Repeater mode and AiMesh

[AntonK]

What router are you using? What repeater are you using? Are you trying to connect via a guest WIFI? Are you using a VPN service (Client)?

BTW using a repeater is not a good idea.

Why are repeaters not a good idea?

 

[L&LD]

Pay for full bandwidth to your ISP, receive half (or less) from a Repeater.

Btw, AiMesh in wireless node is also, effectively, a Repeater. The only benefit of AiMesh in that situation is that the main and the Guest wireless is propagated to the nodes with one click.

 

[joe scian]

Pay for full bandwidth to your ISP, receive half (or less) from a Repeater.

Btw, AiMesh in wireless node is also, effectively, a Repeater. The only benefit of AiMesh in that situation is that the main and the Guest wireless is propagated to the nodes with one click.

It is exactly that - AiMesh in wireless mode is Exactly same speed as having a repeater. -ie half BW or less depending on no of clients. And AiMesh in Backhaul wired mode is exactly the same as a second router in Access Point mode. So I really dont get it- what is the benefit of AiMesh? Its all marketing crap afaic.

 

[L&LD]

See the third sentence for benefits.

While setting up an AP is beyond the reach of most consumers (if only in their minds), clicking add AiMesh node is doable.

 

[joe scian]

See the third sentence for benefits.

While setting up an AP is beyond the reach of most consumers (if only in their minds), clicking add AiMesh node is doable.

Yes well I too was sucked into the marketing hype. I originally thought wireless AiMesh was some newfound topology to give your AiMesh nodes exactly the same BW as the main Router. Stupid me. I even have a wireless camera that seems hell bent on connecting to the main router with RSSI of -80dbm when the wireless AiMesh Node is right on top of it. Dumb butt technology if you ask me,. And yes I have clicked the optimisation tab. It connects to AiMesh Node for a while and then reverts to the main router. And thats with two AC-86U. I Couldnt get the AC5300 AiMesh node to stick to the AC86U main Router with Latest beta on both nodes so currently using two AC-86U.

 

[chris.at]

Sorry for continuing ot but is it really plain repeating? I thought it's like cross-band repeating without the half-bw-problem. aimesh nodes talking together on 5 GHz, talking to clients on 2.4 GHz (or vice versa). If it's really classic repeating with aimesh and clients on the same frequency with a fancy new wording then forget it... Are there any technical details out there about it?

 

[joe scian]

Sorry for continuing ot but is it really plain repeating? I thought it's like cross-band repeating without the half-bw-problem. aimesh nodes talking together on 5 GHz, talking to clients on 2.4 GHz (or vice versa). If it's really classic repeating with aimesh and clients on the same frequency with a fancy new wording then forget it... Are there any technical details out there about it?

Well I tried a 12dbi TP Link ( CPE-220) in Repeater mode and Bridge mode and I get about half download and upload speed of the main router. Repeater mode keeps the same SSID and just extends the signal. Bridge mode creates a new SSID and transmits accordingly using different passwords if required. I then tried 2 AC-86U in wireless AIMesh configuration and when Im connected to the AiMesh node I get roughly half the Download and upload speed of the main router. Therefore AiMesh Wireless Mode is exactly the same as Repeater or Bridge mode on the CPE-220. Case closed. In fact with 12Dbi Gain on the CPE220 i probably get better range than 2 AiMesh AC-86U nodes in wireless configuration.

 

[heysoundude]

Pay for full bandwidth to your ISP, receive half (or less) from a Repeater.

Btw, AiMesh in wireless node is also, effectively, a Repeater. The only benefit of AiMesh in that situation is that the main and the Guest wireless is propagated to the nodes with one click.

In certain parts of the world - like where our routers are designed - internet is faster; Splitting a 1Gbps connection among a router and a node or 2 at that speed isn't as noticeable (troublesome?) as at 50-100-300 Mbps

What I'd love to see, rather than Dual WAN, is for AiMesh to permit different ISP connections at each point of a mesh, and to combine them, coordinate them. I've got service over my copper phone line at the moment, but I also have cable available at the house, and I'm ~100m LOS from my mobile provider's tower that gives me greater than 2x the speed of my DSL. and there are 2 other mobile plans in the house who connect to that cell as well - combined (bandwidth aside) my network could move bits at 400/150 Mbps under that sort of scenario.

 

[rlj2]

Just so some dont get confused from the above comments. You get half speed of your wifi connection, not your internet connection. So it really is only a concern for people with very fast internet wanting 300+ on aimesh clients. For most people this isnt a huge issue. Aimesh does steer clients between nodes without connection loss better then a access point or repeater. I can use my cell phone on wifi calling and walk between nodes without losing the call. That doesnt happen with ap/repeater.

 

[noah way]

I found mesh mode to be dumbed down - I lost control of the node and had no logs for it. I also lost site survey from the node - which is important for me because the routers are in separate buildings 150’ apart.

 

[rlj2]

I found mesh mode to be dumbed down - I lost control of the node and had no logs for it. I also lost site survey from the node - which is important for me because the routers are in separate buildings 150’ apart.

You can do pretty much anything on a node as you can with the main, just has to be from command line. I have one node that runs rclone to backup my work computer to google drive every night. I setup cupsd on another node in my wifes office for a network printer. As far as a node and gui, your correct. Aimesh v2 at least added smb/ftp/nfs support on nodes.

 

[noah way]

You can do pretty much anything on a node as you can with the main, just has to be from command line. I have one node that runs rclone to backup my work computer to google drive every night. I setup cupsd on another node in my wifes office for a network printer. As far as a node and gui, your correct. Aimesh v2 at least added smb/ftp/nfs support on nodes.

Waaaay to nerdy for me. It was all I could do to set up Merlin and Diversion.

 

[rlj2]

Waaaay to nerdy for me. It was all I could do to set up Merlin and Diversion.

Ive been called a nerd more then once

 

[terminator]

Just so some dont get confused from the above comments. You get half speed of your wifi connection, not your internet connection. So it really is only a concern for people with very fast internet wanting 300+ on aimesh clients. For most people this isnt a huge issue. Aimesh does steer clients between nodes without connection loss better then a access point or repeater. I can use my cell phone on wifi calling and walk between nodes without losing the call. That doesnt happen with ap/repeater.

I now have the aimesh nodes hardwired with cat6 to future proof them but previously they were running wireless and there was no noticeable difference. I have 100 mbps up/down from ISP. So, thanks for this as it is important to point it. Even with a 1gbps connection, how many internet sites/applications can really support that? I know some people have a real need but for majority of the users it does not matter. Managing 2 nodes automatically from the main router/interface is a bliss!

 

[jswing]

Once I add a mesh node that has USB ports, will I be able to configure the shares via the gui interface of the main router that does not have USB devices connected to it?

 

[Tech9]

will I be able to configure the shares via the gui interface of the main router

Click the node icon, go to settings under the firmware version, there was a servers or services page redirecting to a new pop-up screen with Samba, FTP, etc. I don't have the AiMesh setup at the moment, but I remember seeing that option. Check it out and test if it works.

 

[jswing]

It looks like this ability to use the USB device on a node is not available if the Lyra Voice is the main router. It only works if the main router has this functionality built in.