ZenWiFi XD5 - Firmware

[jebnz]

Hello everyone.

Firstly a massive thank you to Merlin and the team for their amazing firmware!

Secondly I have just recieve the ZenWiFi XD5 as a present from my wife and would like to know if there is a version of merlin I could install ( I need DNS director! hehe ) I did check the about page and couldn't find anything but maybe one of you legends would know something I do not.

If not I have a RT-AC86U which is already installed with merlin and I could add the ZenWiFi XD5 as nodes to it? Would that work?

Please let me know

Thank you

 

[L&LD]

Welcome to the forums @jebnz.

[FAQ] READ ME FIRST before posting a question

Model support Q: Will you support the RT-xxxxxx that was just announced? A: See detailed answer in post #3. Q: Will you support router XYZ from this non-Asus manufacturer? A: No. Asuswrt-Merlin only targets Asus-supported models, due to both technical and legal reasons. Q: I'm having...

www.snbforums.com

If you have a stable and fully updated RT-AC86U, you should be able to add AiMesh nodes to it. Only testing in your specific environment will let you know if it works or not.

 

[Morris]

Asus recommends that the most sophisticated router be the AI Mesh router. This is because the AI Mesh router's settings are propagated to the nodes. The WiFi 6 settings don't exist on the RT-AC86U. I suspect your XD5 will use defaults for them and that might be OK. You will find out.

Morris

 

[jebnz]

Welcome to the forums @jebnz.

[FAQ] READ ME FIRST before posting a question

Model support Q: Will you support the RT-xxxxxx that was just announced? A: See detailed answer in post #3. Q: Will you support router XYZ from this non-Asus manufacturer? A: No. Asuswrt-Merlin only targets Asus-supported models, due to both technical and legal reasons. Q: I'm having...

www.snbforums.com

If you have a stable and fully updated RT-AC86U, you should be able to add AiMesh nodes to it. Only testing in your specific environment will let you know if it works or not.

Thanks. I managed to get all 3 nodes to connect to the RT router through a wired backhaul because the wireless didn't seem to work when adding the nodes.

I have turned off the wireless on the RT router and now only using the nodes wireless for the 6ghz connections because the RT router only supports 5.

Seems to be working fine. Thank you

 

[jebnz]

Asus recommends that the most sophisticated router be the AI Mesh router. This is because the AI Mesh router's settings are propagated to the nodes. The WiFi 6 settings don't exist on the RT-AC86U. I suspect your XD5 will use defaults for them and that might be OK. You will find out.

Morris

I connected the nodes to the RT router successfully using ethernet then I turned off the RT wireless and only use the 6ghz from the nodes using ethernet backhaul. Seems to be working fine.

Thank you.