Severe ET8 and AX6 connectivity issues

[Mokume1]

Newb here, I'll try to be as accurate and succinct as possible.

I've a pair of ET8 routers which are about 2 years old and 4 AX units which I bought used, they are approximately 4 years old.
I am experiencing connectivity issues via wired backhaul which has been going on for a week now and has been very frustrating, factory resetting all 6 nodes (3X) has not helped at all.
Periodically the web based GUI and Asus app will show both ET8's and 2 of the AX nodes as being connected fine (via ethernet), then randomly lose connection from the router (ET8) randomly, then magically reconnect.

This odd behavior will repeat itself constantly, my setup is as follows:

ISP service via Spectrum cable
Arris cable modem
One of the ET8 nodes acting as the router
TP Link switch feeding 3 nodes (the remaining ET8 and 2 of the AX6's) in daisy chain fashion.
All ethernet cables test OK, continuity wise.
The ET8 nodes firmware is 3.0.0.4.386_49873-g72159cc, while the AC's are 3.0.0.4.388_22068-gf3adbcd
Operation mode is set as wireless router, all nodes are set on auto for backhaul connection priority and preferred wi-fi uplink AP.
Additionally SmartConnect mode is disabled and all 3 broadcast channels are separated

I've even observed the led indicators on the switch, with no change in their status as the nodes mysteriously disconnect/reconnect.

This is driving me to drink (more) behavior started a week ago, it performed flawlessly prior, could it be attributed to an automatic firmware update? (I've since discovered that this is an unwise setting).

Can anyone please help? My liver will thank you for it...lol

 

[tgl]

First instinct around here is indeed to suspect auto installation of a faulty firmware version, because of ASUS' miserable track record for firmware reliability. However, the ET8's firmware release 386.49873 was dated 2022/08/04, according to their firmware download page, so it'd be kind of surprising for that to have made it to your machines just in the last week. 388.22068 isn't that new either, mid-December I think, but maybe that's the culprit? There have been a lot of complaints about the entire 388 series on these forums. Rolling the AX machines back to a 386-series release might be an advisable step.

On the hardware side ... I don't quite understand what you mean by a daisy-chain connection if you have only one switch. However, it'd be worth thinking about your wiring setup in terms of "where is there a single point of failure that could affect all the nodes?" Maybe the switch itself is that? Can you bypass the switch with a temporary cable run, just to see if things change?

 

[Tech9]

because of ASUS' miserable track record for firmware reliability

You want to join my campaign against Asus or what?

Eero pro 6 vs Asus xt8

First time I've seen that attitude here. Attitude is more common and accepted reply "user error, closed source, use search" or straight "nobody seems to care what you think about AiMesh". What you see above is called a joke to a person I know and he sees it clearly. This person did more...

www.snbforums.com

 

[Devang Patel]

Newb here, I'll try to be as accurate and succinct as possible.

I've a pair of ET8 routers which are about 2 years old and 4 AX units which I bought used, they are approximately 4 years old.
I am experiencing connectivity issues via wired backhaul which has been going on for a week now and has been very frustrating, factory resetting all 6 nodes (3X) has not helped at all.
Periodically the web based GUI and Asus app will show both ET8's and 2 of the AX nodes as being connected fine (via ethernet), then randomly lose connection from the router (ET8) randomly, then magically reconnect.

This odd behavior will repeat itself constantly, my setup is as follows:

ISP service via Spectrum cable
Arris cable modem
One of the ET8 nodes acting as the router
TP Link switch feeding 3 nodes (the remaining ET8 and 2 of the AX6's) in daisy chain fashion.
All ethernet cables test OK, continuity wise.
The ET8 nodes firmware is 3.0.0.4.386_49873-g72159cc, while the AC's are 3.0.0.4.388_22068-gf3adbcd
Operation mode is set as wireless router, all nodes are set on auto for backhaul connection priority and preferred wi-fi uplink AP.
Additionally SmartConnect mode is disabled and all 3 broadcast channels are separated

I've even observed the led indicators on the switch, with no change in their status as the nodes mysteriously disconnect/reconnect.

This is driving me to drink (more) behavior started a week ago, it performed flawlessly prior, could it be attributed to an automatic firmware update? (I've since discovered that this is an unwise setting).

Can anyone please help? My liver will thank you for it...lol

try the firmware from GNUton. its a fork from Merlin.

asuswrt-merlin.ng

Extends the support of Asus Merlin firmware to more routers

gnuton.github.io

Release 3004.388.6_0-gnuton1 · gnuton/asuswrt-merlin.ng

GNUton's Asus Merlin changelog Date: February 25, 2024 Release: 3004.388.6_0-gnuton1 ADDED: Support for RT-AX5400

github.com

i had issues with my ET8 (slow wifi uploads). flashed this firmware and it fixed it. for the ET8 you need the RT-AXE95Q firmware. flash it from the web interface the same way you would an asus firmware.

now that this firmware is available maybe asus will release one too.