Hard or Software Issue? What's your vote?

[router346]

Hello,

I have an AC-3100 and a bunch of smart home devices in the house. Twice a month the following happens.

I'll get a notification that my smartthings hub can't reach the internet and that all my other wireless devices are not connected to wifi including my laptop. So i went to my desktop which is a wired connection and sure enough the internet works. Went back to my laptop and I can see the wifinetwork but it says it can't connect to both the 2.4ghz and the 5ghz.

If i restart the router the problem is resolved upon restart and my smart home devices reconnect.

It's driving me nuts because when my smart home devices disconnect and im away from the house I can't easily restart the router to get all the smart home devices back online.

The router is not under warranty anymore. I've tried firmware upgrades/downgrades and also factory resets but no luck. I have 2 of these routers im using with the AI-mesh and don't know if this is messing up my wifi. The frequency of around 2 to 3 times a month is also driving me nuts cause i can't figure out what would cause this...

Hardware or software?

 

[L&LD]

AiMesh is flakey. Works for some, not for others.

How big is the home that you need two RT-AC3100's? See my post about the RT-AC3100 in my signature below to see what kind of performance it can deliver.

How many wireless devices in total do you have connected at any one time (maximum)?

What firmware do you have installed and running? When you installed it, did you use (restore) a backup configuration file to the router(s)? Did you reset the router(s) to factory defaults after jumping back and forth between firmware?

We won't be able to say one way or another at this point if it is hardware or software.

But you first have to put the routers in a good/known state to rule out the firmware/software side first.

See my links in my signature below on how to get your routers in a good known state.

I would also recommend flashing to the latest RMerlin firmware (many bug fixes!), but note that AiMess is not included on that Asuswrt fork.

Lastly, depending on how many wireless devices you have connected, I may suggest that a single RT-AC3100 that is optimally placed will give you better, overall, network performance.

Come back with some answers for us and maybe even a quick sketch of the layout of your home.

More information is always better than less.

 

[router346]

Thanks for the feedback. I thought about removing the ai-mesh too just for testing purposes and running with a single one. The house is about 3500sqft / 325m2 and the router is in the basement under a set of stairs which is why i'm using the mesh with another router that is on the upper floor. I have direct fiber from my ISP into my house which leads to where all the other phone/ eletrical panels are under this set of stairs... not idea place for a router so just leaving it where it is won't really work. The tv's in the house all are running off a wifi box so getting 4k netflix would require a strong single (again, the reason for the mesh) so sadly i don't think i can test it without the mesh unless i use a different ssid for the basement devices and another for the upstairs...

I was looking at the new AX11000 as an option to use a single point ... do you think the new wifi-6 802.11ax coverage might be enough?

 

[L&LD]

Thanks for the feedback. I thought about removing the ai-mesh too just for testing purposes and running with a single one. The house is about 3500sqft / 325m2 and the router is in the basement under a set of stairs which is why i'm using the mesh with another router that is on the upper floor. I have direct fiber from my ISP into my house which leads to where all the other phone/ eletrical panels are under this set of stairs... not idea place for a router so just leaving it where it is won't really work. The tv's in the house all are running off a wifi box so getting 4k netflix would require a strong single (again, the reason for the mesh) so sadly i don't think i can test it without the mesh unless i use a different ssid for the basement devices and another for the upstairs...

I was looking at the new AX11000 as an option to use a single point ... do you think the new wifi-6 802.11ax coverage might be enough?

You're welcome. Did you read the RT-AC3100 Report link in my signature below?

Have you actually tried running just one router? Even the one under the stairs? I realize that not all homes/construction is the same, but it may be better than you expect?

Are you able to relocate the router to a more central location? Do you have a more central location where there are at least 2 Ethernet cable runs there (for WAN and at least one LAN for the router)?

You should be able to at least use one router with the radios off and the other router as a pure AP (this one being in an optimum location), right?

You didn't say how many wireless devices you have connected.

You also didn't say if the router is in a good/known state (at least at the time of the last firmware upgrade).

Once again, which firmware version, specifically, are you running? And did you do a full reset afterward with a minimal and manual configuration (no restoring a saved config file) to secure the router and connect to your ISP (M&M Config, for details, please see my signature and links below)?

Finally, what customizations and/or features do you enable on the router(s) other than AiMesh?