WiFi Dropouts

Hi Everyone,

For some reason I'm getting dropouts every time I use FaceTime to call family in Australia on my iPad with a wireless connection.
I know it's definitely the wireless as this doesn't happen on my iPhone using the mobile signal.
All the Apple software is up to date including the router.
I have a mesh set up with 2 Asus ZenWiFi XT9's and an Asus RP-AX58.
I have been in touch with my ISP and they've assured me they can't see anything wrong with my FTTP connection.
If anyone can offer any advice on what I should do to check things further it would really be appreciated.

Many thanks

You tried connecting the Ipad to the router network instead of using the Mesh? at least then you would be able to work out if it is the Mesh, also, what about connecting your Iphone to the Wireless network and see if the same thing happens with that while using FaceTime.

Are the xt9s backhaul, wireless or wired ?

What does it say about thruput in the ai mesh section ?

What happens if you turn the xt9s off and only use the rp ax58 for video calling (face time)?

Also have you updated the firmware to the latest versions?

what happens if you video call your phone via the ipad - try this close to the rp or with the xt9s off and then one near the xt9s

Edited by Taras (Mon 26-Jan-26 13:50:26)

Sorry but I'm not entirely sure I'm very much a novice when it comes to this sort of thing.
Here are some screen shots from my Asus app which I hope will give you some idea.
Everything is running with the latest firmware.

I'll try your other two suggestions when I call Australia at the weekend nd get back to you.

XT9 Router

RouterXT9 Lounge

RP-AX58 Kitchen

Please forgive me but I'm a bit of a novice at this kind of stuff so bare with me!
I've used my iPhone on the the same wireless network and it still happens.
How do I connect my iPad to the router instead of the Mesh?

How do you know it is your WiFi? It could be your internet connection. They are not the same thing.

You need to rule things out.

If you want to keep things simple, then perhaps temporarily disconnect/power off the additional APs so that you can only be connected to a single WiFi access point - see if that helps. If it does then you can maybe point the finger to the mesh system. If you still get dropouts then you will need to work down the chain

WiFI -> Router -> FTTP

If you are on FTTP it's unlikely to be the connection itsself so I would start looking at your WiFi gear and your router.

If you have an ISP supplied router, go back to that and see if that helps.

In reply to a post by Piscatorian:

Please forgive me but I'm a bit of a novice at this kind of stuff so bare with me!
I've used my iPhone on the the same wireless network and it still happens.
How do I connect my iPad to the router instead of the Mesh?

Not having Mesh myself, I am not sure, I suppose you could turn the mesh units off and then the router would change to router Wi-fi only.
You could disable it in the router, but that is more hassle.

But you did remind me, that i was going to order a mesh for my router, so I can get a decent signal in the garden, thanks for that.

I'm not using ISP supplied equipment I'm using my own Asus XT9's.
I disconnected both the AP's and when I tried FaceTime again it did seem to perform better with only a couple of drop over an hour call. It would seem that it's a slight improvement using just the router.
When you say look at my wifi gear do you mean my other AP's?

When I use my iPhone on the wi-fi I still get the same issue.
iPad today without the mesh saw a better performance with only 2 or 3 drops during an hour FaceTime call.

can you confirm if you have disabled the 2.4ghz wifi radio?

Also you said that you have got 2 mesh units and one router. Have you either got a really large house or thick walls, because you may be suffereing from acess point hop (where your device sees another radio with better signal and will join that one causing a drop on face time).

can you see if the app has an advanced mode. if not, can you on the ipad log in via safari at 192.168.1.1 and give use the ai mesh snapshot of the speed at the bottom right of the ai mesh page

I haven't tried disabling the 2.4ghz, I will do that next time I call.
Yes our ouse is daily large and it does have thickish wall too.

I didn't say disable it, but you were connecting on the 5ghz band.

You may find that a different 2.4ghz and 5ghz band may help.

Also i would suggest trying a cable between the main router and the xt9s

Could it just be a routing issue to/from Australia? I assume the mobile works as it would use a different transport method?

The mesh roaming is likely the culprit. When you're on a long FaceTime call the iPad keeps trying to roam between the XT9 nodes and the RP-AX58, and that brief handoff kills the call.

A couple of things worth trying: first, check if band steering is enabled in the Asus settings and try disabling it — sometimes it aggressively pushes devices between bands mid-call. Second, during a call try staying in one spot close to a single node and see if the dropouts stop. If they do, that confirms it's a roaming issue.

Also worth checking: is the RP-AX58 set up as an AiMesh node or just as a separate access point? If it's not properly integrated into AiMesh it can cause exactly this kind of instability.

Interesting. Also you can push clients to only one node.......

If roaming is the problem; can you set up a guest network on one access point only and use that for video calls? You might need to disable automatic connection to the main network on the device you are using.

on merlin you can........ (not sure about stock)

You can also limit devices to mesh units. We don't know if this is the issue that the OP is facing