Range extender or router or ?

[loonsailor]

My router is an AC68U running asuswrt-merlin. I'd like to put a second router in the garage to be close to some locks and a thermostat and also to feed a small PoE switch that will go to an outdoors camera. It's inconvenient to run a wire to the garage from the router. One option is to use a AX58 range extender with the PoE switch plugged into its LAN port. Would that work? Alternately, I could put another AC68U (or AX68U) out there, for not much more money, or an AX1800 for less money. It'll pretty much only feed 2.4 GHz low bandwidth devices, and connect the PoE switch with a wire. Any suggestions which option is likely to be best?

 

[drinkingbird]

My router is an AC68U running asuswrt-merlin. I'd like to put a second router in the garage to be close to some locks and a thermostat and also to feed a small PoE switch that will go to an outdoors camera. It's inconvenient to run a wire to the garage from the router. One option is to use a AX58 range extender with the PoE switch plugged into its LAN port. Would that work? Alternately, I could put another AC68U (or AX68U) out there, for not much more money, or an AX1800 for less money. It'll pretty much only feed 2.4 GHz low bandwidth devices, and connect the PoE switch with a wire. Any suggestions which option is likely to be best?

You'll be using all of them in repeater mode so performance will be about the same on all of them, one with external antennas will be best most likely. But if you have poor signal in the garage now, that means whatever you put out there router wise will have poor signal too (though the external antenna and better chipset in a router should be able to get a bit more out of it.

You may want to consider a wireless point to point setup if the repeater alone doesn't give you enough throughput.

 

[L&LD]

Buy the RT-AX68U.

You may find your old RT-AC68U isn't needed anymore. (at least for the wireless devices).

If that does work, then you can use the old router in Media Bridge mode for your wired capabile devices.

The above will give you a very noticeable improvement to your network, overall.

 

[loonsailor]

Thanks for the input. I think I'll take that advice, but an AX68U and demote my AC68 to be a media bridge. So, how should I do that? Can I backup from the AC and restore to the AX to retain all my existing settings? After that, I guess that I'd reset the AC and reconfigure as a bridge. Or, should I use AImesh?

 

[Sgamat]

You can't use media bridge, it is only for wired, wireless is disabled. Since you have 2.4ghz devices, you can only use repeater mode. Try to use 5ghz as wireless backhaul and 2.4ghz for devices, if 5ghz signal is bad, then got to share bandwidth between your devices and backhaul.

 

[drinkingbird]

You can't use media bridge, it is only for wired, wireless is disabled. Since you have 2.4ghz devices, you can only use repeater mode. Try to use 5ghz as wireless backhaul and 2.4ghz for devices, if 5ghz signal is bad, then got to share bandwidth between your devices and backhaul.

The suggestion was if the new AX router provided better coverage (eliminating the need for a repeater) they could then use the AC in media bridge for just the wired devices.

If 2.4Ghz is borderline 5ghz won't be usable for backhaul so losing 50% of 2.4 throughput is the only option if the AX coverage isn't better.

 

[drinkingbird]

Thanks for the input. I think I'll take that advice, but an AX68U and demote my AC68 to be a media bridge. So, how should I do that? Can I backup from the AC and restore to the AX to retain all my existing settings? After that, I guess that I'd reset the AC and reconfigure as a bridge. Or, should I use AImesh?

Main benefit of aimesh is being able to extend isolated guest network across all devices. Other than that it does provide a bit simplified central management and some roaming tricks. However if you don't need the guest, ap/repeater mode gives you a bit more control and flexibility. Try both and see.

If you end up not needing it to do wireless (the AX now covers the garage fine) then aimesh is of no use and just run it in media bridge mode for wired.

For the new AX, update to the latest firmware, hard factory reset after (optional, but can't hurt), then configure it by hand. You can either take screen shots or copy/paste from the old router first, or put them side by side (one browser window for each) and copy stuff over. Do NOT restore from a backup. The AX will have some more settings than the AC but generally you should leave those all at default. The only one I'd say probably disable is universal beamforming on both bands. There is a slight chance it might give you better coverage in the garage but generally it just causes issues. You can try both. Other than that leave the rest of the advanced stuff at default.

Then the AC do the same thing, upgrade to latest firmware, hard factory reset, and set it up in whatever mode you decide to go with.

 

[L&LD]

Thanks for the input. I think I'll take that advice, but an AX68U and demote my AC68 to be a media bridge. So, how should I do that? Can I backup from the AC and restore to the AX to retain all my existing settings? After that, I guess that I'd reset the AC and reconfigure as a bridge. Or, should I use AImesh?

Do not use an old backup config file on a new router model (or even the same model) with new/different firmware. You're just creating future/current network issues that will be hard/impossible to troubleshoot without a full reset and a minimal and manual configuration in the future.


Order the RT-AX68U, and, while you're waiting for it:

• Create screenshots (or better yet, PDF/text pages so that you can copy/paste the info into the new router) of all the options you've set/changed on your current router.
• Download and verify the firmware you currently are using on the old router, create a backup config file, and save both to be able to quickly get up and running if you run into any troubles or get a DOA unit (see the link below).
  • https://www.snbforums.com/threads/i...p-up-with-firmware-updates.85075/#post-842687
• Download and verify the firmware you want to use/test on the new router (388.4 Beta 1 is working well for me on multiple RT-AX86Us, RT-AX68Us, and GT-AX6000s) if you want to be fully up-to-date.

When you get the new router:

• Unplug the old router. Note; you do not need to plug the WAN cable into the new router to set it up (I recommend you don't). Connect to the new router (wirelessly or wired, your choice) and set it up just enough to be able to flash the firmware you want to use/test on it.
• After you verify that the new firmware is installed, perform a full reset of the new router so that it can use the new firmware's defaults and variables as intended (see the link below, be sure you use the method appropriate for your router model).
  • https://www.asus.com/us/support/FAQ/1039074
• Now, minimally and manually configure the router with the screenshots/text files you created above.
• Plug in the new router (and don't power up the old one) and check what kind of improvements you have.
• You may want to test finding a new location/orientation for the new router, including testing manual Control Channels too. Note that many times, mere inches in the x, y, and z-axis is all that is needed to extend the reach to certain areas that need coverage.
• Once your new router is properly tuned, and installed, consider using the old router in Media Bridge mode for your wired-capable devices, if needed.
• If your testing needs to be interrupted, use the firmware and backup config file you created above to quickly get your old router back to the state it was before you began this testing (if you tried using it in Media Bridge mode, if you didn't, simply power down the new router and plug in the old one).

The links below may also be useful to get your new router/network performing at its peak while being stable and reliable too. You will want to check out the Media Bridge link, the Control Channel links, and the Minimal and Manual configuration links too.

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[loonsailor]

Thanks for all the help!