RT-BE92U - On-going random losses of Internet/WAN access

[AndrewMcN]

I've had the RT-BE92U for a few weeks now and a couple of times a day it simply stops routing DNS WAN traffic and the Wi-Fi networks also stop routing. All Internet access grinds to a halt because of this. Sometimes it returns to normal on its own but today it was so inconvenient that I got it to reboot via the web UI. It's then fine again for several hours.

It's like the unit itself enters some kind of semi-hung/crashed state. I'm thinking there's some kind of memory leak or that the RAM capacity is insufficient. It runs for several hours and then begins going faulty.

I am 26 years into an advanced IT solutions architecture/engineering career covering pretty much all kinds of infrastructure. So, the most I'm guilty of is not trying the basics.

I am able to ping externally, however I tend to find that I cannot get DNS traffic to pass and that includes direct queries of external DNS services, e.g. 8.8.8.8 (I can ping this guy).

The Wi-Fi networks can't even reach the router itself. I have to go to my wired laptop to engage with the router. The router web UI responds normally. The system log just seems to show either long pauses between log entries or errors about wireless client disconnects.

This kind of error seems to be common in the log just now:

kernel: WLC_SCB_DEAUTHENTICATE_FOR_REASON err -30
kernel: WLC_SCB_DEAUTHORIZE error (-30)

Could be red herrings but they always seem to be around when the crashes happen.

I have a lot of smart devices. It says I have a total of 54 clients but the vast majority of those will generate very little traffic.

I use Sky Stream. So, there can be a lot of throughput there. I also watch a lot of Twitch. Again a lot of data passing through for that. Nothing I wouldn't expect this router to handle though.

I have AiMesh up and running with two nodes.

I use the Time Machine backup capability with a USB drive attached. There's an hourly backup.

I have the AiProtection turned on. DoS protection enabled.

I also have the DNS over TLS enabled opportunistically but I've tried putting this off and it doesn't help.

I just fear that the hardware spec isn't able to handle the workload.

It just seems like the firmware isn't stable enough yet. I need to decide if I should be returning this or just be patient and wake for the next firmware updates.

Anyone else with this router experiencing issues despite factory resetting?

[TonyGinSLC]

I would call support and tell them that you think a recent firmware update has caused your devices to become extremely unstable.  Again, they told me that the issue was not because of a firmware update, but after telling them that they magically knew exactly what to do to correct the problem. Seems a bit dicey to me.

[AndrewMcN]

It was time I tried the hard reset. I just wish they were honest and defined the exact difference between the reset achieved with the reset button/Web UI and the hard reset.

I'm not finished setup yet but something majorly coincidental just happened... after the hard reset I was offered new firmware 3.0.0.6.102_37435-gdd27f25_1059-g807f7_BB0B

I'm pushing onward but now I won't know if the hard reset helped or this firmware update. I've got to complete re-setup and then it's a waiting game to see if the WAN/Wi-Fi outages and slow-to-wake connections are gone.

At the time of writing, this firmware update is not appearing on the UK support page for this router.

[rickysuper]

Asus has released a firmware update for certain regions like Hong Kong.

ASUS RT-BE92U Firmware version 3.0.0.6.102_37435

https://www.asus.com/hk-en/networking-iot-servers/wifi-7/all-series/asus-rt-be92u/helpdesk_bios?mode...

Global website not updated yet. I'm not sure if the firmware is globally universal.

[AndrewMcN]

It appeared on the UK Support page an hour or so ago. Such a bizarre coincidence that this would be released as I'm going into the hard reset.

[AndrewMcN]

I've set up my minimum needs. I'm going to hold off setting up:

AiProtection

USB Application - Time Machine

Traffic Analyser

If I have no WAN outages and no slow-to-wake connections then I will turn these on one-at-a-time with two days in between to monitor for impact. Perhaps it is one of these that causes the instability if it's not fixed in this new [37435] firmware.

I note that immediately with 37435 (and the above services not active) the RAM utilisation is holding at 65%. Previously it was well above 90%.

There was one shocking revelation... after the hard reset, the router still knew my AiMesh nodes. It wasn't connected to them but it knew the model and the previous location set for them. This did not happen with the standard reset process. So, this leaves me even more confused about what the hard reset achieves beyond the standard one. It clearly failed to completely erase previous configuration. I would have expected the hard reset to have results in a total erasure of the data partition and yet here I saw proof that it did not.