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Multicast with AIMesh

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cputoaster

Occasional Visitor
I have the following setup (all routers on merlin 384.19, double lines are cables):
Code:
Mesh 2   AX88U WLAN --- Relay R .58
           II
           II
Mesh 1   AX88U WLAN --- Relay R2 .55
               Switch === Server S .2
           II
           II
Router   AX88U WLAN --- Contact C .65
               Switch === Internet Modem === Provider

The problem is that I don't seem to get some multicast messages sent by R or C on S, but I do get the ones from R2.

Sniffing on the router shows traffic from all of them, R, R2, C (tcpdump -vv -s 0 -X -i br0 udp port 5683).
Sniffing on S shows only traffic from devices on Mesh1 like R2.

Ideas? Should I try disabling in IGMP snooping / proxy in the file mentioned here http://www.snbforums.com/threads/igmp-snooping-multicast-forwarding-on-ax-routers.58245/post-511973 ?
As traffic from the wifi multicast senders does seem to arrive at the router, it seems like disabling IGMP snooping on the wireless settings are not going to change things. But also, Mesh1 does not seem to filter the messages out to the switch if they arrive on the same node via wifi.
How / where does filtering happen, and where / on which nodes do changes in the mcpd.conf config take effect?
 
To partially answer my own question: It looks like the server S did not correctly join the multicast group. Manually adding the group address to the interface (via ip addr add ... autojoin) seems to make all respective traffic appear on the interface.
 
I just changed the configuration by inserting a new AX56U mesh router because of weak signals:

Code:
Mesh M1  AX88U WLAN --- Device B .55
               Switch === Server S .2
           II
           II
Router R AX88U WLAN --- Mesh M3 AX56U WLAN --- Device C .64
                Switch === Internet Modem === Provider
           II
           II
Mesh M2  AX88U WLAN --- Device A .58

Now I cannot see any multicast messages sent by C on R or S, but I can see IGMP reports from C to the multicast group on R and S. I can see messages from A and B on R and S though.
I tried with IGMP proxy on and off in IPTV settings, but I believe this only matters for multicast coming via the WAN port of the router, not in the internal network.
It looks like the problem could be around having multicast over a wireless AiMesh link? I do run Merlin on the routers, but AIMesh is proprietary tech, so I don't really know where to ask about it. Maybe someone has a similar config?
 
perhaps someone would be so kind as to explain why there's a switch between the master/router and the gateway/modem?
my ISP provided a router/modem combo unit that I bridged and disabled wifi on, so it technically has a switch available in roughly the same place, but I'm not grokking how that would be a benefit to a SOHO network.
(what I'm really looking for an answer to is whether I can make mesh node and master router connect through a switch rather than a direct cable connection)
(another question I'd like an answer to is if I can tether a mobile device to a node, and use that as the 2nd WAN source in case of main ISP failure; that node is closer/has direct line of sight to my provider's cell tower, and has a window near it - master router in the mesh is centralised and behind several walls)
 
In my setup, I meant the switch of the Asus router, not an additional piece of equipment. Your question about adding switches in between should probably work as long as they don't do any magic filtering.
 
I don't think so either, but I put it out there to hopefully hear from people who unequivocally DO know.
I'd also like an opinion on whether connecting a node to the master/hub router in a mesh should have a backup/redundant wired connection; Asus only wants the connection into the WAN port of a node, but what about a "loopback" or "backup" between ports on the routers' switches? (I'd guess you'd need to enable Spanning Tree Protocol on all the APs)

I rather wish there was a definitive AiMesh Setup thread stickied and closed off to mods only with Best Practices.
 

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