Update May 19, 2023: Asus has publicly acknowledged the problemAnd provided their own explanation and workaround (rebooting, if rebooting doesn't fix the problem, do a hard reset). The original post is as follows:
When I woke up around 6:45 PDT this morning, I didn't seem to have any internet service available. My phone tells me I'm connected to my Wi-Fi network, but it's not. "Well, that's strange," I thought. Is it possible that the fiber in that area is cut or something? I checked my IRC client on a Windows desktop and it's fine because it records the timestamp of when I lost the connection:
At this point my connection has been down for over 3 hours. Weird! I figured I'd log into my ASUS RT-AC86U router's web interface to see what was going on. Something happened that I did not expect at all - the page did not want to load completely. Part displays a small "sad page" icon, indicating a link error.
I am trying to connect to the router via SSH. After the first few failed attempts to connect, I finally logged in. However, I found that I could not run any commands. It just shows me this error:
-sh: cannot be forked
Ok, so something really went wrong. I decided to reboot the router at this point. Maybe there was some weird glitch or something. That would be strange - aside from the 2.4GHz Wi-Fi having issues with timing, this router has been pretty solid since I've owned it. That's another story I don't want to talk about today.
Regardless, when the router was back to normal, everything seemed fine. However, 40 minutes later, my connection drops again with the same symptoms.
The fact that they are both at 23 seconds could just be a crazy coincidence. Then I started to panic a little. I really don't think my ISP could be to blame for this kind of problem, but I haven't changed anything in the network settings. I also haven't updated my router's firmware in a long time - I turned off automatic updates, and last I checked, ASUS hasn't released a new update for it.
This time I was able to successfully SSH into the router and do some quick diagnostics. I usedtoptell me what happened Unfortunately, I didn't take any screenshots, but I noticed that a process called asd was taking up 50% of my CPU. According to /proc/cpuinfo, the CPU is dual core, so 50% could mean one core is fully attached.
My first instinct was to search for asd (hard to search with a broken internet connection) but found it to be the ASUS security daemon. I've been feeling a little better, but I still feel that it must be involved in the problem. Normally when I SSH into the router the top shows nothing using close to 50% CPU.
I started searching Reddit and Twitter to see if anyone else had experienced something similar and that's when I came across this tweet@stevecantsmell:
- SteveP ⇨🇦 (@stevecantsmell)May 17, 2023Anyone using an Asus router since 6am (-0400) having problems connecting?
We found that people have to reboot the system and manually update the firmware to maintain a stable connection.
From his words, it sounds like he works for an ISP. This sounds very similar to my problem, even in the timelines! That equals 3am in my time zone. I followed his advice. I quickly rebooted the router and went straight to the firmware update page on the web interface. Of course I'm running version 3.0.0.4.386.48260 and the available update to 3.0.0.4.386.51529 was released last month. Turns out I also missed the March firmware release. I want to keep my router up to date, but the intervals between my checks are slow because there hasn't been an update in about a year.
I can install updates. After the update was complete, the router rebooted itself and everything worked fine after that. asd also no longer uses 50% cpu. In the hours since this problem appeared, I've heard from countless other people who have had the exact same problem with various ASUS routers. More people responded to the Twitter thread with the above link, and there are manySome publishexistRedditiSNB forum.In some cases beta firmware is required to resolve the issue. It's comforting to know I'm not alone, but also incredibly upsetting to hear that so many people are affected. I bet the ISP tech support guys had a "good" day today.
So... what happened early this morning to set this all off? Is asus asd downloading some wrong file from their server causing it to hang? Has anyone tried mass exploiting Asus' recently patched vulnerability? Did the firmware update really fix the problem or did it just stop the chain of events that would start again soon?
I don't know, but this is the information I've been able to gather so far. The /jffs/asd.log file (and /jffs/asd.log.1, which I think is the restored version containing the previous entries) on my router seems to be filled with thousands of lines of the following error message:
1684335272[chknvram_action] invalid string
The number appears to be a UNIX timestamp that corresponds to 7:54am PT this morning, which may be coincidentally the time I finished installing the firmware update. I assume this keeps getting written to this log at 3:24am when the problem started.
I also found these interesting messages in /jffs/syslog.log-1 when the connection was first lost:
May 17 03:18:14 watchdog: [FAUPGRADE][auto_firmware_check:(7669)]do webs_update May 17 03:18:21 watchdog:[FAUPGRADE][auto_firmware_check:(7687)] Retrieving firmware information 17. May 03:18:21 WATCHDOG: [FAUPGRADE][auto_firmware_check:(7702)] First firmware update check May 17 03:18:21 WATCHDOG: [FAUPGRADE][auto_firmware_check:(7733)] Not required Firmware upgrade May 17 03:18:21 :18:51 WATCHDOG: [FAUPGRADE ][auto_firmware_check:(7669)]to webs_update17. May 03:18:51 WATCHDOG:[FAUPGRADE][auto_firmware_check:(7687)]Retrieving firmware info May 17 03:18:51 WATCHDOG: [FAUPGRADE] [auto_firmware_check:(7707)] firmware update once May 17 03:18:51 :19:21 WATCHDOG: [FAUPGRADE] [auto_firmware_check:(7669)] to webs_update May 17 03:19:21 WATCHDOG: [FAUPGRADE] [auto _firmware_check :(7687)] Retrieving firmware info May 17 03:19:21 21 WATCHDOG: [FAUPGRADE] [auto_firmware_check:(7707)] Check firmware update once May 17 03:19:51 WATCHDOG: [FAUPGRADE] [auto_firmware_check:(7669 )] to webs_update17. May 17 03:19:51 )] Get firmware info May 17 03:19:51 WATCHDOG: [FAUPGRADE] [auto_firmware_check:(7702)] First firmware update check May 17 03:19:51 WATCHDOG: [ FAUPGRADE] [auto_firmware_check :(7733)] No need to upgrade firmware May 17 03 :22:58 Kernel: CPU: 1 PID: 12870 Comm: Touch Tainted: P O 4.1.27 #2May 17 03:22:58 Kernel: Hardware Name: Broadcom - v8A (DT) May 17 03:22:58 kernel: task : ffffffc01730eb00 ti: ffffffc0126dc000 task.ti: ffffffc0126dc000 May 17 03:22:58 kernel: PC on 0xf6dcc90c May 17 03:22:58 kernel: LR on 0xf6dccfd4 May 17 03:22 : 5 8 kernel: pc: [<00000000f6dcc90c>] lr : [<00000000f6dccfd4>] pstate: 400f001017. May 03:22:58 kernel: sp : 00000000fff3d15417. May 03:22:58 kernel: x12: 00000000fff3d188 May 17 03:22:58 kernel : x11: 00000000fff3d1d4 x10: 00000000f76334c0 May 17 03:22:58 kernel: x9: 00000000fff3d1d1 89 x8: 00000000fff3d184 May 17 03:22 :58 kernel: x 7:000000000000000b x6:00000000000000000 May 17 at 03:22:58 kernel: x5 : 00000000fff3e8bc x4: 00000000fff3d420 May 17 03:22:58 kernel: x3:0000 00006e69622f x2: 00000000fff3e8bc May 17 03:22 :58 kernel: x1: 0 0000000fff3d420 x0: ffffffffffffffff2 May 17 03:23 :17 kernel: CPU: 1 PID: 12894 Communication: touch infected: P O 4.1.27 #2May 17 03:23:17 kernel: Hardware Name: Broadcom -v8A (DT) May 17 03:23:17 kernel: Task : ffffffc01730eb00 ti: ffffffc01151c000 task.ti: ffffffc01151c000 May 17 03:23:17 kernel: PC on 0xf6dcc 90c May 17 03:23:17 kernel: LR at 0xf6dccfd4 May 17 03:23:1 7 kernel: pc: [<00000000f6dcc90c>] lr : [<00000000f6dccfd4>] pstate: 400f0010 May 17 03:23:17 kernel: sp: 000 00000fff3d154 May 17 03:23:17 3: 23:17 kernel: x12: 00000000fff3d188 May 17 03:23:17 kernel: x11:00000000fff3d1d4 x10: 00000000f76334c0 May 17 03:23:17 kernel: x9: 00000000fff3d189 x8: 0 0000000fff3d184 May 17 03:23:17 kernel : x7 : 000000000000000b x6: 00000000 00000000 May 17 03:23:17 kernel: x5: 00000000fff3e8bc x4 : 00000000fff3d420 May 17 03:23:17 kernel: x3: 00000000fff3e8bc 6e69622f x2: 00000 000fff3e8bc May 17 03:23:17 kernel: x1: 00000000fff3d420 x0 : ffffffffffffffff 4 May 17 03:23:51 watchdog: restart_firewall due to DST time change (1->0) May 17 03:23:51 rc_service: watchdog 1807: notify_rc restart_firewall May 17 03:23:51 :23:51 rc_service: watchdog 1807: notify_rc restart_wanMay 17 03:23:51 rc_service: Waiting for 'restart_firewall' to pass watchdog... May 17 03:23:51 Firewall: Rule application error (2857) May 17 03:23:51 Firewall: Rule application error (2892) May 17 Sun 03:23:51 service: Rule application error (17779) May 17 03:23:51 Firewall: Rule application error (4580) May 17 03 :23:52 miniupnpd[5322]: Closing MiniUPnPd May 17 03:23 :53 DualWAN: Skipping one wan wan_led_control - shutting down WANRED May 17 03:23:58 dnsmasq-dhcp[5503]: Failed to write in /var/lib/misc/dnsmasq.leases: No more space on device (60 seconds to retry)
So it did an automatic firmware update check at 3:18am (I turned off automatic updates again) and then 3 minutes later, the kernel got mad about something. As you can see at the bottom, other things start to fail as well. The dnsmasq error clearly shows that there is no free space in /var/lib/misc. /var is mounted as tmpfs, so I assume that means the router is running out of memory.
It seems to be fairly common to see the automatic firmware check in the logs every morning, although it failed on Monday if that's relevant:
May 15 03:18:05 watchdog: [FAUPGRADE][auto_firmware_check:(7669)]do webs_update May 15 03:19:17 watchdog:[FAUPGRADE][auto_firmware_check:(7737)] Unable to retrieve firmware INFO: webs_state_update= 1, webs_state_error=1, webs_state_dl_error=0, webs_state_info.len=23 May 15 03:19:46 WATCHDOG: [FAUPGRADE][auto_firmware_check:(7669)]do webs_update May 15 03:21:11 WATCHDOG: [FAUPGRADE] [auto_firmware_check:(77) 37) ] Unable to retrieve firmware info: webs_state_update=1, webs_state_error=1, webs_state_dl_error=0, webs_state_info.len=23 May 15 03:21:40 WATCHDOG: [FAUPGRADE][auto_firmware_check:( 766 9)] by webs_update May 15 03:22 :44 WATCHDOG: [FAUPGRADE][auto_firmware_check:(7737)] Failed to get firmware info: webs_state_update=1, webs_state_error=1, webs_state_dl_error=0, webs_state_info.len=23
It is not clear to me if the automatic firmware check has anything to do with the first appearance of the problem. Maybe it's one of several recurring tasks that run at that time? I usually seem to see this message about 30-40 minutes after the automatic firmware check:
ahs:[read_json] Update the ahs JSON file.
This seems to be related to the "ASUS healing system" which I don't even know if it's enabled. I also see the automatic update check and the ahs JSON message reappearing in the logs after my first router reboot, around 6:47am. Shortly after that the dnsmasq.leases "no more space on device" error appears again, so I think it's running out of RAM again - maybe asd is consuming CPU timeiMemory.
Does anyone have additional information on what is going on here? My two theories are: either asd downloaded the wrong file from Asus that caused the crash, or someone exploited a bug that was patched in one of the two latest Asus updates to my RT-AC86U router. If it's the latter, then it's obviously a matter of me not updating the firmware in time, but I can't help but wonder if it's an automatic file download in the middle of the night. I'm interested in what's going on! Has anyone used an ASUS router?YesHave you encountered a similar problem today?
FAQs
Why is my ASUS modem Internet not working? ›
Press the RESET button around 5~10 seconds until the Power LED indicator of router starts flashing, then you could stop pressing. In the meantime, all the LED indicators of the router should be off and it's a normal phenomenon because the router is rebooting itself.
How do I access ASUS router? ›ASUS router default address is http://www.asusrouter.com:8443, and with HTTPS protocol is https://www.asusrouter.com:8443. Step 1: Enter https://www.asusrouter.com:8443 on the URL bar in your browser to the WEB GUI. Step 2: Click on [Advanced], and then [Proceed to www.asusrouter.com(unsafe)].
Who makes ASUS routers? ›ASUSTeK Computer Incorporated (Asus) manufactures a series of network routers directly competing with Linksys routers from Belkin.
Is ASUS router also a modem? ›The Asus DSL-AC68U is a great 802.11ac modem router, with excellent software and decent performance at a reasonable price.
Why is the Internet not connecting to my router? ›Restarting your modem and router should be the first thing you do when encountering an internet signal issue. Don't skip this step! This is almost always what tech support will ask you to try first, as it often solves the problem. To restart your equipment, unplug the power cable for 60 seconds and plug it back in.
What causes router not to connect to internet? ›the first thing you'll want to do is try and restart your router. Sometimes, routers just seem to need to be rebooted occasionally to keep working well. It is quick and easy to reboot your router. Usually, you just unplug the power cable, give it a couple of seconds, and then plug it back in.
What is the admin password for ASUS router? ›If you are logging in to your Asus router for the first time or have restored your ASUS router to factory default status, you need to set the router login account and password first. Note: Some models or firmware versions have the default account, default username and password: [admin].
How long do ASUS routers last? ›Router age
Many experts suggest that if you don't use that many smart devices around your home, you can probably get away with replacing your router every five years.
The Asus RT-AXE7800 is a well-equipped Wi-Fi 6E router that offers good throughput performance and lots of features, including multi-gig connectivity, free parental control and network security software, and support for 6GHz data transmissions.
Is ASUS or Netgear better? ›If you're looking for the best performance, then a Netgear wireless router is the way to go. Their Nighthawk line of routers is some of the fastest and most reliable on the market. But, if you want faster speeds for your gaming activities, then Asus is the better choice.
Do I need a modem with ASUS router? ›
Your router must be connected to a modem in order to provide the local network with an Internet connection.
What is the difference between my router and my modem? ›A modem brings internet service into the home, and the router delivers the internet to the devices in your home via WiFi or an Ethernet cable.
What is the difference between a router and a modem? ›A modem is a box that connects your home network to your internet service provider, or ISP. A router is a box that lets all of your wired and wireless devices use that internet connection at once and allows them to talk to one another directly.
How do I fix my Asus network? ›- Click [Start menu] ①, then select [Settings] ②.
- Select [Network & internet]③, then select [Advanced network settings]④.
- Select [Network reset]⑤.
- Click [Reset now]⑥, then select [Yes]⑦. Your PC will be restarted after the reset is completed.
- If the problem persists, please continue the next troubleshooting step.
There are several reasons why this might happen: Your computer's WiFi adapter is faulty. Your internet service provider (ISP) is down. Your computer has an incorrect internet protocol (IP) address.
Why is the internet light red on my Asus router? ›What does the red light on Asus router mean? Asus router red light WAN means there's an issue connecting to the internet. The problem might arise because of a loose cable or wire or can be due to a local internet outage in your area.