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RT-AC86U wifi instability on 5GHz

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msalhab

Occasional Visitor
Hello guys,

I'm having problems with my rt-ac86u in router standalone mode (no ai mesh, nothing sophisticated).
My router was running on asuswrt-merlin firmware for a long time, and when it started to having those issues, I've decided to go back to stock firmware to isolate the issue without success. Now the router is running on 3.0.0.4.384_81930 which is the latest firmware from ASUS. For info, I'm running almost the default wireless settings, nothing special, for the purpose of isolating my issue. Still no luck. Only 1 SSID is broadcasting on 5GHz, and no USBs are connected.

Problem description:
Devices connected to 5Ghz band start to have latencies (based on the graph attached) until they get disconnected, and eventually can't connect any longer. On my windows machine I get "Can't connect to this network" when the problem occurs. My android devices can't connect too. The only way to resolve this, is to reboot my router. Then everything goes back to normal, until it happens again.

Troubleshooting steps done so far:
1- Reverted from asuswrt-merlin to latest stock asus
2- disconnect all USB devices
3- Reset to default settings while ticking the option to "Initialize all the settings, and clear all the data log for AiProtection, Traffic Analyzer, and Web History."
4- set 5Ghz channel bandwidth to 20Mhz and enabled DFS

I've uploaded a ping screenshot and the wireless syslog during the problem. Waiting for your help.
 

Attachments

  • ping.png
    ping.png
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  • syslog.txt
    13.7 KB · Views: 182
Set 2.4 GHZ to 20 MHZ on channel 1, 6 or 11 and 5 GHZ to 20, 40, 80 on a non dfs channel. Try 36. Use the Asus WPS button factory reset procedure. Reflash the Asus factory firmware again (sounds crazy but it does help).
 
Hello guys,

I'm having problems with my rt-ac86u in router standalone mode (no ai mesh, nothing sophisticated).
My router was running on asuswrt-merlin firmware for a long time, and when it started to having those issues, I've decided to go back to stock firmware to isolate the issue without success. Now the router is running on 3.0.0.4.384_81930 which is the latest firmware from ASUS. For info, I'm running almost the default wireless settings, nothing special, for the purpose of isolating my issue. Still no luck. Only 1 SSID is broadcasting on 5GHz, and no USBs are connected.

Problem description:
Devices connected to 5Ghz band start to have latencies (based on the graph attached) until they get disconnected, and eventually can't connect any longer. On my windows machine I get "Can't connect to this network" when the problem occurs. My android devices can't connect too. The only way to resolve this, is to reboot my router. Then everything goes back to normal, until it happens again.

Troubleshooting steps done so far:
1- Reverted from asuswrt-merlin to latest stock asus
2- disconnect all USB devices
3- Reset to default settings while ticking the option to "Initialize all the settings, and clear all the data log for AiProtection, Traffic Analyzer, and Web History."
4- set 5Ghz channel bandwidth to 20Mhz and enabled DFS

I've uploaded a ping screenshot and the wireless syslog during the problem. Waiting for your help.

Was working, now not working, and should just work, suggests the 86U could be experiencing a hardware failure. I had one die after about two years. Near the end, browser pages randomly delayed loading... latency?. Eventually, the router stopped booting and the LEDs stayed OFF except one was half lit.

You did reset the firmware. Don't restore an old configuration.

You should try different channels.

You could try a different power adapter, but I doubt that is it.

Since it should just work and you now cannot just connect WiFI devices, I'd replace it.

OE
 
Last edited:
Can you post the complete unedited syslog. Having such a small syslog to look at is not too useful.
 

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