Should ethernet ports on xt8 work on node in AP mode with wireless backhaul?

[Berg]

Hi

Should Ethernet ports on xt8 work on node in AP mode with wireless backhaul? I bought a separate firewall to run opnsense on and configured the three xt8 that I have in access point mode. The xt8 connected to the opnsense firewall with Ethernet cable had a Synology NAS connected and that worked. I tried this about a month ago but could not connect with a pc to one of the xt88 nodes that uses wireless backhaul with ethernet cable. Wireless components could connect without problems.
Has anyone tried this?

 

[tgl]

Works for me ... I've got two XT8s wirelessly connecting LANs in different parts of the house, and the ethernet ports on them work fine to connect to the devices on the LANs.

I have seen some issues with a wireless client roaming from one xt8 to the other: it sometimes loses connectivity to the wired devices on the first xt8 for awhile --- I suspect a low-level routing cache needs to time out before it works again. I wonder if your issue was related to that, and packets were still being routed according to however the PC had been connected before. If so, perhaps if you'd waited a few more minutes things would have started to work. But I'm just guessing.

 

[kildare]

No problems for me with a webcam connected via cable to an XT8 satellite using a wireless backhaul.

 

[NätverksNils]

Hi

Should Ethernet ports on xt8 work on node in AP mode with wireless backhaul? I bought a separate firewall to run opnsense on and configured the three xt8 that I have in access point mode. The xt8 connected to the opnsense firewall with Ethernet cable had a Synology NAS connected and that worked. I tried this about a month ago but could not connect with a pc to one of the xt88 nodes that uses wireless backhaul with ethernet cable. Wireless components could connect without problems.
Has anyone tried this?

Hi.
That wont work.
The operation mode you are describing is not AP-mode, that requires a cable connection from the dhcp-server to each broadcaster. What you are describing is Repeater mode, and you somehow have them connected to the xt8 that is connected to the firewall which wont work properly.
If you want to use them with OPNsense you need to connect all 3 with cable in real AP-mode or simply use the 3 as standalone mesh where one acts as the router/dhcp-server, no OPNsense.

 

[tgl]

The operation mode you are describing is not AP-mode, that requires a cable connection from the dhcp-server to each broadcaster.

Sir, that is complete nonsense. I'm running two nodes in AP mode with wireless backhaul, and it works fine. (You do, probably, want a DHCP server somewhere --- but it doesn't have to be the XT8 unit, and it doesn't need wired connections to both of them.)

What you are describing is Repeater mode,

... although perhaps Repeater mode would work better? ASUS' documentation is sure not very clear about the differences between the modes. But the impression I have from their docs is that Repeater mode is for extending a wireless SSID that's originated by some non-ASUS router.

 

[NätverksNils]

Sir, that is complete nonsense. I'm running two nodes in AP mode with wireless backhaul, and it works fine. (You do, probably, want a DHCP server somewhere --- but it doesn't have to be the XT8 unit, and it doesn't need wired connections to both of them.)

... although perhaps Repeater mode would work better? ASUS' documentation is sure not very clear about the differences between the modes. But the impression I have from their docs is that Repeater mode is for extending a wireless SSID that's originated by some non-ASUS router.

The LAN-ports are dead because the system is not setup properly.
You are the one who talks nonsense. "You probably want a DHCP-server somewhere"? Yes you probably do want one, if you want internet.
And no you dont need to connect the AP´s to a xt8 i never said that, it can be any router brand as long as it is a router doing routing.

 

[Ironlake]

I am using AP mode as well and the LAN ports work fine. On the main and secondary one the LAN ports work. Connected now to LAN port in AP mode while typing this message.

PS: Don't use the blue LAN port. See if that helps for you.

 

[NätverksNils]

Can someone please tell me how one connects multiple AP´s-using wireless backhaul to an OPNsense firewall?

 

[Berg]

Thanks for all the answers and sorry for not answering before. As I wrote it’s been a while since I tried it so I don’t remember the details. I have a problem where I work from home and the whole family is of course using the internet so I can’t mess with the lan and have it not working. But I have four xt8 so I think I can use two for testing with opnsense and still have internet. That way I can do shorter tests. So I’ll write again when I’ve tested some.

 

[Berg]

Can someone please tell me how one connects multiple AP´s-using wireless backhaul to an OPNsense firewall?

I’ve done some testing now, and I connected one xt8 to the opnsense firewall with cable to a LAN port on the xt8. I put that xt8 in AP mode. Then I have tested adding another xt8 as a mesh node with wireless backhaul to the first main xt8 which is in AP mode. Seems to work both with Wi-Fi and connecting with cable to the node.

 

[RogerSC]

Can someone please tell me how one connects multiple AP´s-using wireless backhaul to an OPNsense firewall?

Okay, each XT8 is not connected separately as a single AP. The ZenWiFi AX mesh is in AP mode. That means that the two XT8 nodes are connected via wireless backhaul or wired together, and are acting as a wireless AiMesh unit. You don't connect to the ZenWiFi AX mesh in AP mode using "wireless backhaul", the wireless backhaul is only between the ZenWiFi's XT8 nodes.

Does that make more sense? You definitely need to connect a ZenWiFi that's in AP mode to a router for routing, DHCP, NAT, etc. functionality though. The router node of the ZenWiFi AX mesh needs to be connected via a wire to the router that actually is doing the routing functionality...since the ZenWiFi mesh is in AP mode, not doing routing.

This is one case where it's important to not think of the XT8's as separate routers when seen from the outside. When seen from the outside the ZenWiFi AX is a self-contained multi-node mesh that is either doing routing and wireless (router mode) or just wireless (AP mode). Take a look at the eero mesh, same thing...it has two modes, "Automatic" (router mode) and "Bridge" (AP mode). So you can have an eero mesh just provide wireless mesh functionality, like a single AP would except you replace the single AP with a set of mesh nodes. Or the eero mesh can provide total wireless router functionality.

 

[ArbitRabbit]

I’ve done some testing now, and I connected one xt8 to the opnsense firewall with cable to a LAN port on the xt8. I put that xt8 in AP mode. Then I have tested adding another xt8 as a mesh node with wireless backhaul to the first main xt8 which is in AP mode. Seems to work both with Wi-Fi and connecting with cable to the node.

Interesting - so the device connected to Firewall needs to be in AP mode, but the other ones in Mesh mode, and the mesh mode one connects successfully to AP mode device? Kinda make sense in a roundabout way I guess. I am also looking at an identical setup, so this helps a lot.