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XB7 ASUS router connection issue

hippoppo
I've been here awhile
I have a XB7 modem from Rogers and an ASUS AX86U router for better coverage.
I had put the XB7 into bridge mode and had been running full router mode on my ASUS router and it was running fine until one night, all of the sudden the WAN LED light on my ASUS router turned red (which typically means it’s not connected to internet). This happens from time to time and I know unplugging/replugging would solve the issue most of the time, so I unplugged the modem and router with the hope that the router would come back to normal, but that didn’t happen.

I’ve searched and read almost every post on the internet and still have no idea what’s going on and how to resolve it, but I did find what seems to have caused the issue:
The Asus router can’t seem to renew the lease and obtain a WAN IP from the modem. In the router’s GUI, it’s showing:
“WAN IP: 0.0.0.0
Subnet mask: 0.0.0.0
DNS: blank
Gateway: 0.0.0.0
Lease time: renewing
Lease expires: expired”

Steps I’ve tried but no luck:
1. Factory reset modem and router, multiple times
2. Change the LAN IP address on ASUS router
3. Change the DNS setting to “1.1.1.1” on router
4 Change the IPv6 setting to pass though

Notes: when I connect my laptop to the modem (in bridge mode), my laptop picks up the ip address (starts with 99.xxx.xxx). Modem works properly in both bridge mode and gateway mode.

I’m not tech savvy - I’ve tried my best to provide all information I know, if I missed anything please let me know. Any helps would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance!
1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

Re: XB7 ASUS router connection issue

hippoppo
I've been here awhile

@-G- This is solved now! I posted this issue on an Asus forum and someone told me that I had a wrong/very old firmware installed on my AX86u, which obviously had prevented my router from obtaining WAN IP address and updating firmware. In short, I bricked my router by I don't know how.

 

I had to go to the rescue mode to install the latest firmware on my router, to bring it back to live. 

In case someone run into the issue again, here's the solution:

 

1. Go to Asus.com and look for your router model

2. Go to support - drivers and tools - download the "ASUS firmware restoration tool"

3. Install the tool and follow the instructions here: https://youtu.be/T8YKnpXxhx0

4. This forces your Asus router to install the latest firmware and my router was rescued!

 

You are not the first person complaining about the AX88U PRO, and certainly not going to be the last one. I am not a big fan of all the PRO models, the added features mean nothing to me, one of the home owners just want to have a reliable Internet service. I used to be very happy with my AX86u, but now after this I will think  twice before I recommend it to any non tech savvy users... 😐 

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7 REPLIES 7

Re: XB7 ASUS router connection issue

-G-
Resident Expert
Resident Expert

What are you using for your WAN settings on your ASUS router?  It should be set to Auto/DHCP and you should be using Native mode for IPv6.

 

Also, what colour is the status LED on your XB7 gateway?  It should be solid white.  If it is green or amber, that indicates that the modem is unable to connect to the Rogers network -- your Internet service is down and your router will not be able to obtain an IP address.  If the status LED on the Ignite Gateway is red, that also indicates a problem and you will need to power-cycle the gateway to clear that error condition.

 

One other thing: if your Ignite Gateway is in Bridge Mode, ensure that you have one (and ONLY one!) device connected to the gateway's Ethernet ports.

 

 

 


@hippoppo wrote:
Notes: when I connect my laptop to the modem (in bridge mode), my laptop picks up the ip address (starts with 99.xxx.xxx). Modem works properly in both bridge mode and gateway mode.

Edit: Sorry.  Missed that line.  Clearly your XB7 gateway is online and is connected to the Rogers network.

 

However, again, ensure that your router is the only device connected to the Ignite Gateway.

Re: XB7 ASUS router connection issue

hippoppo
I've been here awhile

Thanks for your response G! I can confirm that I only connect my router to the modem when it is running in Bridge mode.

 

I've uploaded a screenshot of the WAN setting page. It is set to Auto/DHCP mode, but I am not sure if I am missing any other steps/parameters. 

 

I've also uploaded a screenshot of the IPv6 setting page. I've turned it to "Native" mode but not sure if the other default settings are correct.

 

WAN settingWAN settingIPv6 settingIPv6 setting

Re: XB7 ASUS router connection issue

-G-
Resident Expert
Resident Expert

@hippoppo Those settings look okay to me.  They should work, but there are a few things that you can try.

 

First, try power-cycling your router.  Turn it off with the power switch, leave it off for a minute, then power it up again.

 

I also see that the "DHCP Query Frequency" is set to Normal.  Again, that should be okay but you can also try "Aggressive" to see if that resolves the issue.  In some cases, having that set to Aggressive causes problems -- some service providers don't like it if you "hammer" their DHCP server -- but I don't know if that is the case with Rogers.  (I don't know whether you need to reboot your router after making this change.  The firmware on the ASUS routers (Asuswrt and Asuswrt-Merlin) can be twitchy.  Sorry, I'm just not a fan... but I digress.)

 

One other thing to try is to power off your router and leave it off.

Next, power-cycle your Ignite Gateway.  Turn it off, leave it off for one minute, then power it up again.

When the Ignite Gateway's status LED turns white, wait another 10 minutes, then power up your router.

If some glitch on Rogers' site was preventing your router from obtaining an IP address, that should clear it.

Re: XB7 ASUS router connection issue

hippoppo
I've been here awhile

@-G- Thank you for confirming the settings. 

 

I've tried the power cycle steps listed in your post but no luck getting my AX86U back to normal. 

 

I have another ASUS router AX55 which was used to form an AiMesh network. I then connected the AX55 (full router mode) to the XB7 modem (in bridge mode) and the router picked up WAN IP address immediately. It seems like the modem is blocking the AX86u from getting a WAN IP or something. I use the same RJ45 cable and apparently the issue is not with the cable.

 

Any thoughts on why this would happen? 

Btw I know Rogers is doing some upgrade to the internet service in my area so I don't know if that has anything to do with my issues. I recently got an email saying that they have upgraded my Internet service to 1.5Gbps. 🤔

Re: XB7 ASUS router connection issue

-G-
Resident Expert
Resident Expert

@hippoppo  I don't think that there is any problem on the Rogers side.  I would check the logs on your RT-AX86U to see whether it is even trying to obtain a DHCP address.

 

The AiMesh configuration may also be causing problems.  e.g. Is the AX86U acting as a secondary node (despite what you see in your settings) and not even trying to activate its WAN interface?

 

You may also want to consider doing a hard factory reset on all your ASUS routers, try to get the RT-AX86U active on the network, in the simplest configuration possible, then activate all the features that you need, then add your AX55 as a mesh node.

 

As I said before, I'm not really a fan of AsusWrt in general, and am not impressed with the quality of their firmware.  I also would not be surprised if some firmware quirk was causing you grief, and I am also not experienced enough in dealing with those quirks to advise you.

 

I'll tag @Datalink for assistance here, since (I believe) he also uses an RT-AX86U and has a TON of experience with the ASUS gear.

 

 

As for my personal experience with their hardware...

 

A few weeks ago, I purchased an RT-AX88U Pro.  The initial setup went fine.  A basic configuration worked fine.  Turning on some more advanced options worked fine.  However, after I upgraded to the latest firmware (which was a minor upgrade, since the AX88U Pro is new hardware) I ran into some weird issues.  I factory reset it through the GUI, which cleared up some of the problems.  A hard factory reset got things back to normal.  I had a working, stable configuration with the hard factory reset, then touching ONLY the settings that I needed to change.  Even toggling an option on and off can introduce weird side-effects.

 

Upgrading to 3.0.0.6.102_21514 (to fix critical security vulnerabilities) also was not entirely a smooth process, and their Guest Network Pro implementation is a train wreck... unless their implementation works the way that you want it to work  After another factory reset, another reconfigure from scratch, more experimenting with the latest features, I had had enough and returned the product while I still could.

 

I'm also not impressed when stuff like this happens: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/05/asus-fixes-error-that-caused-mass-router-outa...

 

... and it's not just ASUS that I have a problem with.  I'm equally unimpressed with all consumer network gear.

 

Sorry for venting.  I'm done now.  😐

Re: XB7 ASUS router connection issue

hippoppo
I've been here awhile

@-G- This is solved now! I posted this issue on an Asus forum and someone told me that I had a wrong/very old firmware installed on my AX86u, which obviously had prevented my router from obtaining WAN IP address and updating firmware. In short, I bricked my router by I don't know how.

 

I had to go to the rescue mode to install the latest firmware on my router, to bring it back to live. 

In case someone run into the issue again, here's the solution:

 

1. Go to Asus.com and look for your router model

2. Go to support - drivers and tools - download the "ASUS firmware restoration tool"

3. Install the tool and follow the instructions here: https://youtu.be/T8YKnpXxhx0

4. This forces your Asus router to install the latest firmware and my router was rescued!

 

You are not the first person complaining about the AX88U PRO, and certainly not going to be the last one. I am not a big fan of all the PRO models, the added features mean nothing to me, one of the home owners just want to have a reliable Internet service. I used to be very happy with my AX86u, but now after this I will think  twice before I recommend it to any non tech savvy users... 😐 

Re: XB7 ASUS router connection issue

-G-
Resident Expert
Resident Expert

@hippoppo wrote:

@-G- This is solved now! I posted this issue on an Asus forum and someone told me that I had a wrong/very old firmware installed on my AX86u, which obviously had prevented my router from obtaining WAN IP address and updating firmware. In short, I bricked my router by I don't know how.


I'm really, really glad to hear that you were able to get this resolved!

 

You are not the first person complaining about the AX88U PRO, and certainly not going to be the last one. I am not a big fan of all the PRO models, the added features mean nothing to me, one of the home owners just want to have a reliable Internet service. I used to be very happy with my AX86u, but now after this I will think  twice before I recommend it to any non tech savvy users... 😐 


There was nothing wrong with the hardware per se.  The AX88U "Pro" comes with a faster processor and dual 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet ports, and I was able to get full throughput on my Ignite 1.5 Gigabit service.  I also would have liked to have had Wi-Fi 6E support but didn't want to shell out a crazy amount of money for a GT-AXE16000 that would soon be obsoleted with next-gen hardware that is due out any day now.

 

I was also expecting that given the similarities with the GT-AX6000, the RT-AX88U would have mature hardware.  It surprised me that the 1.0 hardware is already being revised... although, as far as I can tell, they are only making minor changes.  Looks like the most significant change is that they are replacing the internal Ethernet switch, and possibly making some other small changes, like supporting different flash chips.  Really hard to say for sure when they don't publish changelogs for hardware revisions.

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