Asus ROG 11000AX and Tplink AC5400 as an AP problems

[ZakBR]

Hi everyone, I am looking for suggestions on a problem I am having. I appreciate any suggestions.

I have a 2 story house that has around 3200 sqft.

I was using my Tplink AC5400 on the top floor and everything was working fine until I decided to install 7 Ring cameras (they all use 2.4ghz) in the bottom floor. The wifi signal in the bottom floor became really bad and some of the cameras were not getting enough signal to work properly.

So I decided to buy an Asus ROG 11000AX and set it up in the top floor. As expected, top floor is covered and in good shape signal wise - as it was with the Tplink AC5400 previously.

Now for the bottom floor, I had a cat6 cable wired from the Asus 11000AX (now my main router in the top floor) and I just configured the Tplink AC5400 as an AP in the bottom floor.

These are my current problems:

1. The wifi signal in the bottom floor is still not good. The AC 5400 is in a light fixture in the ceiling, right in the center of the house (I am trying to find a way to screw it in the ceiling, upside down).

To try and improve the signal, I turned off the 5Ghz channels and left only the 2.4Ghz. It improved the signal for the cameras but not as I would like (some cameras are still slow and loosing connection).

2. I used a different wifi name in the bottom floor as I was having a lot of dropping when using the same name as in the top floor. Do you guys think that's the best route to go?

3. My home has around 10 cat5 outlets and they are all wired to the laundry room in the top floor (where the Asus AX 11000 is). Since that router only has 4 LAN ports, I need a switch. What would you get? A non managed simple siwtch? Would you suggest any model?

What would you guys do? Is that an okay setup? I appreciate any help!!!

 

[L&LD]

If you put a single main router on the first floor, do the ring cameras work properly? This is the test I would be doing.

If not, it doesn't matter what else you try. There would be something else happing with those devices that would need to be resolved first.

From my experience; a WiFi router needs to be installed at least 10' above ground level with at least 3' free air all around in 3D to have the waves formed properly and fully in all directions. Mounting it to the ceiling sounds like a bad idea to me.

Check that a single router on the main floor behaves as expected, at that point, we can offer further suggestions.

 

[ZakBR]

Hi L&LD. Thank you for helping me out.

I did a full home survey with my macbook and a software called Netspot. I found out that I simply have a few blind spots that the TPLINK AC 5400 wont cover, working in AP mode.

I will need more wifi power for the ring cameras. Will probably need a mesh system... What do you think?

I could either buy the Asus Lyra and have it using the Aimesh mode with the AX11000 I have in the second floor or maybe get an eero with 3 beacons. The TPlink will be sold on ebay, unless you suggest otherwise.

What do you think?

 

[L&LD]

You're welcome. Just trying to help where I can.

I wouldn't automatically recommend a mesh system, if at all. It does work for some but certainly isn't 'there' yet to just set up and use it as it should be if we believe the marketing so far.

Did you move the TP-Link away from that light fixture location? Are the blind spots all around the TP-Link AP? Or are they all in the same general direction?

I can picture the ring cameras as being mounted high up as possible, and maybe at floor/joist levels? That might make me try the AP in as low a position as possible on the main floor (possibly on a low side table, for example) so that the signal has the best chance to reach the cameras, from 'beneath.

I hope that others with mesh setups offer suggestions for you here. I don't have further suggestions right now if these don't work.

 

[ZakBR]

I did try to move it but didnt take it out from the hallway it is right now. Downstairs, the ceiling is the only cat6 I have although I have cat5's for my TVs.

I think I will try and move that AC 5400 to the side of a TV and see how it goes. The problem is that I have a camera in the porch and one in the driveway that will be pretty far from it if I move it...

Also afraid of buying anything new since the AX technology just came out and might replace the actual ac hence why I got the asus 11000ax for the top floor.

 

[L&LD]

I did try to move it but didnt take it out from the hallway it is right now. Downstairs, the ceiling is the only cat6 I have although I have cat5's for my TVs.

I think I will try and move that AC 5400 to the side of a TV and see how it goes. The problem is that I have a camera in the porch and one in the driveway that will be pretty far from it if I move it...

Also afraid of buying anything new since the AX technology just came out and might replace the actual ac hence why I got the asus 11000ax for the top floor.

AX won't replace AC for a very long time, they will co-exist for years (think 'g', 'a', 'n' and 'ac' today).

The Asus AX11000 is a draft 'ax' product today. I would be more inclined to buy one when they're released with final specifications (hardware and software, if needed).

Try the AC5400 down at TV level (give it room though! Don't hide it behind the TV) to see how that changes things.

I would be tempted to return the AX11000 for two RT-AC86U's if the above quick test works (better).

 

[ZakBR]

Hi L&D, I followed your advice and got 2 RT-AC86U's as mesh nodes (using AiMesh) for the first floor, at the TV level. Top floor still has the AX11000 as the AiMesh router. Took out the TPlink AC 5400.

Everything is stock firmware, latest update. Both nodes are hard wired to the router. Using Smart Connect, one SSID for all.

At first this really fixed all my problems. I was going to write here that the router range was the issue.

Well it looks like after 24 hours things have changed as the AiMesh system won't do a good job choosing who should serve the devices. I see my 7 cameras, iphone, ipad, etc. jumping from node to node in my asus iphone app and even to the router, which makes me loose connection or have a poor connection when it shouldn't have as in day 1 I had a perfect connection (less than -40 RSI) on every device.

Are there optimum settings for the AiMesh? As if this really doesen't work, I'm thinking about returning all of this and getting an Eero 2nd gen... The problem is that I need dual wan to have my redundancy cconnection ready to kick in just in case - and Asus has that.

Your suggestions have been of great help, would you suggest another fix?

 

[L&LD]

I hope others can suggest optimum settings for AiMesh for you. I don't have the time or patience to play with this for my customers, so I can't really offer anything that is tried and tested.

Maybe the 2 RT-AC86U's would be best used as AP's?

Can you turn off Universal Beamforming, MU-MIMO and Airtime fairness in an AiMesh network? Can you adjust the signal level of the routers/nodes so that they don't overlap as much?

 

[ZakBR]

I will try these setting and let you know. I'm starting to have second guesses about this setup as I still have time to return everything and I will have my US$ 810,00 back... Maybe I could get something better?