3006 firmware Aimesh question

[Bill S]

really excited that rmerlin has made available 3006 firmware for the RT-AX88U Pro. Question about Aimesh, do nodes need to be running 3006 firmware to be able to use VLANs? Assuming so, does it matter if its asus stock or asusmerlin firmware?

Asking be sure I purchase a compatible device to be the AP node.

 

[bbunge]

Quick answer - No.

I am not running Merlin on my node. Yes, I have run Merlin on the node mainly to get an up to date version of Samba. I have a 2 TB drive in an USB3 enclosure attached to the AiMesh node that I use to store video files but not used for streaming.

It is a good idea to use a router as an AiMesh node that is of the same series as the router (AX-AX).

 

[Seth Harman]

I have never run any of my AIMesh nodes with Merlin firmware but this is a good question as there is no 3006-series firmware for my nodes (both are RT-AX58Us, main router is an RT-AX88U Pro) and it appears there never will be so I'm also curious to know for sure if the 3006-series specific features like VLANs will work if the main router is updated to 3006-series and the AIMesh nodes remain on 3004-series.

 

[jksmurf]

I have never run any of my AIMesh nodes with Merlin firmware but this is a good question as there is no 3006-series firmware for my nodes (both are RT-AX58Us, main router is an RT-AX88U Pro) and it appears there never will be so I'm also curious to know for sure if the 3006-series specific features like VLANs will work if the main router is updated to 3006-series and the AIMesh nodes remain on 3004-series.

Your setup is almost identical to mine RT-AX88U Pro on 3006, have tested my RT-AX3000 node (identical to RT-AX58U) with both stock and Merlin FW, both fine.

To the OP, many say use stock on the node, I prefer Merlin for some addons I use for maintenance etc. but in truth it’s absolutely not necessary.

 

[bbunge]

I have never run any of my AIMesh nodes with Merlin firmware but this is a good question as there is no 3006-series firmware for my nodes (both are RT-AX58Us, main router is an RT-AX88U Pro) and it appears there never will be so I'm also curious to know for sure if the 3006-series specific features like VLANs will work if the main router is updated to 3006-series and the AIMesh nodes remain on 3004-series.

The 3.0.0.4 series of firmware should work with one VLAN for each WIFI band (2.4 and 5 GHz) This is the same as the guest network 1 on the 3.0.0.4 firmware. However, if I remember my early testing, the VLAN will not work on the node Ethernet ports. There may be some scripting that can get it to work on the node Ethernet ports.