RT-N66U Management UI Unusable Only On Chrome

[Parallax Abstraction]

Hey all. I did some searching for this and couldn't find an answer. I've been happily using an RT-N66U with Asuswrt-Merlin for a while now. However, I've been consistently having an annoying problem that I can't figure out. My primary browser is Chrome. Whenever I access the management UI with it, it frequently either doesn't fully load pages or won't load other ones. It inevitably gets stuck showing "Establishing secure connection..." on the status bar and pages will usually end up broken. If I bring up the same UI in Internet Explorer, everything is fast, responsive and works great.

This happens on multiple PCs and multiple versions of Chrome. It's been going on for a long time, spanning many different versions of Asuswrt-Merlin. I've been scratching my head about it forever and thought I'd ask here as I feel this is the result of some setting or another that's probably easily rectified. Can anyone assist? Thanks!

 

[martinr]

It happens and it's far simpler to use Firefox or some other browser when you want to login. It probably isn't worth your time tracking it down. Does Chrome allow you to open it in safe mode (that's Chrome's safe mode not Windows') or am I getting mixed up with Firefox?

 

[Parallax Abstraction]

It happens and it's far simpler to use Firefox or some other browser when you want to login. It probably isn't worth your time tracking it down. Does Chrome allow you to open it in safe mode (that's Chrome's safe mode not Windows') or am I getting mixed up with Firefox?

I believe Chrome does have a Safe Mode that disables all extensions and whatnot. I can certainly try that and you're correct that using another browser certainly works, I just found this particularly odd and not having to ever fire up IE would certainly be nice.

 

[martinr]

Not ever having to fire up IE would indeed be nice. Please let us know what happens in Chrome safe mode.

 

[Parallax Abstraction]

So it turns out Chrome doesn't have a typical Safe Mode but if you launch an Incognito session, it launches with all extensions disabled and it basically the equivalent. Sadly, this didn't help. The management UI on my router is still very unreliable in Chrome this way. Any other potential ideas? Thanks!

 

[martinr]

Are you using the IP address (192.168....) or the router's hostname? If the latter, use the IP address. Maybe Merlin's comments here http://www.snbforums.com/threads/vpn-settings-page-not-displayed-properly.28951/#post-221969
would also be relevant?

 

[RMerlin]

Most common cause is a problem caused by a security suite such as Eset's. Chrome itself is fine, it's my primary browser, so all test & development are done using Chrome.

 

[Parallax Abstraction]

I'm actually not running any security suite beyond the built-in Windows 10 Defender. I haven't run AV in like 15 years because well, I know how to use the Internet sensibly and not get viruses. Is there anything within Chrome's security settings that you think could cause this maybe?

 

[RMerlin]

I'm actually not running any security suite beyond the built-in Windows 10 Defender. I haven't run AV in like 15 years because well, I know how to use the Internet sensibly and not get viruses. Is there anything within Chrome's security settings that you think could cause this maybe?

Would only be through an add-on. I don't do any special configuration on my two Chrome installations here.

Are you accessing the webui through SSL? I've seen a few odd issues that are specific to HTTPS so far.

 

[Parallax Abstraction]

Yes, I have been and when it hangs up, it's usually showing "Establishing secure connection..." in the browser status bar. I only access the UI from inside my network so I suppose I can disable that and see what happens. I'll try it.

 

[Parallax Abstraction]

So I can confirm that everything works fine in Chrome with HTTPS management disabled and just using HTTP. No idea why that would be but since I don't allow external access to the management UI, this doesn't matter to me. I'll just leave it at HTTP. Thanks very much!

 

[mstombs]

For me on N66 with latest John fork or asuswrt-merlin 380.59 https access to non standard port works fine - AFTER using a saved certificate on router for pixelserv-tls, AND importing certificate into Windows 7 PC for use with Chrome - so you get the green padblock in title bar in Chrome.

pixelserv - A Better One-pixel Webserver for Adblock

[edit] NB the certificate I use is only valid for the router LAN IP address, 192.168.... it is not accepted if you access the router via its LAN name 'rt-n66u.lan' in my case, or 'router.asus.com'