Is Smart Connect supported on the RT-AC68U (being used as an AIMesh Node)?

[MvW]

Hi @OzarkEdge,

I was reading through your installation notes which you pointed me to last week, and got confused when reading this:

Smart Connect is not supported on AC1900/AC68/AC66 B1; the SSIDs should be different.

Is this still valid (given the age of your original posting)? When running Asuswrt-Merlin (I haven't made the switch to stock yet, see my previous post), I was under the impression that Smart Connect works just fine between my RT-AC86U (Main) and my RT-AC68U_White (AIMesh Node). I see devices switching flawlessly. I'm trying to prepare myself as good as I can.

Best regards,
Marco

 

[OzarkEdge]

Hi @OzarkEdge,

I was reading through your installation notes which you pointed me too last week, and got confused when reading this:



Is this still valid (given the age of your original posting)? When running Asuswrt-Merlin (I haven't made the switch to stock yet, see my previous post), I was under the impression that Smart Connect works just fine between my RT-AC86U (Main) and my RT-AC68U_White (AIMesh Node). I see devices switching flawlessly. I'm trying to prepare myself as good as I can.

Best regards,
Marco

Smart Connect is band steering within the same node, not node steering between nodes. Roaming Assistant is node steering.

There is also 802.11kvr that Asus hinted support for in AiMesh 2.0 beta releases, but that hint has disappeared so maybe they have delayed 802.11kvr support... whichever 2 of the 3 it was.

You will find Smart Connect on routers from various OEMs. I believe it is a feature of the WiFi radio/integrated circuit. It is not a part of the AC1900/AC68/AC66 B1 builds. That is why you will not find it in the firmware webUI for those builds.

You will have to experiment with your clients, same/different SSIDs, Roaming Assistant, and the most recent firmware that might support some flavor of 802.11kvr, maybe.

If I were using AC1900/AC68/AC66 B1 builds, I would use different SSIDs. My install notes suggest a baseline configuration from which you can choose to experiment, or not.

The AC1900/AC68/AC66 B1 builds are older than my notes!

OE

 

[Make WiFi Great Again]

Smart Connect is band steering within the same node, not node steering between nodes. Roaming Assistant is node steering.

There is also 802.11kvr that Asus hinted support for in AiMesh 2.0 beta releases, but that hint has disappeared so maybe they have delayed 802.11kvr support... whichever 2 of the 3 it was.

You will find Smart Connect on routers from various OEMs. I believe it is a feature of the WiFi radio/integrated circuit. It is not a part of the AC1900/AC68/AC66 B1 builds. That is why you will not find it in the firmware webUI for those builds.

You will have to experiment with your clients, same/different SSIDs, Roaming Assistant, and the most recent firmware that might support some flavor of 802.11kvr, maybe.

If I were using AC1900/AC68/AC66 B1 builds, I would use different SSIDs. My install notes suggest a baseline configuration from which you can choose to experiment, or not.

The AC1900/AC68/AC66 B1 builds are older than my notes!

OE

AC68U when flashed to other firmwares like Fresh Tomato does indeed support band steering aka smart connect (it's an option in my routers gui) so I would hazard a guess that it is not strictly a hardware component, or at least it does not have to be hardware. I suspect Asus will never enable smart connect on routers such as AC68U, as well as other features in older routers like AC68U in order to differentiate between highend more profitable models and the lower end / older models.

Same thing for wpa3 and a host of other little niceities that are available in other firmwares, but is not implemented in AC68U stock or merlin. It's not that they can't, it's that they won't. :/ I suspect this holds true for other older or less profitable Asus router models as well. But we shouldn't really fault Asus over this, they are just doing what every other company does as well.