I recently replaced a TP Link Deco X5000 with an Asus XT8 because the Deco didn't have a lot of management options, no traffic monitoring, and had a few annoying quirks. I'm starting to think I went from the frying pan into the fryer with this move. The Asus has more management options and a traffic monitor which the Deco didn't have, but apparently the traffic monitor causes problems so I can't really use it like I would like to and it seems to have its own set of bugs and annoying quirks.
Anyway, here are my current problems.
1. I have three XT8 units. One as the main router in an office, one in the living room, one upstairs. I have a Ring alarm base station placed about 18 inches from the Living Room unit and it has been connecting to it just fine until yesterday when it dropped off and switched to the Main router which is the one with the weakest signal for it. RSSI is -85 and it was disconnecting and reconnecting at random. I tried binding it to the Living Room but when I did that it just went offline and would not connect. I then tried binding it to the Upstairs unit which is about halfway between the Living Room and Main but it also wouldn't connect to that one either and stayed offline. I "solved" it by connecting the Ring to the XT8 with a cable but I'd really prefer wifi connectivity. Any ideas? I know that placing devices too close to a router can lead to problems but..... see issue 2 below.
2. Same issue as above but this is with an AirTV2 (Sling) that is about 20 feet from the Living Room router, plenty of distance so having it too close to the router wouldn't be an issue, and has a clear line of sight with absolutely no obstructions in the way. Just like the Ring alarm, the AirTV will connect only to the Main router and not the Living Room or Upstairs, both of which are closer to it than the Main router. Its RSSI hovers between -75 and -80. When I bind it to either of the other two routers it just goes Offline and never reconnects.
You would think the problem is the satellite nodes but there are other devices connected to them without any issues.
Which led me to the third issue.
3. As part of my troubleshooting I rebooted the Living Room router, then the entire system a few times. When I did this the client list suddenly would not update correctly. As clients started to reconnect, some of them showed up in the client list, others did not. I had a total of 40 devices reconnect but the router's client list only showed 27. Some of the missing devices showed up in the client list as Offline but I confirmed that those devices were definitely connected. I did wait 10 to 15 minutes between reboots to give everything time to reconnect but even after I confirmed that all devices reconnected (I did this by going directly to each device one by one), it still would not show all of them in the client list either in Network Map client list or the AiMesh menu or the Asus Router app.
I had to reboot the entire system 3 or 4 times before the client list finally populated correctly.
Any ideas what's going on with the two devices not connecting to the satellite nodes and connecting only to the main node even though there are other devices that connect to the satellite nodes just fine?
And what might be going on with the client list?
Are there any commands I can run through SSH to clear and refresh the client list? And in general, what are some useful commands that can be used with the Asus firmware through a command line such as clearing nvram or cache or things like that. Is there a list somewhere of common commands available in the Asus firmware? So far clearing nvram and cache are the ones I'd find helpful but I'm sure there will be others in the future so if there's a list somewhere, that would help. If not, then how would I clear nvram and cache and wherever the client list might be stored?
I was really hoping the Asus would eliminate the shortcomings I found with the Deco X5000 but now I'm considering going back to the Deco and just buying a Firewalla to monitor traffic usage by device. That would be a pain though and I'd really prefer to get the Asus working.
Anyway, here are my current problems.
1. I have three XT8 units. One as the main router in an office, one in the living room, one upstairs. I have a Ring alarm base station placed about 18 inches from the Living Room unit and it has been connecting to it just fine until yesterday when it dropped off and switched to the Main router which is the one with the weakest signal for it. RSSI is -85 and it was disconnecting and reconnecting at random. I tried binding it to the Living Room but when I did that it just went offline and would not connect. I then tried binding it to the Upstairs unit which is about halfway between the Living Room and Main but it also wouldn't connect to that one either and stayed offline. I "solved" it by connecting the Ring to the XT8 with a cable but I'd really prefer wifi connectivity. Any ideas? I know that placing devices too close to a router can lead to problems but..... see issue 2 below.
2. Same issue as above but this is with an AirTV2 (Sling) that is about 20 feet from the Living Room router, plenty of distance so having it too close to the router wouldn't be an issue, and has a clear line of sight with absolutely no obstructions in the way. Just like the Ring alarm, the AirTV will connect only to the Main router and not the Living Room or Upstairs, both of which are closer to it than the Main router. Its RSSI hovers between -75 and -80. When I bind it to either of the other two routers it just goes Offline and never reconnects.
You would think the problem is the satellite nodes but there are other devices connected to them without any issues.
Which led me to the third issue.
3. As part of my troubleshooting I rebooted the Living Room router, then the entire system a few times. When I did this the client list suddenly would not update correctly. As clients started to reconnect, some of them showed up in the client list, others did not. I had a total of 40 devices reconnect but the router's client list only showed 27. Some of the missing devices showed up in the client list as Offline but I confirmed that those devices were definitely connected. I did wait 10 to 15 minutes between reboots to give everything time to reconnect but even after I confirmed that all devices reconnected (I did this by going directly to each device one by one), it still would not show all of them in the client list either in Network Map client list or the AiMesh menu or the Asus Router app.
I had to reboot the entire system 3 or 4 times before the client list finally populated correctly.
Any ideas what's going on with the two devices not connecting to the satellite nodes and connecting only to the main node even though there are other devices that connect to the satellite nodes just fine?
And what might be going on with the client list?
Are there any commands I can run through SSH to clear and refresh the client list? And in general, what are some useful commands that can be used with the Asus firmware through a command line such as clearing nvram or cache or things like that. Is there a list somewhere of common commands available in the Asus firmware? So far clearing nvram and cache are the ones I'd find helpful but I'm sure there will be others in the future so if there's a list somewhere, that would help. If not, then how would I clear nvram and cache and wherever the client list might be stored?
I was really hoping the Asus would eliminate the shortcomings I found with the Deco X5000 but now I'm considering going back to the Deco and just buying a Firewalla to monitor traffic usage by device. That would be a pain though and I'd really prefer to get the Asus working.
