Mesh WIFI

Is the Asus RT-AC68U in mesh with 2 other nodes suitable for VOIP adaptor? Have been pinging my nodes and there is about 0.0016% packet loss. Would it work or not reliable enough?

0.0016% packet loss - over how long? I don't think that's an issue.

In reply to a post by Pipexer:

0.0016% packet loss - over how long? I don't think that's an issue.

24 hours. I'll do some more tests.

I wouldn’t have thought that losing 1 packet in every 70,000 odd is going to have any effect on voice transmission.

Well one mesh node is bound to a echo speaker, it seems enough to stop a music stream.

VOIP is much less demanding than music streaming. A packet loss of 1-2% is considered acceptable, so I don’t see a much smaller loss being a problem.

https://getvoip.com/blog/how-to-fix-packet-loss/

In reply to a post by Banger:

Well one mesh node is bound to a echo speaker, it seems enough to stop a music stream.

How? I thought the idea of Mesh was so people could get reliable Wi-fi in different rooms, not really reliable if you can't stream audio.

Auus have their own Mesh system, I thought it was to bees knees, since it has Ai and all that stuff. TPlink uses something called easymesh, not tried it, don't really need it, I did think of getting one in the kitchen so I could sit out in the garden and get Wi-fi, but never go around to it.

If that little packet loss is causing you music streaming to fail you have some other issue you've not identified.

The packet loss you've got is barely measurable.

Any ideas on how to diagnose. Latest PL is 0.8 but as Tiny says 1-2% is acceptable. I just dont want to be on a call and get cut off if I go that route with adaptor attached to mesh node.

I have the option of wiring to the main router connected to the ONT and that maybe more reliable than the mesh wifi but it means 2 DECT base stations next to each other which is not ideal.

Edit: Now testing two Panasonic base stations in the same room about a metre apart see if there is any interference.

Edited by Banger (Thu 04-Sep-25 20:28:49)

Can you describe the issues you are actually seeing. Even 1% packet loss should not stop music streaming, so this is not related.

What are the issues you are actually experiencing
What are the issues you are not experiencing now but are concerned about.

What are you pinging/doing to derive those packet loss stats, where are the pings being sent to/from, what devices, what software/tool.

In reply to a post by Pipexer:

Can you describe the issues you are actually seeing. Even 1% packet loss should not stop music streaming, so this is not related.

What are the issues you are actually experiencing
What are the issues you are not experiencing now but are concerned about.

What are you pinging/doing to derive those packet loss stats, where are the pings being sent to/from, what devices, what software/tool.

My echo downstairs will randomly stop streaming music and the PC hardwired to the mesh node will stop rdp and disconnect. If I say resume to the echo it will say no internet. Then after about 2 minutes I say resume and stream will resume.

I am using mtr to ping the mesh node I planned to install the VOIP adaptor to. I have 2 x mesh nodes both Asus AC68U.

Apart from the music streaming stopping it may be academic as I am testing the dect base stations together and will hard wire to the main router with the WAN ethernet from ONT when it is isntalled.

Definitely something not right there - are you on the latest firmware on the Mesh. Are you absolutely sure there is nothing interfering with the Mesh - like additional APs, duplicate IPs, other network equipment, etc, etc.

Do you have any VLANing or internal routing going on which could be affecting this?

Edited by Pipexer (Thu 04-Sep-25 21:09:06)

In reply to a post by Pipexer:

Definitely something not right there - are you on the latest firmware on the Mesh. Are you absolutely sure there is nothing interfering with the Mesh - like additional APs, duplicate IPs, other network equipment, etc, etc.

Do you have any VLANing or internal routing going on which could be affecting this?

Yes although the routers are EOL they just had a firmware update. Personally I think it is the Broadcom wifi driver in the firmware. Sent feedback to Asus many times about this without a fix. The speaker problem is random as it can stay up for days then sometimes a day at a time.

Asus hardware is top notch but firmware leaves something to be desired.

No VLANS or routing everything is DHCP apart from two PCs which are static and have reserved addresses.

You could be right about it being a chipset issue.

I think the easiest thing in this instance is, if you have a router etc which has WiFi, then unplug and physically power off all the mesh stuff, and see whether the issues go away with a completely different WiFi and AP setup. Even if signal is lower you should soon see whether the problem is fixed or not.

Other than that, the only thing you could possibly do is tinker with the Asus Mesh settings - disable any features prone to cause problems like band steering, auto channel adjustment, etc.

Thanks for that. There is no Band steering that is the next model up, I have disabled roaming assistant which disconnects below -70dbm but I doubt its that. I asked on the Asus forum SNB best wifi settings and set those. I also set fixed channels on 2.4ghz and 5ghz.

I think the original problem about VOIP dropping will be solved by hard wiring to the router switch.

In reply to a post by Banger:

I think the original problem about VOIP dropping will be solved by hard wiring to the router switch.

that should help alot

In reply to a post by Banger:

Thanks for that. There is no Band steering that is the next model up, I have disabled roaming assistant which disconnects below -70dbm but I doubt its that. I asked on the Asus forum SNB best wifi settings and set those. I also set fixed channels on 2.4ghz and 5ghz.

I think the original problem about VOIP dropping will be solved by hard wiring to the router switch.

My VoIP adaptor is connected to a switch which is connected to the router and works fine, even if the phones are getting old and I had to replace the batteries in the handsets.
Not that I use them that much these days,