Asus RT-N18U - Wireless survey doesnt work when Wireless filter is active
Issue #224
closed
I have problem with my 2 Asus RT-N18Us. This bug has been going on since Shibby versions.
When Wireless filter is active (under Virtual Wireless Interfaces - permit only devices on list) wireless survey from Tools doesnt work.
When I click refresh I get no result, no wireless network is found. When I switch off Wireless filter so wireless survey works perfectly.
What could be wrong ?
Comments (14)
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reporter
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I'm not using the Wireless Filter, but recently Wireless Survey has stopped working (no wireless networks found) on all of my RT-AC68U (actually converted TM-AC1900) and RT-AC1900P routers. I won't bore you with all the troubleshooting steps I went through, and just describe an interesting thing I found.
First, I connected my PC to a LAN port of one of the routers and erased NVRAM (thorough). No other devices were connected to the router, and no settings were changed (all left at default). I then immediately went to the Wireless Survey page and clicked the Refresh button multiple times. Nothing.
I subsequently found (quite by accident) that if all three of the router's antennas were removed, the Wireless Survey page began working, 100% of the time. Granted, only 10-12 nearby wireless devices showed up in the list, but it was nonetheless working. As soon as I attached one or more antennas, the survey stopped working again. The same behavior was observed with wireless AP's that were connected to my network: remove their antennas, and Wireless Survey worked for all of them as well.
Perhaps this information will provide another clue as to what may be going on with the Wireless Survey function. It's almost as though the survey is becoming "overwhelmed" when there are many wireless devices within range. Note that during the troubleshooting process I tried several older versions of FT as well as building the latest from sources, so I don't believe the cause is from a recent change in FT. Perhaps in my case there are simply more wireless devices within range than there were before; when the survey was working, it wasn't unusual to see 30-50 devices in the list (thankfully most of them very weak).
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@Grinch Thx for info - i found a few things and corrected it. Can you check if it helps your case?
uploaded test-images “08062022_v002-VPN-64K” for some routers like AC68U, N18U and a few more. Working correct on my side (currently 10-15 nearby wireless devices/APs)
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@M_ars Thank you for looking into this. I tested two AC68Us with your firmware, and it's definitely an improvement. Survey works on one of the routers now, showing a total of 31 wireless devices. The second one, however (in another location), still does not work -- at least not entirely. I was able to get the survey to start working on the second one by removing all of the antennas, hitting Refresh to start populating the list, then adding the antennas one at a time and hitting the Refresh button repeatedly. Refresh then worked perhaps one out of four times, and by the time there were no more devices to be found, there were 84 wireless devices in the list.
Let me know if you’d like me to try anything else.
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good
and WOW - 84 wireless devices in the list. I have an idea for improvement step 2. Will provide an test-image
latertomorrow (my battery is empty for today) . -
reporter
I have tested image on my both RT-N18u and no change… Wireless survey still not works when WF is active.
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@Grinch please test image “…_v003-VPN-64K” and report back, thx . Lets see how many devices you can see now.
@Denny Holy for your topic: if the wireless filter is active, we are “blind” - and therefore nothing to show. (filter is in front)
A solution could be:
- short term measure: Add a Note to the GUI (tools-survey) that wl survey will show no results with wl filter turned on
- mid/long term measure: disable wl filter for time the user wants to use the the wl survey tool
@pedro what do you think about the GUI note? it is at least a small step/info for the user
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Thanks, but v003 didn’t seem to improve upon v002. With both v002 and v003 the max number of devices/APs that the survey works with, beginning with an empty list, is right around 32. If I position the router such that more than 32 devices are within range, the survey returns nothing (again, starting with an empty list). However, once there are devices present in the list, I can reposition the router so that more than 32 devices are within range and subsequent refreshes will continue to build the list beyond 32.
If it's more convenient, and assuming that you want to continue looking into this, you are welcome to suggest changes that you'd like me to try and I will build the test image myself. (I see that both you and Pedro have been updating the sources with your recent changes.)
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repo owner
what do you think about the GUI note? it is at least a small step/info for the user
Good idea.
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repo owner
BTW: @Grinch problem is totally different to the one reported here, so opening a new issue (properly named) will be a good idea.
This one will be closed in a while, with ‘workaround’ as @M_ars suggested above.
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@Grinch could you open a new issue like pedro suggested. I would like to test 2-3 different wl scanning setups on your side and will provide you the test-images. I prepard the changes on my side, almost done. ok for you?
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repo owner
On the other hand @M_ars you said:
if the wireless filter is active, we are “blind” - and therefore nothing to show. (filter is in front)
But this issue only exists on ARM routers, on MIPS even if you choose ‘permit only’, WL survey works. So what’s the difference?
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@pedro yes, only arm (mips is working). must be something within the driver.
@Grinch please test image “…_v004-VPN-64K” and “…_v004_mod-VPN-64K” - does it make a difference on your side ?
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repo owner
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It looks like that problems with WF are mainly on ARM platform. On MIPS it works very well.