ET12 AiMesh 5GHz issue with GT-AXE16000

[erick_e]

My primary router is a GT-AXE16000 using 2.4GHz, 40MHz, Channel 11; 5GHz-1, 80MHz, Channel 40; 5GHz-2, 160MHz, channel 112; and 6GHz, 160MHz, channel 37. I live in a two story house, approx. 1500 sq/ft, and the router is perfectly sufficient for anything we do on the second floor living apace, and even the few devices in the first floor basement. FWIW, they each have a separate network name. My problem is when I'm working outside the house on the ground level that I have almost no coverage.

I decided to try a AiMesh router, instead of an extender so I would still have a fair amount of bandwidth. I set up the ET12 using 6GHz wireless backhaul, and surprisingly it connects at a decent rate (4083/2450) since the primary router is directly above it on the second floor.

However, none of the first-floor devices will connect to the ET12's 5GHz channel. It appears that it is repeating my primary 5GHz-2 channel 112, instead of 5GHz-1 channel 40, and my first floor streaming stick, TV, and camera won't connect to the ET12. What is odd is that those devices will connect to my primary router 5GHz-2, just not the ET12 with a significantly better signal rate. They will connect to the ET12's 2.4GHz. I tried to bind the device to the ET12 after connecting them with the 2.4GHz network, but they don't recognize the 5GHz network afterwards.

It's my first time experimenting with AiMesh, so maybe it's user error but any help would be appreciated.

 

[junior120872]

I ran into this scenario as well with the AXE16000 with multiple ET12 nodes. I couldn't get the clients to connect on 5Ghz to the nodes. I read it's been a problem with other users as well. I ended up returning the AXE16000 and getting a be96u. In your case I'd return the ET12 and get the XT12 since the 2.4 and 5ghz-1 and 5ghz-2 channels line up. You won't have 6ghz backhaul though, but you can use the 5gh-2 for that or hardwire if possible.

 

[Cain]

How do you like your

ASUS RT-BE96U​

 

[junior120872]

I really like it. It seems solid. Everything that I use works. AiMesh, Guest Network Pro, etc. The router's memory fills up and reboots on it's own around the 3-4 week time period, so I typically just set a schedule to reboot instead of letting it crash. I'm running the latest Merlin firmware as of now, but saw the same issues with released firmware from Asus.

 

[erick_e]

Thanks for the reply @junior120872, I didn't realize that others had 5GHz connectivity issues with the ET12 as well. I'm going to try a wireless backhaul to see if it makes a difference, but I doubt it will.

I've been pondering a GT-BE98 Pro upgrade but have been waiting for Asus to enable AFC. Maybe I'll go all out and get one and use the GT-AXE16000 as a basement node.

 

[junior120872]

From what I've experienced it's best to have routers that have compatible channels when using aiMesh. Meaning 2.4ghz, 5g, 6g with the same supported aimesh nodes or 2.4g, 5-1g, 5-2g with comparable mesh nodes. The GT-BE98 Pro has two 6Ghz channels. (2.4, 5, 6-1, 6-2). I'm not saying they won't work, but from my limited experience I've seen issues with AiMesh when the devices aren't alike. If you're only worried about 2.4 and 5ghz channels that would work for you. Not sure if the 6-1 channel on the BE98 would line up with the 6ghz channel on the ET12. Maybe someone on here has tried this configuration though. The reason I went with the be96u is that they were both tri-band routers on 2.4,5 and 6. I don't have wifi 7 at the nodes, but I have a total of 0 wifi 7 devices so it's not a big deal. . I racked my head for quite a while with the AXE16000 up to two days before my return period to try to get it to work. With that said I only saw these issues in aiMesh Wireless router mode. Access point mode on the ET12's may not have these issues since the software isn't pushing from the main router.