I had earlier reported on not being able to connect ASIAIR (1.4) to my (eero) Mesh Network in Station Mode (STN), and only succeeded when I added a WiFi extender that uses a simple SSID.
I see that the Facebook crowd are complaining about other mesh routers also failing to connect in Station Mode, so the problem is not limited to the eero.
If you do not have a home mesh network, you don't need to do any of this. Just configure ASIAIR in STN mode, although the use of an extender might still be beneficial if the signal from the ASIAIR is weak by the time it reaches the router.
Since my earlier posting, I have found four different methods to successfully connect the ASIAIR (v1.4) to the mesh network.
These are: (1) directly connecting ASIAIR to the home network through an Ethernet cable, (2) directly connecting home network to a WiFi extender that works as a WiFi access point, (3) extending the home mesh network completely using WiFi hops, and (4) extending the ASIAIR ethernet connector to WiFi.
Direct Connection
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If you can drag an Ethernet cable out to where the ASIAIR is located, this gives you the best speed and is simplest to set up, by far.
There is essentially no setup needed. You simply plug a CAT5 or CAT6 cable between the ASIAIR's RJ-45 port and one of the mesh router's RJ-45 port. Not all mesh nodes have RJ-45 outlets -- the eero Beacon, for example, does not have an Ethernet port, while the eero Pro has two of them.
That's it.
ASIAIR will sense an Ethernet connection and switch automatically to use it instead of WiFi, and the ASIAIR should appear on the router table of your home network. You should then see ASIAIR with your tablet connected to the home mesh network.
If you are accustomed to using ASIAIR through WiFi, you will be shocked by the speed of the direct connection (I expected a speed increase, but was still shocked).
Directly connect home network to a WiFi access point
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The reason why I needed to extend the home network, even when the ASIAIR is within reach of the nearest node of the mesh, is that out of three extenders that I have tried (an AC1200 class Netgear, a N300 class Netgear, and a AC750 class TP-Link), all succeeded in joining the mesh network, while the ASIAIR failed to connect in STN mode.
If the ASIAIR is too far from the home router, then the extender is needed anyway.
In this method, the home network's router is connected directly with an Ethernet cable to a WiFi extender that is configured as a wireless Access Point.
To test it, I used a Netgear Ex6150 WiFi extender that plugs in the wall. When you configure the extender, you only need the extender to broadcast on 2.4 GHz. Turn any physical switch on the extender to choose "access point" mode (a slide switch on the Ex6150.
Simply set up the extender to extend the home network. Turn off ASIAIR when you are setting it up, so it is less confusing. Give the extender a different broadcast SSID than the SSID of your home network. Furthermore, do not include spaces in the SSID name, and for good measure, keep it around 5 or 6 characters.
On the ASIAIR's WiFi Setup page, configure the Station Mode (STN), and select the SSID of the extender's access point. That's it.
Each time you reboot ASIAIR, it will look for this SSID. You tablet will be connected to the Home Network; there is no need to connect to the extender.
In this mode, ASIAIR uses Station Mode on 2.4 GHz to talk to the extender working as a wireless Access Point. The extender in turn talks to the home network through Ethernet.
Performance through the Ex6150, even though it connects to ASIAIR at 2.4 GHz, is surprisingly fast.
Extending Home Network completely wirelessly
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This is the same as the above method, but the extender is connected to the home network on WiFi (can be 5 GHz) instead of Ethernet.
Configure both WiFi extender and ASIAIR as above, except the physical switch on the extender should switch to "extender" instead of "access point," and leave out any Ethernet cables.
With this mode, the ASIAIR talks to the extender using 2.4 GHz WiFi, and the extender talks to the home network using 5 GHz WiFi. There are two wireless connections.
The method appears slower than the previous two methods.
Wirelessly extending ASIAIR's Ethernet port
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In this method, the extender is located near the ASIAIR and its Ethernet port is connected to the ASIAIR's Ethernet port. I tested with a TP-Link TL-WR902AC Travel Router, since the extender can be powered from a 5V USB power adapter.
Like the case before this, the WiFi side of the extender is again configured to extend the home mesh network. But instead of connecting the ASIAIR to the extender by WiFi, we connect the ASIAIR to the extender using an Ethernet cable. The extender then talks to the home network through WiFi. This removes one wireless connection.
The TP-Link wireless router is able to use either 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz (it is an "AC" instead of an "N" class extender), and I had picked 5 GHz. In spite of that, it is the slowest of the four methods. My guess is that the microprocessor in this particular router is the weak link. From casually observing image downloads, it appears to run perhaps half the speed of the prior method that uses an Ex6510 extender that is plugged into a wall outlet.
With this method, there is only one wireless path.
Because of constant rain, I have not been able to test the range (distance of ASIAIR from the home router). I suspect that when the ASIAIR is far away from the home network, this method may be better than the previous two methods since it does not rely at all on the WiFi antenna inside the ASIAIR itself.
If range is not a problem, the second method is probably my preference. It has one fewer wirelss connection to fail than the third method, and I can use a hefty AC1200 class extender instead of the wimply travel router in the 4th method. If I had used a faster router for the 4th method, perhaps it can transfer images just as fast, but it means looking for fast a router/extender that works with 5V or 12V DC supplies.
Good luck,
Chen
