RP-AC55 aimesh 2.0 (thus FW 386.x)

[Krism]

Anyone knows wether the RP-AC55 will get aimesh 2.0 support and thus running the 386.x firmware?

 

[chichow]

I honestly doubt it.

1) The RP-AC55 is the only repeater that supports AiMesh. None of the other ones do.
2) It is Realtek chipset so any Aimesh 2.0 work that Asus would have to do would be only applicable to this one model as opposed to their AiMesh 2.0 development on the Broadcomm chipset on the routers

 

[Krism]

I honestly doubt it.

1) The RP-AC55 is the only repeater that supports AiMesh. None of the other ones do.
2) It is Realtek chipset so any Aimesh 2.0 work that Asus would have to do would be only applicable to this one model as opposed to their AiMesh 2.0 development on the Broadcomm chipset on the routers

I hope they do because aimesh is the way asus wants to go.

 

[brobin]

I cannot recommend the RP-AC55 as an AiMesh mode. I started my AiMesh adventure with a pair of RT-AC1750 B1 routers as a primary and node. I still had some areas that needed signal so I added a couple of RP-AC55's with upgraded FW and they were recognized and worked as nodes. All the nodes were connected by Ethernet - no WiFi backhaul and it's turned off. However, we had frequent WiFi dropouts from all 3 nodes which did not please my wife who streams audiobooks constantly. WiFi backhaul was even worse. I was ready to jump ship and try another brand.
The primary is located in a wiring closet at one end of the house. The three nodes were all on the first floor with the AC1750 B1 node in a central location and the AC55's in an office and the master bedroom.
I had another RT-AC1750 B1 as a spare so this past weekend I turned off the two AC55's and installed the third AC1750 B1 in a central location on the 2nd floor. It's only been two days but there have been no dropouts noticed and my wife would not be shy in reporting any. In fact, I've asked her about it several times and gotten a thumbs up - which is much better than other hand signal! This leads me to the conclusion that the RP-AC55's are not ready for prime time as AiMesh modes. I would like nothing more than to be wrong about this so any thoughts are welcome.

 

[Krism]

I must be lucky with my rp-ac55 as I don't have any wifi drops. So still hopes for aimesh 2

 

[Domdus]

Maybe just a rumor - I read that the RP-AC55 does not play nice with the higher 5GHz channels - above channel 64. I use channel 36 and set fixed channels and width for both bands (2.4G -> CH1, 20MHz) (5G -> CH36, 80MHz).
Try to not set wifi settings to automatic, otherwise if the main router changes the spec it needs to be synced to the Node/RP - causing a wifi restart and (more) connection drops on the nodes.

Meanwhile I wired all nodes for the backhaul, it seems essential to get stability, especially for the RP. (Wireless backhaul was unusable)

 

[brobin]

Thanks for that info. I'd read about using the lower channels and set it to 48, 80MHz from the outset but then went to wired backhaul only as it was unstable. Unfortunately, wired backhaul wasn't much better. I'm now 3 days into using a third RT-AC1750 B1 and no RP-AC55's and not a hiccup. If it remains that way I'll probably just do a factory reset on the RP-AC55's and put them up on ebay. With the coverage I have now I really don't need them anyway.

 

[jasons]

So I found this thread as I'm struggling to get my RP-AC55 set up as an aimesh node.

I'm using the ZenWifi XT8 as my main router, which is on a firmware ending in .386, and is 'aimesh 2.0'. The repeater is only on .384, and is therefore, it seems, 'aimesh 1.0'?

Would that potentially be the cause of my issues? I've reset the thing a hundred times, but when I go to 'add a mesh node' from the web GUI, it searches forever and never finds my repeater.

I'm about ready to give the thing back, but thought I'd see if anyone had had success with it before I do.

Thanks!

 

[Krism]

I have a rt-ax86 as main router also running .386 and the rp-ac55 running .384 and didn't have any issues. Did you try with cable or only wireless?

 

[Domdus]

It should definitely work with .386 vs. .384. But only wired backhaul works stable for me.

Make sure you have WPS enabled on the router for adding a new node.

 

[jasons]

I’ve only tried wireless because my final setup will be wireless… can/should I set it up wired and then remove the wire to put it in its final spot? Or would setting it up wired only be setting it up for a wired final use?

 

[Domdus]

You can set up on both ways, wired or wireless and sure you can use it as you want at the final location.
For the onboarding process AiMesh uses wifi and it strictly requires WPS to be turned on.
I never tested if WPS can be disabled after the onboarding process..?

Especially with the RP-AC55 and wireless backhaul I had big trouble (weird IP collisions taking down the whole network), that forced me to use a cable as the fix. The wireless backhaul connection itself was not a problem and may would have been stable.

 

[brobin]

First do a factory reset on the RP-AC55 then plug it in near the router and find it from the AiMesh screen.

 

[jasons]

Thank y’all, plugging it in was the trick. Thought that would force me into wired backhaul, but it does not, and I’ve got it up and running.

Honestly, pretty amazed the ASUS documentation doesn’t spell this out! If not for this forum I think I would have sent it back!

 

[brobin]

Here's the RP-AC55 AiMesh documentation that is provided as separate, hard to read sheet in the box.

 

[jasons]

Here's the RP-AC55 AiMesh documentation that is provided as separate, hard to read sheet in the box.

Yeah that only says they should be close, but my system wouldn’t find the RP-AC55 until I actually connected it to the main router with an Ethernet cable.

 

[FunkMasterSquirrel]

Yeah that only says they should be close, but my system wouldn’t find the RP-AC55 until I actually connected it to the main router with an Ethernet cable.

I am also running Asus-Merlin .386 on a RT-AC68U. Purchased and received today the RP-AC55 which upgraded to the fullest to .384 firmware and had the same problem. Once I hardwired the RP-AC55 to the RT-AC68U it recognized it, configured and is working as intended.

I specifically created an account here as a long time lurker to confirm this did work for me as well!