Question Asus RT-AX86U random timeouts

[Adgj533]

Hello Guys,

I recently bought this AX 86 U router, I have my PC plugged into via ethernet cable, I use cat 8 cable. I watch a lot of streams (youtube and twitch) sometimes when I click streams or movies to fast forward a few seconds or minutes, my router just times out and resets the connection. During this time, I have no internet connection at all and its been happening more and more. I have the wifi enabled on this router and have multiple devices connected to it but I only notice the timeout issue when I am using my PC and watching streams/movies etc.

I just had this happen and logged into router webpage and looked at system log. I attached system log with this post ( I am not a network guru or anything so please don't hack me if I posted my IP address etc)

Any help is greatly appreciated.
image

 

[Lutfij]

Check and see if your router is pending any firmware updates.

 

[Adgj533]

Check and see if your router is pending any firmware updates.

Hi, thanks for the reply.

I don't have any firmware updates and I had this issue ever since I bought the router. I use 50 FT of cat 8 cable from amazon brand Jadaol. Should I try replacing the cable? I am also on official firmware, not merlin

 

[Lutfij]

Yeah, changing cables to other known working ones helps.

 

[bill001g]

The most likely cause is a defective cable. It can be random as you get slight temperature changes and the metal wires expand and contract.

It is highly likely a cat8 cable is a fake. These are very rarely used cable only seen in large data centers where they need things like 40gbit. The equipment that can actually run that fast is outrageously expensive. The actual cat8 cable will likely cost you 10 times what you pay for a cat5e.
It still only runs at 1gbit just like cat5e since it is the port and not the cable that controls the speed.

In any case the cable you want needs to be pure copper cable (no CCA) and must have wire size 22-24 (none of that flat or thin cable).

Note just because the cable works on some devices does not mean its good, some devices just tolerate out of spec cables more than others and the meters to actually test cables meet certification parameters are out of the price range for most people.

So after you have tried at least 1 new cable then you have little else that can be bad. All the speed detection and negotiation is done by hardware with voltages etc. There is not much software involved. So you could have damaged ports in the router or the pc but it is not very common and you can't really fix it only replace them.
You could try new firmware on the router but I doubt it makes any difference. On that particular router I would recommend you run merlin firmware mostly because I just like it better. If you were to look through the code you will not find anything in there that is doing the port negotiation it is all hardware and this is the same as the asus factory image.

The only thing that might cause this would be if your pc has any of that stupid "green" power saving stuff. I don't think the router has that option but your motherboard might. In general it causes no issues but it can have issues with longer cables......or fake cables. Not sure microsoft messes with this setting or if you can just turn it off in the bios if your motherboard has it.

 

[Adgj533]

The most likely cause is a defective cable. It can be random as you get slight temperature changes and the metal wires expand and contract.

It is highly likely a cat8 cable is a fake. These are very rarely used cable only seen in large data centers where they need things like 40gbit. The equipment that can actually run that fast is outrageously expensive. The actual cat8 cable will likely cost you 10 times what you pay for a cat5e.
It still only runs at 1gbit just like cat5e since it is the port and not the cable that controls the speed.

In any case the cable you want needs to be pure copper cable (no CCA) and must have wire size 22-24 (none of that flat or thin cable).

Note just because the cable works on some devices does not mean its good, some devices just tolerate out of spec cables more than others and the meters to actually test cables meet certification parameters are out of the price range for most people.

So after you have tried at least 1 new cable then you have little else that can be bad. All the speed detection and negotiation is done by hardware with voltages etc. There is not much software involved. So you could have damaged ports in the router or the pc but it is not very common and you can't really fix it only replace them.
You could try new firmware on the router but I doubt it makes any difference. On that particular router I would recommend you run merlin firmware mostly because I just like it better. If you were to look through the code you will not find anything in there that is doing the port negotiation it is all hardware and this is the same as the asus factory image.

The only thing that might cause this would be if your pc has any of that stupid "green" power saving stuff. I don't think the router has that option but your motherboard might. In general it causes no issues but it can have issues with longer cables......or fake cables. Not sure microsoft messes with this setting or if you can just turn it off in the bios if your motherboard has it.

I will try to get a new cable, can you link me a 50 ft good brand copper cable?
Its funny you mention flat cable bc mine is a flat cable.

 

[bill001g]

I guess it depends on where you get the cable. Generally single cables cost about the same or maybe even cheaper at the home improvement store. The shipping costs of a single cable is pretty large percentage of the costs.

These are 2 example from amazon, depends if you use prime/free shipping or not. The first is a brand many people like the second is just a random example of what you need to look for. Both are cat6, doesn't matter as long as its aleast cat5e.

https://www.amazon.com/Monoprice-Flexboot-Ethernet-Patch-Cable/dp/B00AJHCFXY/

https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Cat6-Ethernet-Cable-Network/dp/B00016W560

The only concern I have is these use stranded wires. This is actually a great thing for flexibility but if you ever need to replace a end you need a different and slightly harder to find rj45 plug designed for stranded wire. It is much more common to have solid core copper wire on longer cables but I don't think it affects the functionality unless you try to go the full 100 meters.

The main difference is going to be the ends and the clips. They likely function the same it just depends which you like better.

What is very strange is pricing on cables seems to depend on color some times. I found this when looking for cables. Note this is 100ft cable and not 50ft but it is a lot cheaper, not sure why it is also from monoprice. In some ways I would be suspect that this is some kind of mistake.

https://www.amazon.com/Monoprice-Flexboot-Ethernet-Patch-Cable/dp/B00AJHCXYK/?th=1

 

[Adgj533]

I guess it depends on where you get the cable. Generally single cables cost about the same or maybe even cheaper at the home improvement store. The shipping costs of a single cable is pretty large percentage of the costs.


https://www.amazon.com/Monoprice-Flexboot-Ethernet-Patch-Cable/dp/B00AJHCXYK/?th=1

I bought the cable you mentioned, one question: I use a 2.5G port on my router, this port is different from the regular LAN ports.

Can this cause issues?

 

[bill001g]

Maybe, cat6 cables and short cat5e cables can run 2.5g.
Not sure about router ports but the 2.5g ports on motherboards have had a history of strange issues. They have mostly gotten these fixed unless microsoft loads old driver. The symptom was more of a performance issue than it dropping the connection.
You might as well try other lan ports just to see. It doesn't matter much first you need a internet connection more than 1gbit and then you have to find servers that let you download more than 1gbit. Many servers have artificial limitations to prevent users with fast internet from monopolizing the server bandwidth. In general most people do not do enough downloading to even really use a 1gbit very often.



Check you pc bios and maybe some microsoft setting to be sure there is no "green" low power mode turned on. It has issues with longer cables.