YazFi YazFi Lite with Router in AP Mode?

[jksmurf]

I'll test this at first opportunity and report back the results

Hi, how’s the testing coming along, if you’ve managed to get to it?
Super curious about the outcome of this one.

k.

 

[Tech9]

This may happen no earlier than mid October. I have some 22K km airlines testing to do in September.

 

[visortgw]

This may happen no earlier than mid October. I have some 22K km airlines testing to do in September.

@Tech9: I'm curious as well to hear results of your testing of extension of Guest Network Pro isolation to non-Pro nodes.

FYI, I'm recently back from 4200 miles of rental car testing for 3-1/2 weeks in September — nine US National Parks, half dozen state parks, and various other attractions. Vacation of a lifetime...

 

[Tech9]

I’m out of the country. About 6K km trip extension.

 

[jksmurf]

@Tech9: I'm curious as well to hear results of your testing of extension of Guest Network Pro isolation to non-Pro nodes.

lol I was waiting patiently until mid-October… I mean, if he was keen to put $100 on it (earlier) then presumably the curiosity lingers …

 

[visortgw]

lol I was waiting patiently until mid-October… I mean, if he was keen to put $100 on it (earlier) then presumably the curiosity lingers …

That's why I asked! It continues to work as designed for me...

 

[Tech9]

Why don't we ask Asus for an official answer what hardware/firmware is compatible with Guest Network Pro?

Perhaps @RMerlin can assist using his more trusted then regular Customer Support channels? We can test few models and get positive/negative results on current firmware, but Asus may want to expand or limit the compatibility in future firmware. Will be good to know what to expect going further. In my opinion there is no technical limitation to add a few preset VLANs just like regular Guest Network 1, but marketing may have different ideas.

 

[visortgw]

Why don't we ask Asus for an official answer what hardware/firmware is compatible with Guest Network Pro?

Perhaps @RMerlin can assist using his more trusted then regular Customer Support channels? We can test few models and get positive/negative results on current firmware, but Asus may want to expand or limit the compatibility in future firmware. Will be good to know what to expect going further. In my opinion there is no technical limitation to add a few preset VLANs just like regular Guest Network 1, but marketing may have different ideas.

Not really any reason to ask the question when I have proven that it works. As long as the primary router has a 3006 firmware build that supports Guest Network Pro, you can connect any AiMesh node with Merlin or Asus 3006.102 or 3004.388 firmware (I have not tried any 386 firmware builds) and push guest networks to those nodes — up to two devices per band per node total. As far as future expansion or limitation of features, we can deal with that when/if it happens.

In my network, I have:

• GT-BE98 Pro primary router with Merlin 3006.102.2_beta1
  • GT-AXE16000 AiMesh node with Asus 3004.388_24374
  • (2) GT-AX6000 AiMesh nodes with Asus 3006.102_34797
  • RT-AX86U AiMesh node with Merlin 3004.388.8_2
• 2.4 GHz IoT network: isolated VLAN pushed to (2) GT-AX6000 and RT-AX86U
• 5 GHz IoT network: isolated VLAN pushed to (2) GT-AX6000 and RT-AX86U
• 2.4/5/6 GHz guest network: isolated VLAN pushed to GT-AXE16000

 

[Tech9]

Not really any reason to ask the question when I have proven that it works.

Some have proven the opposite.

ASUS ExpertWiFi EBR63 Firmware version 3.0.0.6.102_44544 - 2024/04/26

Version 3.0.0.6.102_44544 - 2024/04/26 51.48 MB Security - Fixed command injection vulnerability. - Fixed the ARP poisoning vulnerability. Thanks to the contribution of Xin'an Zhou. - Fixed code execution in custom OVPN. Thanks to the contrubution of Jacob Baines. - Fixed stack buffer overflow...

www.snbforums.com

I replaced it for another EBR63 and that resolved that issue along with allowing me to add all 3 self-defined networks to the node compared with the RT-AX58U running 3.0.0.4, it was only allowing me to add 1 network to the node.

Who is right and what exactly hardware is compatible? ExpertWiFi on 3006 no go? RT/GT on 3006 good? Specific RT/GT only good?

Is there a problem asking the manufacturer for clarification, @RMerlin?

 

[SomeWhereOverTheRainBow]

Is there a problem asking the manufacturer for clarification, @RMerlin?

I was asking the same thing. I am still waiting on the teir 2 technical support department to contact me back. Maybe RMerlin works in that department. I spoke with someone in one of the call centers. I could hardly understand them, or maybe they couldn't understand me. What little bit I did understand sounded like the same rhetoric you get when you check the FAQ on Asus website. I definitely don't recommend contacting Asus directly unless you know someone higher than the call centers and teir 2 technical support.

 

[visortgw]

I was asking the same thing. I am still waiting on the teir 2 technical support department to contact me back. Maybe RMerlin works in that department. I spoke with someone in one of the call centers. I could hardly understand them, or maybe they couldn't understand me. What little bit I did understand sounded like the same rhetoric you get when you check the FAQ on Asus website. I definitely don't recommend contacting Asus directly unless you know someone higher than the call centers and teir 2 technical support.

@RMerlin is not an Asus employee.

 

[Tech9]

I am still waiting on the teir 2 technical support department to contact me back.

Let us know what they say, please.

I remember you have multiple different models Asus routers. Any chance to test what works on your network?

I ordered one EGB15 yesterday, but cancelled the order after seeing it has no firmware update from May 2024. Also noticed my RT-AX86U didn't get an update with the recent round of security updates and also has no firmware update from May 2024. In this case it makes little sense to test something 4-5 months old. There is another potential issue I would like to see how EBG15 handles - it's a wired only router with no Professional Wi-Fi settings in GUI. It has General settings only. How this thing manages the extra settings to an attached node? Hmm... the node stays with whatever is the default there? Interesting... needs further investigation and eventually tier 2 tech support calls.... or return to where it came from.

 

[SomeWhereOverTheRainBow]

Let us know what they say, please.

I remember you have multiple different models Asus routers. Any chance to test what works on your network?

I ordered one EGB15 yesterday, but cancelled the order after seeing it has no firmware update from May 2024. Also noticed my RT-AX86U didn't get an update with the recent round of security updates and also has no firmware update from May 2024. In this case it makes little sense to test something 4-5 months old. There is another potential issue I would like to see how EBG15 handles - it's a wired only router with no Professional Wi-Fi settings in GUI. It has General settings only. How this thing manages the extra settings to an attached node? Hmm... the node stays with whatever is the default there? Interesting... needs further investigation and eventually tier 2 tech support calls.... or return to where it came from.

Yep I am experiencing the same issue with this model router. https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-ZenWiFi-Hybrid-XC5-AX3000/dp/B0CPQZZLYZ/?tag=snbforums-20

It hasn't recieved an upgrade since july of 2023

 

[Tech9]

Oh, this one is truly a special case. No firmware updates at all since initial firmware.

 

[Jherb]

For what is worth, I was able to propagate guest network pro SDNs from an AX86uPro to an AC86u when set up as mesh.
It allowed 1 network per band and assigned the proper vlan IP addresses to the connected devices. (At least by the web page reporting)

I also have a RP-AC55 extender which also allows its discovery by aimesh and it appears as a node in the app. however, nothing could be propagated to that as it gave a incompatibility message.

Just FYI.

 

[SomeWhereOverTheRainBow]

Oh, this one is truly a special case. No firmware updates at all since initial firmware.

Looks like they still care about this one. looks like it may be the final update. who knows?

oddly enough, the update description is almost the same as the RT-AX88U PRO:

But the PRO is on a different firmware track.

 

[Tech9]

Test Guest Network Pro to non-Pro hardware and share what works for you. I remember you had a bunch of Asus routers available.

 

[jksmurf]

Test Guest Network Pro to non-Pro hardware and share what works for you. I remember you had a bunch of Asus routers available.

@Tech9 I am finally able to do this. I wanted however Merlin support so waited until his Alpha which supported RT-AX88U Pro Routers, then bought a second hand one for US$100 and re-entered all the settings from my screen caps.

OK, so I installed the 3006 Alpha on a Hard Reset RT-AX88U Pro, finally giving me a chance to see whether the Guest Network Pro (it is still named that and not NETWORK yet) VLANs propagate the Network to AIMesh Nodes. I could not do that with my RT-AX86U Pro as it 9300kms away and I am not doing that remotely...

1. As you can see from the attached screencaps I went into "Guest Network Pro (GNP from now on) and added a Guest Network and an IoT Network. One observation here, you are only presented the option, when you first create the network, to "use the same subnet as the main network". I think if you select no (toggle off) and then decide yes you DO want to use the same subnet (as the main Wifi, mine is 9 i.e. 192.168.9.1) there is is no toggle for that. I 'believe'you can however just amend the LAN IP and the VLAN ID to whatever your primary subnet is (I did not try it).

The upshot here is like @visortgw the VLAN networks DO propagate the to the Nodes; however for me, with this FW, not in the way I thought (wanted) due to reaching the limit of Wifi Interfaces per VLAN. More on that below.

2. When I set up the new Router I had intended to use the primary network subnet for the IoT devices simply because the manual assigned IPs in the DHCP Tab of LAN has a nice way of adding Client Names and Host Names.

For years I have used WinSCP to copy (a) custom_clientlist (b) dhcp_staticlist and (c) custom_usericon from the Routers /jffs/nvram/ folder and then copied these back to other routers to populate the table. It works well. So my IoT devices had already MAC Address against Client and Host names for the PRIMARY Wifi subnet. I did this first. However when I then created the SmurfIoT VLAN, those devices attached themselves to the 53 subnet i.e. 192.168.53.xxx, where xxx is assigned by the VLANs DHCP server. All good so far. I was surprised however that in the Clientlist AND the Wireless log, whilst the devices now had a new IP address based on subnet 53, not 9.xxx, it RETAINED the names from the 192.168.9.xxx DHCP table (LAN Menu). I had actually intended to delete the list of name/IP reservations in the main DHCP, fully expecting some sort of error.

One odd issue here (probably the long-standing ASUS issue) was that the SmurfIoT SSID clients that connected to the AIMEsh Node were not on the SmurfIoT Client List; but rather on the Primary (Main) Wifi List. Very odd.

3. I only discovered (late) that you can actually "Manually Assign" IP addresses AND Host Names (Up to) 32 from the advanced menu of your VLAN. I did a couple to test it out but did not try them all. I looked quickly in jffs/nvram but could not find these added profiles. It would be interesting to see where these are stored (nvram?) and what they are called (for each VLAN) so you can do the same as the primary custom_clientlist/dhcp_staticlist and WInSCP them back and forth. It's a slightly different approach in that each entry gets it's own little screen.

4. OK, so here's the BIG one, my reason for actually buying the Pro version. I added my RT-AX3000 running the latest 3004_388.9 alpha 1 as an AIMESH Node (using a cable in the WAN port btw, it simply refused to do it wirelessly). I then went into the SmurfIoT VLANs (as @visortgw had done before me) and ensured I checked which Wifi Interfaces of the available AIMesh Routers and Nodes were active. I was a bit dismayed and surprised that having selected the RT-AX3000 Wifi Interface DOES THIS MEAN IF SMURFIOT IS USING THE NODE (I limited to 2.4 anyway) THAT THE GUEST NETWORK CANNOT USE IT?

I have not tried to repurpose my previous router RT-AX86U (non-Pro) as I might try with the simple RT-AX3000 first but I might do it later.

k.

https://imgur.com/a/uubCRRN

 

[visortgw]

@Tech9 I am finally able to do this. I wanted however Merlin support so waited until his Alpha which supported RT-AX88U Pro Routers, then bought a second hand one for US$100 and re-entered all the settings from my screen caps.

OK, so I installed the 3006 Alpha on a Hard Reset RT-AX88U Pro, finally giving me a chance to see whether the Guest Network Pro (it is still named that and not NETWORK yet) VLANs propagate the Network to AIMesh Nodes. I could not do that with my RT-AX86U Pro as it 9300kms away and I am not doing that remotely...

1. As you can see from the attached screencaps I went into "Guest Network Pro (GNP from now on) and added a Guest Network and an IoT Network. One observation here, you are only presented the option, when you first create the network, to "use the same subnet as the main network". I think if you select no (toggle off) and then decide yes you DO want to use the same subnet (as the main Wifi, mine is 9 i.e. 192.168.9.1) there is is no toggle for that. I 'believe'you can however just amend the LAN IP and the VLAN ID to whatever your primary subnet is (I did not try it).

The upshot here is like @visortgw the VLAN networks DO propagate the to the Nodes; however for me, with this FW, not in the way I thought (wanted) due to reaching the limit of Wifi Interfaces per VLAN. More on that below.

2. When I set up the new Router I had intended to use the primary network subnet for the IoT devices simply because the manual assigned IPs in the DHCP Tab of LAN has a nice way of adding Client Names and Host Names.

For years I have used WinSCP to copy (a) custom_clientlist (b) dhcp_staticlist and (c) custom_usericon from the Routers /jffs/nvram/ folder and then copied these back to other routers to populate the table. It works well. So my IoT devices had already MAC Address against Client and Host names for the PRIMARY Wifi subnet. I did this first. However when I then created the SmurfIoT VLAN, those devices attached themselves to the 53 subnet i.e. 192.168.53.xxx, where xxx is assigned by the VLANs DHCP server. All good so far. I was surprised however that in the Clientlist AND the Wireless log, whilst the devices now had a new IP address based on subnet 53, not 9.xxx, it RETAINED the names from the 192.168.9.xxx DHCP table (LAN Menu). I had actually intended to delete the list of name/IP reservations in the main DHCP, fully expecting some sort of error.

One odd issue here (probably the long-standing ASUS issue) was that the SmurfIoT SSID clients that connected to the AIMEsh Node were not on the SmurfIoT Client List; but rather on the Primary (Main) Wifi List. Very odd.

3. I only discovered (late) that you can actually "Manually Assign" IP addresses AND Host Names (Up to) 32 from the advanced menu of your VLAN. I did a couple to test it out but did not try them all. I looked quickly in jffs/nvram but could not find these added profiles. It would be interesting to see where these are stored (nvram?) and what they are called (for each VLAN) so you can do the same as the primary custom_clientlist/dhcp_staticlist and WInSCP them back and forth. It's a slightly different approach in that each entry gets it's own little screen.

4. OK, so here's the BIG one, my reason for actually buying the Pro version. I added my RT-AX3000 running the latest 3004_388.9 alpha 1 as an AIMESH Node (using a cable in the WAN port btw, it simply refused to do it wirelessly). I then went into the SmurfIoT VLANs (as @visortgw had done before me) and ensured I checked which Wifi Interfaces of the available AIMesh Routers and Nodes were active. I was a bit dismayed and surprised that having selected the RT-AX3000 Wifi Interface DOES THIS MEAN IF SMURFIOT IS USING THE NODE (I limited to 2.4 anyway) THAT THE GUEST NETWORK CANNOT USE IT?

I have not tried to repurpose my previous router RT-AX86U (non-Pro) as I might try with the simple RT-AX3000 first but I might do it later.

k.

https://imgur.com/a/Hny5cJj

@jksmurf: A couple new things to add now that I have transitioned my primary router and ALL of my AiMesh nodes to 3006 firmware:

• It appears that the limit of two devices per band per node (plus primary router) total has been lifted when all nodes are running 3006. I can push 2.4 and 5 MHz IoT and guest networks to all AiMesh nodes.
• My 2.4/5/6 GHz guest network is still limited to only AiMesh nodes that have a 6 GHz radio, which makes perfect sense.
• As far as static IPs for VLAN devices, I discovered Manually Assigned IP around the DHCP List in Advanced Settings within the new Network tab, which allows you to assign static IPs for up to 32 devices per VLAN. This may (or may not) also be available in Guest Network Pro settings (as opposed to Network).

 

[jksmurf]

@jksmurf: A couple new things to add now that I have transitioned my primary router and ALL of my AiMesh nodes to 3006 firmware:

Thank you for the feedback on this, it’s narrowing down what is and isn’t possible.

• It appears that the limit of two devices per band per node (plus primary router) total has been lifted when all nodes are running 3006. I can push 2.4 and 5 MHz IoT and guest networks to all AiMesh nodes.

Right; and only certain devices can run 3006. Ok at least I’ll be able to put the AX88U Pro as an AIMESH node to (say) a BE main router.

• My 2.4/5/6 GHz guest network is still limited to only AiMesh nodes that have a 6 GHz radio, which makes perfect sense.

Sorry I don’t really follow that?

• As far as static IPs for VLAN devices, I discovered Manually Assigned IP around the DHCP List in Advanced Settings within the new Network tab, which allows you to assign static IPs for up to 32 devices per VLAN. This may (or may not) also be available in Guest Network Pro settings (as opposed to Network).

Yup I discovered the same; I even put wee red boxes around it in my screencaps