RT-BE86U - High ping and mesh difficulties

[Fandroid]

Hi,

I replaced a TUF AX6000 for RT-BE86U and noticed that when making speed test with wifi my ping is 2 ms higher than with TUF. Doing speed test in the router I get 2 ms, with TUF I would get 4 - 5 ms and with BE86U I get 6 - 7 ms. This is inexpected for me. Anyone with BE86U can share his experience?

I also have a BD4 as mesh node and I realized that if I create the wifi IoT network and after I try to add the BD4 it gives an error and doesn't join the mesh. If I add the BD4 and after create the IoT network, it works. Is this normal? I was also achieving higher speeds in the BD4 when using TUF AX6000 than with BE86U (900 vs 800 with wireless backhaul and ethernet fronthaul).

Thanks.

 

[Fandroid]

I'm trying to add a guest network or kids network but when I do it BD4 doesn't connect to the AiMesh. Even if I remove BD4 from the configuration of those networks it still doesn't connect. If I disable those networks BD4 reconnects to Aimesh. I tried with guest network and kids network one at a time.

Is this supposed to happen? Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks for any help.

 

[Tech9]

AiMesh first, Guest Networks after. Your BD4 doesn't support Guest Network Pro and has limited compatibility. The main router will tell you what works and what doesn't when you try to propagate your Guest Networks to the nodes. Advertised "AiMesh Compatible" doesn't mean all the features.

About ping and speed on wireless - Wi-Fi is not guaranteed convenience technology and will be affected by the wireless environment. It may change any minute and you have no control over it. All wireless devices (yours and neighbors') on the same channel share the channel available bandwidth.

 

[Fandroid]

Thanks for your help. I don't see any information from the router of what does and doesn't work. Where can I find it?

 

[Tech9]

Where can I find it?

There is ASUS FAQ about compatibility (@bennor may help with the URL), but if you don't see any limitations yet your current needs are covered by what is supported.

 

[bennor]

Asus has a few support documents covering AiMesh setup. For example:

[Wireless Router] How to set up Guest Network features to Sync to AiMesh node? | Official Support | ASUS Global

[AiMesh] How to setup AiMesh system (Web GUI)? | Official Support | ASUS USA

The problem is Asus has not documented in detail exactly what works and what doesn't when using a main router running 3006.102.x firmware and an AiMesh node running either 3006.102.x, or 3004.388.x or 3004.386.x firmware. There are quite a few discussions (that can be found using the search feature) in these subforums on SNBForums where users are trying to figure out the boundaries and limitations of AiMesh (main router/node router) and the various firmware branches (3006.x, 3004.x) use on the main router/node router.

From that Asus How to set up Guest Network features to Sync to AiMesh node link above it does state the following for Guest Networks that one should be aware of:

2. This feature can only be configured on the AiMesh router. Guest network is currently designed to allow the first set of each band (2.4G, 5G, 5G-1) available to the AiMesh node. Only one set is available for each band.

One thing to check if using 3006.102.x firmware and the Guest Network Pro profile feature, is the AiMesh section under the Guest Network Pro profile. It may indicate if there is an issue with extending that Guest Network Pro profile to an AiMesh node. Here is an example from a RT-AX86U Pro main router and a RT-AC68U AiMesh node where Guest Network Pro profile (third one configured on the RT-AX86U Pro) AiMesh section indicates an issue with extending to the AiMesh node.

 

[Fandroid]

@Tech9 and @bennor thank you for your help.

I'm going to read the links provided to see if I understand better the limits of AiMesh.

@bennor In my case there's no warning like the example you posted. Instead when a problem arises my mesh node is simply unable to connect and when I disable the network that creates the problem then the node connects.

About the ping issue, I have the BE86U connected to the ISP router in bridge mode. In web interface I get 2 ms ping, connected to BE86U I get 6 ms by ethernet and 6/7 ms by wifi. Connected to ISP router by Ethernet I get 3 ms ping. It just doesn't seem normal to me that BE86U adds 3/4 ms latency.

I have a powerline connected to the ISP router that has wifi AP about 35 m away and I get 5/6 ms ping.

Is this increase in ping normal with BE86U or is it possible that my unit has a problem?