Might be ready to give AiMesh another look

[Smokindog]

I've tried AiMesh a few times over the years and it's never been worth it to ME for the problems it brought versus me manually managing my nodes. I'm looking at a possible "redo" of much of my network to support more IOT and am open to giving it another trial.

It's a lot of work to go back and forth between AiMesh and non-AiMesh setup, for ME, with all my nodes!

I've got a LARGE number of smartplugs/garage doors/lights./thermostats/alarm/..., mostly on the 2.4Ghz band. Starting to look at ways to break out and manage all my IOT more effectively. I do use Google Home to control many of them, especially during the Christmas season, ... Hey Google - turn on Christmas Family Room, Turn on Christmas Living Room, ........

That means our phones, google hubs and tablets will need access to the IOT network as well as the intra/internet.

I DO activate both 2.4/5G guest networks when we have "larger" groups of people over.

OPEN TO SUGGESTIONS to giving AiMesh another try. I'm not interested in upgrading ANY of the AC nodes at this time. They're MORE than capable of satisfying the needs I've assigned to them.

I am also beginning to research expanding to a class B mask. Have no idea what issues this may or may not raise with DHCP assignments and other functions within my mixed network. Open to thoughts on that as well.

I run the following nodes to cover a long thin 2 story home, an RV garage/workshop/hobby room, and even an outside node that gets deployed as needed to cover the backyard when we have outside activities. They are ALL hardwired via 1Gb CAT 5E or better to a 24 port 1Gb non-blocking switch at the main router. My internet is FIOS.

• MAIN ROUTER - AX88 - second floor
• APs
  • AX86S - Master Bedroom - main floor
  • AX88 - Office - main floor
  • AX88 - Dinette - main floor
  • AC3100 - Main Garage - main floor
  • AC3100 - Bus Garage/Workshop - main floor
  • AC68 - Hobby Room - second floor
  • AC68 - Backyard - ground level on post

 

[heywire]

First of all, you're posting in the wrong subforum. Both because Merlin doesn't have official support for Aimesh (although it's not disabled), and because it is not a firmware or router-class specific question. Rather, it's a brand related question since it is only supported by Asus, and there is no specific Aimesh subforum.

So my suggestion is to post it under the general Asus Wireless forum: https://www.snbforums.com/forums/asus-wireless.37/


Secondly, you are not providing much in terms of information as to what problem/issues your are trying to solve/get update on the status of.

Some issues I suggest you address in the new post/follow up post if the post gets moved:

- What problems did you have with Aimesh in the past? When was this, and what routers/firmware did you run - Merlin or official firmware, on main node and secondary nodes? This might be before Aimesh 2.0 for what we know, or right after its release.

1. Why do you want it now?
2. Related to ^you said you *have lots of Iot devices*... so what, what are you trying to gain?
2a) Perhaps related to the first question)
2b) Why do you disable 2.4/5ghz when guests are not over?

Those are a few initial observations. I'm sure you catch my drift...

 

[bibikalka]

Yeah, not clear what problems need to be solved. It seems keeping this gargantuan network going is a full time job

But, on the technical side you could back up routers one by one using BACKUPMON, reset them all, add to AiMesh. If you don't like AiMesh - you can restore routers back using BACKUPMON. Probably 1-2 hour one-way trip here in terms of labor.

You will probably lose the flexibility to alternate 2.4/5 Ghz channels since AiMesh will make the channels be the same for all routers. That's actually the biggest issue. So you may lose performance, but gain a bit on the ease of management side.

Also, you don't mention if you are might be running out of IP addresses for your subnet.

 

[Smokindog]

First of all, you're posting in the wrong subforum. Both because Merlin doesn't have official support for Aimesh (although it's not disabled), and because it is not a firmware or router-class specific question. Rather, it's a brand related question since it is only supported by Asus, and there is no specific Aimesh subforum.

So my suggestion is to post it under the general Asus Wireless forum: https://www.snbforums.com/forums/asus-wireless.37/


Secondly, you are not providing much in terms of information as to what problem/issues your are trying to solve/get update on the status of.

Some issues I suggest you address in the new post/follow up post if the post gets moved:

- What problems did you have with Aimesh in the past? When was this, and what routers/firmware did you run - Merlin or official firmware, on main node and secondary nodes? This might be before Aimesh 2.0 for what we know, or right after its release.

1. Why do you want it now?
2. Related to ^you said you *have lots of Iot devices*... so what, what are you trying to gain?
2a) Perhaps related to the first question)
2b) Why do you disable 2.4/5ghz when guests are not over?

Those are a few initial observations. I'm sure you catch my drift...

Hmmm, I just did a search in THIS Merlin forum for "AiMesh" and got 10 pages of hits.

I really don't want to rehash AiMesh issues over the years. Most understand what they've been.

I think I've provided more than enough info on what I'm trying to do but welcome to answer any specific questions that may be raised to help provide specific input. I never said I "want it now". What I said was I'm about to look at some major changes and am open to considering AiMesh once again in those changes.

I dis NOT say I enable/disable the 2.4G nor the 5G networks. What I said is I enable/disable the GUEST network on those bands.

Thanks for responding but I'd suggest you re-read what I've posted.

TIA!

 

[Smokindog]

Yeah, not clear what problems need to be solved. It seems keeping this gargantuan network going is a full time job

But, on the technical side you could back up routers one by one using BACKUPMON, reset them all, add to AiMesh. If you don't like AiMesh - you can restore routers back using BACKUPMON. Probably 1-2 hour one-way trip here in terms of labor.

You will probably lose the flexibility to alternate 2.4/5 Ghz channels since AiMesh will make the channels be the same for all routers. That's actually the biggest issue. So you may lose performance, but gain a bit on the ease of management side.

Also, you don't mention if you are might be running out of IP addresses for your subnet.

Sorry, I just presumed folks would understand the possibility of growing to a class B as an indication of a crowded network!!!

When I enable a guest network I do it network wide. Fortunately, once they're setup on each node a simple enable/disable is all that is required. The node remembers the setting when disabled.

Also, switching to/from AiMesh is more than just backing up the current settings which would obviously be step one. It's factory resets on all nodes, and restarts of all devices at a minimum, As most know, it sometimes requires the liberal application of chicken bines and garlic smothered in folk lore as well because not all vendors implement all the standards quite the same

 

[bibikalka]

...

Also, switching to/from AiMesh is more than just backing up the current settings which would obviously be step one. It's factory resets on all nodes, and restarts of all devices at a minimum, As most know, it sometimes requires the liberal application of chicken bines and garlic smothered in folk lore as well because not all vendors implement all the standards quite the same

I assume there is a tiny bit more fault tolerance on your IoT devices if all of them need a reboot after they see a new WiFi with the same SSID when you switch. In any event, you could set up AiMesh, and turn off/on the power to house. That should reboot most of IoT devices nicely

 

[Smokindog]

I assume there is a tiny bit more fault tolerance on your IoT devices if all of them need a reboot after they see a new WiFi with the same SSID when you switch. In any event, you could set up AiMesh, and turn off/on the power to house. That should reboot most of IoT devices nicely

History tells me that this is needed when making such changes in the network to ensure all tables and other data is properly updated across the network. There's always a handful of issues and when doing factory resets. It's best to bring everything to a known state. To be clear, I said restarts, not resets on the end points. I do know that my FEIT smart plugs struggle with just a reboot of the main router and often require restarts to reconnect after a main router reboot whether they connected to the main or an AP. It's a known issue and many other devices have similar issues. FWIW, I have found the TP-LINK smart plugs to behave very well, just in case anyone is interested.

ANYWAY, long winded way to say I've found this to be a best practice.

 

[Viktor Jaep]

History tells me that this is needed when making such changes in the network to ensure all tables and other data is properly updated across the network. There's always a handful of issues and when doing factory resets. It's best to bring everything to a known state. To be clear, I said restarts, not resets on the end points. I do know that my FEIT smart plugs struggle with just a reboot of the main router and often require restarts to reconnect after a main router reboot whether they connected to the main or an AP. It's a known issue and many other devices have similar issues. FWIW, I have found the TP-LINK smart plugs to behave very well, just in case anyone is interested.

ANYWAY, long winded way to say I've found this to be a best practice.

I would just make it easy on yourself, and put in a Google Nest Wifi Pro with about 4 or 5 nodes, and call it a day.

 

[Tech9]

I run the following nodes...

This is going to be some nightmare high maintenance AiMesh. At least 1/2 of the routers are perhaps not needed in this wooden structure. All hardwired - much better options out there than bunch of home routers. Go PoE business class access points and you'll never look back.