First the TL;DR
So lets get started.
My BT Home Hub 5 running OpenWRT broke, I had to revert to Vodafone’s VOX3 router but I don't like the backdoors service providers leave in and the VOX3 can’t run OpenWRT yet..
I have an RT-N66U with merlin on it but it isn’t beefy enough to serve the whole house (2.4ghz 144mb, 5ghz 300mb)
I rip my Blu-rays to a QNAP NAS without re-encoding so the most demanding films ask for 60mbps. I wanted to future-proof myself and have been looking at the bandwidth required for UHD 4k 60fps which has been hitting 110mbps.
Couple this with a family of 5 all wanting to watch their own things on their own devices despite being sat within the one room I needed. Most are tablets/phones and I wanted to get rid of the Ethernet cables running around the house.
So mesh it is. With the XT8 promising up to 4804mbps for the backhaul and 1201mbps out the fronthaul it should really hit the spot. I have been a big fan of Asus due to the RT-N66U which weighed heavily on my decision to keep with the brand.
Purchased plugged in, lets get setup.
Being a previous user of Asus I was familiar with the setup but chose to try the easy setup via the app.
I went through all the steps in the app and even chose against my normal scepticism to allow remote access for monitoring. (Previously I used OpenVPN server on the BT home hub 5 and intend to set this up at a later date)
I got the units both talking to each other and noticed the the node had a white light but the main router still had a blue flashing light.
I note another user has had this issue. Not sure what caused it but after a factory reset, setting up via web interface and not picking remote access both units setup fine.
Time to test the setup to see if it is delivering the panacea of wireless connectivity in my house.
And then the trouble begins….
Where’s my 160mhz (4804mbps) backhaul?
I found the option to enable 160mhz, and even though it accepted the settings the app I was using (WifiAnalyzer for Android on S10+) kept reporting 80mhz.
I looked in the Wi-Fi logs and got the following.
What’s going on on channel 124?
No matter what channel I manually picked, it kept pinging channel 124 and setting out of service for 31 mins. Even a reboot I’d have to wait 31mins. And more frustratingly after the 31mins I’d still be stuck on 80mhz confirmed by the bits in yellow.
I tried other channels at 80mhz, 40mhz and 20mhz and anytime they overlapped with channel 124. BANG, 31min wait.
It is worth pointing out, when Channel 124 is in it’s 31min countdown the manual channel selection gets restricted to “Auto”
Anyway, to cut a long story short on this segment. I am in the following scenario.
For those in the UK. (And other countries)
Channel 124 (5620mhz) is the same a the Met Office Weather Radar (5625mhz) and is smack bang in the wrong place to allow 8 contiguous channels required for 160mhz on this Mesh system (Limited to channels 100-140).
If you live near any of the Radars in the attached map you are not going to be getting 160mhz bandwidth.
Here is what I think can be done to fix the issue.
Asus give us 80+80 allowing us to skip Channel 124.
Asus open the 36-64 channels allowing us more choice on where to stick our 160mhz and can stick front end on 4 contiguous channels in the 100-140 range.
(This would work for me fine as 36-64 are not blocked for me and frustrating as 36-64 and 100-140 are available for the single 5ghz interface on my RT-N66U).
I also managed to get the router working on 160mhz by placing some kitchen foil directly between the router and the local weather radar. Unfortunately as the node has to communicate wirelessly I couldn’t block the radar on that one too.
In short. The main selling point on this mesh system cannot be used because of where I live unless ASUS or Merlin can open up the other legally available channels.
I doubt the hardware is limited to these channels and fooling around with the router I had managed to push the router onto “other” channels.
- 160mhz backhaul not possible in areas of UK due to weather radar on 5.625ghz.
Channel 124 is 5.620ghz *See map below*
This removes one of the BIG features of this product.
I think it could be fixed, but will it?
- Fronthaul 5G-1 limited to channels 36-64
Backhaul 5G-2 limited to channels 100-140
I think this is a software limitation and would be great if it is fixed to allow all channels.
- A lot of apps show 160mhz as only 80mhz.
- Amazon Firesticks don't work on all 5ghz channels. If your 2.4ghz & 5ghz SSID's are the same you could be forced onto 2.4ghz causing stuttering during playback of Blu-ray rips.
- LG TV's struggling with streaming 4k 60fps UHD rips. (100mb LAN only, 866.7mb AC Wi-Fi. Tested 4k 60fps UHD rip peaked at 110mbps)
- 2.5gb WAN on router cannot be set to 2.5gb LAN to node, or at least not in mesh mode.
So lets get started.
My BT Home Hub 5 running OpenWRT broke, I had to revert to Vodafone’s VOX3 router but I don't like the backdoors service providers leave in and the VOX3 can’t run OpenWRT yet..
I have an RT-N66U with merlin on it but it isn’t beefy enough to serve the whole house (2.4ghz 144mb, 5ghz 300mb)
I rip my Blu-rays to a QNAP NAS without re-encoding so the most demanding films ask for 60mbps. I wanted to future-proof myself and have been looking at the bandwidth required for UHD 4k 60fps which has been hitting 110mbps.
Couple this with a family of 5 all wanting to watch their own things on their own devices despite being sat within the one room I needed. Most are tablets/phones and I wanted to get rid of the Ethernet cables running around the house.
So mesh it is. With the XT8 promising up to 4804mbps for the backhaul and 1201mbps out the fronthaul it should really hit the spot. I have been a big fan of Asus due to the RT-N66U which weighed heavily on my decision to keep with the brand.
Purchased plugged in, lets get setup.
Being a previous user of Asus I was familiar with the setup but chose to try the easy setup via the app.
I went through all the steps in the app and even chose against my normal scepticism to allow remote access for monitoring. (Previously I used OpenVPN server on the BT home hub 5 and intend to set this up at a later date)
I got the units both talking to each other and noticed the the node had a white light but the main router still had a blue flashing light.
I note another user has had this issue. Not sure what caused it but after a factory reset, setting up via web interface and not picking remote access both units setup fine.
Time to test the setup to see if it is delivering the panacea of wireless connectivity in my house.
And then the trouble begins….
Where’s my 160mhz (4804mbps) backhaul?
I found the option to enable 160mhz, and even though it accepted the settings the app I was using (WifiAnalyzer for Android on S10+) kept reporting 80mhz.
I looked in the Wi-Fi logs and got the following.
What’s going on on channel 124?
No matter what channel I manually picked, it kept pinging channel 124 and setting out of service for 31 mins. Even a reboot I’d have to wait 31mins. And more frustratingly after the 31mins I’d still be stuck on 80mhz confirmed by the bits in yellow.
I tried other channels at 80mhz, 40mhz and 20mhz and anytime they overlapped with channel 124. BANG, 31min wait.
It is worth pointing out, when Channel 124 is in it’s 31min countdown the manual channel selection gets restricted to “Auto”
Anyway, to cut a long story short on this segment. I am in the following scenario.
For those in the UK. (And other countries)
Channel 124 (5620mhz) is the same a the Met Office Weather Radar (5625mhz) and is smack bang in the wrong place to allow 8 contiguous channels required for 160mhz on this Mesh system (Limited to channels 100-140).
If you live near any of the Radars in the attached map you are not going to be getting 160mhz bandwidth.
Here is what I think can be done to fix the issue.
Asus give us 80+80 allowing us to skip Channel 124.
Asus open the 36-64 channels allowing us more choice on where to stick our 160mhz and can stick front end on 4 contiguous channels in the 100-140 range.
(This would work for me fine as 36-64 are not blocked for me and frustrating as 36-64 and 100-140 are available for the single 5ghz interface on my RT-N66U).
I also managed to get the router working on 160mhz by placing some kitchen foil directly between the router and the local weather radar. Unfortunately as the node has to communicate wirelessly I couldn’t block the radar on that one too.
In short. The main selling point on this mesh system cannot be used because of where I live unless ASUS or Merlin can open up the other legally available channels.
I doubt the hardware is limited to these channels and fooling around with the router I had managed to push the router onto “other” channels.
