Client bridge/WiFi backhaul possible on ac86u?

[roguetr]

Hey all,

Just a quick question, excluding WDS and AiMesh, is it possible to use 2.4Ghz as backhaul to another internet router and still advertise 5Ghz locally?

Thanks

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[roguetr]

Ok, it looks like the repeater mode actually does this, you connect the two routers via 2.4Ghz and the 5Ghz gets advertised locally. Is this correct? I just assumed it was a generic repeater mode

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[roguetr]

It rebroadcasts the 2.4Ghz so I'd assume that performance won't be optimal to the primary router but that's an acceptable trade off for 5Ghz clients to have internet and full speed access to locally wired devices, which is my primary requirement.

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[Klueless]

If it's doing what you think it's doing then I'd say it's a great idea/solution. I've not done this with Asus but I've done it with other devices and it's good.

If it's a wired AP the "rebroadcast" to the router happens over a high speed / low latency Ethernet cable. If it was a single band wireless repeater then the "rebroadcast" to the router happens on the same radio that your clients use meaning that the radio is unavailable to clients half the time. By using a 2nd radio to talk with the router you've eliminated the "halving". You have done a good thing!

 

[roguetr]

Thanks for elaborating, I'm aware repeating/rebroadcasting shares the same radio as opposed to extending which is why I mentioned the degradation ... but it's worth mentioning for anyone else who might come across this.

What you've suggested is what I've done in the past with other routers, and was hoping that's what media bridge mode would accomplish but media bridge mode disables broadcasting the spare band not in use.

Repeater mode on this particular dual band router allows you to select one band for backhaul (2.4Ghz) but also rebroadcasts that same band, luckily for my use case, the main objective is the lowest possible latency between a 5Ghz WiFi device and a wired laptop whilst having internet available, namely for authentication purposes.

Any impact on throughput from repeating the 2.4Ghz band won't have any negative impact in my scenario.

I would be curious as to whether the Tri band routers (like my ac5300) allow for a band dedicated to backhaul. I actually thought that was already possible on Merlin with a dual band router.

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