What's new

RT-AX58U with RT-AC68 AiMesh

  • SNBForums Code of Conduct

    SNBForums is a community for everyone, no matter what their level of experience.

    Please be tolerant and patient of others, especially newcomers. We are all here to share and learn!

    The rules are simple: Be patient, be nice, be helpful or be gone!

jata

Senior Member
I have been using a RT-AX58U with latest merlin for a while now and it is working great. I also have a RT-AC68U just arrived today and my plan is to set it up as an mesh node. I know mesh 2.0 is coming soon but I want to start with all on the stable merlin release.

This is my plan:

1. leave AX58U as is - very happy with it and don't want to change it!
2. flash AC68U with latest merlin stable
3. factory reset AC68U using WPS button
4. place AC68U near to the main router and configure as mesh node on wi-fi
5. move AC68U to preferred location and connect via ethernet to WAN port

I wanted both routers to run Merlin but I have read there might be issues with the initial connection/setup. Does anyone have any tips/suggestions?
 
Your plan seems sound. Follow your own steps 1-5 and after it is configured and has rebooted once on its own, reboot it once more at 15 minutes of uptime and when you power it down and move it to the location you want it to be used at, reboot it once more after an additional hour or so of uptime. Those last two steps give me the most stable AiMesh for wired or wireless nodes.
 
thanks for the quick response - much appreciated. will report back once completed.
 
All working. Happy with performance over wi-fi. Working better than over ethernet (powerline so not proper ethernet).

So the steps above work fine with AX58U as main router and AC68U as mesh node - both running merlin 384.19
 
unfortunately I seem to have a few issues with the AC68U as the mesh node... Everything seems stable and fine then I lose internet on all devices connecting through the node. everything looks fine and I can ping devices on the LAN (but not internet/WAN).

only fix is to reboot the node...

Anyone else have this issue?
 
did you ever got this fixed I have the same issue with same router as node. So wanted to know if you were able to resolve it.
 
Yes. I did a full factory reset and configured new on the main router. Then added node over wifi and working great for last 3weeks.

so my issue was with the main router not the node.
 
I have been so happy that I bought another ax58u as a second node. Also working perfectly
 
oh ok ! my main router is a new one just out of box. Don't want to go through factory reset and then reconfigure all the devices again.
 
Understand but if you have the same issue then you need to resolve it sooner or later.

you can backup your settings and go back if doing a new setup doesn’t fix the issue
 
hmm that make sense, is there a tutorial that can tell me how to backup settings and use it ?
I am new to this so trying to learn.
 
Do you have any scripts installed or just Merlin firmware + standard config?

if you have standard and simple config, just go to admin section of router GUI and there is a tab to backup settings.

It’s a bit more tricky if you have scripts (eg via amtm) installed
 
Okay. It’s a bit more tricky but not impossible to backup and restore when you have scripts. However, if you think the USB drive is part of issue, I would just take the hit and setup everything new. It doesn’t take a huge amount of time.

my recommendation is to do a new minimum config and then add the node. Make sure all is good and stable before progressively adding the usb, swap, scripts.
 
Have you taken a look at your log to see if there are any specific faults or errors that are occurring?

I found that my AI Mesh node was dropping offline and manually assigning it an IP address seems to have fixed that issue. It's only been about a week, so I wouldn't call it definitive yet, but I'm optimistic it will remain connected.
 
hi, i had tmobile ac1900, and was planning to purchase ax58u to make an AiMesh.

but i read somewhere that tmo ac1900 can't be used in AiMesh. Is that correct? is there an easy way to make it work? i dont want to spend hours with customs firmware to make that work,.

i am ok to purchase ac68u (used) to make AiMesh with ax58u.
but, can i do that with Asus firmware? without having to install custom firmware?
if not, which custom firmware is easier to deal with for a 'relatively' tech-savvy person?

thx in advance.
 
yes - AC68U will work fine as a node with AX58U. No need to install any custom firmware but I would always recommend merlin as it is an 'enhanced' version of the stock asus firmware.

but... AC68U is getting very old and so it might be better to get a newer router as the node (also can be used as a spare main router if the main one fails.

So keep a look out for deals on the newer AX routers (e.g. AX56U) or the AC86U
 

Similar threads

Latest threads

Sign Up For SNBForums Daily Digest

Get an update of what's new every day delivered to your mailbox. Sign up here!
Top