AC86U x2 and AC66UB1 AI MESH unstable - 3.0.0.4.384_20648

[jyth_82]

Hi All,
Have been testing AIMesh for a week. Unfortunately not getting good results with it.
I have 1 AC86U as the parent and the AC86U & AC66U as the node setup in AI Mesh. The problem I'm facing is that the router keeps disconnecting from the internet and resets by itself RANDOMly. Based on the systemlog, everything just kind off rebooted. NTP time settings all reset.

I've been going through the forum and have set almost any best practices from the Wifi side but this is still not fixing the issue.

I"m short of planning to return the AC86U pair and downgrade to AC68U which I've been using previously as a normal bridge mode with Ac66U.

 

[OzarkEdge]

Hi All,
Have been testing AIMesh for a week. Unfortunately not getting good results with it.
I have 1 AC86U as the parent and the AC86U & AC66U as the node setup in AI Mesh. The problem I'm facing is that the router keeps disconnecting from the internet and resets by itself RANDOMly. Based on the systemlog, everything just kind off rebooted. NTP time settings all reset.

I've been going through the forum and have set almost any best practices from the Wifi side but this is still not fixing the issue.

I"m short of planning to return the AC86U pair and downgrade to AC68U which I've been using previously as a normal bridge mode with Ac66U.

Have you tried removing the router 86U (that may be defective) and make the other 86U the router?

OE

 

[Ronald Schwerer]

Did you do an nvram erase after installing 20648?

 

[H von Beck]

Have you looked at the supported routers? The AC66U is not on the list. If you hacked it to accept a different firmware that is unlikely to work. Hacked versions of the TM-AC1900 (T-Mobile) used to work. Recent firmwares do not anymore, even though this router is a modified AC68U.

 

[arthurlien]

Could you send feedback with system log, wifi log by Feedback function ?

 

[jyth_82]

Have you tried removing the router 86U (that may be defective) and make the other 86U the router?

OE

Just Swapped this and testing it now...

Have also initialized the nodes prior after the firmware upgrades...

This is not a modified version of firmware/hw. This is official firmware from Asus and AC86U from local distributor.

Am getting a new logs with the new swap currently.

 

[raven-au]

Assuming the firmware for the 66U (are you sure it's a 66U or is it a 68U) is correct and AiMesh is supported.
This might be due to the 86U supporting DFS and using 5GHz wireless channels the 66U cannot change too?

I had (what looked like) that problem when trying to use my 86U as the AiMesh router with an 88U and a 5300 as AiMesh nodes.
Changing to use the 88U as the AiMesh router resolved the problem for me, perhaps consider using the 66U as the AiMesh router and the 86U as the node.

 

[jyth_82]

Assuming the firmware for the 66U (are you sure it's a 66U or is it a 68U) is correct and AiMesh is supported.
This might be due to the 86U supporting DFS and using 5GHz wireless channels the 66U cannot change too?

I had (what looked like) that problem when trying to use my 86U as the AiMesh router with an 88U and a 5300 as AiMesh nodes.
Changing to use the 88U as the AiMesh router resolved the problem for me, perhaps consider using the 66U as the AiMesh router and the 86U as the node.

Just finish testing using the other AC86U node. The last it reboots was 4 hours back. So will monitor this further but NOT looking good.

I was previously using the 68U as well and it also exhibit the same problem before the using the 66U now. May remove the 66U and use 2 86U for now to monitor. AND if this still doesn't work... will have to revert back to the old method of bridging.

FYI, I'm using wired to bridge between the 2 AI mesh parent and node.

 

[OzarkEdge]

Just finish testing using the other AC86U node. The last it reboots was 4 hours back. So will monitor this further but NOT looking good.

I was previously using the 68U as well and it also exhibit the same problem before the using the 66U now. May remove the 66U and use 2 86U for now to monitor. AND if this still doesn't work... will have to revert back to the old method of bridging.

FYI, I'm using wired to bridge between the 2 AI mesh parent and node.

Clarify the issue again... the router is resetting or is just rebooting?

I assume you had a steady router prior to AiMesh so no reason to suspect bad power, cabling, and connected equipment (?). Did you move the 86U router power adapters with the routers, or just swap the routers and leave their power adapters in place?

Send feedback/logs to ASUS... they may spy something.

Yes, try just the 2x86U AiMesh (works great here). Be sure to factory default reset them first and configure the router from scratch.

OE

 

[raven-au]

Clarify the issue again... the router is resetting or is just rebooting?
OE

Indeed, is the router crashing?

Recently, when I put my AC5300 and AC88U back into service to see how AiMesh was going, the AC5300 was crashing regularly.

Clearly a factory reset wasn't helping as that is the first step in AiMesh setup (and often when updating firmware too).

Even though information about the WPS reset implies it does the same thing as a factory reset and is meant to be used when the router will not even boot properly it seems it does do more than this because it resolved my rebooting problem on the AC5300. TBH I did this for both routers and ended up doing it a couple of times before I got it to work.

This isn't the first time I have found a WPS reset useful, long ago I was having a number of strange wireless problems with an AC87U and a factory reset didn't help, a WPS reset was the only way to fix it.

Fyi, WPS reset can be done by powering off the router, hold the WPS button down and power on the router, keep holding the WPS button down until the power led starts flashing (about 10 to 20 seconds depending on model) and then release.

 

[bbunge]

Your RT AC66U B1 should run Aimesh just fine. Aimesh is included on mine in spite of the naysayers.

Sent from my P01M using Tapatalk

 

[jyth_82]

Indeed, is the router crashing?

Recently, when I put my AC5300 and AC88U back into service to see how AiMesh was going, the AC5300 was crashing regularly.

Clearly a factory reset wasn't helping as that is the first step in AiMesh setup (and often when updating firmware too).

Even though information about the WPS reset implies it does the same thing as a factory reset and is meant to be used when the router will not even boot properly it seems it does do more than this because it resolved my rebooting problem on the AC5300. TBH I did this for both routers and ended up doing it a couple of times before I got it to work.

This isn't the first time I have found a WPS reset useful, long ago I was having a number of strange wireless problems with an AC87U and a factory reset didn't help, a WPS reset was the only way to fix it.

Fyi, WPS reset can be done by powering off the router, hold the WPS button down and power on the router, keep holding the WPS button down until the power led starts flashing (about 10 to 20 seconds depending on model) and then release.

The symptom i'm getting is, the router just disconnect, the NTP settings all gone. It doesn't reboot as long as it should, just like in a flash. Is that call a crash?

Already sent the logs to Asus; it just happened about twice in 3 hours just now.

May try the WPS reset method. Just wondering , will WPS reset resets the whole settings or just the WPS only?

 

[jyth_82]

Your RT AC66U B1 should run Aimesh just fine. Aimesh is included on mine in spite of the naysayers.

Sent from my P01M using Tapatalk

haha... yeah...

I have a funny feeling its NOT the AC66U giving the problem. Anyway, process of elimination now...

 

[OzarkEdge]

Your RT AC66U B1 should run Aimesh just fine. Aimesh is included on mine in spite of the naysayers.

Sent from my P01M using Tapatalk

The "naysayers" are simply observing that the RT-AC66U B1 is not an officially AiMesh-supported router per ASUS. Most users are not intimately familiar with the quirks of ASUS routers and company to confidently know and claim otherwise. It is only natural for them to conclude and share that the RT-AC66U B1 is not an officially AiMesh-supported router per ASUS.

Dismissing members here for making this honest observation is unhelpful and discourages community participation. Why not just let them know that your AiMesh is working fine with a 66U B1 node and explain why ASUS has chosen to not officially support AiMesh on the 66U B1 router?

OE

 

[raven-au]

The symptom i'm getting is, the router just disconnect, the NTP settings all gone. It doesn't reboot as long as it should, just like in a flash. Is that call a crash?

Already sent the logs to Asus; it just happened about twice in 3 hours just now.

May try the WPS reset method. Just wondering , will WPS reset resets the whole settings or just the WPS only?

WPS reset isn't related to WPS itself.
As I said in my post it's supposed to be used to perform a factory reset to defaults when the router won't boot.
But, as I also said, I have found on more than one occasion that it helped with odd router problems when a plain factory reset didn't.

 

[jyth_82]

Hi folks, Just retested with AC68U and 2x AC86U; I've removed the AC66U in the setup.

SAME problem.

AND I now remove both AC68U and AC66U from the AImesh setup leaving only the 2x 86U in the AImesh.... and viola.... no disconnect for a day plus now.

SO, the question would be : Does the AImesh scales only to 1x node for stability? I may just get another AC86U but I want to know if there is anyone out there using 3x AC86U or 3x similar of AImesh prod for it work stable. Am using cable to do the AImesh and area is quite wide - hence the requirement to get min 3x nodes in AImesh to cover the area.

Any comments would be good.

 

[LimJK]

I may just get another AC86U but I want to know if there is anyone out there using 3x AC86U or 3x similar of AImesh prod for it work stable. Am using cable to do the AImesh and area is quite wide - hence the requirement to get min 3x nodes in AImesh to cover the area.

Any comments would be good.

Hi jyth_82,

I used to have a RT-AC5300 (AiMesh Router) and 2x RT-AC68U. Since I started playing around with AiMesh Beta last October, I decided to replace the 2 x RT-AC68U with the newer RT-AC86U. I did that after reading positive comments here about RT-AC86U, better technology for HW, Band Steering, etc. attracted me to part with my money.

• Since than I have been very happy with AiMesh at home, all my WiFi devices runs on 5GHz band, I got very good connection and speed, most of the time between 400-500mbps. Switch between AiMesh (Router and Nodes) is quite seamless. I validate that with Network Analyser APP.
• My challenge I experienced where AiMesh Devices become unstable has been largely at the time when I update the Firmware. To overcome that, at times I may have to do multiple Full Factory Reset on AiMesh Routers and Nodes to get it back to a well behave state. Once done it generally remained well behaved till the next Firmware Update
• The current firmware, I get some instability on 2.4GHz, when I am a little too far off at some blindspots at the yard and when it switched to 2.4GHz band. Normally, my devices hardly use 2.4GHz when I am at home ... so I cannot comment on positive or negative experiences on 2.4GHz band.

May be you might want to consider adding a tri-band like RT-AC5300 instead.

 

[bbunge]

If the disconnect is when you roam, disable CTF in the Switch Control on all devices. Asus recommended this in another post. Also the WPS reset does not get everything wiped. Use Factory Reset Initialize as it will wipe the jffs as well as nvram.

Sent from my P01M using Tapatalk

 

[LimJK]

If the disconnect is when you roam, disable CTF in the Switch Control on all devices. Asus recommended this in another post. Also the WPS reset does not get everything wiped. Use Factory Reset Initialize as it will wipe the jffs as well as nvram.

Sent from my P01M using Tapatalk

bbunge,

Thanks for the suggestion, I have tried setting "NAT Acceleration" = "Disabled", however, it does not seem to work for me when I look at Arthur Lien's suggestion, it appears that it is meant only for RT-AC68U.

If you are using RT-AC68U as AiMesh Node, could you try to disable NAT Acceleration ?

LAN>Switch Control>NAT Acceleration disabled

I prefer to do Full Factory Reset for a clean restart. I have figured a way that only need a few minutes to Restore specific NVRAM settings and certain items under /jffs that I need by using John's Backup/Restore utilities discussed elsewhere in this forum.

 

[jyth_82]

Hi jyth_82,

I used to have a RT-AC5300 (AiMesh Router) and 2x RT-AC68U. Since I started playing around with AiMesh Beta last October, I decided to replace the 2 x RT-AC68U with the newer RT-AC86U. I did that after reading positive comments here about RT-AC86U, better technology for HW, Band Steering, etc. attracted me to part with my money.

• Since than I have been very happy with AiMesh at home, all my WiFi devices runs on 5GHz band, I got very good connection and speed, most of the time between 400-500mbps. Switch between AiMesh (Router and Nodes) is quite seamless. I validate that with Network Analyser APP.
• My challenge I experienced where AiMesh Devices become unstable has been largely at the time when I update the Firmware. To overcome that, at times I may have to do multiple Full Factory Reset on AiMesh Routers and Nodes to get it back to a well behave state. Once done it generally remained well behaved till the next Firmware Update
• The current firmware, I get some instability on 2.4GHz, when I am a little too far off at some blindspots at the yard and when it switched to 2.4GHz band. Normally, my devices hardly use 2.4GHz when I am at home ... so I cannot comment on positive or negative experiences on 2.4GHz band.

May be you might want to consider adding a tri-band like RT-AC5300 instead.

Thanks for the comment to all... I may get another AC86U for 3 node (similar) configuration and see if this is a stable approach.

Am also hoping there is an upcoming firmware from ASUS to have a stable AIMesh scaling.