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How to tell which band backhaul is using & how quick is roaming?

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Brad Isaac

Occasional Visitor
Hi all,

Was curious if there's a way to tell which band is being used by wireless backhaul for AIMesh?

I find my laptop often has periods of 10-15 seconds of network connection loss. I suspect that's due to it roaming between the two stations. But I don't know how fast roaming is with AIMesh. Is 15 seconds too long?

To troubleshoot that, I thought I'd lower transmission power on the 5Ghz band to 50% and see if that prevents the "drift." But lowering transmission power may prevent interoperability between the two routers if it's using 5Ghz for the backhaul.

I am an avid tester, so if you have any other ideas on settings I could try, please let me know.
 
I don't know too much about AiMesh but it would if you gave use your router models and firmware versions.

I seemed to remember reading that at some point Asus changed the way tri-band routers worked when using AiMesh. I think they dedicated one of the 5 GHz bands for backhaul even if your were using wired backhaul but don't quote me on that.
 
Ooops...yeah, I forgot to list the specs. It's a RT-AC68P and RT-AC68U. The RT-AC68P is the main one and the U is the client. just dual radios I think.
 
Backhaul is the same as your clients will connect to as they both dont have a 3rd band for backhaul. It might switch backhaul between 5 and 2.4GHz.
Use fix channels on both bands (test which are the best for you).
 
Backhaul is the same as your clients will connect to as they both dont have a 3rd band for backhaul. It might switch backhaul between 5 and 2.4GHz.
Use fix channels on both bands (test which are the best for you).

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by fix channels on both bands. Do you mean use a tool like inssider to clean up noise, etc? or something else?
 
Roaming needs to be sub-second otherwise you will lose voice on roaming.

ahh good to know. I wonder what's causing my 10-15 second breaks. It's weird because when my laptop goes into a temporary disconnect, I can pick up my ipad and it's perfectly connected.
 
Hi all,

Was curious if there's a way to tell which band is being used by wireless backhaul for AIMesh?

I find my laptop often has periods of 10-15 seconds of network connection loss. I suspect that's due to it roaming between the two stations. But I don't know how fast roaming is with AIMesh. Is 15 seconds too long?

To troubleshoot that, I thought I'd lower transmission power on the 5Ghz band to 50% and see if that prevents the "drift." But lowering transmission power may prevent interoperability between the two routers if it's using 5Ghz for the backhaul.

I am an avid tester, so if you have any other ideas on settings I could try, please let me know.

You can find your router-related MACs listed in the Wireless Log for each band... these are your two backhauls. If the RSSI, and Tx and Rx values (not always matching) look good and better than those for the other band, then that backhaul is probably the one AiMesh prefers (typically the 5.0 GHz backhaul).

Are you using separate SSIDs for each band? Using same SSIDs without Smart Connect node band steering (not on your routers) might introduce issues/delays.

Are you hiding SSIDs? This has been said to delay connection.

How far apart are your routers? Too close might cause some clients to be indecisive.

Is your laptop configured for only one band? It might be connecting but then reconnecting to an equally strong signal on the other band. Some laptop adapters have a setting to keep searching for a better connection, however it might decide what that is. You could also check that you have the latest OEM WiFi adapter driver on that laptop.

Reducing router transmission power would not be my first choice. Instead, you could consider router placement and Roaming Assistant RSSI thresholds as these might relate to WiFi range and overlap.

OE
 
I'm not sure I understand what you mean by fix channels on both bands. Do you mean use a tool like inssider to clean up noise, etc? or something else?
e.g. set 2.4 to ch. 1 and 5GHz to ch. 36 not using autochannel.
It might happen when the router on auto searches for other channels.
 
You can find your router-related MACs listed in the Wireless Log for each band... these are your two backhauls. If the RSSI, and Tx and Rx values (not always matching) look good and better than those for the other band, then that backhaul is probably the one AiMesh prefers (typically the 5.0 GHz backhaul).

Are you using separate SSIDs for each band? Using same SSIDs without Smart Connect node band steering (not on your routers) might introduce issues/delays.

-snip-

How far apart are your routers? Too close might cause some clients to be indecisive.

-snip-


UPDATE: I went in and increased the signal strength to 100% for both bands. I've had them set between 50% and 75% for a year or more. I watched the peer mesh router in the interface. Turns out my laptop DOES float between the routers frequently. It switches every few minutes.

I ran a ping test x 1000 and found that every time it switches, there is only between 100-500 milliseconds of lag for 1 interval. There's no loss of connection at all. It seems to be working perfectly.

So now I think I'm back to square 1. it might be my internet provider dropping connections. But when it happens, I see nothing in the Asus log files to indicate a loss of connection.
 
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