Are my AI mesh routers talking to eachother wirelessly or via ethernet?

[talisman2208]

My main router is a GT-AXE16000, I have two ET12's in AI mesh mode connected via LAN to my GT-AXE1600. My question is, are they talking to eachother wirelessly like a wireless mesh network? Or are they using the LAN cable sort of like an AP and broadcasting the signal directly from the LAN?

 

[L&LD]

Both. Unless you have set LAN backhaul only.

 

[talisman2208]

Backhaul is enabled.

Why does it say it's connected to my other ET12? They're both connected to the AXE?

 

[L&LD]

Why are you running such old firmware?

Does rebooting the system (via the AiMesh System settings) or running the optimization help?

Or its just a glitch if the GUI.

 

[talisman2208]

This thing is going nuts, it will constantly change

one second there's 23, 0, and 2

then the next second there's 11, 8, and 2

all 8 of those devices connected to Office zenwifi are hard wired into my GT I'm confused at how this can be?


I just updated this firmware not too long ago, let me check and update again

Edit: yeah they're all up to date on the ET12's I'll update the GT

 

[L&LD]

Yes, see my last sentence in my post above.

 

[talisman2208]

You think this is a glitch? There's some weird stuff going on.

Says my Emporia Energy monitor which is 50 meters away in our guest house, (obviously connected to Office Zenwifi in guest house) is connected to the GT which is right next to me.

And it says my Z fold 4 which is 4 ft away from my GT Axe is connected to my living room Zen Wifi which is in the conservatory all the way across the house definitely not within range.

Do I have this set up wrong?


Also - when testing things, when I'm in my guest house, I have no Wifi 6G? What could possibly be the reason for that? 5 and 2.5 work great but 6 is no bueno...

 

[talisman2208]

oooooooookay! So i've made some headroom here - I had the guesthouse ET12 eth cable plugged into the LAN port instead of the WAN port and there were some CAARRRAAAAZZZZYYYY things happening, but since I swithced it to WAN it looks like things are a lot more stable. That's strange, I wonder what the heck it was doing when it was in LAN mode.

 

[talisman2208]

@L&LD

I can't seem to get WIFI 6Ghz in the guest house, is there anything about that particular band on wifi mesh I should be aware of? 5 and 2.5 work flawlessly. Any ideas?

 

[L&LD]

Sorry, no idea right now.

 

[tgl]

I can't seem to get WIFI 6Ghz in the guest house, is there anything about that particular band on wifi mesh I should be aware of? 5 and 2.5 work flawlessly. Any ideas?

IIUC, all three routers are in the main house? Not sure you should expect their 6GHz signal to reach 50m away, especially not if it also has to pass through two substantial exterior walls. 6GHz is shorter-range than the lower frequencies.

 

[talisman2208]

IIUC, all three routers are in the main house? Not sure you should expect their 6GHz signal to reach 50m away, especially not if it also has to pass through two substantial exterior walls. 6GHz is shorter-range than the lower frequencies.

I have the GT-AXE16000 in my office, one ET12 in the conservatory and one ET12 in our guest house, they are all very much out of range from one another, however they are all connected with Category cable, so shouldn't that be fine? Do they need to see eachothers signals to work? I get 900 mbps on the 5G in the guest house, and there's definitely no way that's meshing off the conservatory ET-12 50M away.

 

[Tech9]

Disconnect the wires and see what happens. If the routers can't see each other - must be using Ethernet no matter what the GUI says.

 

[tgl]

OK, so the ET12 in the guest house should be providing a visible 6GHz signal, but it's not. You've got a configuration problem of some sort there.

One of the more sucky things about AIMesh is that it's very hard to even see what the nodes' configuration settings are, let alone adjust them if AIMesh didn't automatically set them to the right thing. Given that the units are so far apart, I'm not sure that AIMesh is buying you anything anyway. I'd consider taking the two nodes out of mesh mode and configuring them as standalone APs that just happen to be serving the same SSID(s) as your main router. They'll rely on the ethernet cables for backhaul to the router, and everything should work fine.

 

[Tech9]

and everything should work fine

Except Guest Network to nodes, if used.

 

[tgl]

Except Guest Network to nodes, if used.

Hmm, yeah, if you want guest SSIDs that are isolated from your local LAN, you'd have to work a little harder. It could be done though.

 

[Tech9]

It may be actually easier than expected - all the routers in question will eventually get Pro firmware.

 

[talisman2208]

OK, so the ET12 in the guest house should be providing a visible 6GHz signal, but it's not. You've got a configuration problem of some sort there.

It IS broadcasting the 6ghz signal, but says no internet connection which is weird. 5g and 2.5g are perfect, and those signals are definitely coming from the same device.

I'd consider taking the two nodes out of mesh mode and configuring them as standalone AP

If I configure them as AP's does that mean that they will act as an AP cluster and appear as a single AP? or do they all appear as separate AP's. Sort of like how Ubiquiti would do it?

 

[tgl]

It IS broadcasting the 6ghz signal, but says no internet connection which is weird. 5g and 2.5g are perfect, and those signals are definitely coming from the same device.

Weird indeed. Does that question-mark icon yield any details? Do you have a different 6GHz-capable client to try?

If I configure them as AP's does that mean that they will act as an AP cluster and appear as a single AP? or do they all appear as separate AP's. Sort of like how Ubiquiti would do it?

I am not familiar with the term "AP cluster". If you have a number of APs all broadcasting the same SSID name with the same password, then your client devices will connect to whichever one appears to them to be providing the strongest signal. This is true no matter what. AIMesh adds some sugar on top of that, but it's largely concerned with simplifying your AP configuration work not with how the clients behave.