Connection recommendation (ac68u+ac86u)

[freebil]

Hello. I want to share one internet connection to 3 apartments. Every apartment is at its own floor. I have a provider modem, an rt-ac68u and an rt-ac86u ordered. The current configuration without the ac86u is:

Floor 2 -> Internet line with provider modem in bridge mode + rt-ac68u as router (Signal very good)
Floor 1 -> Nothing (Signal good)
Floor 0 -> Nothing (Very bad signal, almost cant connect any device).
** There is a utp cable from floor 2 and floor 0. **

I would like to have one ssid for all floors. I live in floor 0, so I would like to have the best connection and capabilities in floor 0. So, I would like to have ac86u in floor 0. What is the best network configuration for me? I think of 2 configurations.

Case 1:
Floor 2 -> Internet line with provider modem in bridge mode + rt-ac68u as router
Floor 1 -> Nothing
Floor 0 -> Ac86u in AP mode
** Ac68u and ac86u are connected with utp cable.**

Case 2:
Floor 2 -> Internet line with provider modem in bridge mode + rt-ac68u as aiMesh router
Floor 1 -> Nothing
Floor 0 -> Ac86u as aiMesh node.
** Ac68u and ac86u are connected with utp cable.**

Is aiMesh solution good? I read that aiMesh is used if you want roaming, but the signal from 2nd floor to 0th floor is very bad, so roaming cant help. Roaming helps if I am on floor 0 and go to floor 1 and want continuous connection. Is this correct? This is not the case for me.

Is case 1 the best? Can you thing anything better? Thank you very much!

 

[Robinbb]

Hi Freebil - I don't have an answer, but:
* My bias is towards an AP rather than Mesh (which I have a number of issues with). But, overall management would be simpler with Mesh.
* I wonder why you would use bridge mode as I believe that access to the bridge could be a pain if you want to adjust it - but at least using it would let you make use of the Asus Firewall and AiProtection. Why put the provider modem in the loop (is it HFC that you are connecting to?)?
* Are there different households on each level - do you want or need different SSIDs?
* You don't need Mesh to roam. https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/basics/wireless-basics/33180-how-to-fix-wi-fi-roaming

 

[OzarkEdge]

Hello. I want to share one internet connection to 3 apartments. Every apartment is at its own floor. I have a provider modem, an rt-ac68u and an rt-ac86u ordered. The current configuration without the ac86u is:

Floor 2 -> Internet line with provider modem in bridge mode + rt-ac68u as router (Signal very good)
Floor 1 -> Nothing (Signal good)
Floor 0 -> Nothing (Very bad signal, almost cant connect any device).
** There is a utp cable from floor 2 and floor 0. **

I would like to have one ssid for all floors. I live in floor 0, so I would like to have the best connection and capabilities in floor 0. So, I would like to have ac86u in floor 0. What is the best network configuration for me? I think of 2 configurations.

Case 1:
Floor 2 -> Internet line with provider modem in bridge mode + rt-ac68u as router
Floor 1 -> Nothing
Floor 0 -> Ac86u in AP mode
** Ac68u and ac86u are connected with utp cable.**

Case 2:
Floor 2 -> Internet line with provider modem in bridge mode + rt-ac68u as aiMesh router
Floor 1 -> Nothing
Floor 0 -> Ac86u as aiMesh node.
** Ac68u and ac86u are connected with utp cable.**

Is aiMesh solution good? I read that aiMesh is used if you want roaming, but the signal from 2nd floor to 0th floor is very bad, so roaming cant help. Roaming helps if I am on floor 0 and go to floor 1 and want continuous connection. Is this correct? This is not the case for me.

Is case 1 the best? Can you thing anything better? Thank you very much!

What is the Category rating of the UTP cable between Floor 2 and Floor 0?

I suggest you try the AC86U as AiMesh router/root node on Floor 2, and the AC68U as wired AiMesh remote node on Floor 0. Later, you can upgrade the AC68U to another AC86U... and if Floor 1 feels left out, give them the AC68U as wireless AiMesh remote node (or keep it as a backup router since you are supporting 3 households with this network).

The 86U as router/root node will make a stronger network for all. Being high over Floor 1 and with about 20% more effective WiFi coverage than the 68U, it will better serve WiFi to Floor 1.

The wired 68U will serve Floor 0 a Gigabit LAN and a "very good signal". This will likely be sufficient service for you. If Floor 0 is at ground level, an 86U might serve more WiFi outside, which may or may not be desirable.

Since the 68U does not support Smart Connect node band steering, I would disable Smart Connect on the 86U and set different SSIDs for each band and fixed channels... for more predictable/stable WiFi. With AiMesh for example, all nodes will broadcast WLANs freebil-24 on the same 2.4 channel, and WLANs freebil-50 on the same 5.0 channel. Also, using different SSIDs will make it easier to support/troubleshoot client connections for 3 households. See my install notes for a basic configuration.

AiMesh 2.0 is in beta now and will add some features to your network. Watch this thread to learn more:

Beta - ASUSWRT 386 RC2 public beta with full functions AiMesh 2.0 (continued)

Update on 2021/1/29 This version changed the DNSmasq version to 2.84 to fix CVE-2020-25681, CVE-2020-25682, CVE-2020-25683, CVE-2020-25687, CVE-2020-25684, CVE-2020-25685, CVE-2020-25686 aka DNSpooq https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1TW9JXxWpM-qmgGv2BixibkACVki-9g1Q?usp=sharing The share...

www.snbforums.com

Note that AiMesh 1.0 supports guest WLANs on the router/root node only. AiMesh 2.0 will support guest WLANs on all nodes.

OE

 

[freebil]

Hi Freebil - I don't have an answer, but:
* My bias is towards an AP rather than Mesh (which I have a number of issues with). But, overall management would be simpler with Mesh.
* I wonder why you would use bridge mode as I believe that access to the bridge could be a pain if you want to adjust it - but at least using it would let you make use of the Asus Firewall and AiProtection. Why put the provider modem in the loop (is it HFC that you are connecting to?)?
* Are there different households on each level - do you want or need different SSIDs?
* You don't need Mesh to roam. https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/basics/wireless-basics/33180-how-to-fix-wi-fi-roaming

Thanks for the answer.
* I use bridge mode to use the asus router for routing and not the provider modem-router for routing. Is there a better configuration?
* Each level has one household. I would like one SSID for 2.4Ghz and one for 5Ghz.

What is the Category rating of the UTP cable between Floor 2 and Floor 0?

I suggest you try the AC86U as AiMesh router/root node on Floor 2, and the AC68U as wired AiMesh remote node on Floor 0. Later, you can upgrade the AC68U to another AC86U... and if Floor 1 feels left out, give them the AC68U as wireless AiMesh remote node (or keep it as a backup router since you are supporting 3 households with this network).

The 86U as router/root node will make a stronger network for all. Being high over Floor 1 and with about 20% more effective WiFi coverage than the 68U, it will better serve WiFi to Floor 1.

The wired 68U will serve Floor 0 a Gigabit LAN and a "very good signal". This will likely be sufficient service for you. If Floor 0 is at ground level, an 86U might serve more WiFi outside, which may or may not be desirable.

Since the 68U does not support Smart Connect node band steering, I would disable Smart Connect on the 86U and set different SSIDs for each band and fixed channels... for more predictable/stable WiFi. With AiMesh for example, all nodes will broadcast WLANs freebil-24 on the same 2.4 channel, and WLANs freebil-50 on the same 5.0 channel. Also, using different SSIDs will make it easier to support/troubleshoot client connections for 3 households. See my install notes for a basic configuration.

AiMesh 2.0 is in beta now and will add some features to your network. Watch this thread to learn more:

Beta - ASUSWRT 386 RC2 public beta with full functions AiMesh 2.0 (continued)

Update on 2021/1/29 This version changed the DNSmasq version to 2.84 to fix CVE-2020-25681, CVE-2020-25682, CVE-2020-25683, CVE-2020-25687, CVE-2020-25684, CVE-2020-25685, CVE-2020-25686 aka DNSpooq https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1TW9JXxWpM-qmgGv2BixibkACVki-9g1Q?usp=sharing The share...

www.snbforums.com

Note that AiMesh 1.0 supports guest WLANs on the router/root node only. AiMesh 2.0 will support guest WLANs on all nodes.

OE

Thanks for the answer.
* The cable is cat5e. I think it is enough for gigabit network. Am I wrong? The vdsl connection is only 50Mbps here but I have a gigabit NAS and I would like the best possible speeds.

What are the functions that I lose if I use ac68u as main aiMesh router and ac86u as a node?

 

[OzarkEdge]

* The cable is cat5e. I think it is enough for gigabit network. Am I wrong? The vdsl connection is only 50Mbps here but I have a gigabit NAS and I would like the best possible speeds.

What are the functions that I lose if I use ac68u as main aiMesh router and ac86u as a node?

Cat5e is good.

The AC86U is stronger hardware all around, so it would make a stronger network/mesh router and serve stronger WiFi down to Floor 1. Using it as an AP/remote node to switch LAN and WLAN clients will not demand as much of it. There's a chance Floor 1 wireless clients will prefer the stronger 86U signal coming from Floor 0, putting all of Floor 1 and Floor 0 traffic on the one wired backhaul.

Asus recommends using the highest spec router as the AiMesh router/root node. Try it either way!

OE