually reboot it.

I'm on the latest firmware by the way and reading your whole post, I went through the exact same situation when I had just bought it.

I thought this would be hassle free, I didn't see myself taking it apart on the first day because of a stupid design flaw with the reset button and bottom plate.

 

[Logi]

I have the RT-AC5300 (FW: Asus 380.7743), I just purchased the RT-AC68U (FW: Asus 384.10007) to extend the RT-5300 wireless network by using it in Repeater mode, I've tried all the possible combinations, extend the 2.4Ghz or the 5Ghz wireless networks. Nonetheless it has been impossible to make it work, not even once, I always get the messages (screen shot below as well):

"Parent AP status disconnected"
"Unable to connect to parent AP"

Very similar situation, I really don't know what else to do

 

[Logi]

Problem solved, the new RT-AC68U 384 FW is not compatible with Repeater mode and the 380 FW of the RT-AC-5300, I had to go back to 382 in the AC68 and now it is working. I am going to wait for 384 for the RT-AC5300 and install to both and enable AiMesh

 

[ellford]

Can I ask what 384 FW and 380 FW and 382 FW are?

And how did you confirm it's not compatible? I'm wondering if my RP-AC68U is incompatible with my RT-AC3100 then?

 

[Logi]

Can I ask what 384 FW and 380 FW and 382 FW are?

And how did you confirm it's not compatible? I'm wondering if my RP-AC68U is incompatible with my RT-AC3100 then?

FW = Firmware. If the AC68U is running the latest Firmware version 384.10007 and the AC5300 is running the latest Firmware 380.7744 they will not communicate. Today I installed Firmware 382.18881 to the AC68U and it started working right away. Firmware 384.XXXXXX uses the new AiMesh technology, that might not be compatible with the older 380/382 Firmware.

 

[ellford]

and FTC -

I'm able to use a LAN cable from my PC to plug into the back of the RP-AC68U. ONLY this way, am I able to access the set-up and router configuration screens. I'm unable to download the firmware update as I have no access to the internet this way, so what I did was plug into my RT-AC3100 router (which has full access to the internet), download it and then connect back to the RP-AC68U to update it.

When I run the wizard to set it up, I set it up in Repeater mode - I honestly have no idea what the other modes are, but all I'm trying to do is extend my existing wireless range off my AT-AC3100. I don't change the wifi SSIDs as I just want to get it working first. So for me it looks like:

<network name>_RPT
<network name>_5G_RPT

Here are pics of the admin screens (notice the red X on the network diagram on the screen below?)

This next screen has 2 yellow 'warning' notices, one that the time hasn't been set (I'm not concerned with that, as I first need to get this unit to work), but the other one talks about not sync'ing with an NTP server (not sure what this means).

This next screen shows the IP address to be 192.168.1.1, which happens to be the same as my RT-AC3100 router. Could this be what is causing the issue? If so, is it just a simple change to 192.168.1.2 to fix this?

 

[ellford]

Limited to 5 images per screen, so here's the next few...

This screen shows that I'm running the RP-AC68U in REPEATER mode, as I'm only trying to extend the range of my existing wifi network into areas of the house that have weak spots.

This last screen is the SYSLOG dump - as you can see, lots of errors...

Any additional help and support with this would be greatly appreciated, as this has been one heck of a frustrating journey with this little repeater...

Thanks so much,

 

[FTC]

Hi, for sure yours can not have the same IP assigned to the RP as the main router (parent). Try to set this first to an unused IP address (192.168.1.2) and in the main router make sure that address is reserved in the DHCP page. Then reboot the RP and see if things workout better. If not, then all that remains is checking why the 5Ghz band is not connecting. Recheck the SSID and password configured. If in doubt I would just reset the RP and start over with the wizard ('quick internet setup' in the GUI)

 

[rakhshak]

Hey,

I have the identical setup and situation to yours. Firmware is definitely not your friend in this case. Making sure your firmware is current on BOTH devices is crucial (took me 2 hours to figure this out after I set everything up). As far as the X on the network map, I'm not 100% sure (maybe if someone from Asus ever reads this and can verify) but I believe the X shows which connect is not currently being used to send/receive data. My advice to you is to manually update the firmware on both devices, reset the repeater and then install everything from scratch and it should be up and running smooth.

 

[Murtaza12]

Hey,

I have the identical setup and situation to yours. Firmware is definitely not your friend in this case. Making sure your firmware is current on BOTH devices is crucial (took me 2 hours to figure this out after I set everything up). As far as the X on the network map, I'm not 100% sure (maybe if someone from Asus ever reads this and can verify) but I believe the X shows which connect is not currently being used to send/receive data. My advice to you is to manually update the firmware on both devices, reset the repeater and then install everything from scratch and it should be up and running smooth.

Can back this up.

I did exactly the same. Updated to the latest firmware on my AC3200 and then on my RP-AC68U, did a hard reset on both.
Started from scratch to set them up and I've been getting a stable connection ever since that day.