Returning OUT of mesh mode? Asus tech support says it can't be done.
The setup: I have an GT AC5300 that I've ran in mesh mode for about a year with my old AC68U. No matter what, it SEEMS to be ok but everything connected thru the AC68U will drop off (phones, thermostat, roku) about once a week maybe. Not enough to torch everything but annoying. (& fyi, they're only about 10ft apart, on the same floor, maybe 2 sheetrock walls to go thru and the signal strenth from the AC68U shows excellent back to the 5300). I have a friend who has a GT AC5300 that he's never entered into mesh mode. His shows as 3 wireless bands that are available for everything to use, 2.4ghz, 5.4ghz and second 5.4ghz. All three routers mentioned here in this post are running FW Version:3.0.0.4.384_45149 btw. Well, I've decided to give up on Asus Mesh. I unplugged the AC68U and my three wifis are still showing 2.4gz & 5ghz1 and then the 5ghz2 is in backhaul "5 GHz-2 is now used as dedicated WiFi backhaul under AiMesh mode.". I contacted Asus to see how to turn this backhaul off and get the 5gh2 back to something that can be used by anything. Not possible according to Asus tech support. Under my wireless heading at the top of the page, I have my MYSSIDNAME and MYSSIDNAME-dwb. Just weird....
I'm guessing I could do a factory reset but then I'd lose all of my routes I have set for my media servers, Synology NAS and also my wireless cams now. If I'm going to go through that amount of trouble, I'd likely be better off changing routers altogether. I did turn my back on netgear years ago as I had bought a $400? (iirc) router from them and called into tech support 1 week after support ended (which was 1yr) and they wouldnt do anything for me. "Its dead Jim" was the analysis. Not even any sort of discount on a replacement router. That's actually what pointed me towards Asus. Now that I'm onboard the Asus train, it really looks to me like they're more concerned with gaming themes, leds, smoke and lazers than any sort of serious networking. This thing has been out for over a year and the forum is still full of bugs & the documentation is still for the regular GT-AC5300 (that has a normal, non game influenced) interface. Just in case anyone asks, its ok, been asked before "why'd you get the GT-AC5300 then and not just the standard RT-AC5300?". Actually a valid question. The thing is, the GT has twice the cores, twice the ram and a lot more network ports. At the time I had the spare cash and wanted the absolute, top of the line, most powerful router they offered. It seems insane to be they dont offer a FW flash that would allow you to have a normal interface like the RT. btw, I'm not knocking gaming. I love video games too but I'd rather play my games on the computer or console than have all the setup like they have in the Router Config page.
sorry about that, got off on a rant I guess. hahaha.
back to the point, anyone have any idea (other than a factory reset) to get this POS out of mesh mode?