Apple iPhone and MacBook connection issues on wifi

[KG49]

RT-AX86U Pro with dual-band smart connect enabled.

A MacBook Air connected directly to the RT-AX86U Pro on 5ghz experiences slow connection and lags/drops frames during Zoom.

An iPhone 13 Pro connected to an RT-AX55 node (ethernet backhaul) on 5ghz experiences lags and dropped frames during Facetime video, audio also drops. This occurred during Facetime with another iPhone 13 Pro connected to the RT-AX86U Pro (both phones connected to same wifi network in the same house).

Does ASUS have any problems with Apple? Any settings to adjust?

Note that 'Prevent client auto DoH' in WAN settings is set to Auto.

[jzchen]

All ASUS routers default to Auto as far as I’m aware.  Please verify that both/all routers are at the latest firmware release, then factory/hard reset the RT-AX55, then factory/hard reset the RT-AX86U Pro.  Try rebuilding the network as it stands.  (No need to move the node/add the node via WiFi, it should be capable of being found via Ethernet, which is actually my preferred method.  My nodes are Ethernet backhaul as well.

Once you rebuild see if it works as is.  OFDMA/802.11ax MU-MIMO may be default to Enabled, but interestingly hard reset doesn’t seem to change it mine has been disabled but I have hard reset and forgot to check…

[jzchen]

I was waiting for food to-go during my last response so I missed it.  Yes settings do transfer to the nodes, as best as capable.  What I mean is since different routers have different capabilities, the nodes will copy as best as possible the settings from the primary router.  I do believe there are a few settings available on the node.  If you go to the device list you may find the LAN IP address of your RT-AX55.  If you type that IP address in any web browser it should lead you to the log-in page of the RT-AX55.  Once logged in you may see what limited settings you can set.  I believe LAN switching such as Jumbo Packets (Enable/Disable).

[KG49]

The preliminary result is good! Thanks for your help. After disabling OFDMA/802.11ax MU-MIMO and enabling 160 MHz channel bandwidth Apple Facetime video and Zoom on Apple MacBook appear to be stable.

Note that after enabling 160 MHz bandwidth I left the existing selection of 80 MHz in the drop down. The options for 160 and 20/40/80/160 are available.

I did try to access the node directly. An ASUS message then appears "Unable to connect to the Parent AP." Followed by suggestions to make sure the AiMesh router is powered on, and to reboot it. I didn't try reboot yet, but it's definitely on and I can see the clients attached to it via the main router interface.

I did not try hard resetting anything yet. If I did that would I want to upload a previously saved config file, or start over? Hopefully ASUS DDNS would reattach without any problems.

[jzchen]

This is great news.  I’m nervous about continuing to suggest disabling OFDMA/802.11ax MU-MIMO, that it may not work for the next person…

Selecting the 160 MHz box should set the pull down to the 20/40/80/160 option.  The router automatically negotiates,  just like Auto for the control channel.  Strange things like this appear to occur along with a firmware update.  I suspect, with the limited programming experience I’ve had, that settings get mixed up with others, (a setting being a pointer to a value but it gets offset and no longer points to the correct one).  And a hard reset would correct/realign the pointers.  The question is then when is it advisable to hard reset?  It is more of a last resort if I can’t find a setting to change to resolve my problem.  (If you came back saying that changing the two settings didn’t help, I’d have to recommend it because that’s all I have left that I can think of).  I think the ASUS official consensus is to factory reset after a significant jump in firmware number, say from 3.0.0.4.386.xxxxx to 3.0.0.4.388.xxxxx .  I would try uploading the config backup IF I have a lot of customized settings and IF I feel it’s a pain to manually reconfigure them.  (I do not keep a configuration backup personally).  I consider not reaching the node successfully, as you note, a bug.  (It’s probably perfectly fine to reboot the node, then try its IP again.  There’s not much there at all so it’s okay to just leave it if the node is functioning properly otherwise).  Are you seeing devices connect to the node?  (This is my criteria.  If you feel nothing ever connects to the node then it may warrant a reboot.  If that doesn’t seem to work a hard reset of the node would be my next step.  Do give time for devices to (re)connect to the node as any sort of power cycle appears to shift devices to a more reliable connection for a while.  If you move a device to the far side from the router then it should force the connection to the node, something you may test right away). 

I’m not sure if a hard reset disrupts the DDNS function.  I do not recall it doing so for me.  I do have the routers attached to my Google account somehow, and the cloud may be why hard resetting doesn’t disable it.