Wireless Devices connecting to Wireless Backhaul

[outlaw78]

Just saw something today that I wanted to find out is normal behavior...

I have 5ghz-2 set as the dedicated wireless backhaul. 5ghz-2 is also set in smart connect (5ghz and 5ghz-2 are the only ones ticked). I hear many for and against using smart connect. Is this why I have some devices connecting to 5ghz-2 even though its set as wireless backhaul?

 

[bbunge]

Just saw something today that I wanted to find out is normal behavior...

I have 5ghz-2 set as the dedicated wireless backhaul. 5ghz-2 is also set in smart connect (5ghz and 5ghz-2 are the only ones ticked). I hear many for and against using smart connect. Is this why I have some devices connecting to 5ghz-2 even though its set as wireless backhaul?

Router model please

 

[outlaw78]

Router model please

Sorry AXE-16000

 

[Tech9]

Regardless of router model - this situation is most likely result of Asuswrt lack of dependencies. You can't have dedicated wireless backhaul and Smart Connect involving the same radio at the same time. The backhaul is dedicated or shared, not both.

 

[outlaw78]

Regardless of router model - this situation is most likely result of Asuswrt lack of dependencies. You can't have dedicated wireless backhaul and Smart Connect involving the same radio at the same time. The backhaul is dedicated or shared, not both.

That's what I figured, it was my setup. Does this affect anything negatively? I'm just loosing bandwidth for the backhaul correct?

 

[Tech9]

Disable Smart Connect for 5GHz-2 radio if you want it used for dedicated wireless backhaul. Disable Smart connect completely if you want more stable network with more control over your wireless devices. Smart Connect is not the best implementation of what is commonly known as Band Steering. Or simply experiment and see what works best for your use case.

 

[outlaw78]

Disable Smart Connect for 5GHz-2 radio if you want it used for dedicated wireless backhaul. Disable Smart connect completely if you want more stable network with more control over your wireless devices. Smart Connect is not the best implementation of what is commonly known as Band Steering. Or simply experiment and see what works best for your use case.

Yeah I used to use it for all bands, now its only selected for 5ghz bands. But yeah, I think I'll disable it all together. Thanks!

 

[outlaw78]

Yeah I used to use it for all bands, now its only selected for 5ghz bands. But yeah, I think I'll disable it all together. Thanks!

Can I "hide" the backhaul band as well or should I leave it visible?

 

[outlaw78]

I switched off smart connect, renamed 5ghz-2, set it as hidden, but now the two AC5300 are using 5ghz-1 as dedicated backhaul. Is there a way to change this to 5ghz-2? The dropdown to set 5ghz-2 as dedicated wireless backhaul disappeared as well...

Got it figured out for this part.

 

[Tech9]

Dedicated wireless backhaul must be hidden by default and not allowing client connections. I don't know how exactly it works with your mix of different routers, but this whole AiMesh thing is largely trial and error experience. For dedicated wireless backhaul all involved routers have to have the same band extra radio available. Dual-band routers in the mix will break it as well tri-band routers with different 5/6GHz radios. You have to do some planning before purchasing hardware and know in advance what is compatible... without having any compatibility information provided by Asus.

You have ET8 units in the mix and you can't reserve 5GHz-2 for wireless backhaul. ET8 units don't have 5GHz-2 radio and if you dedicate 5GHz-1 for wireless backhaul - they can't serve any 5GHz clients. This is equipment mismatch based issue.

 

[outlaw78]

Dedicated wireless backhaul must be hidden by default and not allowing client connections. I don't know how exactly it works with your mix of different routers, but this whole AiMesh thing is largely trial and error experience. For dedicated wireless backhaul all involved routers have to have the same band extra radio available. Dual-band routers in the mix will break it as well tri-band routers with different 5/6GHz radios. You have to do some planning before purchasing hardware and know in advance what is compatible... without having any compatibility information provided by Asus.

You have ET8 units in the mix and you can't reserve 5GHz-2 for wireless backhaul. ET8 units don't have 5GHz-2 radio and if you dedicate 5GHz-1 for wireless backhaul - they can't serve any 5GHz clients. This is equipment mismatch based issue.

My two ET8s are on ethernet backhaul. The Network tab of the two AC5300 routers in AiMesh now show 5ghz-2 as "Dedicated wireless backhaul". But before I went and hit send on this reply, the et8s are also showing 5ghz of the et8 as dedicated as well even though they are connected via ethernet cable... I will do some more tinkering. May have to just hard wire all of them or as you (or someone else) suggested, setting the two AC5300 as AP and not part of the mesh (just the ET8's as the mesh unless there is someway to make them AP as well with using a wired connection)

Edit: But it looks like devices are still connecting to the 5ghz of the ET8's, so it should be just fine?

Edit Edit: Nope, everything defaulted to 5ghz-1 as dedicated now (Probably because of the et8's). But et8s show they are connected to the 2.5g ethernet even though they also say that 5ghz is dedicated wireless backhaul. If I turn on ethernet backhaul under aimesh system settings, this would disable any wireless connection to other nodes?

 

[Tech9]

If this is one AiMesh system you can't have Ethernet backhaul and dedicated wireless backhaul at the same time. If you expect some help please provide all the details and don't feed us bits of information at a time. I don't even know what all 5x routers are doing on your network. This setup looks like complete overkill for unknown to me reason. I call it AiMess configuration. If you want to reuse the old AC routers just because you have them - this is wrong. Get them out of this network.

 

[outlaw78]

If this is one AiMesh system you can't have dedicated Ethernet backhaul and dedicated wireless backhaul at the same time. If you expect some help please provide all the details and don't feed us bits of information at a time. I don't even know what all 5x routers are doing on your network. This setup looks like complete overkill for unknown to me reason. I call it AiMess configuration.

I apologize. I have this many because I have a huge house on .28 of an acre and dead/low signal spots. Plus, my theater room is using the RT-AC5300 as a wired connection point for electronic devices. The GT-AC5300 is just another connection point for my IoT devices. One ET8 is in the wife's office, used as another wireless connection point plus has her computer and a printer hardwired into it. The other ET8 is just another connection point for wireless devices. The two et8's are at opposite ends of the house with the AXE-16000 smack dab in the middle. I have it set up this way to ensure I get 6e signal throughout the house (although currently no devices connect to the ET8s 6e nodes and this is another problem in itself that I have another thread I'm working on. I may have this one figured out though).

The GT-AC5300 I could probably do without, but I have cameras outside at the far end of the property that won't get signal without this node. Yes it might seem like overkill but it actually works for my situation.

As far as I described above, what more information would be helpful?

 

[Tech9]

Use GT-AXE16000 as main, ET8 units as nodes with wired backhaul. Replace RT-AC5300 in your theater room with a $20 switch, use GT-AC5300 in AP Mode with 2.4GHz radio enabled only. Exclude the AC units from AiMesh and you'll have 2.4/5/6GHz on your Wi-Fi 6E routers. This is a lot of Wi-Fi especially on long range 2.4GHz band. I have >6000sqft house and 4x dual-band access points on low power. If you really need that many APs you better plan something better than consumer "mesh" for your next hardware upgrade. AiMesh doesn't scale well, has limited configuration options and limited network tuning options. The more routers you add the worse it gets.

Think about replacing wireless cameras with wired PoE cameras. Wireless cameras can be taken out all at once with RF jammer.

 

[outlaw78]

Use GT-AXE16000 as main, ET8 units as nodes with wired backhaul. Replace RT-AC5300 in your theater room with a $20 switch, use GT-AC5300 in AP Mode with 2.4GHz radio enabled only. Exclude the AC units from AiMesh and you'll have 2.4/5/6GHz on your Wi-Fi 6E routers. This is a lot of Wi-Fi especially on long range 2.4GHz band. I have >6000sqft house and 4x dual-band points on low power. If you really need that many APs you better plan something better than consumer "mesh" for your next hardware upgrade. Aimesh doesn't scale well, has limited configuration options and limited network tuning options. The more routers you add the worse it gets.

As far as the theater room goes, I have no wired ethernet to that room and I'm relying on the node to bring a wired connection to that room. However, all the devices are capable of a wireless connection, but I was trying to consolidate them into one as I already have 100+ devices connected via wireless. If I eliminate one ac5300, connect the other as an AP (and not a node), in theory can I keep the the 2.4 and 5ghz x2 radios on without affecting the 2.4/5/6e on the AiMesh nodes? I already live in a highly congested 2.4 network and don' t get speeds above 7-10mbs with a high ping so making one AC router as AP and only 2.4ghz would defeat my purpose in the theater room.

 

[Tech9]

I already have 100+ devices connected via wireless.

Perhaps most of your wireless devices are in IoT category with up to Wi-Fi 4 support, your home routers have single 2.4GHz radio with limited active connections support, your AiMesh has limited network segmentation features (all Asus Wi-Fi 6E models stuck on 3004 firmware), AiMesh uses all the same channels and all your routers share the same available bandwidth on 2.4GHz band with most of it taken by the wireless cameras... you are digging deeper in current and future issues with this consumer mesh network. With potentially more wireless devices and requirements coming over time - it's like a dead-end project to me.

Someone else may help you make this thing work better. All I can offer at this point is temporary band-aid solutions.

 

[outlaw78]

Perhaps most of your wireless devices are in IoT category with up to Wi-Fi 4 support, your home routers have single 2.4GHz radio with limited active connections support, your AiMesh has limited network segmentation features (all Asus Wi-Fi 6E models stuck on 3004 firmware), AiMesh uses all the same channels and all your routers share the same available bandwidth on 2.4GHz band with most of it taken by the wireless cameras... you are digging deeper in current and future issues with this consumer mesh network. With potentially more wireless devices and requirements coming over time - it's like a dead-end project to me.

Someone else may help you make this thing work better. All I can offer at this point is temporary band-aid solutions.

Dang ok. Well its what I have for the moment. When it comes time to upgrade again in the future I will look into a system not in the consumer category.

Back to setting one AC5300 as AP, does this have to be connected via hardwire only? I set it up as an AP, entered the same wifi names and passwords as my current network but it seems it won't connect wirelessly to my network. I assume I'd have to go "repeater" for one band only to get this to work. And it looks as if "repeater" mode has to be an "open or enhanced" network.

I may look at one quad-band asus router for my theater room as an ai-mesh node so I can keep 6e on all my nodes, get 5ghz 2 as the backhaul to that router (allowing 6e to broadcast). All else fails, I might just consider having someone come and hardwire a port to the livingroom so I can get just a switch instead.

Thanks for all your help @Tech9.

 

[Tech9]

If you have more questions to me after Tuesday next week I can provide only 75% of the answers to you. The rest 25% you have to figure out yourself. You are in the US and I'm in Canada. Hope you understand.