2.5gb or 1gb wan port AX86U

[BreakingDad]

Morning,

I notice that the new router I'm having delivered today has a 2.5gb wan port and also a 1gb wan port.

I have 200/20 cable.

Could someone explain how this works?

Should I be using the 2.5gb port to go to my modem or the 1gb port?

Also does the unused port then double as an extra LAN port?


Thanks Matt

 

[Hawk]

Morning,

I notice that the new router I'm having delivered today has a 2.5gb wan port and also a 1gb wan port.

I have 200/20 cable.

Could someone explain how this works?

Should I be using the 2.5gb port to go to my modem or the 1gb port?

Also does the unused port then double as an extra LAN port?


Thanks Matt

2.5 Gbps port can act as Lan or Wan, naturally you can only use it for one purpose at a time. Since you have 200/20 cable, using regular 1 Gbps wan is recommended.

 

[BreakingDad]

Thanks, that's great, a spare Lan may come in handy one day.

 

[OzarkEdge]

Morning,

I notice that the new router I'm having delivered today has a 2.5gb wan port and also a 1gb wan port.

I have 200/20 cable.

Could someone explain how this works?

Should I be using the 2.5gb port to go to my modem or the 1gb port?

Also does the unused port then double as an extra LAN port?


Thanks Matt

The 2.5 Gbps WAN/LAN port requires a similarly capable port on the other end. If you have none, consider it a 1 Gbps LAN port.

OE

 

[L&LD]

But it makes a great wired backhaul connection to a second RT-AX86U in AiMesh 2.0.

 

[SoCalReviews]

But it makes a great wired backhaul connection to a second RT-AX86U in AiMesh 2.0.

It seems so simple but what a brilliant suggestion!

...and I would use CAT 8 Ethernet cable for that 2.5Gb wired backhaul connection.

 

[L&LD]

Or, 100' of Cat5e works great too.

 

[SoCalReviews]

Or, 100' of Cat5e works great too.

That is what I'm currently using right now running from the AX86U 1Gb LAN port on one side of the home to 1Gb switches on the other side. I am already experiencing measurable performance limitations over those longer runs with the Cat5e but those runs of cable are probably much longer than 100'.

I dread having to pull new cable through the walls and under the home. I really want to run Cat 8 but with the extended 5Ghz Wifi reach of the AX86U I am now having second thoughts about whether using hard wire Ethernet cable is even necessary.

 

[L&LD]

To clarify, that 100' of Cat5e Ethernet cable is connecting the two RT-AX86U's via the 2.5GbE Ports on each router. You may not need to run new cables; you may just need new switches that support greater than 1GbE.

 

[avtella]

Unless you have a 2Gb or greater internet plan or an ISP that overprovisions their gig profile like my ISP Comcast which gives up to 1.2 Gbps, I’d say keep the 1Gig port for WAN and use the 2.5 for a NAS if you have one. If you have a NAS and an extra AX86U as an AP it still makes sense to leave the 2.5 Gbe for the NAS and a 1 Gbe for the 2nd AP. This way at least on of the routers you can break the 1 Gbe barrier when doing transfers to the NAS, since clients with the Intel AC9260 and AX200/210 can easily do that on HT160. Unless you are doing a lot of WiFi to WiFi LAN transfers I personally see no point in using 2.5 Gbe for backhaul, unless you have a multigig switch.

 

[L&LD]

One point may be to leave the 4 1GbE Ports free for actual client devices.

 

[_Jon_]

2.5 gbe for backhaul is broken, even in 9.0.0.4_386_41157. It *looks* like they fixed this issue in the latest firmware because it finally acknowledges the 2.5G port in the node configuration, but when you try to use it, the main router still can't see the mesh node. so, backhaul must be 1 gbe or wifi for now.

 

[RMerlin]

2.5 gbe for backhaul is broken, even in 9.0.0.4_386_41157. It *looks* like they fixed this issue in the latest firmware because it finally acknowledges the 2.5G port in the node configuration, but when you try to use it, the main router still can't see the mesh node. so, backhaul must be 1 gbe or wifi for now.

Must be specific to the RT-AX86U. When I played with a pair of Zen Wifi XT8 a few months ago, the 2.5 Gbps backhaul seemed to work properly between the two.

 

[_Jon_]

yes, others mention this issue here, and I can confirm this with my own experience with the latest firmware:

2.5gb aimesh Ethernet backhaul

I got 2 rt-Ax86u routers today one for my main router and one for the aimesh node. But I can't for the life of me get the aimesh ethernet backhaul working over the 2.5gb port. It only works when I plug it into the wan port on the node. how can I change the wan port to be the 2.5gb port on an...

www.snbforums.com

 

[L&LD]

Two RT-AX86U's with dirty upgraded RMerlin 386.1 Beta 3 (dirty since Beta 1).

No issues with 2.5GbE backhaul since Beta 1.

 

[_Jon_]

strange - I haven't been able to get it to work. merlin on both units or just the main router? is the second unit an AiMesh node or an access point? with the stock firmware the 2.5 gbe port works unless I try to use it to connect an AiMesh node. I had enough stability trouble with the latest version that I had to go back to the previous. Merlin sounds promising, but my family would never tolerate beta software on our router. fingers crossed for the first stable version.

 

[kernol]

Two RT-AX86U's with dirty upgraded RMerlin 386.1 Beta 3 (dirty since Beta 1).

No issues with 2.5GbE backhaul since Beta 1.

Hi @L&LD - can you share your settings on how you have configured the 2.5Gb backhaul between 2 AX86U's? If already in a post - please direct me ... would enjoy to do the same seeing as I have 2 of them as well.

 

[Expose11]

2.5 gbe for backhaul is broken, even in 9.0.0.4_386_41157. It *looks* like they fixed this issue in the latest firmware because it finally acknowledges the 2.5G port in the node configuration, but when you try to use it, the main router still can't see the mesh node. so, backhaul must be 1 gbe or wifi for now.

This is the second time I'm seeing this. I have an AX86U as router and AC86U as node in AiMesh. Using 2.5gb port as backhaul and it's working fine. Speed tests from clients on the node all hit max. Using Merlin's 386 beta2. What exactly is the problem?

 

[L&LD]

@kernol here is what inspired me too.

Two AX86U Aimesh @2.5G Ethernet backhaul possible? | SmallNetBuilder Forums (snbforums.com)

 

[_Jon_]

yeah, I got similar results - it said great connection and disconnected simultaneously. but, the router was unstable. all of my devices lost their connection several times that day until I rebooted the router each time. i went back to the previous version. I can live without 2.5g for now though I am growing a bit impatient to use the features that I paid for.