wireless backhaul fails often.

[DaKo25]

Hi all,

I found this forum while searching for help with a very annoying issue with my ASUS ZenWifi AX. The wireless backhaul option have never worked without issues from the beginning. I have the main router (first floor) and 1 extra node (second floor). In a direct line only 3.5 meters apart. After starting up, the backhaul connection is excellent (green line in the App). After a while (varies from some minutes to some hours) the connection worsens (orange line) and my traffic suffers delays or disconnection from the internet. It stays that way until I restart both nodes. Then it starts up again green, and falls back to orange (with a terrible signal strenght). When I am on the third floor, and the backhaul is orange, my phone and laptop connect to the first floor, instead of the second floor.

I made it ok-ish by automatically restart every night, but that is kind of stupid solution.

Any clues?

 

[bennor]

It may help if you post your specific main router information and what specific firmware both the main router and AiMesh nodes are all running.

Have you checked the main router's system log to see if it indicates any reason for the wireless backhaul AiMesh node disconnection?

As a troubleshooting step have you deleted the AiMesh node then reattached it to the main router? AiMesh wireless backhaul can sometimes be problematic and not work consistently for some depending on their wireless environment and building construction.

What other troubleshooting steps have you tried?

 

[OzarkEdge]

I have the main router (first floor) and 1 extra node (second floor). In a direct line only 3.5 meters apart.

Does this mean that one AP is directly over the other? If so, you might try staggering them as far apart as possible.

OE

 

[DaKo25]

It may help if you post your specific main router information and what specific firmware both the main router and AiMesh nodes are all running.

Have you checked the main router's system log to see if it indicates any reason for the wireless backhaul AiMesh node disconnection?

As a troubleshooting step have you deleted the AiMesh node then reattached it to the main router? AiMesh wireless backhaul can sometimes be problematic and not work consistently for some depending on their wireless environment and building construction.

What other troubleshooting steps have you tried?

• I update the firmware consistantly. Now both nodes are on 3.0.0.4.388_24710
• Yes, I disconnected and added the node again. (no result)
• I have reset all to standard settings (no result)
• tried to figure out if lowering the transmitting power helps (no result)
• I changed locations (no result)

There is no disconnection to search for in the log, because it will not disconnect. The thing is, that after a while, the connection worsens. From excellent to poor. There is a lot of data in the log. I really do not know where to look for. Any specific information?

 

[DaKo25]

Does this mean that one AP is directly over the other? If so, you might try staggering them as far apart as possible.

OE

It used to be 5 m apart, and I moved it closer to each other to try to solve this issue. I could try to place the extra node on the third floor. Can you explain why this can help? The closer they are, the better signal strength right?

 

[OzarkEdge]

It used to be 5 m apart, and I moved it closer to each other to try to solve this issue. I could try to place the extra node on the third floor. Can you explain why this can help? The closer they are, the better signal strength right?

No. I meant for you to not place one directly over the other and to put them as far apart as possible, 40 feet or more depending on any serious/dense obstructions in the signal path.

OE

 

[DaKo25]

No. I meant for you to not place one directly over the other and to put them as far apart as possible, 40 feet or more depending on any serious/dense obstructions in the signal path.

OE

I understand. My physical internet connection (and thus the main router) is in the center of my house on the first floor (ground level). I put the node 1 level up (second floor), about 7 feet off, horizontally. If you suggest to decrease the angel between the main router and the node I see no possibility. Because to increase distance between them, I either have to put 1 on the public street, or 1 on the third floor. But when I put it on the third floor, the angle between the two will not be smaller. To decrease the angle I can only put the node on the same floor as the main router, but then I will loose signal strength on the third floor.

 

[OzarkEdge]

I understand. My physical internet connection (and thus the main router) is in the center of my house on the first floor (ground level). I put the node 1 level up (second floor), about 7 feet off, horizontally. If you suggest to decrease the angel between the main router and the node I see no possibility. Because to increase distance between them, I either have to put 1 on the public street, or 1 on the third floor. But when I put it on the third floor, the angle between the two will not be smaller. To decrease the angle I can only put the node on the same floor as the main router, but then I will loose signal strength on the third floor.

Don't worry about angles. Just keep them staggered and as far apart as possible... your 5m is only 15 feet apart... that's close.

OE

 

[leventozler]

Enable SSH, login to your node IP, watch the logs with;

tail -f /tmp/syslog.log

it could be a radar event that only detected by your node, or something else...

 

[bbunge]

it could be a radar event that only detected by your node, or something else...

This is a good point. Do not use a DFS channel for backhaul. In fact, as you are having connection issues it may be best to set both 5 GHz bands to 80 MHz on auto channel. Use the Asus SmartConnect. Also set the 2.4 GHz to 20 MHz .

 

[DaKo25]

Don't worry about angles. Just keep them staggered and as far apart as possible... your 5m is only 15 feet apart... that's close.

OE

I have to buy a new house...

 

[OzarkEdge]

I have to buy a new house...

A narrow, multi-level dwelling can be tricky, especially townhouses in a row with neighbor WiFi all around. Some solve this application with discrete APs and fine tuning of their placement and transmit power.

OE

 

[Tech9]

Any clues?

What country/region?

The folks above assume automatically you are in the US.

 

[DaKo25]

What country/region?

The folks above assume automatically you are in the US.

I am in The Netherlands . And tweeking the channels I already tried. Now I moved my node to the third floor. But again, after a few hours, my connection went down from good to poor and my internet is stuttering. I have great connectivity to the node thought, so I suspect the poor backhaul spoils the fun again. I am ready for the next step.

 

[DaKo25]

Enable SSH, login to your node IP, watch the logs with;

tail -f /tmp/syslog.log

it could be a radar event that only detected by your node, or something else...

I am trying to figure this out. I turned on the ssh. I think I need to connect to the node by wire right? Not by WIFI. And do you mean the extra node or the main router? And where do I type the code? I am sorry, but I never worked with SSH, new on that part...

 

[DaKo25]

I am trying to figure this out. I turned on the ssh. I think I need to connect to the node by wire right? Not by WIFI. And do you mean the extra node or the main router? And where do I type the code? I am sorry, but I never worked with SSH, new on that part...

So, I am one step further. I know now to connect to the extra node with ssh. What do I do with the results from the command tail -f /tmp/syslog.log? I see continuous connection and disconnection lines in the log. But it tells me nothing.

 

[DaKo25]

 

[DaKo25]

No. I meant for you to not place one directly over the other and to put them as far apart as possible, 40 feet or more depending on any serious/dense obstructions in the signal path.

OE

On the webpage of Asus they suggest a distance between 3 and 5 meters. They say: the closer the better, and the more direct line the better. So I do not understand what you are trying to solve with increasing the distance?

 

[DaKo25]

This is a good point. Do not use a DFS channel for backhaul. In fact, as you are having connection issues it may be best to set both 5 GHz bands to 80 MHz on auto channel. Use the Asus SmartConnect. Also set the 2.4 GHz to 20 MHz .

After analysing the WIFI channels in my surroundings, I choose manual channels, set band 20mhz for 2.4 GHz and 40 MHz for 5 MHz. For Backhaul I cannot select channels outside the Dutch DFS-channels. I do not understand that, because there is also an option in the settings to disable the use of DSF, but then again, omly channels 100-138 are available, which are DSF channels according to the info I found. I also disabled the use of bandwidth of 160GHz,

 

[leventozler]

I don’t think this has anything to do with signal/placement. Similar wpa loop happens on xt12 too.

Note that it’s wl2, backhaul band. One thing that kept the nodes stable longer is setting gtk rekey longer. (Disabling with 0 doesn’t work, it just starts to retry immediately.)

You could try running following commands on main router and nodes.

nvram set wl0_wpa_gtk_rekey=2592000
nvram set wl1_wpa_gtk_rekey=2592000
nvram set wl2_wpa_gtk_rekey=2592000

I tried every combination of settings I can think of, but sooner or later my nodes enter this wpa loop (and there is also a dfs loop that just switch dfs status every second).

Node logs are not visible to casual user, and no one bothers to check their logs, so the weird stuff keep unnoticed. Some wifi settings don’t sync to them, they try to do site survey every 5 minutes and fail each time, wpa rekey errors, dfs craziness etc…