Asus ZenWiFi Mesh Routers (2-pack) XT8 - $429.99

roedoe wrote: ↑ Why are these mesh devices 4x the price of normal routers?

Bc they just work and they work very well.

roedoe wrote: ↑ Why are these mesh devices 4x the price of normal routers?

Keep in mind it’s a two pack with two triband wifi 6 routers with AX6600 specs. AX6600 routers usually cost around $250. The triband is required for the mesh to function at high speed. If your space is small enough to not require a mesh or you can run cable, then obviously you don’t need the more expensive product and can do fine with a “normal router”.

The Bell technician installed my modem (home hub 4000) in the garage. Do y'all think this router can handle the winter and summer sitting in the garage? I live in Ontario.

TIA

I am on an old Velop system, looking to upgrade to a nice new faster Wifi 6 or 6e system, BUT, I am able to hard wire all my access points easily. Wondering if there is a more cost efficient solution based on this?

sonyHdr12 wrote: ↑ Can you test you router speed (inside) please, I only get 1.5 GB down and 1gb up speed with bell 3G plan, thanks

What do you get on the built in speed test on the Gigahub itself? I get 3 Gbps+ down/up everytime.

On my Zenwifi ET12 w/ 2.5 Gbps WAN/LAN ports and my desktop PC (10 Gbps ethernet) I get 2+ Gbps every time.

superskid wrote: ↑ I am on an old Velop system, looking to upgrade to a nice new faster Wifi 6 or 6e system, BUT, I am able to hard wire all my access points easily. Wondering if there is a more cost efficient solution based on this?

ASUS’ XD6 or XD4 mini are essentially the wired version of this. With that said, I’d wait a few days for Google’s Nest refresh, it’s going to be a triband wifi 6E mesh system that would work well with a wired backhaul.

Ph7nam wrote: ↑ The roaming is a problem for any mesh wireless network. A router cannot force a client to connect to the nearest access point, but only suggest to the client that there is a better one nearby. Ultimately it is the client that decides where to connect. Some clients like laptops have a setting where you can adjust the roaming aggressiveness, so that it will more likely try to connect to the nearest access point. For mobile devices though there's nothing of the sort that I'm aware of. One way to mitigate this is to try to space out or reduce the transmission power of the access points such that there is just enough overlap between them, not too small but not too big of an overlap.

Right. Fundamentally, wifi was designed for stationary devices unlike the cellular network.
Even in a "mesh" setup, a device still connects to just a single router, and as far as I know, there's nothing in the market that can do the hand off properly due to technology constraint.

ownthesky wrote: ↑ ASUS’ XD6 or XD4 mini are essentially the wired version of this. With that said, I’d wait a few days for Google’s Nest refresh, it’s going to be a triband wifi 6E mesh system that would work well with a wired backhaul.

Oh thanks, the upcoming google pack does seem to be good, Next question, I have a vacation condo that has SOLID thick concrete walls, no chance of wiring the nodes together. I currently have 5 velops in there and I still have one drop randomly which just daisy changes the problems. The incoming WiFi is only 30 mps as that is what the country offers, but will new 6e do any better going through thick concrete walls. 5 is just too many

superskid wrote: ↑ Oh thanks, the upcoming google pack does seem to be good, Next question, I have a vacation condo that has SOLID thick concrete walls, no chance of wiring the nodes together. I currently have 5 velops in there and I still have one drop randomly which just daisy changes the problems. The incoming WiFi is only 30 mps as that is what the country offers, but will new 6e do any better going through thick concrete walls. 5 is just too many

Unfortunately 6GHz has terrible penetration, it will actually have much worse performance through concrete. That’s kind of the beauty of it- because it doesn’t penetrate well, your neighbors can’t really interfere with your radio spectrum, but it sucks for your own concrete walls. Are there any coaxial cables in the condo for cable TV? You could set up a wired network with a MoCA adapter if so and solve that concrete problem entirely. Otherwise I’d see if there’s any way you could run an Ethernet cable, hidden under a carpet, wall trim, or even on the exterior of the building.

That’s pretty wild you’re running 5 velops. Assuming the property isn’t massive, it might actually be making things worse since they’re probably interfering with each other in a small condo.

Anelephant wrote: ↑ What do you get on the built in speed test on the Gigahub itself? I get 3 Gbps+ down/up everytime.

On my Zenwifi ET12 w/ 2.5 Gbps WAN/LAN ports and my desktop PC (10 Gbps ethernet) I get 2+ Gbps every time.

Wow , that’s perfect speed, maybe I should change router, did you connect your mesh router with pppoe? , thanks.

I just had fibe 3.0 installed and my speeds are brutal. I'm getting 250 mbps within 10 ft of the modem and get under 200 mbps in a third of the house. Called support and they said that 200 mbps is about right since you divide the 3 gbps by the number of connected devices. I'm not a techie but I'm calling BS because we never have more than 5 -7 connected at any one time.
Anyway can anyone comment if this would be a better option than the eero Pro mesh system in a 2 story house (2600 sqft)?

sonyHdr12 wrote: ↑ Wow , that’s perfect speed, maybe I should change router, did you connect your mesh router with pppoe? , thanks.

Nope, I think you asked me that in the other thread as well. I have my ASUS router set on "Wireless router" mode, but my Bell Gigahub is the main modem and I just have the ASUS connected like any other LAN device (I also use a wired backhaul to get to my AIMesh node through coax, using a MoCA 2.5 Gbps adapter, works amazingly). I didn't go through all the effort to config the Gigahub to disable its wifi etc (do you guys connect through putty/ssh or something to do that?).
On one hand, it doesn't "feel" optimal to have two different wifi networks broadcasting so close together, but realistically, I have absolutely no wireless performance issues. As a side benefit, for some reason my microwave doesn't connect properly to the wifi network from my ASUS when using tri-band smart connect, so I just connect the one device to it. The wifi range on the GIgahub is trash though lol

Anelephant wrote: ↑ Nope, I think you asked me that in the other thread as well. I have my ASUS router set on "Wireless router" mode, but my Bell Gigahub is the main modem and I just have the ASUS connected like any other LAN device (I also use a wired backhaul to get to my AIMesh node through coax, using a MoCA 2.5 Gbps adapter, works amazingly). I didn't go through all the effort to config the Gigahub to disable its wifi etc (do you guys connect through putty/ssh or something to do that?).
On one hand, it doesn't "feel" optimal to have two different wifi networks broadcasting so close together, but realistically, I have absolutely no wireless performance issues. As a side benefit, for some reason my microwave doesn't connect properly to the wifi network from my ASUS when using tri-band smart connect, so I just connect the one device to it. The wifi range on the GIgahub is trash though lol

I have bell fibe 1.5 gbps and Bell Hub 4000. Not happy with range of hub 4000 as it only gives 150 mbps download and 90 mbps upload in the second floor master bedroom. The speed is 600-700 mbps next to the router on my MacBook M1 Pro. For a 2 storey townhouse with 1450 sq ft, is XT8 worth it? Or should I just buy a good router? Confused between TP Link GX90 and Asus AX86U.

tinkushal wrote: ↑ I have bell fibe 1.5 gbps and Bell Hub 4000. Not happy with range of hub 4000 as it only gives 150 mbps download and 90 mbps upload in the second floor master bedroom. The speed is 600-700 mbps next to the router on my MacBook M1 Pro. For a 2 storey townhouse with 1450 sq ft, is XT8 worth it? Or should I just buy a good router? Confused between TP Link GX90 and Asus AX86U.

It really depends in so many factors that it's hard to say what is worth or not. I'm on a similar setup (about same size multi storey townhouse) - If you want to invest, XT8 is a good bet. If you wanna try your luck with Bell, you can try rent their WiFi Pods. I say luck because they *could* send you the new WiFi 6 pods. But even the WiFi 5 ones would do OK to be honest, That likely would solve your problem for $5/mo each. I know some people are against renting versus buying, but 1. at this price and 2. considering we're in a bit of transition from WiFi 5 -> WiFi 6 -> WiFi 6E, making a considerably investment ($400-$500) doesn't appeal much to me.

tinkushal wrote: ↑ I have bell fibe 1.5 gbps and Bell Hub 4000. Not happy with range of hub 4000 as it only gives 150 mbps download and 90 mbps upload in the second floor master bedroom. The speed is 600-700 mbps next to the router on my MacBook M1 Pro. For a 2 storey townhouse with 1450 sq ft, is XT8 worth it? Or should I just buy a good router? Confused between TP Link GX90 and Asus AX86U.

Im also in the same situation but my bell modem will be practically next to the garage on ground floor while my townhouse have 2nd and 3rd floors above. I chose to go with the TP-Link Deco AX3000 WiFi 6 Mesh System (Deco X60) pricez at $239 plus tax.

Hoepfully its good choice

Tfarooqi wrote: ↑ Bestbuy had this router system for 399 a while back. I'm sure around cyber monday or such it'll drop to that price also.

I don't believe this system was $399.99 at Best Buy. The lowest I've seen it is $499.99 at BestBuy, but happy to be proven wrong. In the summer, it was also on sale at B&H for slightly less than that after all things were calculated.

I purchased this system to replace an Eero Pro setup (wifi 5) with the same number of mesh units. With 1.5GBps, I'm now getting 1250Mbps to the router directly, and excellent speeds over wifi close to the router (700 next to it, 500 one floor down, and 350 in the basement). Connected to the (wirelessly connected) mesh unit, I'm still able to get 300+ in the backyard. All my devices are working well with it.

My only complaints are minor: sometimes, the second unit reverts to a slow connection, using 2.4Ghz and reports poor connection quality to the main unit. Usually, I move it closer to the main unit, and then move it back. (just power cycling at the same location doesn't work). Second, the software, while flexible, is ugly AF. This is what I miss about Eero, which gave me enough in terms of options but was much better designed. Thinking about moving back to Eero 6e Pro, but there's really no reason for me to do so.

milkmilk wrote: ↑ I have 4 of these in order to have 5GHz reach everywhere including driveway and backyard.
They work flawlessly for stationary devices where you lock it in to a specific router.
Moving devices (phone) work, but it doesn't always choose the best one to connect to.

I currently have two Portal routers, main one hooked up to the Bell Modem and the other is about 50ft away but connected via ethernet to the main one. Great performance over wifi, but the handoff between routers is jarring. Sometimes they won't want to disconnect from the device even if the signal is weak. So low tech devices like a baby monitor will have to manually be reconnected. Does this system behave similarly?

I purchased it at 449$ on sale in a combo with the Tumbler, I remember price dropped another 50$ and I got a price match.

Range and speeds have been decent for me. I have Rogers 900/150, main point on wifi 6 is giving me 700/140 and the second unit 450-500/90-120.

I have mine set to reboot 1 time a week.

Anyone interested in splitting a pair in the GTA? I only need one as a node that will pass WAF for decor.

Ph7nam wrote: ↑ The roaming is a problem for any mesh wireless network. A router cannot force a client to connect to the nearest access point, but only suggest to the client that there is a better one nearby. Ultimately it is the client that decides where to connect. Some clients like laptops have a setting where you can adjust the roaming aggressiveness, so that it will more likely try to connect to the nearest access point. For mobile devices though there's nothing of the sort that I'm aware of. One way to mitigate this is to try to space out or reduce the transmission power of the access points such that there is just enough overlap between them, not too small but not too big of an overlap.

It's call "fast roaming" aka IEEE 802.11r. Lots of mobile devices support this now including iPhones since 4S and it has been around for a long while. A properly configure Mesh network would have this enabled and the AP switching should be seamless.