RT-N66U loses connection with latest firmware (380.69)

[Sween]

After upgrading to 380.69, my media bridge RT-N66U loses the connection after 12 to 24 hours and has to be re-booted. It didn't used to do that. It's connected to my RT-AC87U as a media bridge for my PS4, smart TV, and a computer. I went back to the previous firmware for the RT-N66U (380.68_4) and kept the 380.69 for the AC87U, and the problem no longer occurs.

It's not a huge deal for me, and I see the RT-N66U will no longer be supported anyway; however, I thought I'd mention this strange problem I had with the latest firmware.

 

[Øyvind Stegard]

After upgrading to 380.69, my media bridge RT-N66U loses the connection after 12 to 24 hours and has to be re-booted.

I am seeing this as well, on my AC66U (Mediabridge client to another AC66U main router over 5GHz). I have had problems with Mediabridge stability earlier as well (on several occasions), depending on firmware installed. Last stable configuration was running 380.68_4 on the Mediabridge client device. But due to the latest security fixes for WPA, I do not want to downgrade.

I found that running Mediabridge on 2.4GHz is stable (several days of uptime), but I get very poor performance, ~150Mbit link rates, sometimes up to 200, with routers maybe 5 meters apart in space and a wooden floor between. Repeater mode over 5GHz is generally stable, but IPv6 is non-functional on devices behind bridge device in that mode, so not really an option for me.

I have no idea what causes the Mediabridge failure, as I've not been able to see anything obvious in router logs when it happens. There are not many 5GHz networks around, so interference shouldn't be an issue. Maybe overheating, but I don't see extreme temps in monitoring, and both devices use the stand for better heat dissipation. Just seems like a crash, where the bridge device becomes more and more unresponsive, until it's like a brick with ethernet plugs in it. Only reboot helps.

(Very sad that ASUS never was able to make Mediabridge a completely reliable option for me. Probably time to get new hardware or start drilling holes for ethernet cable to 2nd floor.)

 

[mjrtoo]

I have this same problem with the stock firmware from Asus, starting with their newest firmware build as well, I came here to see if this might be a solution for me, but evidently not. Sucks, I have two locations that rely upon the media bridge being stable...hopefully fixed soon.

I changed all my wireless settings to auto instead of customized so we'll see if that helps at all.

 

[MichaelCG]

I have a thread from this past month going through the same issues on my N66U and AC66U with the updated ASUS and Merlin firmware versions. Went from rebooting the bridge every couple of months to several times per week....if not daily.

I did notice that a factory reset managed to stabilize it for a bit...but in the end, it was still no where as stable as it was prior to the latest updates.

Lucky for me...my basement construction has completed and everything is being moved back to hard lines and the bridges are being retired.

 

[Robert Tickle]

I am seeing this as well, on my AC66U (Mediabridge client to another AC66U main router over 5GHz). I have had problems with Mediabridge stability earlier as well (on several occasions), depending on firmware installed. Last stable configuration was running 380.68_4 on the Mediabridge client device. But due to the latest security fixes for WPA, I do not want to downgrade.

I found that running Mediabridge on 2.4GHz is stable (several days of uptime), but I get very poor performance, ~150Mbit link rates, sometimes up to 200, with routers maybe 5 meters apart in space and a wooden floor between. Repeater mode over 5GHz is generally stable, but IPv6 is non-functional on devices behind bridge device in that mode, so not really an option for me.

I have no idea what causes the Mediabridge failure, as I've not been able to see anything obvious in router logs when it happens. There are not many 5GHz networks around, so interference shouldn't be an issue. Maybe overheating, but I don't see extreme temps in monitoring, and both devices use the stand for better heat dissipation. Just seems like a crash, where the bridge device becomes more and more unresponsive, until it's like a brick with ethernet plugs in it. Only reboot helps.

(Very sad that ASUS never was able to make Mediabridge a completely reliable option for me. Probably time to get new hardware or start drilling holes for ethernet cable to 2nd floor.)

I'm using an Asus RT-AC66U for Media Bridge and am also seeing the disconnect after 12 hours. I was having the disconnect problem with the standard Asus firmware as well. That is why I switch to Asuswrt-Merlin. Merlin did not fix the problem.

A question: Is it better to use a Static IP address for Media Bridge or let the main router assign one via DHCP? I'm using a Static IP, but I'm wondering if the DHCP timeout might be better at keeping the Media Bridge router connected.

 

[mjrtoo]

I'm using an Asus RT-AC66U for Media Bridge and am also seeing the disconnect after 12 hours. I was having the disconnect problem with the standard Asus firmware as well. That is why I switch to Asuswrt-Merlin. Merlin did not fix the problem.

A question: Is it better to use a Static IP address for Media Bridge or let the main router assign one via DHCP? I'm using a Static IP, but I'm wondering if the DHCP timeout might be better at keeping the Media Bridge router connected.

I've changed the wireless.comfiguration to auto everything and it seems stable for me now.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5010 using Tapatalk

 

[Robert Tickle]

When you say "auto everything" does that mean letting the Media Bridge get its IP address and DNS IP addresses automatically?

 

[mjrtoo]

When you say "auto everything" does that mean letting the Media Bridge get its IP address and DNS IP addresses automatically?

Yes, but also set the main router wifi to auto everything, channel etc.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5010 using Tapatalk

 

[mjrtoo]

Update, still loses connection but at a slower rate.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5010 using Tapatalk

 

[heysoundude]

seems to me you need to script a daily reboot at a time of day when there is no network activity...

 

[mjrtoo]

'Cause we'll all know that's an awesome fix. Lol.

Temporarily maybe, but not permanently.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5010 using Tapatalk

 

[heysoundude]

if it's what it takes and you don't notice it happening/it doesn't hurt your experience, it's a fix as far as I'm concerned. nothing is perfect, but there is "what works"

 

[mjrtoo]

if it's what it takes and you don't notice it happening/it doesn't hurt your experience, it's a fix as far as I'm concerned. nothing is perfect, but there is "what works"

Hack, it's hack, and not a fix. But, it may serve a purpose temporarily, to improve user experience.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5010 using Tapatalk

 

[heysoundude]

hack has connotations I dislike...can we agree to calling it a workaround?

 

[Øyvind Stegard]

A question: Is it better to use a Static IP address for Media Bridge or let the main router assign one via DHCP? I'm using a Static IP, but I'm wondering if the DHCP timeout might be better at keeping the Media Bridge router connected.

I've always assigned a static address to my mediabridge client device, and at the same time reserved the address on the main router. This is just to cut the dependency on the DHCP server on the other side of the bridge, but I don't think it matters much for the stability issues discussed here.

I've had uptime for over a week now, with bridge running on 2.4GHz, no issues. Current link rate is between 150 and 200 Mbit, which is not great, but I prefer stability over performance.

 

[videobruce]

This issue is only using this Router as a 'Media Bridge' NOT a normal/typical Internet Gateway Router??

 

[mjrtoo]

This issue is only using this Router as a 'Media Bridge' NOT a normal/typical Internet Gateway Router??

Correct, when you have several of these connected to your router as a media bridge, the bridges fall offline and require a reboot to reconnect. The router itself is fine.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5010 using Tapatalk

 

[trusk]

Can attest to this. I was just watching netflix on my ATV and the connection just dropped for this device specifically. At this point I need to restart the router. And allmost daily I get connection drops for all the devices in the house. The network connection is up, but there is no internet for any of them.

 

[jay-aitch]

This issue is only using this Router as a 'Media Bridge' NOT a normal/typical Internet Gateway Router??

I am seeing similar daily disconnects when using the N66U in the regular router mode. I've just been re-running the quick setup instead of rebooting. Will try going back down to 380.68.

 

[dpsnakeyes]

I am seeing similar daily disconnects when using the N66U in the regular router mode. I've just been re-running the quick setup instead of rebooting. Will try going back down to 380.68.

Same Same ... Running N66U as a regular router and the issue affected 2.4G, 5G and hard line connections. Most notable was my work VPN would disconnect every ~15 minutes and my kid would get dropped from remote game server every ~30 minutes even though he was directly connected to the router. Similar behavior I've seen mentioned was I never lost the connection from a hardware/reporting view, meaning the icon never showed any sign of losing connectivity to the router. I did lose access to external sites long enough to cause the disconnects to services described above. I am not sure if this is a DNS stability issue or something else, but I didn't think to grab a PCAP of the issue to see if there was something odd like an ACK FIN/RST packets, dropped missing packets, retransmits, etc. Whatever the issue seems short enough it doesn't register to the port device but times out more sensitive services like my VPN for example. I bet a lot of people wouldn't notice video streaming issues since it is buffered (I did notice loss in quality every 10 minutes or so but never halted stream) or normal internet tasks like opening web pages since these activities aren't time sensitive enough that a short pause in connectivity would be noticed.

After rolling back to version 380.68_4 I am no longer having disconnect issues.