Asus RT-AC3200 Smart Connect Rules Fine Tuning

[Hal0gen]

I was having the same problem. My Echo (in the same room as the router), two Kindle Fire HDX tablets, and two Emerson Sensi thermostats would not connect to the wireless network using Smart Connect. I disabled Smart Connect (ran all three radios under the same SSID) and everything connected fine. I noticed is that the Echo and Kindles connected to 5 Ghz-2 (which in "non smart connect mode" supported ac & n devices). This seemed to confirm what I read in forums about the order of association starting with the 5 Ghz-2 radio. What I did next will shock and amaze you!

;-)

I switched the Smart Connect Rules - swapped the OOB 5Ghz-2 rules with the 5Ghz-1 rules - making 5 Ghz-1 AC Only! Once I powered up these new rules, a ray of sunshine parted the clouds and illuminated my house, and the Smart Connect rules began working beautifully. All devices connected and spread out across the three radio according to the rules.

I've attached a screen shot of the rules. I did not keep the bandwidth utilization trigger rule that came OOB on the non-AC 5Ghz radio. Mostly to keep things simple to start. I can always add it back in if 5Gz-2 becomes congested.

What rev. firmware are you running?

 

[Hal0gen]

What rev. firmware are you running?

I just got my 3200 a couple days ago. I upgraded the firmware to the latest Asus 3.0.0.4.378.9459. Yesterday my Echo would not connect either. I did what rehf27 said and it connected up right away. The strange thing that I noticed is that nothing seems to connect on 5Ghz-1 radio now. I'll do more testing to be sure but wanted to see if anyone else was having this issue.

 

[Ranger]

Hi

I'm looking at buying one of these, with the hope of being able to get the Smart Connect feature going with some of the suggestions in this thread. However, a deal breaker for me is not being able to manually set the channel(s). Does the Merlin build address this limitation?

Many thanks in advance.

 

[Unicalus]

I can`t listen radio with smart connect, because often reconnection. And second problem - router AC3200 wireless range is not perfect in my house comparing with my cheap D-Link.

 

[willyburz]

Love my AC3200! Just turn off smart connect, and use the wifi analyzer app to dial in the channels manually. Rock solid range, and performance!

 

[jkbmjp]

Merlin has posted a wifi troubleshooting guide here: http://www.snbforums.com/threads/guide-troubleshooting-wifi-issues.12825/

Towards the bottom he suggests setting Wireless -> Professional "Regulation Mode" to 802.11h for 5GHz bands. He shows how to do that through a telnet session by changing NVRAM settings, but it can be done in the webgui on the AC3200.

I changed the "Regulation Mode" on both 5GHz bands to 802.11h and it seems to have helped with the excessive searching for a band on devices on my network, especially Apple devices.

Since you adjusted the "Regulation Mode" on both bands, do you have any disconnects on any of your Apple devices? I use Apple devices and I continue to get STOPPED (err = -3295) network connection has been reset on any Apple device. I can't download an iOS app. Did you make any other adjustments or change any settings to get the Apple devices to work properly?

 

[jkbmjp]

Hi Guys,

I'm new here at the forum, I had the same issue with disconnecting iPAD's and iPhone's.

We have around 20 wifi connected devices and i have been trying out several different settings on my ASUS AC3200

This is the setting that works the best for me... will try to tune it later on... but now at least it does not disconnect the iOS devices all the time...

I have also changed the Key update thing to zero.

I use the latest Merlin firmware 56_2


One question for you. Since you made these adjustments, can you download iOS apps without getting any error messages? I use iOS devices and I have AC3200 running Merlin 56.2 and I continue to get this message: "STOPPED (err = -3295) network connection has been reset". I can't download a single iOS app on any of my Apple devices.

 

[Floriskw]

I just bought the RT-AC3200 and installed HGG's firmware on it. I was scrolling around the settings and found a setting for Smart Connect which let me choose to activate Smart connect for the tri-band or for the 5ghz channels only. I wanted to set this to 5Ghz only and create two SSID's; a 5ghz and a 2.4ghz

This way I can force the 5ghz devices to always be on 5ghz and keep the 2.4 ghz SSID for the older devices that only support 2.4Ghz.
Smart Connect is setup currently(with the settings of rehf27, except for the swap between 5ghz-1 and 5ghz-2) and for example my ac-capable telephone was directed to the 2.4 ghz netwerk and gives me a max of 60mbit/s. As with my old router RT-N66U it could go up to 120mbit/s. My notebook got speeds up to 180mbit/s and now it is stuck at around 100mbit/s. Positive thing: it is connected 5ghz-1 (but is AC capable and I would prefer it to go to 5ghz-2, but probably solved when I wap the OOB rules)

Edit1:
Have 5ghz channels on the Wifi analyzer Android app. All of them are on channel 36.. and guess what... The router has chosen channel 36 as well... :/

Edit2: Was just thinking and for me it would be best to switch the priority around:

1st Priority: 5ghz-2 - AC Only (3 devices)
2nd Priority: 5Ghz-1 AC/N only (8 devices)
3rd Priority: 2.4 Ghz all other devices that are not capable of 5ghz (4 devices)

Anyone have an idea on how to set this up?

I switched the Smart Connect Rules - swapped the OOB 5Ghz-2 rules with the 5Ghz-1 rules - making 5 Ghz-1 AC Only! Once I powered up these new rules, a ray of sunshine parted the clouds and illuminated my house, and the Smart Connect rules began working beautifully. All devices connected and spread out across the three radio according to the rules..

How did you swap the OOB rules between the two channels and making the 5ghz-1 channel AC only?

 

[willyburz]

Are any of these options proven tweak wise, or is it causing other issues, etc.?! My only big complaint now, is that I can't run smart connect, AND hard set my channels! Asus routers still stink at avoiding interference on auto switching!

 

[Dragon]

Are any of these options proven tweak wise, or is it causing other issues, etc.?! My only big complaint now, is that I can't run smart connect, AND hard set my channels! Asus routers still stink at avoiding interference on auto switching!

Yeah, I do wish could hard set the 2.4ghz channel. the 5 ghz ones are fine.. as it basically uses the only channels I think it can here anyway. Though I really haven't been able to work out how this works at all, it certainly isn't managing things quite as I think the rules seem to say should.

 

[adambean]

I was having the same problem. My Echo (in the same room as the router), two Kindle Fire HDX tablets, and two Emerson Sensi thermostats would not connect to the wireless network using Smart Connect. I disabled Smart Connect (ran all three radios under the same SSID) and everything connected fine. I noticed is that the Echo and Kindles connected to 5 Ghz-2 (which in "non smart connect mode" supported ac & n devices). This seemed to confirm what I read in forums about the order of association starting with the 5 Ghz-2 radio. What I did next will shock and amaze you!

;-)

I switched the Smart Connect Rules - swapped the OOB 5Ghz-2 rules with the 5Ghz-1 rules - making 5 Ghz-1 AC Only! Once I powered up these new rules, a ray of sunshine parted the clouds and illuminated my house, and the Smart Connect rules began working beautifully. All devices connected and spread out across the three radio according to the rules.

I've attached a screen shot of the rules. I did not keep the bandwidth utilization trigger rule that came OOB on the non-AC 5Ghz radio. Mostly to keep things simple to start. I can always add it back in if 5Gz-2 becomes congested.

I'm having the same problem with my Amazon Echo; however, I'm on an AC5300. Unfortunately, under 5GHz-2, I can't set the VHT to anything but AC only, except in the last box, I can set all.

 

[ngerasimatos]

I had to disable Smart Connect for my Echo to work. It would not stay connected and was constantly timing out. Same with all of the CHromecast devices in the home. I am running with Smart Connect disabled, and then all of the other bands sharing the same SSID. So far its all been running fine and ill mess with Smart Connect later today when I am not working and dependent on a stable network.

 

[JimBoCA]

I have smart connect on and my chromecasts work fine, but for the Echo I had to use the website on a computer instead of the phone app to reliably set it up.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

[ngerasimatos]

I have smart connect on and my chromecasts work fine, but for the Echo I had to use the website on a computer instead of the phone app to reliably set it up.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

I could set it up, it would just keep disconnecting randomly which was a nightmare since I have SmartThings and TFTT connected to Echo.

 

[ngerasimatos]

I was having the same problem. My Echo (in the same room as the router), two Kindle Fire HDX tablets, and two Emerson Sensi thermostats would not connect to the wireless network using Smart Connect. I disabled Smart Connect (ran all three radios under the same SSID) and everything connected fine. I noticed is that the Echo and Kindles connected to 5 Ghz-2 (which in "non smart connect mode" supported ac & n devices). This seemed to confirm what I read in forums about the order of association starting with the 5 Ghz-2 radio. What I did next will shock and amaze you!

;-)

I switched the Smart Connect Rules - swapped the OOB 5Ghz-2 rules with the 5Ghz-1 rules - making 5 Ghz-1 AC Only! Once I powered up these new rules, a ray of sunshine parted the clouds and illuminated my house, and the Smart Connect rules began working beautifully. All devices connected and spread out across the three radio according to the rules.

I've attached a screen shot of the rules. I did not keep the bandwidth utilization trigger rule that came OOB on the non-AC 5Ghz radio. Mostly to keep things simple to start. I can always add it back in if 5Gz-2 becomes congested.

What exactly does the "Enable Load Balance" do?

 

[DandyDen]

I don't know if this is the right place to ask this. I just bought the RT-AC3200. I currently have it on Smart Connect. But I'm having a few problems with dropped connections with my iPhone 6 and my brother's Samsung Galaxy S6.

My problem is, I'm not too tech savvy but I do know a little bit. Can anyone make any recommendations on how I can resolve these issues?

My smart connect rules are the default.

 

[ngerasimatos]

I don't know if this is the right place to ask this. I just bought the RT-AC3200. I currently have it on Smart Connect. But I'm having a few problems with dropped connections with my iPhone 6 and my brother's Samsung Galaxy S6.

My problem is, I'm not too tech savvy but I do know a little bit. Can anyone make any recommendations on how I can resolve these issues?

My smart connect rules are the default.

Try using the rules posted earlier in this thread. This may fix your issues.

 

[vibroverbus]

Playing around w/ this for a bit I have to say the interface is bloody awful.

The more I work with it is clear the intent is that all the lines in each section are not really intended to be used all at once, and that configs (including the default) with multiple criteria in all 3 levels can be too weird and contradictory to be practically useful and create some unpredictable/undesirable results.

The way I have taken to think of it is - WHICH of the criteria do I want for each area?
- Which primary criteria do I want to trigger steering? Is it high or low signal? or is it a particular data rate? etc. Probably it is not all criteria, at most it is 2...
- Then when steering, which stations do I want to pick? Again - using all the criteria doesn't seem to make sense..
- The last bit about 'where to send them' is more self-explanatory although it could have better functionality to (only option is selecting based on bandwidth...).

But still the fundamental problem is this awful interface and only one rule per interface.

Clearly the ideal would be a steering rule table with a one to many situation where each interface may have more than one rule.
Something like a routing table or list of filter rules. Process rules until you have a hit.

In my case - I want the 2.4G radio only for legacy stuff, and more rarely, let the faster equipment that wanders further away over use 2.4 if need be. I have no use really for the default "N on 5G1 and AC on 5G2" setup. Almost all my 5G devices are AC compatible. I end up with 2 channel router in that case. Sounds good on paper but pointless and stupid in reality as far as I am concerned.

I want to then load-balance the other (2) 5G radios, perhaps prioritizing one or the other 5G radio for 1 or 2 specific streaming clients to some degree and having 'general use' web surfing etc. devices on the other 5G radio.

But as far as I can tell the load balancing doesn't work - seems to just pile all my clients on 5G2.
If I don't use Smart Connect, or, if I don't get the settings right, I get all the devices piled up on 5G2 and/or devices on 2.4G that I don't want there and basically the router does exactly what I don't want it to... As does running w/ Smart Connect off.
As others have said - I am not sure utilization rate works either.
And some configs have locked out my streaming devices (ex: BluRay player) which obv have rudimentary wifi support... much like folks found w/ the Echos... if I don't let it connect to 5G2 it won't connect to anything at all.

Ideally I would write my rules like this
2.4G radio - one rule to steer only 5G clients off when their signal becomes is strong enough. This actually seems to work... trigger on sig strength & data rate, select by data rate... done.
5G1 - one 'range' rule to steer clients to 2.4G if their signal strength drops below a threshold - I could do this alone but conflicts with wanting to have other rules in place...
- one 'load balancing' rule to steer some clients to 5G2 if utilization rate is high and 5G1 utilization is low - Can try to do what should work for this but end up w/ all clients on 5G2
- one 'semi-dedicated' rule to steer specific clients to 5G2 - Can't do this as some competitors can...
5G2 - same rules as 5G1 except to exclude 'load sharing' steering of those same specific clients to 5G1 so they stay on this radio...

The closest I have come is the following... the weird rate numbers around 300 are because my streaming devices seem to be locked into 300Mb rates so that's the one way I can identify them individually... I tend to end up with a few low-rate 5G devices (tablets), plus my 300Mb BlueRay etc. on 5G2, and then the fast high speed 5G computers on 5G1, and just the legacy devices (or a rare roaming-device) on 2.4G... So sorta working the way I want but only after hours and lots of "uh oh device X isn't connecting now) fun and still not happy... with luck lets hope that future firmware makes this whole thing a lot better...

 

[vibroverbus]

By the way, having universal beamforming off and air-time fairness off on the 5G channels seems to make smart connect work more actively. With them on I also was back to the all-devices piled on 2.4 and 5G2, same as w/ no S.C. turned on, and, in fact it seems to push a few super fast 5G clients down to slow 2.4G speeds... So I suspect those features confuse or are in conflict w/ other Smart Connect logic..? Interested in others findings...

 

[Jahanster]

Whenever I change my Smart Connect Rules I noticed that my "Target Band" settings never get saved. It actually removes all my Target Band settings. This is very frustrating. Anyone else experiencing this? I am on the latest firmware 3.0.0.4.378_9529