Upgraded from RT-AX88U to TUF AX6000, observations regarding aimesh.

[Bawsnia]

Hi,

Thought I would try and layout the issues I have noticed since upgrading and the behaviours in a way that may help or be similar to other people.

I had a RT-AX88U as my main router in an Aimesh, the other 2 nodes were a RT-AX53U and RT-AX55.
There were a few small managed Netgear switches between the router (AX88U) and the nodes.
All was fine with the mesh but I got fed up with the ax88u Lan ports locking up every few days so I decided to get a new router.
I bought a Asus TUF AX6000.
Setup the new router, it connected fine to my broadband.
Went to setup my first Aimesh node. Thought I would use the AX88u as my first node.
The setup went OK, the first attempt on resetting the AX88u failed so did it again and it added. It was near my router and was using WiFi.
I then plugged an ethernet cable in from my switch to the WAN port of the AX88U. The router seen this and said it was using ethernet as the backhaul with Great connectivity.
I unplugged it and moved it to the room where I wanted it situated, plugged the WAN port into the switch and waited.
It didn't show up as connected in the router Aimesh page.
I has this a bit when I first setup the Aimesh years ago so unplugged the WAN port to see if it could see any of the WiFi from the router.
After a few minutes it did and showed up as connected in the Aimesh page on the UI on the router, so I plugged in the WAN port and went back and checked the router UI and it said connectivity Great connected via ethernet.
I went to a spot where I knew my phone would only see the Aimesh node (AX88U) and it wouldn't connect. My phone a pixel 6 pro would connect, see there was no internet and disconnect again.
Hmmmm.
I thought fine. I'll try the RT-AX55 as an Aimesh node.
I powered off the AX88U, repeated the same process with the AX55. Every step was the same.
End result the same. Node was in the router UI as great connection, Ethernet, but anything connected to the node wouldn't get any internet access.
I thought I'll try the AX-53U expecting the same result.
Same process, same buggy behaviour about it needing to connect via WiFi after it rebooted before the ethernet would work.
This time though it worked. Clients would get internet when connecting to the AX-53U mesh node.
I'm a bit meh in my opinions about the Aimesh. The only advantage is the fact wifi 5 devices don't re-associate when handing off between APs.

I'm in 2 minds whether to just setup the Aimesh nodes as standalone APs, however the LAN port issues on the AX88u have put me off that idea for it with the LAN ports locking up.
I am guessing this will be firmware related and no point sending back the TUF AX6000 for a replacement one.
Not sure if anyone else has a similar issue with the TUF AX6000 or if anyone has them working fine as Aimesh routers with a variety of nodes?

Edit!!! Now working, turned out to be a Netgear switch power brick. Aimesh all working fine.

 

[Tech9]

There were a few small managed Netgear switches

There is a good chance managed switches mess up your AiMesh setup.

 

[Bawsnia]

There is a good chance managed switches mess up your AiMesh setup.

The switches haven't changed since the router upgrade so the AX88U when running as router previously never had an issue with the switches.
Not saying you are wrong though.
It's a shame as the Aimesh would be a nice feature if it was more reliable.

 

[Tech9]

I can't tell what's the issue based on limited information, but your managed switches have to be configured to pass VLANs used by AiMesh and your new TUF router is no better than your old AX88U. All you needed to do is use ports 1-4 on it and add a dumb switch. Ports 5-8 inside AX88U are on additional switch known to have issues. With this mix of Broadcom and MediaTek devices on different firmware I can only wish you luck with AiMesh.

 

[Bawsnia]

I can't tell what's the issue based on limited information, but your managed switches have to be configured to pass VLANs used by AiMesh and your new TUF router is no better than your old AX88U. All you needed to do is use ports 1-4 on it and add a dumb switch. Ports 5-8 inside AX88U are on additional switch known to have issues. With this mix of Broadcom and MediaTek devices on different firmware I can only wish you luck with AiMesh.

Hi Tech9, appreciate you taking the time to respond. I'm not really looking for a resolution as I don't think there will be one. Like you said a mix of Broadcom and MediaTek.
The managed switches are set to use vlan 1 and a single subnet.
The problem with the AX88U is that I was only using LAN port 1 and it still locked up.
It was using 1 and 2 in a LAG but it locked up far more often.
Had to reboot it to get it working again.
When using both ports 1 and 2 it would lock up every other day.
Without the LAG, using only LAN port 1 it was locking up once a week. Only the LAN port would lock up WiFi worked apart from the Aimesh nodes losing their ethernet backhaul.
Back to the Aimesh, the vlan config hadn't changed from when the Aimesh worked on the AX88U, so fairly sure the issue is the mix of devices and firmwares.

 

[bbunge]

There is a good chance managed switches mess up your AiMesh setup.

Managed switches usually mess up the guest network 1 between the router and nodes. Still, it may be a good idea to factory reset the switches and not use VLAN.

 

[Bawsnia]

Managed switches usually mess up the guest network 1 between the router and nodes. Still, it may be a good idea to factory reset the switches and not use VLAN.

Cheers for the advice, they are on default settings for the ports. They are all set to untagged on vlan 1. I don't think they will take anything less then that as a config. Unless you know a way they are GS108T Netgear mainly.

 

[Tech9]

It was using 1 and 2 in a LAG

Some Asuswrt features are good for advertising purposes only. Some users have better luck than others. The simpler configuration the better.

 

[Bawsnia]

Update!!! Managed to get it all working. Of all the things it turned out to be one of the small managed switches power brick.

How I found out, was, I decided to setup one of the routers as a WAP. I did this next to the router for convenience, all went fine. Moved it to the final place it would sit. Again same behaviour as before where the WiFi clients wouldn't connect.
As it was on a separate bSSID I knew it connected when it was near the router.
What I ended up doing was plugging it into each switch and testing it.
Everything was fine on the first 2 switches, 3rd switch, where it was always going to be plugged in it didn't work.
I had stuff in that switch that worked and worked fine. Plugged my laptop into it and ran some tests.
Throughput was low, about 50 Mbps on the 1Gbps port. Pings to things on the same switch had some jitter and drops.
I swapped out the switch but same behaviour, what I didn't swap was the power supply.
Swapped that out and everything worked.
Put the old switch back in and it worked also.
Changed the router from WAP to aimesh node and amazingly it worked too.
Googled small network switch power supply and I am not the only person that has had this with the Netgear power supply.
So I take it all back.
Aimesh works fine with the AC88U as a node.
Very surprisingly.
Managed switches no issue either.
Cheers for all your replies though and maybe will help something test their Netgear small switch Power supply.

 

[Deleted member 90505]

Is your TUF AX6000 configured as main router or node in aimesh? I got some serious with the AX6000 as node, see my thread on that

 

[Bawsnia]

Is your TUF AX6000 configured as main router or node in aimesh? I got some serious with the AX6000 as node, see my thread on that

Main router is the TUF AX6000.
The AX88U is the mesh node.