Question I use my isp router/modem in bridge mode and use my Asus AI mesh routers. Can I install two nic cards and plug one in each router?

[jpulley]

The reason I asking this question is that I have use two Asus routers in ai mesh mode. I have a plex server that is always dropping internet connection and often time my upload speeds are around 1mbps. I have ATT fiber gigabit service. If I call ATT to complain they tell me that they don't support putting a router after theirs so they can't help. No way I'm using their crappy router when I have almost $500 worth of good routers here. I have a two story house and a basement and there no way one router can work for the whole house. My plex server is running windows server 2019 but its really just a regular pc. What I'm hoping is that if there is something funny going on because I'm using a router behind the att router maybe this could help. I want one nic in the att router and one in the Asus router. I'm hoping this will allow the server to still get on internet and get better speeds. I can always see the server on the network and access it, but that server getting on the internet is so spotty. Because of the server being so spotty it could take 4 hours to download a 1 gig file it should only take about a minute. Even if I can't plug into both routers I'm going to team the cards on the server and plug them both into my Asus router that support aggregation.

More info: my whole house is wired up with cat 5e ran to every room. The computer I'm on right now just ran a speedtest and i over 900 mbps both up and down. My server if it would even connect wouldn't be anywhere close.

Any help would be appreciated

 

[bill001g]

You will have massive issues connecting the server to both routers.

If you are using the mesh features when you have ethernet cabling to all the rooms you have been conned by the marketing guys. Mesh is just a fancy wifi repeater and will never compete with using the units as simple AP connected via ethernet. You want to avoid using any form of wifi in the path for your server.

If you are using the ethernet cables then you are not actually running the so called "mesh". Running mulitple AP off a single network has been done since the beginning of wifi and is still the standard industry solution. The marketing guys want you to thing they invented something new they call mesh it is more to get suckers to buy new routers.\

In any case the simplest solution would be to use the ATT box only as a router and disable the wifi radios Pretty much its only function would be to do the NAT translation and hand out IP addresses to your end devices. It should have no issues doing that simple function. You could then run your asus boxes in AP mode and use them to provide the WiFi. You could also use the att router wifi if you wanted more coverage and put both asus boxes in remote rooms.

The best place to plug your server would be into the att box. The lan ports are running as a simple switch so it is not affected by the performance of the att cpu. You could I suppose plug it into one of the Asus AP devices since they too just run as a switch. In any case you want anything that need hi perforamance plugged into a ethernet port on one of the devices. You need to leave the wifi for devices where performance is not important.

Port bonding is a complete waste of time in a home environment. You are never going to exceed a 1gbit port and even if you did the port aggregation algorithm does not actually load balance well. It can not increase a single transfer session and it might put multiple sessions on the same port leaving the other unused. Port bonding is another marketing thing on home routers. Corporations have long abandoned it now that 10gbit and faster ports on servers are cheap and the problems with port bonding just do not justify using it anymore.

 

[jpulley]

You will have massive issues connecting the server to both routers.

If you are using the mesh features when you have ethernet cabling to all the rooms you have been conned by the marketing guys. Mesh is just a fancy wifi repeater and will never compete with using the units as simple AP connected via ethernet. You want to avoid using any form of wifi in the path for your server.

If you are using the ethernet cables then you are not actually running the so called "mesh". Running mulitple AP off a single network has been done since the beginning of wifi and is still the standard industry solution. The marketing guys want you to thing they invented something new they call mesh it is more to get suckers to buy new routers.\

In any case the simplest solution would be to use the ATT box only as a router and disable the wifi radios Pretty much its only function would be to do the NAT translation and hand out IP addresses to your end devices. It should have no issues doing that simple function. You could then run your asus boxes in AP mode and use them to provide the WiFi. You could also use the att router wifi if you wanted more coverage and put both asus boxes in remote rooms.

The best place to plug your server would be into the att box. The lan ports are running as a simple switch so it is not affected by the performance of the att cpu. You could I suppose plug it into one of the Asus AP devices since they too just run as a switch. In any case you want anything that need hi perforamance plugged into a ethernet port on one of the devices. You need to leave the wifi for devices where performance is not important.

Port bonding is a complete waste of time in a home environment. You are never going to exceed a 1gbit port and even if you did the port aggregation algorithm does not actually load balance well. It can not increase a single transfer session and it might put multiple sessions on the same port leaving the other unused. Port bonding is another marketing thing on home routers. Corporations have long abandoned it now that 10gbit and faster ports on servers are cheap and the problems with port bonding just do not justify using it anymore.

Yeah my ai mesh nodes are all hardwired, but I really like the functionality of the Asus routers over what ATT has in their box. that's why I don't want to just put the router in AP mode. In the pass I tried other devices and put them in AP mode and my phone or computer would always grab the first connection and wouldn't switch to the other one even if the signal was better. With the Ai mesh all nodes have the exact same SSID and the Asus software switches the devices to the strongest signal. I think I even tried this with my Asus routers when I first got the ATT fiber. The installer told me AP is the only thing that will work. I just ordered some nics and all new cat6 factory made patch cables. The onboard network device might just suck and I made all my own patch cables and they might be faulty. Hopefully this will fix the issue. Now that I think about it all my other devices work fine I'm sitting on my desktop right now that is probably over 50' from the router. I terminated the wall jack and the patch panel myself and my speeds and connection are great. It must be a problem in the server that is having the issues.

 

[bill001g]

You only THINK it switches better. The end client controls where it is connected and when it switch. The problem is the end client can not scan for better signals while it is using its radio for data connection so it tends to only look when the signal is very poor. The router can not change this behavior all they try to do is artificially drop the connection and hope the client picks a better one. You can do that manually when you change rooms if the device did not drop the connection itself. There really is no need for so called roaming, I can only imagine the idiot watching netflix on his tablet while he walks down the stairs.

Years ago cisco had a outrageously expensive solution that you needed to load a special driver into the phone and it only worked on certain brands of phones. This actually did seamless roaming but the only application that realistically needs it is VoIP and when the cell companies stopped charging by the minute for cell calls it was easier to just put micro cells in the building and not mess with roaming and VoIP.

Maybe in the new wifi standard coming later this year you can get roaming to work, from the little I have read it appear they have added functionality to the clients for this. It will be many years though before it is common in end devices, routers always are out way in advance and nothing can use them.

On your server I would try the simple thing use a short cable and plug it directly into the router and work out from there. Note there are massive amounts of fake ethernet cable on the market. It needs to be pure copper not CCA and it must have wire size 22-24 so no flat or thin cable.