Status shows disconnected, yet fully functional

[Candide08]

I have an AX88U router, which has been working fine for a couple years. I switched to Merlin firmware and am currently running the 386.5 firmware.
Both the 386.4 and 386.5 show the internet as disconnected under the Network Map, yet service IS actually connected and functional.

This image shows active internet traffic, and simultaneously the "disconnected status."
This appears to only be a status bug, with all functionality working.
It is an annoyance, not a loss of function, but still...

I have rebooted numerous times, updated firmware (Merlin) twice, and have power cycled the router, same result.
Has anyone else seen this, with Merlin or ASUS firmware?
Any solutions?
Thanks.

 

[paulbates]

What is the DHCP query frequency set to (under WAN - Internet)? Try "normal" if its set to "aggressive" and leave it alone for a hour or 2.

 

[Candide08]

What is the DHCP query frequency set to (under WAN - Internet)? Try "normal" if its set to "aggressive" and leave it alone for a hour or 2.

Thanks for the reply, it was Aggressive. I just set to Normal - and will update in an hour or so.

 

[ColinTaylor]

The DHCP query frequency is unrelated to your problem. The false "disconnected" message is caused by an upstream change made by Asus. This has been endlessly discussed in the Merlin 386.4 and 386.5 threads.

See this post: http://www.snbforums.com/threads/asuswrt-merlin-386-4-is-now-available.76498/post-733106

 

[Candide08]

Thanks all. Both suggestions, did not change anything

 

[ColinTaylor]

Have you made any changes to the default DNS settings? Have you installed any third-party addon scripts?

 

[paulbates]

Thanks all. Both suggestions, did not change anything

Its not clear that dchp querying has been eliminated as the problem. While the behavior is associated with a FW upgrade, I get that, it appears to be the upgrade that set querying to Aggressive and potentially lead to the ISPs DCHP server blocking queries from it. The first step was to see if setting "Normal" would fix it. It didn't.

The second step: Its possible that your router's WAN mac is permanently blocked for dchp queries. You can present a new MAC address to the ISP with the "Clone MAC" button a couple of fields up in the WAN Internet tab. This presents a new WAN MAC to the ISP, and because its new, won't be blocked. Now that querying is set to Normal, it shouldn't get blocked again. The new MAC address will be from whatever device you are using to browse the router config page. Its been a few years since I did this, for other reasons, and the only side effect was comcast providing a new IPV4 address... which also happens on its own from time to time.

A final thought... there are specific tools for network monitoring that take action and/or provide notification of internet outage. This asus network map feature, for me, is "window dressing" and i would consider letting it go if everything is working.

 

[ColinTaylor]

@paulbates This has nothing to do with WAN DHCP. He has stated that his internet is still working despite the "disconnected" message in the GUI. This is a known issue that has been discussed at length.

 

[Candide08]

Thanks for all the replies. I understand that the Network Map is only a status indication (window dressing) and I have been letting it go. I thought 386.5 might fix it, but it is the same as 386.4. I appreciate the responses and don't want to make too big a deal of it.

I read the extensive discussion on the other thread, tried the SSH commands, tried setting Network Monitoring (Admin - System - Basic Config) to Ping, DNS Query - separate and together. No change.

As has been mentioned everything is working, access, ping, etc - from the router tools and from my network.
Unfortunately I am stubborn and will keep trying to find a fix, but probably at a more relaxed pace (as long as everything else works).
I will def post any solutions... if and when I get one.
Cheers!

 

[Candide08]

Have you made any changes to the default DNS settings? Have you installed any third-party addon scripts?

No changes - default is auto with DHCP, no addon scripts.

 

[Candide08]

Ok, this is weird. Almost as soon as I posted above I tried setting the Network Monitoring (Admin - System - Basic Config) to a custom setting, shown below.

As soon as I did that it resolved and showed connected (2nd image).

Connected:

 

[ColinTaylor]

@Candide08 What the DNS query does is very simple - it tries to resolve the specified hostname and match it to the specified address. This is why people have issues when they are using custom DNS solutions or enhanced firewalls/ad-blocking.

It's possible that whatever upstream DNS server you are using doesn't resolve the default hostname. If you SSH into the router and run nslookup dns.msftncsi.com you can see if that was your problem. At the end of the day it doesn't matter what hostname you use, just so long as it returns a matching IP address.

 

[Candide08]

I agree it doesn't matter what host is used, as long as it works.
I did get a response from the NSLookup, I suspect it may have been a formatting issue with the default data.
Server: 68.237.161.12
Address 1: 68.237.161.12 nsnyny01.verizon.net

Name: dns.msftncsi.com
Address 1: 131.107.255.255 dns.msftncsi.com
Address 2: fd3e:4f5a:5b81::1

I may try playing around to see where it fails... or may not.
Thanks to all for the responses.