RT-AX68U_3004_388.10_0 has put router repeater mode.

[ali.]

Hello, as the title says after upgrading my router to RT-AX68U_3004_388.10_0 it appears as a repeater. The router was part of an Ai Mesh and the other two routers in that setup are working correctly. Resetting AX68U and trying to readd to Ai Mesh has not worked.

Any help is much appreciated.

 

[jksmurf]

Resetting AX68U and trying to readd to Ai Mesh has not worked.

Odd. Keeping things simple for now, as you did not mention it, how exactly did you reset it? Hard reset (highly recommended), not just depress the (often recessed) reset button.

Hard reset: with the power off, hold WPS button, Power on, wait for power LED to come on (might initially be dim, then brighter), wait some more until power LED goes off, then release the WPS button, power off, power on. Then re-add the node. I’ve had embarrassing moments in the past when I held the wrong button (not the WPS button).

If this is all known to you and you’ve done that, and deleted the old one from your primary router, I’m not sure what to suggest. In that case hopefully someone else has had a similar experience.

 

[Tech9]

Any help is much appreciated.

The usual advice - use stock Asuswrt on the nodes.

 

[ali.]

Odd. Keeping things simple for now, as you did not mention it, how exactly did you reset it? Hard reset (highly recommended), not just depress the (often recessed) reset button.

Hard reset: with the power off, hold WPS button, Power on, wait for power LED to come on (might initially be dim, then brighter), wait some more until power LED goes off, then release the WPS button, power off, power on. Then re-add the node. I’ve had embarrassing moments in the past when I held the wrong button (not the WPS button).

If this is all known to you and you’ve done that, and deleted the old one from your primary router, I’m not sure what to suggest. In that case hopefully someone else has had a similar experience.

Thank you very much, this worked like a charm. And now I know how to do the hard reset.

 

[ali.]

The usual advice - use stock Asuswrt on the nodes.

Thanks, have switched to stock for nodes.

 

[Tech9]

Thanks, have switched to stock for nodes.

Did it fix your issue?

 

[octopus]

Thats funny.

Regarding all recommendations to run stock fw on AImesh.
I have never used stock fw on my nodes and it working very fine for many years.
(there are no fw from RMerlin RP-AX58)
Firgot to mention, I use 5GHz wifi backhaul.

 

[ali.]

Did it fix your issue?

@jksmurf's hard reset method allowed me to add the node to the aimesh. After that I took your advice and switched both nodes back to stock firmware. However, I am all good. Thanks.

 

[RMerlin]

Regarding all recommendations to run stock fw on AImesh.
I have never used stock fw on my nodes and it working very fine for many years.

A lot of that is based on outdated information. Years ago, there was an issue that prevented Asuswrt-Merlin nodes from succesfully onboarding nodes over wifi on multiple models (but not all of them), it only worked over Ethernet. The issue was caused by Asuswrt-Merlin not properly updating the wlceventd daemon during GPL merges. The issue was fixed in early 2023.

 

[jksmurf]

Thats funny.

Regarding all recommendations to run stock fw on AImesh.
I have never used stock fw on my nodes and it working very fine for many years.
(there are no fw from RWerlin RP-AX58)
Firgot to mention, I use 5GHz wifi backhaul.

I’ve used both, not found any difference personally. For me, whoever FW, it’s about doing the hard reset to connect.

Currently using Merlin where Router supports it, just for a couple of nice utilities really, FW updates on remote devices, disk check etc. If you have no use for anything like that stock is just fine.

 

[Tech9]

Thats funny.

I remember well past AiMesh on Asuswrt-Merlin related events. Many hours time in testing, describing scenarios, reporting issues, being called names, etc. Asuswrt-Merlin Wiki was claiming 100% AiMesh compatibility, but it wasn't true. The information there was outdated, from AiMesh 1.0 time. Current situation - support related thing plus politics complications.

Main goal AiMesh - stock Asuswrt on all units, supported by ASUS, Feedback Form available in firmware.
AiMesh on Asuswrt-Merlin - supported by no one and folks usually brushed off with "closed source ASUS thing".

The closest unmodified AiMesh experience is Asuswrt. Since Asuswrt-Merlin is used for ASUS marketing purposes as well - don't expect fast issue disclosure. The previous wide spread AiMesh issue in Asuswrt-Merlin was unrecognized and denied for a long time until too many folks started complaining and finally ASUS got involved in the fix. So use at your own risk and YMMV.