[Official Beta] AiMesh beta firmware for RT-AC68U/RT-AC86U/RT-AC5300/RT-AC88U

[fax]

Try the 30-30-30 reset, usually works with just about any home router:.

About any router except ASUS

Remove Usb Drive hooked
Power off the router.
Keep pressed WPS button and power on the router. Keep pressed WPS until leds began to flash rapidly and then release WPS.

 

[Cipherbreak]

Is there any rhyme or reason to this beta or are people just downloading the firmware and complaining about what doesn't work? What does the Asus team want us to test and how are we providing them feedback and usable data?

 

[iceorbital]

it's entirely possible the beta firmware is sending some telemetry back to asus, and perhaps that all that they were looking for. Or perhaps just seeing what folks in different countries have to say, since i guess their testing is limited to china conditions. In any case arthur and wilson have been supernice, and that is with half of the posts about folks having problems with a converted t-mobile router. Or in short, i'm just glad asus is giving us the chance to try cool things as they are been developed. Only need IFTTT on my ac86u and i'll be a happy camper

 

[DummyPLUG]

it's entirely possible the beta firmware is sending some telemetry back to asus, and perhaps that all that they were looking for. Or perhaps just seeing what folks in different countries have to say, since i guess their testing is limited to china conditions. In any case arthur and wilson have been supernice, and that is with half of the posts about folks having problems with a converted t-mobile router. Or in short, i'm just glad asus is giving us the chance to try cool things as they are been developed. Only need IFTTT on my ac86u and i'll be a happy camper

I don't know if it is telemetry or not but all the node include the main (as AP) phone home, not sure what they are trying to do, I am too lazy to fire up wireshark
Don't get me wrong I am ok for telemetry if only it told me what is it doing, and I also like a kill switch for all unwanted internet access, for example I had no idea why it keep trying to access asuscloud (8+ IP recorded) and evern amazon aws
I use all of them as plain AP, all other function disabled, even NTP are connect to a intranet NTP server, I am not sure why it still keeps try to connect the internet itself.
Just 1 day 6hrs my firewall blocked it so many times

 

[hd0120]

Can you access node gui via the Firmware upgrade link?

http://192.x.x.x/AiMesh_Node_FirmwareUpgrade.asp

It worked.
Thank you very much, Trial_Master.

 

[Stigh Aarstein]

Hi, I have 2 x AC88U, and have set up the Master as AP with both 'general' SSID but also with Guest SSID. Node is working fine, but the guest SSID was not copied to the Node.
I can't access the GUI of the Node, I automatically get transferred to the Master upon logging on to the Node...

1) How do I add the Guest to the node as I need it to be part of the Mesh?

2) I would also like to know if somebody has been able to change to fixed IP on a Node?

 

[Trial_Master]

Hi, I have 2 x AC88U, and have set up the Master as AP with both 'general' SSID but also with Guest SSID. Node is working fine, but the guest SSID was not copied to the Node.
I can't access the GUI of the Node, I automatically get transferred to the Master upon logging on to the Node...
How do I add the Guest to the node as I need it to be part of the Mesh?

I would also like to know if somebody has been able to change to fixed IP on a Node?

Best you read back through the thread to see the history on Guest Network. It's not currently supported.

 

[Stephen Harrington]

Hi, I have 2 x AC88U, and have set up the Master as AP with both 'general' SSID but also with Guest SSID. Node is working fine, but the guest SSID was not copied to the Node.
I can't access the GUI of the Node, I automatically get transferred to the Master upon logging on to the Node...

1) How do I add the Guest to the node as I need it to be part of the Mesh?

2) I would also like to know if somebody has been able to change to fixed IP on a Node?

1) Guest Networks was asked about by me and answered by ASUS rep arthurlien in posts #381/#382, he is saying around two months for it to be implemented (and that was a fortnight and a bit ago). We should not hold him to that though, this IS beta software ...

2) Once you are in Mesh mode for your "slave" AP Nodes the only bit of GUI seemingly available at this stage of development is the firmware upgrade page, although there may well be more hidden or undiscovered pages I'm guessing - so no way to set a fixed IP directly. However you can still get your AP's onto the same IP each time, if that is the goal, by the "usual" method of DHCP Reservation or Manual IP Assignment or whatever your main router calls it. Of course you get the full GUI for the "main" router node ...

StephenH

 

[dude6156]

I have 3 AC68Us, one as a AIMesh router. It was easy to add the first AIMesh node (failed in the app, but was able to do it via PC). But I cannot add the second node - it is detected both in the app and PC, but after following all the steps, I still get the message "unable to add....". I am following the pdf instructions

Anything I am missing?

 

[arthurlien]

I have 3 AC68Us, one as a AIMesh router. It was easy to add the first AIMesh node (failed in the app, but was able to do it via PC). But I cannot add the second node - it is detected both in the app and PC, but after following all the steps, I still get the message "unable to add....". I am following the pdf instructions

Anything I am missing?

Could you try to add the second node when the first node turn off?

 

[Stephen Harrington]

I have 3 AC68Us, one as a AIMesh router. It was easy to add the first AIMesh node (failed in the app, but was able to do it via PC). But I cannot add the second node - it is detected both in the app and PC, but after following all the steps, I still get the message "unable to add....". I am following the pdf instructions

Anything I am missing?

Factory Reset them all ...

As arthurlien says, turn on one Node, add it in, and turn it off again. Turn on next one and add it in, then turn off and repeat if you have more. Worked very easily for me when I did this. My hunch is that with all that wireless flying around in 1-2 meters it all gets a bit confused /swamped sometimes!

After that I hooked up my wired backhaul and its been very stable running on my test bench (4 X AC68U's all in AP mode, 1 X master and 3 slaves). Will probably wait for another beta release or two in the hope Guest Networks get implemented for The Mesh, and then roll them out around the house hopefully.

StephenH

 

[dude6156]

Could you try to add the second node when the first node turn off?

Yes, I did exactly this. Turned one node off and tried to add the second node. It recognizes the second router, goes through the entire process with the second router rebooting and all, but fails. I have tried via the app, connected by WiFi and cable, but no success with any of these methods. I tried two different CFEs and firmwares (from the website and the one posted in this thread) - same problem. I spend the entire day trying to solve this in every which way I could think of, with no success.

I am a bit scared to "factory reset" the two working AiMesh routers, in case I am not able to activate them again . One node is still better than none....

I have factory reset the third (failing) router, both with the reset button and the WPS method, multiple times - with no success.

Suggestions?

 

[Wayne]

Can I use the lan port on the aimesh node? I asked because my RT-AC5300 which act as a node does not see devices connected via its LAN port.

Regards Wayne

 

[drabisan]

I can use it and it works perfect.
You can ssh into the node and do a robocfg show to see if ports are up.

 

[Trial_Master]

I have a doorbell which catches signal from both router and node. Is there a way to lock it to node?

 

[Stephen Harrington]

Can I use the lan port on the aimesh node? I asked because my RT-AC5300 which act as a node does not see devices connected via its LAN port.

Regards Wayne

The LAN ports definitely work on all 3 of my Aimesh AC68U AP Nodes, and of course on the Router main unit, also running as an AP.

StephenH

 

[Stephen Harrington]

I have a doorbell which catches signal from both router and node. Is there a way to lock it to node?

All that is a bit limited in the current AiMesh firmware ... maybe try setting up a Wireless Mac Filter on the Router to "Reject" the Mac address of the Doorbell and see if it will still then connect to the Node? Some settings seem to propagate across all the AiMesh nodes, and others don't so maybe the Wireless Mac Filtering won't and that should fix your problem, at least until they "break" it in the next firmware version?

StephenH

 

[dude6156]

Not really ... I assume we are talking about converted TM-AC1900's since you mention CFE's .. presumably the Googles99 one posted earlier ... have you double-checked MAC addresses for all the units are unique and "correct" as in 1st and 2nd identical and 3rd is +4 hex higher? Unique "Secret" addresses? That's what I did with mine and all is good with my 4 units.

I guess your next step would be to reset all 3 to defaults and try again from scratch, much as you may not want to?

Good luck!

StephenH

StephenH:

Thank you. The MAC addresses for the three routers are all unique but I do not understand the reference to "1st and 2nd identical and 3rd is +4 hex higher". I copied the same MAC address in all three places, and maybe this is the problem (although it seems to work for the master and one node).

How do you make the 3rd address "+4 hex higher"?

On the other hand, even if I use the old CFE (original 68U instead of the one posted by Googles99), the first node works fine but the second cannot be added (the master unit of course has the Googles99 CFE). What puzzles me is that the AiMesh master will see the 3rd router and will try to add it but fail not matter which CFE/firmware I use. My thinking is that if there was a problem with the CFE/MAC address, the 3rd router should not be detected, but maybe I am wrong.

Greatly appreciate your help.

Dude6156

 

[Trial_Master]

All that is a bit limited in the current AiMesh firmware ... maybe try setting up a Wireless Mac Filter on the Router to "Reject" the Mac address of the Doorbell and see if it will still then connect to the Node? Some settings seem to propagate across all the AiMesh nodes, and others don't so maybe the Wireless Mac Filtering won't and that should fix your problem, at least until they "break" it in the next firmware version?

StephenH

That setting propogates across to the node. Doorbell is offline now. Better remove filter

 

[Stephen Harrington]

That setting propogates across to the node. Doorbell is offline now. Better remove filter

Well at least we now know .. thank you for being my Crash Test Dummy!

I'll probably have a similar issue with at least one of my IP Cameras when I roll my AIMesh out into Production and stop mucking around with it "on the bench".

Its probably a good question for arthurlien ... will there be a future possibility of being able to set up Wireless Mac Filtering Accept/Reject lists for individual Nodes (rather than the whole AIMesh) to stop behaviour where individual fixed position wireless clients are behaving badly because the connections are "flip-flopping" between nodes.

Or maybe some other means of ensuring a particular Mac Address of a device ONLY can connect to a specific BSSID (Node) when needed by specific user circumstances like this?

StephenH