Best combination question

[Jubel]

Hi
I have a Asus RT-AX88U router with 4 PCs XT8 (1 wired and 3 Wireless) aimesh and it works decent. Gets 300-400 Mbit Wireless from 1 Gbit fiber, but RT-AX88U is a dual band router. Will it be better to use one XT8 as an router with the 3 other XT8 in a tri-band system and don't use RT-AX88U? Or use RT-AX88U as an AP where the wired XT8 where placed, and change the XT8 to main router? Just a thought for better speed.

 

[drinkingbird]

Hi
I have a Asus RT-AX88U router with 4 PCs XT8 (1 wired and 3 Wireless) aimesh and it works decent. Gets 300-400 Mbit Wireless from 1 Gbit fiber, but RT-AX88U is a dual band router. Will it be better to use one XT8 as an router with the 3 other XT8 in a tri-band system and don't use RT-AX88U? Or use RT-AX88U as an AP where the wired XT8 where placed, and change the XT8 to main router? Just a thought for better speed.

Wired to the 88 you should have no problem maxing out your 1G fiber. If that isn't the case, time to factory reset and reconfigure by hand.

Wireless to either the 88 or XT8 wired node should be able to get 600 to 800 depending on signal and what your client device is capable of. The wireless nodes will get half that.

Changing them around probably won't make any difference.

Do you really need 5 wireless APs though? You may be hurting your speed and coverage rather than helping it.

EDIT the wireless nodes may be able to do better, just noticed the XT8 is tri-band. So if you're using the 5ghz-2 for wireless backhaul only it may come close to the throughput of the wired backhaul device. But are they wireless backhaul to the main XT8 or to the AX88?

I'd work your way through each device in the path starting with closest to internet, test both wired and wireless and see what performance you get. Could very well be that the 88 just needs a clean start and you'll get your full 1G over wired and close to it over wireless.

 

[Jubel]

Now AX88 is the main router (end of main house) and nearest XT8 is wired backhaul placed at extension of house. The second XT8 uses Wireless backhaul 5ghz-2 to the first wired XT8, placed in same extension of house (bedroom and might be overkill). No. 3 (3 walls from AX88 in my sons room used for gaming and gets around 400 Mbit) main house and no. 4 XT8 is placed furthest away (4 walls from AX88 and gets around 180 Mbit) at the main house and both connect wireless to AX88. I guess no. 3 and 4 can't connect to the first wired XT8 or the nearby wireless XT8 no. 2 cause a thick wall between main and extension house.
Without XT8 nr. 4 ip wireless camera outdoor have trouble connecting to XT8 no. 3.
But why does XT8 no. 4 connect wireless to AX88 in other end of house, when XT8 no. 3 is nearby?

 

[drinkingbird]

Now AX88 is the main router (end of main house) and nearest XT8 is wired backhaul placed at extension of house. The second XT8 uses Wireless backhaul 5ghz-2 to the first wired XT8, placed in same extension of house (bedroom and might be overkill). No. 3 (3 walls from AX88 in my sons room used for gaming and gets around 400 Mbit) main house and no. 4 XT8 is placed furthest away (4 walls from AX88 and gets around 180 Mbit) at the main house and both connect wireless to AX88. I guess no. 3 and 4 can't connect to the first wired XT8 or the nearby wireless XT8 no. 2 cause a thick wall between main and extension house.
Without XT8 nr. 4 ip wireless camera outdoor have trouble connecting to XT8 no. 3.
But why does XT8 no. 4 connect wireless to AX88 in other end of house, when XT8 no. 3 is nearby?

If it connected to #3 it would be limited to 200 megs so it is probably preferring to go "direct". Or due to placement it is just seeing the AX88 as a stronger signal. Are these all in a single AiMesh system? If so I believe you can choose exactly what nodes connect where and how?

In an Aimesh system only one is the "main node", I'm assuming that is the AX88, but you can choose to daisy chain "slave" nodes I believe. Not an aimesh user so not positive how that all works. You're sort of mixing a couple systems together.

But can a wired device connected to the AX88 get full 1G internet (same for a wired device connected to the wired XT8?

I believe someone mentioned that using the WAN port on the XT8 gave half throughput when in AP mode, not sure if that has been fixed or if it applies to AiMesh (which I believe requires you to use the WAN port).

So this is how it is connected?
(Dash for wired, ~ for wireless)

AX88------------XT8-1~~~~~~~~~XT8-2
AX88~~~~~~~XT8-3
AX88~~~~~~~XT8-4

I would think you should be able to go in and specify how they connect assuming it is all one AiMesh system? But a wireless "daisy chain" may be worse than the direct wireless. Maybe it is seeing that the 3rd is already using its second radio for backhaul so not picking that one. I would guess that it would always prefer a direct single wireless link than a dual hop link.

 

[Jubel]

If it connected to #3 it would be limited to 200 megs so it is probably preferring to go "direct". Or due to placement it is just seeing the AX88 as a stronger signal. Are these all in a single AiMesh system? If so I believe you can choose exactly what nodes connect where and how?

In an Aimesh system only one is the "main node", I'm assuming that is the AX88, but you can choose to daisy chain "slave" nodes I believe. Not an aimesh user so not positive how that all works. You're sort of mixing a couple systems together.

But can a wired device connected to the AX88 get full 1G internet (same for a wired device connected to the wired XT8?

I believe someone mentioned that using the WAN port on the XT8 gave half throughput when in AP mode, not sure if that has been fixed or if it applies to AiMesh (which I believe requires you to use the WAN port).

So this is how it is connected?
(Dash for wired, ~ for wireless)

AX88------------XT8-1~~~~~~~~~XT8-2
AX88~~~~~~~XT8-3
AX88~~~~~~~XT8-4

I would think you should be able to go in and specify how they connect assuming it is all one AiMesh system? But a wireless "daisy chain" may be worse than the direct wireless. Maybe it is seeing that the 3rd is already using its second radio for backhaul so not picking that one. I would guess that it would always prefer a direct single wireless link than a dual hop link.

Your drawing of nodes is correct, and I tried manually connect XT8 no. 4 to XT8 no. 3 backhaul but speed got significant worse, so turned no. 4 XT8 back to backhaul AX88 for better speed. I only get 700 Mbit wired to AX88 with a computer, therefore a firmware reset might be in place. I have never did that since I bought it years ago. Found it complicated to setup all settings again with port forwarding, parent settings and DHCP server, but maybe I can save and load settings again.

 

[drinkingbird]

Your drawing of nodes is correct, and I tried manually connect XT8 no. 4 to XT8 no. 3 backhaul but speed got significant worse, so turned no. 4 XT8 back to backhaul AX88 for better speed. I only get 700 Mbit wired to AX88 with a computer, therefore a firmware reset might be in place. I have never did that since I bought it years ago. Found it complicated to setup all settings again with port forwarding, parent settings and DHCP server, but maybe I can save and load settings again.

Do NOT save and load settings again, otherwise it is a total waste of time, you'll just restore the problems. Take screenshots and/or copy and paste stuff only. That's why I say "from scratch".

Parental controls will have an impact, as will QoS, traffic statistics, and AiProtection. I'd recommend starting with basic configs, test your speed, and add stuff like that one by one. Most likely your 88 can handle 1G even with them all enabled but it depends on how much of it you have so you want to test each one.

My guess is Aimesh does not want to "daisy chain" wireless backhaul as like you experienced, it performs pretty badly, that's why it is choosing the 88. Your only other option may be to get the main XT8 hardwired somewhere central (can potentially use MOCA/Coax if ethernet is not an option) then have the other XT8s connect to that wirelessly using the dual radios.

 

[coxhaus]

Don't mess with single point all-in-one routers unless you have no idea how to configure a router or network.

 

[ddaenen1]

Don't mess with single point all-in-one routers unless you have no idea how to configure a router or network.

I get your point but haven't we all been there at one point and didn't we all find out the hard way that there are limitations in terms of performance, stability and reliability with consumer gear? I know that i have and i also know i tinkered around with a Linksys WRT54GS because the damn thing didn't even have one week uptime and sequentially i bought more expensive gear like the ASUS RT-AC88U in my quest to try to get things to work decent and eventually dumped all of that and invested some money in SMB hardware and never looked back. I am sure many of us went through the same learning curve...