ASUS RT-AC5300 with some networking issues

[b4dw01f]

I am now on my third replacement AC5300 router and about to give up on ASUS completely. I used to have a Netgear Nighthawk AC2300 with a matching exteneded router that worked great for about 8 years until it went out. Went the ASUS way because of the AI mesh system and also bought 3x AC1900 all together have put in about $700 into my current setup. The issue started when I got my 5300, prior to that i was only using 3x 1900's but the one plugged directly into the "portal" from our ISP was starting to have issues with keeping a signal. I figured since we have such a heavy flow that maybe this router that was going out was due to too heavy of a work load thus I bought the 5300 to handle what we throw at it.

My setup:
I have a fiber line directly from our ISP that plugs directly into the 5300
the other 3 1900s are actually hardwired thru our wall Ethernet jacks which i have tested and have handled a 1 gigabit connection.
I no longer have a 1 gigabit, had to cut back and now only have a 90 mbps connection, but had the same issues with the 1 gigabit connection.
We have about 8 items hardwired thru the 1900s in bedrooms and around 70 wireless connections.

Issue:
1. All the wifi cameras have really bad lag now. Didnt have this issue when I was using the 1900 as the main router or with the Nighthawk routers, but has been a constant issue since getting the 5300
The cameras are 2 different brands and 1 is on the 2.4 ghz and the other is on 5 ghz, they also use different apps to use, all witht the same results.
2. Sometimes it is really hard to connect things like my tvs to the router and get constant lag from thing like netflix, hulu and amazon.
3. Seems about every 3-4 hours there is a drop in internet where both the wired and wireless connections stop for about 10 secs then reconnects

Past routers:
Like I have said this is my third AC5300, the last 2 I trouble shooted with ASUS support and they told me to return the item to the store for an exchange, which I did. First rpiter wouldn't connect any ai mesh nodes and the other would drop connections like i listed about above but instead of every 3-4 hours it would drop every 15 mins.
I honestly gave up after getting this router into a "working state" after spending several weeks pulling out my hair, but now I am ready to get back into it maybe...

Other info:
I reset the routers connection 3 days a week, MWF, altho doesnt seem to be helping
All firmwares are upto date, (I check for an update a couple of times a week)
I have turned off QOS (altho tried it out for about a month and no help)
I have setup IPV6 (if it matters), altho turned it off 2 days ago to see if it changes anything. (nothing noticed)
I have checked the ISP Portal and this isnt the cause of the issue, the ISP had also sent out a crew to check it as well.

 

[L&LD]

Welcome to the forums.

It sounds like you may be oversaturating your home with 4 AP's. How big is your home in SqFt and what is the construction of the walls/floors?

70 wireless connections should be easily handled by two routers using two bands each.

 

[b4dw01f]

Welcome to the forums.

It sounds like you may be oversaturating your home with 4 AP's. How big is your home in SqFt and what is the construction of the walls/floors?

70 wireless connections should be easily handled by two routers using two bands each.

8000 sqft 3 stories

 

[Trip]

Per Einstein's definition of insanity, I would stop the bleeding of time and money here and approach this from the standpoint of a solutions architect.

First order of business is getting as much wired backbone to as many wireless broadcast points as possible, even if it's not all of them. If you can't do in-wall or on-wall ethernet, then how about MoCa if you have pre-existing TV coaxial?

If any of that is possible for a majority of AP locations, then I would nuclear-reset all the Asus gear, update to the latest firmware and re-configure from scratch in hard-wired AiMesh mode (wireless backhaul is still too buggy to be relied upon). If the Asus gear still under-performs when hard-wired, or if you're already just too fed-up, then it's time to rip and replace with SMB-grade, wire-first/wire-only access points, a wired router, and, if your cabling is ethernet, a managed PoE switch in between. Whether you go Ubiquiti UniFi, Cisco Business or otherwise matters less than just getting that class of gear in there, configured properly.

If you can't do any wired backhaul at all, then you should rip and replace all the Asus gear with Eero, specifically an Eero Pro 3-pack ($499), and possibly another 3-pack or an extra single ($199) or two, depending on how the first three test out. If you can wait until November 2, I would do the same with an Eero Pro 6 3-pack ($599, single is $229), which will provide up to ~3x the throughput. Why Eero? 1) it's actual mesh, 2) it has SQM-based QoS that actually works to ensure lowest latency and adequate bandwidth for all devices, all the time and 3) it auto-adjusts radio roles and channel usage of the entire mesh in real time to compensate for fluctuating wifi conditions and traffic needs. No other product comes close in any of those areas, let alone all of them, and together they make a HUGE difference in the "it just works" factor. Compared to AiMesh, well, there is no comparison. Please know, I'm no Eero shill nor am I the biggest fan of Amazon, but it just happens to be miles beyond anything else out there right now for a completely wireless multi-node setup. If you need more wired ports at any Eero location that the two included on each unit, simply wire in a $20 unmanaged switch, then wire your devices to the switch.

A note on Eero: as easy and/or appealing as it may sound, it's still bound by the limitations of consumer mesh (capped wifi capacity and increased co-interference as you scale the number of nodes, because all nodes must operate on the same fronthaul and backhaul channels). So if you can go hard-wired and use wired-only, discrete components, go that route first.

So that's your decision flow. Do the above, and your network will function more like an appliance, and less like a toy.

 

[b4dw01f]

Per Einstein's definition of insanity, I would stop the bleeding of time and money here and approach this from the standpoint of a solutions architect.

First order of business is getting as much wired backbone to as many wireless broadcast points as possible, even if it's not all of them. If you can't do in-wall or on-wall ethernet, then how about MoCa if you have pre-existing TV coaxial?

If any of that is possible for a majority of AP locations, then I would nuclear-reset all the Asus gear, update to the latest firmware and re-configure from scratch in hard-wired AiMesh mode (wireless backhaul is still too buggy to be relied upon). If the Asus gear still under-performs when hard-wired, or if you're already just too fed-up, then it's time to rip and replace with SMB-grade, wire-first/wire-only access points, a wired router, and, if your cabling is ethernet, a managed PoE switch in between. Whether you go Ubiquiti UniFi, Cisco Business or otherwise matters less than just getting that class of gear in there, configured properly.

If you can't do any wired backhaul at all, then you should rip and replace all the Asus gear with Eero, specifically an Eero Pro 3-pack ($499), and possibly another 3-pack or an extra single ($199) or two, depending on how the first three test out. If you can wait until November 2, I would do the same with an Eero Pro 6 3-pack ($599, single is $229), which will provide up to ~3x the throughput. Why Eero? 1) it's actual mesh, 2) it has SQM-based QoS that actually works to ensure lowest latency and adequate bandwidth for all devices, all the time and 3) it auto-adjusts radio roles and channel usage of the entire mesh in real time to compensate for fluctuating wifi conditions and traffic needs. No other product comes close in any of those areas, let alone all of them, and together they make a HUGE difference in the "it just works" factor. Compared to AiMesh, well, there is no comparison. Please know, I'm no Eero shill nor am I the biggest fan of Amazon, but it just happens to be miles beyond anything else out there right now for a completely wireless multi-node setup. If you need more wired ports at any Eero location that the two included on each unit, simply wire in a $20 unmanaged switch, then wire your devices to the switch.

A note on Eero: as easy and/or appealing as it may sound, it's still bound by the limitations of consumer mesh (capped wifi capacity and increased co-interference as you scale the number of nodes, because all nodes must operate on the same fronthaul and backhaul channels). So if you can go hard-wired and use wired-only, discrete components, go that route first.

So that's your decision flow. Do the above, and your network will function more like an appliance, and less like a toy.

All access points are already wired or my backhaul is already wired. Might consider the Eero in the future but for the time being I just want a network to work. and being stuck trying to fix this setup for so long I am out of the return window, so dropping another $700 right now isnt really an option.

 

[Trip]

Then I would soft-reset all Asus units, flash the latest firmware, nuclear-reset each unit (following @L&LD's guide) and re-setup your network from scratch, starting with the gateway AiMesh unit, working outwards towards the last AiMesh node. Keep configuration as minimal as possible.

Since you have 100% wired backhaul, your eventual upgrade should be to SMB discrete components (skip Eero altogether): controller-based APs, a switch (w/ PoE+ if you have ethernet for backhaul) and wired router. The difference in reliability and total performance will be night and day. On a low budget, I would run a Ubiquiti EdgeRouter-X ($60) or Mikrotik HeX ($65), a TP-Link T1500G-10MPS switch ($120), five or six TP-Link EAP225v3's ($60 ea, $300-360 total) and the OC200 controller (~$90). Keep all that in mind for when you're ready for the next level.