Split: ZENwifi ET8 Wifi Backhauls

[CF]

Without wishing to detract from the XT8 discussion i thought i’ll add a little about the ET8’s if anyone is thinking of changing/upgrading/adding and using them with XT8’s.

I just purchased a pair of ET8’s to try and improve the backhaul speed i was getting to the area of the house with the kids devices – wired not an option  so thought ET8’s with their 6ghz backhaul to spread the benefit of our recently installed 1gbps fibre.

The main/master device connected to the fibre is an ET8 which works great as you’d expect. The kids hang off an ET8 upstairs which uses the 6ghz backhaul and they definitely see the benefit.

However i have an XT8 downstairs for other devices and the XT8 only uses the 2.4ghz backhaul and is really slow.  It used to utilise 5ghz back haul all day long before the master device upgrade.  The issue appears to be that config pushed to the XT8 node for the second radio is the SSID for the 3rd radio on the ET8 which is 6ghz. Consequently the XT8 is trying to use the SSID of the 6ghz network for backhaul which fails so it then falls back to 2.4

I’ve logged a ticket with ASUS.

Anyway, hope that is clear and at the moment i’d suggest anyone thinking of mixing the ET8 and XT8 devices with wireless backhaul gives it a miss otherwise your XT8 will become next to useless.

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[UK Sentinel]

@CF nice and complicated little setup you have, I will chat to ASUS to ensure they are aware of this scenario and indeed if it is supported they way you had planned originally, . can I ask when u sent feedback, did you use the same email address as the one for this Forum, so I can ensure they find it more easily

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[Jonathan Morris]

I saw this mentioned in a YouTube video posted two days ago that said if you’re using 6GHz for the backhaul, you can’t use a mesh AP on 5GHz. It must be one or the other I assume, hence falling back to 2.4GHz.

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[CF]

No, i didnt – i logged the ticket with Asus with my main email address as opposed to the general one i used to sign up here.

I cant see if there’s a way to pm or contact you but if you drop me a mail i’ll reply to you with the Asus ticket ID and email address used.

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[UK Sentinel]

PM not supported, I Will email you

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[UK Sentinel]

Jonathan Morris wrote:

I saw this mentioned in a YouTube video posted two days ago that said if you’re using 6GHz for the backhaul, you can’t use a mesh AP on 5GHz. It must be one or the other I assume, hence falling back to 2.4GHz.

Thanks for this, did the Video detail  this was how it was supposed to work – just curious ?

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[Jonathan Morris]

https://youtu.be/cqcJ6oP6Ky0

I assume the issue is that it uses 6GHz for the backhaul now, not 5GHz. As such you need other 6E mesh modes, not mixing with the XT8 ones.

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[UK Sentinel]

That sounds logical, I have just checked the specs for the ET8 and it does say that *5 GHz backhaul can also be used, but we recommend using 6 GHz”

So maybe just  a bug, or ASUS intended for them not to be running simultaneously for backhaul at the same time ?

https://www.asus.com/mm/Networking-IoT-Servers/Whole-Home-Mesh-WiFi-System/ZenWiFi-WiFi-Systems/ASUS-ZenWiFi-ET8/

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[UK Sentinel]

So I have dropped ASUS an email this morning asking them to look at the ZENwifi ET8 Wifi Backhauls, in particular to  check to see if the 5GHz and 6GHz for Backhaul can run simultaneously, if not then  can this be changed in future firmware releases  ?

(I mhave move this Topic to a dedicated thread as the ZENwifi ET8 is a very new product)

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[Raven]

XT8 can have backhaul ONLY on 2.4Ghz or on 5Ghz on the 100-140 channels

ET8 doesn’t have 5Ghz 100-140 (but only 36-64)

…. so its logical that XT8 and ET8 can be linked together ONLY to the 2.4Ghz network

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[CF]

I dont know where you got the information regarding the ET8 not supporting all 5ghz channels as i couldnt fint it on the Asus site but a look on the ET8 wireless log shows that not to be the case.  It looks like all channels, 36-165, are supported.

 

SSID: “REMOVED”
noise: -94 dBm Channel: 153
BSSID: XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX Capability: ESS RRM
Supported Rates: [ 6(b) 9 12(b) 18 24(b) 36 48 54 ]
HE Capable:
Chanspec: 5GHz channel 153 20MHz (0xd099)
Primary channel: 153
HT Capabilities: 40Mhz SGI20 SGI40
Supported HT MCS : 0-15
Supported VHT MCS:
NSS1 Tx: 0-11 Rx: 0-11
NSS2 Tx: 0-11 Rx: 0-11
Supported HE MCS:
80 Mhz:
NSS1 Tx: 0-11 Rx: 0-11
NSS2 Tx: 0-11 Rx: 0-11

Interference Level: Acceptable
Mode : AP Only

DFS status: state IDLE time elapsed 0ms radar channel cleared by DFS none

Channel Information
—————————————-
Channel 36 A Band
Channel 40 A Band
Channel 44 A Band
Channel 48 A Band
Channel 149 A Band
Channel 153 A Band
Channel 157 A Band
Channel 161 A Band
Channel 165 A Band

 

 

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[UK Sentinel]

For the ET8 – on the UI, Look under Advanced Settings > Wireless > General, what are the Control Channels available for each 5GHz Network Name (SSID) ?

Screen dump would be perfect so we  can all see and save any ambiguity  

 

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[CF]

Output from all 3 bands attached.

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   2.4ghz_advanced.jpg
   

2. 

   5ghz_advanced.jpg
   

3. 

   6ghz_advanced.jpg
   

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[Raven]

CF wrote:

—————————————- Channel 36 A Band Channel 40 A Band Channel 44 A Band Channel 48 A Band Channel 149 A Band Channel 153 A Band Channel 157 A Band Channel 161 A Band Channel 165 A Band

 

Channels 100-140 are NOT present!

XT8 has two 5ghz radios… one uses 36-64 channels, second uses 100-140 channels.
The only 5Ghz radio available for backhaul is the second

ET8 has ONLY ONE 5ghz radio. I thought that asus leaved the first (as the second was removed in favour of the 6Ghz radio) so only 36-64 channels, but from your text is clear that asus “splitted” it to cover more range: from 36 to 48 and from 149 to 165…

This will not change the fact that the ET8 doesn’t use 100-140 channels… and so the 5ghz backhaul with XT8 is simply impossibile… only 2.4Ghz is allowed

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[CF]

You’re right Raven – i just looked at the lowest and highest channels and didnt notice the chunk missing in the middle.

Id agree that that if each of the 5ghz radios in the XT8 each only support a subset of the channels available in the 5ghz spectrum and if 5ghz-2 only uses the channels missing from the ET8 then it wont work in the current state.

Shame none of this is mentioned on the Asus site. Certainly looks like expanding the existing XT8’s i had with ET8’s to try and increase the backhaul available to an area of the house with a lot of devices was a mistake. In fact, the whole Asus Zenwifi thing is beginning to look like a mistake.

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