GT-AX11000 - WHY? communication w/ Korea, Singapore, Taiwan.

[Nux]

GT-AX11000.    I have it in AP Mode.  The GT-AX11000 is not performing NAT function.
I have a Firewall / IPS upstream.   Topology.  [ ISP ] --- [ Firewall ] --- [ GT-AX11000(AP Mode) ]
I noticed the GT-AX11000 communicating ( A LOT ).

UDP, port ranging from 33437 - 33468, very sequential. & A lot of it!!   going to places like South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan, to name a few.

Here is a picture.

 Questions:

• Why?
• How do I stop it?  What setting(s) within the GT-AX11000 will stop this behavior?

Thank you

[Nux]

Thank you for your interest.  Unfortunately no..  My questions remain. Why?! And how do I stop it.

[jzchen]

To me it is client traffic, but you say it’s from the router.  Disconnect all clients as a test.  Try connecting them upstream of the AX11000 but behind the firewall, see if the traffic persists.

[Nux]

Thank you for your continued interest jzchen. 
I completely isolated the GT-AX11000 afterwork today. 
Topology:

Laptop plugged into GT-AX11000 wan port.
Laptop IP: 192.168.2.1, 
GT-AX11000 IP:  192.168.2.125

No other clients are attached.

please see video 
https://youtu.be/lei_DrJ1Byk

I see traffic generated from the GT-AX11000.

I think it may have something todo with the Game Radar "Widget".

Do you know how I can stop the game radar?

[jzchen]

I don't play games so even though through curiosity I checked it, I don't normally go to Game Radar.  I did Google how to turn it off but found nothing helpful to turn it off.

I did notice once I open it under General -> Game Radar it immediately starts pinging the servers for Diablo III, (the default game selected).  It seems to coincide with opening Game Radar.  (I'd be surprised if it pings the servers otherwise).  If I select a different game, it will ping a different set of servers.  It then reports the latency in ms one by one.  If I understand the purpose correctly you then open the game and choose the server with the lowest ping, for the best game play.

Is the BIOS the latest version?  I would factory/hard reset it and check again, (kind of my last hope).

Thank you for sharing this by the way!

[Nux]

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I don't play games either,.. or at least those that are selectable. 🙂 .  I still play Wolfenstein 3D in DOS 6.22 🙂

"I did notice once I open it under General -> Game Radar it immediately starts pinging the servers for Diablo III, (the default game selected). " 
-- For me, it starts pinging as soon as I log in ( I think that widget on the home screen causes it for me)

"Is the BIOS the latest version?"
-- Yeah I believe so: 3.0.0.4.388.23285
"I would factory/hard reset it and check again, (kind of my last hope)."
-- I really don't want to (that's what started this expedition for me.)   I think we beat this dead horse enough. 🙂  Not saying I won't,.. I've lost stamina chasing this rabbit right now.  

I believe we have figured out what is causing this communication to Korea, Singapore, etc..  "Game Radar".
And there is no obvious way to turn that behavior off.  I will see if there is a way to file a feature request.  For me, I rather not have this communication and would appreciate having the control to "turn it on or off".

"Thank you for sharing this by the way!"
-- Absolutely,  I just wanted to know Why? and what switch do I flip off.

jzchen, thank you for being an active member in this community.

[jzchen]

I will definitely report this to the higher up that I communicate with.  They may ask you to send a Feedback where they can hopefully see this issue.  This is a "mature" router that shouldn't be doing this!  (I'm afraid I don't have one of this specific model to test as an aside).

Wolfenstein 3D immediately reminds me of the dial up handshake tones!  Oh, the memories....

[jzchen]

Interestingly, the Game Radar widget is much smaller and hence less conspicious on the new to me GT-BE98 Pro.  Prior to this morning I thought that map was showing inbound pings from foreign threats!  Yes, it starts pinging servers as soon as I log in on the 3.0.0.6 BIOS.

I have sent an email to the Administrator here about the concern asking if it might be possible to turn it off unless Game Radar is specifically selected.  It is night there in Taiwan right now, so I hope for a response by tomorrow.  (He's likely to respond by tonight local time).

[Nux]

Wow, Thank you jzchen for all that you do!  Thank you for reporting this higher.   It is community members such as yourself that make these forums!

"They may ask you to send a Feedback where they can hopefully see this issue."
-- I am more than happy to provide feedback where I can.  I will even factory reset the product if it helps show case this issue.

[jzchen]

I don't think the feedback is necessary now, because I understand where the traffic is coming from, and it is quite obvious where it is coming from.  Like I mentioned I originally thought that was showing inbound pings and "threat level".  Most of the time they say "Low" but whenever there's a "High" it worried me quite deeply.  Little did I know that is router traffic going out.  ☹️

Anyways, Feedback is always available under Advanced Settings -> Administration -> Feedback (tab)

Don't be surprised if you get an email from ASUS trying to help but the topic is beyond the scope of the issue.

[jzchen]

I did get a response that evening that they are going to discuss the pros and cons of changing it’s default action.

In the meantime I found the World of Tanks game has a single server in Russia so I select that one whenever I log into the Web GUI/ASUSwrt.  (It seems to reset after logging out, which sucks).