ASUS Router Question

Hardware Hub Networking
1

So I have the following ASUS router, model RT-AC87U

I’ve been having some issues with it that maybe related to the device having a hardware failure.

I’m now having to power cycle the device more and more often as I keep having random inet disconnects.

I keep checking the firmware and it is up to date so would this indicate that it is failing somehow ?

If so, any way to check as none of the diagnostics seem to indicate any issues.

I’ve tried also power cycling my inet modem, but this doesn’t help.

Any tips would be appreciated, thanks.

2

Is it the 2.4GHz network dropping out or all across the LAN side?

3

Sorry, it is the Wired network side of things, the LAN side as when I try to ping the LAN IP address I will sometimes get a response but not be able to logon to the router.

Although many times I get the initial logon prompt and then it times out before I have a chance to complete the credentials.

I never tested the Wifi connections as I have my house wired and only have my smartphone and tablet using Wifi.

4

Maybe it’s overheating? Routers used to do that a lot. I suggest checking for dust, and air flow, perhaps moving it so that convection is good.

5

Yeah, i’ve cleaned it off as there was a nice dusting on the cover and I cleared away all that was underneath it.

It does have small rubber like feet to keep it off the surface a little.

6

Does the router stay up log enough to see what the log states?

7

no, it is still powered on but I can’t logon to it to view anything.

About 2 or 3 months ago, it would only disconnect from the WAN side, the LAN side stayed online so I could logon to the router and nothing was showing in the logs then either other than it was disconnected from the inet.

I could use the reboot function to get things back online again but now I can’t even logon to the router as the LAN and WAN side are both disconnected.

Since the device is pretty clean now as there was a nice dusting on top and below it I’m hoping maybe thermal issues.

I will know if this repeats in the next few days or so.

Going to start looking around for possible replacements as I also am looking at going to 2.5gb Switches too.

8

Maybe hard reset it (hold the reset button in for 5 secs) and get back into the management page first. Is it STD firmware or are you running Merlin?

9

Standard Firmware from ASUS, but up to date.

10

If you bought it on launch year, it’s been 10 yrs or so. Time to check and change the power adaptor.

11

So these ac adapters can have a finite life cycle ?

Guess that makes sense as they are mass produced.

I’ve also been looking at the latest router offerings, looking at the ones that have both a WAN and LAN 2.5gb ports.

12

Do check if there is an OpenWRT firmware for your model. Usually, things get fixed faster if you are actually on an open source firmware because people will do it for free vs corporations.

13

If he was to move the firmware direction Merlin would be the way to go as ASUS uses code from the Merlin firmware project.

As for the PSU idea, it either works or it doesn’t.

I would hard reset it and get access to the management interface back, only from then can you move forward with whatever direction you choose.

2 Likes
14

Honestly, this sounds like a typical AC87U to me. Ive had a few of them and all had similar behavior. In fact, they seemed to get less stable the more I updated the firmware. Merlin firmware made it a little better but I still had WAN side crashes and complete lockups often. I got rid of the ones I had after about a year cause it got so common I just couldn’t put up with it anymore and moved to PFsense. That was a long time ago though, and after PFsense I moved to Unifi for less space and power draw and I already had their APs anyway.

15

This. Last night my wife had the A/C turned off and had the windows open (It was only 30C / 85F and 75% humidity, so she was cold. :confused: ) Had a loss of Internet. Rebooted the router and saw my year old RT-AX89X is running around 100C with the fan full on.

My plan for the weekend is to disassemble it and give it a good clean.

16

Well if you have a multimeter you can verify the voltage out vs what is stated on the power adapter.

Please make sure you know what your doing / feel comfortably doing this as it can mess you up if not out right kill you!!!

17

Thanks everybody for their feedback :slight_smile:

Going to try the cleaning thing first by taking it apart and see if the inside needs a good cleaning.

I can tell it is running cooler after the basic dusting yesterday but it still disconnected at some point.

18

You dont have to put it back exactly as it was after you clean, you can always upgrade cooling in a router too. Put more heatsinks on, replace thermal paste with better stuff, add a fan or use a bigger fan. The aluminum heatsinks that typically come in these routers are trash grade.

Another thing you can always do is buy a floor fan off amazon and place it next to the router blowing air directly through it, that cools things down 15-20 degrees. lol

19

SO I ordered some new parts today as I wanted to upgrade my LAN/Network to 2.5GB speeds and faster moving forward.

I purchased another ASUS router, one of their ROG devices that has both 2.5gb and even a 10gb port.

I then got a couple of 2.5gb Network switches unmanaged, one is a 14 port with a pair of SFP+ ports and the other just a 5 port 2.5gb that I will install in the basement.

Now looking around on Amazon the POE type switches are very popular it seems so that 14port device is one of these however I don’t have to actually use the POE functions correct ?

I can still use it as a non-POE network switch and IF I ever needed to connect up devices like Camera’s then I could enable the POE function ?

20

As far as I know a poe switch will work with non poe devices and will auto enable the poe functionality when you do plug in a device that requires it.

The thing to watch out for is not to go over the power budget of the switch with to many poe devices.