"@" symbol not allowed?

[BamaInArk]

I'm running an Asus RT-AC86U with Merlin firmware. 386.2_2 currently. Anyway I was troubleshooting some network issues and decided to make my router the Master Browser using the settings in the router Admin pages. Going to USB Application --> Servers Center --> Network Place(Samba)Share/Cloud Disk I ticked the box "Force as Master Browser" but when I clicked Apply I got an Error which pointed to the "Work Group" setting I had been previously using. @HOME Apparently now, for some reason, there is a restriction of symbols being used. The @HOME work group had been in the settings for a long time now but to make a change to that page I had to rename the Work Group I chose.

So was asking Merlin if he had any inputs to this? I'm not sure if the Asus firmware has the same restrictions or not.

 

[RMerlin]

@ was never a valid NETBIOS nor hostname character. If it was accepted in the past, then you were just lucky that none of your clients had problems with that.

 

[BamaInArk]

Okay thanks. I suspected as much. Oddly however this RT-AC86U I am using was purchased new less than a year ago. Which replaced an RT-AC66U_b1. First thing I did was update to the latest Merlin Firmware and set things up on for my network including adding it to my normal workgroup using "@HOME." And again the setting was still in the router when I attempted to make a change to that page which of course balked. And oddly enough I have been using "@HOME" on every system I operate here and have been for years now.....without issue. So this is simply not a one off occurrence of it working. I changed the workgroup name so all is well now either way.