Connection to AX capable router?

JHZR2

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I bought a new router, its all working and seems to be pretty good at this point, except one thing... I had asked previously about the downsides, if any, or WPA3 security, particularly if you need to keep WPA2 on as well for legacy stuff.

So I have this Asus AX-RT56U router up and running. WPA3/WPA2 enabled, so my more advanced items can use WPA3. I update the firmware, and WPA3 goes away - no longer an option... Not sure why...

But here's the weird thing: Everything was working, including my oldest devices, before the firmware flash. After it, my 2010 MBA would not connect. No matter how many times I entered the SSID passphrase, it wouldnt connect. I changed the security to open for a minute, to see what would happen. The computer connected fine. Put it back to WPA2 and no dice.

But it connected fine using WPA2 minutes before. And its only this one machine - 2010 MacBook Air, running 10.12.6. I reset PRAM without luck. I then went and got the Merlin WRT variant of the Asus firmware just to try. No luck.

It just says that my Wi-Fi network cannot be joined. Diagnostics is useless. Ive removed/forgotten the network and reconnected. Since I can unhide the SSID passphrase, I know it is correct, no caps or other issues. And every other machine works.

Any suggestions? Im not going to keep the stupid thing if I cant get all my regularly used machines to connect. Its ridiculous. But I know that it can and will connect, because it had done it. In fact, I had flashed the firmware update from that very machine!
 
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All of this, including the WiFi 6 AX mode enabled, was the same before the firmware flash. Firmware removed the WPA3 (which was irrelevant for the computer in question, since Apple didnt implement it that far back), and did whatever else it did...


System log shows a bunch of failed attempts like this:

May 5 22:04:59 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(464): eth5: Deauth_ind MAC, status: 0, reason: Unspecified reason (1)
May 5 22:04:59 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(499): eth5: Auth MAC, status: Successful (0)

Where MAC is the wifi adapter MAC address on that computer.
 
Not sure if it's going to make any difference, but can you force the router to restore itself to factory settings?

Also, on the 5GHz spectrum, try changing control channel to 36. Some devices have trouble with upper end channels such as channel 149 that your router selected for you.
 
I can force to factory settings. That worked. All are connected now. I redid my SSID and passphrase exactly the same. Very strange... Something tells me that this ASUS firmware is far from the best, including with the Merlin updates.

Not that wyze cams are the epitome of good software either, but I had a heck of a time getting them reconnected. Essentially had to turn off any smart routing between 2.4 and 5 GHz.
 
You may want to only use 20MHz channels on 2.4Ghz. Channel bonding with 2.4Ghz spectrum is pretty pointless.
 
Originally Posted by wwillson
You may want to only use 20MHz channels on 2.4Ghz. Channel bonding with 2.4Ghz spectrum is pretty pointless.

And noisy! LOL!
 
Originally Posted by JHZR2
Something tells me that this ASUS firmware is far from the best, including with the Merlin updates.


Pretty much par for the course with all consumer gear. When you charge what they charge for the hardware and there's no service and support contract this is the result. Applies to all gear across the consumer spectrum, it's always buggy and almost always goes unpatched once the device hits a certain age.
 
good luck. I found some helpful stuff to try with google.

"Macbook air wpa2 aes"
 
Asus likely had an issue and/or complaints from users and pulled that setting.

My issue with Asus: their meshing has stopped working for me. It lags and sometimes, when transitioning, never seems to reach full speed again until I reboot the device using WiFi or turn off the router. I'm considering buying a newer AC router to see if that fixes it.
 
Originally Posted by Rand
good luck. I found some helpful stuff to try with google.

"Macbook air wpa2 aes"


I had too. Deleted files, reset RAM, etc. Quintuple+ checked that there was no issue with spelling or passphrases.

Factory reset and re-establishment of the parameters got it working again. Since I had to change nothing on the other computers, it wasnt on my end (e.g., fat fingering).

All users in my home are satisfied at this point. Lower latencies on the same cloudflare DNS, compared to my old netgear router, just in terms of routine use. I think Im happy...
 
Now the Kindle Paperwhite doesnt connect. Took another reset. Seems everything is connecting now, knock on wood.

Asus firmware must not be as good as I thought. I always thought Asus was amongst the best. Back in the day, their motherboards seemed to consistently produce the best benchmarks...
 
Unfortunately, with the rapid advancements in technology and frequent releases of new products and features, there is little time to do proper QA on the software, especially at the consumer level. Stuff gets rushed to the market, and if they need to deploy fixes and patches later, after the customer finds a bug, then eventually they will, if they're not too busy writing software for the newer model. And it's not just with routers either...
 
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