Fedup with Asus and Aimesh problems, need very solid wireless solution for my home

[ALEX1002]

I am so fedup with Asus aimesh, their routers always goes down, multiple times a day and need to reboot, reset, etc.
I am giving up on Asus and need something rock solid. My wife works from home, so do the kids. Needs something to keep on going threw the day. We have about 15-30 devices connected to wifi during the day. Out of those maybe 3-5 laptops, 3-5 phones. Tvs, PS3, XBOX, lots of IOT and google products. I am sick on daily basis having wifi problems.

I was researching and discovered ruckus may work well. But a bit pricy for me now. If I am going to spend $1k I need something super solid. I would prefer to stay within sub <400-500$ range. I have wires going to every floor. I have a solid pfsense box. So I think access points, or maybe something mesh would be ideal.

I tried eero, google home and hated them, not enough settings, configuration options and performance wasn't too hot!

Please recommend me something or where to start?

 

[Jazbrokr]

Read my latest post on my issues. I needed daily reboots! Could be easily fixed? First of all, use the beta firmware (I think you are). Next disable airtime fairness and universal beam forming. Might have fixed me.

I am so fedup with Asus aimesh, their routers always goes down, multiple times a day and need to reboot, reset, etc.
I am giving up on Asus and need something rock solid. My wife works from home, so do the kids. Needs something to keep on going threw the day. We have about 15-30 devices connected to wifi during the day. Out of those maybe 3-5 laptops, 3-5 phones. Tvs, PS3, XBOX, lots of IOT and google products. I am sick on daily basis having wifi problems.

I was researching and discovered ruckus may work well. But a bit pricy for me now. If I am going to spend $1k I need something super solid. I would prefer to stay within sub <400-500$ range. I have wires going to every floor. I have a solid pfsense box. So I think access points, or maybe something mesh would be ideal.

I tried eero, google home and hated them, not enough settings, configuration options and performance wasn't too hot!

Please recommend me something or where to start?

 

[OzarkEdge]

I am so fedup with Asus aimesh, their routers always goes down, multiple times a day and need to reboot, reset, etc.
I am giving up on Asus and need something rock solid. My wife works from home, so do the kids. Needs something to keep on going threw the day. We have about 15-30 devices connected to wifi during the day. Out of those maybe 3-5 laptops, 3-5 phones. Tvs, PS3, XBOX, lots of IOT and google products. I am sick on daily basis having wifi problems.

I was researching and discovered ruckus may work well. But a bit pricy for me now. If I am going to spend $1k I need something super solid. I would prefer to stay within sub <400-500$ range. I have wires going to every floor. I have a solid pfsense box. So I think access points, or maybe something mesh would be ideal.

I tried eero, google home and hated them, not enough settings, configuration options and performance wasn't too hot!

Please recommend me something or where to start?

You last reported your main AC88U router WiFi LEDs were out... and I noticed in one of your pics that that router had most of your clients. Maybe that router is failing and needs to be replaced. Have you tried setting it aside and using just your AX58U router to see if it provides a stable network?

OE

 

[ALEX1002]

Read my latest post on my issues. I needed daily reboots! Could be easily fixed? First of all, use the beta firmware (I think you are). Next disable airtime fairness and universal beam forming. Might have fixed me.

I will this now and report back. Thank you very much

 

[ALEX1002]

You last reported your main AC88U router WiFi LEDs were out... and I noticed in one of your pics that that router had most of your clients. Maybe that router is failing and needs to be replaced. Have you tried setting it aside and using just your AX58U router to see if it provides a stable network?

OE

Issue is the router works with wireless on after rebooting it. A few hours of using it for a few hours wireless dies.on the main router. I tried to reverse the two around. And did the same thing within a day.

 

[Jazbrokr]

Been five and half days with no crashes! Knock on wood!

I will this now and report back. Thank you very much

 

[cooloutac]

aimesh hasn't been too stable for me either even with wired backhaul. It could be my ac66u_b1 just doesn't work well as a node for the ax58u or ac86u. It works, but it could drop wireless in days, weeks, I just never know. very flaky. I would have to keep rebooting the node. tried hard resets, different firmwares. doesn't seem to matter. I just don't feel comfortable relying on it for important devices. MIght try again when aimesh 2.0 is official for my ax58u. the upgrade improved wireless enough that I don't need it, but it would be a cool experiment and would put my old router to use.

 

[Trip]

@ALEX1002 - You can achieve what you're hoping. It may not be as turn-key, but it's still very doable.

This good news is you've already got a pfSense box in-place, which should be a rock-solid wired "core" already. On top of that, I would rip and replace the Asus gear in exchange for SMB/enterprise-grade, controller-based wireless APs. In between the pfSense box and your APs, I would also consider a managed PoE switch. Combined, I can almost categorically guarantee you a network that runs more like a carrier-grade appliance and less like a toy.

For the wireless product, I would look at Cisco CBW. At new pricing, it's basically Ruckus Unleashed minus the better RF performance (BeamFlex, PD-MRC, etc) and certain enterprise features, but for 50-80% lower cost (!). Like Unleashed, the controller is embedded, so no need for a discrete instance and with that you mitigate that single point of failure (unlike Ubiquiti UniFi or TP-Link Omada). Further, the AP software itself looks to be trimmed-down Mobility Express, which means it's 15+ year old (proven) enterprise code, in sheep's clothing. CBW doesn't have as much hardware diversity as UniFi (no one does), but they do have two ceiling models (CBW140AC, 2x2, and CBW240AC, 4x4), an in-wall AP+switch (CBW145AC) and a few mesh extenders (I'd recommend APs only, though). Pricing is very good: 140AC is ~$100, 240AC and 145AC are each about $150. And as I said, no extra controllers to purchase or provision.

One thing to note by going down this road: business-grade wireless and purpose-built APs will almost always have much lower amplification than their consumer all-in-one counterparts. That is on purpose, as these APs are meant to handle higher client densities, more often than not. What does this mean for you? It means you probably can't just go replacing two over-amplified consumer erector sets with the same number of business APs, hoping for similar "range" per radio cell. Instead, you'll need to act more like a wifi engineer, strategically placing more APs across the same coverage area. Provided you have enough drops to do this, in the end you stand a chance of having a much higher performing WLAN, due to lower-dB fronthaul (on average) for your endpoints and more independent backhaul paths, all riding on more robust code. The end result should be night-and-day.

So there you go. Any questions, feel free.

 

[Christian Shank]

I’ve also had issues with Mesh 2.0. RT-AX88U and RT-AC68P using ethernet backhaul. I have validated speeds on the backhaul yet invariably I end up with client network drops on the AC68P. I tried wifi backhaul and had same issue. If the RT0AC68P is too old / slow fine, however that device when setup as its own isolated AP works just fine without drops. I’m at a loss as to why ASUS can’t get this stuff right.

 

[L&LD]

Test and try the 'new' stuff and see if it benefits you. If it doesn't, go back to more tried and true methods (AP mode or Media Bridge mode, as the situation warrants).

Today, AiMesh is still a baby. Give it a chance to grow.

For many, including myself, it is working without issues. But then I pair two AX routers together too (and in my case, identical RT-AX86U's. Even on the Beta 3 / Alpha 4, it is working better than AiMesh 1.0 did).