Media bride on a network without another asus router?

[johntitor]

i think i'd only go for that for future proofing at home. My ISP only just got 2.5gbps

 

[Tech9]

At home I use 4x AC Wave 2 APs and have no plans to replace them any soon. Most clients are 2-stream - AC can do up to 600Mbps, AX up to 850Mbps. I can regularly transfer files to my NAS with steady >60MB/sec. Upgrade for what exactly reason? I also get my full 500Mbps ISP speed to clients. No plans to upgrade the ISP any time soon either. Family of 4 - usual bandwidth doesn't exceed 150Mbps. Few spikes here and there.

 

[tgl]

Media Bridge is what Asus calls the Wireless Bridge in other routers. It works with any Wi-Fi network.

You would think ... but I've tried twice to use an XT8 as media bridge from a Zyxel AP, and it was unusably unstable both times. Unfortunately my notes aren't totally clear about which firmware version I tried that with the first time --- it might have been 42095. The second time was 49873. I'm sure that that is not a situation that ASUS tests, considering they don't seem to be able to get it right even in all-ASUS configurations.

 

[Tech9]

You would think ...

That's why I've said once frequent firmware updates are not necessarily a good thing - endless beta testing.

Media Bridge on AC68U is not very stable on all firmware versions. You have to experiment what works and doesn't require reboots.

 

[johntitor]

Oh that brings up another question i had, is it better to run on media bridges on stock asus firmware or go for merline or something custom?

 

[Tech9]

Keep it on stock. No need for 3rd party firmware. Run Asuswrt 386_49703 and see how it goes.

 

[johntitor]

Keep it on stock. No need for 3rd party firmware. Run Asuswrt 386_49703 and see how it goes.

Perfect upgraded to that when i had it in front of me earlier, before having to go out.

 

[tgl]

Keep it on stock.

Yeah, if you are running it as a bridge you certainly don't need the features that Merlin brings. You just need to find a F/W version that is stable in your use-case.

I only piped up because for me, the exact same node and F/W version that doesn't work with a Zyxel AP is perfectly stable with an ASUS AP. Who knows why ... but it does matter what you use it with.

 

[johntitor]

who knows i might have a issue too, i'll be testing against a eero

Yeah, if you are running it as a bridge you certainly don't need the features that Merlin brings. You just need to find a F/W version that is stable in your use-case.

I only piped up because for me, the exact same node and F/W version that doesn't work with a Zyxel AP is perfectly stable with an ASUS AP. Who knows why ... but it does matter what you use it with.

 

[wouterv]

My advice for an Asus router as Media Bridge is to manually do the IP settings.
Maybe my advice is based on an old firmware glitch in the old RT-N66U which appears to random loose dynamic assigned IP settings. Since then I set the Media Bridge (nowadays a RT-AC1900U) with these settings:

Most other settings can be left default, maybe you want the clock to be accurate then set the right time zone stuff too.
Media Bridge is nothing more than a wireless adapter in a box, it works on any WiFi.

[EDIT]
In above the router (a RT-AC68U) is 192.168.1.1 and is the Default Gateway and DNS Server for the local network, the IP Pool Starting address in the router is set to 192.168.1.3

 

[johntitor]

So I seem to have it set up
How do i get back to the admin page after setting up the media bridge
that I would say is my only issue.

Also how does it pick what ssid to connect to? I saw basically 4 on setup of the media bridge (2 per eero beacon) and I basically rebooted the ones i didn't want so i can pick a 5ghz band on the eero pro i have. But I wonder if it'll swap to a ssid with a better range or if its able to differentiate between them with mac adress or something? Not sure if its got some logic like that going on in the background

 

[johntitor]

Well just answered that last question. on reboot it hopped to another mesh beacon that was closer.

 

[Tech9]

How do i get back to the admin page after setting up the media bridge

One possible way:

[ASUS Device Discovery] How to find the IP address of your wireless router or AP from Windows system? | Official Support | ASUS Global

 

[johntitor]

Will try this in a bit on my desktop. I feel like my eero app may show me the ip address as well

 

[Tech9]

I feel like my eero app may show me the ip address as well

Probably. There are many ways to find the IP:

- main router client list
- Device Discovery tool
- try all the IPs in DHCP range

 

[johntitor]

So hypothetically if i had a stronger antenna on my ac68u, could i get faster speeds if i'm far from the main router.

 

[tgl]

So hypothetically if i had a stronger antenna on my ac68u, could i get faster speeds if i'm far from the main router.

It's been a long time since EE classes, but ... AIUI there's no such thing as a "stronger" antenna. Total radiated power is what the AP puts into the antenna, and you can't increase that (at least, not without getting the authorities mad at you). What there is is more directional antennas. That is, the antenna doesn't have to radiate equally in all directions; it can be designed to push more signal in some directions and less in others. Even for that, the WiFi regulations usually limit how much directional gain you can have. (They don't want you wrecking your neighbor's WiFi service by sending your whole allowed output in a narrow direction.)

If you've got one of the sorts of routers that have movable antennas sticking out in all directions, then those antennas are already directional, and the manufacturer is expecting you to experiment and get the antennas pointed in useful directions. In any case, replacing the factory antenna(s) isn't an exercise I'd recommend. The RF hardware in a modern AP is designed with specific antennas in mind, and is unlikely to work better with other ones.

 

[johntitor]

Ah right i forgot about that i remember there was regulatory rules around how much power you can pump into the antenna . Remember learning that with the old custom firmware i put on my old linksys routers as a kid lol

 

[Tech9]

then those antennas are already directional

Mostly marketing directed. See the antenna gain on GT-AX11000 router:

RTHR00 Wireless-AX11000 Tri-band Gigabit Router, ROG Rapture Tri-band Gaming Router Test Report 5G ASUSTeK Computer

Wireless-AX11000 Tri-band Gigabit Router, ROG Rapture Tri-band Gaming Router Test Report 5G details for FCC ID MSQ-RTHR00 made by ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Document Includes Test Report Test Report 5G

fccid.io

 

[wouterv]

So I seem to have it set up
How do i get back to the admin page after setting up the media bridge
that I would say is my only issue.

Also how does it pick what ssid to connect to? I saw basically 4 on setup of the media bridge (2 per eero beacon) and I basically rebooted the ones i didn't want so i can pick a 5ghz band on the eero pro i have. But I wonder if it'll swap to a ssid with a better range or if its able to differentiate between them with mac adress or something? Not sure if its got some logic like that going on in the background

If you set up the Media Bridge like I did mine, the Media Bridge has a fixed address, in my case 192.168.1.2
Use (in my case) 192.168.1.2 to open the admin page of the Media Bridge, no need for searching.

Change or set the SSID it connects to goes from the Main page:

Click the Media Bridge circle and at the right you get a Rescan option.
After selecting that you can scan or manually type in an SSID.