Any way to do Mesh with 160 mhz DFS on primary but 80 on node?

[Eric Lieb]

I have an ax86s is my primary and an AC68U as my aimesh node. Is there anyway to make it where the Primary router is 160 Mhz with DFS enabled but the Node is only 80 Mhz without DFS enabled? Not all of my 5ghz devices support DFS. Having issues with neighbor interference tho on non DFS frequencies.

 

[ColinTaylor]

"Not all of my 5ghz devices support DFS": I'm not sure whether you really mean that. DFS (in most countries) covers channels 52 to 144. Are you saying that you have clients that cannot use any of these channels. DFS support is normally an access point concern, not a client issue.

IIRC the maximum bandwidth supported by the RT-AC68U is 80MHz. So I believe that would force the primary router to also operate at 80MHz in an AiMesh setup.

EDIT: I guess the simplest thing would be to just try it. Set the Control Channel on the primary router to something in the range 36 to 48. The RT-AC68U should then use the same primary channel, with all of its secondary channels still within the non-DFS range.

P.S. Are you using wired or wireless backhaul?

 

[Crimliar]

That's not how it's working here! I've the GT-AX6000 sitting on Ch100 with 160MHz bandwidth. I've a wireless mesh node RP-AX56 currently connected with an 80MHz bandwidth. If there's nothing been connected to the Mesh node for a while it'll drop it's bandwidth down as low as 20MHz (some apps indicate as low as 10MHz but I'm not sure if that's an error).

*Probably said it before, but even though it's a lower-speed device AX1800 (1200 + 600) I'm pretty impressed with the RP-AX56. Other than having to use a cable to set it up, it's performed flawlessly!
**It's an AP but all the same it could do with a firmware update!

 

[bbunge]

I have an ax86s is my primary and an AC68U as my aimesh node. Is there anyway to make it where the Primary router is 160 Mhz with DFS enabled but the Node is only 80 Mhz without DFS enabled? Not all of my 5ghz devices support DFS. Having issues with neighbor interference tho on non DFS frequencies.

No. Not as an AiMesh. The node and router will use the lowest common settings. In your case the AC68U does not do DFS and is limited to 80 MHz on the 5 GHz band.

With that said you could use the AC68U as a wired Access Point and set the WIFI up to what you want on the router and AP.

 

[Crimliar]

No. Not as an AiMesh. The node and router will use the lowest common settings. In your case the AC68U does not do DFS and is limited to 80 MHz on the 5 GHz band.

With that said you could use the AC68U as a wired Access Point and set the WIFI up to what you want on the router and AP.

This may be country dependent, the UK version of the RT-AC68U does have to perform DFS monitoring

 

[Eric Lieb]

No. Not as an AiMesh. The node and router will use the lowest common settings. In your case the AC68U does not do DFS and is limited to 80 MHz on the 5 GHz band.

With that said you could use the AC68U as a wired Access Point and set the WIFI up to what you want on the router and AP.

Can I set the SSID on both to the same thing and would they roam between them? If the client doesnt support DFS channels would it still connect to the AC86 on the same SSID at the primary that would be on DFS?

 

[Eric Lieb]

Update: Switching from AIMesh to just AP mode stabilized my network by a ton. Realized I was having issues were my upstairs channel saturation was different than my downstairs. Now that upstairs and downstairs can automatically use the channel with the least saturation I am getting stability I never had with AIMesh. I am guessing all AIMesh does is make firmware update and management easier because one router handles both?

 

[bbunge]

Update: Switching from AIMesh to just AP mode stabilized my network by a ton. Realized I was having issues were my upstairs channel saturation was different than my downstairs. Now that upstairs and downstairs can automatically use the channel with the least saturation I am getting stability I never had with AIMesh. I am guessing all AIMesh does is make firmware update and management easier because one router handles both?

Glad it is working for you!
AiMesh advantages? Management from the Asus app for router and nodes, guest WIFI on router and nodes, maybe improved roaming and easier for non geeks.

 

[drinkingbird]

Update: Switching from AIMesh to just AP mode stabilized my network by a ton. Realized I was having issues were my upstairs channel saturation was different than my downstairs. Now that upstairs and downstairs can automatically use the channel with the least saturation I am getting stability I never had with AIMesh. I am guessing all AIMesh does is make firmware update and management easier because one router handles both?

Yes, all aimesh is doing is what you can manually do yourself, distributing the same SSID, guest networks, etc. You can do all that manually with them operating independently. It does add some centralized/easier management but from a technology and connectivity perspective, it doesn't do anything different (in fact in some cases can limit you, as you've seen).

 

[aex.perez]

I my case, AX88U is using 160Mhz with DFS (had to turn on DFS using the Asus app on the iPhone, couldn't see it in the GUI), with the AX86 mesh nodes (Ethernet Back Haul) are stuck on 80Mhz. Have ChannelHog on all three. AX88U always reports 160Mhz, AX86's never. Am considering setting the AX86s up in AP mode because of it. On one AX86, I tried some NVRAM variables to match the AX88, but that didn't work, seems like all that is ignored.

 

[drinkingbird]

I my case, AX88U is using 160Mhz with DFS (had to turn on DFS using the Asus app on the iPhone, couldn't see it in the GUI), with the AX86 mesh nodes (Ethernet Back Haul) are stuck on 80Mhz. Have ChannelHog on all three. AX88U always reports 160Mhz, AX86's never. Am considering setting the AX86s up in AP mode because of it. On one AX86, I tried some NVRAM variables to match the AX88, but that didn't work, seems like all that is ignored.

That could be Aimesh trying to not overlap channels but not being able to get enough good channels for 3 (or even 2) 160mhz APs. I haven't tried to run AX at all yet but I would think trying to run 3 APs in proximity to each other would be nearly impossible to get all 3 on 160mhz. Heck many people seem to have enough trouble getting a single AP to stay at 160.

 

[Sptz]

I my case, AX88U is using 160Mhz with DFS (had to turn on DFS using the Asus app on the iPhone, couldn't see it in the GUI), with the AX86 mesh nodes (Ethernet Back Haul) are stuck on 80Mhz. Have ChannelHog on all three. AX88U always reports 160Mhz, AX86's never. Am considering setting the AX86s up in AP mode because of it. On one AX86, I tried some NVRAM variables to match the AX88, but that didn't work, seems like all that is ignored.

Out of curiosity, are you using Merlin on both or either or Stock?

 

[aex.perez]

Out of curiosity, are you using Merlin on both or either or Stock?

Merlín