[Maylyn - Networking] ASUS ZenWiFi XT8

[3BDesign]

Sorry for abusing this topic further, but I keep looking for a solution for my situation and am afraid to pull the trigger.
Since the signal isn’t strong enough, I was thinking of adding an outdoor access point/mesh/bridge. Since asus doesn’t offer any outdoor gear, I started looking around and soon came out at Ubiquiti.
I was thinking of putting a dream machine at my parents house. I need a couple of Ethernet connections at that location and a WiFi access point and my parents are allergic to wires..
At my house I have a cable duct running from my switch in the basement to the exterior wall facing my parents house. I was thinking of putting a UAP-AC-M-PRO against the wall there facing my parents house. This would create a distance of close to 40m but would eliminate my external wall which is 40cm of aerated concrete. Leaving only one window in a direct line between the dream machine and the outdoor access point. I could then use one of the old AC87’s as an additional AP in my house to get WiFi indoors. In time replacing it with a ubiquiti flex HD, but don’t want to spend the extra money now. But from what I can tell once everything is from ubiquiti, I can use one app again to control everything...

What do you guys think, will this work?

Anybody with a recommendation on this setup?

 

[Boffinboy]

On a different note - has anyone had issues with time machine? I have a disk set up, it’s recognised by the router and by Mac laptop but when trying to run the backup it’s never able to. It doesn’t give any error message, just states it will back up next time. I formatted the partition on the Mac because there is another partition on the disk that I didn’t want used/reformatted by the router.

 

[TBONE204]

On a different note - has anyone had issues with time machine? I have a disk set up, it’s recognised by the router and by Mac laptop but when trying to run the backup it’s never able to. It doesn’t give any error message, just states it will back up next time. I formatted the partition on the Mac because there is another partition on the disk that I didn’t want used/reformatted by the router.

Is your external drive a NAS or is it a USB attached drive to the router?

 

[Boffinboy]

Is your external drive a NAS or is it a USB attached drive to the router?

External drive. Formatted using Mac.

 

[TBONE204]

again is this a NAS (network cable attached) or a USB attached drive?

 

[Boffinboy]

again is this a NAS (network cable attached) or a USB attached drive?

Sorry, by external drive I meant USB attached.

 

[Poutine Chef]

I’ve got an odd situation here.
I’m living next door to my parents and since any proper internet connection here costs 65€ (with digital TV 85€ even), I’ve installed a WiFi bridge between the 2 houses using 2 RT-AC87U’s. This works most of the time, but only on the 2,4 band, the 5GHz looses connection after a while. The link speed shown on the webpage of the receiver is showing a link speed of, 52 Mbps, which isn’t much considering the internet connection has a downloadspeed of 300Mbps.

I’ve just ordered and received a pair of XT8’s to replace the WiFi bridge with an AiMesh. Will this be possible?
The AP unit would be in my parents house in the room closest to my house, the node would be in my house again in the room closest the my parents house. Total distance to cover is +/-30m with one brick wall on each side, the rest is just a lawn in between and a fence...

What are your thoughts, will this work? I refuse to dig a trench and put a UTP cable in between, since there’s a height difference between the 2 properties...

Your problem is that the signal is too weak. You could experiment with different external antenna (directionnal) or router placement (near a window maybe ?). You can even consider external antenna.
Switching to AX on the 2.4G channel might help since it's more resiliant to low signals and interference than N or even AC.

 

[happyshow]

I'm having an issue with the XT8 where the mesh point looses wireless connectivity and the LED blinks fast and blue. I am using a gigabit ethernet backhaul. A power cycle of the mesh point resolves the issue currently. This wasn't happening when I was using the wireless for the backhaul.

 

[L&LD]

@happyshow if this continues, I'd fully reset them and see if it continues. It could be a hardware issue sneaking up.

 

[happyshow]

@happyshow if this continues, I'd fully reset them and see if it continues. It could be a hardware issue sneaking up.

I have already fully reset the mesh point. I see no reason to reset the main right now as it's working perfectly and I really really don't want to re-enter all my config manually.

 

[L&LD]

Resetting just one isn't really a reset of the network system though.

Does rebooting the main router fix it too? Does using a different cable (or re-terminating the ends) work better?

Does putting a simple switch between them fix it?

If not, post 69 is still an option.

 

[Roderickramone]

I have already fully reset the mesh point. I see no reason to reset the main right now as it's working perfectly and I really really don't want to re-enter all my config manually.

I'm convinced it's a firmware issue. I'm having the exact same issue with the blinking blue light. Only happens with the AP but it's frustrating especially trying to work from home. Asus says that it's a faulty unit and advised me to take it back to the store. Can't find anyone that has had success with resolving the issue. Please let me know if you are able to find a permanent fix.

Sent from my SM-G986U1 using Tapatalk

 

[happyshow]

Resetting just one isn't really a reset of the network system though.

Does rebooting the main router fix it too? Does using a different cable (or re-terminating the ends) work better?

Does putting a simple switch between them fix it?

If not, post 69 is still an option.

I've done all that and it doesn't resolve it. I am also inclined to think it's a firmware issue and I've submitted a support request to Asus.

 

[Torulf]

I'm having an issue with the XT8 where the mesh point looses wireless connectivity and the LED blinks fast and blue. I am using a gigabit ethernet backhaul. A power cycle of the mesh point resolves the issue currently. This wasn't happening when I was using the wireless for the backhaul.

I have a similar problem. Wireless 5Ghz seems to go crazy after approx 24 hours. Software reboot does not solve the problem for more than a short while, but power of entirely seems to make it work for a day or so. Using wired backhaul. Any word from Asus to anyone that submitted a support request?

 

[karma]

Just a data-point for anybody reading this thread. I just installed my pair of ZenWifi AX to replace my pair of rt-ac5300. I have to say, so far very stable and am liking them. I'm have one in AP mode and the other as an AI-Mesh node using wireless backhaul with the latest (3.0.0.4.386_25224) firmware. I hope it stays this way for me. I have no wifi6 clients (other than the backhaul) and no wpa3 clients either.

 

[L&LD]

@karma what about the performance vs. the RT-AC5300's? Better, same or worse?

 

[karma]

for the backhaul, and clients connected to the mesh node definitely better.. the rest is the same if not a bit faster. hard to tell without doing real tests (which I obviously didn't do ;P ). I only had one device with 4x4 mu-mimo on 5ghz AC so that's lacking since the fronthaul can only do 2x2 for the moment but not a deal breaker for me since it's connected at 866 Mbps rather than 1433MBps before, i don't notice a difference for that device.

[edit, i think i'm avoiding most issues there might be by running in AP mode]

 

[karma]

hmm, for some reason the wireless log is saying my backhaul bandwidth is 80Mhz even though it explicitly set to 160Mhz, go figure.

[edit, after googling the issues seems like it's a common issue on a bunch of other asus routers.]

 

[aliothliu]

I've done all that and it doesn't resolve it. I am also inclined to think it's a firmware issue and I've submitted a support request to Asus.

I had exactly the same issue.
My main router is in AP mode, the other XT8 was AiMesh node. They are connected with Ethernet and Ethernet is preferred. After a few hours, the AiMesh node drops the connection to the AP(blue led flashing) and the AP cannot find the AiMesh node either. However, my laptop use wifi to connect to AP and can ping the address of AiMesh node. That means no Ethernet connection issue between the AP and AiMesh. I have to power cycle the AiMesh node to recover it.

My workaround is to set the second AiMesh node to AP mode as well. Actually, two AP mode is even better than AP+AiMesh. I can use tri-band smart connect. If you use router+AiMesh node but you have Ethernet connection between the two, you may try router+AP mode. It should work as well.

 

[samep]

I had exactly the same issue.
My main router is in AP mode, the other XT8 was AiMesh node. They are connected with Ethernet and Ethernet is preferred. After a few hours, the AiMesh node drops the connection to the AP(blue led flashing) and the AP cannot find the AiMesh node either. However, my laptop use wifi to connect to AP and can ping the address of AiMesh node. That means no Ethernet connection issue between the AP and AiMesh. I have to power cycle the AiMesh node to recover it.

My workaround is to set the second AiMesh node to AP mode as well. Actually, two AP mode is even better than AP+AiMesh. I can use tri-band smart connect. If you use router+AiMesh node but you have Ethernet connection between the two, you may try router+AP mode. It should work as well.

Advantages of router+AP for Ethernet ZenWifi XT8 over nodes setup as pair? I have the Ethernet backhaul setup over MoCa 2.0- It works well and stays up for days, possibly weeks at a time. But I have no idea how to setup this way? I would like to set least access both nodes with one app, one IP portal.

I'm thinking advantage would be assigning 5G-1 and 5G-2 of each node? Different channels too? Plus each node would have guest network capabilities as well?

Edit: the last time my XT8 had an issue, it was a momentary internet remedied by automatic reboot of router node. I saw the extension node was blinking blue but both reset without any user interaction. Maybe it was ISP related but modem logs have only shown regular DHCP warnings for some reason. ISP IP & DHCP lease renewal? Since I replaced the 3.0 Docsis modem with Docsis 3.1, the XT8 seems stable other than that auto reboot. It's only been 14 days though.

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