Et8s flash blue

[outlaw78]

I have a mesh network with an axe-16000 running Merlin as the main router, two zenwifi et8s and one rt-ac5300 as nodes.

Recently the et8s won't stay connected via wireless backhaul but the 5300 will. I've factory reset the whole network, nodes etc but the et8s will not stay connected. They'll flash blue connect for a sec (with a white light) then go back to flashing again. The 5300 never disconnects.

I've tried all the available firmware on Asus website, the gunoton firmware and searched what I could find on Google. Nothing has worked.

And ideas or suggestions on how to fix this? I'm almost tempted to throw these et8s in the trash.

They will stay connected if I plug in the Ethernet cord with no problems.

 

[slackjaw99]

They will stay connected if I plug in the Ethernet cord with no problems.

ET8s should only ever use wired backhaul, otherwise you'd be better off with XT8s.

 

[outlaw78]

ET8s should only ever use wired backhaul, otherwise you'd be better off with XT8s.

Ethernet isn't an option where they are located and I was trying to get the 6E more coverage (But that doesn't seem to work unless the device connects to the main router and that is a seperate issue there altogether too). I only used ethernet to test connection. One is on end of the house compared to the router and on different stories of the house... For now I'm just using the AC5300 as a node since I am not having issues with that one connecting until someone comes up with a solution or a firmware update to correct it.

This did seem to start recently. Only one router was affected now both are. Steps as follows after a reboot:

1. White light at first turn on...
2. Yellow Light
3. Rapid Flashing blue
4. White light
5. (Sometimes a flicker of the white light)
6. Yellow Light (Sometimes), Then rapid flashing blue
7. Straight from white to flashing blue (sometimes)
8. Start back at step 1

 

[Tech9]

This is a weird system. What wireless backhaul are you using? If you reserve 5GHz - no point of ET8s. If you reserve 6GHz - AC5300 is out.

 

[outlaw78]

This is a weird system. What wireless backhaul are you using? If you reserve 5GHz - no point of ET8s. If you reserve 6GHz - AC5300 is out.

I can only select 5ghz-2 for ac5300 and I select 6ghz for both et8. And it works (well was working rather). Devices were connecting to all nodes and were fast. As of late, I couldn't "reserve" a backhaul like when I was using the ac5300 as the main router.

 

[slackjaw99]

I can only select 5ghz-2 for ac5300 and I select 6ghz for both et8. And it works (well was working rather). Devices were connecting to all nodes and were fast. As of late, I couldn't "reserve" a backhaul like when I was using the ac5300 as the main router.

This is what i was referring to AFA wireless backhaul with the ET8s because they only have a single 5ghz and 6ghz radio. If using the 6ghz radios for backhaul, you are guaranteed to get dropouts and disconnects unless the nodes are w/in 10 feet of each other. A human body walking past and blocking line-of-sight is all it takes to cause a dropout on the 6ghz band. Any significant distance or physical barrier is enough to render that band useless for backhaul.

This is a weird system. What wireless backhaul are you using? If you reserve 5GHz - no point of ET8s. If you reserve 6GHz - AC5300 is out.

Do you have clients - new phones/laptops, that really need the extra few hundred megabits of speed the 6ghz band can give w/in 10 feet? If not, then you really should ditch the ET8s for tri-band units, like the XT8, with 2 x 5ghz radios - so one of them can be dedicated to wireless backhaul instead. 5ghz will give you much less diminishing returns afa speed moving packets as distance increases vs 6ghz. Get to about 20-30 feet and 6ghz is no better than 2.4ghz for backhaul. I actually own several ET8s, and they have the single 2.5gb ethernet port for a good reason - w/o it for wiring them as APs they'd be worthless.

Why the backhaul was then not 'working' means something must have changed in your environment or on the ET8s themselves you may not be aware of. I recently learned that ASUS does push security updates w/o user interaction or permission which could be what broke your backhaul. Heat, and the fact that we are moving into hot weather months (if you're in the northern hemisphere), is another hidden factor that can hobble routers - as another example.

Regardless, read Dong's ET8 review on this subject for a good/authoritative discussion on why the ET8 and wireless backhaul don't exactly 'mesh'.
https://dongknows.com/asus-zenwifi-et8-wi-fi-6e-mesh-system-review/

 

[outlaw78]

This is what i was referring to AFA wireless backhaul with the ET8s because they only have a single 5ghz and 6ghz radio. If using the 6ghz radios for backhaul, you are guaranteed to get dropouts and disconnects unless the nodes are w/in 10 feet of each other. A human body walking past and blocking line-of-sight is all it takes to cause a dropout on the 6ghz band. Any significant distance or physical barrier is enough to render that band useless for backhaul.

Since it started happeneing I've used all the radios and it still experiences the same dropouts. Otherwise I've been using 6ghz radio since before christmans when I purchased them and never had an issue until a few weeks ago. My house has refrigerated cooling so heat is not an issue. No other environmental conditions have changed.

I've think i seen Dong's article after I posted this by using different search parameters and its interesting, but unfortunately I'm not spending the money to switch at this time. Seems the xt8 has its own dropout issues as well. Seems an "update" is coming but at the rate they are posting patches lately for asus wireless products, I doubt to see anything anytime soon.

Hopefully someone finds a workaround for this for the time being as it seems to be a bug rather than anything else. I was aware that something happened with trend micro a few days back that kicked a bunch of routers offline and that it was supposedly fixed.

I also read somewhere about disabling traffic monitor and the trend micro system might work. Have yet to try that since I don't have the time right now. But using just the ac5300 as a node and the axe-16000 as the main router seems to be meeting my coverage needs for the moment.

 

[Tech9]

But using just the ac5300 as a node and the axe-16000 as the main router seems to be meeting my coverage needs for the moment.

What AiMesh does best is selling more routers even when not required. AiMesh is not a technology - it's a genius marketing strategy. Congratulations, you've got AiMesh-ed by Asus with not really well "meshable" products. It all started with one old home router and some promises.

 

[slackjaw99]

What AiMesh does best is selling more routers even when not required.

Have you considered changing username to CaptainObvious?

 

[Tech9]

No, but I'm working on AiMesh-ing my business place with 8x GT-AX6000 routers running beta Pro firmware with Aura lights enabled and all blasting @160MHz in DFS with MU-MIMO, OFDMA, Agile Multiband and whatever is there available. ISS is 260 miles high, perhaps safe.

 

[slackjaw99]

touche

 

[outlaw78]

Congratulations, you've got AiMesh-ed by Asus

Actually yes it is needed in my situation and when it works, it works perfect. I may be getting ok coverage at the moment, but when I say that, I mean "ok" at the very low end of poor right when a device can disconnect because of poor signal.