AX88U and XT8 mesh stays on 2.4ghz : (

[smekl]

Hey,

I recently bought a XT8 and connected it to my main router AX-88U.
there is no ethernet overhaul. just wifi. and it stays at 2.4ghz with low bandwidth.. there is not such a big distance between the nodes.
the XT8 is placed near my PC, and my PC gets better internet with a wifi pcie card connected directly to the main router (AX-88U).

why would the mesh stay on 2.4ghz and how can I diagnose the issue?
with the wifi pcie card I get 300-400 mbit/s easily, with the mesh network i get 50-60 mbit/s.

Appreciate any help,
Thanks!

Edit:
I now connected the XT8 2cm away from the AX-88U and still it connect only on 2.4Ghz. idea?

 

[bbunge]

Hey,

I recently bought a XT8 and connected it to my main router AX-88U.
there is no ethernet overhaul. just wifi. and it stays at 2.4ghz with low bandwidth.. there is not such a big distance between the nodes.
the XT8 is placed near my PC, and my PC gets better internet with a wifi pcie card connected directly to the main router (AX-88U).

why would the mesh stay on 2.4ghz and how can I diagnose the issue?
with the wifi pcie card I get 300-400 mbit/s easily, with the mesh network i get 50-60 mbit/s.

Appreciate any help,
Thanks!

Edit:
I now connected the XT8 2cm away from the AX-88U and still it connect only on 2.4Ghz. idea?

What are your WIFI settings on the AX88U?

 

[smekl]

I solved the problem.
turns out that since XT8 is TriBand and AX88U is Dual Band, you need to have the XT8 as the main router of the mesh network.
this way, the XT8 allocates 5GHz-2 as the backhaul wireless connection.
otherwise if AX88U is the main router it will use 2.4Ghz as wireless backhaul..

 

[Tech9]

You had incorrect settings. This is not how AiMesh works. You're not the only one with this hardware. Now you have the slower router as Main on your network. This is wrong even as per Asus recommendations.

 

[smekl]

what are the correct settings though?
I didn't set anything special on the AX88u, I had it reset to factory settings before trying it as main router

really interested to know what "incorrect settings" means in that context.
I never really set anything, just added a new mesh node to the network, no other setting was changed,
so if this is against Asus's own recommendation, why wouldn't it work properly in the first place...
also, why did it work once I set the XT8 as main router?

many questions...
more importantly, my internet is now stable and blazing fast, sounds good to me,
but if you could elaborate more on the settings issue, tell me what are the "correct" settings, I would love to know more and learn

thanks

 

[kildare]

XT8 and RT-AX88U have a different wifi specs:
XT8 is a tri-band with a 5GHz-1 2x2 and a 5GHz-2 4x4
RT-AX88U is a dual-band with only one 5GHz 4x4

When you connect an RT-AX88U as an AiMesh node to an XT8 (main), the backhaul is likely established between the XT8 5GHz-2 and the RT-AX88U 5GHz.
In this situation the RT-AX88U 5GHz band might not be easily available for wifi clients if the backhaul SSID is hidden or its password is very complicated.
The XT8 conversely uses the 5GHz-1 band (max 80 MHz bandwidth) for wifi clients which is freely configurable (anyway, other configurations for the XT8 AiMesh are possible, but using a max 80 MHz bandwidth for the backhaul and a max 160 MHz bandwidth for clients in usually nonsensical, except in particular configurations).

IMHO sharing the backhaul with many wifi clients is not a good idea, as the 5GHz bandwith might be automatically adapted and reduced because of old/poor/far 5GHz clients not supporting such a wide bandwith, so for creating an AiMesh network is better to use all tri-band nodes with a 5GHz band dedicated only to the backhaul.

 

[Tech9]

what are the correct settings though?

RT-AX88U with shared 5GHz wireless backhaul to ZenWiFi XT8. No too many options.

 

[smekl]

thank you for the

XT8 and RT-AX88U have a different wifi specs:
XT8 is a tri-band with a 5GHz-1 2x2 and a 5GHz-2 4x4
RT-AX88U is a dual-band with only one 5GHz 4x4

When you connect an RT-AX88U as an AiMesh node to an XT8 (main), the backhaul is likely established between the XT8 5GHz-2 and the RT-AX88U 5GHz.
In this situation the RT-AX88U 5GHz band might not be easily available for wifi clients if the backhaul SSID is hidden or its password is very complicated.
The XT8 conversely uses the 5GHz-1 band (max 80 MHz bandwidth) for wifi clients which is freely configurable (anyway, other configurations for the XT8 AiMesh are possible, but using a max 80 MHz bandwidth for the backhaul and a max 160 MHz bandwidth for clients in usually nonsensical, except in particular configurations).

IMHO sharing the backhaul with many wifi clients is not a good idea, as the 5GHz bandwith might be automatically adapted and reduced because of old/poor/far 5GHz clients not supporting such a wide bandwith, so for creating an AiMesh network is better to use all tri-band nodes with a 5GHz band dedicated only to the backhaul.

thank you for the kind and detailed response
I should be fine with RT-AX88U not functioning for clients on 5Ghz, it is okay in my scenerio.
the two routers are close enough that devices which require 5Ghz can successfully connect to XT8 without any noticable performance loss what so ever.

 

[Tech9]

the two routers are close enough that devices which require 5Ghz can successfully connect to XT8

You don't need this extra node then. More routers don't make your Wi-Fi better.

 

[smekl]

You don't need this extra node then. More routers don't make your Wi-Fi better.

thanks for the tip I'll be sure to think about it