RT-AC5300 New Official Firmware Version 3.0.0.4.384.20942

[Neil62]

Neil62,
What are Wireless settings that you have Changed from default values after Factory Reset ... so that I can test it on my setup when I get home later, to see if we can get some clues.
PS: I try to leave NVRAM settings in their default value, unless I have very good reason to change them.

Ok thanks for the offer much appreciated, I have just completed another reset of all nodes and joined them all back into the mesh. Firstly, after the reset/initialize of all nodes, for the both 5GHZ bands on main router, I have switched to a wireless mode of "N" and a channel bandwidth of 40MGHZ, channel control is at 'auto" and extension channel is of course 'auto'. No other changes. Secondly, I then tried with a lower 5GHZ band of channel 48 and the higher 5GHZ of channel 161 nominated, wireless mode and channel bandwidth left as above.

I have uploaded a small picture of what I see in Acrylic now after another reset of all nodes only, with what I see with the above changes. It would seem now all main channels are the same, what you will notice from the picture is a difference in the extension channel selection by nodes from the main and speed is showing something different from the nodes by models to the main. Maybe changing the wireless mode on the 5GHZ band is not flowing down to the nodes, causing some channel and speed disparity on nodes, not sure, just having a stab at it. I can see all 5GHZ channels are though operating at a channel bandwidth of the 40GHZ's as per the main router nomination..

Note: I have not yet tried a reset/initialize of the main router.

I think I am just now confusing myself with this......could be all correct and I am not looking at it correctly.

 

[Grisu]

What I have noticed is that on the both 5GHZ bands for the nodes they are using different channels from that of the main router.

I had this issue too when testing 1716-beta for 68U.
Depending on various constellations even 2G had different channels and then went offline after some time.
In my case maybe because of china-version 86U, it seems AiMesh needs same region-setting on all devices to work.

I think I am just now confusing myself with this......could be all correct and I am not looking at it correctly.

And no, it is not correct how it works if your Wifi analyzer is showing correct values (I use it too and it shows whats fact better than others)!
Seems control channels are same, but extension channels go up or down different for main and nodes.

 

[Neil62]

I had this issue too when testing 1716-beta for 68U.
Depending on various constellations even 2G had different channels and then went offline after some time.
In my case maybe because of china-version 86U, it seems AiMesh needs same region-setting on all devices to work.


And no, it is not correct how it works if your Wifi analyzer is showing correct values (I use it too and it shows whats fact better than others)!
Seems control channels are same, but extension channels go up or down different for main and nodes.

Thanks for your reply.

Would not nodes being on different extension channels from the Main, have some sort of affect on roaming between nodes as well?

I like the idea of being able to set/select a region right across the whole AiMesh setup to operate with, I am sure you are right that it probably causes issues as well. i.e. routers having different regions. I think I saw something similar to this in the new Phase 2 beta for AiMesh for the 68U, couple of other nice things in this beta release as well. I hope going forward as an example to see guest accounts working at a node level. Baby steps first I suppose.

I for one, am glad ASUS is continuing to work with AiMesh, its heading in the right direction.

The reason I try to use fixed channels, is that I have noticed at least in my environment/setup it seems to add more stability to the whole AiMesh setup as well.

 

[LimJK]

Ok thanks for the offer much appreciated, I have just completed another reset of all nodes and joined them all back into the mesh. Firstly, after the reset/initialize of all nodes, for the both 5GHZ bands on main router, I have switched to a wireless mode of "N" and a channel bandwidth of 40MGHZ, channel control is at 'auto" and extension channel is of course 'auto'. No other changes. Secondly, I then tried with a lower 5GHZ band of channel 48 and the higher 5GHZ of channel 161 nominated, wireless mode and channel bandwidth left as above.

I have uploaded a small picture of what I see in Acrylic now after another reset of all nodes only, with what I see with the above changes. It would seem now all main channels are the same, what you will notice from the picture is a difference in the extension channel selection by nodes from the main and speed is showing something different from the nodes by models to the main. Maybe changing the wireless mode on the 5GHZ band is not flowing down to the nodes, causing some channel and speed disparity on nodes, not sure, just having a stab at it. I can see all 5GHZ channels are though operating at a channel bandwidth of the 40GHZ's as per the main router nomination..

Note: I have not yet tried a reset/initialize of the main router.

I think I am just now confusing myself with this......could be all correct and I am not looking at it correctly.

Neil62,

• Sorry, I don't understand, why do you need to set the Wireless mode to "N" and Channel bandwidth to "40MHz"? I thought AC mode should be backward compatible?
• I am not able to change the Mode, Channel Bandwidth, etc. because I am using the Triband-Smart Connect. I will try without 2.4GHz, later tonight when the rest goes to sleep
• Anyway a screen shot of my AiMesh Network usage using WiFi Explorer on Mac below for your comparison:

 

[Grisu]

Thanks for your reply.

Would not nodes being on different extension channels from the Main, have some sort of affect on roaming between nodes as well?

I like the idea of being able to set/select a region right across the whole AiMesh setup to operate with, I am sure you are right that it probably causes issues as well. i.e. routers having different regions.

The reason I try to use fixed channels, is that I have noticed at least in my environment/setup it seems to add more stability to the whole AiMesh setup as well.

I only use fixed channels whereever possible, otherwise devices will use all between channels (2, 3) not matching 1-5-9-13 or for US 1-6-11 sheme.

Sorry, I don't understand, why do you need to set the Wireless mode to "N" and Channel bandwidth to "40MHz"?

Please tell us why we shall leave 40MHz out for almost double speed?

There is only 1 other network seen with -85dbm at channel 12 in my case, why not using 1+5 for my 2,4G with 40Mhz bandwith ???

Only because you may not use it reliable there is no reason for others to do the same!

 

[Neil62]

Neil62,

• Sorry, I don't understand, why do you need to set the Wireless mode to "N" and Channel bandwidth to "40MHz"? I thought AC mode should be backward compatible?
• I am not able to change the Mode, Channel Bandwidth, etc. because I am using the Triband-Smart Connect. I will try without 2.4GHz, later tonight when the rest goes to sleep

• Anyway a screen shot of my AiMesh Network usage using WiFi Explorer on Mac below for your comparison:

View attachment 13236

• I use a 40GHZ band because of my environment, it has a better signal strength/distance than the 80GHZ signal
• For what ever reason, I find better stability in the signal, if I use "N" only, rather than "N/AC mixed" for the 40GHZ band width selection.
• Do you use fixed channels, or are all your bands set to auto channel selection?
• Thanks for the screen shot, but it does not show the extension channels being used through the AiMesh, are there any extension channels being used, if so, are they (nodes) using the same extension channels as the main router?
• I also believe, that if you set the main router 'wireless mode' to "N" only, for the 5GHZ bands, this does not flow down to the NODES they will remain as "N/AC mixed". I would like someone else to confirm this for me, if somebody could please.
• If my bolded above assumption is right, would this not affect roaming with AiMesh?

I am just looking for some help, and confirmation/understanding, of node activities, around "wireless mode", extension channels, especially it would seem on the 5GHZ channels to what the Main AiMesh router is set to do.

Thanks to all, for replies to date.

 

[arthurlien]

I had this issue too when testing 1716-beta for 68U.
Depending on various constellations even 2G had different channels and then went offline after some time.
In my case maybe because of china-version 86U, it seems AiMesh needs same region-setting on all devices to work.


And no, it is not correct how it works if your Wifi analyzer is showing correct values (I use it too and it shows whats fact better than others)!
Seems control channels are same, but extension channels go up or down different for main and nodes.

1716-beta is for AiMesh Router and Node are RT-AC68U only.

 

[LimJK]

• Do you use fixed channels, or are all your bands set to auto channel selection?
• Thanks for the screen shot, but it does not show the extension channels being used through the AiMesh, are there any extension channels being used, if so, are they (nodes) using the same extension channels as the main router?

Thanks to all, for replies to date.

Neil62,
I left channel selection as "Auto" also enabled Tri-band Smart Connect, pretty much most other Wireless NVRAM settings as default. You noticed that all my 5GHz band has a bandwidth of 80MHz on the same overlapping Channel. Hoping Annotating the line description to the spectrum graph might make it clearer.

 

[Grisu]

So what we can see:

absolutely unusable for most of us in auto-mode!!!

All 2G channels are free and it uses channel 10 -> not more than 2 Wifi-2,4G can coexist without interferencing!

At least it should use 1-6-11 for US or 1-5-9-13 for rest of the world.

Your neighbours will be happy (mean all the others not you as you seem to live in a lonely harvest like me).

With devices like this (I know most act same way) even in rest of world there can be only 2 nearby Wifi using 2,4G without problems or speed reduction.

 

[LimJK]

So what we can see:

absolutely unusable for most of us in auto-mode!!!

All 2G channels are free and it uses channel 10 -> not more than 2 Wifi-2,4G can coexist without interferencing!

At least it should use 1-6-11 for US or 1-5-9-13 for rest of the world.

Your neighbors will be happy (mean all the others not you as you seem to live in a lonely harvest like me).

With devices like this (I know most act same way) even in rest of world there can be only 2 nearby Wifi using 2,4G without problems or speed reduction.

Grisu,

I am no more technical after retirement many years ago

• I am in auto mode - very useable so far
• From what I understand having the various AiMesh Devices on the same Channel is not necessarily bad. It is bad only if Channel is so fully utilised that nothing can get transmitted/received on the same Channel. For my 5GHz Channels I typically gets 500-600mbps
• I filtered my list with my SSID, so I appeared lonely on the chart , we actually have hundreds of family in the Condo, so it is quite noisy actually

 

[OzarkEdge]

• I filtered my list with my SSID, so I appeared lonely on the chart , we actually have hundreds of family in the Condo, so it is quite noisy actually

Can you post an unfiltered chart of that... could be entertaining!

OE

 

[LimJK]

Can you post an unfiltered chart of that... could be entertaining!

OE

OzarkEdge,
Just for you