Question How do I setup AIMesh with 2 Asus Routers

[Jack10525]

Hello,

I decided to upgrade my ASUS WiFi Router (RT-AC1900P) with a ASUS AX1800 WiFi 6 Router (RT-AX55).

I chose a newer asus router to use the old router to set up aimesh but I am not able to get it to work.

I reset the old ac router back to factory and then set it up as an aimesh node. I then setup the new router but the new router does not see the old one.

Not sure what I am doing wrong. Do I need to connect the routers together some how?

Thank you in advance for any suggestions.

 

[bill001g]

There is no standard for "mesh". They are all done using proprietary extensions. You can't even be sure they will work between different lines of the same companies products. Mesh is such a useless thing I tend to not keep track of the details.

What is your goal. Why do you feel you need a mesh network.

You need to avoid just adding stuff just because you have it laying around. Too many wifi signals is actually worse than not enough in many ways.

The best way to fix poor wifi converge is to use a ethernet cable to the remote room and then hook up a AP. Pretty much any router can be used as a AP.
You can also use moca or powerline instead of ethernet cable to the remote room and the still use the router as a AP.

So if you end up with no other option you can likely use the old asus router as a repeater. Repeaters use a non standard field called WDS that was never designed to be used for the purpose but almost all routers have started to do it the same over the years so most work together.

In many cases MESH is just a renamed repeater anyway. To work well the mesh units needed a extra dedicated wifi radio chip to talk between the router and the remote units. The remote units then use different radio chips to talk to the end clients. So called mesh units that do not have the extra radio chips suffer all the same issue as the older unit they used to call repeaters or extenders. You will likely lose over 1/2 the speed and will likely take more errors. You really only want to use a mesh/repeater systems when your choice is a poor repeated signal or no signal.

Critical to making any form of repeater work is placement. You can't just stick it in the remote room and think magic is going to happen. It must be placed where it can get a strong signal from the main router and still provide strong signal to the remote room. This does not exist in many houses becuase the problem is not distance it is that the walls/floor is absorbing the signals.

 

[gggplaya]

Make sure they're in the same room together and try it without ethernet backhaul, wifi only. I tried it in separate rooms and they wouldn't see each other for some reason. Do the full set up in the same room, right next to each other. Then move them to the final locations.