Hello folks;
My home has two houses on it, which I've linked by a wireless bridge. Previously I used a pair of Amped Wireless SR600 repeaters for this bridge, but after upgrading one of my AP's to a RT-AC66U I was tickled pink to find 5 GHZ signals in the lower house.
So I grabbed a second RT-AC66U, put it in media bridge mode, bumped the power a little bit and in short order had a faster 5 GHZ link with lower latency (from ~3-5ms to ~0.5ms) and SNMP support to boot. Initial impressions were excellent.
When it wasn't frozen that is. I thought at first the bridge was overheating, so I put an external fan on it. Temps dropped from 65+ to ~40c. I then reduced the wireless traffic, shutting down the 2.4 AP on the bridge and disabling the 2.4 radio. I did the same for LAN traffic, moved all the connected devices onto a GS108Tv2. I've tried a number of firmwares, including .270 & 374, on both units (currently on Merlin's .372_31). Most options have been flicked in the settings. So far, longest uptime is 2 days. Interference is not a problem - it takes a cold clear night to be able to even detect the next nearest AP, which is about a mile away (and is on 2.4ghz anyway).
The media bridge mode has had a number of other shortcomings - it doesn't bind to the AP MAC, so any AP with the same SSID and a slightly better signal will redirect it - potentially causing a loop. It passes multicast only if one manually navigates to the hidden settings pages and enables the IPTV settings (for example, I can now see iPods and iPads and iPhones from iTunes across the bridge), and no AirPlay (also, must be said, I hate Apple stuff!) with when connected to the other in AP mode. Most frustratingly though is that uptime - typically 4-6 hours.
The media bridge seems to fail predictably - first, DHCP resolution fails but those clients with an IP or static address continue to work. Then, routing to local addresses fail - SNMP shows devices down, they can't be pinged, but for some reason the router and access to the internet remain. After this, nothing crosses the bridge - and if left long enough, SSH/Telnet/web access to the bridge fails and it has to be manually power cycled.
There are a lot of clients (~30) crossing the bridge, but traffic is only averaging a couple GB a day. So while it does see steady traffic, certainly a lot of generic network announcements and the like, its nothing particularly arduous - or taxing for the hardware (CPU use is almost flat at 2%, never more than 4-6%).
I understand Asus is working on a media bridge fix. My last Asus router was a N-56U which was exceedingly stable for it's lifetime (consumed in an unrelated fire), and the AC66U in AP mode has been stellar as well. This media bridge mode remains the only caveat I've experienced - unfortunately while it's "promising", being quite fast - the constant rebooting is rather tedious.
Watching and waiting for that next firmware release...!!! Oh, also... grandest thanks to RMerlin. Your work is on the firmware and your posts on this forum are appreciated.
My home has two houses on it, which I've linked by a wireless bridge. Previously I used a pair of Amped Wireless SR600 repeaters for this bridge, but after upgrading one of my AP's to a RT-AC66U I was tickled pink to find 5 GHZ signals in the lower house.
So I grabbed a second RT-AC66U, put it in media bridge mode, bumped the power a little bit and in short order had a faster 5 GHZ link with lower latency (from ~3-5ms to ~0.5ms) and SNMP support to boot. Initial impressions were excellent.
When it wasn't frozen that is. I thought at first the bridge was overheating, so I put an external fan on it. Temps dropped from 65+ to ~40c. I then reduced the wireless traffic, shutting down the 2.4 AP on the bridge and disabling the 2.4 radio. I did the same for LAN traffic, moved all the connected devices onto a GS108Tv2. I've tried a number of firmwares, including .270 & 374, on both units (currently on Merlin's .372_31). Most options have been flicked in the settings. So far, longest uptime is 2 days. Interference is not a problem - it takes a cold clear night to be able to even detect the next nearest AP, which is about a mile away (and is on 2.4ghz anyway).
The media bridge mode has had a number of other shortcomings - it doesn't bind to the AP MAC, so any AP with the same SSID and a slightly better signal will redirect it - potentially causing a loop. It passes multicast only if one manually navigates to the hidden settings pages and enables the IPTV settings (for example, I can now see iPods and iPads and iPhones from iTunes across the bridge), and no AirPlay (also, must be said, I hate Apple stuff!) with when connected to the other in AP mode. Most frustratingly though is that uptime - typically 4-6 hours.
The media bridge seems to fail predictably - first, DHCP resolution fails but those clients with an IP or static address continue to work. Then, routing to local addresses fail - SNMP shows devices down, they can't be pinged, but for some reason the router and access to the internet remain. After this, nothing crosses the bridge - and if left long enough, SSH/Telnet/web access to the bridge fails and it has to be manually power cycled.
There are a lot of clients (~30) crossing the bridge, but traffic is only averaging a couple GB a day. So while it does see steady traffic, certainly a lot of generic network announcements and the like, its nothing particularly arduous - or taxing for the hardware (CPU use is almost flat at 2%, never more than 4-6%).
I understand Asus is working on a media bridge fix. My last Asus router was a N-56U which was exceedingly stable for it's lifetime (consumed in an unrelated fire), and the AC66U in AP mode has been stellar as well. This media bridge mode remains the only caveat I've experienced - unfortunately while it's "promising", being quite fast - the constant rebooting is rather tedious.
Watching and waiting for that next firmware release...!!! Oh, also... grandest thanks to RMerlin. Your work is on the firmware and your posts on this forum are appreciated.
