RT-AC68U, Merlin 380.58 need to restart the router every few days

[boerlx]

Every 4 to 8 days my router becomes unresponsive with no internet connexion anymore and have to restart the router manually.

Traffic Analyser/Statistic is on, AiProtection/Prental Controls/Time Scheduling is sometimes on, NAT Acceleration is off.
I also have one openVPN server instance.

I noticed that having two openVPN server instance makes it worse and the router becomes unresponsive within 1-2 days !

Is there anything to do beside maybe Enabling the Reboot Scheduler ?

Before 380.58 I was using 378.56_2 and experiences the same router freezing problems, maybe a bit less often but ultimately the router would become unresponsive as some kind irrevocable destiny.

 

[thelonelycoder]

Every 4 to 8 days my router becomes unresponsive with no internet connexion anymore and have to restart the router manually.

Traffic Analyser/Statistic is on, AiProtection/Prental Controls/Time Scheduling is sometimes on, NAT Acceleration is off.
I also have one openVPN server instance.

I noticed that having two openVPN server instance makes it worse and the router becomes unresponsive within 1-2 days !

Is there anything to do beside maybe Enabling the Reboot Scheduler ?

Before 380.58 I was using 378.56_2 and experiences the same router freezing problems, maybe a bit less often but ultimately the router would become unresponsive as some kind irrevocable destiny.

Do you have torrents or other high bandwidth processes running in your LAN?
This might cause a freeze.

 

[martinr]

When did you last reset to factory default settings (RFDS) (after flashing the new firmware)?

I'd start again with an RFDS and I'd follow L&LD's advice at http://www.snbforums.com/threads/no...l-and-manual-configuration.27115/#post-205573

And then slowly, over days, add you personal settings giving each time to prove themselves.

Also bear in mind Rmerlin "380.58 and all of Asus's 380_1xxx releases are known to be unstable on the RT-AC68U." http://www.snbforums.com/threads/rt-ac68u-random-crashes.31587/#post-251216

 

[boerlx]

Do you have torrents or other high bandwidth processes running in your LAN?
This might cause a freeze.

some light torrent usage but not much was active when it freezed. The torrent client bandwith is also capped way lower than the max bandwith.

When did you last reset to factory default settings (RFDS) (after flashing the new firmware)?

I'd start again with an RFDS and I'd follow L&LD's advice at http://www.snbforums.com/threads/no...l-and-manual-configuration.27115/#post-205573

And then slowly, over days, add you personal settings giving each time to prove themselves.

Also bear in mind Rmerlin "380.58 and all of Asus's 380_1xxx releases are known to be unstable on the RT-AC68U." http://www.snbforums.com/threads/rt-ac68u-random-crashes.31587/#post-251216

I did a reset to factory default settings before and after flashing to "380.58" and applied my settings manually.

mmh I need to access the network via openVPN so leaving the router with most settings off for a few weeks is not the best solution for me.
What would be the most stable release of Merlin firmware for the RT-AC68U? Or maybe the most stable Asus firmware if this is the only option.

On an other location I'm using a Mikrotik router (wich came with the provider) and I haven't restarted the device in months !

 

[martinr]

some light torrent usage but not much was active when it freezed. The torrent client bandwith is also capped way lower than the max bandwith.




I did a reset to factory default settings before and after flashing to "380.58" and applied my settings manually.

mmh I need to access the network via openVPN so leaving the router with most settings off for a few weeks is not the best solution for me.
What would be the most stable release of Merlin firmware for the RT-AC68U? Or maybe the most stable Asus firmware if this is the only option.

On an other location I'm using a Mikrotik router (wich came with the provider) and I haven't restarted the device in months !

I've just seen from Merlin's post "

• Fixed compatibility with the RT-AC68U"

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/asuswrt-merlin-380-58-is-now-available.31184/page-2#post-246601
So ignore my comments.

 

[kvic]

What would be the most stable release of Merlin firmware for the RT-AC68U? Or maybe the most stable Asus firmware if this is the only option.

If you want to try an older FW, from my experience, 378.55 was a combination of solid ingredients.

 

[martinr]

If you want to try an older FW, from my experience, 378.55 was a combination of solid ingredients.

I can vouch for what kvlc says: I'm still on 378.55 and have never had any trouble. That said, I've never had so much as a hiccup from my RT-AC68U in what must be well over 2 years that I've had it. And I also have 2 vpn servers running on it.

 

[Blinkyz]

If you want to try an older FW, from my experience, 378.55 was a combination of solid ingredients.

Agreed for 378.55, rock solid
Im always back on it after a few days since 378.56_2

 

[boerlx]

ok thanks for your replies.
I'll try 378.55 for a while and see.

 

[Lars]

I had the same problem with my ac3200, so Im trying asus firmware beta 9.0.0.4.380_2695 some days now

 

[alnames]

So Far, 380.58 has been the most stable on my AC68U since 378.55. Every other firmware in between caused the exact same freeze up mentioned requiring pulling the plug to get going again. I've got Network Protection and the Traffic Analyzer turned on and use the OpenVPN Server occasionally. I did a factory reset but used the NVRAM restore utlity each time. I still notice the RAM usage slowly creeping up, but I've been up 18 days so far without a reboot.

 

[boerlx]

ok I tried 378.55, resetting the router to factory default settings, etc.

It didn't last very long (about 4-5 days) until the next freeze which occurred this morning.
Maybe less than 5 days because, meanwhile, I tried to limit the bandwidth with QoS for a heavy YouTube uploader who would hog the bandwidth completely while doing so (which kind of worked).

The freeze is actually maybe not a freeze as I was able to access the router but everything was extremely slow. The router main page eventually showed up but it took 30s to do so and couldn't do much after this. So I finally restarted the device.

Is there a way to make this thing work (and forget about it) or should I simply get something else?

 

[L&LD]

ok I tried 378.55, resetting the router to factory default settings, etc.

Is there a way to make this thing work (and forget about it) or should I simply get something else?

Was the reset to factory defaults followed with a minimal and manual setup?

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


You may want to list specifically what options and features you use for your network that the router offers.

Seems you may be pushing the hardware to it's limits.

If you want to try something else, the RT-AC3100, RT-AC88U and the RT-AC5300 offer the latest hardware with current/future RMerlin support. But that may be overkill if simple settings changes can fix your issues.

 

[boerlx]

Was the reset to factory defaults followed with a minimal and manual setup?

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


You may want to list specifically what options and features you use for your network that the router offers.

Seems you may be pushing the hardware to it's limits.

If you want to try something else, the RT-AC3100, RT-AC88U and the RT-AC5300 offer the latest hardware with current/future RMerlin support. But that may be overkill if simple setting changes can fix your issues.

Yes, factory default followed by a manual setup. Minimal for a start but I added what was needed as this why I bought the thing over the ISP plain router the came along.

I followed the instructions and disabled everything specified in the post you're mentioning.

The list of options and features I use :
- Parental Control/Time Scheduling
- QoS Traditional type w. I added 2 devices to Highest Priority, 1 to Lowest and 3 to Medium
- 2 OpenVPN server instances. (no-one connected when the router became unresponsive but I tried to connect with my iPhone and it connected but didn't try anything else)
- Logged packets type to Accepted
- NAT Acceleration Disabled (Time Scheduling will not work correctly otherwise)
- that's it.

I remember seeing in 380.58 an option to schedule a reboot of the router. Maybe this could help?

If no other solution arises, I'm a bit reticent about buying another Asus thing.
I might go for something like Mikrotik. I'm using one at my work location and as far as I remember needs restarting only for software upgrade. Much geekier to operate though.

 

[L&LD]

You could try the much better Adaptive QoS. Or the bandwidth limiter option too. Traditional QoS is obsolete and never really worked right in Asus' implementation.

The reboot feature may help. You would need to verify it for your needs though.

I can't be sure if this is applicable, but there may be a memory leak issue here too. The hopefully soon to be released 380.59 firmware should fix that specific problem. (Or, you may want to try a Beta/Alpha firmware if it is available).

 

[boerlx]

You could try the much better Adaptive QoS. Or the bandwidth limiter option too. Traditional QoS is obsolete and never really worked right in Asus' implementation.

The reboot feature may help. You would need to verify it for your needs though.

I can't be sure if this is applicable, but there may be a memory leak issue here too. The hopefully soon to be released 380.59 firmware should fix that specific problem. (Or, you may want to try a Beta/Alpha firmware if it is available).

ok thanks.

with 378.55 QoS traditional is the only way I found to actually limit the the upload of certain devices to 95% of the bandwidth. I had tried Adaptive some times ago but found that once the culprit is full blown uploading its youtube video the whole network was still paralyzed.

I'll wait for 380.59 and see if it is any better. And if if doesn't I think I'll ditch the damn thing

 

[kvic]

ok I tried 378.55, resetting the router to factory default settings, etc.

It didn't last very long (about 4-5 days) until the next freeze which occurred this morning.
Maybe less than 5 days because, meanwhile, I tried to limit the bandwidth with QoS for a heavy YouTube uploader who would hog the bandwidth completely while doing so (which kind of worked).

The freeze is actually maybe not a freeze as I was able to access the router but everything was extremely slow. The router main page eventually showed up but it took 30s to do so and couldn't do much after this. So I finally restarted the device.

Is there a way to make this thing work (and forget about it) or should I simply get something else?

I think you'll be a very good tester for Asus to harden robustness of their firmware. Your network load as well as daily operations on the firmware are giving Asus a difficult time..

There are many ways to de-stabilize the firmware because admit it or not it's crappy. There are also some rules can follow that won't easily de-stabilize it.

If you can afford both monetarily and technically why bother..turn Asus into AP and buy a more solid router.

 

[boerlx]

I think you'll be a very good tester for Asus to harden robustness of their firmware. Your network load as well as daily operations on the firmware are giving Asus a difficult time..

There are many ways to de-stabilize the firmware because admit it or not it's crappy. There are also some rules can follow that won't easily de-stabilize it.

If you can afford both monetarily and technically why bother..turn Asus into AP and buy a more solid router.

I'm interested. What are the rules to follow that won't easily de-stabilize the router ?

What would be a more solid router option (preferably with a GUI and not requiring a PHD in networking or hunting information and tutorials in forum just to forward a port)

 

[ColinTaylor]

The list of options and features I use :
- Logged packets type to Accepted

Hopefully you're not storing those in the default location (syslog.log)? That's an awful lot of log entries.

Also, you say the router becomes slow to respond. What about the LAN clients access to the internet at this time, is it effected or not?

I have noticed that if you saturate the routers I/O, either by maxing out your bandwidth or doing continuous disk activity, access to the router becomes unresponsive in the way you describe. However, LAN clients are not effected.

 

[boerlx]

Hopefully you're not storing those in the default location (syslog.log)? That's an awful lot of log entries.

Also, you say the router becomes slow to respond. What about the LAN clients access to the internet at this time, is it effected or not?

I have noticed that if you saturate the routers I/O, either by maxing out your bandwidth or doing continuous disk activity, access to the router becomes unresponsive in the way you describe. However, LAN clients are not effected.

I didn't change anything about the location of the log (I assumed that the firmware is smart enough to delete older entries when needed). I'll disable it to see if that helps.

When the freeze happen every LAN clients access to the internet is stopped (or maybe ultra slow…). This is how I notice the problem in the first place. Then I try to connect to the router to see if I can do something. This is how I noticed I could access the router albeit being extremely slow (note that cpu activity seems low).
I also tried to connect to the router's OpenVPN server with my iPhone which it did but did not try to anything more.

The last time the freeze happened (yesterday morning) there was almost no internet activity from the LAN clients and also no client connected to the router's OpenVPN servers.