Belkin RT3200/Linksys E8450 WiFi AX discussion

BeauSlim · 2023-03-31T08:54:16.822Z

Hi, sorry, I stopped using my E8450s in mesh mode quite a while ago. The problem is that they only have a single 5GHz radio, and that limits the bandwidth available. I was able to get 1 Gbit to the wired ports of the mesh child device, but wireless speeds for everything else dropped to 300 Mbit.
I ended up grabbing a 3rd E8450 on sale so I could cover my entire house.
The Linksys docs are definitely not applicable. A quick search doesn't show any web-based tutorials, and it looks like things have changed a bit, so I'm afraid you're stuck with https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/network/wifi/mesh/80211s
https://simianer.de/blog/home-wifi-setup-with-802.11s-meshing-and-802.11r-roaming has some good tips, too.

daniel · 2023-03-31T11:37:18.401Z

eginnc:

Seems to be specific to my RT3200.

Could be that this limitation is part of the device calibration data, and may have been applied due to hardware limitations of external amplifier ICs, the antennas, or due to regulatory problems...

anon78773196 · 2023-03-31T12:42:32.612Z

le reseau maillé est simple

the mesh network is simply

use simply mesh11sd i have used while a long work wuthouth problem

eginnc · 2023-04-01T11:00:27.525Z

Possible, but I think it unlikely Belkin/Linksys would roll a product so handicapped out to the US market. It would be interesting to know what the tx power limits are with OEM firmware.

This discussion might explain things as well: https://github.com/openwrt/mt76/issues/633

The gist of it seems to be that Mediatek let out a lot of production with the wrong tx power information written to the chips, and that OEM were informed about it and corrected it in the OEM firmware, but OpenWrt has not.

Lynx · 2023-04-02T12:41:08.858Z

BeauSlim:

but wireless speeds for everything else dropped to 300 Mbit

In mesh mode?

Using WDS I see circa 650-750Mbit/s between RT3200 nodes. Super stable. Fairly recent commits incorporated in 22.03 significantly improved upload performance (before there were lots of retransmits reported).

BeauSlim · 2023-04-04T22:39:10.698Z

Yes, I was using 802.11s mesh mode. It may have been uploads that were slow. Good to hear that there have been changes. I may try it again.

kramsac · 2023-04-05T08:52:24.504Z

I am using the latest stable release on two RT3200s. Both are dumb wifi APs, with a 802.11s mesh between them to provide wifi upstairs. Is there any advantage/improved performance to using snapshots instead? Thanks for the help!

Llethur · 2023-04-05T22:53:04.285Z

The only advantage that I can think of in your scenario is when you want to enable WED (hardware offloading) on your DUMB AP. This requires the 'bridger' package. I can't find the bridger package on the stable release version repository, but it is available on the snapshot repository.

eginnc · 2023-04-06T11:41:31.546Z

The stable branch has issues with 802.11ax being slower than 802.11ac, especially on upload and especially as distance and barriers from client to AP increase. Snapshot has a newer mt76 driver that helps with this.

KayceP · 2023-04-08T20:04:07.886Z

Hey Daniel,

Still having the same issues months later, haven't been able to use the router and am considering just tossing it and saving up for a new one, but decided to take one more crack at it before doing that.

Any chance I could grab those ready-made binaries with the kernel debug symbols if you have the time at some point? Not sure what else I can do to chase this issue down, but if you, or anyone else has ideas I'd love to hear them. Sadly my IT background just isn't in this arena and I feel clueless.

Thank you for all the help, either way!

Llethur · 2023-04-10T09:40:51.885Z

OpenWRT stable release 22.03.4 has been released for the router.

timothyjward · 2023-04-10T10:11:09.048Z

The release may be tagged but it’s not a good idea to install until the official release announcement

See:

A note about using new stable releases before they are announced Release and security announcements

There is always an excitement and enthusiasm as new stable releases start showing up on the downloads page -- and that is great! As of this moment, 21.02.3 and 19.07.10 are currently building, but they are not complete nor are they announced (current versions are still 21.02.2 and 19.07.9). Over time, the 'current' and upcoming versions will be different, but the same principles apply. A few things to know before you try to install new versions prior to the official announcement: The build s…

Lynx · 2023-04-10T13:42:56.529Z

Any exciting changes for the RT3200 crew?

fireburner · 2023-04-12T16:41:51.610Z

Aren't you on the master tree?
The 22.03 tree has been split from master more than a year ago.

lukasz92 · 2023-04-13T14:07:33.013Z

Don't know why, but changes on 22.03 branch of mt76 were not merged to 22.03 branch of openwrt.

Llethur · 2023-04-14T11:41:55.522Z

Good advice there Tim. Not having gone through the process too often, maybe you could help. It doesn't seem as if much has been added to any of the 22.03.4 release directories since 10th April for the device. From experience, should we expect more changes before the official announcement?

timothyjward · 2023-04-14T11:50:10.703Z

The only reason for changes to 22.03.4 would be if the build turned out to be unstable or to have a sufficiently serious vulnerability that it got pulled.

The main issue now is that not all of the packages have been built so if you try to install things or to build a custom image it will probably fail. Once everything is built the announcement will go out.

Lynx · 2023-04-15T09:28:24.729Z

If permitted by the regulatory requirements, and thinking only in terms of the hardware, what are the maximum safe to set transmit powers across the various channels on this device? I'm thinking in terms of hardware limitations. Is it possible to set a power that will damage the device (e.g. for those who live in Panama) or is the maximum power that can be set always a power that is safe to set?

eginnc · 2023-04-15T12:10:57.192Z

As it is, OpenWrt restricts RT3200 txpower in the U.S. to 28 dBm on 2.4 GHz (versus 30 dBm allowed), to 23 dBm on U-NII-1 (versus 30 dBm allowed) and 27 dBm on U-NII-3 (versus 30 dBm allowed). Only on U-NII-2 is the full 24 dBm allowed.

The 23 dBm restriction on U-NII-1 is the most annoying, as it restricts the RT3200 to only one decently powered 5 GHz channel of 80 MHz width.

I am confident RT3200 OpenWrt firmware that permits transmitting at the power levels allowed in the U.S. will not "break" my RT3200 and am more than willing to try. I don't think that Belkin would have designed the RT3200/EA8450 to use less than full power.

daniel · 2023-04-15T12:19:05.325Z

eginnc:

I don't think that Belkin would have designed the RT3200/EA8450 to use less than full power.

Using full power may have required placing external RF amplifiers, which means additional cost. Appart from that note that restrictions can also be related to RF noise emitted on neighboring or harmonic bands which would be too high otherwise. Hence we'd have to proof that the stock firmware really behaves differently and permits higher TX power levels despite calibration data stating otherwise (it's not that we would have never seen vendors patching the driver instead of just writing correct calibration data to EEPROM...)