RT-AX88U WAN issues fix

[rochjp]

FYI, I may have found a fix for WAN issues. At least, it's something I haven't read elsewhere - and it did wonders here.

Issues:

• Daily DHCP issues/lost connectivity with WAN interface, where only a reboot would fix it
• Occasional/short gaps in internet connectivity, noticeable with game streaming

What I tried, without success:

• Restarting WAN services
• Restarting all network services
• WAN DHCP release/renew
• WAN static IP
• All WAN DHCP settings
• Factory reset, with most default Asus/Merlin settings

What worked:

• Turn on Dual-WAN
  • Turn off internet on the primary WAN interface
  • Setup another ethernet port for WAN, using the secondary interface

It's a night and day difference: router runs perfectly since. And unexpectedly, internet has been the most stable it's ever been. For example: I can now use my PS Portal without any stuttering - something I never could do before.

My guess: some sort of hardware issue with the WAN port, which, at some point, stops processing network packets - and occasionally hangs the router while dealing with it.

Just wanted to share, in case others have the same issue.

 

[heysoundude]

Interesting. watching with curiosity. I could test with mine, but I don't want to mess with stability.
If others try this and report similar results, asus needs to hear about it through RMerlin once it has been troubleshot/diagnosed and documented.

 

[liug]

I have similar issue with my RT-AX86U_PRO behind Xfinity cable modem that has 2.5Gbps port. At some point (maybe once in a day), I can't even ping the default gateway. It will self recover after a few minutes. I tried unplug and re-plug the cable between cable modem and Asus, then Asus can't even get dhcp WAN IP anymore. First I thought maybe the 2.5G port on Asus isn't good (hardware or driver issues), but switching to 1G WAN port on Asus didn't help. Internet still dies every one or two days. I tried the stable release 388.8_4 and also beta2 release (3006.102.4-beta2), none helped. I will try your way of converting one LAN port to WAN and see if that helps.