Does Roaming Assistant Not Work Anymore ?

[ComputerSteve]

I have a GT-AX11000 Pro on Merlin firmware 3006.102.4 and I’m noticing that changing the values to any value for roaming assistant seem to do nothing. I don’t see anything in the logs. In older firmwares I would see mention of the service but I never see it at all mentioned and none of my devices roam. I was reading online that the new WiFi drivers killed roaming assistant.. is this true ? That apparently it’s only working correctly on certain dual band models?

 

[Tech9]

It wasn't working reliably with some 3004 firmware versions as well.

 

[ComputerSteve]

Ok so is it working or not ? meaning because there is really no official word on that.. Meaning if you look it up it doesn't say that it isn't working. It says it's still a feature and that it works. I had to like dig for this information.

 

[bennor]

@ComputerSteve, what other AP's, wireless repeaters or AiMesh nodes do you have on your local network in addition to the GT-AX11000 Pro running Asus-Merlin 3006.102.4?

[Wireless Router] How to enable the Roaming Assistant? | Official Support | ASUS Global

Roaming Assistant feature:
In network configurations which involve multiple Access Points (AP) or wireless repeaters, clients with wireless devices sometimes cannot automatically connect to the best available AP because their device is still connecting to the main wireless router. Enable the Roaming Assistant feature so the client's device will automatically disconnect from the main wireless router if the signal strength is under specific threshold and it will connect to a stronger signal.

 

[ComputerSteve]

@ComputerSteve, what other AP's, wireless repeaters or AiMesh nodes do you have on your local network in addition to the GT-AX11000 Pro running Asus-Merlin 3006.102.4?

[Wireless Router] How to enable the Roaming Assistant? | Official Support | ASUS Global

I have tried with XT9's and XT8's with the GT-AX11000 Pro as the main router.. It never seems to work. Meaning I never see anything mentioned in the logs about roaming assistant at all.

 

[bennor]

I have tried with XT9's and XT8's with the GT-AX11000 Pro as the main router.. It never seems to work. Meaning I never see anything mentioned in the logs about roaming assistant at all.

Usually Roaming Assistant entries shows up in the logs as roamast. On a RT-AX86U Pro that defaulted to having Roaming Assistant enabled. No AP, AiMesh or Wireless Extenders on the local network the following is indicated, from time to time, in the system log.

Jun 26 17:25:41 roamast: ROAMING Start...

A wild guess but it is also possible the WiFi client itself is refusing to obey the router's Roaming Assistant settings and forcing itself to remain connected to the main router. Or perhaps the wireless clients are not reaching the threshold to trigger Roaming Assistant.

 

[ComputerSteve]

Usually Roaming Assistant entries shows up in the logs as roamast. On a RT-AX86U Pro that defaulted to having Roaming Assistant enabled. No AP, AiMesh or Wireless Extenders on the local network the following is indicated, from time to time, in the system log.

Jun 26 17:25:41 roamast: ROAMING Start...

A wild guess but it is also possible the WiFi client itself is refusing to obey the router's Roaming Assistant settings and forcing itself to remain connected to the main router. Or perhaps the wireless clients are not reaching the threshold to trigger Roaming Assistant.

Thats what I'm saying: I have not seen any roamast in the logs with the most current firmware ::: I have two setups // 1 setup is a GT-AX11000 on firmware 3004.388.9_2 with XT8 nodes and another is a GT-AX11000 Pro on firmware 3006.102.4 with XT8 Nodes but I tried XT9 nodes as well as EBM68's with the same result !

 

[bennor]

Thats what I'm saying: I have not seen any roamast in the logs with the most current firmware ::: I have two setups // 1 setup is a GT-AX11000 on firmware 3004.388.9_2 with XT8 nodes and another is a GT-AX11000 Pro on firmware 3006.102.4 with XT8 Nodes but I tried XT9 nodes as well as EBM68's with the same result !

Out of curiosity do you have Smart Connect enabled or disabled on the main router? Wonder if that plays a role when enabled. WiFi client might be jumping to the other main router band rather than jumping to the node, AP or WiFi extender (or maybe not and has nothing to do with the issue).

 

[ComputerSteve]

Out of curiosity do you have Smart Connect enabled or disabled on the main router? Wonder if that plays a role when enabled. WiFi client might be jumping to the other main router band rather than jumping to the node, AP or WiFi extender (or maybe not and has nothing to do with the issue).

I tried both ways ! It didn’t change anything.

 

[Tech9]

A wild guess but it is also possible the WiFi client itself is refusing to obey the router's Roaming Assistant settings

The wireless log will have disconnection and re-connection messages in this case. I have tested AiMesh some time ago on different firmware versions and router models (3004.386/388) and also found Roaming Assistant not working quite often. Perhaps wireless drivers used in firmware related issue. And I test with Asuswrt only so it's not Asuswrt-Merlin related issue. As usual - wait for update and hope for the best.

 

[ComputerSteve]

Right but I have not noticed it not working for a few updates... I mean thats like major functionality. @RMerlin is there any updates to this meaning is it not working on certain firmwares cause of drivers ? or is it supposed to be working ? It basically means theres now no roaming when using Aimesh just the roaming that the device decides to do.

 

[Tech9]

Switching to another AP is a client decision always, actually. Multi-AP system can only help making the decision by using 802.11k/v/r, Minimum RSSI, Tx Power adjustment, etc. when the client supports the additional roaming assist features.

 

[ComputerSteve]

Ok but Roaming assistant is supposed to help correct ?

 

[Tech9]

In theory - Yes. It's what Asus calls the Minimum RSSI. The biggest issue with AiMesh is in inability to control individual node Tx Power and by default Asus routers come with Performance setting or "shout as loud as you can". Last time I checked adjusting Tx Power on the main router doesn't change anything on the nodes.