2 clients are connecting to RT-AC68U?

[onedollarinmywallet]

I have a puzzling (at least to me) problem that I haven't seen before on my RT-AC68U's (the primary and an AiMesh node on wired backhaul). I recently upgraded to the the latest firmware (3.0.0.4.384.45713) and after a few days of running, I was experiencing some issues mainly:

1. The kids were reporting their iPads kept disconnecting from the WLAN randomly
2. One of the laptops (HP Spectre x360) which never had any issues connecting on 802.11ac in the past, now suddenly will only connect on 802.11n 2.4 GHz @ 144 Mbps
3. Perhaps the most puzzling was seeing my client connection count suddenly increased by 20+ additional clients in the "Network Map" screen, even though I don't have 20+ clients on my WLAN. More on that in a minute.

Since the only thing that had changed was upgrading the firmware, I proceeded to downgrade both units to 3.0.0.4.384.45708) , factory reset the configuration, and proceeded to reconfigure them, and got everything back up and operational. Everything seemed fine, the kids haven't complained anything about the iPads disconnecting and the HP laptop now connects back at 802.11ac.

Here's the puzzling thing:

I looked at the network map screen and I am seeing an client entry that I do not recognize and it also states that there are "2 clients are connecting to RT-AC68U through this device". What is this? I don't recall seeing something like this before on the previous firmware. I am also unable to ping this particular device's IP and doing a MAC address vendor lookup doesn't seem to show anything. I am at lost as to where this is coming from, and how it's able to connect to my router?

What's also bizzarre was that on the HP Spectre x360 laptop (on the latest ASUS firmware last night), it stated that there were 9 devices connecting through it to my router!?!?

See attached screenshots.

Any ideas what's going on?

Is there a particular firmware that I should downgrade to?

Thanks!

 

[Smokindog]

I had the 2 device thing a week or so ago. It was on a mesh node so I deleted it from the mesh, did a full reset and reload of the firmware, and added it back to the mesh. Problem went away.

PS - today I reverted all my nodes back to AP mode. I use a wired backhaul for all nodes and see more benefits to using AP mode so I can better allocate wireless channels and other node specific tweaks. I'm now considering a reload to Merlin from the stock firmware but that decision won't be made for at least another week. Unless you're in a situation where you can't supply a wired backhaul, I don't think AiMesh has any significant value over AP mode at this time. Don't get me wrong, I like a lot about AiMesh, it's just not there yet for me!

 

[onedollarinmywallet]

I had the 2 device thing a week or so ago. It was on a mesh node so I deleted it from the mesh, did a full reset and reload of the firmware, and added it back to the mesh. Problem went away.

PS - today I reverted all my nodes back to AP mode. I use a wired backhaul for all nodes and see more benefits to using AP mode so I can better allocate wireless channels and other node specific tweaks. I'm now considering a reload to Merlin from the stock firmware but that decision won't be made for at least another week. Unless you're in a situation where you can't supply a wired backhaul, I don't think AiMesh has any significant value over AP mode at this time. Don't get me wrong, I like a lot about AiMesh, it's just not there yet for me!

Since I only have a single node that's connected via wired backhaul, I think I am going to switch that node from AiMesh to AP Mode. If I do go that route, I assume I need to set the radios (2.4 GHz specifically) on a different channel - either 1,6,11 - or am I safe enough to leave it on AUTO and let it figure it out?

 

[Smokindog]

Since I only have a single node that's connected via wired backhaul, I think I am going to switch that node from AiMesh to AP Mode. If I do go that route, I assume I need to set the radios (2.4 GHz specifically) on a different channel - either 1,6,11 - or am I safe enough to leave it on AUTO and let it figure it out?

Either way. I prefer to use something like WiFi Analyzer on an Android device or PC. I take readings near each AP (intended area of client use) and then manually set the channels and yes, 1, 6, and 11 are the non-overlapping 20MHz channels for th 2GHz bands. I also set the channel width to 20MHz. I set the 5GHz in a similar fashion. IF you don't use "Auto" you probably need to check periodically to see if someone else has entered the area. I'm pretty isolated and have pretty much full use of all spectrum in my setup.

 

[Nasir Mahmood]

I looked at the network map screen and I am seeing an client entry that I do not recognize and it also states that there are "2 clients are connecting to RT-AC68U through this device". What is this? I don't recall seeing something like this before on the previous firmware. I am also unable to ping this particular device's IP and doing a MAC address vendor lookup doesn't seem to show anything. I am at lost as to where this is coming from, and how it's able to connect to my router?

Hi, You would see more than one devices connected through one node, when multiple devices sharing same MAC address. Such as smart TVs use same mac address for their WiFi and LAN card. TV will always be assigned same IP regardless of the connection used. But if you have WiFi and LAN both connected then router will automatically use that mac address as a virtual bridge and assign two IPs to that TV. The IP address you see is the virtual bridge you can not ping. To see actual IPs you need to see under DHCP leases. That will also show you three clients connected to your router, you'd think that you only have one TV connected but router shows three device connected. I hope this will explain why you see more clients connected than you have as well as multiple devices connected through single device.

 

[Grisu]

Hi, You would see more than one devices connected through one node, when multiple devices sharing same MAC address. Such as smart TVs use same mac address for their WiFi and LAN card. TV will always be assigned same IP regardless of the connection used. But if you have WiFi and LAN both connected then router will automatically use that mac address as a virtual bridge and assign two IPs to that TV. The IP address you see is the virtual bridge you can not ping. To see actual IPs you need to see under DHCP leases. That will also show you three clients connected to your router, you'd think that you only have one TV connected but router shows three device connected. I hope this will explain why you see more clients connected than you have as well as multiple devices connected through single device.

Thanks! This is the first meaningful explanation for this long time issue and what I can remember probably true in my previous setup.