I recently switched from a wireless AiMesh to a partially wired AiMesh setup using fiber optic to ethernet converters. I ran into some issues which I finally worked out so I thought I would share the experience here for others to find. The key point here would probably apply to any switch be it fiber or ethernet, so read on even if you are using all copper.
My main router is an AC-RT88U. I am connecting it to three nodes which are each AC-RT68P routers. One node is in my home and is wireless. For the two outbuildings: ---> From the main router there is a fiber link running to my first outbuilding. It connects to a 10Gtek 4 port switch. The switch (unmanaged) has two fiber ports and two ethernet ports. One ethernet port connects to the first AC-RT68P node. From there I have a fiber link running to an ethernet converter in the second outbuilding and connected to the second AC-RT68P node. Both of these nodes had previously been wireless. When I installed the first fiber link, the first node worked great and showed up as a wired node whilst the other nodes continued to work wirelessly. I liked the wired link so much that I purchased the 10GTek switch and ran the second link to my other outbuilding. That's when things went wacky!
The two outbuilding nodes were playing musical chairs with each other. They would show various wired and wireless connections back and forth every few minutes. The whole network was unstable. Aside from disconnecting one node from the switch and letting it run wirelessly there was nothing I could do to get them to show a wired connection back to the main router. I looked for the option displayed on some of the ASUS tech pages that would allow me to select ethernet priority on each individual node, but all the GUI was offering me was "Auto" and "5GHz" wireless. I thought I was just going to have to run one as an access point, which I actually did for a while.
What finally worked was to use the option under AiMesh -> System Settings to force ethernet only backhaul mode. Before I could turn that on however, I had to disconnect all wireless nodes. So, after shutting down my in-house wireless node and turning on the ethernet only option, my two outbuilding nodes both showed a wired connection back to the main router! But ... I wanted my in-house wireless node to work as well. So, I turned off the ethernet backhaul option under AiMesh -> System Settings. I expected the system to go wacky again but to my surprise it didn't. I powered up my in-house wireless node and it connected to the mesh normally. The two wired nodes remained showing a wired connection to the main router. All was well and working like I wanted it to! I rebooted the main router just to see what would happen and fortunately everything came back up still connected correctly.
So, if you are having trouble connecting multiple nodes through a switch, try forcing the whole mesh network to ethernet only using the AiMesh -> System Settings option. It seems that once the correct connection is made, the nodes retain the connection priority.
My main router is an AC-RT88U. I am connecting it to three nodes which are each AC-RT68P routers. One node is in my home and is wireless. For the two outbuildings: ---> From the main router there is a fiber link running to my first outbuilding. It connects to a 10Gtek 4 port switch. The switch (unmanaged) has two fiber ports and two ethernet ports. One ethernet port connects to the first AC-RT68P node. From there I have a fiber link running to an ethernet converter in the second outbuilding and connected to the second AC-RT68P node. Both of these nodes had previously been wireless. When I installed the first fiber link, the first node worked great and showed up as a wired node whilst the other nodes continued to work wirelessly. I liked the wired link so much that I purchased the 10GTek switch and ran the second link to my other outbuilding. That's when things went wacky!
The two outbuilding nodes were playing musical chairs with each other. They would show various wired and wireless connections back and forth every few minutes. The whole network was unstable. Aside from disconnecting one node from the switch and letting it run wirelessly there was nothing I could do to get them to show a wired connection back to the main router. I looked for the option displayed on some of the ASUS tech pages that would allow me to select ethernet priority on each individual node, but all the GUI was offering me was "Auto" and "5GHz" wireless. I thought I was just going to have to run one as an access point, which I actually did for a while.
What finally worked was to use the option under AiMesh -> System Settings to force ethernet only backhaul mode. Before I could turn that on however, I had to disconnect all wireless nodes. So, after shutting down my in-house wireless node and turning on the ethernet only option, my two outbuilding nodes both showed a wired connection back to the main router! But ... I wanted my in-house wireless node to work as well. So, I turned off the ethernet backhaul option under AiMesh -> System Settings. I expected the system to go wacky again but to my surprise it didn't. I powered up my in-house wireless node and it connected to the mesh normally. The two wired nodes remained showing a wired connection to the main router. All was well and working like I wanted it to! I rebooted the main router just to see what would happen and fortunately everything came back up still connected correctly.
So, if you are having trouble connecting multiple nodes through a switch, try forcing the whole mesh network to ethernet only using the AiMesh -> System Settings option. It seems that once the correct connection is made, the nodes retain the connection priority.
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