RT-AX88U Dual WAN Ports 5-8 Almost Bricks Router

[justaway]

Hi,

I'm not sure if this is a known issue, but I encountered this bug that I want to report. I don't know if the bug exists in the original Asus firmware, and I did skim through the "Read Me First" thread, and did see that Merlin most likely can't fix Dual WAN issues. I still want to report it, just in case, though.

I'm using an Asus RT-AX88U, which has 8 LAN ports. If you choose anything over LAN port 4, it seems to brick the router. The behaviour is mostly a solid power light, and no other lights on. Occasionally, the power light goes off and for around a second or 2, the LAN light comes on, then goes off and back to the power light being on.

Trying to do the firmware restoration in Rescue mode did not help. Luckily, a hard factory reset using the WPS button did help.

 

[bennor]

If you choose anything over LAN port 4, it seems to brick the router.

If you do a subforum search for "5-8" you'll find several other posts about the 5-8 ports on the RT-AX88U router having issues. Some past discussion:

Possible defective lan switch/bridge with rt-ax88u

Getting only 200mb on lan ports performed physical reset. have 500mb internet access. wifi access yields 500mb but lan switch max's out at 200mb (single user connected during test) switched out lan cable and port connections with same result. clean install 388 to merlin RT-AX88U_3004_388.5_0...

www.snbforums.com

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/router-trouble-rt-ax88u.89147/#post-896132
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/next-room-hub.88499/#post-887804
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/rt-ax88u-pro-v-s-rt-ax86u-pro.87747/#post-877168
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/u...ervations-regarding-aimesh.87592/#post-875034

It appears the workaround for those who have problems with ports 5 through 8, is to use ports 1-4. Or buy a network switch (connecting it to one of the first four ports on the router) to expand the ports.

 

[Dedel66]

I'm using an Asus RT-AX88U, which has 8 LAN ports. If you choose anything over LAN port 4, it seems to brick the router.

I can not confirm. My AX88U runs perfectly as both a mesh router and a node with all switch ports.

Would you please write your setup and your exact router model (HW revision) in a signature?

 

[Ripshod]

I can not confirm. My AX88U runs perfectly

Not so loud - don't curse yourself.

 

[ColinTaylor]

@justaway Just to be clear; this problem only occurs when using one of the ports 5 to 8 for a dual WAN setup? Otherwise you have no problem using ports 5 to 8 as normal LAN ports? The workaround would appear to be obvious, just use one of the 1 to 4 ports for your dual WAN.

 

[L&LD]

Welcome to the forums @justaway.

Yes, there are known problems (for some using ports 5-8) with various observable issues. And, not always seemingly directly related to using those extra ports (on an internally bridged switch).

Don't use ports 5-8 if your router/environment raises these issues. As suggested if you need more ports, simply use a cheap and cheerful switch on one of the 1-4 ports instead.

 

[justaway]

@bennor and @L&LD
Thank you for the replies. It's good to know that there are some known issues with those ports. After my experience, I am planning on avoiding those ports for Dual WAN for now.

@Dedel66
In fact, I actually have 2 of these routers. One, I use as a media bridge to connect to the main one. The main one that I experienced this on is RT-AX88U (HW Ver A1.1), while the other one is RT-AX88U (HW Ver A1). Since you said that you can't confirm this, and one of our hardware revisions is the same version, I went and reset my A1 router and quickly set it up in router mode from scratch. After that, I enabled Duan WAN, and chose LAN port 8 for for secondary connection. The result was exactly the same as I described in the opening post on the A1 hardware revision as well.

@ColinTaylor
Yes, that is accurate. And yes, you're right about the workaround. I plan on using Dual WAN using one of the first 4 LAN ports, but I thought I would report it anyway, just in case it is something that is fixable.