RT-AC66R / AC66U Dropping 2.4GHz Band

[majnu]

I've had the same problems too. I'm using John's v3 fork of Merlin and restoring my CFE to stock and using official fw didn't help. I was about to return my router back to Amazon had it not been for this thread. What worked for me was to change the SSID from default Asus on my 2.4GHz band to something else and now it's been steady as a rock.

My access point a n56u didn't suffer from drop outs and has always been on a different channel to main router but now I've changed the ssid on that to match and use a 20 band to minimise interference.

 

[Cado]

I have had all the same issues all of you describe here and in other sites.
Among all of my issues the worst one: Unoperable 2G band. Eventually dies and nothing goes through it, only 5G band works fine.

I have an AC66R and a N66R. Experiencing this issue with either both routers set as APs and the other as repeater.

I had to change SSID and one by one check all devices, until I found it, in my case the issues with my 2G band were caused by a Linksys IP cam DL5222l. I have tried multiple wireless configurations: with AC66 as AP, 2G @ 20 Mhz, 2G @ 40 Mhz. With N66 as AP, 2G @ 20 Mhz, 2G @ 40 Mhz, and nothing works.


I even connected an old netgear g router to the main Asus router so I could use its wifi to connect the cammera, and it did not work either, it slowed down the whole network the same way.

My issue started happening after a failed AC66 firmware upgrade. That led me to Merlin's fm and I uploaded it to both my routers.

With the asus fm I was not able to get more than 300 Mbps out of either both bands, and in WDS mode, I could only get 144 max.

After Merlin's, I am able to connect both routers at 450 Mbps, and connections from ACN66 to AC clients reach 866 Mbps.

So thank you so much Merlin for this awesome contribution to man kind.

as for my still open issue with my wireless IP cam, the solution is to drill a hole in the wall and use a cable...

 

[borg1]

Router info:
RT-AC66R from Best Buy.
Came pre-installed with whatever firmware ended in 354 I believe.
Now it has 3.0.0.4.374.32 RMerlin installed.
Wireless temps are steady @ 56 °C for 2.4GHz and 62 °C for 5GHz.

First some background info...

When I purchased this router, it was preloaded with the 354 firmware I believe and I was having major throughput issues - speeds fluctuated wildly. For example, when doing a speedtest, the meter would jump from 24Mbps down to 6Mbps then up to 14Mbps, etc, etc. Upload speeds were affected the same way. So in order to remedy the issue, I did a site survey and I tried changing the wireless channels and bandwidth settings in all possible combinations to no avail. (Channel 11 is basically completely empty here so I used and still use that channel mainly) I cleared the nvram, and reinstalled the firmware from Asus' website. Problem solved. Whew..

A week later, I noticed the 2.4GHz band was basically dead. Only one device was connected to the 2.4GHz band (a computer) and the rest had dropped off the network and as far as those devices were concerned, there was no 2.4GHz signal to connect to. The computer, however, remained connected, but only at 1.0Mbps, as Windows stated, but the actual speed was 0.01-0.1 Mbps when doing a speed test. So after reading online, and seeing how people opened up the configuration page for the 5GHz band and clicked "Apply" to basically reset the wireless, I did the same. And it worked. The 2.4GHz band reset and everything reconnected....until a week later, when the problem repeated. This has been occurring weekly since I've had this router...

Now to the present...

The problem repeated weekly until a few days ago, when I finally had enough. The same problem happened - 2.4GHz band dropped BUT this time, it cut off the internet connection. No devices, even connected through an ethernet cable, could reach any websites. The router was just dead. I had to power cycle it, and there it was again, working perfectly. So like I said - I had enough. I decided to clear the nvram, install RMerlin's latest build, 3.0.0.4.374.32, and clear the nvram again after install, and input all of my settings again manually instead of restoring from a file.

Now the 2.4GHz band is dropping once per day instead of once per week. Last night, when it dropped, it kicked the internet connection to the curb and I had to power cycle the router again, but even when I power cycled the router, it was still not working, so I did it again, and it started working.

This is just not acceptable. My older D-Link DIR-655 router NEVER had these issues. It was basically set and forget and had uptime of over a year once before the power went out and forced a reset. Now I'm resetting every single day?? I won't deal with this. Does anybody have any ideas? I'm only having issues on the 2.4GHz band, not the 5GHz band, but I've read of people having similar issues on both bands but not to this severity. Should I RMA it? Should I light it on fire? Help.

I realize this is an old thread from 2013, but strangly enough I am having what sounds like the same problem with the 2.4GHz WiFi on a new ASUS RT-AC3200. The 5GHz bands do not experience a problem, but every week since getting the router, the 2.4GHz just stops working. I have configured most of my devices to use one of the 2 5GHz bands. This only devices using the 2.4 are DLINK DSC-930L Webcams (3 of them). Still, once a week I completely lose connectivity to the 2.4. where no device will connect to it. All other aspects of the router seem fine. No impact that I can see to Internet access or to any wired connection. This is very frustrating indeed. I upgraded from a DLINK DIR-600 series router that never had issues with the 2.4 or 5 bands. I'm considering getting a 2,4 band router just for that band and turning it off on the ASUS.

I am using the latest firmware from ASUS. I am hesitant to try Merlin as I see people seem to have the same issue.

Has anyone been able to find a definitive solution for this issue that seems to affect ASUS routers?

 

[John Agombar]

I started getting the same problem too yesterday. Nothing has recently changed in my configuration.

Tried lots of suggestions in this and other similar threads (apart from changing the firmware). Thing that finally worked was changing the SSID (at the second attempt). Have allowed 2 phones to reconnect and will see how long this seems to work for. 5G connections are all fine.

Can't believe that ASUS haven't done anything to fix this problem, it appears to be quite common

 

[iissmart]

I've been battling this issue for a few years now, with both an RT-AC66U and now an RT-AC3100. I can only believe it's due to the way Asus poorly designs for heat dissipation. If I keep it cool it seems to work well. Any time the top of the router starts to feel moderately warm, it starts failing.

Keep your Asus routers cool, people!

 

[XIII]

I'm also suffering from this on my AC66U. Is this AC66 specific?

 

[skids22]

I've been battling this issue for a few years now, with both an RT-AC66U and now an RT-AC3100. I can only believe it's due to the way Asus poorly designs for heat dissipation. If I keep it cool it seems to work well. Any time the top of the router starts to feel moderately warm, it starts failing.

Keep your Asus routers cool, people!

I've been battling this issue for a few years now, with both an RT-AC66U and now an RT-AC3100. I can only believe it's due to the way Asus poorly designs for heat dissipation. If I keep it cool it seems to work well. Any time the top of the router starts to feel moderately warm, it starts f
Keep your Asus routers cool, people!

I bought the RT-AC3100 about a month ago. Both bands ran great for about 3 weeks. I was very pleased with it. Then out of nowhere the 5 G band disappeared about week ago. It shows up from time to time for 20 seconds and then its gone again. I flashed the latest from Merlin (30/30/30 reset followed by recovery mode, then hard wire flash, then 30/30/30) and it made no impact. The 5g issue holds true from surface pro 3, windows 7 laptop, android devices. Probably not a device issue. I suspect a heat issue per above or a hardware issue. The 2.4 GHz band works as advertised, a-ok. Merlin shows the 2.4 GHz at 49c, 5 GHz at 54c, cpu at 76c. I shut it down for the night and the 5g band came back for at least 15 min before i had to goto work. When i got home 9 hours later, the 5g band was gone again. I will repeat the experiment a few times noting temps at shut down and start up and try to see how long the band remains stable if it comes back. If theory is holding true, ill try a laptop cooling pad to see if it mitigates the issue. I'll report back when able, busy weekend ahead raking leaves....

 

[L&LD]

I bought the RT-AC3100 about a month ago. Both bands ran great for about 3 weeks. I was very pleased with it. Then out of nowhere the 5 G band disappeared about week ago. It shows up from time to time for 20 seconds and then its gone again. I flashed the latest from Merlin (30/30/30 reset followed by recovery mode, then hard wire flash, then 30/30/30) and it made no impact. The 5g issue holds true from surface pro 3, windows 7 laptop, android devices. Probably not a device issue. I suspect a heat issue per above or a hardware issue. The 2.4 GHz band works as advertised, a-ok. Merlin shows the 2.4 GHz at 49c, 5 GHz at 54c, cpu at 76c. I shut it down for the night and the 5g band came back for at least 15 min before i had to goto work. When i got home 9 hours later, the 5g band was gone again. I will repeat the experiment a few times noting temps at shut down and start up and try to see how long the band remains stable if it comes back. If theory is holding true, ill try a laptop cooling pad to see if it mitigates the issue. I'll report back when able, busy weekend ahead raking leaves....

30-30-30 reset doesn't work on Asus routers (it's a DDRism).

Try the following steps instead.

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/no...l-and-manual-configuration.27115/#post-205573

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

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/faq-nvram-and-factory-default-reset.22822/

 

[skids22]

Thanks L&LD. I applied the steps recommended, still no 5GHz. The symptoms remain the same. I fired up my old router and can see and connect to its 5GHz no problem.

I haven't put effort into the temperature theory. I figure its wiser to give this community a chance to help.​

 

[L&LD]

Have you tried manually selecting a 5GHz channel?

 

[skids22]

Have you tried manually selecting a 5GHz channel?

Yes.

I remembered i had a usb 2.0 drive attached to it at one point. I reattached it and ejected it several times via router gui. 5G channel is now showing up but I cannot connect. I get "Cannot connect to this network" message. In the process of flashing firmware and reapplying recomended steps above...

 

[L&LD]

Make sure you take a backup of the jffs partition and after flashing and doing a full reset, format the jffs partition and do at least 3 reboots (waiting 5 minutes or so in-between).

 

[XIII]

Twice today. So annoying!

Why is it always the 2.4 GHz band and never the 5 GHz?

(most of my IoT devices only support 2.4 and they are not that smart without network access)

 

[RMerlin]

Because the 2.4 GHz band is saturated with sources of interference of all kind.

 

[XIII]

Is there another way than just rebooting the router to get the 2.4 GHz band to work again?

 

[RMerlin]

Is there another way than just rebooting the router to get the 2.4 GHz band to work again?

Use a tool like Wifi Analyzer to see which channels are most used in your environment, and manually set the channel rather than leaving it on Auto.

You can also restart Wireless by changing any setting then applying it.

 

[XIII]

Use a tool like Wifi Analyzer to see which channels are most used in your environment, and manually set the channel rather than leaving it on Auto.

I have actually already done that: the router is set to control channel 11 since there are the fewest other SSID's to be found (4) and with lowest signal (all four 30% or less). There are about 30 networks in total and I'm really surprised to see only 2 on the 5 GHz band (of which one is mine).

You can also restart Wireless by changing any setting then applying it.

Thanks. Can it also be done somehow on the command line via SSH? (I now use "reboot"...)

 

[RMerlin]

Thanks. Can it also be done somehow on the command line via SSH? (I now use "reboot"...)

service restart_wireless

 

[XIII]

service restart_wireless

Thanks! Definetely going to try that next time it happens.

 

[tigreseis]

I guess I have no hope then. My 2.4 drops out several times a day. It is usually for less than a minute. I have followed everything I have found:
1) use 20/40
2) use just 20
3) use auto channel
4) don't use auto channel
5) use stock
6) use Merlin
7) try new power supply
8) try new cat7 cable
9) wireless mode auto
10) wireless mode N only
11) my 2.4 and 5 ssids are different.

I thought that I might need a new router. The RT-N66U was fine until recently, but you guys are having problems on other ASUS routers as well. I enjoyed this one because of the parental controls.