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Powersaving on ethernet ports?

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vrapp

Senior Member
Hi,

Wondering if this can be addressed.

Whenever I step away from the desktop computer, which is connected to RT-N66U by Ethernet cable, I usually put the computer in standby mode, rather than shut it down. So when I need the computer again, one mouse click, and it's back from standby in 1-2 seconds.

But then I have to wait about 10 seconds for the Ethernet connection to come up. Until then, it says that network cable is unplugged. I never saw this happening with several other routers I had before RT-N66U, the connection was "always on". It looks like RT-N66U is using some power-saving, cutting the power to the ports that are not connected, and looking if any came up once per about 10 seconds. If so, then perhaps the polling interval could be decreased or made changeable in the interface?
 
You could try disabling Spanning-Tree on the Switch COntrol page to see if that has any impact, but personally I think the rest of the OS will need that time to fully restore to full power anyway.
 
Your computer's ethernet adapter might be trying to use one of those power saving options, and the ASUS router is the first router you've had to support them? Just an idea. Anyway, you can look for them on the Device page from Device Manager, and go to the Advanced tab. Look for "green" anything, or "efficient" anything.
 
You could try disabling Spanning-Tree on the Switch COntrol page to see if that has any impact

Just tried - no, no change

but personally I think the rest of the OS will need that time to fully restore to full power anyway.

I just realized that this can be demonstrated even easier. Simply unplug the Ethernet cable from the router, or from the network card, without any computer standby, and then plug it back in. With any other Ethernet device (I just tried two), the led on the network card goes on instantly. With RT-N66U, it stays down for 10 seconds. Can you try it on yours?
 
Your computer's ethernet adapter might be trying to use one of those power saving options, and the ASUS router is the first router you've had to support them? Just an idea. Anyway, you can look for them on the Device page from Device Manager, and go to the Advanced tab. Look for "green" anything, or "efficient" anything.

Nope... does not seem to be anything like that.

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I just tested it here, and mine turns back on within 2 seconds.

Make sure you are using a Cat 5e or Cat6 cable - this router has gigabit ports, so using older Cat5 cables will cause issues. Could be your network card having trouble doing the link speed negotiation because of a bad cable.
 
Go to the power management tab of you NIC and uncheck "allow the computer to turn off this device to save power".
 
I just tested it here, and mine turns back on within 2 seconds.

Make sure you are using a Cat 5e or Cat6 cable - this router has gigabit ports, so using older Cat5 cables will cause issues. Could be your network card having trouble doing the link speed negotiation because of a bad cable.

Thanks, I'll try - indeed, mine is Cat5 so far.
 
Good morning,

I had something similar happen last night when I went back to Merlin' FW from Tomato that I was playing with.

Even though the router was back up and LED's were on and Merlin's FW was installed my desktop, wired attached, said the NIC was unplugged. Happened for just a moment then decided it was in fact plugged in.

I decided, since I was there anyway, to reset the router, go back into recovery mode, reflash Merlin's FW, then cleared NVRAM again.

Did not have the message after doing so.

So in my case I'd say it was something about the flash back from Tomato that didn't "take" correctly.

Have you tried resetting your router to defaults, flash from Recovery mode, etc., again?
 

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