Labour recommendation for AIMesh 2xAX86U and 1xAX88U

[SchneiderIS]

I have a Asus AIMesh configuration setup with one AX88U and two AX86U's. My gig fibre comes into the detached garage where one router is placed as the primary. The other two routers are then setup as AIMesh nodes in the home with one on the main floor and the other in the basement. The home is a 1350 square foot bungalow on the main floor (close to the same in the basement but with lots of concrete and metal to cause interference). The home and the garage are well insulated so when devices connect to the garage router instead of the home one (even when the garage is an extra ~20 feet away as well as through the insulated walls) I am scratching my head. In some testing I am doing now it may very well be that the main floor router is failing making the following less of a concern, but still question that I would appreciate help with.

Current Layout:

• Primary router in the garage - AX88U
• Node in house on main floor - AX86U
• Node in house basement - AX86U

Alternate Layout:

• Primary router in the garage - AX86U
• Node in house on main floor - AX88U
• Node in house basement - AX86U

The reason is primarily because I am having issues with WiFi devices not getting the performance from the Current Layout, and on several occasions finding my phone and tablet connecting to the garage AX88U unit. As noted, the garage unit is ~20 feet further away and goes through 2 insulated walls. The home unit is also more prone to being used for heavier WiFi traffic. In the past I was advised that the AX88U would be better in the garage as the AX86U had a stronger signal.

Would the Alternate Layout make more sense?

 

[drinkingbird]

I have a Asus AIMesh configuration setup with one AX88U and two AX86U's. My gig fibre comes into the detached garage where one router is placed as the primary. The other two routers are then setup as AIMesh nodes in the home with one on the main floor and the other in the basement. The home is a 1350 square foot bungalow on the main floor (close to the same in the basement but with lots of concrete and metal to cause interference). The home and the garage are well insulated so when devices connect to the garage router instead of the home one (even when the garage is an extra ~20 feet away as well as through the insulated walls) I am scratching my head. In some testing I am doing now it may very well be that the main floor router is failing making the following less of a concern, but still question that I would appreciate help with.

Current Layout:

• Primary router in the garage - AX88U
• Node in house on main floor - AX86U
• Node in house basement - AX86U

Alternate Layout:

• Primary router in the garage - AX86U
• Node in house on main floor - AX88U
• Node in house basement - AX86U

The reason is primarily because I am having issues with WiFi devices not getting the performance from the Current Layout, and on several occasions finding my phone and tablet connecting to the garage AX88U unit. As noted, the garage unit is ~20 feet further away and goes through 2 insulated walls. The home unit is also more prone to being used for heavier WiFi traffic. In the past I was advised that the AX88U would be better in the garage as the AX86U had a stronger signal.

Would the Alternate Layout make more sense?

This is a common challenge with any multiple AP setup. You can try setting the roaming assistant on the garage to be very strict, like -50 or -60 and that may help, as would decreasing the power output on the garage unit (the radios that aren't serving the wireless backhaul anyway). You should be able to leave 5ghz at full power (I'm assuming that's what you're using for the backhaul) as I doubt clients are preferring that over the 2.4 at that distance. Another option is to use a different SSID on the garage, for devices that need to use both you can have both SSIDs in there (which won't help those devices unfortunately as they'll have the same issue, so still need roaming assistant) and for ones that only need to use one or the other, you can just put that one in. You can also use the MAC filter to prevent devices that never need to connect to the garage from using that one.

The issue you're having could be a few things
-Device connects to the garage when you're outside or close to a window and "sticks" not wanting to let go. That is what roaming assistant is meant to try and overcome.
-The node(s) are using DFS space and having to change channels or scan, during which time the home devices connect to the garage, and then won't let go.
-House node is dying or has other issues
-Probably a few I'm not thinking of

Switching which model is in which place isn't going to do anything (unless one router is dying). I'm surprised the basement node is working well at all since it has to connect to the garage.

Do you even need a node in the basement? I have a 3 story 1250 sq ft per floor and the AP on the 3rd floor and the basement gets great coverage.

If you suspect the main floor may be failing, you could just swap it with the basement one and see if it changes anything.

 

[SchneiderIS]

If you suspect the main floor may be failing, you could just swap it with the basement one and see if it changes anything.

Thanks for the quick reply @drinkingbird.

I should have mentioned that the nodes both have Ethernet backhauls to the primary. Of additional note is that I have an extensive home automation setup.

Switching the basement and main floor units appears to be doing the trick right now. Both are nodes and the same model. If this continues to work then I am going to assume the one that was on the main floor, and is now in the basement, is failing.

 

[drinkingbird]

Thanks for the quick reply @drinkingbird.

I should have mentioned that the nodes both have Ethernet backhauls to the primary. Of additional note is that I have an extensive home automation setup.

Switching the basement and main floor units appears to be doing the trick right now. Both are nodes and the same model. If this continues to work then I am going to assume the one that was on the main floor, and is now in the basement, is failing.

Ah ok I was assuming wireless due to detached garage (which is why I was surprised the basement one was working at all).

Just shut the basement one off and see if everything works ok with just the one node in the house, you may be surprised. I guess if you have dozens of IOT devices then splitting them up may be necessary, but in that case you'd want separate SSIDs to make sure they stick to one or the other anyway. But if the one node is in fact failing, you've probably been working fine off a single one anyway.

The fact that you have wired backhaul means you can really set the radios in the garage to be low power and very strict about disconnecting clients when signal is low (unless you're using the garage to cover the yard or something, but the house one could probably do that just as well, possibly better).

 

[SchneiderIS]

@drinkingbird,

Turning the basement one off is my next test. It is likely going to happen as I think it is going to be sent off to ASUS under warranty. Having switched it and now not having the poor performance that I was seeing with the former main floor. I had done a factory reset of the original main floor unit and performance was good for about 10 minutes before it declined again.

I am still wondering about using the AX88U in the house. My understanding is that the 88 has has a higher throughput than the 86, which would support more devices such as laptops and tablets with less impact.

 

[drinkingbird]

@drinkingbird,

Turning the basement one off is my next test. It is likely going to happen as I think it is going to be sent off to ASUS under warranty. Having switched it and now not having the poor performance that I was seeing with the former main floor. I had done a factory reset of the original main floor unit and performance was good for about 10 minutes before it declined again.

I am still wondering about using the AX88U in the house. My understanding is that the 88 has has a higher throughput than the 86, which would support more devices such as laptops and tablets with less impact.

Same routers, 86 gives you a 2.5G port where the 88 gives you 4 extra 1G ports instead. 86 is actually newer but mostly identical. Same CPU, same wireless radios, etc.

So unless you need 2.5G WAN for your internet (or more 1G ports in the house) no reason to swap them.

 

[SchneiderIS]

Thanks @drinkingbird, good to know. I think they are going to remain in place then.

 

[VladimirMoura]

I have a Asus AIMesh configuration setup with one AX88U and two AX86U's. My gig fibre comes into the detached garage where one router is placed as the primary. The other two routers are then setup as AIMesh nodes in the home with one on the main floor and the other in the basement. The home is a 1350 square foot bungalow on the main floor (close to the same in the basement but with lots of concrete and metal to cause interference). The home and the garage are well insulated so when devices connect to the garage router instead of the home one (even when the garage is an extra ~20 feet away as well as through the insulated walls) I am scratching my head. In some testing I am doing now it may very well be that the main floor router is failing making the following less of a concern, but still question that I would appreciate help with.

Current Layout:

• Primary router in the garage - AX88U
• Node in house on main floor - AX86U
• Node in house basement - AX86U

Alternate Layout:

• Primary router in the garage - AX86U
• Node in house on main floor - AX88U
• Node in house basement - AX86U

The reason is primarily because I am having issues with WiFi devices not getting the performance from the Current Layout, and on several occasions finding my phone and tablet connecting to the garage AX88U unit. As noted, the garage unit is ~20 feet further away and goes through 2 insulated walls. The home unit is also more prone to being used for heavier WiFi traffic. In the past I was advised that the AX88U would be better in the garage as the AX86U had a stronger signal.

Would the Alternate Layout make more sense?

Hi
I have the same routers. First I tried RT-AX88U as main router and I had range problems because with wifi range. I did speed test with both ax88u and ax86u. i notice that ax86u has better wifi range than ax88u. I Changed the main router to ax86u. Now everything is perfect. Main router ax86u with 2 nodes....ax88u and other ax86u. PS. One node is wired backhaul (ax86u) and another one is wifi backhaul.(ax88u)

 

[SchneiderIS]

@VladimirMoura, thanks for your reply. It sounds like the main ax86u is the one closest to the WiFi action for you, or is the ax88u handling the highest load?

 

[VladimirMoura]

@VladimirMoura, thanks for your reply. It sounds like the main ax86u is the one closest to the WiFi action for you, or is the ax88u handling the highest load?

When I used ax88u as main router, the node without cable (ax86u) had bad wifi speed due to weak signal from ax88u.
When I reversed the routers, due to the better signal from the ax86u, I also had better internet speed from the node.
There is no relation with the load of the ax88u

 

[drinkingbird]

When I used ax88u as main router, the node without cable (ax86u) had bad wifi speed due to weak signal from ax88u.
When I reversed the routers, due to the better signal from the ax86u, I also had better internet speed from the node.
There is no relation with the load of the ax88u

View attachment 49210


View attachment 49209

I think they are the same radios/chipset but not sure. Could be the 88 has a partially faulty radio, or the antenna design is slightly different. Who knows.

 

[VladimirMoura]

I think they are the same radios/chipset but not sure. Could be the 88 has a partially faulty radio, or the antenna design is slightly different. Who knows.

I agree. I don’t know why but in all tests that I did with both as single router, without node, the ax86u had better speed and signal when I was far from the router.
In short, in real life ax88 is a good router, but ax86 is a little better.

 

[SchneiderIS]

When I used ax88u as main router, the node without cable (ax86u) had bad wifi speed due to weak signal from ax88u.
When I reversed the routers, due to the better signal from the ax86u, I also had better internet speed from the node.
There is no relation with the load of the ax88u

View attachment 49210


View attachment 49209

Odd. I wouldn't think that a switch like this would make a difference given that both units still need to exchange data on both TX and RX. It could be that the TX from the 88u is failing (as @drinkingbird I think is saying) as that would likely be more active for most communications.