[WAN feature request] GT-AXE16000 use 2.5G port as LAN and use 2 1GB ports for dual wan

[mmjlmjl]

I Just found that it is not possible to configure the 2.5Gbit port of the GT-AXE16000 as a LAN port, some googling tells me Asus thinks this is a feature.... Is this a restriction in the closed source part of the code concerning WAN as might be suggested in the "READ THIS FIRST" section? Or would it be a viable feature request for the Merlin Build?

For me this would make the 2.5Gbit port available for an uplink to an extra Zenwifi Pro XT12, one 10Gbit for uplink to my switch and the other to another zenwifi Pro XT12 (my switch does not support 2.5G.... (although it does work with 10G )

"Q: I'm having Dual-WAN related issues. Can you fix it?
A: Most likely not, because part of the code is closed-source, and the rest is scattered throughout hundreds of thousands of lines of code, and next to impossible to understand."

 

[Tech9]

This script addresses Asuswrt Dual WAN related issues:

WANFailover - Dual WAN Failover ***v2 Release***

WAN Failover is designed to replace the factory ASUS WAN Failover functionality, this script will monitor the WAN Interfaces using a Target IP Address and pinging these targets to determine when a failure occurs. When a failure is detected in Failover Mode, the script will switch to the...

www.snbforums.com

...but only to available WAN interfaces in original firmware.

 

[mmjlmjl]

This script addresses Asuswrt Dual WAN related issues:

WANFailover - Dual WAN Failover ***v2 Release***

WAN Failover is designed to replace the factory ASUS WAN Failover functionality, this script will monitor the WAN Interfaces using a Target IP Address and pinging these targets to determine when a failure occurs. When a failure is detected in Failover Mode, the script will switch to the...

www.snbforums.com

...but only to available WAN interfaces in original firmware.

I'd suspect it is something with the switching hardware which prohibits the use of the 2.5G port fir the LAN side. But thanks for the link, dual wan definably needs some improvement over the standard feature!

 

[GBee]

I'd suspect it is something with the switching hardware which prohibits the use of the 2.5G port fir the LAN side. But thanks for the link, dual wan definably needs some improvement over the standard feature!

Here's the thing, it's not a hardware restriction. In AP mode the router will happily let you use that 2.5G WAN port for LAN/backhaul but then you lose the routing features.

The restriction is very frustrating. In 'dual wan mode' the hardware and stock firmware will happily let you use a second port for WAN and in 'AP mode' it will happily let you use the 'wan port' as a lan port, additionally nodes can use that 2.5G port for lan/backhaul out of the box. However you cannot have a 2.5 backhaul from the node acting as the router!? I understand that it's too complex for Merlin, but if there's one feature I'd love to see most from either stock or Merlin firmware it's this one. I can't (yet) get an internet connection faster than 1G so the 2.5G WAN port is just wasted, but I do have my backhaul running over ethernet via 2.5G switches. Particularly considering that I've freed up the second 5Ghz channel by using wired backhaul, it's perverse that the whole setup (wired and wireless) is bottle-necked by that 1G backhaul to the router.

 

[Tech9]

I understand that it's too complex for Merlin

There is no change to Dual WAN in Asuswrt-Merlin firmware. It comes from stock Asuswrt the way it is.

 

[GBee]

There is no change to Dual WAN in Asuswrt-Merlin firmware. It comes from stock Asuswrt the way it is.

Pretty sure I didn't say otherwise?

Edit: Not that I'm even certain that Dual WAN functionality has relevance to this feature (changing WAN port) other than the existence of the Dual WAN feature (plus AP mode, node mode) all prove that it's not a hardware limitation.

 

[Tech9]

Pretty sure I didn't say otherwise?

The feature you would like to see has to come from stock Asuswrt. Then you may see it in Asuswrt-Merlin firmware.

 

[CaptainSTX]

Here's the thing, it's not a hardware restriction. In AP mode the router will happily let you use that 2.5G WAN port for LAN/backhaul but then you lose the routing features.

The restriction is very frustrating. In 'dual wan mode' the hardware and stock firmware will happily let you use a second port for WAN and in 'AP mode' it will happily let you use the 'wan port' as a lan port, additionally nodes can use that 2.5G port for lan/backhaul out of the box. However you cannot have a 2.5 backhaul from the node acting as the router!? I understand that it's too complex for Merlin, but if there's one feature I'd love to see most from either stock or Merlin firmware it's this one. I can't (yet) get an internet connection faster than 1G so the 2.5G WAN port is just wasted, but I do have my backhaul running over ethernet via 2.5G switches. Particularly considering that I've freed up the second 5Ghz channel by using wired backhaul, it's perverse that the whole setup (wired and wireless) is bottle-necked by that 1G backhaul to the router.

Any chance that LAG would give you most of what you want at 2 Gbps. I believe that you can run LAG either on the WAN or LAN.

 

[GBee]

The feature you would like to see has to come from stock Asuswrt. Then you may see it in Asuswrt-Merlin firmware.

If all features had to first be in stock firmware, then what would be the point of using Merlin? Didn't many of the features added to stock first appear in Merlin firmware, including dual-wan? You could probably say that _only_ appeared in stock because they were first demonstrated in the Merlin firmware.

I do recognise/accept that Merlin himself may not want to add this particular feature (remapping WAN port) but that's not quite the same thing as it not being possible.

Any chance that LAG would give you most of what you want at 2 Gbps. I believe that you can run LAG either on the WAN or LAN.

Well this is one of the disadvantages of a combined AP/Router - for best wireless coverage the router is in the middle of the main living space, the switches and other equipment are elsewhere in the house. I managed, while renovating the property to put in two runs of Cat 6 to the room but currently one of those is used for the WAN and the other for the backhaul. The same would apply even if I were to switch another node to router duties, I have two cables to every point but one has to pull WAN duty so LAG is out of the question.

 

[Tech9]

Didn't many of the features added to stock first appear in Merlin firmware, including dual-wan?

See this:

Beta - Asuswrt-Merlin 3004.388.6 Beta is now available

I believe Merlin would do another Beta to resolve this tiny things. The Dual WAN code is too complicated for me to figure out, so I don't touch anything related to it, sorry. Updated from 388.5, all seems to be working, but I notice on the WAN-DDNS page the "Server Certificate" status is...

www.snbforums.com

 

[DJones]

If all features had to first be in stock firmware, then what would be the point of using Merlin? Didn't many of the features added to stock first appear in Merlin firmware, including dual-wan? You could probably say that _only_ appeared in stock because they were first demonstrated in the Merlin firmware.

I do recognise/accept that Merlin himself may not want to add this particular feature (remapping WAN port) but that's not quite the same thing as it not being possible.



Well this is one of the disadvantages of a combined AP/Router - for best wireless coverage the router is in the middle of the main living space, the switches and other equipment are elsewhere in the house. I managed, while renovating the property to put in two runs of Cat 6 to the room but currently one of those is used for the WAN and the other for the backhaul. The same would apply even if I were to switch another node to router duties, I have two cables to every point but one has to pull WAN duty so LAG is out of the question.

@RMerlin would have to create a new webgui page for this feature and maintain it. UI side of things I believe he wants to touch as little as possible, or cannot due to some closed sourced aspects depending on the feature. Which is why Addons are primarily done in SSH, by contributing developers some who have created their own gui pages and are maintained by them.

“Asuswrt-Merlin is an alternative, customized version of that firmware. Developed by Eric Sauvageau, its primary goals are to enhance the existing firmware without bringing any radical changes, and to fix some of the known issues and limitations, while maintaining the same level of performance as the original firmware. This means Asuswrt-Merlin retains full support for NAT acceleration (sometimes referred to as "hardware acceleration"), enhanced NTFS performance (through the proprietary drivers used by Asus from either Paragon or Tuxera), and the Asus exclusive features such as AiCloud or the Trend Micro-powered AiProtection. New feature addition is very low on the list of priorities for this project.”

Home | Asuswrt-Merlin

www.asuswrt-merlin.net

 

[GBee]

See this:

Beta - Asuswrt-Merlin 3004.388.6 Beta is now available

I believe Merlin would do another Beta to resolve this tiny things. The Dual WAN code is too complicated for me to figure out, so I don't touch anything related to it, sorry. Updated from 388.5, all seems to be working, but I notice on the WAN-DDNS page the "Server Certificate" status is...

www.snbforums.com

Which leads me neatly back full circle to what I said in my first post Quote: "I understand that it's too complex for Merlin".

@RMerlin would have to create a new webgui page for this feature and maintain it. UI side of things I believe he wants to touch as little as possible, or cannot due to some closed sourced aspects depending on the feature. Which is why Addons are primarily done in SSH, by contributing developers some who have created their own gui pages and are maintained by them.

“Asuswrt-Merlin is an alternative, customized version of that firmware. Developed by Eric Sauvageau, its primary goals are to enhance the existing firmware without bringing any radical changes, and to fix some of the known issues and limitations, while maintaining the same level of performance as the original firmware. This means Asuswrt-Merlin retains full support for NAT acceleration (sometimes referred to as "hardware acceleration"), enhanced NTFS performance (through the proprietary drivers used by Asus from either Paragon or Tuxera), and the Asus exclusive features such as AiCloud or the Trend Micro-powered AiProtection. New feature addition is very low on the list of priorities for this project.”

Home | Asuswrt-Merlin

www.asuswrt-merlin.net

Yes, sadly I understand that the current status of the project is such that new features are no longer a priority. That's clearly not how the project started, if you look at the list of features that were first added by Merlin and which were later incorporated into stock. I probably shouldn't have chosen to reply to a thread on this topic in the Merlin sub-forum since now this whole discussion has devolved into a unnecessary defence of Merlin rather than the collaborative debate I'd hoped for on how to achieve this functionality.

No fear, I'll just fork and forge on alone.

 

[DJones]

Not devolving. Trust me I’d love the project to add new features and functionality. Wish Asus would just bring Rmerlin on board, and help him spear head new development. Honestly amazed that Asus would support him as much as they have.

Anyways.. alternatively if you wanted to use pfsense (or others) to handle the dual wan or just general internet connectivity from the modem then use LAN aggregation LACP (or 2.5g) to the router you could. And it would solve most problems. But would involve a middle machine between your ISP’s modem and the wireless router to achieve. Pfsense ultimately would come with a stronger feature set then any consumer wireless router, so in that regard I’d just disable dhcp on them and let pfsense handle the heavy lifting and use the wireless routers as switches or to broadcast wifi. Not sure if AImesh will work with dhcp disabled so maybe that’s not a solution.

 

[GBee]

Anyways.. alternatively if you wanted to use pfsense (or others) to handle the dual wan or just general internet connectivity from the modem then use LAN aggregation LACP (or 2.5g) to the router you could. And it would solve most problems. But would involve a middle machine between your ISP’s modem and the router to achieve. Pfsense ultimately would come with a stronger feature set then any consumer wireless router, so in that regard I’d just disable dhcp on them and let pfsense handle the heavy lifting and use the wireless routers as switches or to broadcast wifi.

Yes, absolutely that has always been an option along with many others and a much easier option. I'm just stubborn I guess, I invested in the Asus mesh router ecosystem for a number of reasons just 2 years ago and having spent all that money on the system - which I otherwise like just fine - I would prefer to get everything working without just buying a separate router.

I am a tinkerer, for a number of years I ran my own (basic by modern standards) router long before pfsense existed, but the issue there was that I just couldn't stop messing with it and many a frustrated, wasted weekend was spent fixing what I'd managed to break. I've got enough 'projects' these days, I no longer have the time or interest, and for some things I'd just rather use an off the shelf product. [I'm aware of the irony given what I just said about forking and working on my own solution]

The XT8 does almost everything I could want right now, other than configurable VLAN tagging for WIFI (ideally mac based) and this one arguably unnecessary but still niggling matter of not being able to do 2.5G wired backhaul.

* Dual-WAN isn't particularly relevant here. It was originally a must have feature but my satellite broadband is now 100% reliable so I have dropped my 4G backup and now only have a single WAN connection. Dual WAN was really only mentioned in the context of this discussion because it demonstrated that the stock firmware is able to treat LAN 1 as a WAN interface, and if it can treat LAN 1 as WAN AND in AP/Node mode it can treat WAN as LAN, then in theory at least doesn't seem like such a huge ask for it to do both - switch WAN to the 1G port and LAN on the 2.5 port. I guess, if keep digging through the source code I'll find out just how difficult it really is.

 

[Wisiwyg]

Any chance that LAG would give you most of what you want at 2 Gbps. I believe that you can run LAG either on the WAN or LAN.

I'm currently doing this on an AX-88U with built-in functions. But - I'm not changing the WAN to a LAN port, instead Link Agg to Lan port 4 per built in options:

And, In the past I used to run LAN Link Agg on Lan Ports 1 and 2 to an Ubuntu server, again per built in options:

These worked simultaneously very well on the AX-88U with Merlin.

The difference is moving the fixed WAN port to the LAN *and* then Link Agg. I'd bet someone smarter than me with scripting experience could work something on this out. It would be a very interesting project!