Adding an AIMesh Node - why is this so hard?!?

[webreaper]

Sorry, I wrote "if I connect via WiFi" when I should have said "if I connect via wired". And yes, I'm connecting to. The router SSID.

This time instead of failing at 100% it's just sitting, spinning at 100%.

If I set the node up as a wireless router, upgrade it to Asus Merlin, and then restore the config from when it was an AIMesh node, will that work?

 

[Yota]

You haven't reset your main router all along, have you? Maybe you can create a backup, then reset your main router, add nodes and see what happens, if it still fails I'd consider a hardware issue.

 

[mmacedo]

If I set the node up as a wireless router, upgrade it to Asus Merlin, and then restore the config from when it was an AIMesh node, will that work?

Probably not.

Just to be clear and find out exactly where you are having issues:
1) Disconnect all ETH cables from the node
2) Reset the node: a) turn the node off; b) press and hold WPS button; c) turn node on; d) wait until the power led starts flashing (around 25 seconds on my nodes); e) release the WPS button; f) wait for the node to boot up
3) Connect your desktop / laptop / tablet / etc to the router either wirelessly or wired
4) In your browser, navigate to either router.asus.com or your router's IP address. You should be accessing you router's GUI, not your node's then
5) Disable WAN/Internet
6) Connected an ETH cable to one of the LAN ports of the router and to the WAN port of the node
7) In the router's GUI, start the Add AiMesh Node and wait for it to complete. It may finish fine before reaching 100% and display a success message. It happened to me more than once to think it was an error as it finished earlier than I expected. So, be sure before you assume it failed.
8) Enable WAN/Internet

 

[mmacedo]

Just one more thing that just occurred to me:

4.5) If your node had previously been added to the router and appears as disconnected on the AiMesh tab, remove the node

 

[JohnD5000]

Sorry, I wrote "if I connect via WiFi" when I should have said "if I connect via wired". And yes, I'm connecting to. The router SSID.

This time instead of failing at 100% it's just sitting, spinning at 100%.

If I set the node up as a wireless router, upgrade it to Asus Merlin, and then restore the config from when it was an AIMesh node, will that work?

This kept happening to me about 7 - mos ago when I was trying to add node. Finally, I just unplugged the node, waited 5 minutes, then retried and everything worked fine. If you haven't, unplug for a while. I was unplugging for 30 sec, but that didn't work. Been running fine since then.

 

[webreaper]

You haven't reset your main router all along, have you? Maybe you can create a backup, then reset your main router, add nodes and see what happens, if it still fails I'd consider a hardware issue.

I haven't reset the router, no, and I don't really want to if I can avoid it.

Hardware issue is unlikely as these two were both working just fine as AIMesh nodes until about a week ago.

I think the other poster who suggested deleting the node might be onto something - I'll check if that's the issue.

 

[webreaper]

Probably not.

Just to be clear and find out exactly where you are having issues:
1) Disconnect all ETH cables from the node
2) Reset the node: a) turn the node off; b) press and hold WPS button; c) turn node on; d) wait until the power led starts flashing (around 25 seconds on my nodes); e) release the WPS button; f) wait for the node to boot up
3) Connect your desktop / laptop / tablet / etc to the router either wirelessly or wired
4) In your browser, navigate to either router.asus.com or your router's IP address. You should be accessing you router's GUI, not your node's then
5) Disable WAN/Internet
6) Connected an ETH cable to one of the LAN ports of the router and to the WAN port of the node
7) In the router's GUI, start the Add AiMesh Node and wait for it to complete. It may finish fine before reaching 100% and display a success message. It happened to me more than once to think it was an error as it finished earlier than I expected. So, be sure before you assume it failed.
8) Enable WAN/Internet

Thanks, I'll try this later. I wasn't connecting my router to my laptop via ETH - I was just using WiFi to access the GUI - so maybe that's it.

 

[webreaper]

Okay, so this morning's update:

Realised from the comments above that I should connect the AINode to the WAN port, not the LAN ports....

Also decided to take the plunge and factory-reset the AIMesh Router (AC86U) as well as the node. So I backed up the settings, and factory-reset.

Initiated the AIMesh node seek from the app on my phone, and it took 3-4 minutes saying it was adding it, then said it had failed. But.... when I went to the admin page for the router, the AIMesh node was there! Hurrah!

Then I made a fatal mistake - of restoring the config on the router, which blew away the AIMesh node.

I'll have another go - just need to manually reconfigure all my settings. What a complete PITA this all is.

 

[webreaper]

And final update - I rebooted both, and the re-added the node, and it worked first time. So the absolute key here is to connect the AIMesh router's ethernet LAN port to the AIMesh Node's WAN port. That was the bit I was missing.

Thanks for the help everyone - and apologies for the long rambling and painful thread. Got there in the end!!

 

[uwish]

I never got AImesh to work running Merlin on any supported firmware. I had to revert to stock, then flash my Router to Merlin. I still cannot run any nodes with Merlin it looses connection even with the wired backhaul.

 

[webreaper]

Interesting. When I finally got the node added, I had Merlin on the router and latest Asus on the node. And before all of this I was running the node and Router both on Merlin for about 18 months without issue.

 

[Yota]

So the absolute key here is

The key is three points: WPA, factory reset and LAN to WAN.

 

[webreaper]

I'm not sure WPA is relevant - assuming that you're using a wired connection to add the node? I didn't touch my WPA settings.

Although who knows. The real secret seems to be "just keep trying random stuff until it eventually works for no apparent reason, and then move on with your life - there is no actual pattern to what makes it work".

 

[Yota]

I'm not sure WPA is relevant - assuming that you're using a wired connection to add the node? I didn't touch my WPA settings.

I made a typo, it's WPS

Although who knows. The real secret seems to be "just keep trying random stuff until it eventually works for no apparent reason, and then move on with your life - there is no actual pattern to what makes it work".

You are right, glad you solved the problem.

 

[Maverick009]

I have played with Aimesh on my network with an AX11000 and AC3100 Router in a mixed setup currently.

I would recommend a wired back haul, especially when setting up the first time. Make sure the ethernet on the node is plugged into the WAN port and you can plug into a regular eth port on the main router. This will allow Aimesh to detect and setup correctly.

If having any problems, I would recommend updating to latest firmwares and resetting both routers and than try. Worse case you can run both routers in recovery mode to update firmware and then try the method I mentioned as I only had to ever do that once. Remember the one being used as a node always needs to be factory reset in order to setup as a node.

 

[vibroverbus]

In my experience, when I have an unit that I've just reset and I connect a cable with Internet connection to its WAN port, it detects this internet connection and after a few minutes sets itself to router mode. Then you can't add it as a node anymore until you reset it again. This happens even if I had been able to find the unit and started the add node process, so it fails midway.

The solution I found is to disable Internet on the router before connecting the ETH cable to the WAN port of the node to be added. After this node is added to the AiMesh, then you can enable Internet again.

Oh man. THANK YOU SO MUCH. I spent HOURS on an AiMesh setup today. And exactly what you describe is what it seemed like was happening. Like the node - despite me telling it "be an F-ing NODE dammit" would come up and start thinking it should just be a router because it was getting good DHCP and double-NAT from the main router. In fact I could connect to it on the 'factory' Wifi name and just be happily on the internet.

I tried "all the things". Merlin/OE Asus FW combos. Total OE ASUS firmwares installs and resets. Many many resets. WPS on/off whatever million setting variations. Many more resets.
Yes, sometimes the node would be seen (wait no this is it great...!) and the process would start but then crap out before finishing (F#*$*%&^#).

Success came fairly easily from - following seeing this post:

1. Reset the node on latest Asus OE FW
2. Log into the node, tell it "Be an F-ing node you stupid node"
3. Turn off WAN on main router while its rebooting
4. Add AiMesh node on main router
5. Open beer
6. ???
7. Profit!

It also explains all the "I don't know what I did but after 100 tries it finally worked" threads. By dumb luck eventually you might stumble on doing it fast enough that the AiMesh Node process completed before the node decided "no wait F-it I want to be a router instead!"

Thanks man. This should be more well publicized cuz there's a load of these threads and the most common instructions are just "use ethernet backhaul and it will be fine" which is patently not enough.

 

[Wisiwyg]

One thing that fixed my AIMesh problems a few years ago was to always have the mesh-capable node running stock Asus firmware and the main mesh router running Merlin. In some cases, I'd move the mesh node into the same room as the router when trying to pair wirelessly, then move the node to where I wanted after pairing. Having direct wired backhaul works well, but found using stock fw on node worked about the same. Your and others' experience may vary.

 

[Smokey613]

One other thing to keep in mind is if you are using the SmartConnect option. Some of the older non HND units do not support this wifi option. This will cause issues if example you are running a RT-AC86U as the main router and a RT-AC68U as the AiMesh node.

 

[IslandGator]

Gentlemen,
Thanks for all the help. I have now connected my Merlin Main Router AC88U running 386.10 to 5 AC68U or AC1900P Mesh nodes by using the cable method. Wasn't able to connect to the Mesh via WIFI no matter what I did. But now, another problem has arisen. Once a node becomes connected and shown in the AiMesh> tab, Uplink Type shows as (Ethernet) or (Ethernet Only). There is no drop down selection that shows (Auto) (Ethernet) or (5G) as in past builds, sooo there is no way to connect to the Boat Dock which is 200ft from the closest node. I tried to disconnect the node used at the boat dock and brought it in and sat it right next to the Main Router, and it doesnt try and connect via wifi the the router. This network has worked fine for 2 years now and all hell has broke loose since I left 386.7_2.
So how do I get one of my AC68Us to do an WIFI uplink again?

Thanks
IslandGator

 

[Maverick009]

Gentlemen,
Thanks for all the help. I have now connected my Merlin Main Router AC88U running 386.10 to 5 AC68U or AC1900P Mesh nodes by using the cable method. Wasn't able to connect to the Mesh via WIFI no matter what I did. But now, another problem has arisen. Once a node becomes connected and shown in the AiMesh> tab, Uplink Type shows as (Ethernet) or (Ethernet Only). There is no drop down selection that shows (Auto) (Ethernet) or (5G) as in past builds, sooo there is no way to connect to the Boat Dock which is 200ft from the closest node. I tried to disconnect the node used at the boat dock and brought it in and sat it right next to the Main Router, and it doesnt try and connect via wifi the the router. This network has worked fine for 2 years now and all hell has broke loose since I left 386.7_2.
So how do I get one of my AC68Us to do an WIFI uplink again?

Thanks
IslandGator

Try running it wired long enough to set up the device as a mesh node. Once done, should be able to unplug the ethernet and it will connect by wifi than. Make sure the main router is set to auto.