RT-AX88u Understanding Logs?

[Agrajag]

I just picked up an RT-AX88U to use as my router in my brand-new FiOS setup (I really had issues with their G3100 router).

I've been having some minor challenges with it that I'm trying to understand.

1. Any time I adjust a setting that requires the use of the Apply button (which is supposed to apply the change and restore the session), like adding a static IP to a device with MAC filtering, I click Apply, the progress indicator finishes and then the router drops its connection to the Internet. It stays that way until I manually reset the router and the device I'm accessing it through.

2. I've noticed, on my laptop which I often use to watch something in bed before I head to sleep, that the Internet will just crap out for a moment and then come back up. It never did this before.

3. I have a Brother laser printer that has an annoying "feature" of going into an error state whenever the Internet connection vanishes. Every day since installing the router I've woken up to find the printer in that state so clearly its gone out each night.

Given all this I'm wondering if I could use the logs to track down what's going on. The problem is, I have no clue how to interpret what I'm seeing there. I might as well be trying to decipher hieroglyphics. Can anyone offer advise or clarifactions?

Thanks.

 

[L&LD]

For 1), what does 'manually reset the router' mean, specifically, to you?

 

[Agrajag]

For 1), what does 'manually reset the router' mean, specifically, to you?

As in reach behind it, turn off the router and turn it back on. We JUST had another outage and the log for today is pretty specific to only around the time it happened. Here's today's log entries around the time it happened (oddly the log is not fully date ordered for some reason--there are March 11 entries then March 5 entries and then more March 11 entries):

Mar 11 13:43:32 rc_service: ntp 1430:notify_rc restart_diskmon
Mar 11 13:43:32 disk_monitor: Finish
Mar 11 13:43:32 disk monitor: be idle
Mar 11 13:43:32 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(427): eth7: Auth FC:A1:83:1E:0E:02, status: 0, reason: d11 RC reserved (0)
Mar 11 13:43:32 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(455): eth7: Assoc FC:A1:83:1E:0E:02, status: 0, reason: d11 RC reserved (0)
Mar 11 13:43:33 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(427): eth6: Auth 00:04:20:F5:75:C6, status: 0, reason: d11 RC reserved (0)
Mar 11 13:43:33 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(455): eth6: Assoc 00:04:20:F5:75:C6, status: 0, reason: d11 RC reserved (0)
Mar 11 13:43:34 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(427): eth7: Auth 68:9A:87:5B:7D:EC, status: 0, reason: d11 RC reserved (0)
Mar 11 13:43:34 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(455): eth7: Assoc 68:9A:87:5B:7D:EC, status: 0, reason: d11 RC reserved (0)
Mar 11 13:43:34 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(409): eth6: Disassoc EC:FA:BC:48:C7:8B, status: 0, reason: Disassociated because sending station is leaving (or has left) BSS (8)
Mar 11 13:43:34 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(409): eth6: Disassoc EC:FA:BC:48:C7:8B, status: 0, reason: Disassociated because sending station is leaving (or has left) BSS (8)
Mar 11 13:43:36 kernel: SHN Release Version: 2.0.1 0679c74
Mar 11 13:43:36 kernel: UDB Core Version: 0.2.18
Mar 11 13:43:36 kernel: sizeof forward pkt param = 280
Mar 11 13:43:36 BWDPI: fun bitmap = 3
Mar 11 13:43:36 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(427): eth6: Auth EC:FA:BC:48:C7:8B, status: 0, reason: d11 RC reserved (0)
Mar 11 13:43:36 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(455): eth6: Assoc EC:FA:BC:48:C7:8B, status: 0, reason: d11 RC reserved (0)
Mar 11 13:43:37 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(427): eth7: Auth F8:54:B8:60:BF:5C, status: 0, reason: d11 RC reserved (0)
Mar 11 13:43:37 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(455): eth7: Assoc F8:54:B8:60:BF:5C, status: 0, reason: d11 RC reserved (0)
Mar 11 13:43:38 nat: apply nat rules (/tmp/nat_rules_eth0_eth0)
Mar 11 13:43:38 dhcp client: bound 71.187.94.135/255.255.255.0 via 71.187.94.1 for 7200 seconds.
Mar 11 13:43:40 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(392): eth7: Deauth_ind FC:A1:83:07:B8:20, status: 0, reason: Unspecified reason (1)
Mar 11 13:43:40 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(427): eth7: Auth FC:A1:83:07:B8:20, status: 0, reason: d11 RC reserved (0)
Mar 11 13:43:40 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(455): eth7: Assoc FC:A1:83:07:B8:20, status: 0, reason: d11 RC reserved (0)
Mar 11 13:43:43 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(427): eth6: Auth 44:61:32:CB:27:F3, status: 0, reason: d11 RC reserved (0)
Mar 11 13:43:43 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(455): eth6: Assoc 44:61:32:CB:27:F3, status: 0, reason: d11 RC reserved (0)
Mar 11 13:43:45 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(392): eth6: Deauth_ind 2C:F4:32:82:C6:7D, status: 0, reason: Unspecified reason (1)
Mar 11 13:43:45 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(427): eth6: Auth 2C:F4:32:82:C6:7D, status: 0, reason: d11 RC reserved (0)
Mar 11 13:43:45 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(455): eth6: Assoc 2C:F4:32:82:C6:7D, status: 0, reason: d11 RC reserved (0)
Mar 11 13:43:48 kernel: ubi1: attaching mtd10
Mar 11 13:43:48 kernel: ubi1: scanning is finished
Mar 11 13:43:48 kernel: ubi1: attached mtd10 (name "misc1", size 8 MiB)
Mar 11 13:43:48 kernel: ubi1: PEB size: 131072 bytes (128 KiB), LEB size: 126976 bytes
Mar 11 13:43:48 kernel: ubi1: min./max. I/O unit sizes: 2048/2048, sub-page size 2048
Mar 11 13:43:48 kernel: ubi1: VID header offset: 2048 (aligned 2048), data offset: 4096
Mar 11 13:43:48 kernel: ubi1: good PEBs: 64, bad PEBs: 0, corrupted PEBs: 0
Mar 11 13:43:48 kernel: ubi1: user volume: 1, internal volumes: 1, max. volumes count: 128
Mar 11 13:43:48 kernel: ubi1: max/mean erase counter: 6/2, WL threshold: 4096, image sequence number: 527176359
Mar 11 13:43:48 kernel: ubi1: available PEBs: 0, total reserved PEBs: 64, PEBs reserved for bad PEB handling: 4
Mar 11 13:43:48 kernel: ubi1: background thread "ubi_bgt1d" started, PID 1922
Mar 11 13:43:49 kernel: ubi: mtd10 is already attached to ubi1
Mar 11 13:43:49 kernel: UBIFS (ubi1:0): background thread "ubifs_bgt1_0" started, PID 1974
Mar 11 13:43:49 kernel: UBIFS (ubi1:0): UBIFS: mounted UBI device 1, volume 0, name "nvram"
Mar 11 13:43:49 kernel: UBIFS (ubi1:0): LEB size: 126976 bytes (124 KiB), min./max. I/O unit sizes: 2048 bytes/2048 bytes
Mar 11 13:43:49 kernel: UBIFS (ubi1:0): FS size: 5840896 bytes (5 MiB, 46 LEBs), journal size 1396736 bytes (1 MiB, 11 LEBs)
Mar 11 13:43:49 kernel: UBIFS (ubi1:0): reserved for root: 0 bytes (0 KiB)
Mar 11 13:43:49 kernel: UBIFS (ubi1:0): media format: w4/r0 (latest is w4/r0), UUID 2A6BEA28-491B-4503-A426-8F74D62305AF, small LPT model
Mar 11 13:43:54 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(427): eth7: Auth 50:F5A:34:C0:F1, status: 0, reason: d11 RC reserved (0)
Mar 11 13:43:54 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(455): eth7: Assoc 50:F5A:34:C0:F1, status: 0, reason: d11 RC reserved (0)
Mar 11 13:44:01 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(427): eth7: Auth 00:BB:3A:B4:28:39, status: 0, reason: d11 RC reserved (0)
Mar 11 13:44:01 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(455): eth7: Assoc 00:BB:3A:B4:28:39, status: 0, reason: d11 RC reserved (0)
Mar 11 13:44:09 crond[1136]: time disparity of 974199 minutes detected
Mar 11 13:44:36 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(427): eth7: Auth D4:4D:A4:C6:E3:0A, status: 0, reason: d11 RC reserved (0)
Mar 11 13:44:36 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(455): eth7: Assoc D4:4D:A4:C6:E3:0A, status: 0, reason: d11 RC reserved (0)
Mar 11 13:44:37 kernel: bcm_i2c: bus 0: Failed to detect SFP: 100 retries exhausted
Mar 11 13:44:48 WATCHDOG: [FAUPGRADE][auto_firmware_check6148)]period_retry = 0
Mar 11 13:44:48 WATCHDOG: [FAUPGRADE][auto_firmware_check6154)]periodic_check AM 5:40
Mar 11 13:44:48 WATCHDOG: [FAUPGRADE][auto_firmware_check6177)]retrieve firmware information
Mar 11 13:44:48 WATCHDOG: [FAUPGRADE][auto_firmware_check6180)]user in use
Mar 11 13:45:18 hour monitor: ntp sync fail, will retry after 120 sec
Mar 11 13:47:03 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(427): eth7: Auth 00:9D:6B:10:4D:82, status: 0, reason: d11 RC reserved (0)
Mar 11 13:47:03 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(455): eth7: Assoc 00:9D:6B:10:4D:82, status: 0, reason: d11 RC reserved (0)
Mar 11 13:49:56 miniupnpd[1449]: PCP MAP: added mapping TCP 23260->192.168.1.22:23260 'PCP MAP 214f713dc23928d1b82d0c54'
Mar 11 13:49:56 miniupnpd[1449]: PCP MAP: added mapping UDP 23260->192.168.1.22:23260 'PCP MAP 163588281058ccc3d3407b4f'
Mar 11 13:52:32 miniupnpd[1449]: PCP MAP: added mapping UDP 7962->192.168.1.50:7962 'PCP MAP e987fe3d4aeb18b80d30e2c4'
Mar 11 13:52:32 miniupnpd[1449]: PCP MAP: added mapping TCP 8080->192.168.1.50:8080 'PCP MAP ee7a568da7fb0ae5902286c3'

 

[L&LD]

That is not a reset. That is a reboot/restart.

Huge difference!

 

[Agrajag]

That is not a reset. That is a reboot/restart.

Huge difference!

Great. Does that help?

 

[L&LD]

It will help with the answers that may get suggested.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Here's today's log entries around the time it happened (oddly the log is not fully date ordered for some reason--there are March 11 entries then March 5 entries and then more March 11 entries):

The March 5 entries are the router's default date at bootup, before it updates it from NTP. So what we're interested in is the log entries just before the March 5 entries.

 

[Agrajag]

The March 5 entries are the router's default date at bootup, before it updates it from NTP. So what we're interested in is the log entries just before the March 5 entries.

Ah!

Okay here are those entries attached.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Unfortunately there is no useful information in that file. Can you save the entire log file, upload it to somewhere like pastebin and give us the link to it. (It probably won't reveal anything more, but you never know).

 

[Agrajag]

Well, tell me if this makes any sense. I called ASUS support just to see what they'd come up with. First thing they wanted to check was to be sure the WAN was on Automatic IP. Of course it was. Then the second thing was a surprise (to me). He said, "Look down where there's a field next to the MAC Clone button. Is there anything in this field?" I said there wasn't. He claimed that this was incorrect and an FiOS you need the ONT MAC to be there. ???? So he said to just hit the MAC Clone button which made no sense to me given that it was blank. As soon as I hit it, it filled with a MAC I was unaware of which he said is the ONT MAC and that this would fix the outages. I want to believe he's right, but why the heck have I never heard of this before? I guess we'll see.

 

[ColinTaylor]

As soon as I hit it, it filled with a MAC I was unaware of which he said is the ONT MAC and that this would fix the outages.

The MAC Clone button populates that field with the MAC address of the PC you're currently accessing the router with. So saying that it's the ONT's MAC doesn't seem correct. But if it does fix the problems I'm not going to argue (as I know nothing about ONTs).

 

[Agrajag]

The MAC Clone button populates that field with the MAC address of the PC you're currently accessing the router with. So saying that it's the ONT's MAC doesn't seem correct. But if it does fix the problems I'm not going to argue (as I know nothing about ONTs).

Yeah, that isn't going to fix squat then, is my guess.

 

[Agrajag]

Can you save the entire log file, upload it to somewhere like pastebin and give us the link to it. (It probably won't reveal anything more, but you never know).

Try this... It's just a Google Sheet share:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18sXUDug_9TjX0Mx8WPtpccvOJRpB92DJtc75VumUs6I/edit?usp=sharing

 

[ColinTaylor]

Well I can't see anything particularly helpful.

I can see what appears to be you powering the router off and on at March 9th @ 16:08.

And what looks like the router powering on after a crash on Mar 11 @ 13:17 and Mar 11 @ 15:35.

From your description of the problems I was sort of expecting to see messages saying that there was a problem with the WAN connection, but that seems to be fine.

There's a lot of WiFi messages for devices that are continuously disconnecting and reconnecting. But that's a whole other area for which there are numerous existing threads.

 

[dave14305]

I see a 2 hour WAN IP lease and you having to restart the firewall when that lease probably expired.

 

[Agrajag]

Well I can't see anything particularly helpful.

And what looks like the router powering on after a crash on Mar 11 @ 13:17 and Mar 11 @ 15:35.

From your description of the problems I was sort of expecting to see messages saying that there was a problem with the WAN connection, but that seems to be fine.

I happened to be IN the router settings when the 15:35 one happened and watched the Internet Connection change to "Disconnected". I then came back on moments later.

There's a lot of WiFi messages for devices that are continuously disconnecting and reconnecting. But that's a whole other area for which there are numerous existing threads.

I'm assuming there a simple channel change will likely resolve a lot of that.

Understand that I just had the G3100 and my Netgear R7000P both running on this network and neither were having these sorts of issues. I only replaced the Netgear because its firmware lacked a couple things I'm looking for and it seemed a bit dated for a gigabit connection (even though it seemed to handle it just fine).

 

[Agrajag]

I see a 2 hour WAN IP lease and you having to restart the firewall when that lease probably expired.

Yet another thing I shouldn't have to be doing manually.

So the real question is, should I consider this router problematic or keep focusing on settings? Perhaps flashing Merlin?

 

[dave14305]

Yet another thing I shouldn't have to be doing manually.

So the real question is, should I consider this router problematic or keep focusing on settings? Perhaps flashing Merlin?

I don’t have experience with Verizon FiOS, but generally when swapping a router you need to reset the ISP’s modem to properly recognize the MAC of the new router. Maybe you should try cloning the MAC of the Netgear to the Asus, or contact Verizon to figure out where next.

Flashing Merlin is a good idea, but I wouldn’t change too many things at once. Factory reset it on the latest Asus firmware to start from scratch for now.

 

[ColinTaylor]

I happened to be IN the router settings when the 15:35 one happened and watched the Internet Connection change to "Disconnected". I then came back on moments later.

It may have been reported in the browser session as the WAN being disconnected but we can see in the log that the router rebooted itself and on the way up it said there had been a kernel crash.

 

[Agrajag]

It may have been reported in the browser session as the WAN being disconnected but we can see in the log that the router rebooted itself and on the way up it said there had been a kernel crash.

Any idea what might have caused that? Merlin flash could address that. Perhaps the stock firmware update failed fully? Doubtful.