Media Bridge Performance

[llc00ljoel]

Tough. Do you connect wireless clients to the Bridge' 2.4ghz SSID, or only wired clients?

I'm only running wired clients on the Bridge-side. All wireless clients connect directly to the main AC66U in AP-mode.

Only wired clients on the Bridge side (xbox, squeezebox, bluray player, receiver) and no wireless connections to it on the Bridge side. On the router side, 1 wired connection and about 8 wireless clients (max).

 

[ichon]

Only wired clients on the Bridge side (xbox, squeezebox, bluray player, receiver) and no wireless connections to it on the Bridge side. On the router side, 1 wired connection and about 8 wireless clients (max).

Can't help think that this seems more like a 5ghz radiowave environment issue, than a hardware/firmware one. I know what I'm suggesting next, is obvious, but here goes anyway:

1. Going manually through Channels one-by-one
2. Locking the Channel Width to either 40mhz or 80mhz
3. Physically moving AC66Us

2¢: Auto-channel-select actively scans for available channels and not for interference on selected channel. Your AC66Us might be auto-cycling through channels, and when it stumbles upon a channel with too much interference (and Rx/Tx errors) the bridge collapses

 

[jonstatt]

Can't help think that this seems more like a 5ghz radiowave environment issue, than a hardware/firmware one. I know what I'm suggesting next, is obvious, but here goes anyway:

1. Going manually through Channels one-by-one
2. Locking the Channel Width to either 40mhz or 80mhz
3. Physically moving AC66Us

2¢: Auto-channel-select actively scans for available channels and not for interference on selected channel. Your AC66Us might be auto-cycling through channels, and when it stumbles upon a channel with too much interference (and Rx/Tx errors) the bridge collapses

It isn't that. It is a longstanding bug with this router since the very beginning and never fixed by Asus despite me logging it with them. I replaced it in the end with a Linksys WUMC710 bridge and have had no problems ever since.

 

[llc00ljoel]

It isn't that. It is a longstanding bug with this router since the very beginning and never fixed by Asus despite me logging it with them. I replaced it in the end with a Linksys WUMC710 bridge and have had no problems ever since.

Interestingly enough, I picked up a WUMC710 bridge and will test it out today to fix my situation. I'm hoping it solves both of my issues (disconnects and routing of Airplay/mDNS/Bonjour network traffic). I'm optimistic on the Airplay issue as the latest firmware for the WUMC710 appears to account for it

Firmware 1.0.01 (build 18)
- Beamforming support
- mDNS/Bonjour and NetBIOS support
- Automatic language detection support
- Added "Bit Rate" and "Signal" fields in "Wireless Network" status page
- Minor GUI change

 

[llc00ljoel]

Success!!! the WUMC710 did the trick for Airplay. Now, it's a waiting game to see if I get a disconnect over the next few days to see if I still have an issue or not with the bridge functionality as compared to the AC66U.

Hoping Asus implements mDNS/Bonjour support in bridge mode soon!

 

[RMerlin]

Hi guys,

I just heard from Asus concerning media bridge mode: this is something they are currently working on. A future update should resolves various issues, including Airplay support. So just hang in there

 

[Junky321]

Thank you, Mr. Merlin.
It is great to hear Asus is aware of these issues. Meanwhile, my kids already know the on/off power button function of the router and they are free labor so

Hi guys,

I just heard from Asus concerning media bridge mode: this is something they are currently working on. A future update should resolves various issues, including Airplay support. So just hang in there

 

[llc00ljoel]

That is awesome news Rmerlin!!!! Thank you for your excellent firmware and your customer advocacy

 

[ichon]

It isn't that. It is a longstanding bug with this router since the very beginning and never fixed by Asus despite me logging it with them. I replaced it in the end with a Linksys WUMC710 bridge and have had no problems ever since.

Wish I had known about the WUMC710 - It seems like just what the doctor ordered. Although I'm doing okay in my setup, I'll surely recommend the WUMC710 since it's cheaper and seems to be doing a better job.

Here's a quick review of the WUMC710: http://www.techhive.com/article/2013452/review-linksys-wumc710-wireless-media-bridge.html

 

[Igb]

Hi guys,

I just heard from Asus concerning media bridge mode: this is something they are currently working on. A future update should resolves various issues, including Airplay support. So just hang in there

Awesome news, many thanks for the info, as always

edit: I forgot to mention, I have sometimes more than 8 devices connected to 2.4Ghz wifi on media bridge, but I'm almost sure i got some resets with arround 3 wireless client plus my computer. The only firmware that remained up more than 2-3 days without resetting (still have to do it sometimes) is 270 (now using 270.26b). The issue became a real and frequent problem since 354 beta in my setup (maybe i have less wireless clients so this does not reproduce so often as in your case)

WUMC710 looks awesome for what I'm reading, but hell, a complete router should be the most complete solution (although more expensive too)

 

[virtueme]

Hi guys,

I just heard from Asus concerning media bridge mode: this is something they are currently working on. A future update should resolves various issues, including Airplay support. So just hang in there

It's hard to hang in there, the wife and kids are fed up with the poor performance, but luckily my wife doesn't know how much I paid for my AC66u configuration. I give it another month, I have reverted back to the 270 firmware and will await a fix for the MB situation. Hopefully my wife will be as patient as me, else I have to try the WUMC710 that gets good reviews here.

 

[RMerlin]

It's hard to hang in there, the wife and kids are fed up with the poor performance, but luckily my wife doesn't know how much I paid for my AC66u configuration. I give it another month, I have reverted back to the 270 firmware and will await a fix for the MB situation. Hopefully my wife will be as patient as me, else I have to try the WUMC710 that gets good reviews here.

Nothing wrong in staying with FW 270, as long you don't use AiCloud on the WAN-fronting router.

 

[chris431]

5 months passed and the persistent dropping issue on devices connected to the bridge still persists on my AC66 to AC66 Bridge. Perhaps the recently released firmwares (1st in 3 months) will resolve the issues. Here's hoping.

Figured this might be a good time to bump the thread given the recent January 2014 firmware releases.

 

[Junky321]

I am testing the latest firmware with Router/Bridge configuration for a couple of days past as I believe the RT-AC66 has a new wireless driver. So far, I had one disconnect with the Router (not bridge) but it is not enough for me to conclude anything yet since I may have other issues with ISP.

But I noticed something else during my brief monitoring:

Router/Bridge Mode
Link Rate 400Mbz
No 5Ghz/No 2.4Ghz Wireless at the Bridge

Router/Repeater Mode
Link Rate 450Mbz
5Ghz/2.4Ghz Wireless at the Bridge

So I am not sure what benefits the bridge mode actually brings. Basically, with the bridge mode, I only get one wireless 2.4Ghz channel from the router vs. three channels (2.4 Ghz Router, 5Ghz Bridge, 2.4Ghz Bridge) running with the Repeater mode.

 

[RMerlin]

I am testing the latest firmware with Router/Bridge configuration for a couple of days past as I believe the RT-AC66 has a new wireless driver. So far, I had one disconnect with the Router (not bridge) but it is not enough for me to conclude anything yet since I may have other issues with ISP.

But I noticed something else during my brief monitoring:

Router/Bridge Mode
Link Rate 400Mbz
No 5Ghz/No 2.4Ghz Wireless at the Bridge

Router/Repeater Mode
Link Rate 450Mbz
5Ghz/2.4Ghz Wireless at the Bridge

So I am not sure what benefits the bridge mode actually brings. Basically, with the bridge mode, I only get one wireless 2.4Ghz channel from the router vs. three channels (2.4 Ghz Router, 5Ghz Bridge, 2.4Ghz Bridge) running with the Repeater mode.

The idea of a bridge mode was initially to allow Ethernet-connected devices at one end of the house to be connected to a main router at the other end, the wifi providing only a link between both.

Asus added Repeater Mode only a few months ago, partly to resolve the various issues present in Media Bridge mode.

 

[Junky321]

In Repeater mode, I can also connect wired devices to the router. So in my case, it is a much better option compared to Bridge mode but I will continue to test it over the weekend.

 

[chris431]

But I noticed something else during my brief monitoring:

Router/Bridge Mode
Link Rate 400Mbz
No 5Ghz/No 2.4Ghz Wireless at the Bridge

They removed the 2.4Ghz wireless AP from the bridge mode a few firmware revisions ago. Prior to that, the bridge did offer a 2.4Ghz AP.
I have now upgraded both my router and bridge to the latest firmware revision and will report back. I am running the 2nd router in bridge mode.

 

[KGB7]

I tested both of my AC68R's by setting one up as AP other one as Media Bridge, and the link speed did go up to 260Mbps. Thats on 2.4Ghz @20Mhz.

But if main router is set up as a router, then the link speed is at 175Mbps.



So there is something funky going on in these routers.

 

[Boogieman]

EDIT: SOLVED (by myself)
Disabling Jumbo frames on both routers, HTPC nic, both NASes did the trick.
Since media bridge forwards the info via ethernet to media bridge I guess the hiccup was on that side (guessing) since WiFi generally cant handle such MTu sizes (I thought the media bridge would solve that somehow though but no).
Strange though that general surfing via the same bridge WORKED with Jumbo 9000MTu.
Well - anyway the throughput is now through the roof doing 20MByte/s over the WiFi bridge from my DS-411 (might be WD red drives in Raid 10 on NAS maxing out now LOL) and maxing out my 100/100MBit on oookla speedtest. And I havent even begun tuning network parameters for the brdige and live in crowded WiFi neighbourhood.
Props to Merlin for the awesome FW (that also keeps my home cinema black by his LED black out option - just have to paint power supply LED black too )
and Asus for the fine piece of hardware

WOHO - no cables needed through my 98m2 flat (would have needed to go through entire flat)
Now I am thinking - would it be better to put the newer AC66u as router instead of the n66u since that side handles the biggest traffic (incoming Wifi + 4 peripherals (Nases, PC & printer) while the n66U only handles media bridge and one of the HTPC, BluRay, CableBox at a time. Or does the Media bridge require that much cpu that its better to keep the AC66u on that side.

CONCLUSION:
If using media bridge with NAS'es that require windows logon (work network type) - JUMBO FRAMES should be = OFF (even if all equipment supports it)
---------------------------------
Hi

I have a very similar issue in my LAN setup.
I have one RT-n66u trying to talk with one RT-ac66u.
NAS 1: Dlink DNS-323 (IP 192.168.1.3, Gateway 192.168.1.1 JumboFrames ENABLED MTU9000)
NAS 2: Synolgy DS-411 (IP 192.168.1.16 Gateway 192.168.1.1 JumboFrames ENABLED MTU9000)

1. While this works for general stuff like surfing internet, it does NOT fully work with my cabled equipment on the router side.
I can see the cabled equipment but can not login to my NAS
When i click the password protected NAS folders in Explorer it can not find the folders in the network, but i CAN see the network tree up to that point so it seems like there is an issue with the login via this solution.

2. I have the same issue if I use a Asus EA-N66 as ethernet adapter (connected by ethernet to PC) so it seems like the issue comes up as soon as one extra ehternet layer is added on the HTPC side.

3. As soon as i replace the media bridge or EA-N66 with a std draft N usb adapter everything works as it should.
See attached image for clarification on IP and so on (simplified image - i actually have more units connected to each router but even if disconnecting extras as in image the issue persist)

4. If the Jumbo frames would be the issue, I should have seen it also with the USB dongle right (it also gives a nice performance boost)?