dns packet loss with Asus XT8

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9 posts Page 1 of 1
by lbouis » Sat Nov 12, 2022 11:21 am
Hi,
I just got fiber installed a few days ago. The service has been unstable so far (connection issues when opening websites on Chrome browser, slow speed often too doing speed test), and based on troubleshooting with Sonic tech support, it seems to be caused by a router issue (I am using Asus XT8). Note that I tried wired to the router and wifi, same results.
After doing some troubleshooting, I believe it's a DNS issue. It seems like dns lookup timeouts, lots of packet loss (50% packet loss on 'ping' when I test from my mac laptop or from the router itself since it has a tool to test 'ping' or dns lookups).
- I tried to manually enter the Sonic DNS server IPs in my router config, that didn't help.
- Also my router (and internet) is working fine with my other internet service, Comcast cable (I am trying to switch from Comcast to Sonic). So it doesn't look like the router is broken, it seems to be specific to Sonic service.
- When I connect my laptop directly to the Sonic modem, there are no visible issues: dns lookup is stable, no packet loss, internet speed test is good (1Gig/s)
I am running out of ideas of how to troubleshoot and fix this DNS issue. I already tried flushing dns cache, rebooted router, the dns test done on the router itself shows a 50% packet loss.
Any help would be appreciated. Sonic support is telling me to buy another router at this point or do a hard reset, but I'd be surprised if there is no other solution or ways to pinpoint the issue at least. I am just not a DNS expert to know what to do next.
I plan to go buy another modem to test if it's truly an issue with my router and Sonic service being incompatible but would love to try something else.
by ngufra » Sat Nov 12, 2022 2:27 pm
You could try google dns (8.8.8.8) our cloudflare (1.1.1.1) see if it helps.

You could try to flash Merlin to your xt8.

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/asusw ... ble.78160/

(RT-AX95Q is the designation for XT8)
by nhbriggs » Sat Nov 12, 2022 3:00 pm
The quick place to start is (from a Mac Terminal window)

Code: Select all

ping -n 8.8.8.8
where "-n" indicates don't bother trying to resolve the IP address to a name when printing the responses.

When you connect your Mac directly to the modem and everything is working, what does your /etc/resolv.conf show got selected as the DNS servers? And how about when you've connected the Mac to the router? Look for differences.

Check that the first DNS server in the list is reachable and responding -- try a lookup (again, Terminal window) with

Code: Select all

host www.google.com first.dns.server.ip
by lbouis » Sun Nov 13, 2022 9:36 am
Thanks a lot for the help!
So I tried ping -n 8.8.8.8.
I get 75% timeouts when trying wired to my router, but no timeouts when wired to the modem.
So I guess this means it's not really a DNS issue?

I did the dns test you suggested anyway:
1) I checked /etc/resolv.conf on my macbook.
if wired to the modem, I see (looks correct to me, that's what the Sonic technician told me they should be):
nameserver 50.0.1.1
nameserver 50.0.2.2
if wired to my router (not sure if it's ok, it probably is since it seems like it's my router internal network ip):
nameserver 192.168.50.1
Note that if I manually add the dns entries 50.0.1.1 and 50.0.2.2 to macos network config, then I do see those in resolv.conf but the network is still unstable.
2) host www.google.com first.dns.server.ip didn't work on my macos, error was 'couldn't get address for 'first.dns.server.ip': not found'. I haven't researched a solution for this yet, since I guess it's not a dns issue.

What can I try next?
The last thing I want to do is do a factory reset or firmware update of the router, since there is a small risk that I may lose internet completely (for now I can still use Comcast cable). But if there is nothing else to try, I'll do it.
by lbouis » Sun Nov 13, 2022 9:52 am
I just realized I didn't turn off the other node in my mesh network (I forgot about it, I have 2 XT8 in mesh configuration), I will re-do the ping test after turning off the node.
by aforkosh » Sun Nov 13, 2022 10:31 am
I am connected to Sonic using an Asus XT8 mesh router. I've had the router for about a year, and, it was a bit unstable for the first several months. During the year, Asus has issued several firmware updates, which appear to have stabilized the system. and added functionality (I can now actually enable a VPN service on the router and have only selected nodes go through the VPN). Anyway, I urge you to update to the latest firmware and see if that solves your problem. The version I have is 3.0.0.4.388_21099-g90a450c
by lbouis » Sun Nov 13, 2022 2:17 pm
thanks for the info @aforkosh, that gave me hope!
And thanks for your advice about updating the firmware, the issue seems to be fixed!
Removing the node in my mesh network didn't help.
I decided to update the firmware from 3.0.0.4.386_25790-gd414187 (which might be 2+ years old, older than 2021/10/06 at least) to the latest 3.0.0.4.388_21099-g90a450c and that fixed my issue.
I guess I'll never know if it was fixed because of the new software or if the update itself cleared up some bad state or cache.
Thanks everyone for the help.
by nhbriggs » Sun Nov 13, 2022 11:07 pm
Glad to hear doing the firmware update solved it.
by lbouis » Tue Nov 15, 2022 11:07 pm
still working fine after a few days, thanks @ngufra and @nhbriggs as well!
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