Understanding AiMesh

[dwain]

Hello,

I've read that the advantages of Aimesh are that there is only one SSID (I assume this happens if you activate the Smart Connect on both routers?) and the other one is there is no interference. But in many tutorials on youtube I see that there will be interference between the 2.4GHZ and 5GHZ bands of the main router and the node router. 

​I need to understand how this works. In my house I have the Quadband GT BE98. And I want to add one Aimesh node to my house. I'm considering to get the Asus Rog Rapture AX6000 router. 

The Wifi SSIDs of my Main Router are: (Example)

Home_Internet - 2.4G
Home_Internet - 5G

Home_Internet - 5G-2 
Home_Internet - 6G

So without connecting any AiMesh node these are the SSIDs I see in my house. 

I'll connect the AX6000 (which is only dualband) as Aimesh mode with ethernet backhaul. 

So I assume that the SSID names won't change. But in Youtube videos they say there will be 2 Home_Intertnet - 2.4G and Home_Internet - 5G SSIDs that will be detected and there will be interference. Is this correct? How can I avoid it? 

I was thinking maybe SmartConnect would solve this problem by just making only one SSID (Home_Internet)  in the whole house. But in that case I think the Node Router is also being converted to Smart Connect. So does it mean that I'm going to see 2 Home_Internet SSIDs? Or is it just going to be one? 

Thank you very much in advance. 

[jzchen]

Two different things going on here, and that’s great that you are trying to make sense of it all.

Mesh, for ASUS AiMesh, is going to work with or without SmartConnect.  Think of your cell phone and you move around the city.  Do you have to make a new call every time the cell phone hops to a new tower?  No.  Similarly AiMesh transfers connection among router <-> nodes as you move around your home.  So each channel frequency will be synced among router and node(s).

SmartConnect is basically band steering.  Each band has a different maximum range.  So SmartConnect works by allowing clients to move among the different bands.  This is by making Smart Connected bands have the same SSID and Passkey.  So 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz-1, and 5 GHz-2 will have the same SSID.  (I suggest you make 6 GHz also the same SSID and passkey, but leave it out of SmartConnect for now.  This is allowed on the WebGUI)…

[dwain]

Thank you. I'm using 6Ghz for my Desktop PC for now. It's not in the same room with the router and it has Wifi 7 support directly from the motherboard. That's why I keep it on. But very soon, I'll install a long cable to my computer room. I just ordered 20meters of Cat8.1 cable and hopefully it will arrive soon. 

I totally understand the Smartconnect feature. So in theory when I try to lookup the SSID's in my phone's wifi page, I should see only 1 SSID when Smartconnect is activated. The only question I had in my mind was if I have 1 node with the main router in the same house, am I going to see 2 SSID with the same name or still just one SSID? I saw someone mentioned about 4 the same SSIDs with 4 nodes in his house. I just don't know whether it was AiMesh 1.0 or 2.0... Anyway, this is the only confusion I have for now 🙂 

[jzchen · Accepted solution]

As I understand AiMesh 2.0 is available on all, if not all then almost all ASUS devices, (routers and RPs).

I have 5 nodes, and yes I will see multiple of the same SSID because each node/router is broadcasting the same SSID, (as well as the same channel and bandwidth for AiMesh for each: 2.4 and 5 if you choose a GT-AX6000).

[dwain]

Thank you for confirming this! I appreciate it. I wish there was a way to just show only 1 SSID while in AiMesh mode. But at least now I got my answer thank you. 

[jzchen]

You won’t always see both of them.  For example, if you are on the far side of one from the other the signal won’t reach you from the furthest one.

That is the key to any mesh, they have to be near enough to each other that there is some overlap, so as you move a device around the home the device hops from node to node without a break in connectivity…