Remote access problems due to firmware upgrade (Asus) Mesh Wifi Network

Tinkering
1

Although not a support topic, I just want to share my experiences of the last 2 days, here the description of my setup:
Description My Setup

Details on your Core machine (OS, Hardware specs, Roon build)

  • Pinkfaun 2.16X Server, running on Audiolinux, AMD 7 3700 processor, 16GB RAM, 1 HD Samsung SSD 250GB for Roon + 2nd HD Samsung 4TB SSD for local music
  • Roon version 2.0 build: 1272
  • HQPlayer: HQPlayer Embedded 4.31.0

Details on your Remote(s) (OS, Hardware specs, Roon build)

  • iPad Air Pro – 128GB - running iPadOS 16.2 - Roon version 2.0 build: 1271
  • Samsung S10e – running Android version 12 kernel 4.14.113-25257816 – Roon version 2.0 build: 1271 Wifi 6
  • PC running Windows 11 Home - 11th Gen Intel(R) Core™ i7-1165G7 @ 2.80GHz 2.80 GHz Ram 16GB, Roon version 2.0 build: 1272

Networking details (especially what hardware you’re using, how everything is connected, and anything notable about how it’s all configured)

  • Ethernet & Wifi Mesh network built on 3 * Asus Zenwifi AT XT8
  • Connected to Service Provider modem
  • Speedtest connection speed ethernet 93Mbps download – 18Mbps upload
  • Roon Core connected via ethernet, Remote PC connected via ethernet
  • Mobile Remotes connected via Wifi6

Audio devices in use

  • T+A 8 DSD connected to Roon Core, using HQPlayerEmbedded, connected via USB
  • Endpoints : 1 * Cambridge Audio CXN v2 , connected via ethernet

Library details

  • Local library on separate internal 14TB + 12 TB SSD harddisks in Roon Server
  • Qobuz Hi-fi Sublime streaming service
  • 62303 tracks (4189 albums – 2422 local, 1767 Qobuz)

Backup details

  • Location 1 : USB disk connected to Core Machine - 2GB capacity
  • Location 2 : Synology NAS 10,8 TB capacity
  • Location 3 : USB disk connected to Synology NAS - 7,2 TB capacity

What’s this all about?

We suffered from a network outage from our ISP.
After that, still do not understand how and why, 1 of my Asus Zenwifi AT XT8 nodes would not sync with the Mesh Router anymore, even after factory reset.

As it was at least 1 (if not 2) year(s) ago I had updated the firmware of the Mesh router + nodes, I decided to install the latest firmware (dated 15 May 2023) on all 3 units.
After this firmware upgrade, both router and 2 nodes did come back up normally, and everything seemed fine.

Then Roon problems started, not with my Roon server but with my wireless access points.
Roon played fine, and I could manage it perfectly using a Windows 11 laptop connected to the lan via fixed connection.
However, both my iPad and Samsung phone were having issues keeping connected to the Core .
Error messages such Conection lost, connect to another core, came up and went away, but one thing was clear: I could not use my wireless access points to manage Roon.

As it was clearly a wifi problem, and I had just had installed new firmware, I decided to try to downgrade the firmware to an older version from 12 December 2022.
(For those interested: FW_ZENWIFI_XT8_300438822068.w)

After downgrading, the good news is that all is back to normal.

Summary:

  1. Even if your wifi network looks fine at 1st sight, there’s no guarantee it is working ‘perfectly’ well.
  2. Be careful when installing new firmware and make sure you have a fallback plan
  3. Most important: make sure you (can) have a lan-connected Roon client (even temporary) in order to be able to investigate eventual network problems with Roon.
2

Dirk, ASUS pushed a security update which broke many routers (my XT8s among them) last Wednesday. They fixed it Friday. Lots of turmoil.

1 Like
3

I am following both PC Magazine and PC World websites.
It is really unbelievable, but no reports whatsoever overthere on this outage.

I often wonder how people without any IT knowledge, can survive in this ‘networked’ society.

4

Well, it did have the side-effect of getting me to manually upgrade the firmware on all of my nodes. So, maybe silver lining.

1 Like
5

1st I hear about ASUS outage causing issues… Not experienced but interesting problem, thanks for posting.

We have an ASUS RT devices AIMesh and found that linking the more static wifi nodes to the closest mesh node has greatly improved stability of connections. Things like RPi players, TV, etc. reconnect when impacted if mesh node connection fails and just reconnect to the preferred when the mesh node is available again.

There have been a couple of mesh implosions and stubbornness on firmware updates but honestly it is stable in our configuration and never issues with raat or upnp streams.

6

Asus has done it again :angry: :angry: :angry:
Yesterday afternoon I had an outage of almost 2 hours, even bettered today with an outage that required users to reset all router and mesh nodes, reconfigure the whole setup from factory reset.

So I am finally backup at 23h in the evening, and can now start to rebuild my Audiolinux installation from scratch for the 3rd time, thanks to the 2 network outages.

People here are complaining that Roon does not work without internet.
I would be great if somebody could explain me why my internet connection is 100% dependent on Asus servers.

So i am going to look for an alternative, enough is enough.

Any solid recommendation more than welcome.

Dirk