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RT-AX82U headache with smart home (google nest speakers)

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Saffeb

New Around Here
Hey guys!

I've just recently gone from using a standard router from my ISP (technicolor tgxxx) to venturing into the ASUS AX series. I did this to increase performance particularly on my wi-fi as I grew tired of connecting a wire to my laptop each time I wanted to have stability & latency gamingwise.
My set up is as follows:
3 iphones
1 macbook
2 win10-computers
1 ipad
7 google speakers (6 always online, 1 online once every week or so)
6 smart plugs (configured as lights in google home app)
2 tv's
2 chromecasts
A total of 22-24 clients connected simultaneously

All devices are within 10 meters of the router.
Wooden or plaster as walls

Bought an RT AX-58u. It turns out though, problems were quick to arrive. Specifically, with my smart plugs and my google nest speakers.

First of all, dual band just didn't work at all. I could not see speakers when trying to set them up, and the smart plugs did not connect. AP Isolation you say? Disabled from start so couldn't have been a cause.

No problem! I'll just go for different SSID's! Problem solved, or so I thought. Speakers now connected, but smart plugs were nowhere to be found in google home app or smart plug app. (Everything has always connected to DHCP and received an IP address)

Trying a few different set ups within the settings panel, finally I found a few settings that made both smart plugs and speakers visible in apps (although achieved by lowering modulation scheme to "up to mcs 7" which in turn meant low bandwith).
Problem solved?
No!
I was now faced with the extremely annoying issue of speakers and smart plugs randomly deciding not to work. Now, smart plugs intermittently just wouldn't function correctly, and I couldn't play more than one speaker at the time or the speakers also intermittently re-connects.

Having troubleshooted in absurdum I DOA'd the router and went for its big brother, AX82u.

Out of the box, (with separate SSID's) all speakers and plugs connected (2,4Ghz), and worked.
Or so I thought.
It's been 1 week now, and the situation now is as follows:
Since yesterday, 1 or 2 smart plug, very rarely, intermittently stops responding
When playing on all speakers, intermittently, the speakers re-connects/synchronizes (not isolated to a specific speaker, it rotates randomly between all 6)

Kind of going crazy over here. Is ASUS just not a functioning router with this many devices or what is the issue?
 
Last edited:
Welcome to the forums @Saffeb.

Neither of those routers would be recommended by most here.

I would consider the following routers, along with RMerlin firmware too.

Not saying it will 100% solve any of your issues, but these models are what have the highest success, reliability, and dependability rates on these forums, for most.

Current Order of Recommended Routers Late 2021

[Wireless] ASUS router Hard Factory Reset | Official Support | ASUS Global

Fully Reset / Best Practice Setup / More

Almost all L&LD Links


The above links may also be helpful to getting your router/network in a good/known state.
 
Welcome to the forums @Saffeb.

Neither of those routers would be recommended by most here.

I would consider the following routers, along with RMerlin firmware too.

Not saying it will 100% solve any of your issues, but these models are what have the highest success, reliability, and dependability rates on these forums, for most.

Current Order of Recommended Routers Late 2021

[Wireless] ASUS router Hard Factory Reset | Official Support | ASUS Global

Fully Reset / Best Practice Setup / More

Almost all L&LD Links


The above links may also be helpful to getting your router/network in a good/known state.

Hi & Thanks for the response!

I do understand there would be best practices in both hardware chocie as well as software settings.
Since this is the second asus router I'm testing with I'm pretty much at the point where if it does not work this time with either troubleshooting or trying your configuration set ups I'll just go to another brand. I just find it really difficult to acknowledge the fact that any router of any kind should have these kind of errors.

I'll give your best practice setups a go and revert

Is there a merlin version for my specific router mentioned above? AX82u
 
Yes, there is an RMerlin fork for your router by @GNUton.
 
Hi all!
Long time but I finally found a potential cause for the issues. Attached is a sketch of my apartment.

Black circles = google nests
Red rectangle = router
Green circle = google nest that is unpowered 99% of the time.

Everything works well and I have no jitters or intermittent drops or anything when I turn off the google nest that is closest to the router, just on the other side of the wall.
I find it a bit weird it should be an issue, but apparently it must distort or create interference for the entire system being so close to the router.

Ah well, this will do for now. :)
Thanks


1660552989851.png
 
I had similar issues with AiMesh and my nine Googel speakers so this might help:

1. If you use Smart Connect this causes issues for Google speakers when the router decides to move them between 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz. To get round this, either turn off smart Connect which will create a separate network login for each fequency band, and stick to one band for the speakers. If you want to use Smart Connect (I do) then go on the browser version of the Asus Router software and select "Wireless" then use the "Wireless Mac Filter" tab to force the Google speakers to either the 5Ghz or 2.4Ghz bands. Currently I have them all on 2.4Ghz which involved setting a filter to reject 5Ghz and then allocating the speakers to this filter from the drop-down list, and then clicking 'apply'.

2. If you are using AiMesh, another thing that will cause problems with Google speakers is when the router reallocates a speaker from one node to another - which it might from time to time for load balancing. To stop this I used the used the Asus mobile app and set the speakers to bind to their nearest node, which stops them jumping. Take care to ensure any stereo pairs are bound to the same node, although speaker groups do work across multiple nodes.

It may be necessary to reboot the speakers and reassign them to any groups to set this up, but mine are all behaving well now, thankfully.

Hope this helps.
Regards
TobyC
 

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