Problems using an AC68U as a repeater of a guest wireless network from an AX88U

[KrispiL]

I'm trying to use an AC68U as a repeater. However I want to repeat the guest network from the main router (AX88U) rather than the main wireless network. However I can't seem to get it to work.

Setting up the AC68U as a repeater works fine, I can configure it to connect to one of the Guest SSIDs (I've tried both 2.5Ghz and 5Ghz) and initially any devices which connect to the repeater are able to route out to the internet via the main router. However after about 10 seconds of being connected, either via wired or wireless to the repeater the devices will loose access to the internet. I ran a ping, both to the main router and to google and noticed that I get more and more packet loss until eventually it gets no replies at all. However the AC68U shows that it's still connected to the main router without any issues, also running a ping directly on the repeater to the main router doesn't show any problems.

Is there something in the way ASUS implements guest networks (with intranet isolation enabled) which means what I'm trying ultimately won't work?

This only seems to be an issue with trying to use the repeater on the guest network, it work fine if I connect it to the main wireless networks, but it's the guest network that I need to extend so that doesn't do what I need.

I did do a search through the forums and while there are lots of discussions about issues with having *both* the main and guest networks on mesh nodes and APs (with isolation), I couldn't seem to find anyone having the same issue as me.

I'm running the latest stock firmware on both routers. I'm happy to switch to merlin if folks think it might help?

 

[L&LD]

It won't work.

 

[Ronald Schwerer]

I can't explain why, but I can only access my 68U repeater (of the main router's 5GHz guest) by manually setting the repeater's IP. Even though I have the same MAC configured in the router's DHCP (with the same fixed IP), the repeater goes away when I set the repeater to automatically get a LAN IP from the router. Using the fixed IP it works like a dream. That's how I access my IoT stuff in my garage.

 

[KrispiL]

I can't explain why, but I can only access my 68U repeater (of the main router's 5GHz guest) by manually setting the repeater's IP. Even though I have the same MAC configured in the router's DHCP (with the same fixed IP), the repeater goes away when I set the repeater to automatically get a LAN IP from the router. Using the fixed IP it works like a dream. That's how I access my IoT stuff in my garage.

It's interesting that you have managed to get this working. As L&LD suggests, I'd started to think that what I was trying just wasn't possible due to how ASUS have implemented guest networks on the router (I know at least that it doesn't appear to be using a separate VLAN tag).

I did configure the repeater with a fixed IP. One of the issues I noticed is that devices connecting to the repeater were intermittently failing to get IP's via DHCP as well, so that may explain why the repeater struggled to get an IP.

Interestingly I do have a separate N66U (running John's LTS firmware), which is acting as a wireless bridge for the guest network and the connected devices have all been working fine (also using DHCP to get IPs). However I appreciate that Repeater mode is different to Bridge.

Did you have to make any other changes to either the repeater or main router to get extending the 5Ghz guest network to work?

 

[Ronald Schwerer]

Did you have to make any other changes to either the repeater or main router to get extending the 5Ghz guest network to work?

I had been using some cheap TP-Link wall-wart repeaters for the Guest SSID and they worked OK (range wasn't too good so I didn't get the coverage I wanted). I had an extra 68U so I gave it a try. I don't recall any issues, first using ASUS, then switching to Merlin. I don't think it is necessary, but on the guest SSID I'm repeating, I set Access Intranet to Enable but set filter to only accept the MAC of my repeater. This is only because I run a script on my 68U repeater that sends log messages to my main router. I'm not sure of the security implications of this, but I'm not that paranoid about it. I'm not protecting Fort Knox.

 

[KrispiL]

I had been using some cheap TP-Link wall-wart repeaters for the Guest SSID and they worked OK (range wasn't too good so I didn't get the coverage I wanted). I had an extra 68U so I gave it a try. I don't recall any issues, first using ASUS, then switching to Merlin. I don't think it is necessary, but on the guest SSID I'm repeating, I set Access Intranet to Enable but set filter to only accept the MAC of my repeater. This is only because I run a script on my 68U repeater that sends log messages to my main router. I'm not sure of the security implications of this, but I'm not that paranoid about it. I'm not protecting Fort Knox.

Thanks for the extra info, I think it's the 'access intranet' disabled setting that causes the problem. I'm not sure how this is implemented in the router but it doesn't seem to like devices which are connected in via a repeater.
I may just have to bite the bullet and not bother with the guest network anymore, at least that way I can use the AC68U as a repeater/aimesh node for the main wireless network.