I recently replaced my two RT-AC3100 routers with RT-AX88Us on Merlin 3004.388.7. I have two RT-AX88U's in my home: one downstairs and one upstairs acting as an AiMesh node. They are connected via a wired connection that goes through a MoCA adapter. This enables the node to have a wired ethernet backhaul to the router.
The node is also acting as a switch for other wired devices in a networking closet. Specifically, a PC, a NAS, a stereo, and the MoCA adapter. When I replaced the RT-AC3100 node with the RT-AX88U node and did a speed test on the PC, I noticed that the speeds were inconsistent. They'd go from close to 500Mb down to 60Mb and up again throughout the test. This did not happen with the RT-AC3100, so I did some additional diagnostics. I have a spare switch, so did the following:
Node: WAN port connected to switch
Switch: PC, NAS, Stereo, MoCA Adapter, Node
If I remove the node from the switch, the PC's speeds are rock solid near 500Mb. If I attach the node to the switch, the speeds are inconsistent again and have a lot of variance. I rebooted the node and it did not help. This tells me something that the RT-AX88U is doing is causing a lot of issues on the network that's affecting its stability. Does anyone know what could cause this? Could this be hardware or software?
Update: I looked at Wireshark and I couldn't see anything abnormal when filtering to the router's MAC address. Just a bunch of standard STP messages every few seconds. I'm stumped.
Update 2: Probably coincidence + MoCA network + network traffic. Fun times.
Update 3: Definitively confirmed it's a bad router. Tried two AC-3100s as nodes and had no problems. AX-88U keeps having issues. Returning it. Speeds on the network plummet to 30Mbps randomly when it's plugged in and stay stable at 500Mbps when it's unplugged. Occurs consistently. Very strange. Never had this one happen before.
The node is also acting as a switch for other wired devices in a networking closet. Specifically, a PC, a NAS, a stereo, and the MoCA adapter. When I replaced the RT-AC3100 node with the RT-AX88U node and did a speed test on the PC, I noticed that the speeds were inconsistent. They'd go from close to 500Mb down to 60Mb and up again throughout the test. This did not happen with the RT-AC3100, so I did some additional diagnostics. I have a spare switch, so did the following:
Node: WAN port connected to switch
Switch: PC, NAS, Stereo, MoCA Adapter, Node
If I remove the node from the switch, the PC's speeds are rock solid near 500Mb. If I attach the node to the switch, the speeds are inconsistent again and have a lot of variance. I rebooted the node and it did not help. This tells me something that the RT-AX88U is doing is causing a lot of issues on the network that's affecting its stability. Does anyone know what could cause this? Could this be hardware or software?
Update: I looked at Wireshark and I couldn't see anything abnormal when filtering to the router's MAC address. Just a bunch of standard STP messages every few seconds. I'm stumped.
Update 2: Probably coincidence + MoCA network + network traffic. Fun times.
Update 3: Definitively confirmed it's a bad router. Tried two AC-3100s as nodes and had no problems. AX-88U keeps having issues. Returning it. Speeds on the network plummet to 30Mbps randomly when it's plugged in and stay stable at 500Mbps when it's unplugged. Occurs consistently. Very strange. Never had this one happen before.
Last edited:
