Beta ASUSWRT 386 RC2 public beta with full functions AiMesh 2.0

[drabisan]

Not arguing this may be a useful feature for most of us.
But a note: BW column on your second screen capture is not part of standard AsusWRT as far as I can see in my output. It looks that is from Merlin's release.

 

[KrispiL]

Has anyone tried wired connectivity to a wireless backhaul connected AIMesh 2.0 node?

I'm getting significant packet loss using this setup, however devices which connect to the mesh node's guest network don't get any packet loss and the interface reports good connectivity between the main router and the node.

The setup I am trying is with:
RT-AX88U 9.0.0.4.386_39485 as the main router
RT-AC68U 9.0.0.4.386_39485 as the mesh node, about 8m from the main router through one wall. Using 5G for the backhaul.

I have a guest network setup with intranet isolation enabled on both 2.4G and 5G which I have enabled on the node as well. All the wireless networks have their own SSID, so I have 4 SSIDs (2 main ones for 2.4G and 5G and the two guest ones). Devices connected to the main wireless network on the node suffer poor connectivity, however on the guest network they are fine. I wanted to see if the poor connectivity it was something to do with connecting to the wireless network itself on the node so tried connecting my PC to the LAN ports on the mesh node instead, however I found the same connectivity issues with significant packet loss:

E.g. Pinging the main router (192.168.1.1) from a PC connected to the LAN port on the mesh node:

Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Request timed out.
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Request timed out.
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64

There are occasional errors in the main router logs which relate to the VLANs used for each wireless network:

Sep 5 18:36:04 kernel: wfd_unregisterdevice Successfully unregistered ifidx 2 wfd_idx 1
Sep 5 18:36:04 kernel: ^[[0;33;41m[ERROR vlan] vlanIoctl ,652: Failed to delete VLAN device wds1.0.1.501^[[0m
Sep 5 18:36:04 kernel: ^[[0;33;41m[ERROR vlan] vlanIoctl ,652: Failed to delete VLAN device wds1.0.1.0^[[0m
Sep 5 18:36:04 kernel: ^[[0;33;41m[ERROR vlan] vlanIoctl ,652: Failed to delete VLAN device wds1.0.1.502^[[0m
Sep 5 18:36:04 kernel: ^[[0;33;41m[ERROR vlan] vlanIoctl ,652: Failed to delete VLAN device wds1.0.1.0^[[0m
Sep 5 18:36:08 kernel: wfd_registerdevice Successfully registered dev wds1.0.1 ifidx 2 wfd_idx 1
Sep 5 18:36:08 kernel: Register interface [wds1.0.1] MAC: a8:5e:45:ae:a6:a4
Sep 5 18:36:12 kernel: netdev path : wds1.0.1.0 -> wds1.0.1
Sep 5 18:36:12 kernel: BCMVLAN : wds1.0.1 mode was set to RG
Sep 5 18:36:12 kernel: netdev path : wds1.0.1.501 -> wds1.0.1
Sep 5 18:36:12 kernel: BCMVLAN : wds1.0.1 mode was set to RG
Sep 5 18:36:12 kernel: netdev path : wds1.0.1.502 -> wds1.0.1
Sep 5 18:36:12 kernel: BCMVLAN : wds1.0.1 mode was set to RG

Just wondering if it's something to do with my setup or if other people are seeing the same issues?

Configuring the AC68U as a media bridge works fine but obviously I loose the AIMesh features.

 

[L&LD]

I need my node tuf-ax3000 to support as well, but it's not in the list

I believe it will be eventually. Patience or switching to an RT-AX3000 or an RT-AX58U is needed.

RT-AX58U / TUF Gaming AX3000

I was wondering if I could use the TUF gaming AX3000 FW on my RT-AX58U, since they are the same router? Thanks in advance.

www.snbforums.com

 

[LimJK]

Not arguing this may be a useful feature for most of us.
But a note: BW column on your second screen capture is not part of standard AsusWRT as far as I can see in my output. It looks that is from Merlin's release.

Drabisan,

The BW column is indeed from the System Log - Wireless Log Page of ASUS RC2-4 (9.0.0.4.386_39485), probably borrowing from Merlin's Firmware; that is progress .
I copied the few lines to a text file to do screenshot so that I can show the full line of text; as the text is too long that requires to scroll left to right within the Wireless Log screen. Take a look at the screen.

 

[OzarkEdge]

Has anyone tried wired connectivity to a wireless backhaul connected AIMesh 2.0 node?

I'm getting significant packet loss using this setup, however devices which connect to the mesh node's guest network don't get any packet loss and the interface reports good connectivity between the main router and the node.

The setup I am trying is with:
RT-AX88U 9.0.0.4.386_39485 as the main router
RT-AC68U 9.0.0.4.386_39485 as the mesh node, about 8m from the main router through one wall. Using 5G for the backhaul.

I have a guest network setup with intranet isolation enabled on both 2.4G and 5G which I have enabled on the node as well. All the wireless networks have their own SSID, so I have 4 SSIDs (2 main ones for 2.4G and 5G and the two guest ones). Devices connected to the main wireless network on the node suffer poor connectivity, however on the guest network they are fine. I wanted to see if the poor connectivity it was something to do with connecting to the wireless network itself on the node so tried connecting my PC to the LAN ports on the mesh node instead, however I found the same connectivity issues with significant packet loss:

E.g. Pinging the main router (192.168.1.1) from a PC connected to the LAN port on the mesh node:

Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Request timed out.
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Request timed out.
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64

There are occasional errors in the main router logs which relate to the VLANs used for each wireless network:

Sep 5 18:36:04 kernel: wfd_unregisterdevice Successfully unregistered ifidx 2 wfd_idx 1
Sep 5 18:36:04 kernel: ^[[0;33;41m[ERROR vlan] vlanIoctl ,652: Failed to delete VLAN device wds1.0.1.501^[[0m
Sep 5 18:36:04 kernel: ^[[0;33;41m[ERROR vlan] vlanIoctl ,652: Failed to delete VLAN device wds1.0.1.0^[[0m
Sep 5 18:36:04 kernel: ^[[0;33;41m[ERROR vlan] vlanIoctl ,652: Failed to delete VLAN device wds1.0.1.502^[[0m
Sep 5 18:36:04 kernel: ^[[0;33;41m[ERROR vlan] vlanIoctl ,652: Failed to delete VLAN device wds1.0.1.0^[[0m
Sep 5 18:36:08 kernel: wfd_registerdevice Successfully registered dev wds1.0.1 ifidx 2 wfd_idx 1
Sep 5 18:36:08 kernel: Register interface [wds1.0.1] MAC: a8:5e:45:ae:a6:a4
Sep 5 18:36:12 kernel: netdev path : wds1.0.1.0 -> wds1.0.1
Sep 5 18:36:12 kernel: BCMVLAN : wds1.0.1 mode was set to RG
Sep 5 18:36:12 kernel: netdev path : wds1.0.1.501 -> wds1.0.1
Sep 5 18:36:12 kernel: BCMVLAN : wds1.0.1 mode was set to RG
Sep 5 18:36:12 kernel: netdev path : wds1.0.1.502 -> wds1.0.1
Sep 5 18:36:12 kernel: BCMVLAN : wds1.0.1 mode was set to RG

Just wondering if it's something to do with my setup or if other people are seeing the same issues?

Configuring the AC68U as a media bridge works fine but obviously I loose the AIMesh features.

I reported similar here: https://www.snbforums.com/threads/a...h-full-functions-aimesh-2-0.65235/post-613417

I have yet to keep RC2 on my 2xRT-AC86U wireless AiMesh longer than a few hours. Too much weirdness to test.

OE

 

[rickygao]

ASUS,

Can you consider to add BANDWIDTH information, on the following dialogue, AiMesh -> AiMesh Router -> Select a Client

View attachment 25996

The Bandwidth information can be found in the Wireless Log (only for Clients attached to the AiMesh Router, not for Clients attached to AiMesh Nodes). This is useful information as during testing in earlier RCs I found that my 5GHz band only has a bandwidth of 20MHz instead of up to 80MHz. I only discovered that when I use WiFi Explorer on Mac to discovered that Bandwidth on AiMesh node is 20MHz.

View attachment 25995

This is a really good suggestion, I vote for one

 

[Srikanth]

I must say, this is the most stable Aimesh setup that I have used till date. I have 2 AC86U connected in mesh using 5G as backhaul. This has been rock solid for 2 weeks.

Backhaul - 5g
Aiprotection - yes
Dual wan - yes
Smart connect - yes
SSID - same on both main and node
Device and node binding - yes, for devices which don't roam (e.g. TV, Home theatre)
Wireless MAC filter - Yes, to reject 5g devices from connecting to 2.4g
WiFi control channel - Auto for both channels
Roaming assistant - Enabled
Beam forming (AC and universal) - Enabled
Airtime Fairness - Enabled
Traffic analyser - ON
QoS - OFF
Guest network - OFF
IPv6 - OFF
Firewall - Enabled

 

[LimJK]

Hi ASUSWRT_2020,

Can you explain what is meant by "RT-AC86U upstream downgrade issue"? Reason I ask so that I can look out for it, should this happened in my environment.

I run RC2-4 for over a week, some few weeks back, after that reverted back to Merlin 384.19 as I normally run some scripts with AMTM, after reading your status update (Thanks) I decided to get back to RC2-4. Trying to see if I can help capture a few incidents that happened to my case few weeks back on RC2-4.

I recalled having a few times where my backhaul connection between AiMesh Router (RT-AX88U) to one of my AiMesh Nodes (RT-AC86) got degraded from 1Gbps to 100Mbps (I only use CAT 6 or CAT 7 cables, see my configuration in my Signature). My workarounds involved (a) simply pull out the RJ45 Ethernet Connector from WAN Port of Node and plug it back and/or (2) physically power OFF / ON the AiMesh Node.

So far My AiMesh 2.0 environment it has been running for only 4.5 hours ... I will check tomorrow if this happen again.

Asus,

One of AiMesh Node with 1Gbps Wired backhaul has degraded to 10/100Mbps. Hoping the logs are useful for ASUS.

My Configuration:
AiMesh Router (RT-AX88U) with 2 x AiMesh Nodes (RT-AC86U)

This happened to me once before I do factory reset, my Workaround then was to Reboot the offending AiMesh Node using AiMesh 2.0 GUI. My Network was stable with all Wifi Bands for my WiFi environment. I validated it with WiFi Explorer and WiFi Clients on each AiMesh Router / Nodes.

This time round, I am not going to Reboot the offending AiMesh Node, leaving it in the degraded state, for ASUS to collect the logs. By the way, all my cables are type 6 or type 7. I am fairly certain it is not a cable issue.

About 6 hours before this happened, I disconnected the cable from WAN port of the AiMesh Node to test the effect of using Wireless Backhaul for this AiMesh Node (following some discussions here about WiFi backhaul issue). Not seeing any issues in my environment, I re-connect the RJ45 back to AiMesh Node and AiMesh 2.0 GUI shows that I got back Wired backhaul at 1Gbps.

Subsequently, when I saw the degraded Wired Backhaul state, I sent “Feedback” to ASUS with logs enabled. Pointing ASUS to the quoted post above.

PS: I will do a Reboot via AiMesh 2.0 GUI when the Logs are fully sent to ASUS.
PS: I know each of us has different experiences for our respective WiFi environment. For me the RC2-4 firmware, apart from some initial issue post setup

• Lost 5GHz Band in one of my AiMesh Node - resolved with a "reboot" of the AiMesh Node
• Degraded Wired Backhaul after I fiddled with pulling out Wired backhaul cable and plug it back.
• This Firmware has been very stable for me (caveat: in my environment), I like the new AiMesh 2.0 interface.

 

[Srikanth]

Dual WAN issue:

My main router (ac86u) is connected to ISP router through ethernet cable. Switched off the WiFi on ISP router as I want to use Asus router to do everything. ISP router stores the PPPoE credentials.

I have another internet connection (Automatic IP) as secondary WAN ( LAN port 1) as failover.

The issue I have is with Failback. When the primary link goes down, it switches to secondary but it attempts to failback to primary after few secs though primary is still down. After staying connected to primary for few secs (as per setting) it realises that there is no internet actually on this line and failover to secondary. It keeps switching like this, though internet on primary link is down. Why does this happen ? Looks like a bug in failback functionality. It just checks if it has connection to ISP router and thinks primary link is connected to internet instead of checking if internet is actually working on primary.

For now, I switched off failback sothat it doesn't automatically try connecting to primary. When I notice that primary internet is back, I restart the router.

Can anyone help why the failback is not working as it is supposed to ?

 

[sanke1]

Nothing I did could help me with my issue: Port Forwarding stops working randomly in 1-2 days. I am tired of this expensive junk RT-AX88U. @ASUSWRT_2020 I have sent so many logs but apart from you, no one has even bothered to contact. This router belongs in trashcan till Asus fixes this Port Forwarding issue. I don’t think I will buy any Asus routers (should we call them expensive showpieces?)

 

[drabisan]

Drabisan,

The BW column is indeed from the System Log - Wireless Log Page of ASUS RC2-4 (9.0.0.4.386_39485), probably borrowing from Merlin's Firmware; that is progress .
I copied the few lines to a text file to do screenshot so that I can show the full line of text; as the text is too long that requires to scroll left to right within the Wireless Log screen. Take a look at the screen.

That's the output from my GT-AC5300 running 9.0.0.4.386_39485.
Stations List
----------------------------------------
idx MAC Associated Authorized RSSI PHY PSM SGI STBC MUBF NSS Tx rate Rx rate Connect Time
B4:69:21:12:68:1C Yes Yes -54dBm ac No Yes Yes Yes 2 866.7M 780M 00:01:06

Maybe the BW is a chipset specific? I've never seen BW in any release as far as I remember. Having it would be super helpful.

 

[OzarkEdge]

Nothing I did could help me with my issue: Port Forwarding stops working randomly in 1-2 days. I am tired of this expensive junk RT-AX88U. @ASUSWRT_2020 I have sent so many logs but apart from you, no one has even bothered to contact. This router belongs in trashcan till Asus fixes this Port Forwarding issue. I don’t think I will buy any Asus routers (should we call them expensive showpieces?)

Are you complaining about the betaware being tested in this thread?

OE

 

[LimJK]

That's the output from my GT-AC5300 running 9.0.0.4.386_39485.
Stations List
----------------------------------------
idx MAC Associated Authorized RSSI PHY PSM SGI STBC MUBF NSS Tx rate Rx rate Connect Time
B4:69:21:12:68:1C Yes Yes -54dBm ac No Yes Yes Yes 2 866.7M 780M 00:01:06

Maybe the BW is a chipset specific? I've never seen BW in any release as far as I remember. Having it would be super helpful.

drabisan,
I have RT-AX88U running 9.0.0.4_386_39485 ... actually, I found the "BandWidth" information in the Wireless Log accidentally . However, I noticed that Merlin's FW provides the 5GHz Bandwidth information when we hover mouse over the WiFi icon at the top right of his page for all Merlin's supported models, that was why I am making this request to ASUS for clients on both AiMesh Router and AiMesh Nodes to provide us "Bandwidth" information.

 

[karma]

drabisan,
I have RT-AX88U running 9.0.0.4_386_39485 ... actually, I found the "BandWidth" information in the Wireless Log accidentally . However, I noticed that Merlin's FW provides the 5GHz Bandwidth information when we hover mouse over the WiFi icon at the top right of his page for all Merlin's supported models, that was why I am making this request to ASUS for clients on both AiMesh Router and AiMesh Nodes to provide us "Bandwidth" information.

fyi, the BW column is also available on the zenwifi XT8

 

[RMerlin]

fyi, the BW column is also available on the zenwifi XT8

The BW field was added around the time of the RT-AX88U if I remember correctly.

I still think Asus should redesign this whole page IMHO. This is how it looks in my firmware, for example.

 

[karma]

The BW field was added around the time of the RT-AX88U if I remember correctly.

I still think Asus should redesign this whole page IMHO. This is how it looks in my firmware, for example.

agreed, it was very clean, nice and useful in your firmware each time I used it.

 

[JChris]

I’m having trouble trying to make IGMP work in AP mode. I tried with the beta firmware 9.0.0.4.386_39485, but it seems the issue persists, findings below.

Model: ZenWifi XT8 2-PACK (Europe)

ISP FTTH with 1 “all-in-one” device working as ONT, router, wireless router, switch and RFTV. Wireless router functionality was disabled by me because I want everything wifi coming from ZenWifi. I also have 1 ISP IPTV STB with wired and wireless capabilities

I want the ZenWifis working as “dumb” APs, because wired backhaul is not possible with the cabling layout I have in my house and wireless backhaul is a waste because I want 4x4 5G for my devices. I have the following structure:

ISP Router

LAN1: ZenWifi #1 <- the one I need IGMP working​

LAN2: TV​

LAN3: ISP STB​

LAN2: ZenWifi #2​

LAN2: TV​

LAN3: console​

For all attempts below I used this configuration:

Attempt #1
XT8 with 3.0.0.4.386_25524 on AP mode: IPTV STB works and got IP from ISP Router DHCP, but everything else connected to ZenWifi won’t even get an IP address.
WAN: cable from ISP router
LAN3: IPTV STB

Attempt #2
XT8 with 3.0.0.4.386_25524 on AP mode: not working. IPTV STB won’t even detect network
LAN1: cable from ISP router
LAN3: IPTV STB

Attempt #3
XT8 with 3.0.0.4.386_25524 on Wireless Router mode: working, no freezing
WAN: cable from ISP router
LAN3: IPTV STB

I intentionally moved the IPTV STB from LAN3 to LAN2 and the freezing started, as expected. I moved it back to LAN3 and all good, no freezing.

The problem with this setup is that I would end up with 2 networks, one for each router and to manage them I would have to connect to each, which is terrible. I’d rather have then as APs and access, let’s say, 192.168.0.10 and .11 to manage them.

Attempt #4
XT8 with 3.0.0.4.386_25524 on Wireless Router mode: not working. IPTV STB won’t even detect network. Other devices connected via wifi or wired can access the Internet. I’m not able to access the ZenWifi admin page
LAN1: cable from ISP router
LAN3: IPTV STB

Attempt #5
XT8 with 9.0.0.4.386_39485 on AP mode: IPTV STB works and got IP from ISP Router DHCP, but everything else connected to ZenWifi won’t even get an IP address.
WAN: cable from ISP router
LAN3: IPTV STB

Attempt #6
XT8 with 9.0.0.4.386_39485 on AP mode: not working. IPTV STB won’t even detect network
LAN1: cable from ISP router
LAN3: IPTV STB

Attempt #7
XT8 with 9.0.0.4.386_39485 on Wireless Router mode: working, no freezing
WAN: cable from ISP router
LAN3: IPTV STB

Same problem as attempt #3, creates a different network.

Attempt #8
XT8 with 9.0.0.4.386_39485 on Wireless Router mode: not working. IPTV STB won’t even detect network. Other devices connected via wifi or wired can access the Internet. I’m not able to access the ZenWifi admin page
LAN1: cable from ISP router
LAN3: IPTV STB

---

To sum it all, I can’t get IGMP working when the XT8 in is AP mode, only when in Router mode.

 

[karma]

ZenWifi - AP Mode - Wireless Backhaul speed

Out of curiosity I decided to try to see the difference in speed for the wireless backhaul between AX and AC with 80Mhz BW. It does not look like it's as big a difference as I would expect. In AC I see the rx/tx top out at 1300M and AX it tops out at 1441.2M. The RSSI for the mesh node is -60 which is pretty good, no? Going by the AX chart here I would have thought that 4x4 AX would be able to do 2400M rx/tx or am I completely confused?

 

[KingBravery]

ZenWifi - AP Mode - Wireless Backhaul speed

Out of curiosity I decided to try to see the difference in speed for the wireless backhaul between AX and AC with 80Mhz BW. It does not look like it's as big a difference as I would expect. In AC I see the rx/tx top out at 1300M and AX it tops out at 1441.2M. The RSSI for the mesh node is -60 which is pretty good, no? Going by the AX chart here I would have thought that 4x4 AX would be able to do 2400M rx/tx or am I completely confused?

you must use DFS channel (100-144) in order to get 160MHz working, then you'll be able to get 2400Mbps

 

[karma]

you must use DFS channel (100-144) in order to get 160MHz working, then you'll be able to get 2400Mbps

with 4x4 160Mhz it should be 4.8 Gbps, no?