RT-AC86U intermittently but constantly dropping Internet Connection

[bearever]

Thank you for the info. I'll definitely try this if the problem returns. It seems 384.10_2 defaults to these values after flashing stock and then back. Perhaps preventing webui redirection through through Asus' malware-servers did the trick

Yes, this reminds me that WAN down browser redirection notice has to be turned off as well


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[bearever]

I also had the same problem. Sometimes I would get it after I applied a setting on the router. I didn't change the options @bearever did but I did change the "Connect to DNS Server automatically" to Yes, where I was using google DNS there. DNS query is checked and Enable Wan down is still set to YES. Other two are set to no on mine and haven't had the issue in a couple days.

I found that Network monitoring and WAN down browser redirect notice were pretty much the root cause of my connectivity issue. Glad with 384.9, Merlin allows us to turn off the Network Monitoring.

Your mileage may vary though. Good luck dude. [emoji123]


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[HKJase]

I fixed the issue entirely by turning off these 3 options in Administration / System:

View attachment 16982

I just got this problem myself after changing my firmware to MerlinWRT 384.10_2


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I fixed the issue entirely by turning off these 3 options in Administration / System:

View attachment 16982



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I just got this problem myself after upgrading the firmware to MerlinWRT 384.11_2 on my Asus RT-AC86U.

I happen to be on Netvigator with the Huawei VDSL hardware.

Is the status checking the cause for the disconnection? I went back to stock current version Asus firmware which has everything stable again, but I'd like to go back to MerlinWRT.

 

[bearever]

I just got this problem myself after upgrading the firmware to MerlinWRT 384.11_2 on my Asus RT-AC86U.

I happen to be on Netvigator with the Huawei VDSL hardware.

Is the status checking the cause for the disconnection? I went back to stock current version Asus firmware which has everything stable again, but I'd like to go back to MerlinWRT.

Have you tried my settings suggestion above? I am also using Netvigator and with the options above and I no longer suffer from random connection disconnects issue.

And also I use 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1 instead of Netvigator supplied DNS


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[HKJase]

Have you tried my settings suggestion above? I am also using Netvigator and with the options above and I no longer suffer from random connection disconnects issue.

And also I use 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1 instead of Netvigator supplied DNS


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I'll give it a go tomorrow and see. I use a special service DNS with a HK POP to get around geo-blocking of Australian, UK and US IPTV streams.

I assume you live out on an outlying island or Sai Kung area too seeing as your use Netvigator?

 

[bearever]

I'll give it a go tomorrow and see. I use a special service DNS with a HK POP to get around geo-blocking of Australian, UK and US IPTV streams.

I assume you live out on an outlying island or Sai Kung area too seeing as your use Netvigator?

I previously used getflix/dns4me services and did not have such issue. Netvigator DNS servers sometimes are problematic and should be avoided. I live in Kowloon area FYI.

Sending you my configuration screens for your reference:

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[HKJase]

Cheers mate, most helpful.

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[bearever]

Cheers mate, most helpful.

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Cheers let me know if you are still running issues.

My internet connection used to be going down every 3 or 5 days or so and the abovementioned settings fixed it.


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[jrtwynam]

Hi all,

I came across this thread because I'm having a similar problem. Based on reading through pretty much this whole thread, it seems that the problem described here is that the INTERNET connection stops working, but the NETWORK itself is still working. My problem first shows itself when I see that the internet has stopped working, but when it happens, my whole network is actually down. None of my shared drives is accessible, I can't remote desktop into my other PC, and I can't even access my router's setup page. So far, the only thing I've found that fixes it is power cycling the router, but even that often takes two or three tries to get everything back up and running. The issue doesn't seem to have any sort of pattern to it - sometimes the router will work perfectly for a couple of weeks and then stop. Sometimes it will work only for a couple of hours and then stop again. Sometimes the power cycle works on the first try, other times it takes two or three tries. Sometimes it happens in the evening, other times in the morning.

I've tried upgrading to the firmware to Merlin, at the suggestion of one of the posts somewhere in this thread, and I'm currently on v384.19. No luck there. I've also checked a variety of settings mentioned in the various screenshots posted, for example this one (this is my version of these settings), and found that they match the suggested settings:

The router is only maybe 6 months old at this point - I bought it somewhere around June 2020. I read a post somewhere that suggested it might be the AC power adapter, which is one of the only suggestions in this thread that I haven't yet tried (mainly because I don't have a spare one). Still, when the issue happens, the router still has power - all the LED indicators are still lit up, claiming that the router is working, so it's as if the router "forgot" that it's powered on.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Or is there any other information I could post that might help?

Thanks.

 

[L&LD]

Have you tried using 1.0.0.1 and 1.1.1.1 on the WAN DNS entries?

 

[jrtwynam]

Have you tried using 1.0.0.1 and 1.1.1.1 on the WAN DNS entries?

Not yet, mainly because I'm not really sure that that does. It seems like it would be something that has to do with WAN, but not much with LAN, and since it's both that seem to go down for me, it didn't seem like it would solve the issue. Although I suppose it would be worth a try if only to rule it out.

I just changed the setting right now, but since this is an intermittent problem that I can't reproduce at will, I won't know for a bit whether this made a difference.

 

[ghostivv]

when you first had the router, did you perform hard reset? I bought from Amazon warehouse deal as used item and was experiencing very similar to yours. I was doing reset from gui and it kept on having issues on new flash. Had to do button combi ie WPS + power hard reset. Everything was working for months and then last week of Oct suddenly started having same problem. Disabled OpenVPN server, No DDNS, unistalled all addons but didn't help so installed them back. I don't know what did the trick but on WAN page under Special requirement from ISP, Enable VPN + DHCP was Yes. I don't know what this does but thought it is a default option. Anyway I put this on No and ever since not had single disconnections.

My 86U is behind Zylex Modem. Maybe I accidentally pressed Clone MAC button on WAN page? Dunno but happy now as everything is working.

 

[jrtwynam]

No, I didn't do a hard reset when I first bought it. I bought it from Amazon, but it was a brand new item, so a hard reset shouldn't be necessary. It's something I'll keep in mind though if this 1.1.1.1 DNS thing doesn't work, but I'd really prefer not to if I can avoid it because it took me awhile to get certain things working (although I suppose I could take some screenshots before doing a hard reset).

I don't seem to have those options you mention under Special Requirement from ISP:

 

[Centrifuge]

No, I didn't do a hard reset

I would factory reset. Up there on @L&LD's tagline he has some great troubleshooting directions (https://www.snbforums.com/members/l-ld.24423/#about). Hard to troubleshoot more as you give few details of your setup, scripts you are using, unique settings etc. The 86U had problems with recent updates that require significant user intervention in some cases, you could read the 384.19 thread to get an idea if that is what's going on for you.

 

[ghostivv]

I think there was recommendation that DCHP query frequency to be (aggressive) Normal ?

 

[jrtwynam]

I would factory reset. Up there on @L&LD's tagline he has some great troubleshooting directions (https://www.snbforums.com/members/l-ld.24423/#about). Hard to troubleshoot more as you give few details of your setup, scripts you are using, unique settings etc. The 86U had problems with recent updates that require significant user intervention in some cases, you could read the 384.19 thread to get an idea if that is what's going on for you.

Apologies for the time lapse in a reply - the router had been working fine for the past 3 weeks or so, up until a couple of days ago when I had to reboot the router 8 or 9 times within a 20-minute span. One thing I noticed, though, is that this time there was a lot more network traffic than usual because my main PC was busy encoding some video files, with the output going to a network drive. It's as if the router has a low limit on the total network traffic it can handle at once (internet, LAN, file read/write, media streaming from Netflix or Plex, etc all combined). It being a gigabit router, its limit is 1 gigabit per second of data. I don't have any idea if I had actually reached that limit, but I highly doubt it. And besides, even if I had reached it, I wouldn't expect the router to just stop working... I'd expect there to be a bottleneck so that the data flowed slower, but it did still flow.

Anyway, just a few minutes ago I reverted my firmware back to version 3.0.0.4.384_81351. I think I read somewhere that version xxxxxxxxx384xxxxx was stable, but I don't remember where I read that and to be honest, I'm not 100% sure that I did read it. Anyway, that was the latest version of 384 that I found on Asus' website, so that's what I'm trying now. Fingers crossed.

 

[jrtwynam]

Well, so much for the firmware idea. It just happened again, less than 2 hours after I reverted the firmware. And no more network traffic than usual. I don't see anything in the system logs that might indicate what happened - the only logs that show are the logs that happened after the reboot (I can't get into the router page to grab the logs before I reboot). I don't really know what info might be helpful.

I don't really have any "unusual" settings, and no scripts:

• I have my 2G and 5G wireless networks set up, both using WPA2 security.
• I have a variety of devices connected:
  • Wired:
    • Main PC (static IP)
    • Media server PC (static IP) - this is where much of my storage capacity is located
    • Landline ATA device (static IP)
    • Roku media player
  • Wireless:
    • Printer (static IP)
    • Cell phone
    • GF's cell phone
    • Work laptop
    • GF's laptop
• Four of those devices are assigned a static internal IP (as noted above).
• I have one port opened up for remote desktop purposes from my work laptop to my main PC.
• I have a DDNS set up (no-ip.com).
• While troubleshooting this issue, somewhere in this thread it's suggested to use 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1 as the WAN DNS settings, so I've done that. Previously, it was set to connect to the DNS server automatically.
• DHCP frequency is set to aggressive (I don't remember if this is the default or not).

As far as I know all other settings are factory default.

 

[mcbuist]

Hi all,

Just signed up as I have a very similar issue.

I have an ASUS Rt-AC68U that's about 3 years old. I have started getting a constant network dropout around the same time everyday since setting up a UNIVIEW NVR. The network seems to stay up but I lose internet. I'm on the 384.19 Merlin firmware. I've read through the posts and the only thing I can find is my DCHP mode was set on Aggressive, I've just changed to Normal mode. I'll report back at around 7.30PM AUS time.

 

[mcbuist]

Update: Lasted less than 30 min and another network drop out

Have now downgraded firmware to 384.13 as recommended in another post. Bit of a hail mary

 

[Lotta Cox]

Don't always blame the router. Your modem may be dropping connections. Check modem log if you can for critical events like T3 and T4 timeouts.
Check signal levels too if you can.

I think what helped me was cloning the modems mac to the router. It's been cloned a long time and I never get the red light of death anymore. YMMV
Query set to normal mode

I started getting tiny brief internet interruptions recently. No disconnects.

	04:27:02 Fri Jan 1 2021		Warning (5)		Dynamic Range Window violation
	04:27:03 Fri Jan 1 2021		Critical (3)		Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=4a:fd:62;CMTS-MAC=:77:e6:75;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;