AiMesh firmware release 3.0.0.4.384_32799 not stable

[Chiku]

Is 21140 good for RT68U as well ? I Tried on 3 of my RT68U- Wireless AIMesh node kept reporting it as offline after sometime.
Did I do something wrong? As 32799 seems to be working good for few days.

 

[Patrick Ma]

If you have not reset yet, I would load 21140, reset each device, and rebuild from scratch to preclude any weird behavior.

I can't interpret the router processes, sorry.

OE

OK, will I be able to save the current settings first (i got vpn, port forwarding and etc) and would love not to re-enter those again. thanks

 

[OzarkEdge]

OK, will I be able to save the current settings first (i got vpn, port forwarding and etc) and would love not to re-enter those again. thanks

You can try to restore. Here's a reset FAQ. But, I would recommend getting your network installed/working first before building it up and using maintenance/restore functions. You're currently dropping the node 15' away... that's not a stable network.

OE

 

[OzarkEdge]

Is 21140 good for RT68U as well ? I Tried on 3 of my RT68U- Wireless AIMesh node kept reporting it as offline after sometime.
Did I do something wrong? As 32799 seems to be working good for few days.

The suspect version is the one that introduced Blue Cave support, and subsequent versions. If your network was working on 32799, why did you try to change it?

OE

 

[Chiku]

The suspect version is the one that introduced Blue Cave support, and subsequent versions. If your network was working on 32799, why did you try to change it?

OE

Thought you Gurus are recomendingso there must be more stability and speed between the nodes as I am looking majorly for 3 Level house (Basement, 1st floor, 2nd floor) with AiMesh. So tried changing but was facing the issue, hence asked if I may be doing something wrong.

 

[Patrick Ma]

ok, just installed 21140 in both aimesh router and aimesh node.
did not however do the factory reset. want to just make 1 change at a time and test it out.
thanks

 

[OzarkEdge]

ok, just installed 21140 in both aimesh router and aimesh node.
did not however do the factory reset. want to just make 1 change at a time and test it out.
thanks

Good plan. Not knowing the history of your devices, I'd do the resets when you're ready and before tweaking things to taste. That FAQ explains why.

OE

 

[OzarkEdge]

Thought you Gurus are recomendingso there must be more stability and speed between the nodes as I am looking majorly for 3 Level house (Basement, 1st floor, 2nd floor) with AiMesh. So tried changing but was facing the issue, hence asked if I may be doing something wrong.

So, you have a 3xRT-AC68U Aimesh? A node on each of 3 levels? Where's the router/root node? What firmware is on each node? Two wireless backhauls... how long? Are you using separate SSIDs for each band? And what do you want to do?

OE

 

[Chiku]

So, you have a 3xRT-AC68U Aimesh? A node on each of 3 levels? Where's the router/root node? What firmware is on each node? Two wireless backhauls... how long? And what do you want to do?

OE

Two use cases (One for Friend) - Both involving 3 RT68U
Yes Separate SSID for each band

1st use Case
One Main Router (with AI Mesh enabled connected with ISP)- Basement
2nd and 3rd Level Wireless backhaul

2nd use case
One Main Router (with AI Mesh enabled connected with ISP) - Basement
2nd Level - Wired/Ethernet Backhaul
3rd Level Wireless backhaul

Firmware on all 3 Router + 2 nodes- >
Current Version : 3.0.0.4.384_32799-gfe72567

 

[Patrick Ma]

Good plan. Not knowing the history of your devices, I'd do the resets when you're ready and before tweaking things to taste. That FAQ explains why.

OE

yes, thanks very much.
the faq is very useful.

 

[OzarkEdge]

Two use cases (One for Friend) - Both involving 3 RT68U
Yes Separate SSID for each band

1st use Case
One Main Router (with AI Mesh enabled connected with ISP)- Basement
2nd and 3rd Level Wireless backhaul

2nd use case
One Main Router (with AI Mesh enabled connected with ISP) - Basement
2nd Level - Wired/Ethernet Backhaul
3rd Level Wireless backhaul

Firmware on all 3 Router + 2 nodes- >
Current Version : 3.0.0.4.384_32799-gfe72567

Case1 3rd node backhaul could daisy chain through the 2nd node. This might be tolerable if the WiFi traffic is not too much... but it's not ideal. I suppose the actual route depends on the RSSI power levels, 3rd-to-2nd vs. 3rd-to-1st/router. Case2 is much better with 2nd node wired.

So, how are they performing? You can find the wireless backhaul Tx/Rx rates in the Wireless Log for the respective router MACs.

The 68Us do not support Smart Connect, so you'll want to stick with separate SSIDs... which has its advantages... wireless client connections are literally more obvious.

OE

 

[Chiku]

Two use cases (One for Friend) - Both involving 3 RT68U
Yes Sep

1st use Case
One Main Router (with AI Mesh enabled connected with ISP)- Basement
2nd and 3rd Level Wireless backhaul

2nd use case
One Main Router (with AI Mesh enabled connected with ISP) - Basement
2nd Level - Wired/Ethernet Backhaul
3rd Level Wireless backhaul

Firmware on all 3 Router + 2 nodes- >
Current Version : 3.0.0.4.384_32799-gfe72567

Case1 3rd node backhaul could daisy chain through the 2nd node. This might be tolerable if the WiFi traffic is not too much... but it's not ideal. I suppose the actual route depends on the RSSI power levels, 3rd-to-2nd vs. 3rd-to-1st/router. Case2 is much better with 2nd node wired.

So, how are they performing? You can find the wireless backhaul Tx/Rx rates in the Wireless Log for the respective router MACs.

The 68Us do not support Smart Connect, so you'll want to stick with separate SSIDs... which has its advantages... wireless client connections are literally more obvious.

OE

Right now Wired one is good, have to yet install on wireless mode for friend.
This is what I see (connected via 2.4 GHZ - Case 2)
AC:9E: Yes Yes -44dBm No Yes Yes 234M 288.9M 24:13:51

 

[Patrick Ma]

Good plan. Not knowing the history of your devices, I'd do the resets when you're ready and before tweaking things to taste. That FAQ explains why.

OE

ok, it has only been a few hours since installing firmware 21140.
have not experienced any device connected to the aimesh node losing internet connectivity.
by the way aimesh node to router is via wireless.

did some speed testing.
devices that connect to the aimesh node log speed around 20 Mbps
devices that connect to the aimesh router log speed over 150 Mbps

since 21140 seems to be stable, moving the aimesh node further away from the aimesh router so that more devices are connected to the aimesh router instead of the aimesh node. i am not even sure if aimesh is actually needed in my case. i got it because my asus RT-N66U before was giving trouble where devices are connected to the wifi but says no internet connection. and also guest network was not working without enabling intranet access which kind of defeats the purpose of guest network. since the RT-N66U was broken, i got the AC68U thinking aimesh will make the whole house evenly with great speed.

from the tests i have done, aimesh node is much slower. so the only use case i see to use it is where you really have dead spots that you would like to cover. a slower speed is better than no wifi.

 

[OzarkEdge]

ok, it has only been a few hours since installing firmware 21140.
have not experienced any device connected to the aimesh node losing internet connectivity.
by the way aimesh node to router is via wireless.

did some speed testing.
devices that connect to the aimesh node log speed around 20 Mbps
devices that connect to the aimesh router log speed over 150 Mbps

since 21140 seems to be stable, moving the aimesh node further away from the aimesh router so that more devices are connected to the aimesh router instead of the aimesh node. i am not even sure if aimesh is actually needed in my case. i got it because my asus RT-N66U before was giving trouble where devices are connected to the wifi but says no internet connection. and also guest network was not working without enabling intranet access which kind of defeats the purpose of guest network. since the RT-N66U was broken, i got the AC68U thinking aimesh will make the whole house evenly with great speed.

from the tests i have done, aimesh node is much slower. so the only use case i see to use it is where you really have dead spots that you would like to cover. a slower speed is better than no wifi.

The AiMesh node should support comparable speed to the router. I would do some more testing. At 15', your node is too close... 40-55' would be more like it. Clients could be using 2.4n from the router and never connecting to the node. Perhaps turn the node off and study just the router to get benchmarks. See my notes and use a WiFi analyzer to understand your signal overlap when the node is ON.

OE

 

[OzarkEdge]

Right now Wired one is good, have to yet install on wireless mode for friend.
This is what I see (connected via 2.4 GHZ - Case 2)
AC:9E: Yes Yes -44dBm No Yes Yes 234M 288.9M 24:13:51

That's a good 2.4 backhaul from basement to 2nd level. The 5.0 backhaul should be similarly good but larger numbers. If you move the node to the same room as the router, you'll see how good the 2.4 and 5.0 backhauls can get.

OE

 

[Chiku]

That's a good 2.4 backhaul from basement to 2nd level. The 5.0 backhaul should be similarly good but larger numbers. If you move the node to the same room as the router, you'll see how good the 2.4 and 5.0 backhauls can get.

OE

This 2.4 GHZ backhaul is at same level , not yet basement vs 1st floor. I will know more real tests by weekend.

 

[Richard Li]

I just upgraded to 3.0.0.4.384.45149, this version is much more stable than 3.0.0.4.384_32799 Good job!

 

[Blaggah]

I tried going back from latest firmware to 21140 ,but it seemed unstable for me. I am using 3 RT68 U (main in Access Point(AP) mode / AiMesh Router in AP mode ) and other two as Node .
With 21140 firmware (After hard reset/nvram clear) - wireless node kept going offline even after disabling Airtime Fairness.

Once I updated the firmware to latest and disabled Airtime Fairness- Nodes are rock solid.

Do you still happen to have that 21140 firmware for me to load on my RT68U routers? Can't find it anywhere.

 

[Grisu]

Do you still happen to have that 21140 firmware for me to load on my RT68U routers? Can't find it anywhere.

direct download links still working: https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/wireless/RT-AC68U/FW_RT_AC68U_300438421140.ZIP