RT-AC68U losing DDNS Host Name on Reboot!!

[GMD99]

I have an Asus RT-AC68U (fw 3.0.0.4.378_4585) at our vacation home. Twice recently, on a reboot, the router lost the DDNS Host Name!

I use a No-IP (free account) and I discovered that I couldn't access the router remotely because the Host Name field had changed to a blank field on one occasion, and on another had changed to something like '688' instead of 'myhostname.ddns.net'!!

Interestingly when I am at the vacation home I can't seem to replicate the situation by pulling the plug on the router! It most recently happened when we had a power outage when I wasn't there and I could only fix the situation when I arrived on site. Aside from the DDNS Host Name issue the router was running properly.

Has anyone else experienced this? Any thoughts on why this is happening or how to prevent it from happening?

 

[Trip]

Assuming there's no connection interference from an upstream device (ISP gateway?), DDNS should simply reconnect, provided you're sure it's set to do so upon re-connection and/or at a periodic time interval.

As for the 68U, first off, it's several firmware version behind the latest one. Though there are no mentions of DDNS fixes in the change logs, I'd still update just to be sure you give the factory firmware a fair shot. Afterwards, do a full factory reset (clearing out NVRAM) and enter your config back in from scratch (record and save all previous config details beforehand if you need to). Doing a fresh config, as opposed to trying to preserve settings, can often prevent issues from cropping up as you move between firmware versions, even between sub-versions.

Beyond that, I'd look to RMerlin to see if you can find any fixes he has pushed concerning DDNS issues such as yours. If so, I'd jump to RMerlin; it may just be a good idea to move to RMerlin anyways, for all of the additional bug fixes.

Last resort, jump to AdvancedTomato and use DNS-O-Matic + Dynu.com. Unlike No-IP and most free DDNS providers (as of now at least) Dynu doesn't require periodic logins every 30 days; this is more or less just an excuse to get user interaction for spam and up-sells, but more importantly can catch the forgetful or unaware off-guard and leave you with an inability to remote in to your device, whose hostname might be de-activated or pointing to the wrong IP by that point... (thus, why I no longer use Dyn.com, No-IP, etc. as a free choice).

 

[RMerlin]

There was a bug in a previous Asus firmware that would corrupt the content of the DDNS page when saving your router config to a CFG file. This has been resolved with the latest releases, just make sure you upgrade to the latest build, and that your reconfigure your DDNS settings.

 

[duncan2k]

I saw the same behavior on the same level firmware, although my router is a 56U.
When I use the router built-in check for an update from ASUS, the router reports I am on current firmware. However indeed there was a firmware update dated 2015-12-11, when I check on the site. The problem seems to be resolved, thank you Merlin for causing me to dig deeper on the site for new firmware.