ZenWifi AX XT8 API or Controls for optimizing

[Knossos]

TL;DR: Is there are web API or ssh command I can run to force my mesh to re-optimize.

I have been using multiple XT8s to reach all parts of my home. It has been working great for weeks. It is the only product that has managed to reliably keep a connection to the top floor.

For about two weeks now, I wake up to all of the nodes connecting to strange nodes (top to ground floor, for example, springing over two other nodes) and switching the wireless backhaul to the 2.4ghz band.

When I click on "Optimize" the devices all typically connect to the node I set to as "preferred" and switch to using the dedicated 5ghz wireless backhaul.

My main question is really this. Is there a web API I can message or is there a command I can run in the shell to force an optimization command to run? I tried using this https://github.com/Vaskivskyi/asusrouter but I think that it is only for reading data. I already have ssh access, if that has a possibility of working.

 

[kildare]

You could try setting a scheduled reboot.

 

[Knossos]

Absolutely, but that hasn't always been optimal for me. Optimize always seems to work. Or if I could reboot one node at a time.

 

[tgl]

Seems like you ought to focus on preventing the bad behavior from happening in the first place, instead of band-aiding over it after the fact.

One plausible theory is that (some of?) your nodes are crashing and rebooting. Another is that you're using DFS channels in the 5GHz band and are getting kicked off them due to radar. Looking into the router logs might help diagnose what's happening.

Also, which firmware version(s) are you running, and do you have auto-update enabled? Since you say this just started happening a couple of weeks ago, trying to identify what changed then would be a useful exercise.

 

[Knossos]

Yes it is definitely a bandaid solution.

It could well be due to DFS. Since I posted I researched more, and discovered the DFS topic. I turned that off and forced a channel. It hasn't broken the mesh yet. I am wondering if that might have been the issue.

At this time of year the air force is more active above us. It wouldn't surprise me if their radar is more active too.

My firmware is 3.0.0.4.388_23285.

There's primarily a lot of deauth events in the log. I'll attach that too.

 

[tgl]

Hmm, I don't see any radar events in your log, although it sure looks like you are still using DFS channels --- eth5 (your 5GHz-1 radio) seems to be on channel 60 and eth6 (5GHz-2) on 116, both of which are certainly DFS frequencies here in the US.

I do see a lot of "disconnect weak signal strength" log entries, and the bulk of them are associated with just a few device MAC addresses. If those are devices that move around a lot (phones, say) then that might just be normal roaming activity. If you don't see glitches in device behavior then there's nothing needing fixing there. Otherwise you might play around with the roaming assistance settings (including turning it off) to see if you can improve matters.

 

[Knossos]

Interesting, I set the DFS channel off for 5GHz-2 backhaul. I forgot about the other one. However, it is definitely turned off in my configuration. I live in Germany, I don't know what channels are relevant here. It is set to 120 in the dashboard. I see the other is set to 60 as you wrote.

The devices themselves are behaving pretty good. When the backhaul is green, every other device in the house works perfectly. So that isn't really my worry.

As long as the backhaul sticks to the 5GHz range, everything appears to work great.

The only thing that I have really changed recently is the backhaul DFS channel removal. That seems to have fixed my issue for now. If that is a DFS channel anyway, then perhaps it is simply a placebo. However, if it works…

 

[tgl]

I live in Germany, I don't know what channels are relevant here.

According to wikipedia, 116/120 are DFS territory in the EU, so I'm not sure what to make of your results. But anyway, as long as you're getting good behavior I wouldn't mess with it further.

 

[Vincent Clement]

Turn off Universal Beamforming for each band at Wireless > Professional.