HTBruceM
Regular Contributor
I recently ditched my Orbi RBK53 system (3 pack) and replaced it with 2x Asus RT-AX86u in AiMesh mode.
I have a 2200 sqft 2 story home. I put the 3 Orbis in opposite corners of the house; one upstairs, one downstairs (opposite corner), and one in the garage. Great coverage, no dead spots.
After upgrading to the Asus, I retained the same placement minus the garage. Yet I was pleasantly surprised to discover that WiFi coverage seems to be just as good! The 5ghz signal in the garage ranges from -60dBm to -53dBm. And my back yard reception is fine until I approach the very edge of the property (1/6 acre). For a while I ran with just 1x RT-AX86u and this worked surprisingly well, only it left me with some 5mhz "dead" spots at narrow angles through multiple walls. The single AP 2.4ghz signal was fine throughout the house though.
Even though the Orbi is rated AC3000, this includes the dedicated 4x4 backhaul. Since I was using ethernet backhaul, those backhaul radios were only in a backup role; the client side is only AC1300. The Asus has much higher client-side WiFi capacity, plus it is AX. I only have one AX client (an Intel NUC), but it's WiFi is not enabled and I am using the ethernet interface instead. Even with my AC and N clients, everything works just as well with the 2x Asus APs vs. the 3x Orbi APs. I had actually bought a 3rd Asus RT-AX58 for the garage, but after seeing the coverage I have with the 2x AX86, there seemed to be little point in adding the 3rd AP so I returned it.
At the moment I have mostly default WiFi settings with the factory FW. I have dual-band Smart Connect enabled (was enabled by default). I did change the WiFi channels from auto to fixed values, on the most "open" channels in my location. I plan to install Merlin FW after his next update.
I have yet to discover how seamless the roaming is; with the Orbi it seemed very good. Time will tell with the AiMesh. My testcase for roaming is to do a Google Duo video chat while walking around the house.
My takeway for folks here is that a typical suburban home of under 2500 sqft, you are probably over-saturating with 3 APs. Maybe at 3000sqft 2-story, or a 2500 or larger one story would require 3 APs. Perhaps WiFi 6E would someday benefit from the added APs.
I have a 2200 sqft 2 story home. I put the 3 Orbis in opposite corners of the house; one upstairs, one downstairs (opposite corner), and one in the garage. Great coverage, no dead spots.
After upgrading to the Asus, I retained the same placement minus the garage. Yet I was pleasantly surprised to discover that WiFi coverage seems to be just as good! The 5ghz signal in the garage ranges from -60dBm to -53dBm. And my back yard reception is fine until I approach the very edge of the property (1/6 acre). For a while I ran with just 1x RT-AX86u and this worked surprisingly well, only it left me with some 5mhz "dead" spots at narrow angles through multiple walls. The single AP 2.4ghz signal was fine throughout the house though.
Even though the Orbi is rated AC3000, this includes the dedicated 4x4 backhaul. Since I was using ethernet backhaul, those backhaul radios were only in a backup role; the client side is only AC1300. The Asus has much higher client-side WiFi capacity, plus it is AX. I only have one AX client (an Intel NUC), but it's WiFi is not enabled and I am using the ethernet interface instead. Even with my AC and N clients, everything works just as well with the 2x Asus APs vs. the 3x Orbi APs. I had actually bought a 3rd Asus RT-AX58 for the garage, but after seeing the coverage I have with the 2x AX86, there seemed to be little point in adding the 3rd AP so I returned it.
At the moment I have mostly default WiFi settings with the factory FW. I have dual-band Smart Connect enabled (was enabled by default). I did change the WiFi channels from auto to fixed values, on the most "open" channels in my location. I plan to install Merlin FW after his next update.
I have yet to discover how seamless the roaming is; with the Orbi it seemed very good. Time will tell with the AiMesh. My testcase for roaming is to do a Google Duo video chat while walking around the house.
My takeway for folks here is that a typical suburban home of under 2500 sqft, you are probably over-saturating with 3 APs. Maybe at 3000sqft 2-story, or a 2500 or larger one story would require 3 APs. Perhaps WiFi 6E would someday benefit from the added APs.
Also, I wanted to upgrade to a WiFi 6 AX based system and wasn't particularly concerned about waiting for 6E to mature. Orbi is great for average consumers who just want to set it and forget it. But it is also expensive. I like to tweak and bitfiddle around to optimize stuff and Asus/Merlin offer more of that than the Orbi does. Another reason, I have ethernet cabling throughout the house and didn't need the dedicated WiFi backhaul radio on the Orbi. I felt sort of guilty having that radio enabled all the time without the ability to use it for fronthaul client activity. I was also somewhat frustrated at how finicky the Orbi FW is... AND anything you modify in the setup pages seems to always require a reboot - which, by the way, take friggin forever. I also appreciate the design of AiMesh - allowing me to reuse equipment later as part of the same system. Prior to the Orbi I was an Asus user and I always liked the Tomato/Asus UI setup.
