Beta ASUSWRT 386 RC2 public beta with full functions AiMesh 2.0

[juched]

I am surprised you are even messing with AiMesh with the roaming assistant feature turned off. You might as well just use your extra routers as Access Points. As per your talk about turning off AC, I don't see how this is necessary or benefitial unless your wireless devices are older because you are intentionally impacting wireless performance for sheer stability. The trade-off is not really that much different compared to any losses in wireless performance. Now as for wifi settings tab, there are plenty of unnecessary(,but sometimes benefitial depending on case use) options that you can disable without sacrificing actual wireless performance.

As I understand AiMesh will move clients automatically, you don't need to turn on Roaming Assistant. This is for an additional push, but from my testing as I walk through my house my phone will move seamlessly (and quickly) from one node to the next without Roaming assistant turned on. Also, I see maybe 1 dropped packet during the transition while running a continuous ping with 250ms delay between.

 

[SomeWhereOverTheRainBow]

As I understand AiMesh will move clients automatically, you don't need to turn on Roaming Assistant. This is for an additional push, but from my testing as I walk through my house my phone will move seamlessly (and quickly) from one node to the next without Roaming assistant turned on. Also, I see maybe 1 dropped packet during the transition while running a continuous ping with 250ms delay between.

Well if i remember correcting roaming assistant use to get automatically turned on when enabling AiMesh. I imagine the next to effortless roaming experience you are having is because all the nodes are set to the same wireless channel as the main router. This creates a "seamless" condition that advocates roaming. (A giant umbrella if you will consider it that). I would argue the roaming assistant may be more useful for stubborn roaming issues where the client refuses to establish new connection before giving up the old.

 

[Calkulin]

I've discovered a weird issue with my AiMesh configs and having Protected Management Frames set to capable. When it's set to capable, the AiMesh nodes act really weird, throughput is crippled(when it decides to work) but most of the times anything connected to nodes lags really bad(not in pings but accessing the internet or even the router webui). When I disable Protected Management Frames, everything works fine again. And the same thing happens on a RT-AX58U router with the RT-AX58U node and on a RT-AC68U router with a RT-AC68U node. Anyone else have this issue?

 

[88keyz]

Not sure if this is an issue or expected behavior. On a RT-AC5300 with 9.0.0.4.386_40947 installed when a Parental Control Time Scheduling block enabled and active the WAN speeds are cut to about 30MB/s. As soon as the scheduled time block is over the WAN speed returns to Gigabit. NAT Acceleration is set to Auto and shows "CTF (Cut Through Forwarding) is enabled." both while the scheduled block is active and when it is inactive.

I don't remember this behavior with Merlin 384.19_0 but its possible I just wasn't looking for it. This is the first iteration of the RC firmware that I've installed because I wanted to take advantage of the Ethernet Only backhaul setting for my AiMesh. Device was factory reset (as were nodes) and setup from scratch with the RC firmware.

If @ASUSWRT_2020 or anyone can comment if they see this same behavior while using Time Scheduling blocks and if its the expected behavior. Only reason I question it is that CTF shows as enabled while the block is active yet WAN speeds are cut as if it was disabled.

 

[Mdouglas10]

Hi -

I'm using 2 Xt8 Zenwifi mesh using wifi backhaul. I tried update 2020/11/12 (9.0.0.4.386.40947) , and I noticed that even though I hide the 5GHZ 2 SSID solely for backhaul, some of my devices were somehow connecting to this upper 5780 5G2 band. Could this be remedied in the official public release?

 

[KingBravery]

Hi -

I'm using 2 Xt8 Zenwifi mesh using wifi backhaul. I tried update 2020/11/12 (9.0.0.4.386.40947) , and I noticed that even though I hide the 5GHZ 2 SSID solely for backhaul, some of my devices were somehow connecting to this upper 5780 5G2 band. Could this be remedied in the official public release?

I also noticed this behavior. Hope someone can explain.

 

[doc octopus]

Have you tried released firmware?

Have you tried pulling their plugs?

OE

Yes, I updated the firmware to the latest beta available (but the problem also existed with previous releases), unplugged and reattached the power supply and I also proceeded with the reset of the router. The clients that are listed in the time scheduling have navigation problems even at that moment internet access is allowed.
Router: gt-ax11000

 

[SBSTNGRSS]

As I understand AiMesh will move clients automatically, you don't need to turn on Roaming Assistant. This is for an additional push, but from my testing as I walk through my house my phone will move seamlessly (and quickly) from one node to the next without Roaming assistant turned on. Also, I see maybe 1 dropped packet during the transition while running a continuous ping with 250ms delay between.

Same for me and on top also with Roaming Assist disabled it kind of works even better.

 

[bumpengrinder]

Same for me and on top also with Roaming Assist disabled it kind of works even better.

Interesting.

You have started an itch - I am now wondering what other settings I could tweak to optimize my GT-AC2900. I don't suppose anybody knows of / could recommend general guide to this for Asus routers?

 

[SBSTNGRSS]

I do not want to start a big discussion on this, but what I can observe is that roaming assist with AiMesh beta seems not to be so aggressiv as compared to the release codeline of my rt-ac88u and the observation @SomeWhereOverTheRainBow made is the same on my end.

A suggestion to @ASUSWRT_2020 would be to give a recommendation which settings should be set in the wireless professional settings tab as default and which settings are used for testing inside at Asus, at least that we have the same comparisson here too. For me also a statement would be fine which says - please leave everything to default, this should ensure in 90% of the cases best performance, best throughput.

Lets see ...

Interesting.

You have started an itch - I am now wondering what other settings I could tweak to optimize my GT-AC2900. I don't suppose anybody knows of / could recommend general guide to this for Asus routers?

 

[OzarkEdge]

Interesting.

You have started an itch - I am now wondering what other settings I could tweak to optimize my GT-AC2900. I don't suppose anybody knows of / could recommend general guide to this for Asus routers?

I've been lurking here since 3/2018 and have only been convinced to set a few non-default settings for a basic Aimesh configuration. These are noted in my install notes.

OE

 

[bumpengrinder]

I've been lurking here since 3/2018 and have only been convinced to set a few non-default settings for a basic Aimesh configuration. These are noted in my install notes.

OE

Thanks @OzarkEdge , I will peruse your notes tonight. I have actually met them before in my previous adventures (but I was focussed only on looking for reset methods at the time!)

 

[SBSTNGRSS]

Hi OE,

I know your install routine and really appreciate that you share these with all of us! I just started this discussion, as AiMesh2 just "feels" so much different (in a better way !!!) on my rt-ac88u devices than the normal released firmware, that it would be nice to have a kind of official recommendation. My experience even is that to judge on a good setting means to change something and let your network run for a few days without any changes. Adjusting settings on the router and evaluate directly afterwards is depending on too many factors that everything goes well, especially on my end also reconnecting all clients takes a few hours and many reboots of different devices and even than all devices need to warm up with the new settings ... nothing easy to play with. And in the end we all want to have a low latency, stable , high performing network ...

I've been lurking here since 3/2018 and have only been convinced to set a few non-default settings for a basic Aimesh configuration. These are noted in my install notes.

OE

 

[OzarkEdge]

Hi OE,

I know your install routine and really appreciate that you share these with all of us! I just started this discussion, as AiMesh2 just "feels" so much different (in a better way !!!) on my rt-ac88u devices than the normal released firmware, that it would be nice to have a kind of official recommendation. My experience even is that to judge on a good setting means to change something and let your network run for a few days without any changes. Adjusting settings on the router and evaluate directly afterwards is depending on too many factors that everything goes well, especially on my end also reconnecting all clients takes a few hours and many reboots of different devices and even than all devices need to warm up with the new settings ... nothing easy to play with. And in the end we all want to have a low latency, stable , high performing network ...

The 'official recommendation' ships as the factory defaults. Then change only what you know to make the difference you want. The more you know (learn about), the more you might tweak a few default settings. But still only a few, imo.

OE

 

[sanke1]

I do not want to start a big discussion on this, but what I can observe is that roaming assist with AiMesh beta seems not to be so aggressiv as compared to the release codeline of my rt-ac88u and the observation @SomeWhereOverTheRainBow made is the same on my end.

A suggestion to @ASUSWRT_2020 would be to give a recommendation which settings should be set in the wireless professional settings tab as default and which settings are used for testing inside at Asus, at least that we have the same comparisson here too. For me also a statement would be fine which says - please leave everything to default, this should ensure in 90% of the cases best performance, best throughput.

Lets see ...

I have kept Roaming Assistant RSSI lower than -65 dBm. Slightly aggressive but works well in my house with 2 x RT-AX88Us in mesh.

 

[OzarkEdge]

I have kept Roaming Assistant RSSI lower than -65 dBm. Slightly aggressive but works well in my house with 2 x RT-AX88Us in mesh.

I'd say higher than -65 (less negative) would be more aggressive... roam sooner.

OE

 

[SBSTNGRSS]

Thank you @sanke1 and @OzarkEdge ... I know what you mean :–). And as I might repeat here — appreciate the lively talk ...

 

[bonk1990]

@ASUSWRT_2020
Will there be official information about what devices will receive the update? It is very important because of Black Friday
I am asking especially about Lyra (MAP-AC2200).
Or maybe only devices with Broadcom radios?

 

[mogulman]

I'd say higher than -65 (less negative) would be more aggressive... roam sooner.

OE

I think it depends on the situation. I had a not-very smart device, that only used 2.4 ghz and it would ping pong between my AP and router if I set roaming assistant at -65 or higher. I had to keep it at -70.

 

[Mattias]

@ASUSWRT_2020
Will there be official information about what devices will receive the update? It is very important because of Black Friday
I am asking especially about Lyra (MAP-AC2200).
Or maybe only devices with Broadcom radios?

I wouldn't buy Lyra, don't think it will get aimesh 2.0. Also been quite slow with any updates for it.