- UKTechHub

January 2, 2019 at 3:45 am #1846

Replies 18

New Here

Hi UK Sentinel
Here is some feedback to the testing you suggested.

My job involves networking on corporate networks, & was pretty sure there was no other DHCP server on my network, so checked with wireshark to be sure.
I upgraded/downgraded and cleared all config, but the clients disappearing issue was still apparent, so set about bringing devices online 1 by 1, these same devices that were all connected to my N66U previously. So after hours and hours of testing, I have found these issues appear to be caused by suspected DHCP issues/bugs.

ISSUE 1. Devices disappearing from the Network Map > Clients section & System Log > DHCP leases, showing no entries.
This was caused by a several devices on my network trying to join with an apostrophe in the name, For Example my Xioami Phone: MI8-Yoz’sMi8 & My Yamaha Amplifier: Yoz’s-Amp. As soon as I took these devices offline the other devices showed in the clients list again. Funnily enough my LG Phone: Marks’s LG G3, joined as ‘android-xxxxxxxx’ so didn’t exhibit the problem.
I never had this issue on the N66U. but have got around it by renaming the devices on the devices themselves. I can see other people having this issue, without knowing.
There is also no View List under the number of clients in this firmware like with my previous router.

ISSUE2. Only 32 devices are able to get static IP ADD’s despite the GUI saying “Manually Assigned IP around the DHCP list (Max Limit : 64)” in the LAN > DHCP Server section.
You are able to add more than 32 devices to the list, but anything after 32 does not pick up the manual IP ADD that is assigned in the list.
Regardless of whether anyone believes manual assignment is the right way to go in a home network, that is outside the scope of this issue, as it should be able to do 64 statics from the DHCP Pool.
I suspect also a part of this same problem is that once 32 Devices have also been named/assigned, you then can’t manually change the name of the device, by clicking on the device in Network Map > Clients. Change the device name of client 33 and it has no effect and reverts to whatever it was previously.
Also I believe at the same time, the System Log > Wireless Log shows no devices connected to either Radio, once I ensure the manual addresses configured are 32x or below and clients show in the Wireless Log.

Issue3. DHCP stops providing IP ADD’s on LAN interfaces.
I am not 100% sure what causes this issue fully as yet as I have been unable to recreate it after seeing it 3 times previously, but normally happens after a reboot. I can get my PC an ip add by using the secondary LAN port on my PC, but I have to default the router for devices connected to the router on LAN port 1 & 4 to pick up IP ADD’s again. With only LAN 1 or 4 connected, the LAN LED on the front of the router remained unlit.
It could be caused by my CCTV camera registering as ‘LocalHost’ in the System Log > DHCP Leases section. I renamed the Camera within the clients section, but it doesn’t change it in DHCP leases. During one of the times there was a problem, I removed the camera from the DHCP manually assigned addresses and then re-added it and the issue was resolved.
I have logged onto the camera and it’s a Linux Busybox, there is no option to change the hostname on the device itself as it’s read only OS,
This may not specifically be an issue with ASUS itself as LocalHost should ideally not be used, but I’ve seen some discussions that Merlin and perhaps ASUS, when you changed the device name in GUI either it also changed it to match in the DHCP Lease section or there was an option to change the DHCP lease name too.
It also may not even be related to the CCTV Camera. these were just my thoughts.
It could be the attempt to add more than 32 statics to the router that then breaks it upon reboot regardless if these are then deleted. I can’t figure out the cause from the router logs

Issue4. The System Log > General Log is not large enough

From the System Logs the DHCP Software appears to be an out of date release 4.1.1-P1

Jan 1 03:56:48 DSL-AC88U daemon.info dhcpd: Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Server 4.1.1-P1, https://www.isc.org/software/dhcp/

The latest release is 4.4.1 and there have been many bug fixes, but I am unsure what version the other ASUS routers are running.
https://ftp.isc.org/isc/dhcp/4.4.1/dhcp-4.4.1-RELNOTES

I understand you’re possibly in direct contact with ASUS, so would appreciate if these issues can be flagged to them, to resolve the bugs in new firmware releases
I’ll also use the feedback section and see if I get a response.
Cheers
Mark

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