A "Sophie's Choice": AiMesh or Merlin?

[talon_262]

I've been running Merlin on my Asus routers for a few years now (my current routers are a RT-AC56U [which Asus and Merlin just EOL'ed] and a RT-AC66U [which got EOL'ed a good while back by Asus and Merlin, but which I kept since it's not my main router, just as an AP]). I have a simple rectangular two-story house (24' x 40', approx. 1600 sq.ft.); the RT-56U is in my network "closet" in the front corner of the house on the 2nd floor and serves as the router/main AP and the RT-AC66U is mid-house on the 1st floor as the secondary AP. Both APs are set up with the same SSIDs on each WiFi mode (one for 2.4GHz, a slightly different one denoted for 5 GHz) and all are on different channels, being careful to avoid the most congested channels in the neighborhood, if possible; over the years, I've thought it's worked OK, especially for static/relatively static devices, but I have had some complaints of suboptimal connections/roaming from those in the household when using their phones, tablets, and laptops and moving about the house.

Over the past couple of weeks, seeing the writing on the wall for the RT-AC56U, I've been shopping for replacements; I've been focusing on routers that are both AiMesh-enabled and are supported by Merlin, but don't cost an arm and a leg. I came across a used RT-AC86U on eBay for $122 (with free shipping) to be my main router/AP replacement, which I pounced on and which is currently enroute to me, and I figured the second one I get is likely to be a RT-AC68U that will be the replacement for the RT-AC66U. Problem is, Asus hasn't released the AiMesh source code (and they may never release it), so Merlin and other 3rd-party firmware builders can't add it to their builds.

Now, the biggest question is: do I just set them up as regular APs with Merlin, as I've done for years, or do I go for AiMesh on the stock firmwares? I love what Merlin has done over the years, but if AiMesh is currently up-to-snuff, I may not have much of a choice but to go stock in order to use it.

*sigh*

 

[JDB]

First. A small correction, the AiMesh is in the released GPL’s it’s just it clashes with so many of Merlin’s enhancements that including it would mean some of his changes would have to be removed or maintain a second AiMesh branch with them removed.

I also had this choice as I definitely needed a mesh as I have 3 floors, but also definitely needed Merlin as my ISP was not supported on stock ASUS.

In the end I bit the bullet and did both. I have an AC88U running Merlin and Wi-fi disabled, an AC5300 as an AP (AiMesh Router) and a second AC5300 as an AiMesh Node. It works great, the only thing I miss is Merlins enhanced Wireless info page on the AiMesh ones. I will be adding an AC86U shortly (either as another Node to cover the conservatory/garden better, or put the 88U in that role and make the 86U the Merlin router).

They are all connected via a backbone of TP-Link AV2000 PowerLine adaptors most giving 1Gbps+ actual throughput.

Obviously this is not cheap (though lesser routers can of course be used)! But I can say it works GREAT! I can be on a WiFiCall on my phone and walk around roaming and the worst is a 1-2 second drop in voice but that is rare, it’s normally seamless (though can be reliably reproduced if you power off the AiMesh mode you are attached to, but you can’t expect better than that IMO).

I work from home and not always in my office, plus make many VoIP calls as I wander around the house, so I’m very sensitive to good WiFi!


Food for thought at least on what’s possible if you really want/need both options. Maybe go for a stock Asus setup first with 2 routers as Main Router and Node and see how much of Merlins features you miss, then add a 3rd router later (spreading the cost) if needs be?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[talon_262]

Hmmm...that sounds like about a very good way to have my cake (running Merlin on the router, where I can take advantage of his optimizations, as well as security enhancements such as Skynet and Diversion, which I haven't played with yet) and eat it too (being able to use AiMesh for the APs), though I'm not thrilled with having to buy another router-as-AiMesh AP (for three total, when the plan was two).

 

[chevyman142000]

What route did you end up going with this? How are things working? I'm in a somewhat similar situation. I currently have 1 AC68U on the 2nd story that is covering the whole house. As you can guess, coverage in the basement and edges of the house is lacking. Was thinking about getting an AC86U as the main router and wifi, and then place the AC68U on the first floor.

Thanks!

 

[Toddimus]

For what it's worth, I am using an AC86U as my main router and two AC87U's set up as access points. All running Merlin's latest firmware. I have the SSIDs set on each device as the same name across all three devices (i.e. ASUS_5G and ASUS_2_4G is the same on all three devices). I then set up "roaming assistant" on the WiFi professional page of each router to "kick off" devices with low RSSI power (less than -60 and -70 found by testing). I also reduced the transmit power on one of the AC87U APs, which helps to steer clients away to another AP when they get too far. This seems to work pretty well and effectively gives me a "mesh" system. My laptop is usually only on the main AC86U but our iPhones seem to roam pretty well with this setup. Occasionally, I need to cycle the WiFi on clients to force them to find the stronger AP signal. This usually happens if one of the routers are rebooted and the client clings onto a lower powered AP.

 

[talon_262]

What route did you end up going with this? How are things working? I'm in a somewhat similar situation. I currently have 1 AC68U on the 2nd story that is covering the whole house. As you can guess, coverage in the basement and edges of the house is lacking. Was thinking about getting an AC86U as the main router and wifi, and then place the AC68U on the first floor.

Thanks!

See my most recent post here:

RT-AC5300 Wireless Info/Merlin and AiMesh