GT-AXE11000 monthly disconnects and crashes

[jerzor]

Hi everyone, I've been following threads related to the GT-AXE11000 around here and after the last week I've had, I felt the need to ask for help regarding my unstable system. My setup is this router connected to my modem from Comcast (XB-7), and then I have an RT-AX92U (which itself had a problem some months ago when the hardware faulted and only a reset could get it back online and seemingly solve the problem) added as an AiMesh extension over ethernet (about the first half of the year it was connected over WiFi, and then I connected them with an ethernet cable when the network stability inexplicably degraded). I have kept as up to date with the firmware for both routers as I can, usually being reminded after each crash to check for new updates but sadly only having to wait a month or so for the next crash to occur.

For the past year I've had this (GT-AXE11000) router, I've had regular problems averaging about once a month. Typically the problem is a complete system crash (I check afterwards and see the uptime is reset), disconnecting all clients both wired and wireless, and I suspiciously have this happen most often with Zoom meetings (for posterity, on this forum I see only two mentions of Zoom related to the GT-AX11000). Other times it will just be a disconnect of wireless clients and I have to go over and power down the router with the physical switch because my laptop will claim to be connected to the router over WiFi but I can't even connect to the router's administration panel. This past week I had a wireless client disconnect during a Zoom meeting (the connection stayed unstable for a good chunk of time after the initial hard reboot) and then again sometime around 4:30 AM this morning, just a couple of days after the first problem.

The problem seems random: I have some 45 Zoom meetings every month during different hours of the day and different days of the week, and the crashes/disconnects do not happen at the same time or on the same day (again, they usually occur during a Zoom meeting but not always). I also have watched the network traffic and by no means is Zoom stressing things compared to some of my LAN traffic where I pump data at 1 Gb/s between machines for hours at a time.

Each time I submit feedback but I have yet to have a resolution from Asus. I have called and been promised I would be contacted by support only to never receive a phone call. I see from the forum this well-commented on thread where many ongoing problems related to this router are likewise reported: https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthrea...XE11000-issues

Does anyone have any suggestions on things to improve the system stability? I have yet again combed through all the router settings and they are basically the defaults, and certainly if something default or a primary feature from Asus is causing these crashes, that shouldn't be shipped in the first place. I'm happy to provide more details about the system setting as needed for diagnosis.

[j.christy.gt]

I've had a similar experience with the AX11000 (not the E version) and my AX92U mesh nodes. Each new firmware version fixes some issues, but then i'm chasing new problems.

I'll omit issues and troubleshooting with previous firmware versions and just stick to the latest and what i've had to do to get it working OK today. System is GT-AX11000 primary router with two AX92U Mesh nodes using the wireless backhaul.

Current firmware on each of my three devices is 3.0.0.4.386_45934. Initial connections are great, but then after about 2 hours, devices started dropping connection and not reconnecting. Played with many settings, but nothing seemed to resolve the connection drops.

Today, i have a stable (knocks wood) connection to my devices after making the following setting changes:
Wireless > General - 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz-1 : Set channel bandwidth to 20/40, Set a control channel manually (this is in dual band smart connect mode, and i used the WIFI radar to find a decently available channel) **this helped reduce the device disconnects**
Wireless > General - 5 GHz-2: Set channel bandwidth to 20/40/80/160, Set a control channel manually (channels are set to AUTO by default, and the channel switch timing seems to be causing part of my problems?) **This helped resolve some latency issues i was seeing on devices behind mesh nodes
Wireless
Wireless > Professional > 5 GHz-2 : Turn off roaming assistant **This resolved the remaining latency and packet loss issues i was seeing behind mesh nodes.

For the zoom meetings specifically, are you seeing higher UDP traffic delays at those times? Its hard to really tell, but if you run Wireshark during a meeting, you can go back and see if you start losing those packets. You may have to set the router to send it's logs to a syslog server to compare with though. I really wish logging on these devices was better.

Hopefully any of this helps!

[rharris1962]

I currently have a mesh network running with 3 ASUS Routers.
GT-AXE11000 - Primary Router
RT-AX88U - AiMesh Node
RT-AC88U - AiMesh Node
I contacted ASUS via chat. They opened up a case for me and had me change some settings. This did not help.
My routers are connected by ethernet. Once I reboot my GT-AXE1000 router everything reconnects. I looked at the logs but can not find a reason why this is
happening. I have been using ASUS routers for 20 yrs and this is the first time I have had this issue. I saved off the logs
in case ASUS wanted them. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

[wilsondenq]

I currently have a mesh network running with 3 ASUS Routers.
GT-AXE11000 - Primary Router
RT-AX88U - AiMesh Node
RT-AC88U - AiMesh Node
I contacted ASUS via chat. They opened up a case for me and had me change some settings. This did not help.
My routers are connected by ethernet. Once I reboot my GT-AXE1000 router everything reconnects. I looked at the logs but can not find a reason why this is
happening. I have been using ASUS routers for 20 yrs and this is the first time I have had this issue. I saved off the logs
in case ASUS wanted them. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

PM me your email

Thanks.

[richard.d.sun]

I currently have a mesh network running with 3 ASUS Routers.
GT-AXE11000 - Primary Router
RT-AX88U - AiMesh Node
RT-AC88U - AiMesh Node
I contacted ASUS via chat. They opened up a case for me and had me change some settings. This did not help.
My routers are connected by ethernet. Once I reboot my GT-AXE1000 router everything reconnects. I looked at the logs but can not find a reason why this is
happening. I have been using ASUS routers for 20 yrs and this is the first time I have had this issue. I saved off the logs
in case ASUS wanted them. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

Have you had any luck? Just had to reboot my AXE11000 to fix it.

[jerzor]

Hi everyone, here's a follow up for my original post:

TLDR: Nothing has been fixed yet with the GT-AXE11000 and a lot of time has been wasted. Jump to the end of this post to get recommended steps out of the way.

Long version:

After my original post I contacted support and eventually arranged for a replacement under warranty when none of their troubleshooting did anything useful. I had my older GT-AX11000 as a backup while the exchange was happening. The GT-AX11000 was plugged in, configured to match my network settings so all devices would connect seamlessly, updated to the latest firmware, and immediately went back to having the problems that prompted me to buy the GT-AXE11000 thinking (incorrectly as it turns out) that it would solve the problems. I contacted support about this, was hopeful they would look into these problems, and eventually was ghosted by Asus until I point blank asked what had happened with that case and was told because it was out of warranty they refused to touch it. Oh well, I just toughed it out until my replacement GT-AXE11000 arrived.

The replacement GT-AXE11000 came and I plugged it in, configured it to match my network settings so all devices would connect seamlessly, updated to the latest firmware, and immediately went back to having the problems that the first GT-AXE11000 had. After several more rounds with support I was told that basically all of the feedback and logs I've submitted for a year were useless to them (specifically, even though I almost always submitted feedback on the spot after crashes/disconnects, this is a quote from them: "[W]e also need the user to submit a GUI feedback form immediately after the router crash & reboot. We checked several system logs and found that the logs were washed out and no related information can be found. We checked several system logs and found that the logs were washed out and no related information can be found.") After that they suggested the following, so for anyone else facing this problem you may as well do this and get it over with in advance:

Enter the following two cmds after telnet to router

nvram set log_size=2048

nvram commit

Then manually restart the router

The next time user encounters a router crash, submit a new GUI FBF and let us know the crash of the approximate time frame.

After doing that it took a few weeks for the next crash to occur (twice crashing/disconnecting in a single week after a few weeks of no crashing) and I'm now waiting on them to get back to me after submitting that latest feedback. I've also updated to the newest firmware after the second issue (3.0.0.4.386_47875-g7b7d10a) and we'll see if it's improved anything.

Along with the above log step, here are some pointers:

They seem to have shuffled who responded to my case continually, so I had a lot of people keep asking me for information I'd already given. I've had them tell me they can't review the history. They have been blatantly wrong when telling me that the router uptime resetting was in fact my ISP's problem and disconnects on the ISP's side were just a minor problem causing this number to reset, not the ASUS router crashing. They also push their chat service in the emails, which has invariably ended with me being given a case number and told I'd be contacted by email after a support escalation, so the chat step is only worth doing exactly once to get a case number in the system and get the email ball rolling. Use the case number liberally every time you submit feedback through the router administration page and in contact with them so they don't lose track. If they offer replacement under warranty, it's worth biting the bullet and immediately taking them up on it and going through the hassle just to get it out of the way. After they see the problems occur with the brand new replacement, that will get the case escalated as a systemic problem, not a one-off hardware problem.

Here's a complete list of everything I've been asked for in emails, which I suggest you just stick in a big text file and folder of files and copy paste (along with your case ID) every time you get contacted by the support staff, it'll save you some time:

To get the setting file: step. Administration -> Restore/Save/Upload setting, and you will find the [save setting] step3. click button
[save] And provide to us the CGF file that will be saved.



To get the system log step1. login router step2. System Log -> General log, you will find[save]button here step3. click button[save]

A. May disable the

smart connect

feature for selected models (Most AX series, GT-AC5300, RT-AC5300, RT-AC3100, RT-AC88U, RT-AC3200)

B. 2.4GHz connection issues:

1. Change the' (Wireless -> General -> Band = 2.4GHz)

*

2. Change channel bandwidth to '40 MHz' (Wireless -> General -> Band = 2.4GHz)

*

3. Change control channel to 1, 6, or 11 (Wireless -> General -> Band = 2.4GHz) (l = lower band, u = upper band)

*

*

C. 5GHz connection issues:

1. Wireless -> General -> 5GHz-1 or 5GHz-2 -> Select 'Legacy', 'N only' or 'N/AC mixed' in Wireless Mode

2. Change channel bandwidth to '40 MHz' (Wireless -> General -> Band = 5GHz-1 or 5GHz-2)

*

3. Change control channel (Wireless -> General -> Band = 5GHz-1 and 5GHz-2 [for Tri-band models] )

*

*

4. May try to disable 'Airtime Fairness' option from GUI > Wireless > Professional

*

(This one above I ignored because I had repeatedly told them the whole router was crashing, not just random wireless hiccups, and I certainly wasn't going to go in and change network information for almost half of the devices that would get cut off if I split the SSIDs)

To get the setting file:
step1. login router goes to Administration->System->Change the router login name to admin and password to asus1234 then proceed
to step 2.
step2. Administration -> Restore/Save/Upload setting, and you will find the [save setting]
step3. click button[save]
And provide to us the CGF file that will be saved.

To get the system log
step1. login router
step2. System Log -> Gernel log, you will find[save]button here
step3. click button[save]

(You'll notice the one above contradicts an earlier troubleshooting step, not sure why they suddenly told me to start changing the router login details before sending them this)

Do provide serial numbers and firmware versions for all AiMesh nodes. If the problem still
persists, please help verify make/model of the device(s) and MAC address(es) of the device that\u2019s having connection issue. (example:
Asus UX435 notebook, MAC address: aa:bb:cc:dd:00) And help suggest the customer to download and fill out the general topology form
(Download (doc): http://goo.gl/HGbozB or shorturl.at/nrvzZ) of the network layout, such as [ modem -> router -> Node 1, Node 2 client]

Make/Model and MAC address(es) of device(s) having the issue (may list 1 - 3 devices, or state all devices are having issue)

(They weren't happy with me only giving information for the GT-AXE11000 and my RT-AX92U even though I had repeatedly told them that it was the router itself crashing and all my devices were getting disconnected, so I'm definitely not going to write down dozens of MAC addresses beyond the ones I gave)

Please help verify make/model of some of the devices are being used and having problem with the router.

In addition, we want to confirm whether this problem occurs under Aimesh. May set the AX92U to ethernet backhaul or reset the AX92U
to repeater mode or router mode to see if the problem still occurs.

(After this one I sucked it up and typed out the dozens of devices on my network, routers, modems, switches, PCs, phones, tablets, smart devices, and even the ethernet hardware on custom built devices)

In addition, the user has many devices. Is there a way for the user to provide a simple network topology confirmation? Probably know
how the user connects the devices.

(I had repeatedly told them it's a mixture of devices floating between the router and the AI Mesh router, but in this email I told them at least which devices were hardwired)

I was also continually sent requests to fill out their "Wireless Feedback Form", the most recent copy of which I can't attach to this forum post because it says the only allowed filetypes are jpgs, go figure.

I'm not sure why most of this information isn't getting through to them no matter how many boxes and debug logs I select in the router administration page for feedback, but again, oh well. If you can package all this up and shoot it to them in one go, hopefully that's several email rounds fewer you have to deal with them. I'll see if I can keep this thread up to date on what their next steps are. Clearly there's something systemically wrong both with the router line itself and the analysis going into troubleshooting.

[richard.d.sun]

Any update? My GT-AXE11000 crashes every week. I have 3 right now set up in a mesh, just redid everything again and the crash repeats itself, once in a while one of the mesh nodes crashes, but when the main node crashes, then when it's a big hassle.

Hi everyone, here's a follow up for my original post:

TLDR: Nothing has been fixed yet with the GT-AXE11000 and a lot of time has been wasted. Jump to the end of this post to get recommended steps out of the way.

Long version:

After my original post I contacted support and eventually arranged for a replacement under warranty when none of their troubleshooting did anything useful. I had my older GT-AX11000 as a backup while the exchange was happening. The GT-AX11000 was plugged in, configured to match my network settings so all devices would connect seamlessly, updated to the latest firmware, and immediately went back to having the problems that prompted me to buy the GT-AXE11000 thinking (incorrectly as it turns out) that it would solve the problems. I contacted support about this, was hopeful they would look into these problems, and eventually was ghosted by Asus until I point blank asked what had happened with that case and was told because it was out of warranty they refused to touch it. Oh well, I just toughed it out until my replacement GT-AXE11000 arrived.

The replacement GT-AXE11000 came and I plugged it in, configured it to match my network settings so all devices would connect seamlessly, updated to the latest firmware, and immediately went back to having the problems that the first GT-AXE11000 had. After several more rounds with support I was told that basically all of the feedback and logs I've submitted for a year were useless to them (specifically, even though I almost always submitted feedback on the spot after crashes/disconnects, this is a quote from them: "[W]e also need the user to submit a GUI feedback form immediately after the router crash & reboot. We checked several system logs and found that the logs were washed out and no related information can be found. We checked several system logs and found that the logs were washed out and no related information can be found.") After that they suggested the following, so for anyone else facing this problem you may as well do this and get it over with in advance:



After doing that it took a few weeks for the next crash to occur (twice crashing/disconnecting in a single week after a few weeks of no crashing) and I'm now waiting on them to get back to me after submitting that latest feedback. I've also updated to the newest firmware after the second issue (3.0.0.4.386_47875-g7b7d10a) and we'll see if it's improved anything.

Along with the above log step, here are some pointers:

They seem to have shuffled who responded to my case continually, so I had a lot of people keep asking me for information I'd already given. I've had them tell me they can't review the history. They have been blatantly wrong when telling me that the router uptime resetting was in fact my ISP's problem and disconnects on the ISP's side were just a minor problem causing this number to reset, not the ASUS router crashing. They also push their chat service in the emails, which has invariably ended with me being given a case number and told I'd be contacted by email after a support escalation, so the chat step is only worth doing exactly once to get a case number in the system and get the email ball rolling. Use the case number liberally every time you submit feedback through the router administration page and in contact with them so they don't lose track. If they offer replacement under warranty, it's worth biting the bullet and immediately taking them up on it and going through the hassle just to get it out of the way. After they see the problems occur with the brand new replacement, that will get the case escalated as a systemic problem, not a one-off hardware problem.

Here's a complete list of everything I've been asked for in emails, which I suggest you just stick in a big text file and folder of files and copy paste (along with your case ID) every time you get contacted by the support staff, it'll save you some time:





(This one above I ignored because I had repeatedly told them the whole router was crashing, not just random wireless hiccups, and I certainly wasn't going to go in and change network information for almost half of the devices that would get cut off if I split the SSIDs)


(You'll notice the one above contradicts an earlier troubleshooting step, not sure why they suddenly told me to start changing the router login details before sending them this)





(They weren't happy with me only giving information for the GT-AXE11000 and my RT-AX92U even though I had repeatedly told them that it was the router itself crashing and all my devices were getting disconnected, so I'm definitely not going to write down dozens of MAC addresses beyond the ones I gave)


(After this one I sucked it up and typed out the dozens of devices on my network, routers, modems, switches, PCs, phones, tablets, smart devices, and even the ethernet hardware on custom built devices)


(I had repeatedly told them it's a mixture of devices floating between the router and the AI Mesh router, but in this email I told them at least which devices were hardwired)

I was also continually sent requests to fill out their "Wireless Feedback Form", the most recent copy of which I can't attach to this forum post because it says the only allowed filetypes are jpgs, go figure.

I'm not sure why most of this information isn't getting through to them no matter how many boxes and debug logs I select in the router administration page for feedback, but again, oh well. If you can package all this up and shoot it to them in one go, hopefully that's several email rounds fewer you have to deal with them. I'll see if I can keep this thread up to date on what their next steps are. Clearly there's something systemically wrong both with the router line itself and the analysis going into troubleshooting.

[JeffLo]

same problems with ax11000 very problematic flagship routers

[Tesroc]

I have my 11000 set to automatically reboot every other day around 3 am. I don't have a problem with it losing internet after a week or so anymore.

[wingdam]

Same problem with my axe1100 random complete disconnect all wifi and internet. Power cycle fixes for awhile, but always happens again randomly. 1100 setup as access point from fios router in garage with three ax 56's to cover all cameras in apt building I own. After power cycle I have to do optimize to get repeaters to connect correctly. All ssids are different per band. For the money this costs I'm really disappointed