I’m a bit confused about your question, Felix, since 1Mbps is simply really slow. But more about ONT in this post and here’s how you pick a mesh system. Good luck!

Thanks for the informative article. I have a question for you. I currently have a 1Mbps fibre broadband service with 2 x Asus XT8 mesh units and a Huawei Optical Network Terminal (ONT).

I am thinking of upgrading to a 5Mbps service from my telco. Will my current 2 XT8 mesh set up support this? The 5Mbps package also comes with a Nokia Optical Network Router, do I need this connected to the XT8 via ethernet cable or stick with the ONT? Thanks.

Don’t make assumptions, Arian. Or do but know that you’re the only one responsible for yours when you act on them.

And you can appreciate the two previous sentences, if you do, because we speak the same language. If we don’t, even if I wrote them in ALL CAPS, none of the right regions in your brain would spark. Communication takes two. And that’s similar to why Wi-Fi and roaming standards need to be supported by all parties for things to work, at all or at their full potential. Got it?

By the way, it’s more likely than not that your Macs connect using a virtual MAC address each time, unless you explicitly turn that “security feature” off.

Truly appreciate your reply and all your help, Dong. I wasn’t aware of that info about Apple devices. Follow up question though:

— Regardless of what roaming standard the clients (in this case, Apple devices) follow, shouldn’t the gatekeepers (Asus GT-BE98 Pros) be the ones holding the keys and making all rules? Sure, I can understand the device has its own standard for making a connection, letting go of one, or hopping between nodes, but shouldn’t that be within the bounds of the router?

In other words, I imagine the router is the one who says “Hey ‘client’, assuming your personal standard lets you, you can hop on my network. And once you’re on (or before you’re on), these are my rules: you can be on this band/node/etc. only if you meet “abc”. And if you don’t meet “abc”, I’ll have to switch you to this band/node/etc., or I’ll kick you off — and remember that I did. I will check this every “x” time interval.”

Assuming my MAC addresses don’t change (they don’t), where am I missing the logic here? Are the rules that I’ve assigned to my router more like guidelines than hard rules? Or is there something in the clients “roaming standard” that lets it hop on the network and do (what seems to be) whatever is best for itself regardless of what the key-holder says?

Thanks again for helping me understand.

👍

I’m not as savvy as Arian, I like the analogy: “It feels like I’ve posted rules for my house, but guests are still allowed to do what they want.”
Your answer explains a lot and will save me a lot of time and frustration. Thank you for that 🙂

Henk

It’s generally the issue with Apple devices, Arian. They don’t support the mentioned roaming standards. Don’t use Apple devices to test anything except stuff within Apple’s ecosystem.

I’ve been searching for some clarification in roaming assistance and band steering in a Smart Connect setup with my AiMesh routers. I’ve read through most of your AiMesh articles which led me to this one. This one helped clarify some things, but I still scratch my head at the way router settings work — or don’t work for that matter.

Pulling from your article:

“In my experience, via testing hundreds of hardware devices, the seamless handoff is almost always hit or miss. It varies depending on your existing router, clients, and other factors.”
— This has been my experience as well, though I haven’t tested hundreds like you.

“Wi-Fi doesn’t follow human logic in terms of distances.”
— I’m experiencing this with more than just distance.

What I’m having trouble processing is why my AiMesh routers (three GT-BE98 Pros, ethernet backhauled) don’t seem to have the power to follow settings or rules I’ve setup. I understand that connection has heavy dependency on the client side in that it chooses what’s best for itself… but, if I tell the router, “hey, kick off anything with RSSI of -75 dBm or lower from 5GHz or 6GHz band.”, shouldn’t the router have the power to do exactly as such… kick it off?

Even when I substitute band steering and use PHY rates, the clients don’t seem to follow rules. I’ve even gone to the extreme and set each node to lowest “Tx Power” setting, set “Roaming Assistance” to kick off below -45 dBm, and set things like “Window Time” and “Dwell Time” to 1 second each. And yet, the two clients I’m testing out (iPhone 15 Pro Max & MacBook Air M3) still cling for several minutes (or forever) to a node that’s two rooms away while also reporting RSSI of ~-75-80 dBm while their speed tests at this signal strength are less than stellar.

I guess what I’m trying to point out is that it feels like the client has more power than the router (which is hard for me to comprehend). The settings also feel more like “guides” rather than hard rules (which would feel a bit disappointing). It feels like I’ve posted rules for my house, but guests are still allowed to do what they want. I’m sure enterprise environments can’t have these types of issues. Is there something deeper I’m missing here?

Thanks for any help.

Check out this post on how to set up a mesh, Chris.

Among other things, I’m unaware of 2.0 GB or 2.5 GB ports. Make sure you give your questions the same quality as the answers you expect. Generally, if you pay serious attention, you’ll find your answers here.

Hi Dong,
setup the CM2000 tonight. It works great, thanks. Did some speed tests and the Orbi RBK 50 was only doing 40-50 mbps download while a wired connection was 700-900 mbps! Huge difference so maybe time to replace the Orbi with the Asus Pro ET12. I read your article on Asus Airmesh setup and just want to confirm my wired backhaul set up will work. I wired the house long ago, before wi-fi was a thing. From the router/base station Asus, will use the 2.5 GB LAN port and take a cable to an unmanaged Netgear Prosafe 8 port Gigabit switch. From the switch take a cable to the satellite Asus and connect using the 2.5GB WAN port. Your article says it is OK to have an unmanaged switch between the units but is it OK if the Netgear Prosafe switch is also used to feed other LAN ports? Or will the two Asus units be confused with all the cross traffic? I have a way to eliminate the switch between the two Asus units. Would use the 2.5 GB port on the base unit to feed the satellite and a 2.0 GB port on the base to feed the switch and LAN ports, but it would limit the placement of the satellite unit. Unfortunately, I can’t take advantage of LAN aggregation and use both 2.0GB ports to feed the switch. Would one set up be preferred? Any help appreciated.