Any way to force 5GHz backhaul (vs. 2.4GHz backhaul)?

[DragonTBear]

Is there a way to force my Aimesh backhaul (GT-BE98Pro <-> RT-AC5300) to use 5GHz as backhaul instead of 2.5GHz?

I know my 5GHz connection is weaker, but it’s plenty stable and much faster.

Thanks for any help.  Happy to supply more info if needed.

[jzchen]

They might be too far from each other, per this article it should use 5 GHz-2.  The article also gives some options IF SmartConnect is enabled apparently:

https://www.asus.com/support/faq/1048088/

[DragonTBear]

I saw that too.  The routers are just one room apart (single wall between them).   Even afire selecting “5GHz-2 as preferred”, it still used 2.4GHz.

After a bunch of fiddling, my current solution is without AiMesh or even smartconnect, turn off the 2.4GHz radio on the GT-BE98 Pro and set the RT-AC5300 as a repeater.  5Ghz gets -43 dBm between the routers, .. now giving great speed and reliability.

The repeater is in a place that covers the whole house well., so it works for me.

[Saltgrass]

One thing you might want to consider is the 98 Pro only has one 5 GHz radio.  If you have other devices, depending on how much bandwidth the backhaul takes, is to leave that open for those devices.

Otherwise, if you go to the AIMesh section and click on the Mesh node, you can set a priority, on the Management tab, based on the radios you have that are compatible.   If that connection is not suitable, it may switch to another.

[DragonTBear]

Oddly, The only radio option in the management tab shows as “5GHz-2 preferred”, which I selected, but it still used slow 2.4GHz between the routers. 

The routers are just one room apart (single wall between them).  After a bunch of fiddling, my current solution is without AiMesh or smartconnect, turn off the 2.4GHz radio on the GT-BE98 Pro and set the RT-AC5300 as a repeater.  5Ghz gets -43 dBm between the routers, giving great speed/reliability.

[Saltgrass]

It may take some time for the router to adjust to using a different radio, so let it try for a while.

My router does not give me an option between which 6 GHz radio, it just shows 6 GHz but it uses 6GHz -1.  If you are using a BE98 Pro, it does not have a 5G-2.  The other thing is, most of my older devices connect with 5 GHz, so I need that free for those devices.

[jzchen]

-43 dBm is actually very good signal strength.  I agree with @Saltgrass that it may eventually adjust to use 5 GHz on it's own.  AiMesh is dynamic...  Did you try toggling the DFS setting?

[DragonTBear]

Hmm… interesting… As far as I know, my RT-AC5300 node can’t do DFS. It has one radio below, and another above.  So, I always had it turned off on my GT-BE98Pro (the default).  I’ll give it a try when I get a chance, but now that I got it working as non-AiMesh repeater, I’m getting fantastic speed and reliability… so the family is using it constantly (so no time to fiddle around .. lol ).

[jzchen]

I was actually "hoping" you had it on and live near an airport, because if it is on a restricted channel it needs to stop broadcasting for x amount of minutes when it senses specific frequencies that the airplanes use....

[Saltgrass]

The attachments are taken from the free version of Net Spot with the BE98 Pro Router.  Hopefully, I am not misunderstanding something, but I do not see a 5G-2.