AiMesh: RT-AC68W & RT-AC68U

[Unvme1212]

I've had an RT-AC68W for about 18 months now since I moved into my house. I recently rearranged the basement and have created a deadspot in the Master Bedroom so I bought an ASUS Refurbished RT-AC68U from Newegg to appease my wife.

I have now spent almost 6 hours and I cannot for the life of me make AiMesh work. I've had both Routers Upgraded to the latest Firmware and now downgraded them both back to older firmware but nothing can get the AC68W to detect the AC68U(I did try the other way once at newest firmware and it didn't work either)

If I clear my cache I can get a brief pop up that says wait for the Node to be ready but then it goes away and the wheel keeps spinning forever. I have done multiple factory resets on both devices trying to get this to work.

Current configuration is as follows:

AiMesh Router
RT-AC68W
3.0.0.4.384_20287-g51c2770

AiMesh Node
RT-AC68U
3.0.0.4.384_20308-gead790e

Anyone have any ideas or suggestions?

 

[Grisu]

not really but you could try if it will work with new beta on both routers (W and U are absolutely same hardware and software only white version).
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/b...r-rt-ac68u-and-first-beta-for-bluecave.46802/

There has been some reports on asus-forum that W and P versions dont mesh.
Mine too at the beginning, but with 20648 and 20942 my RT-AC68W could connect.

But why dont you use as first step recent 20942?
You have on both routers older and even different firmware installed!

 

[Ronald Schwerer]

not really but you could try if it will work with new beta on both routers (W and U are absolutely same hardware and software only white version).
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/b...r-rt-ac68u-and-first-beta-for-bluecave.46802/

There has been some reports on asus-forum that W and P versions dont mesh.
Mine too at the beginning, but with 20648 and 20942 my RT-AC68W could connect.

But why dont you use as first step recent 20942?
You have on both routers older and even different firmware installed!

I agree, get both routers on the same firmware. All the 68U variants run the same firmware, so there's no reason not. (Unless the refurb is really a TM-AC1900 and he doesn't want to risk a rollback to TM 3199).

 

[grueber]

Try resetting the Ac68u (hold reset button down for 20 seconds) and then access the 68u by wifi with a smartphone/tablet/laptop. Set up the AC68u to work as a node and see if it works.

I had alot of trouble trying to set up a AC68u node through the router (5300). I could see the node and it would attempt to set up but it would always fail. Only way I could get it to work was trying the above.

 

[Grisu]

similar situation here, he solved it with older firm 20308: https://www.snbforums.com/threads/aimesh-doesnt-work.46636/#post-407413

 

[Unvme1212]

not really but you could try if it will work with new beta on both routers (W and U are absolutely same hardware and software only white version).
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/b...r-rt-ac68u-and-first-beta-for-bluecave.46802/

There has been some reports on asus-forum that W and P versions dont mesh.
Mine too at the beginning, but with 20648 and 20942 my RT-AC68W could connect.

But why dont you use as first step recent 20942?
You have on both routers older and even different firmware installed!

Thanks I did try both with 942 originally and tried both as low as 308 as well with no luck. I went up to Beta and got them to connect over Ethernet but when I moved the Node upstairs it couldn't reconnect and was showing offline.

I agree, get both routers on the same firmware. All the 68U variants run the same firmware, so there's no reason not. (Unless the refurb is really a TM-AC1900 and he doesn't want to risk a rollback to TM 3199).

It's definitely not a TM-AC1900 unless New Egg pulled a fast one and stuck the guts in a RT-AC68U case. Thats actually been the hardest part of troubleshooting this in finding stuff not about the AC1900.

Try resetting the Ac68u (hold reset button down for 20 seconds) and then access the 68u by wifi with a smartphone/tablet/laptop. Set up the AC68u to work as a node and see if it works.

I had alot of trouble trying to set up a AC68u node through the router (5300). I could see the node and it would attempt to set up but it would always fail. Only way I could get it to work was trying the above.

No Luck from the App on my iPhone either unfortunately.


I've been playing with it more today and I noticed that the 5G Band on the 68U isn't working which I think is my problem. I found a few tip to try to get it to come on and nothing worked so I'm guessing it's just an issue with the Refrub and I need to return it to New Egg. Thanks for the ideas and help guys. Hopefully I get a new one this week and it sets up easy.


EDIT:

similar situation here, he solved it with older firm 20308: https://www.snbforums.com/threads/aimesh-doesnt-work.46636/#post-407413

I forgot to mention that this thread was what originally inspired me to try to go back to 308 on the 68U and eventually on both units but still didn't work.

 

[Grisu]

I've been playing with it more today and I noticed that the 5G Band on the 68U isn't working which I think is my problem.

Without working 5G it is clear to me that its not working!
New beta got a feature to even connect via ethernet, thats why it worked for you, dont know why not in second attempt but at least in first!

 

[indark]

try power cycle by powering router off and hold wps button while power on.
wait till the power led blink rapidly to clear the nvram.
it helped to fix some odd ai-mesh issue that reset did not help.

have you tried swap the main router and node?

and if 5G band is still not working after power cycle + clear nvram, might as well consider to return it.