Port Forwarding disappears

[Dave Moseley]

After 4 days, Port Forwarding rule disappears from router. It can be easily reentered and will persist for approximately the same period, before disappearing again. Firmware is at level 11_2

I am new to Merlin, having recently migrated from 384-45713 to 384.11_0 on RT-AC68U. Current firmware is 384.11_2

The forwarding is for port 1194 to Raspberry Pi, running an OpenVPN server: see below. This behavior began after converting to Merlin. Apologies as I can't recall if it also occurred on 11_0

 

[martinr]

Dave, hello and welcome to the forum.

You’ve got a wonderfully reliable router in the RT-AC68U. Now, please tell me that you:

a. Carried out a reset to factory default settings (RFDS) AFTER flashing the Merlin firmware and then you manually re-entered your custom settings (ie you didn’t restore from a backup file).

b. You carried out the RFDS using L&LD’s Guide:

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/n...l-and-manual-configuration.27115/#post-205573


This is your starting point - a good factory reset. After that, and especially with your router model, you should never have a problem - except of your own making!

 

[Dave Moseley]

That is a considerable price to pay, as I love my Asus router and have significantly customized it and it otherwise seems to be working fine (without RFDS).

Thanks much for a quick reply, I'll do as you suggest.

 

[martinr]

Guess what: it’ll work even better with RFDS.

 

[Dave Moseley]

BTW, I assume the link in your original response was either a practical joke or a mistake.

I believe I found the indicated procedure at: https://www.snbforums.com/threads/n...l-and-manual-configuration.27115/#post-205573

 

[RMerlin]

Check your nvram usage on Tools -> Sysinfo, make sure you are not running out of nvram.

 

[Dave Moseley]

65442 / 65536 bytes.

I have an extensive MAC whitelist filter, that I can trim, also the number of OpenVPN client definitions?

Wireless MAC filter is my biggest RFDS headache ...

 

[L&LD]

65442 / 65536 bytes.

I have an extensive MAC whitelist filter, that I can trim, also the number of OpenVPN client definitions?

Wireless MAC filter is my biggest RFDS headache ...

I can help with that. Just don't use it going forward.

This is very easy to spoof for anyone that is determined and you are not benefitting (security wise) from this anymore.

Follow the M&M Config, maybe also the Sanitize Network guide too and if you have a spare USB drive, you may want to follow the amtm Step-by-Step guide too to have access to scripts like YazFi by Jack Yaz.

M&M Config https://www.snbforums.com/threads/n...l-and-manual-configuration.27115/#post-205573

Sanitize Network https://www.snbforums.com/threads/rt-ac66u-slow-wan-to-lan.12973/page-3#post-269410

amtm Step-by-Step https://www.snbforums.com/threads/amtm-step-by-step-install-guide-l-ld.56237/#post-483421

 

[martinr]

BTW, I assume the link in your original response was either a practical joke or a mistake.

I believe I found the indicated procedure at: https://www.snbforums.com/threads/n...l-and-manual-configuration.27115/#post-205573

Sorry: no practical joke, just a cock up on my part. Now corrected.

 

[RMerlin]

65442 / 65536 bytes.

I have an extensive MAC whitelist filter, that I can trim, also the number of OpenVPN client definitions?

Wireless MAC filter is my biggest RFDS headache ...

Try running the following script first, it will remove old key/certs that might still be in nvram when they should only be in the /jffs partition:

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/release-asuswrt-merlin-384-10-is-now-available.55742/#post-474399

 

[kram66]

I have a similar issue.. I’ve found a bug with this new release 384.11_2. I can’t do any port forwarding. Each time I put my devices into the list, they just disappear. This is the first release that had wiped them out. The iPhone app lets me enter 5 entries, but the 6th wipes them all out.

 

[martinr]

I have a similar issue.. I’ve found a bug with this new release 384.11_2. I can’t do any port forwarding. Each time I put my devices into the list, they just disappear. This is the first release that had wiped them out. The iPhone app lets me enter 5 entries, but the 6th wipes them all out.

What happens if you use the webui instead of the iPhone app? Same thing?

 

[Dave Moseley]

Done to date: RFDS & JFFS reformat. Also eliminated large MAC whitelist filter.
(I'm getting up to speed to run suggested scripts, will do them as phase II)

Result: It may take several days to be sure but NVRAM has improved significantly ...
Before: 65442 / 65536 bytes
After: 55192 / 65536 bytes

Support here, at SNB, is light years better than native ASUS - thanks to all concerned!

 

[martinr]

Done to date: RFDS & JFFS reformat. Also eliminated large MAC whitelist filter.
(I'm getting up to speed to run suggested scripts, will do them as phase II)

Result: It may take several days to be sure but NVRAM has improved significantly ...
Before: 65442 / 65536 bytes
After: 55192 / 65536 bytes

Support here, at SNB, is light years better than native ASUS - thanks to all concerned!

Excellent, Dave. Keep in touch. And if future I’ll double check sny links I post.

 

[Dave Moseley]

One caveat (unless my forwarding port definition disappears again in 4 days):

I've been wanting (and avoiding) RFDS for a long time. You gave me the "straw breaking the camel's back" reason to dive in. But as I had, over time, used my router to support many LAN based configurations - it required several hours for me to recreate and re-resolve them all.

Lesson learned - print full screens of every WebUI page and keep a parochial change log ...

 

[ColinTaylor]

Lesson learned - print full screens of every WebGUI page and keep a parochial change log ...

Now that you've got everything working I suggest that you save your settings (using the router's GUI option). Whilst the settings file isn't useful when flashing between different firmware versions (i.e. Merlin back to stock Asus), it is a useful backup in case you mess up your settings with this firmware in the future and need to get back to a "known working" state.

 

[Paliv]

Now that you've got everything working I suggest that you save your settings (using the router's GUI option). Whilst the settings file isn't useful when flashing between different firmware versions (i.e. Merlin back to stock Asus), it is a useful backup in case you mess up your settings with this firmware in the future and need to get back to a "known working" state.

This has saved me a lot of pain in the past. I also recommend this.

 

[martinr]

And after recommending L&LD’s guide to all and sundry, I’m about to use it myself for the first time with a reset to factory default settings - last done when Merlin specified it (380 to 382?).

In preparation, I printed off his M&M Guide (Post 3) along with Post 23 in that thread. And I also printed his AMTM-step-by-step install Guide (post 1), and Post 751 in thelonelycoder’s AMTM thread, which deals with problems if the usb drive doesn’t mount. Also printed Post 2448 in the Diversion thread, which deals with formatting the usb stick.

 

[Dave Moseley]

And after recommending L&LD’s guide to all and sundry, I’m about to use it myself for the first time with a reset to factory default settings - last done when Merlin specified it (380 to 382?).

In preparation, I printed off his M&M Guide (Post 3) along with Post 23 in that thread. And I also printed his AMTM-step-by-step install Guide (post 1), and Post 751 in thelonelycoder’s AMTM thread, which deals with problems if the usb drive doesn’t mount. Also printed Post 2448 in the Diversion thread, which deals with formatting the usb stick.

I spent a couple hours reviewing customizations and taking notes. What I should have done was save screen prints for all the WebUI pages. Also, from now on, I'm keeping a change log as some customizations are subtle and/or involve "other" networking components - good luck, it's actually kinda fun

 

[kram66]

I have a similar issue.. I’ve found a bug with this new release 384.11_2. I can’t do any port forwarding. Each time I put my devices into the list, they just disappear. This is the first release that had wiped them out. The iPhone app lets me enter 5 entries, but the 6th wipes them all out.

If I use the web page, nothing stays.. I think there was a save button which is no longer there.