Need help with an AXE16000 and an AX11000 as a repeater

[Armand28]

Ok this is making me crazy. *I tried adding the 11000 as a mesh node and it keeps dropping and only uses 2.4g as a backhaul, so I set up the 11000 as a repeater, connecting to 5G1 on the 16000.
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When the 11000 connects, it knocks down the 16000 and when it (the 16000) comes back up the 5G1 channel is set to control channel 0 and the SSID isn’t visible nor can you connect to it manually. If I then reboot the 16000 then reboot the 11000 I can sometimes get them to connect for a while, but randomly the 16000 will drop everything and reset the 5G1 to channel 0 and it cannot be changed, and I have to systematically reboot everything again.
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*I have an AC88U set as a repeater on the 2,4g band it stays locked and reconnects if the 16000 reboots, but the 11000 will not and must be manually rebooted any time the 16000 drops.
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I’ve tried:
- upgrading all the firmware
- switching the 11000 to Merlin firmware
- using 5G2 as backhaul (same deal, resets and takes down the channel, resetting it to control channel 0)
*- disabling AX, disabling 160MHz, disabling Wi-Fi agile connect, manually setting control channels, etc.

It feels like the 16000 recognizes the repeater and is trying to reserve the 5G1 channel as a dedicated backhaul, but it doesn’t do this consistently and when it does do this (resets and puts the 5g1 to control 0)nothing including the repeater can connect to the channel.*

Reading online it sounds like a hardware issue, but since it’s mainly acting up when another ASUS router connects as a repeater I’m wondering if it’s firmware as the channels seem stable as long as they aren’t connected to an ASUS router.
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I’ve applied for an RMA and while I’m waiting I’m willing to try anything! *Thanks for any ideas. ***

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Just did a factory reset on the 11000 just in case there was some random setting left over from my messing with Merlin and Aimesh, but it didn’t fix it. *

[jzchen]

NetSpot on a mobile device can help you see the signal strength. The 5 GHz signal degrades with distance and number of obstacles/walls, more than 2.4G so they may be too far from each other. If possible try moving them closer even better if they have clear line of sight to each other.

[Saltgrass]

I have been going through this with an AX92U but I do have an AX11000 I might try later. I was having the same situation as you until I found a page discussing allowing Dedicated Wireless Backhaul.

What it said is IF you have selected different SSIDs for your radios, you need to allow Smart Connect. It did not seem to work for me but I may have needed to adjust the Smart Connect rule.

What has worked is going back to a single SSID on all the radios except the 6GHz one. Once I did that and had the 5-2 radio set as priority it jumped into that mode.

https://www.asus.com/us/support/FAQ/1039646/

[jzchen]

I have SmartConnect enabled combining all 3 bands for my AXE11000 RT-AX86U and RT-AC68U and can confirm from WebGUI that the 6 GHz was set to WiFi-Name_dwb. I still have nothing to try to connect to 6 GHz though interesting that article says it can be manually connected to. (I noticed one setting does say 6 G is setup for both backhaul and fronthaul)...

[Armand28]

Saltgrass wrote:
IWhat has worked is going back to a single SSID on all the radios except the 6GHz one. Once I did that and had the 5-2 radio set as priority it jumped into that mode. Â*

Yikes, I really do not want to do that if I can avoid it. *I have security cameras that do not like being handed off, so I want the routers closest to them to have unique SSIDs so that if a router has to reboot it does not lock on to the distant router which I then have to manually reboot to pass it back. That and my Xbox has the opposite problem, it likes jumping routers on a whim which really makes gaming tough, so ideally I would prefer to keep a bunch of different SSIDs, plus having unique SSIDs allows me to choose to connect to a router that may have had the backhaul disconnected.
*I may just have to live with the router reboot shuffle if forcing shared SSIDs is a topology choice by ASUS.
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Also why are my messages mis-formatted badly in this forum? *Any punctuation gets replaced with weird characters.*

[jzchen]

With SmartConnect ON I can "Bind" each device to a specific node or the router. (I'll find out soon whether that feature is also available on the AXE16000). (Lyra Voice does not support binding so I don't know all of the models that don't)...

[HadiNZ]

jzchen wrote:
With SmartConnect ON I can "Bind" each device to a specific node or the router. (I'll find out soon whether that feature is also available on the AXE16000). (Lyra Voice does not support binding so I don't know all of the models that don't)...

Can you please help me how to setup smartconnect to bind my nodes to use 5Ghz backhaul? I turned it on but don't really understand what to do next. Much appreciated

[jzchen]

HadiNZ wrote:
Can you please help me how to setup smartconnect to bind my nodes to use 5Ghz backhaul? I turned it on but don't really understand what to do next. Much appreciated

Sorry for the late response!

Binding only works for WiFi clients/devices, it does not work for nodes. Smart connect does help with device connection as it passes devices to the best frequency it can connect to.

I can only set 5 GHz as a "Backhaul Connection Priority". I can not bind it.

BTW- I turned off all binding. When it gets buggy the device will lose complete connection to the ASUS network. I also leave Backhaul Connection Priority to Auto. I recently added an RP-AX56 to my AiMesh. All of a sudden one of my nodes backhaul was WiFi! I took a screenshot on my phone I will upload it...

[jzchen]

Just after adding the RP-AX56 I noticed one node lost Ethernet backhaul.

[jzchen]

I woke up curious about my network and saw some more instability. The AXE16000 is connected via Ethernet to the wall outlet, (Cat 6e in the walls to a central box where I have two 2.5 G unmanaged switches distributing to the whole house). All the nodes are connected similarly to a wall outlet....