Asus ROG Rapture GT-BE98 - where is the WiFi 7?

[MonkY]

Hi everyone!

I was really happy to finally upgrade from my trusty old Asus GT-AX11000 to a new Asus GT-BE98. You can't believe how hard it was for me to not upgrade all these years from the WiFi 6 to WiFi 6E, and waited until I get the full WiFi 7 experience. But now, that is finally here, it doesn't look good at all. 

First of all, no matter what device I've used (I have tried 3 different notebooks with WiFi 7, 2 desktop PC's recently upgraded to WiFi 7 and a ton of smartphones and tablets), I have never managed to connect at anything beyond 2.8Gbps. Even with the router at 1-2m distance, and no obstacles. This means that the new GT-BE98 is actually the same speed as my old 4-5 years router (where I used to connect at 2.4Gbps). 

But then it gets worse. Not only that the WiFi 7 band is useless (and you can't even see the 320Mhz band in Windows 10, you need Windows 11), but even devices with WiFi 6E or WiFi 6, are actually slower than the previous router. For example, on my iPhone 15 Pro Max (that only has WiFi 6E) I get on the old one speeds like 900Mbps DL and 500Mbps UL (I have a maximum 1Gbps DL and 500Mbps UL speed from my ISP), but on the new one, the DL speed goes down to 6-700Mbps DL (and strange, the same 500Mbps UL).

Even worse than that: my main computer I have tested (an i9-13900K with a BE200 card) works so bad with the new router, that only does like 70Mbps DL instead of 900Mbps I had before. But that's only on the 6Ghz - 320Mhz band, the one for WiFi 7. If I connect to 5Ghz - 1, I get the same 700Mbps or so (still worse than before).

I have tried resetting the router to factory defaults. I have tried all the 4 available firmwares, with no success. 
I don't know what else to try... and I am about to breeak the return window. Yes, for the way it works now, and for how expensive this router is (the most expensive router I ever had), I wasn't expected to see issues like this.

So, please... if you have any ideas, please let me know.
Thanks in advance!

[jzchen]

I took note of several settings that appear to be different.  (I have 0 WiFi 7 devices and only 1 WiFi 6E device).  So I have no idea if any of these differences may help:

General:

WPA Encryption:  AES

Professional:

Disconnect clients when RSSI lower than:  -70 dBm

Target Wake Time:  Disable

Enable IGMP Snooping:  Enable

DTIM Interval:  1

Airtime Fairness:  Disable

OFDMA/802.11ax MU-MIMO:  DL/UL OFDMA + MU-MIMO

I don't know if you are able to try all these settings or not, for example I'm only given "AES" and no other choices.  Yours is AES+GCMP256.  It is not listed as an option for me on my GT-BE98 Pro...

[Saltgrass]

Do all the devices, you believe to be Wi-Fi 7 capable, show the same network protocol, Wi-Fi 6 (802.11.ax)?  

The only thing on your attachment which indicates it should be capable of Wi-Fi 7, is the Network card description.  Everything else shows as ax, not be.  Although, another setting does show the 320 MHz bandwidth.

I will assume you have checked for country restrictions which might be blocking.

Any chance the BE200 might be fake?

You do not have IPv6 available in your area?

[MonkY]

Yes, I have noticed on all computers, the standard shows as 802.11.ax and not be.

Don't know if those cards are "fake", but it seems all of them are using BE200 model. Some are notebook cards, some are WiFi cards bought from Amazon. There aren't many alternatives for WiFi 7, unfortunately. For example, Asus doesn't even have it's own WiFi 7 PCIe card.

About the country restrictions, where should I check? Should I modify in Windows (regional settings) or in the router settings? I think I could give it a try and setup all of them in a specific country (which one do you recommend?), to see if that changes anything.

Unfortunately I've sent back my S24 Ultra (which had WiFi 7), so now I only have WiFi 6E maximum on my smartphones and tablets. 

About IPv6, we have it available, but I always had issues with IPv6, so I wouldn't bother. Plus, I hate not being able to remember my own IP numbers. 😄

[Saltgrass]

This is a link.  You can go to the bottom of the page and see what the U.S. has approved and compare to your country.

I have seen comments in the router log which might indicate its Country's abilities.  This may keep any work arounds from helping.

Countries enabling Wi-Fi in 6 GHz (Wi-Fi 6E, Wi-Fi 7) | Wi-Fi Alliance

[jzchen]

Please share the specific country you’ve installed the router?

Also 23.20.1.1 appears to be the latest driver.  Since you have 23.30.0.6 it may be for an older model.  Can you try installing the 23.20.1.1?

[MonkY]

Romania is the country.

I have tried drivers v23.0.6.4, v23.10.0.8, v23.20.0, v23.20.0.4, 23.20.1.1, v23.30.0.6... same.

[Saltgrass]

If you look at the Wireless-Professional section of the Web GUID, there is an option to enable WiFi 7 mode.  If it is already enabled, try turning if off then back on.  You may even want to reboot the router after turning it off.

[MonkY]

I have already posted my settings. WiFi7  is enabled. I have tried disabling it and enabled back (with reboots) - no luck.

[Saltgrass]

Then it would appear there is a bad bit.  Turning if off and applying and rebooting, then turning it back on, should correct it if it is correctable.

Next thing to try is unplugging the router and leaving it overnight to see if that will help.

If everything fails, then you know what to tell ASUS and the router needs to be swapped out.

[MonkY]

I just ordered one more new WiFi7 card from Gigabyte (this one: GIGABYTE GC-WIFI7 Tri Band BE5800 PCIe card - https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GC-WIFI7#kf). If this one fails to see the WiFi7, then I will return the Asus BE98 router. Sorry, but Asus Romania only offered me to send it back to the seller, to go into service. That usually means weeks (probably more) without my main router. I just can't wait for that much...