XT8 using 2.4ghz as backhaul even though worse than 5ghz

[morkjt]

Should just add...they are not in separate rooms - next to one another at the moment. How the connection can be weak I have no idea.

 

[morkjt]

Should just add...they are not in separate rooms - next to one another at the moment. How the connection can be weak I have no idea.

Should also add, reviewing our conversation - at request of Amazon/Asus support, I re-installed the stable firmware but neither have made any difference.

 

[KingBravery]

I see you still did not upgrade to the latest beta 41994

 

[morkjt]

I see you still did not upgrade to the latest beta 41994

I downgraded again at request of the support ticket - neither makes any difference.

 

[KingBravery]

Maybe your unit has problem. Supposedly, after using Quick Internet Setup, both will be connected each other. If cannot, something wrong happen to your unit.

 

[morkjt]

I'm desperate enough to try anything. I reinstalled the beta, but same outcome - here is the screenshot - any ideas?

 

[KingBravery]

Please factory reset too at Aimesh -> System Settings -> System Reset to Factory Default.

After reset, let the default setting through quick internet setup and just configure your wifi name and pass only.

If after doing those steps still get only 2.4GHz, you can send it for warranty.

 

[morkjt]

You must be right. ASUS have finally come back to me after taking diagnostic logs and are telling me the units are faulty and to RMA them. They are shipping new me units today so should be here tomorrow.

 

[morkjt]

Sigh.

Dont know what I am doing wrong. I have two new units. I took them from the packaging and tried a vanilla setup.

Firstly that fails - can't get second node to add wirelessly. Tried for half an hour, a dozen times. Node just keeps flipping from flashing blue to white to glowing green back to flashing blue. Router never sees it and "add node" manually (After setup fails) never sees it. Brand new units!

During setup I check router's wifi networks - I see three networks, 2.4ghz, 5ghz and a hidden 5ghz-2 on channel 108.

I finally add the node using an ethernet from yellow to blue (node) and can get it connected and working via ethernet. Both units "white" and stable and mesh shows connection "excellent". I change the config to "auto" on backhaul, and then disconnect ethernet. After some blue flashing lights on both router goes white and node goes orange. Connect to web guy, backhaul is 2.4ghz and connection is "weak". 5ghz-2 is now not transmitting, no hidden networks visible and even when ticked to make it visible - no ax capable device can snoop it.

I upgrade firmware to latest release, and do a factory reset and then -reinstall. Exactly same outcome.

Either im stupid, or these are trash. I have no idea what im doing wrong.

 

[KingBravery]

I want you to try different way of factory reset by using needle for small hole underneath the unit. You press it for 20 seconds and try resetup. Do it for both unit.

 

[dev_null]

Dont know what I am doing wrong. I have two new units. I took them from the packaging and tried a vanilla setup.

Firstly that fails - can't get second node to add wirelessly. Tried for half an hour, a dozen times. Node just keeps flipping from flashing blue to white to glowing green back to flashing blue. Router never sees it and "add node" manually (After setup fails) never sees it. Brand new units!

I've had better luck setting up mesh using the phone app. Just install the app, DON'T enable remote access and then add the node from within the app. The worst case I had I needed to run it twice, otherwise it found the node on the first attempt.

It might be the placebo effect, but I've had to do this half-dozen times for various reasons. At this point it might be worth trying...

 

[KingBravery]

Before I use AX86U as main, I also resetup both XT8 multiple times because of beta update release but don't have any issues like node not found.

If have any issue hard to add Aimesh node, need to check WPS too. Reset WPS can make the adding ability come back but need to setup Wifi and password again as it reset them too.

 

[morkjt]

I want you to try different way of factory reset by using needle for small hole underneath the unit. You press it for 20 seconds and try resetup. Do it for both unit.

Done. Fiddly as again I could not get the nodes to join without a lot of faff.

End result is same - uplink is 2.4ghz, signal is weak, no backhaul network evident.

 

[morkjt]

Hmm. Plot thickens. I put the 5ghz-2 network to 20mhz only - and I got a 5ghz uplink and "great signal". Is this indicating something in my wifi environment is the problem?

*Edit* - Yup, this seems to be a repeatable fix. If I change the 5ghz-2 channel to anything above 20Mhz, I never connect its always 2.4ghz/weak-signal. Change it to 20mhz with the 160mhz disabled and nothing, but if I change it to 20mhz, 160mhz enabled - instantly uplink on 5gh-2 and "great signal". Speed isn't bad, I can get 300mbps via the node (650 mbps via the router) depending which I attach my iPhone as the test unit to - I assume the difference being the 20mhz /single channel connection for the backhaul which will limit things - as this is mostly to "extend" my network with decent range/throughput perhaps that will suffice. But I'm wondering why a 40mhz, 80mhz or 160mhz channel is not light-usable even with the units next to one another.

 

[KingBravery]

Hmm. Plot thickens. I put the 5ghz-2 network to 20mhz only - and I got a 5ghz uplink and "great signal". Is this indicating something in my wifi environment is the problem?

*Edit* - Yup, this seems to be a repeatable fix. If I change the 5ghz-2 channel to anything above 20Mhz, I never connect its always 2.4ghz/weak-signal. Change it to 20mhz with the 160mhz disabled and nothing, but if I change it to 20mhz, 160mhz enabled - instantly uplink on 5gh-2 and "great signal". Speed isn't bad, I can get 300mbps via the node (650 mbps via the router) depending which I attach my iPhone as the test unit to - I assume the difference being the 20mhz /single channel connection for the backhaul which will limit things - as this is mostly to "extend" my network with decent range/throughput perhaps that will suffice. But I'm wondering why a 40mhz, 80mhz or 160mhz channel is not light-usable even with the units next to one another.

For 160MHz, the problem is it use DFS channel. If your area got airport or weather radar, It cant work at its best because always got interrupted.

For other bandwith, I don't know what will distrupt. Maybe there is equipment that disturb the signal.

You can use android phone (Wifi analyzer) or pc (Winfi Lite) to scan wireless network available in your area.

Mine sometimes 5GHz-1 will drop to 20MHz and need to reboot node but my situation is different as both XT8 set as node.

 

[casual1060]

For 160MHz, the problem is it use DFS channel. If your area got airport or weather radar, It cant work at its best because always got interrupted.

For other bandwith, I don't know what will distrupt. Maybe there is equipment that disturb the signal.

You can use android phone (Wifi analyzer) or pc (Winfi Lite) to scan wireless network available in your area.

Mine sometimes 5GHz-1 will drop to 20MHz and need to reboot node but my situation is different as both XT8 set as node.

Sorry to jump in so late but I'm having very similar issues with my ASUS aimesh system.

I'm using the ZenWiFi AX system, 5 routers connected wirelessly (it's a big house with thick stone walls), the main router is connected via ethernet cable to the ISP-suppled modem/router sitting next to it. The system worked great for a week or two. Suddenly nodes started disconnecting erratically, and then I noticed that the connections were all yellow ("weak") - just like @morkjt. I tried moving different routers next to the main router - still yellow. I also noticed that the connection was always 2.4GHz uplink, and following morkjt's lead I found the backhaul is 2.4GHz. I updated all the firmware (one or two routers had older firmware), and they are all now 43170. I've rebooted numerous times, reset some nodes and re-joined them. Just a minute ago, all the links turned green and it switched to the 5GHz backhaul, but then it dropped off again.

I will try the system reset now. (I've only reset individual nodes until now, not the main router.) If that doesn't work, should I look at the 20MHz channel for the backhaul? Not sure how to configure the channels.

One other thought: The main router sits next to the ISP-supplied router. For convenience I left that unit's WiFi on (different SSID), so I would still have internet (in the same room) when my ASUS network goes down. I just wonder whether the nearby 5GHz signal from that router might interfere with the ASUS. Except, as I said, it worked beautifully for a couple of weeks in the same setup,

I will report back...Seems like a problem with the ASUS firmware to me...

 

[DaveR]

Same problem here - Asus CT8 and backhaul drops to 'weak' 2.4GHZ. Started happening just recently, after quite a few month of working on 5GHZ-2 backhaul channel.
Also found that the web interface to the CT8 often confuses 5GHZ-1 and 5GHZ-2 when configuring them.. ie you change settings on 5GHZ-2 and it actually changes 5GHZ-1, and vice versa.
Also suspect firmware..

 

[casual1060]

Thanks @DaveR.

Just to close the loop for all on this thread, based on advice from a different forum, I downgraded the firmware to a previous version (4095). It seemed to work better for a day or two, with the 5GHZ-2 backhaul for most links (except one router that is a bit farther away - makes sense since 2.4 GHz penetrates walls better). But then it reverted back to its previous behavior. All backhauls reverted to 2.4GHz. The download speeds were terrible - I have fiber optic with 500-700 mbps download and ~300 upload at the main router, but in rooms more than 1 room away, speeds dropped to about 20 mbps download, 4-5 mbps upload, the same as my old DSL. And routers kept dropping out at strange moments.

So I gave up...I returned 4 routers to Amazon for a full refund (thanks Amazon!! you may treat your employees like crap but your return policy is great), and one (bought on Amazon Marketplace from a 3rd party vendor, not so friendly in its exchange policy) I sold at a decent price on LeBonCoin (French eBay).

Meanwhile I bought the Linksys Velop mesh system for about half the price ( Linksys Système WiFi Mesh Multiroom triple bande Velop WHW0303 (routeur Wi-Fi AC2200 / extension Wi-Fi pour une portée de signal jusqu'à 525 m2, co ), and it's been great. Download/upload speeds in those more distant rooms are generally 100-120 mbps, and in the adjoining rooms to the main router they're at 200+ mbps. It's gotten faster and faster in the past couple of weeks and is incredibly stable. Never a dropped router.

Lesson learned. Sometimes the priciest, fanciest systems aren't actually the best...maybe they're buggy because they try to do too much...

 

[RubyMJ]

I've gotten the same problem, too. My setup is less than ideal but it's by necessity since I can't relocate the FTTH modem to the second floor from the first floor. My setup is one CT8 in the first floor as the main, the CT8 mesh directly above it (RSSI -56) in the second floor, and two XD4 nodes. One is across the second floor hallway (RSSI -58), and the other in the attic (RSSI -55).

The issues with the CT8 backhaul downgrading to 2.4 GHz just started two weeks ago. It has never happened in the months that the setup has been like that and for the 8 months before I added the XD4s. I've done two factory resets and hopefully the backhaul doesn't go back to 2.4. I did the factory reset last Friday and it worked fine until today (thought it was because I activated guest network). Did another factory reset now and it seems to be working again.

Hope it doesn't change. If it does, I'll try that 20mhz channel trick.

I am really guessing ASUS did something to muck it up. It's such a recent problem after such a long time being stable.

 

[Tejstar]

I've had a similar issue with the XT8. Rebooting the nodes brings back 5GHz backhaul, but after a while it reverts nack to a 'weak' signal and 2.4GHz. I'm very close to just returning my units, after tweaking for a few weeks to get the best performance.

The XT8 is a step down from my older RT-AC86U/RT-AC68U AiMesh system that I was using previously, which wasn't flawless but never had the stability/connection issues I've had with the XT8.