2xAsus RT-AC88U AiMesh DualWAN setup troubleshooting

[k13p]

Hi all,

I have two RT-AC88U routers combined into AiMesh network:

Firmware Version: 3.0.0.4.384_45713 (afaik latest)

Router 1 is configured as AiMesh master.
Router 2 is configured as AiMesh node.

ISP1 -- (Ethernet cable) -- Router 1 WAN Port
ISP2 -- (not connected yet – waiting for ISP to install the network) –– Router 1 LAN Port 1
Router 1 LAN Port 2 -- (Ethernet cable) -- Router 2 WAN Port

ISP1: 50Mb/s upload / 50Mb/s download
ISP2: don't know yet

3 Wifi networks configured:
- network 2G
- network 5G
- guest network 2G

DualWAN setting: ON (Failover, ping google.com each 5 seconds for 12 times, back to primary WAN after 12 times) – it is enabled but the ISP2 is not yet plugged in so I expect it will not switch ever

There is about 20-30 notebooks connected to the network at all times through Wifi (not heavy load, mostly browsing the web), also there are some phones connected too (around 10-15). No printers / other devices like NAS etc.

We are a small company, we have just moved to a new office and I have set up the network myself as I am the most experienced with networking (but still little). Unfortunately, everybody is constantly complaining about network issues:

- yesterday some people had problems to connect to the network at all (something like routers are not able to handle more users but don't know how to check this), at some point nobody new was able to join – we have restarted (unplugged) the router to fix this; I have also noticed in "Professional settings tab" that "Radio" for both 2G and 5G was turned off and I switched it on – not certain what if it helped and what "Radio" means as I expected there will be no Wifi network while its off
- there are some Wifi radius problems too but I want to move routers to better places to fix that
- sometimes access to the web drops suddenly and we have to wait few minutes for it to restore (can be ISP's fault too but I guess it's not)

Router log: https://pastebin.com/HUfuWTQd
We are operating with this setup from 6th May.

1) Can somebody please check the log and search for "May 8 10:00:53" -> at this moment the network connection dropped for few minutes and I don't understand what happened
2) Why the log timestamp is "jumping" there and back (is not ordered according to the timestamp)?
3) Is this setup reasonable at all to handle this number of devices?

I will honestly appreciate any help or advice.

Thanks!

 

[OzarkEdge]

- yesterday some people had problems to connect to the network at all (something like routers are not able to handle more users but don't know how to check this), at some point nobody new was able to join – we have restarted (unplugged) the router to fix this; I have also noticed in "Professional settings tab" that "Radio" for both 2G and 5G was turned off and I switched it on – not certain what if it helped and what "Radio" means as I expected there will be no Wifi network while its off

Find out what 'radio' means.

Did you factory reset both routers before configuring the router node and adding the remote node?

OE

 

[k13p]

Find out what 'radio' means.

Well, I have spent over 15 minutes trying to "find it out" over internet. Anything that is mentioned fits my understanding. If the radio is disabled – there should be no WiFi network available. While there is (I am now connected to 5G network while the router states "5 GHz radio is disabled") – I am not so keen of stating I found a bug in the firmware before somebody confirms my understanding.

Did you factory reset both routers before configuring the router node and adding the remote node?

When I changed the mode from "Wireless" to "AiMesh" the routers showed they performed factory reset already. I did not factory reset manually before changing the mode.

 

[Smokindog]

Factory reset both routers.

MY method is:

1. Enable SSH, connect and login, sync, sync, nvram erase, nvram commit, sync, sync, reboot (yes I know some of this may be unnecessary but I do it regardless).
2. WAIT until front panel lights "calm" (a few minutes).
3. Perform minimal config to get it to a point you can connect and get to the GUI.
4. Perform factory reset from GUI (Don't forget to check the extra "box" next to restore in menu if present).
5. WAIT until front panel lights "calm" (a few minutes).
6. OPTIONAL SIDE ACTIVITY - if this router will likely be reset in the future, perform a minimal config to access the GUI and SAVE THE CONFIG. This will give you a minimal config file to upload from the main screen on subsequent resets ON THE SAME FIRMWARE (If I do this I enable SSH before saving).
7. Configure

I'm sure much of this can be skipped but over time I've wasted more time skipping and having to begin again than this process takes as a normal part of reset.

 

[OzarkEdge]

When I changed the mode from "Wireless" to "AiMesh" the routers showed they performed factory reset already. I did not factory reset manually before changing the mode.

Start over. Factory default reset both routers, preferably by using the router webUI Restore w/Initialize function on the Administration/Restore tab. And then configure the router from scratch; do not restore old settings. Don't configure the node; just add it to the AiMesh.

See my notes for other clues for installing AiMesh.

OE

 

[k13p]

Thank you guys. I have read a lot and configured from scratch once again. Noted down the steps:

1. first factory reset of both routers with nvram erase from ssh
2. second factory reset of both routers from GUI, checking the box to wipe all data
3. leave the second router (intended to be AiMesh Node) in standby mode after factory reset in close proximity to the first router
4. configuration of the first router (AiMesh master):
- using the setup wizard, configured two SSIDS for 2G and 5G network, admin console password and ISPs static IP address configuration
- configured timezone
- connected ISP cable into WAN port and waited for time synchronization
- modify 2G network: wireless mode: N-only, channel bandwith: 20MHz, control channel: 11
- modify 5G: wireless mode: N-AC-mixed, control channel: 116
- enable and configure 2G Guest network
- (smart connect disabled – separate SSIDs for 2G and 5G)
- (WPS enabled)
- enable reboot scheduler – everyday at 3:00
- (telnet, ssh, WAN access to the admin console disabled)
- enabled AiProtection
- disabled UPnP (WAN settings)
- connected AiMesh node over WiFi, set up connection priority to Ethernet
- disabled WPS
5. moved AiMesh node to dedicated place and connected to master with Ethernet cable

Yet, I have not enabled DualWAN – I will wait for the second ISP to install his modem. I am wondering if ASUSWRT offers more advanced secondary WAN settings – I couldn't find any tab to configure e.g. static IP address if it will be necessary, just Dual WAN settings (failover / load balance mode).

Finishing for today. Let's hope tomorrow everything will work better.

 

[OzarkEdge]

Thank you guys. I have read a lot and configured from scratch once again. Noted down the steps:

- first factory reset of both routers with nvram erase from ssh
- second factory reset of both routers from GUI, checking the box to wipe all data
- leave the second router (intended to be AiMesh Node) in standby mode after factory reset in close proximity to the first router
- configuration of the first router (AiMesh master):
- using the setup wizard, configured two SSIDS for 2G and 5G network, admin console password and ISPs static IP address configuration
- configured timezone
- connected ISP cable into WAN port and waited for time synchronization
- modify 2G network: wireless mode: N-only, channel bandwith: 20MHz, control channel: 11
- modify 5G: wireless mode: N-AC-mixed, control channel: 116
- enable and configure 2G Guest network
- (smart connect disabled – separate SSIDs for 2G and 5G)
- (WPS enabled)
- enable reboot scheduler – everyday at 3:00
- (telnet, ssh, WAN access to the admin console disabled)
- enabled AiProtection
- disabled UPnP (WAN settings)
- connected AiMesh node over WiFi, set up connection priority to Ethernet
- disabled WPS
- moved AiMesh node to dedicated place and connected to master with Ethernet cable

Yet, I have not enabled DualWAN – I will wait for the second ISP to install his modem. I am wondering if ASUSWRT offers more advanced secondary WAN settings – I couldn't find any tab to configure e.g. static IP address if it will be necessary, just Dual WAN settings (failover / load balance mode).

Finishing for today. Let's hope tomorrow everything will work better.

Nice work! Good idea to keep it simple until you have had some up-time to observe things.

OE

 

[k13p]

At this point it seems it works reasonably, thanks! No more problems like before. Wondering about two things:

1) Is it normal the router timestamp is not preserved over reboots? I would expect it happening after factory reset but not after reboot. After each reboot I see very old timestamps in logs till the NTP update is triggered.
2) In our office we use only macbooks – I see the roaming between routers is not working as expected. Even though there are multiple entries in the log like:

May 10 11:06:55 roamast: discover candidate node [60:45:CB:18:75:00](rssi: -81dbm) for weak signal strength client [C0:EE:FB:E1:16:B0](rssi: -88dbm)
May 10 11:06:55 roamast: roaming reject!!! candidate rssi over threshold(-70dbm)

macbooks do not switch routers automatically when walking through the office. Here (https://www.snbforums.com/threads/guide-troubleshooting-wifi-issues.12825/) I found that:

MAC users: some Macs have issues with the 5 GHz band (and sometimes the 2.4 Ghz band too) and Asus routers. The solution usually requires you to connect to your router over SSH or Telnet, and issue the following commands:

nvram set wl0_reg_mode=h
nvram set wl1_reg_mode=h
nvram commit
reboot

Is it really the case? Should I execute these commands through ssh on each router separately? Can you explain please what they are about (I can't find any explanation)?

3) This is a boot sequence log, is there anything to worry about?
https://pastebin.com/E59eSaRe

 

[OzarkEdge]

At this point it seems it works reasonably, thanks! No more problems like before. Wondering about two things:

1) Is it normal the router timestamp is not preserved over reboots? I would expect it happening after factory reset but not after reboot. After each reboot I see very old timestamps in logs till the NTP update is triggered.
2) In our office we use only macbooks – I see the roaming between routers is not working as expected. Even though there are multiple entries in the log like:

May 10 11:06:55 roamast: discover candidate node [60:45:CB:18:75:00](rssi: -81dbm) for weak signal strength client [C0:EE:FB:E1:16:B0](rssi: -88dbm)
May 10 11:06:55 roamast: roaming reject!!! candidate rssi over threshold(-70dbm)

macbooks do not switch routers automatically when walking through the office. Here (https://www.snbforums.com/threads/guide-troubleshooting-wifi-issues.12825/) I found that:

Is it really the case? Should I execute these commands through ssh on each router separately? Can you explain please what they are about (I can't find any explanation)?

3) This is a boot sequence log, is there anything to worry about?
https://pastebin.com/E59eSaRe

1. This is normal. A reboot reuses that initial time fixed before the firmware was released.

2. @RMerlin would be best able to comment on his old post regarding macbook roaming. I'm only vaguely aware that Apple/macs may support certain roaming standards and might therefore roam better on like/enterprise class wireless networks.

A WiFi analyzer app might help determine node band coverage/overlap... maybe you can raise (more positive) the Roaming Assistant RSSI dBm threshold for the subject band to have the 'mesh system' encourage the wireless clients to let go and roam to the next node.

Also, maybe there are mac wireless client adapater settings that would encourage roaming.

3. An expert like @RMerlin would be able to comment on the Log boot entries.

OE

 

[RMerlin]

There's an error message about initializing ports 5-8 on the Realtek switch, however I don't know if this is normal or not. If ports 5-8 aren't working, then do a power cycle of the router to reset the electronics inside.

 

[k13p]

Thank you OzarkEdge and RMerlin, your help is invaluable. It's another 2 days that passed without any major network issues, so I am extremely happy.
We are not using LAN ports almost at all, just for DualWAN and to combine routers together so I do not think it will be ever necessary to use ports number 5-8. Thus, not concerned about it much.

Shortly I think we will be adding one more AiMesh node so the roaming problem seems the most important now. @RMerlin, do you think I should try these commands suggested by you in other thread:

nvram set wl0_reg_mode=h
nvram set wl1_reg_mode=h
nvram commit
reboot

We will have two RT-AC88U and one RT-AC58U so I suppose I need to execute it over shell on each of them, correct? Could you please briefly mention what they are about? Seems like nobody else is enough knowledgable to answer.

 

[RMerlin]

@RMerlin, do you think I should try these commands suggested by you in other thread:

Those commands haven't worked in years. Anything wifi-related is now hardcoded and cannot be changed by the end-user, it will get overwritten at boot time.