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Edited October 23, 2021
at 08:57 AM
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Update: deal still active at $35.
Update 2: the later units in a brown box looked brand new, as did the early units in a retail box.
This is the same seller and listing on ebay from the expired $30 deal a few days ago (here:
https://slickdeals.net/f/15322024-t-mobile-asus-tm-ac1900-dual-band-wireless-router-29-99-open-box-fs).
Note: iirc, the listing text a few days ago stated the unit came in a white box, new but open. The listing now states a generic brown box and doesn't say new but open. Not positive on that. The unit that arrived 2 days ago was new and accessories were sealed. We'll see if the remaining batch is the same, I'll post an update.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/28433708...SwVI5haZlR
102 Comments
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does powerline ethernet work as well as direct connection? I have a few rooms with poor 5 GHZ connectivity, but it will be hard to run cable from the other end of the house. I was planning to use those tplink GHz powerline adapters with this to provide the wired backhaul.
When I set that up earlier, that seem to provide good download speeds and coverage. So not sure what additional features ai-mesh will provide as many here seem to suggest performance isn't that great with wireless backhaul. Also aimesh node on wireless backhaul seem to have the same issues as a repeater from bandwidth perspective.
Only issue I have noticed is that, I can't attach usb storage to router acting as repeater. But other than that, that seem to work just fine. My other router has much better coverage/speed(AC2600), but wasn't as stable as RT-AC68U with some frequently used devices near the router.
can you broadcast two unique SSID (on vlans? ) so that IOT devices are on a seperate physique network? any of the firmware mentioned support this, I've only used wrt open source years ago..
Did you figure this out?
While hooked to the second router, either wifi or wire, go to administration/operation mode and set it to node mode. It'll take 2 minutes to do its thing. Once done, hook it by wire to the master router- from node's WAN port to master's LAN port. Hook your PC to the master, either wired or wireless, and enter the AiMesh settings to search for a node. It'll find the new one, add it, name it, etc. Once done you can unplug the node and move it wherever and it'll mesh wirelessly or wired from then on.
I have been unable to add a node wirelessly with these converted TM units.
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While hooked to the second router, either wifi or wire, go to administration/operation mode and set it to node mode. It'll take 2 minutes to do its thing. Once done, hook it by wire to the master router- from node's WAN port to master's LAN port. Hook your PC to the master, either wired or wireless, and enter the AiMesh settings to search for a node. It'll find the new one, add it, name it, etc. Once done you can unplug the node and move it wherever and it'll mesh wirelessly or wired from then on.
I have been unable to add a node wirelessly with these converted TM units.
That's what it is! I couldn't get it to work wirelessly but once I used the ethernet cord it worked. Thank you!
After 10 years, I finally went with 3 from this deal to replace them so I can finally go with AC and reduce saturation.
Agree with you. It's all about the model that works with that particular tech... hold onto it as long as you can.
What FW are you running? I was debating on DDWRT or not, some say the stock Asus AC RT58U firmware, and my buddy uses Merlin (wanted to try it). These are just gonna be Access Points... pfsense kicks butt as a firewall and I'd like to keep that guy running everything for me.
Conversion is not a problem, if you follow the steps, it works as noted. Took me like 30 mins to go from out the box to converted running merlin.
While hooked to the second router, either wifi or wire, go to administration/operation mode and set it to node mode. It'll take 2 minutes to do its thing. Once done, hook it by wire to the master router- from node's WAN port to master's LAN port. Hook your PC to the master, either wired or wireless, and enter the AiMesh settings to search for a node. It'll find the new one, add it, name it, etc. Once done you can unplug the node and move it wherever and it'll mesh wirelessly or wired from then on.
I have been unable to add a node wirelessly with these converted TM units.
I tired this. Still won't work for me. Can't find the node. Are you using stock FW or merlin? Tried with Merlin, but no joy. 😳
I'm on Merlin latest, 386.3_2 on all 4 units. Try an nvram reset on the node first, then on the master. Beyond that, I have no idea.
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No luck after NVRAM resets. Are you using AiMesh in ethernet backhaul mode?