Access point mode: unable to use AirPlay

[ali.]

I have PfSense as my main router. All AirPlay devices are in one subnet, and the same subnet broadcasts on all Asus access points. The main node is GT-AX11000, and the remote nodes are AX-86U and AX68U. I have tried every way, and the Sony Bravia television does not show up in the AirPlay device list.

All nodes are running Merlin.

Enabled IMGP Snooping and disabled it. Nothing seems to work.

Frustrated to no end, any help is much appreciated.

Edit: after @sucka's reply, I separated the bands and the AirPlay worked for few hours but its back to not working. I think it has more to do with the Asus' access point mode. I will post another thread to seek help on how to run in router mode but with DHCP and NAT disabled.

 

[sucka]

Sadly, i can't help you with much, but i can say about my experience with bugs in ap mode.

I have a be98 and for me airplay and everything works when i try to use it with pfsense in ap mode, my problem is i get around half the wifi speed and a little more unstable connections for sensible devices(things like homepod wich like to disconnect from wifi), tested this with my old axe16000 and had the same problem, and same results with stock or merlin, so maybe some routers have some problems in ap mode.
Plus, i even tested not using ap mode, and just using router mode and disabling wan and dhcp server, firewall, and connecting pfsense gateway directly to the lan, and to no change for the problems i have hit.
The only thing i found i can do is just report to asus the problem, and maybe someday asus fixes it, if not, maybe il get bored and just replace it with a dedicated ap and get done with it, but i would of preferred the hardware wifi configuration the router has, which is hard to find in just an ap.

Oh and funny thing, to have stable connection for my homepods for axe16000 i needed to enable igmp snooping, for be98 i need to disable it, if i do not do this, after some minutes, the homepods disconnect.

 

[ali.]

Sadly, i can't help you with much, but i can say about my experience with bugs in ap mode.

I have a be98 and for me airplay and everything works when i try to use it with pfsense in ap mode, my problem is i get around half the wifi speed and a little more unstable connections for sensible devices(things like homepod wich like to disconnect from wifi), tested this with my old axe16000 and had the same problem, and same results with stock or merlin, so maybe some routers have some problems in ap mode.
Plus, i even tested not using ap mode, and just using router mode and disabling wan and dhcp server, firewall, and connecting pfsense gateway directly to the lan, and to no change for the problems i have hit.
The only thing i found i can do is just report to asus the problem, and maybe someday asus fixes it, if not, maybe il get bored and just replace it with a dedicated ap and get done with it, but i would of preferred the hardware wifi configuration the router has, which is hard to find in just an ap.

Oh and funny thing, to have stable connection for my homepods for axe16000 i needed to enable igmp snooping, for be98 i need to disable it, if i do not do this, after some minutes, the homepods disconnect.

Thanks, @sucka. I took your advice, played around, and found that the AirPlay issue is related to the Smart Connect technology. I separated the bands, and now AirPlay is working without an issue.

 

[sorachan]

Thanks, @sucka. I took your advice, played around, and found that the AirPlay issue is related to the Smart Connect technology. I separated the bands, and now AirPlay is working without an issue.

Smart Connect is a broadcom module that provides very minimal benefits while causing you a huge amount of trouble to configure properly. In my opinion it’s generally better to avoid using it.