Help on decision for new router

[Sturmrider]

Hi everyone,

My name is Larry Whalen I am new to the forums and though not an expert with tech I am also not helpless with it. I am posting with a question I hope will help me make an informed decision.

I am considering a mesh setup of ASUS ZenWiFi Pro ET12 the AXE11000, when my son first bought his house we wanted something quick and easy to set up so we went with the Google mesh system. Now it is looking like the time to upgrade. Here are some of my questions.

1) We will be using wireless backhaul to set up a wired system we would literally have to rewire a large portion of the house. The router unit would be placed in the den where the ethernet port is the nodes would typically just have the den's wall between them other then the one in the basement, that would be the floor. The distance between it and the first node would be about 30 feet, the other node in different direction would be about 15 feet this one is literally almost at the exterior wall on this side we need it there for our outdoor wifi clients which right now have a hard time connecting. The final node would be almost directly under the router in the basement. So one router three nodes.

2) I have been reading a lot of reviews and they say these units tend to be slower and less efficient in wireless backhaul because the 6e band they use for backhaul does not penetrate walls well or have great range thus the question becomes should I go to XT12 instead. We do have items that are operating on the 6e band if available otherwise they will be restricted to lower bands.

3) One reason we are considering this is we do have at least 30 wifi clients online right now and it is going up with my son working remotely now it is important his business computer have a reliable connection.

Thank you all for your help. I am hoping to hear the pros and cons of what we are considering and maybe alternatives if this is a poor choice.

Regards

Larry

[jzchen]

I'm afraid at least to me it isn't clear exactly what you meant, what the options are, and what is going to happen, ie. are you going to continue to use the Google Mesh with ASUS network?

When I started building the AiMesh in our house I added a TP-Link access point. I have since removed it and just run three ASUS products.

The Zen WiFi Pro ET12 provides AXE11000 service so I guessed your other choice is a ROG GT-AXE11000? The GT-AXE16000 is coming soon I would wait if you're leaning towards the GT-AXE11000. The Pro ET12 is my suggestion at this point since you need more nodes and this option gives you one vs 0 if you bought the GT-AXE11000. Then you would need to buy the rest...

6e (6 GHz) backhaul is an option. There are two 5 GHz bands if I understand correctly and one defaults as backhaul, freeing up the 6 GHz band for your devices. For us we have 0 6 GHz devices but only the one router supports it. I have no option for 6e backhaul nor fronthaul. It is on but nothing connected. You need to watch as you add nodes that they have the two 5 GHz bands as well so you have 5 GHz for both backhaul and fronthaul (aka devices).

You can keep the Google Mesh or spend (a lot) on two Pro ET12s. (You'd have 1 router and 3 nodes if you did splurge). To be honest I would not risk buying two for now with the GT-AXE16000 coming (and risk having issues if the firmware has a bug then all would be affected). I kind of wish we waited but it's been since February we've had our GT-AXE11000...

[Sturmrider]

jzchen wrote:
I'm afraid at least to me it isn't clear exactly what you meant, what the options are, and what is going to happen, ie. are you going to continue to use the Google Mesh with ASUS network?

When I started building the AiMesh in our house I added a TP-Link access point. I have since removed it and just run three ASUS products.

The Zen WiFi Pro ET12 provides AXE11000 service so I guessed your other choice is a ROG GT-AXE11000? The GT-AXE16000 is coming soon I would wait if you're leaning towards the GT-AXE11000. The Pro ET12 is my suggestion at this point since you need more nodes and this option gives you one vs 0 if you bought the GT-AXE11000. Then you would need to buy the rest...

6e (6 GHz) backhaul is an option. There are two 5 GHz bands if I understand correctly and one defaults as backhaul, freeing up the 6 GHz band for your devices. For us we have 0 6 GHz devices but only the one router supports it. I have no option for 6e backhaul nor fronthaul. It is on but nothing connected. You need to watch as you add nodes that they have the two 5 GHz bands as well so you have 5 GHz for both backhaul and fronthaul (aka devices).

You can keep the Google Mesh or spend (a lot) on two Pro ET12s. (You'd have 1 router and 3 nodes if you did splurge). To be honest I would not risk buying two for now with the GT-AXE16000 coming (and risk having issues if the firmware has a bug then all would be affected). I kind of wish we waited but it's been since February we've had our GT-AXE11000...

Hi Jzchen,

Sorry if my post is a little confusing I think I was confused by some posts I saw on the forums. I am getting rid of the google mesh system for an ASUS one, I am considering the Zen WiFi Pro ET12 and I saw on the site references to an AXE 11000 I thought were the same I see now I was wrong. I would be purchasing two sets of the Zen WiFi Pro ET12 as I want to keep them matched at this point. Everything I have read or seen on youtube about them, for example says that this uses the 6Ghz channel as the wireless backhaul. I am interested in this GT-AXE16000 though if this might be better, where could I find any info on this. I don't want to leap too soon and make a mistake.

Thank you for your input. The reason I am looking for a new system is the google mesh is starting to get overloaded and the device that is in the shed 30 feet away is having trouble connecting. This is not something we added, but came with the house and is important. We are also seeing stuttering and other signs of problems with the Goggle mesh. It was good when it wasn't too overloaded, but now is the time to start considering what to replace it with.

Take care,

Regards.

Larry

[Sturmrider]

Hi all,

Went looking for the GT-AXE16000 found it in the gaming routers. It looks like it can be the hub for a mesh system so I think I will wait for this and make it the hub and maybe I will be able to get away with just 2 nodes if the extended range claim is correct. I will just have to decide on what the nodes are. Thank you all for your help. If you have suggestions on which nodes I should get would appreciate it and yes we have a number of devices in the 160 mhz range.

Regards,

Larry

[ahfoo]

I supposed the ASUS ZenWiFi Pro ET12 with AXE11000 will be good for you consider it quite top end in a sense in price and productivity if it work well with you . It not about the channel but the connectivity within your premises. Yes, off course at 160MHz will be ideal but end of the day we need stable connectivity with sign in device in general. I suppose ASUS ZenWiFi Pro ET12 and the AXE11000 will well suit your requirement if configured correctly. Last and not least, Big welcome to the ASUS ROG forums.

[Sturmrider]

Hi ahfoo,

Thank you for the greeting, yes I am considering an AXE 11000 as the router with the ET12s as the nodes. I only wish I knew how soon the new AXE 16000 would be available I might jump on that. Either way I can wait a little while while I figure out the best setup. Like will I still need the node near the exterior wall to reach the shed or will the extra range from the ET12s give me enough.

These are some of the things I am pondering I may only need 2 nodes instead of 3 one downstairs in the basement the router in the den and either one at one end of the house to provide exterior coverage or if I don't need that the one that is about 30 feet away from the router for additional interior coverage.

Thank you again and take care.

Regards,

Larry

[jzchen]

Yes, I'm afraid I should have started with welcome!!!

(Please forgive me for that but I am on my cellphone and typing on this forum is not ideal on a cellphone which is why I tried to cut to the chase).

Think of the AXE11000 as a service level. The more letters and higher the number the better the specs. Just so happens that ASUS names a lot of their routers with this specification convention, ie the ROG GT-AXE11000. The Zen WiFi Pro ET12 also provides AXE11000 (AX like the older AC spec and E referring to the new 6e 6 GHz band). It can simultaneously run 3 bands totalling 11000 Mbps throughput WiFi). The new 16000 is a quad band running four simultaneously totalling 16000 Mbps).

You can definitely run the Pro ET12 (while you wait for the AXE16000) and then have a total 1 router and 2 nodes, to see how that works. You would want to swap the AXE16000 as the router and put the two as nodes). As kindly noted these are the top of the line units ($$$) that you are considering, but I noticed you did not complain about the price so I am not going to worry about price for now.

Do you have any wired devices? For us we have the house wired with Ethernet so # of ports is a consideration...

Sincerely,
Jesse

[Sturmrider]

Hi jzchen,

Thank you for the welcome and no problem obviously, I understand trying to type on a phone. No the price is not the problem I am figuring future proof as much as possible and then when wifi 7 shows up I will probably get the router for that because that haylow sounds like it will solve a lot of problems. Unfortunately it looks to be 2 to 3 years away and my problem exists now.

I only have one wired device in the house right now and running the wires would probably cost us a small fortune. I definitely could not do it this is why I am looking at wireless backhaul. I guess if I put a node close enough to our TV we could run a wire from it to the node it is a thought.

Thank you again for your replies it is definitely helping guide me in a direction I hope is the right one.

Regards,

Larry

[BigJohnny]

I use a netgear nightwhak X10 with 10GBe. Only thing wireless is the laptops and mobile devices. I bought range extender EX8000 but I dont have it set up as a range extender as that only gets you half duplex on any of them. Instead I plugged it in to the 10Gbe switch upstairs and use as an access point. Assigned same SSID and its better than mesh as it uses full duplex. So you get the same beauty as a mesh going seamlessly from one to the other and every spot in a two story 3500 Sqft house has full signal. Ran one cable to second floor from switch in the basement that is connected to router by fiber and NAS is connected to that switch by fiber and the line coming upstairs is 10Gbe over copper. Everything downstairs in my HT is connected by wire with a small switch there that feeds off the router. Everything that is wired is in close proximity there. Like i said only things wireless are laptops and mobile devices With the exclusion of the HT in the MBR. The Fiberone FIOS box is wireless as is the TV and Roku and all of that is in line of site of the access point upstairs. TV devices in other 3 bedrooms are also on the access point.

My desktop PC is connected by Aquantia 10 Gb connection. Its nice to do file transfers to and from NAS and the only spinning drives I own are in the NAS and thats what determines the transfer speed as Im 10GbE to the NAS. always a 1Gb+ transfer speed dictated by the spinners in the NAS.

[jzchen]

For your outside device: From personal experience I needed an AP set up on a window sill nearest the outside device. (Mine is a Deltran WiFi enabled 10A charger that is connected under a closed hood of a vehicle, so somewhat similar to a shed with metal surroundings). That was the only way I could get a decent signal to it. It was part of the reason I asked what you may do with the current Google Mesh. I am guessing you could use one of them as an access point on a window sill nearby, something like that. If it doesn't require anything more than 2.4 GHz I would not spend much on that node. Something like a RP-AX56 or even an RP-AC55 could handle it. (If you return the Google Mesh).

You could always start with the Zen PRO ET12 since you are noting issues. It is currently top of the line. You get two vs a single GT-AXE11000, which you could try centrally located on each floor, and build from there. When the AXE16000 does come out, you may/or may not decide to get that as the foundation/set it up as router, and place the two ET12s as nodes where needed. I would not worry about backhaul slowing you down with these units. My 2.5 Gbps ethernet doesn't have the same bandwidth as one 5-GHz band. (I don't even see my 5GHz-2 radio anywhere in the settings on my AXE11000 as it's defaulted as hidden, set aside for wireless backhaul as far as I know. I guess I could use it with my RT-AX86U but luckily we have ethernet wires in the walls...)