Beta ASUSWRT 386 RC2 public beta with full functions AiMesh 2.0

[ligeza]

Issue description (with lastest stable firmware)
With AImesh 1.0, devices connected after restart, but all 2.4 GHZ devices d/c over time (can be hours or days). After that I needed a cold reboot and it worked again. I gave then the support the idea, that we should be able to bind devices to a mesh node, which is now implemented.
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I had the same problem. I disabled DHCP on IoT devices and assign IP manually. After that, since few weeks all working perfectly. Before that I tryed almost everything including "nuclear reset" and only fixed IP on IoT devices works for me.

 

[iMacallan]

Router AX11000 9.0.0.4.386_39485-ge699ff3
Node AX92U Wired 9.0.0.4.386_39485-ge699ff3
Node AX92U Wi-Fi 9.0.0.4.386_39485-ge699ff3

Main router (AX11000) has been running for 3 days without rebooting itself. Yey (Rebooted randomly at first)
The nodes a little less as they had to be manually rebooted several times before becoming "stable". All the radios stopped transmitting all the time...

Something happened around noon today as I got a warning that a security cam no longer was connected to the internet.
I had used the AiMesh 2.0 feature to bind the cam to the wired node. The cam only uses 2.4 GHz and I have separate SSID for all three bands.
I was not able to check the radios as I was at work, but I could access the WebGUI to see that the cam was still connected to the wired node somehow.
When removing the bind option, the cam immediately connected to the main router instead.
Looking at the Wireless Log, I could see that the router had detected radar on the 5 GHz-2 band and changed channel. Maybe it's real radar but most likely a false positive and possibly caused by either of the nodes somehow.
When the router changes channel on the 5GHz-2 band, the nodes are never able to reconnect again. Even if the router eventually returns to the same channel as before.

Coming home from work, I could verify that the radios on the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz-1 band had indeed stopped working on the wired node.
Although the wireless node was transmitting on the same 5 GHz-2 channel as the router, it could not reconnect.

After a few manual reboots on the nodes, it's all up and running again.
The AX11000 did not need any reboot and is still alive and kicking.
However, I can not determine if the reconnect problem of the nodes is with the nodes or the router, or maybe both.

I really hope @ASUSWRT_2020 can figure this out.

 

[Airey001]

So i tried this out last night and i hit a few issues that caused me to revert back to the current firmware.

First minor issue:
When Saving change on the landing page to the System Status - Wireless when you hit apply you get a pop up saying you should use wpa2-personal and do you want to switch even if you already have that set. Once you click OK it does it again for the other witless band and have to click OK again.

Second Issue:
I did a upgrade and rest back to factory setting on each device. When i go to setup the AIMesh i am able to set them up and set the node to backhaul Ethernet. But when i move the nodes to their spot in the house they can't connect to the router even thought they are connected to the network. If i move them into the living room and directly connect them to the router it sees them but not when it has to go though the main house switch. in the current firmware this doesn't happen i have no problem connecting them to the network ports and them connecting to the router.

my Setup
AC3100 in living room - Router mode
AC68U in Bedroom - AP mode
AC68U in Basement - AP Mode

The AC3100 has an an Ethernet up-link to the main house 48 port HP Procurve switch in the basement then the two ac68U are connected to it. I tried multiple time same issue every time! Once i reverted back i had no problems.

Just wanted to follow up to my previous post about not being able to use a Ethernet back haul with the new Aimesh 2.0 if you have and advanced network(additional switches, dhcp on another device, etc). I reverted back to the current firmware and did factory resets and the back haul over my network works with out issue. Then i updated only my notes to aimesh2.0 and that still worked fine. Its only when the router and the nodes are on the aimesh2.0 that i can't connect them via Ethernet over my existing hard wire network.

 

[ginny]

No internet connection guest network over the nodes with Ethernet backhaul

Router RT-AC5300 RT-AC5300_9.0.0.4_386_39485-ge699ff3
Node AX92U Wired RT-AX92U_9.0.0.4_386_39485-ge699ff3
Node AC86U Wired RT-AC86U_9.0.0.4_386_39485-ge699ff3

all devices where factory reset before upgrading to the above fimware.

1 Guest Network 2.4 GHz
--> Access Intranet "Enable"
--> Sync to AiMesh Node "All"
Guests get an IP address from router and all nodes. IP addresses are given from the standard DHCP Pool, e.g. 192.168.1.12 / Router 192.168.1.1. Internet- and intranet access works, but this is not the object of a guest network

Same Guest Network 2.4 GHz
--> Access Intranet "Disable"
--> Sync to AiMesh Node "All"
When guest ist connect on the router, the router gives an IP address within another subnet e.g 192.168.101.6 / Router 192.168.1.1. So internet access works an intranet is blocked, so far so good.

But after it connects to any of my nodes, I get the error message "no internet connection" Looking onto the IP properties, there is no IP address given. As far as I can see, there is no DHCP access given trough the nodes when intranet access is blocked.

When I put the backhaul the the nodes onto wireless (Auto) evereything works as expected. But in my case, I have only a weak signal to the nodes, therefore I have them on Ethernet. There is another setting under AiMesh -- System Settings -- Ethernet Backhaul Mode, but after enabling this, I loose my AiMesh nodes.

Is there somewhere something in the settings for DHCP pool access over the nodes? Or is the guest network only supported with wireless backhauls?

 

[OzarkEdge]

No internet connection guest network over the nodes with Ethernet backhaul

Router RT-AC5300 RT-AC5300_9.0.0.4_386_39485-ge699ff3
Node AX92U Wired RT-AX92U_9.0.0.4_386_39485-ge699ff3
Node AC86U Wired RT-AC86U_9.0.0.4_386_39485-ge699ff3

all devices where factory reset before upgrading to the above fimware.

1 Guest Network 2.4 GHz
--> Access Intranet "Enable"
--> Sync to AiMesh Node "All"
Guests get an IP address from router and all nodes. IP addresses are given from the standard DHCP Pool, e.g. 192.168.1.12 / Router 192.168.1.1. Internet- and intranet access works, but this is not the object of a guest network

Same Guest Network 2.4 GHz
--> Access Intranet "Disable"
--> Sync to AiMesh Node "All"
When guest ist connect on the router, the router gives an IP address within another subnet e.g 192.168.101.6 / Router 192.168.1.1. So internet access works an intranet is blocked, so far so good.

But after it connects to any of my nodes, I get the error message "no internet connection" Looking onto the IP properties, there is no IP address given. As far as I can see, there is no DHCP access given trough the nodes when intranet access is blocked.

When I put the backhaul the the nodes onto wireless (Auto) evereything works as expected. But in my case, I have only a weak signal to the nodes, therefore I have them on Ethernet. There is another setting under AiMesh -- System Settings -- Ethernet Backhaul Mode, but after enabling this, I loose my AiMesh nodes.

Is there somewhere something in the settings for DHCP pool access over the nodes? Or is the guest network only supported with wireless backhauls?

AiMesh 2.0 guest WLANs (VLANs) are not yet usable, imo.

OE

 

[drabisan]

They will reboot as part of a regular scheduled reboot setup via the Main router, System Administration, i.e..
View attachment 25746
This can be verified by SSH into the nodes and use the "uptime" command, i.e.,
View attachment 25747
Edit, the last time I tried this, enabling SSH on the Main router and then trying to access the nodes straight after, also via SSH did not work, without SSH enabled on the Main router and rebooting the Main, for this authorisation to be passed down to the nodes.

Though @ASUSWRT_2020, the word "Date" should be changed to 'Day".

You're right! Node does reboot at the same time as router.
And that's great, but I'll need to gather logs to understand why it doesn't accept any Wi-Fi clients at random moments.

 

[OzarkEdge]

You're right! Node does reboot at the same time as router.
And that's great, but I'll need to gather logs to understand why it doesn't accept any Wi-Fi clients at random moments.

Probably because the WiFi stops broadcasting at random moments.

That was my observation anyway.

OE

 

[drabisan]

I can "hear" the beacons, right mac address, right name. Just I can't get an IP address with any WiFi clients. Wired clients connected to node have no problems whatsoever.
Ethernet backhaul is working well, I can get the right speed. So I would exclude that part.

 

[ginny]

AiMesh 2.0 guest WLANs (VLANs) are not yet usable, imo.

OE

Hi OzarkEdge
Do I understand correctly. do you mean "iMesh 2.0 guest WLANs (VLANs) are not yet usable" with Ethernet backhaul? Since if after setting the backhaul to "Auto" the nodes are establishing the connection WLAN and then everthing works flawlessly with guest WLANs.

 

[OzarkEdge]

Hi OzarkEdge
Do I understand correctly. do you mean "iMesh 2.0 guest WLANs (VLANs) are not yet usable" with Ethernet backhaul? Since if after setting the backhaul to "Auto" the nodes are establishing the connection WLAN and then everthing works flawlessly with guest WLANs.

I have a 2xRT-AC86U wireless AiMesh. RC2-4 would not maintain stable WLANS and I observed strange VLAN errors in the Log. RC2-4 was not usable.

OE

 

[Compmaster1231]

I have an ax 11000 and the back haul band for aimesh keeps changing its SSID everytime I reboot the router. I modified the SSID and made it visible but it reverts back to default after reboot.

 

[lobocobra]

I would troubleshoot your AiMesh 1.0 released firmware client disconnects before trying to test/evaluate AiMesh 2.0 beta firmware.

OE

Thanks for the hint, but I was since several month in almost daily contact with Asus support and AImesh 1.0, was not able to hold the connection. Even they gave me new beta's several times per week.
=> The new beta fixed now the issues. I can recommend it

 

[lobocobra]

I had the same problem. I disabled DHCP on IoT devices and assign IP manually. After that, since few weeks all working perfectly. Before that I tryed almost everything including "nuclear reset" and only fixed IP on IoT devices works for me.

Thanks for the hint. It could be a last resort. But I have too many devices (in my point of view) to do that. Another thought would be to expire the lease time never and use a 10.0.0.0 net but hey....
Since 2 days I have now no d/c anymore.

 

[Darren Rockach]

I have one ax11000 and two xt8 nodes all connected via wired backhaul. I have a galaxy s20 ultra and my wife has a galaxy s10. We both connect to 5ghz wifi. The mesh seems to work in so much as that we connect to the closest node. However when we move locations and pick up a different node our local and Internet speed drops drastically. Toggling wifi off and back on gets us back to full speed again. It's like we get capped at around 50mbps when we roam both to the local lan and to the Internet. Generally we have about 300mbps Internet and we always get that after toggling wifi.
The mobile asus router app shows we are connected with a typical rx/tx of 700-1000mbps despite only managing 50.
Has anyone else noticed this problem.

UPDATE:
I had a bit of a tinker and now the problem seems to be resolved.

I had a play with the 'AiMesh > System Tools > Ethernet Backhaul Mode' to see if that did anything different to my existing ethernet backhaul settings. It did do something different, it broke it! It made one of my nodes use wireless uplink instead of wired.

Anyway, I reverted to my previous ethernet backhaul configuration and now all seems to work as expected with no speed drops when roaming to other nodes.

I did also make one other change which I suppose could have also affected it. I changed 'Wireless > Professional > OFDMA/802.11ax MU-MIMO' from 'DL OFDMA Only' to DL/UL OFDMA + MU-MIMO'

I had previously tried using the 'AiMesh > System Tools > Ethernet Backhaul Mode' and had the same broken results, maybe when I reverted first time around some setting got stuck and re-doing it sorted that out. Anyway, fingers crossed that the problem has now gone away.

I do wonder though why there are two places to change the backhaul settings, one as previously mentioned (which is broken) and the other under 'Network Map > AiMesh Node > "Node Settings"' which seems to work perfectly well.

UPDATE 2:
It seems that the problem is not fully resolved. I still have the problem when passing from one particular XT8 node to the main AX11000 router node. Swapping between the third node with any other node seems to work fine.

UPDATE 3:
Seems the problem may have been with some switches external to the Aimesh nodes. Rebooted a couple of switches and everything has been stable since with no decrease in speed whilst roaming from node to node.

UPDATE 4:
Unfortunately wasn't the switch that was the problem. It must be something to do with the Aimesh system. Guess I'll just have to wait and see if a future firmware fixes the issue.

 

[Kiwipaul]

Any ETA for the next release?

 

[bitsbytes]

There's all sorts of problems on the client list in the gui. Devices disappearing and reappearing, Devices not showing at all but are still connected and working properly especially on the node. This is on the main wifi network not the guest.

 

[ginny]

Bad upstream bitrate on AC86U node while on Ethernet Backhaul (measured end to end towards ISP)

Connection Priority "Auto"

• Router AC5300 9.0.0.4.386_39485 downstraem 105 Mbits / upstream 34 Mbits
• Node AX92U WiFi 9.0.0.4.386_39485 downstraem 95 Mbits / upstream 30 Mbits
• Node AC86U WiFi 9.0.0.4.386_39485 downstraem 94 Mbits / upstream 29 Mbits

Connection Priority "Ethernet first"

• Router AC5300 9.0.0.4.386_39485 downstraem 105 Mbits / upstream 34 Mbits
• Node AX92U Eth 9.0.0.4.386_39485 downstraem 95 Mbits / upstream 28 Mbits
• Node AC86U Eth 9.0.0.4.386_39485 downstraem 94 Mbits / upstream 9 Mbits

I'm really wondering while on Ethernet Backhaul according the GUI, the upstram rate is so weak over the AC86U. I didn't see that on AiMesh 1 with the 384 Firmware. Has anybody an explanation?

 

[OzarkEdge]

Bad upstream bitrate on AC86U node while on Ethernet Backhaul (measured end to end towards ISP)

Connection Priority "Auto"

• Router AC5300 9.0.0.4.386_39485 downstraem 105 Mbits / upstream 34 Mbits
• Node AX92U WiFi 9.0.0.4.386_39485 downstraem 95 Mbits / upstream 30 Mbits
• Node AC86U WiFi 9.0.0.4.386_39485 downstraem 94 Mbits / upstream 29 Mbits

Connection Priority "Ethernet first"

• Router AC5300 9.0.0.4.386_39485 downstraem 105 Mbits / upstream 34 Mbits
• Node AX92U Eth 9.0.0.4.386_39485 downstraem 95 Mbits / upstream 28 Mbits
• Node AC86U Eth 9.0.0.4.386_39485 downstraem 94 Mbits / upstream 9 Mbits

I'm really wondering while on Ethernet Backhaul according the GUI, the upstram rate is so weak over the AC86U. I didn't see that on AiMesh 1 with the 384 Firmware. Has anybody an explanation?

Could be anything with this firmware... I never got past unstable AC86U WiFi broadcast which is the whole point of mesh. This firmware is not really a release candidate per se.... it's still under development.

What are your nominal ISP speeds down/up?

What is the year and country of manufacture on your AC86U label?

OE

 

[sanke1]

@ASUSWRT_2020
Waiting for RC 5/Beta 5

 

[drabisan]

Bad upstream bitrate on AC86U node while on Ethernet Backhaul (measured end to end towards ISP)

Connection Priority "Auto"

• Router AC5300 9.0.0.4.386_39485 downstraem 105 Mbits / upstream 34 Mbits
• Node AX92U WiFi 9.0.0.4.386_39485 downstraem 95 Mbits / upstream 30 Mbits
• Node AC86U WiFi 9.0.0.4.386_39485 downstraem 94 Mbits / upstream 29 Mbits

Connection Priority "Ethernet first"

• Router AC5300 9.0.0.4.386_39485 downstraem 105 Mbits / upstream 34 Mbits
• Node AX92U Eth 9.0.0.4.386_39485 downstraem 95 Mbits / upstream 28 Mbits
• Node AC86U Eth 9.0.0.4.386_39485 downstraem 94 Mbits / upstream 9 Mbits

I'm really wondering while on Ethernet Backhaul according the GUI, the upstram rate is so weak over the AC86U. I didn't see that on AiMesh 1 with the 384 Firmware. Has anybody an explanation?

Just wondering why you're not using "Ethernet Backhaul Mode" from "AiMesh" menu.
For me that was the main point of this early-beta release, as it doesn't block the 2nd 5GHz radio from my GT5300. (to block 2nd radio was a stupid decision implemented by Asus couple of years back)
I did not test what will happen to my AiMesh if eth connection breaks with "Ethernet Backhaul Mode" on. And I don't know if that's something I want to test. I have a storage attached to Node and if eth breaks, I would rather choose to know that than to fall over wifi backhaul - bandwidth over 2.4GHz will be terrible.

There must be something wrong in AC86U code. What you're seeing is definitely bad.
My node is an AX88U and I'm getting the same results as when I'm connected to router.