I want to thank posters here on SNB for their information. I have a big house in Los Angeles -- with a 1000Mbps AT&T fiber connection -- where I've built upon an Asus AX88U as main router and have added on more AX92U nodes as I attempted to cover all parts of my property, indoors and out. I have 120 internet connected devices in the home, including computers (I'm a video editor), more than 40 SONOS devices, 9 Ring cameras and doorbells, all streaming TVs, Alexa, Lutron RadioRA2 and other smarthome systems. I currently have the AX88U and EIGHT AX92U nodes, all ethernet hardwired back to the router. I now have the entire property covered and have maxed out the number of ports on the main router. I regularly update the firmware with Asus' stock updates and have been disappointed by the overall performances and how frequently the entire system drops client connections, yet I've spent so much money adding buying and adding onto the equipment that it isn't practical to toss it out and try something else. (I have another WiFi network set up for my on-property Airbnb -- purposely segregated from my main system -- but it's been more reliable .... on old Apple Airport equipment.). But I digress. A few days ago -- on some Asus update, my entire system dropped most of its nodes. I had to factory reset the AX88U and then bring the AX92U nodes within a few feet -- one by one -- and factory resetting them to get them to set back up as Aimesh nodes. It is time consuming and takes the better part of a day to do this. Once reconfigured, and then bringing each node back to its original place and plugging into the ethernet cable, the router WOULD NOT SEE the newly paired nodes. No amount of rebooting would fix this. Some would show up as wireless nodes, even though they are wired. Some would show up using another node as backhaul connection to get to router. Some of the most important ones -- hard-wired 100 feet away at the front street gate (to provide wired ethernet for Ring doorbell) would not show up at all, even though they were repaired as Aimesh nodes. I was beside myself, and came across your forum, where I learned about the Merlin firmware. MERLIN MADE THINGS WORK BETTER THAN BEORE! The system is now set back up as intended, with a GREAT signal on the ethernet backhauls from each node, each forcing the backhaul to be full-time hard wired (versus wireless) to the main router. The advanced settings in Merlin make the connections between units far clearer than the Asus stock firmware. (As an aside, I find the Ring doorbells do NOT connect any faster or more reliably with a hardwired ethernet connection versus just Wifi.)
I'm attaching a screengrab of my setup. I'm using the most recent Merlin beta firmware specified for the AX-88U unit. Have not done anything to nodes in terms of firmware once they're reset.
I am NOT a networking wiz, just a tech geek who became a video production company owner and editor, so a lot of the networking settings are over my head. Now that I have things running smoothly again, my wifi is clocking 300-600 mbps down / 200-600 up throughout the house. I opted for smart connect setup to allow the network to assign 2.4/5 speed. I have NOT turned on the Wifi6, as I'm not sure what settings to try and I don't want to screw up what's already working after days of setup and resetup. This has wasted a lot of time to get things working correctly and a factory reset forces bringing each node back to the media room to be close to router for setup. I don't want to have to do that again.
Any suggestions on best practice settings from here would be appreciated. I have NOT turned on any AiProtection or firewall settings, again not sure what to do without slowing down my connections. I'm in Hollywood Hills, so there are not other neighbors close enough to pick up my signal and use it. Have tried some VPN tinkering, but it seems to slow things down to a point where the safety isn't worth the slowness. Now that I'm set up, I'm touching NOTHING for a while just to see how it goes and hopefully no dropouts. Our power has been going out in the last few days with winter storms, so the whole house goes on and off as the power cuts and then whole-house generator starts up. Here's my picture. Again, thank you for being such a great resource! You never know who you might help by posting things.
I'm attaching a screengrab of my setup. I'm using the most recent Merlin beta firmware specified for the AX-88U unit. Have not done anything to nodes in terms of firmware once they're reset.
I am NOT a networking wiz, just a tech geek who became a video production company owner and editor, so a lot of the networking settings are over my head. Now that I have things running smoothly again, my wifi is clocking 300-600 mbps down / 200-600 up throughout the house. I opted for smart connect setup to allow the network to assign 2.4/5 speed. I have NOT turned on the Wifi6, as I'm not sure what settings to try and I don't want to screw up what's already working after days of setup and resetup. This has wasted a lot of time to get things working correctly and a factory reset forces bringing each node back to the media room to be close to router for setup. I don't want to have to do that again.
Any suggestions on best practice settings from here would be appreciated. I have NOT turned on any AiProtection or firewall settings, again not sure what to do without slowing down my connections. I'm in Hollywood Hills, so there are not other neighbors close enough to pick up my signal and use it. Have tried some VPN tinkering, but it seems to slow things down to a point where the safety isn't worth the slowness. Now that I'm set up, I'm touching NOTHING for a while just to see how it goes and hopefully no dropouts. Our power has been going out in the last few days with winter storms, so the whole house goes on and off as the power cuts and then whole-house generator starts up. Here's my picture. Again, thank you for being such a great resource! You never know who you might help by posting things.
