An AiMesh Success Story (after a Velop disaster)

[AlphaGator]

I just want to share my config and experience with AiMesh so far.

TL;DR: Failed to get POS Velop to work, then successfully setup 3 node AiMesh using 2x RT-AC-5300 and 1x AC3100 (but be sure to do factory resets!)

Backstory:
I have a fairly large space (three stories - including basement - and about 7,500 sqft). I had an RT-AC5300 on the 2nd floor with an extender on the 1st floor. I ran MOCA (from AC5300) down to the basement where I had at RT-AC3200 (in AP mode, so same network as 2nd floor). I purposefully had 3 SIDs so that I could make sure certain devices were connected to the best router. We have four teenagers who stream quite a bit (and simultaneously in the evenings). We have AT&T Fiber (~800 Mbps down).

I read about Mesh and decided to try the Linksys Velop because of its "lossless" backchannel communication. Long story short, I had to return it a couple of weeks later. It couldn't handle our throughput demands, and the firmware is terrible. Nearly every client (29 of 32) in the house would connect to the master node on the 2nd floor. The basement node would ONLY connect to the 2nd floor node (two stories away, even though the signal was -70db at best)...it wouldn't daisy-chain through the closer 1st floor node.

Now:
I read about Asus AiMesh, and figured I'd try it since I had several Asus compatible routers (I had an extra RT-AC5300 - still in the box - that I bought for my office, but ended up not using). Unfortunately, the RT-AC3200 I was using as an AP isn't compatible, but my neighbor had an RT-AC3100 that he wasn't using, and sold it to me on the cheap.

So, here are the steps I took (with some mistakes included for those who come next and might get some helpful information):

1. Manually updated the fw on the old 5300 that we were using before Velop. I DID NOT reset to FD (didn't know this was important until reading this forum)
2. Updated the fw to the 3.0.0.4.384_20379 using the routers automatic update function (which was a little buggy)
3. Unboxed the 5300.new and manually updated it's fw, then used router's utility to update to 3.0.0.4.384_20379
4. Set the 5300.new mode to AiMesh Node
5. The 5300.old (master) successfully added 5300.new as a node
6. Moved the 5300.new node to the 1st floor...for now, until the 3100 is added (master 5300 is on 2nd floor)

Then I tested client connections and hand-offs, and noticed that they were not acting as I would have expected. So I hopped on this forum and read that Smart Connect and Roaming Assist should be TURNED ON with AiMesh. THEY WERE DISABLED on my 5300's. So, I started over, did a factory reset on both, then setup the master and node again.

Bingo! They were both enabled now. So, I tested again, and everything was working flawlessly...with one caveat:

WIFI enabled calls on my Verizon iPhone X will drop while walking around the house when I bounce to a different node.

But that is something I can live with as long as I know.

So, I tweaked the Roaming Assist setting from the default -55 on 2.4GHZ and upped it to -65 db (this way I won't jump quite as easily). The 5GHZ channels are both still at the default -70 db.

Then I setup the 3100 as a node (reset to FD, updated fw, reset to FD again), and moved it to the 1st floor, then relocated the 5300 node to the basement. The reasoning is that I am thinking the 5300's should be farthest apart, and the basement has a PS4 and streaming on our home theatre. The 1st floor doesn't have clients with a huge bandwidth demand.

So far, everything is working GREAT! The basement node did drop off (based on the list on the admin screen), but rejoined after rebooting it. Both nodes show a strong connection to the master.

The clients all seem to be connected to the node I would expect, and they handoff very well (even though I know the client handles most of that).

I am excited to see the AiMesh continue to improve, and think it's a brilliant idea to create Mesh with software and be able to use existing hardware (which is FAR more powerful than most out-of-the-box Mesh systems).

By the way, Linksys sucks.

 

[Datalink]

I haven't seen any info anywhere on the number of channels that AiMesh requires, so, short question, how many wifi channels is your network using for the individual routers, forwarding and backhaul?

I was reading thru the specs of another mesh network, trying to assist someone, and noted that the data forwarding was a fixed 5 Ghz wifi channel and the backhaul was a fixed 2.4 Ghz channel. So, kinda interesting. What happens when the user is in an area where those channels are already heavily overused? From what I could see, that would mean, two channels for the primary router location, a 2.4 and 5 Ghz network, then the additional forward and backhaul channels, plus another set of channels at the far end? There's at least 4 channels there, possibly six, all for one home. Ergo, my question, how many channels are you using in total, considering the number of routers involved?

 

[Hawk]

I have used aimesh as well, for my setup I was using wired backhaul instead of wireless.

As for channel both of my routers were operating on same channel on their respective bands. If channel 1 and 149 was selected, it was also used by other nodes.

Since you can only access master node, not secondary or any other. I had to use inssider office to confirm channel allocation and how wide it is.

With regards to backhaul aimesh automatically select best path between nodes, could be 2.4 ghz or 5 ghz radio or wire. This assumes router have 2 radio. If you have 3 radio 1 of them 2.4 and 2 are 5 ghz, in that case there is one 5 ghz dedicated radio for backhaul.

However you can force router to use wired connection for backhaul.

 

[AlphaGator]

I haven't seen any info anywhere on the number of channels that AiMesh requires, so, short question, how many wifi channels is your network using for the individual routers, forwarding and backhaul?

I was reading thru the specs of another mesh network, trying to assist someone, and noted that the data forwarding was a fixed 5 Ghz wifi channel and the backhaul was a fixed 2.4 Ghz channel. So, kinda interesting. What happens when the user is in an area where those channels are already heavily overused? From what I could see, that would mean, two channels for the primary router location, a 2.4 and 5 Ghz network, then the additional forward and backhaul channels, plus another set of channels at the far end? There's at least 4 channels there, possibly six, all for one home. Ergo, my question, how many channels are you using in total, considering the number of routers involved?

I will check later today.

But all nodes used the same channels (2.4 and 5) as the master node. That cannot be changed (yet).

 

[AlphaGator]

I haven't seen any info anywhere on the number of channels that AiMesh requires, so, short question, how many wifi channels is your network using for the individual routers, forwarding and backhaul?

I was reading thru the specs of another mesh network, trying to assist someone, and noted that the data forwarding was a fixed 5 Ghz wifi channel and the backhaul was a fixed 2.4 Ghz channel. So, kinda interesting. What happens when the user is in an area where those channels are already heavily overused? From what I could see, that would mean, two channels for the primary router location, a 2.4 and 5 Ghz network, then the additional forward and backhaul channels, plus another set of channels at the far end? There's at least 4 channels there, possibly six, all for one home. Ergo, my question, how many channels are you using in total, considering the number of routers involved?

Finally checked. There are 8 channels in total; 3 for each 5300 and 2 for the 3100. The 2.4GHz and 5Ghz channels are all respectively using the same channel:
2.4Ghz = Channel 3
5Ghz = 36+40+44+48
5Ghz = 149+153+157+161

 

[tallytr]

I just want to share my config and experience with AiMesh so far.
...
Then I tested client connections and hand-offs, and noticed that they were not acting as I would have expected. So I hopped on this forum and read that Smart Connect and Roaming Assist should be TURNED ON with AiMesh. THEY WERE DISABLED on my 5300's. So, I started over...

Just moved to AiMesh and it works great.
Main router new RT-AC86U and the old router RT-AC68U became the wired AiMesh AP in the basement. I was surprised how easy setup of the node was. Just press reset button for 5s until power LED flashes, then wait till Wi-Fi come back on after a couple minutes.
Then search for the node in the main router interface, change to wired as preference for backhaul and done. Nice! Now only using one SSID in our house.