RT-AC68U in Media Bridge Mode losing connection to main router

[David B]

I have an AC3100 set up as a media bridge, and whenever I try to do transfers of large files from my NAS drive, it drops off too. It seems to happen only when I am doing Samba transfers at high speeds. All devices that are connected via the media bridge drop off, and the lights on the unit turn off as well except for the power light.

 

[VladTepes]

SOLUTION FOUND FOR MEDIA BRIDGE

To make media bridge stable, I got the solution in another thread.
USE FW 380.66 on AC66U (I used Merlins - the last one in 380.66 series - it was called 380.66_4).

Have not lost connection and required reboot for months (august 2nd i changed) since i changed over and that was the ONLY change i made.
I do notice that internet somtimes lags 1-10seconds, but never disconnects. Could be external issues (DNS or likewise) or some other issue with the FW.
Regardless I have no more issues streaming movies, file copying from my NAS and so on.
No more router reboots every 3-4hours - just 100% uptime

After that ASUS broke media bridge mode for good it seems like
Cheers
Boogie

Can confirm that with this firmware - 380.66_6 (series) the streaming is working fine without "disconnects" / streaming issues like with latest Merlin one.

 

[Val D.]

Can confirm that with this firmware - 380.66_6 (series) the streaming is working fine without "disconnects" / streaming issues like with latest Merlin one.

What router model? This solution comes from my trial and error experiments
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/rt-ac66u-media-bridge-stability.12422/page-4#post-507682
but on MIPS based RT-N66U and RT-AC66U routers. Does it work on RT-AC68U also?

 

[VladTepes]

What router model? This solution comes from my trial and error experiments
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/rt-ac66u-media-bridge-stability.12422/page-4#post-507682
but on MIPS based RT-N66U and RT-AC66U routers. Does it work on RT-AC68U also?

It's actually on RT-AC68U running.

 

[hrizzy]

Struggling with my media bridge setup for a couple of months already since lockdown. I can confirm that 380.66 is more stable for media bridge mode than the latest release. I'm right now on 380.66_0 (380.66_6 gave me callbacks and router became unresponsive in 1-2 days) .
Still playing with multiple variants of channels to get things working and waiting for this ugly messages in log " net_ratelimit: 3 callbacks suppressed"

My setup is: Vodafone "stupid" router (wifi off) -> RT-AC87U (Router mode, DHCP) -> RT-AC68U (Media-bridge over 5GHz) -> TP-Link Archer (in AP mode over LAN)

Multiple devices attached to all routers.

 

[hrizzy]

Reporting back after a few days.
Unfortunately again in the log of AC68U (which is in Media Bridge) started to appear "net_ratelimit: X callbacks suppressed" messages, the router web interface becomes unresponsive and its connection to main router becomes very unstable.

No idea where to look further.

 

[snbDD]

...
No idea where to look further.

If you just need a stable Media-Bridge RT-AC68U - switch it to Fresh Tomato firmware.
If you must use ASUS/Merlin firmware on RT-AC68U - switch it to Repeater mode.

 

[collector930]

If you just need a stable Media-Bridge RT-AC68U - switch it to Fresh Tomato firmware.
If you must use ASUS/Merlin firmware on RT-AC68U - switch it to Repeater mode.

I can confirm the part about Fresh Tomato firmware. Struggled with old/new versions of Asus/Merlin firmware for AC66U-B1 for almost a year. Switched to Fresh Tomato 9 months ago and have had no problems since (like dropped connections or slow web browsing) in Media Bridge mode.

 

[bROTHER]

Year 2022 & Merlin 386.5_2 and still issues on media bridge (AC68U).
On the main router I got the

Apr  4 16:00:43 syslog: wlceventd_proc_event(491): eth2: Deauth_ind E0:3F:49:ED:C8:74, status: 0, reason: Deauthenticated because sending station is leaving (or has left) IBSS or ESS (3), rssi:-60

which means that something happenned on the media bridge:

Apr  4 15:50:42 sd-idle-2.6[346]: spinning up /dev/sda after 4 hours 27 mins 1 secs
Apr  4 16:00:44 rc_service: psta_monitor 244:notify_rc restart_wlcmode 0
Apr  4 16:00:44 FTP_Server: daemon is stopped
Apr  4 16:00:44 wsdd2[19547]: Terminated received.
Apr  4 16:00:44 wsdd2[19547]: terminating.
Apr  4 16:00:45 Samba_Server: smb daemon is stopped
Apr  4 16:00:45 kernel: gro disabled
Apr  4 16:00:46 syslog: Error unlocking 5: 9 Bad file descriptor
Apr  4 16:00:46 syslog: Error unlocking 0: 9 Bad file descriptor
Apr  4 16:00:46 dropbear[19507]: Early exit: Terminated by signal
Apr  4 16:00:46 dnsmasq[19497]: exiting on receipt of SIGTERM

I've been watching that Terminated received fron a looooong time now...
Normally 1-2 dropouts everyday, very annoying when on a meeting.
Normally reconnects after 1-3 minutes.

Regards.

 

[RMerlin]

Check your signal RSSI and the Roaming Assistant threshold you have configured on the Wireless -> Professional page (Asus enables the roaming assistant by default now).

 

[Invisible Boy]

I don't use Roaming Assistant and my AC68U (A2) with Merlin in Bridge Mode would lose connection too if the router was rebooted (also running Merlin). Flashed AC68U back to the official FWs fixed it.

 

[RMerlin]

I don't use Roaming Assistant and my AC68U (A2) with Merlin in Bridge Mode would lose connection too if the router was rebooted (also running Merlin). Flashed AC68U back to the official FWs fixed it.

My response was for @bROTHER, as I noticed his log actually specified an RSSI value.

 

[bROTHER]

Check your signal RSSI and the Roaming Assistant threshold you have configured on the Wireless -> Professional page (Asus enables the roaming assistant by default now).

Thank you for the point.
I checked it out and it's disabled.
-57 dBm with 877.5 Mbps is the normal bitrate on which these two are connected. Never seen it above 1170 Mbps.

I've been running both ASUS on maximal verbose log level for two months now but couldn't find what is originating those Terminated received that knocks down the bridge.

 

[d99007]

SOLUTION FOUND FOR MEDIA BRIDGE

To make media bridge stable, I got the solution in another thread.
USE FW 380.66 on AC66U (I used Merlins - the last one in 380.66 series - it was called 380.66_4).

Have not lost connection and required reboot for months (august 2nd i changed) since i changed over and that was the ONLY change i made.
I do notice that internet somtimes lags 1-10seconds, but never disconnects. Could be external issues (DNS or likewise) or some other issue with the FW.
Regardless I have no more issues streaming movies, file copying from my NAS and so on.
No more router reboots every 3-4hours - just 100% uptime

After that ASUS broke media bridge mode for good it seems like
Cheers
Boogie

Just want to confirm that this solution worked on my AC66U router. As suggested, I downgraded firmware to Merlin 380.66_4 and Media Bridge connection has been 100% up for more than two weeks. Thank you Boogieman for posting this solution.

 

[zhousy]

Another easy get around without downgrade: plug in a usb drive to the router and then start media share from the drive. This will keep the media bridge alive.

 

[JohnNadeau]

Another easy get around without downgrade: plug in a usb drive to the router and then start media share from the drive. This will keep the media bridge alive.

Hey @zhousy how has the USB Drive fix been working for you since August 2023. Any other Media Bridge failures since then ?

 

[Aginarikar]

Thank you @Boogieman for your effort to make media bridge stable.

PS: I'm new to the forum and it's possible the discoveries from the following story is already well known by others, or maybe is not recommended:

Asus RT-AC68U as main router AC/mixed 5GHz mode (Firmware: Asuswrt-Merlin 386.14_2)
Asus RT-AC66U as Media Bridge (Firmware: Asuswrt-Merlin 380.66_4)

(+some old N router with dd-wrt for IoT Wi-Fi in 2.4 Ghz B/G mode)

I initially had setup the RT-AC68U also with standard 2.4Ghz SSID, and a 2.4Ghz guest SSID for the IoT devices, which worked fine. But the router is inconveniently located as per today where the fiber modem is, so I wanted to lower the work temperature in general if possible and before considering moving stuff which would be inconvienient with several visible cables.
Therefore I hooked up said old N router on 2.4Ghz for IoT devices, since I didn't need that standard 2.4Ghz SSID at all either.

Speed tests from an ethernet-connected host to the AC68U showed up to 49MB/s reading a large file from a NAS (ethernet connected to the AC66U media bridge). But this was sped up as soon as I both deactivated all the 2.4Ghz networks and the 2.4Ghz radio in both Asus devices.

All steps:
1) Disabled all 2.4Ghz networks on AC68U from the GUI
2) Disabled 2.4Ghz radio on AC68 from the GUI
3) ssh / nvram powered off 2.4Ghz radio on AC68U and made changes permanent
4) ssh / nvram powered off 2.4Ghz radio on AC66U* and made changes permanent

*)Even if you use it in Media Bridge mode on 5Ghz, it will leave the 2.4Ghz powered on (also visible in the GUI upper right icon), for some "just in case" reason...

Before: up to ~49MB/s (~ 390 mbit/s)
After: up to ~70MB/s (~ 560 mbit/s)

Inbetween this discovery, I also saw that the CPU temperature of AC68U lowered from ~77-78 degrees celcius to ~70-73.