The original post: /r/homenetworking by /u/newoodworker on 2025-01-22 01:23:07.

I will preface by saying that I am reltively new to networking. I am attempting to provide seamless wifi across my house, which is long enough that a single access point cannot cover the entire house. I am experiencing issues when devices roam from one access point to another (described in more detail below), and hoping someone might be able to provide some insight as to what the problem is, or how to better diagnose the problem.

Network:

I have a pair of Asus RT-AC68U’s. One is set up as my primary router (connected to modem). The other is set up as an AiMesh node, with a wired bach-haul (via a switch) to the main router. They are both running merlin firmware (386.14_2), the latest release compatible with the model . There are no connectivity issues between the nodes.

Modem <–> AC68U (AiMesh Router) <–> switch <–> AC68U (AiMesh Node)

Problem:

Wifi roaming is not seamless. Using my Samsung Galaxy S20FE, with a wifi analyser, I can see that the hand-over is occuring “instantly” between the two access points, however, any apps running (e.g. video call, etc), have connection issues. If I am expecting a notification (e.g. Authenticator) after phone changes access points, it just doesn’t get delivered. Switching off the phone’s wifi, and using the 4G sim, any playback continues, and notifications arrive.

My thoughts are that, during hand-over, the router is not updating which AiMesh node / access point to route traffic through, meaning that any existing connections are effectively dropped. As manually switching networks (to 4G, or even re-enabling the wifi) re-connects client apps, I would suggest it is not a “change of network” issue on the client.

Other info:

I previously had Google Wifi mesh with wireless and wired nodes, and didn’t experience any roaming problems.

I also have some wifi routers flashed with OpenWRT, so if I can’t get the ASUS AiMesh roaming seamlessly, I might switch to OpenWRT and give that a go, although configuring OpenWRT from scratch looks like a steep learning curve