RT-AC68U - AiMesh - Instability

[BlueOrbit]

Running three RT-AC68U routers with the latest FW. One is the main router and two others are configured as AiMesh Nodes. On one node I have my media devices connected to LAN ports. I noticed that when watching Netflix (NVIDIA Shield TV connected to the AiMesh Node LAN port) connection becomes unstable (slow, occasional drops) and buffering starts to be noticeable after about an hour of watching Netflix. Others in the household also complain about unstable WiFi connectivity (frequent drops, speed issues).

I have never experienced these issues before AiMesh. Was running one router as Media Bridge with great results. Thinking about going back to the old setup.

Anyone else experiencing instability with AiMesh? Perhaps it will take time for the FW to become stable.

 

[arthurlien]

Running three RT-AC68U routers with the latest FW. One is the main router and two others are configured as AiMesh Nodes. On one node I have my media devices connected to LAN ports. I noticed that when watching Netflix (NVIDIA Shield TV connected to the AiMesh Node LAN port) connection becomes unstable (slow, occasional drops) and buffering starts to be noticeable after about an hour of watching Netflix. Others in the household also complain about unstable WiFi connectivity (frequent drops, speed issues).

I have never experienced these issues before AiMesh. Was running one router as Media Bridge with great results. Thinking about going back to the old setup.

Anyone else experiencing instability with AiMesh? Perhaps it will take time for the FW to become stable.

before you use latest FW, which FW version you used? Can you try try to reset default ?

 

[BlueOrbit]

before you use latest FW, which FW version you used? Can you try try to reset default ?

I am using version 3.0.0.4.384_20287, will try to reset to default and restore the router from backup.

 

[visortgw]

Running three RT-AC68U routers with the latest FW. One is the main router and two others are configured as AiMesh Nodes. On one node I have my media devices connected to LAN ports. I noticed that when watching Netflix (NVIDIA Shield TV connected to the AiMesh Node LAN port) connection becomes unstable (slow, occasional drops) and buffering starts to be noticeable after about an hour of watching Netflix. Others in the household also complain about unstable WiFi connectivity (frequent drops, speed issues).

I have never experienced these issues before AiMesh. Was running one router as Media Bridge with great results. Thinking about going back to the old setup.

Anyone else experiencing instability with AiMesh? Perhaps it will take time for the FW to become stable.

Take a look at this, which details configuration changes that others and I made to stabilize AiMesh (NOTE: Multi-User MIMO does not apply to RT-AC68U.):

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/o...-supported-products.43125/page-38#post-377234​

BTW, I am running latest AiMesh firmware 3.0.0.4.384.20287 released on Friday...

 

[BlueOrbit]

Take a look at this, which details configuration changes that others and I made to stabilize AiMesh (NOTE: Multi-User MIMO does not apply to RT-AC68U.):

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/o...-supported-products.43125/page-38#post-377234​

BTW, I am running latest AiMesh firmware 3.0.0.4.384.20287 released on Friday...

Thanks for the reply. Do we have a consensus that changes in these settings do make AiMesh more stable?

I reset the main router to "Factory Default", then restored a backup of my settings. Will report after some usage to see if this made a difference.

 

[maxbraketorque]

Thanks for the reply. Do we have a consensus that changes in these settings do make AiMesh more stable?

I reset the main router to "Factory Default", then restored a backup of my settings. Will report after some usage to see if this made a difference.

The recommended method is to reset to factory default and then manually enter all settings. This prevents anything that might be incorrectly written to the prior settings from getting propagated into the new settings. Its a bit of a PITA.

 

[BlueOrbit]

The recommended method is to reset to factory default and then manually enter all settings. This prevents anything that might be incorrectly written to the prior settings from getting propagated into the new settings. Its a bit of a PITA.

Thanks, will do...

 

[KevTech]

Thinking about going back to the old setup.

That is what I did.

Tried AiMesh but did not like it so went back to media bridge.

 

[visortgw]

Thanks for the reply. Do we have a consensus that changes in these settings do make AiMesh more stable?

I reset the main router to "Factory Default", then restored a backup of my settings. Will report after some usage to see if this made a difference.

Definitely made a HUGE positive impact for my network. YMMV...

 

[BlueOrbit]

Definitely made a HUGE positive impact for my network. YMMV...

Great, can you explain why these settings make a difference? Would like to understand how they impact performance and stability of the AiMesh. Thanks!

 

[BlueOrbit]

A quick update. I did everything suggested in this thread:

• Reset the router to factory settings, entered all new settings manually, without restoring from a previous backup
• Reset and added two AiMesh Nodes
• Changed Wireless Professional settings (Airtime Fairness = Disabled, Explicit Beamforming = Enabled, Universal Beamforming = Disabled)

I seem to have a lot more stability as a result. Will report back if I run into further issues.

Thanks for all the help!

 

[BlueOrbit]

Well, I spoke too soon. After further testing over the last few days, I am still experiencing random disconnects of devices and Mesh Nodes. For now, I disconnected AiMesh and went back to the router and media bridge setup, which runs without issues.

 

[arthurlien]

Well, I spoke too soon. After further testing over the last few days, I am still experiencing random disconnects of devices and Mesh Nodes. For now, I disconnected AiMesh and went back to the router and media bridge setup, which runs without issues.

Could you provide system log for me ?

 

[BlueOrbit]

Could you provide system log for me ?

I rearranged the nodes and reset everything when I went back to Router / Media Bridge setup, so I don't have the correct AiMesh logs at the moment. But, when I try AiMesh again, I will be sure to keep the logs and share them with you.

Thanks for all your help!

 

[Satellite 13]

I am also experiencing the dropping of mesh nodes as well as some degradation in service. I check every morning via the app to see if I have all my nodes. Currently I have 4 RT-AC68U devices. 1 is the main router and the other 3 are mesh nodes. I am running the most current firmware on all 4 of the devices 3.0.0.4.384_20308-gead790e. It seems to always be the same to nodes, basement and 2nd floor, with the farthest node, garage, never dropping. They all report good signal strength. Next time they drop I can download the logs for review. I am going to make the changes that visortgw posted tonight. I will report back.

 

[Satellite 13]

Well I checked this AM and sure enough I had lost 1 mesh node. App shows it offline but all visual indicators on the router itself show it online. In the past power cycle fixes it and it comes back into the mesh. All I had time to do this morning was download the syslogs. I looked at it breifly this morning and it looks like it's reporting low signal strength but it always shows full strength when I check. The farthest node has never dropped and this would be the closest node.

 

[DaveMishSr]

I have 2 RT-AC3100's so I have no dog in this fight but I can relay my overall experience. I upgraded & tried to do so without a reset and manual reconfiguration. That did not go so well. So do yourselves a favor and initialize. Then reenter your setting manually. It is actually goes pretty painless if you can do it over several days. Too many users come into these forums looking for an answer to their problem that does not involve a reset and manual reconfiguration. So sorry.

Now for my experience. I went from Merlin 385.0 to 384.21045 without a reset and guess what happened? Disaster. As soon as I initialized my router and then manually reentered my settings all was fine. One thing I did find out was that IGMP sniffing does not play well with AiMesh in my application. As soon as I disabled it the issues that I was having with immediately ceased. The mesh stopped being a douche by sending clients to nodes on the other side of the house if they could connect at all. As soon as I reset and did the manual thing all was fine.

The moral of this story, don't be like me.