Opinions on ASUS RT-AC66U issue

[boomerang]

My RT-AC66U is giving me a problem that is sporadic. The 2.4GHz band appears to quit broadcasting its SSID. When this occurs, all the devices on my network that connect through that band still have a connection though.

I can log into the router and 'Hide SSID' is still on 'No'. It's a bit puzzling but unless someone were to come over with a device that needs the 2.4GHz band, it's somewhat of a non-issue. Rebooting the router makes the 2.4GHz band visible again.

I have tried various versions of both the ASUS firmware as well as several versions of Merlin firmware. Results are the same in that it remains sporadic.

What's the consensus? Hardware? Seems like it couldn't be anything else to me.

 

[sdifox]

Does toggling that hide ssid option fix it?

 

[boomerang]

Does toggling that hide ssid option fix it?

I did try that once but I wasn't thinking when I did it. I did it from my laptop that connects through that band so I lost my connection. It was a bit of a duh moment.

I could certainly try from my desktop that has a wired connection. There is no predicting when that band will stop broadcasting the SSID such that I could try it so, what are you thinking? Just toggle it to see if it restores the broadcasting of the SSID? Or, would that be a telltale of something else?

I'm up against a bit of a time constraint too. On the 27th we head south for the winter. I've enabled remote access on the router (felt I pretty much had to) so I will be able to reboot it should I lose connectivity on my temperature monitors and/or my Foscam. They will be the only wireless devices left behind and they're pretty important to me to keep an eye on the place.

 

[sdifox]

I did try that once but I wasn't thinking when I did it. I did it from my laptop that connects through that band so I lost my connection. It was a bit of a duh moment.

I could certainly try from my desktop that has a wired connection. There is no predicting when that band will stop broadcasting the SSID such that I could try it so, what are you thinking? Just toggle it to see if it restores the broadcasting of the SSID? Or, would that be a telltale of something else?

I'm up against a bit of a time constraint too. On the 27th we head south for the winter. I've enabled remote access on the router (felt I pretty much had to) so I will be able to reboot it should I lose connectivity on my temperature monitors and/or my Foscam. They will be the only wireless devices left behind and they're pretty important to me to keep an eye on the place.

Why would changing said visibility require reboot?

 

[sdifox]

SSID, not said...
And it doesn't mean a whole lot hidden or shown. It is only there for human readability when you are adding a wireless network access to your wifi client du jour. So your cameras and temp sensor will still work even if your router is not broadcasting the ssid. It is literally for your eyes only :awe:

 

[boomerang]

Why would changing said visibility require reboot?

I'm just covering my bases. And the back story is that I've got the N version of that router, an RT-N66U at the other residence. I lost my connection to the wireless thermostat there. I was able to log into the router where I could see that the thermostat had an IP and I could even ping it through the router interface. But it was not connecting to the outside world. I rebooted the router and I regained control of the thermostat.

 

[boomerang]

SSID, not said...
And it doesn't mean a whole lot hidden or shown. It is only there for human readability when you are adding a wireless network access to your wifi client du jour. So your cameras and temp sensor will still work even if your router is not broadcasting the ssid. It is literally for your eyes only :awe:

I understand completely. But here is what I'm thinking.

My router is broadcasting its SSID
I did not choose to have it not broadcast its SSID
It is now not broadcasting its SSID
Something is wrong
I will try different firmware
The problem still exists and is still intermittent
Something is still wrong
I am 1500 miles away for four consecutive months
It is important that I have a connection to devices at the residence
If the router is not functioning as it should, and firmware won't fix it, there is a hardware problem.
Other people are not having the issue.
It sounds like a hardware problem and five different iterations of firmware have not fixed it.
I have a warranty.
I will take advantage of that warranty now because if there is a hardware problem now there may be another of a more serious nature in the future and perhaps after it is out of warranty.

You may not agree but that is how I look at this. The piece of hardware I purchased is not performing as it should and there appears to be no means to fix it. Time to replace it on the manufacturers dime.

 

[sdifox]

So rma it.

 

[Elixer]

I have tried various versions of both the ASUS firmware as well as several versions of Merlin firmware. Results are the same in that it remains sporadic.

What's the consensus? Hardware? Seems like it couldn't be anything else to me.

I assume you are clearing NVRAM when you swap firmware?
If that is the case, and you have tried multiple versions of the firmware, then, yeah, sounds like faulty hardware.

Do the router logs show anything at all?

 

[boomerang]

I assume you are clearing NVRAM when you swap firmware?
If that is the case, and you have tried multiple versions of the firmware, then, yeah, sounds like faulty hardware.

Do the router logs show anything at all?

Yeah, I've been doing a reset.

Honestly, I can barely make heads or tails of the logs. With the Asus firmware to me, they're pretty much indecipherable. With the Merlin firmware I can get a better sense of what is going on but have seen nothing that jumped out at me.

This thing has been giving me other issues in the past. I didn't want to muddy the waters earlier. It was having problems syncing up with the Modem after a power failure and restoration but firmware seems to have corrected that. No issues in quite a while and I consider that fixed. I also enabled an automatic reboot once a week. I figured I'd start out once a week as a starting point. That's really hit or miss. Sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn't. (This is really easy for me to determine through the logs as the date after a reboot defaults to some date years in the past until it syncs the time.) Sometimes after it does reboot on the schedule I have the SSID issue too.

I knew it had to be hardware but just thought I'd see what others had to say. The RMA process has been initiated and I'm awaiting a response once the work week starts tomorrow.

The router is pretty highly touted, I have a bit of a love for ASUS products, nearly every system I have ever put together is based around one of their motherboards and I'm not hearing of anyone else having these problems. So, I had figured pretty much from the beginning that it was a hardware issue. If they stand behind their warranty, I'm still good with them although tech support where I got escalated to level two has promised to get back with me twice and nothing. When I left a bad review at Amazon, that got a very quick response which is the avenue I'm pursuing for the RMA.

Yet again, one of my long answers where a short one would have sufficed. My curse. 😀

 

[Brainonska511]

Could it be getting too hot? A few years ago, I found my Cisco E4200v1 would lose the 5GHz signal sometimes and wouldn't reappear until I rebooted the router. However, the 2.4GHz would always be okay. I thought it might have been overheating, so I put some blocks under the feet to provide better airflow under the router, where all the vent holes are. Hasn't lost the 5GHz signal since I did that.

 

[boomerang]

Could it be getting too hot? A few years ago, I found my Cisco E4200v1 would lose the 5GHz signal sometimes and wouldn't reappear until I rebooted the router. However, the 2.4GHz would always be okay. I thought it might have been overheating, so I put some blocks under the feet to provide better airflow under the router, where all the vent holes are. Hasn't lost the 5GHz signal since I did that.

No, for two reasons. This model comes with a bracket that will tilt it up at a fairly steep angle. It's optional but I have it attached. It exposes all but the leading edge to the air and the router is pretty much out in the open. Secondly, there are temperature readouts that can be viewed when logged into the router for the two bands. They don't appear to be high to me, but now I'm thinking maybe I should find some specs on what's good and what's bad. The interface is pretty sophisticated and I wouldn't be surprised if they appeared in red if they were too high. Just a guess though. I should look into this if for nothing else but the sake of interest.

Edit: Looks like the temp readouts are only present when on Merlin firmware. It's on ASUS firmware right now.