20648 upgrade major fail on 3 RT-AC5300's working on 20379

[Jim Kirk]

Previous FW working fine with 3 RT-5300's (Web-GUI-1.jpg). Setup is shown in the signature. Backhall is wired.

Upgraded to 20648 using IOS ASUS Router app sitting in my easy chair watching TV. Ahhh, this is the way upgrades should go. HAH! Upgrade ran to completion-great I thought.

Then I looked at IOS router App. After upgrade no AiMesh nodes showing in app and in web GUI. So, no way to any longer access nodes. (see pics). Tried rebooting IOS device no change in APP-no nodes. Tried power cycle on nodes-nothing.

Decided to try doing a factory reset of the LV RM room router. After you do a factory reset its lots of work because you have to set it up again completely let alone move it back to its location. Disconnect and bring it close to router to do node setup. So I set it up as a mesh node and tried to add it to the main router. Not working, no nodes found. No so happy so I repeated the process, factory reset, set up as AiMesh node during configure, try to add it to main router. Nothing. Lots of work for a FW upgrade so I'm beyond unhappy now.

Factory Reset again and set up as a AP Mode. Worked fine but not a mesh device (does show FW 20648). So, at present I have a "sort of" AiMesh. Router + 1 node (appears working but lost the ability to do central management). And I have an LVRM AP.

WTF.
Jim

 

[arthurlien]

Previous FW working fine with 3 RT-5300's (Web-GUI-1.jpg). Setup is shown in the signature. Backhall is wired.

Upgraded to 20648 using IOS ASUS Router app sitting in my easy chair watching TV. Ahhh, this is the way upgrades should go. HAH! Upgrade ran to completion-great I thought.

Then I looked at IOS router App. After upgrade no AiMesh nodes showing in app and in web GUI. So, no way to any longer access nodes. (see pics). Tried rebooting IOS device no change in APP-no nodes. Tried power cycle on nodes-nothing.

Decided to try doing a factory reset of the LV RM room router. After you do a factory reset its lots of work because you have to set it up again completely let alone move it back to its location. Disconnect and bring it close to router to do node setup. So I set it up as a mesh node and tried to add it to the main router. Not working, no nodes found. No so happy so I repeated the process, factory reset, set up as AiMesh node during configure, try to add it to main router. Nothing. Lots of work for a FW upgrade so I'm beyond unhappy now.

Factory Reset again and set up as a AP Mode. Worked fine but not a mesh device (does show FW 20648). So, at present I have a "sort of" AiMesh. Router + 1 node (appears working but lost the ability to do central management). And I have an LVRM AP.

WTF.
Jim

Will try to duplicate internally.

 

[Jim Kirk]

Thanks, hope you find something thst can help.

 

[Drew O]

I have the same problem. I added a second rt 5300 and setup aimesh. All was working, my node was hardwired so I was reading excellent 5mhz speeds. Then I updated the routers to the latest firmware and the node disappeared. I cannot reconnect nodes and the main router will not find the node in the search. Avoid v20648!!! I am going to attempt to fall back to 20379

 

[OzarkEdge]

I have the same problem. I added a second rt 5300 and setup aimesh. All was working, my node was hardwired so I was reading excellent 5mhz speeds. Then I updated the routers to the latest firmware and the node disappeared. I cannot reconnect nodes and the main router will not find the node in the search. Avoid v20648!!! I am going to attempt to fall back to 20379

If you haven't done it yet, I would first factory default reset all routers and re-configure your root node and AiMesh from scratch. If you downgrade, you should do the same reset anyway.

To perform a factory default reset (after the firmware installation), depress and firmly hold the router Reset button at least 5 seconds until the Power LED flashes slowly; then wait for it to settle... the WiFi LEDs will eventually come ON steady.

OE

 

[Jim Kirk]

@Drew O

I decided to leave my setup as is for the time being. I have tried twice more to setup the LVRM AP as a Mesh node again. The parent RT 5300 would not find the node so each time I went back to LVRM set up as an AP.

I have set LVRM so that it has separate (2.4G) and (5G_1 + 5G_2) bands-just as the parent router has-and I set the SSID and WPA key for both LVRM bands to be the same as the parent router. Best I can tell I am getting client handoffs from the "sort of" 2 router Mesh to LVRM with my iPhone and iPad.

I also see that if I move my IOS devices between the parent and inaccessible mesh node I do get handoffs.

Also, you will have no problems resetting the routers to factory default by pressing and holding the reset button for 20-25 seconds. I use a separate laptop, unconnected to my network, to hook to the device (i.e. router) when I do my reset. You could, after the reset, revert to the older FW. This procedure will restore the mesh node, which you can't get to now, to a factory fresh condition and eliminate any of the residual mesh changes from your earlier Mesh setup (pre 20648).

Let us know how it goes for restoring parent and node to 20379.


@arthurlien if you have a beta fix for this I would like to try it.

 

[Jim Kirk]

I decided to reinstall FW 20379 on my (3) AC5300 routers. I am back to having 3 AiMesh devices. See photos.

 

[pvdublo7]

My Mesh Setup

RG-AC5300 - router
RT-AC5300 - node, set to Auto
RT-AC68U (1) - node, set to Auto
RT-AC68U (1) - node, set to Auto
RT-AC88U - node, set to Auto

All on 20145 firmware

Nodes are connected via Netgear Powerline PLP-2000 ethernet adapters. Netgear has recognized a problem with LEDs on the devices lighting up weird when more than 4 are plugged in, but all indications are that this is not affecting performance.

It works well for the most part, but it gets flaky with lots of ups and downs - mostly with Internet. Internet (Comcast) and router are fine. Trying to see what's the issue. Using iOS devices - and these seem to flake more than anything else.

 

[Jim Kirk]

My Mesh Setup

RG-AC5300 - router
RT-AC5300 - node, set to Auto
RT-AC68U (1) - node, set to Auto
RT-AC68U (1) - node, set to Auto
RT-AC88U - node, set to Auto

All on 20145 firmware

Nodes are connected via Netgear Powerline PLP-2000 ethernet adapters. Netgear has recognized a problem with LEDs on the devices lighting up weird when more than 4 are plugged in, but all indications are that this is not affecting performance.

It works well for the most part, but it gets flaky with lots of ups and downs - mostly with Internet. Internet (Comcast) and router are fine. Trying to see what's the issue. Using iOS devices - and these seem to flake more than anything else.

All my nodes are ethernet connected to the parent.

I found that if there are switches between the node and the Parent, a connection priority of "Auto" gives occasionally disconnects of the node with it resulting in "offline" as seen in the parent.

I also observed that with Auto connection priority sometimes a node would switch itself to Wireless as the connection type rather than remaining ethernet. When I switched my nodes to ethernet connection priority this problem disappeared and FW 20145 is very stable.

Jim[/QUOTE]

 

[pvdublo7]

So it is sounding more like the Netgear Powerline units are a culprit. That being said, when I switched the nodes from Ethernet to Auto, I have not gotten one "offline" node since, and performance has vastly improved!

When they were on Ethernet, I was getting all kinds of "offline" and lousy performance issues. I cannot put all of them on Ethernet, so I am going to keep working with Netgear to resolve the Powerline adapter issues.

 

[jksmurf]

All my nodes are ethernet connected to the parent.

I found that if there are switches between the node and the Parent, a connection priority of "Auto" gives occasionally disconnects of the node with it resulting in "offline" as seen in the parent.

I also observed that with Auto connection priority sometimes a node would switch itself to Wireless as the connection type rather than remaining ethernet. When I switched my nodes to ethernet connection priority this problem disappeared and FW 20145 is very stable.

Jim

So it is sounding more like the Netgear Powerline units are a culprit. That being said, when I switched the nodes from Ethernet to Auto, I have not gotten one "offline" node since, and performance has vastly improved!

When they were on Ethernet, I was getting all kinds of "offline" and lousy performance issues. I cannot put all of them on Ethernet, so I am going to keep working with Netgear to resolve the Powerline adapter issues.

Sorry old thread but very relevant to me, thanks. On the Auto vs Ethernet setting for the Node I am seeing issues more like pvdublo7 than Jim Kirk. I have AZTech 1200 AV2 Powerline Adapters. House wirring (in rented flat) poor. Conenctions are still through the Node but appear to be using wireless. The adapters are working, I tested on the second Ethernet plug, just poorly.