Bonding RT-AC88U

[usamario]

Hi
Thank you to Merlin for creating this firmware, this is my second time around, I purchased an Asus a few years ago, then I purchased a Netgear R700, what a great router using the vortex-merlin firmware and to upgrade and continue using Merlins firmware now I purchased a RT-AC88U.

I emailed Asus technical support with a question related to the 8 Ethernet ports and my qnap nas.
I asked if there was any difference between the 8 Ethernet ports and which port should I used with my qnap, I wanted to take advantage of any feature available to me.
Asus responded that there was no difference, however when I go to "Lan/Switch Control" I notice the "Bonding/link aggregation", it mentions using port 1 and 2 for a NAS.

Is there any additional advantage or none?
Thank you
Mario

 

[RMerlin]

Lan aggregation is mostly useful in a business environment when you have multiple clients accessing files at the same time on the NAS. For home usage, it's not worth the headache.

The main difference between the ports is that 1-4 are on the Broadcom switch, while 5-8 are on a Realtek switch. It's best to keep your clients on the Broadcom switch whenever possible, as there might be a potential bottleneck between port 1-4 and port 5-8 (as they are separate switches). I would only put low throughput clients on the second switch if you need to use more than 4 ports.

 

[usamario]

Thank you for your reply, I have one more issue and it has been discussed one time but the solution given didn't work for me.

I have a Honeywell TH6 Pro thermostat and it worked great under the R700 router, it also worked for 1 week under the RT-AC88u but now I am not able to see it under my iPhone or iPad. The thermostat WiFi is workig.

I followed the suggestion given by disabling the bitforming under 2.4 but left it enable under 5.GHz but still don't see it.

I have smart connect turn on and I thought this may be the issue, I disabled smart connect and I still don't see the thermostat.

Before I start messing around with the thermostat, I would like to know if the smart connect is supposed to work with thermostats and smart home systems.
Again thank you for creating the firmware and for your help.
Thank you
Mario