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Solved WAN Aggregation not working

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bheberling

Occasional Visitor
I had to reset my router. During the re-configuring I enabled WAN Aggregation. Once it reboots I have not internet with a red light on the wan indicator and the error "The network cable is unplugged" on the internet status banner.
I can turn it off for everything to start working again. I can also restore the settings file and it is working fine with WAN Aggregation enabled but starting fresh I can't get it to work.

my Router is RT-AX88U
Firmware is Asuswrt-merlin 386.8 (latest version)
Modem is Arris Surfboard SB8200

**EDIT**
I have it working now. ASUS merlin has an alpha version of 388 firmware that works.
https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=cce5...0!1427&ithint=folder&authkey=!AGY2taGX02nVmWA
 
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I tried messing with WAN aggregation on my AX88U and a Netgear CM1100 modem a while back. I was able to get it up and running, but the log spit out errors constantly. It worked, just not very well. I had to disable it.

One of the mistakes I made early on was connecting both ethernet cables to the router and enabling WAN aggregation for the AX88U before I had enabled it on the modem. That caused a nasty bootloop and I had to use the recovery tool to rescue the router.

Make sure you're using identical ethernet cables, I'd go so far as to say of equal length. Enable WAN aggregation on the modem first with just a single cable connected between the router and the modem. Once that is enabled, power down the modem and the router. Connect the second cable, power up only the router and enable WAN aggregation. Once that's on, power down the router again. Then power on the modem and then turn the router back on. Give it a minute to recognize the connection. I remember it taking longer than normal.

That's how I got it to work for me, but again, the router was logging so many errors that it wasn't worth the hassle.
 
I tried messing with WAN aggregation on my AX88U and a Netgear CM1100 modem a while back. I was able to get it up and running, but the log spit out errors constantly. It worked, just not very well. I had to disable it.

One of the mistakes I made early on was connecting both ethernet cables to the router and enabling WAN aggregation for the AX88U before I had enabled it on the modem. That caused a nasty bootloop and I had to use the recovery tool to rescue the router.

Make sure you're using identical ethernet cables, I'd go so far as to say of equal length. Enable WAN aggregation on the modem first with just a single cable connected between the router and the modem. Once that is enabled, power down the modem and the router. Connect the second cable, power up only the router and enable WAN aggregation. Once that's on, power down the router again. Then power on the modem and then turn the router back on. Give it a minute to recognize the connection. I remember it taking longer than normal.

That's how I got it to work for me, but again, the router was logging so many errors that it wasn't worth the hassle.
WAN aggregation is enabled already on the modem and I use identical cables. I had this working for years before having to factory reset the router and it still works if I load the old config settings. It is only an issue when I am trying to reconfigure everything from scratch. Something else I noticed is even if I only have one cable connected and I turn on WAN aggregation I still get the "The network cable is unplugged" error. I also tried resetting the modem and re-enabling WAN aggregation with no change.

The only thing I can think of is there is a bug in the latest firmware where It can't turn on WAN aggregation from a factory reset state or the factory reset is not clearing something out properly.
 
WAN aggregation is enabled already on the modem and I use identical cables. I had this working for years before having to factory reset the router and it still works if I load the old config settings. It is only an issue when I am trying to reconfigure everything from scratch. Something else I noticed is even if I only have one cable connected and I turn on WAN aggregation I still get the "The network cable is unplugged" error. I also tried resetting the modem and re-enabling WAN aggregation with no change.

The only thing I can think of is there is a bug in the latest firmware where It can't turn on WAN aggregation from a factory reset state or the factory reset is not clearing something out properly.
That is weird, especially loading the old config file. Like I said, I got mine to work, but it did not work well. Tons of errors in the log literally every second. But if both of us were doing WAN aggregation with the same router on the same firmware (Merlin) at some point last year and you weren't having issues but I was, it was likely my modem. That CM1100 gave me nothing but headaches.

But I digress. I'd hate to suggest doing a full recovery rather than just a factory reset, but I think that's the last diagnostic step I would take. If that doesn't clear things out, it's very likely a bug. You've been changing settings so much that it might be a good idea.
 
I assume you are referring to using the ASUS Firmware Restoration tool.

I can try that late tonight. My wife might kill me if I take down the WIFI again.
 
I ran the ASUS Firmware Restoration using the latest ASUSWRT-merlin firmware and it still is not working.

Another thing to note is even though it says "The network cable is unplugged" the actual ports are showing 1Gb connections for the WAN and LAN port 4.
 
For now, I would restore the old settings file that you have to at least get it working. You've definitely cleared out the NVRAM at this point, so the issue's beyond my knowledge.

The only novice advice I have left to give is search around and see if anything's going on with your modem, if it's been updated recently by your ISP, etc. They'll do that every so often, break something on the modem and not let you know. I'll spare you the story, but go to DSL reports and start poking around. You may find something.

I'm sorry I couldn't have been more of a help.

Edit: factory reset your modem is the last thing I've got. It should download the firmware right from your ISP. That's the last thing I would try. Make sure it is not connected to the router at all when you do.
 
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I plan to just leave Wan aggregation off until a fix is found. The whole reason for the reset was because QOS and AI protection was slowing my connection speeds down to 400Mb. Even turning it off is was stuck at 500-600Mb. Now with the factory reset I have 940Mb. So I am still a lot better now than I was. If I can get WAN aggregation working I should be at about 1140 Mb.
 
It's like I'm looking in a mirror. 1140 Mbps is my usual downlink speed. You don't want to use QoS beyond something like 500 Mbps down, maybe 300 Mbps, at least not with consumer routers. The CPU can't sort packets fast enough. You have more than enough bandwidth, especially at gig speeds.

It's just funny because that's something that took about two years for me to realize. Good luck.
 
I wish I could have QOS on just the upload. Since that is only 40-45mb and I host a number of web-services including a media server.
 
Now with the factory reset I have 940Mb. So I am still a lot better now than I was. If I can get WAN aggregation working I should be at about 1140 Mb.

This won't give you any user experience improvement. Not worth the effort.
 
Does the computer NIC have a 2.5 gig port or 1 gig?
If 1 gig then 940 is about the best you can do.
my personal computer is wireless at 2402 Mb/s I also have a server using dual 1Gb/s in LAN aggregation and I have about another 45 devices on my network. But I am running the speed test on the router directly. so that wouldn't matter anyways.

The reason I am stuck at 940Mb/s is because of a bug that is preventing me from turning on Wan aggregation. See the fist 3 post I made in this tread.
 
I experienced the same issue with the latest Asuswrt-merlin 386.8. I tried all the tricks clearing nvram, reset, hard reset, restore. I reverted to Asus Firmware Version 3.0.0.4.388.20558 (2022/09/21) until the Asuswrt-merlin next release.
Router: RT-AX88U
Firmware: Asuswrt-merlin 386.8 (latest version)
Modem: Arris Surfboard SB8200
 
I experienced the same issue with the latest Asuswrt-merlin 386.8. I tried all the tricks clearing nvram, reset, hard reset, restore. I reverted to Asus Firmware Version 3.0.0.4.388.20558 (2022/09/21) until the Asuswrt-merlin next release.
Router: RT-AX88U
Firmware: Asuswrt-merlin 386.8 (latest version)
Modem: Arris Surfboard SB8200
Glad to see it is not just me
 

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