Asus BE98 - 10GB WIFI throughput settings

[spawn]

Happy new year all. Finally got 10Gbps internet here at my house and I do get solid speeds on the router at around 9Gbps. However, on Wifi sadly only around 1.5Gbps using an iPhone 16 pro holding the phone 50 cm away from the router.

I do have smart connect and MLO enabled. Also sharing my settings via screenshots attached.

Questions:
1. Channel bandwidth for the various wifi bands (2.4GHZ, 5GHZ, 6GHZ) looking correct?
2. Anything I can optimize on smart connect?
3. Any other recommendations?

Thanks a lot.

 

[Crimliar]

Real world reported speeds on the Apple iPhone 16 pro show it's maxing out at around 1.7Gbps throughput with a 2.4Gbps PHY rate - so you are in the same ballpark as other users.
*What are you doing with your phone that requires higher speeds than this?

 

[spawn]

thanks for the response, it's not about higher speeds. Just trying to make sure I have the right settings and learn on the side. Any comments on my questions. please?

 

[WiFiphenom]

Yea the fastest speeds I ever got on the iPhone 16 Pro was 1700 Mbps

 

[Tech9]

Just trying to make sure I have the right settings

All your setting are on Auto anyway. Leave Smart Connect settings at Default as well.

You are not getting above ~1.7Gbps to any single 5GHz Wi-Fi 6 client and perhaps above ~3.5Gbps to any single 6GHz Wi-Fi 7 client no matter what settings you try. Possible close to the router only at signal level no worse than -52dBm. In reality this means the same room where the router is located. Your chance to see line speed to single client is wired only to 10GbE NIC client and witch somewhat light router configuration. For now you can enjoy speed test on the router only, the 10Gbps ISP speed stops there.

 

[Crimliar]

@spawn with a few exceptions, you'll not notice any significant improvements over most of the default settings. In many case it'll be a case of dialling things back if they're a bit too much, but other than that most of the settings that get played with on our routers are custom tweaks to enable specific scenarios!
#DontProdTheTiger

 

[Tech9]

you'll not notice any significant improvements

Actually, they may not notice any significant improvement compared to 2Gbps ISP line with much cheaper GT-AX6000 router.

 

[spawn]

Thanks everyone as said before, my objective is to make sure that I have the right settings since there are a couple of new settings for Wifi7. As suggested I leave smart connect settings on default. What about Channel bandwidth for 6GHZ networks - I set to 320 MHZ or set it to 20/40/80/160/320?

 

[Tech9]

Set 6GHz band to 20/40/80/160/320 and Auto channel similar to other bands and hope for the best. "Sadly only around 1.5Gbps using an iPhone" tells me you have no good knowledge of how Wi-Fi works and what to expect. The right settings in this case are Auto and Default. The router will monitor the environment for you and adapt to changes, your wireless clients will follow.

 

[spawn]

Set 6GHz band to 20/40/80/160/320 and Auto channel similar to other bands and hope for the best. "Sadly only around 1.5Gbps using an iPhone" tells me you have no good knowledge of how Wi-Fi works and what to expect. The right settings in this case are Auto and Default. The router will monitor the environment for you and adapt to changes, your wireless clients will follow.

May I understand why are you so rude ? All your responses are extremely rude - “Uhave no knowledge so better stick to default”, “u should have bought a cheaper router”. The whole idea of asking questions in a forum is to fill knowledge gaps, not sure at what point in time you lost this.

 

[Tech9]

You're just taking it this way. I'm explaining you what the reality is. Fine tuning Wi-Fi settings is environment and clients related. All we know so far is a router model and an iPhone you test with. Also 10Gbps ISP line going basically nowhere after the router. There is no way to recommend you anything other than Auto and Default. Wi-Fi 6 router with 160MHz wide channel support will show you exactly the same speed to exactly the same client you are testing with starting from the cheapest TUF-AX3000 V2 for about $100 on sale.

I have no idea why did you decide to replace your existing GT-AXE16000 router. It has exactly the same bands, it also has 2x 10GbE ports, it runs on more mature 3004.388 firmware base, it also has Asuswrt-Merlin support. Now you've got Wi-Fi 7 support with no Wi-Fi 7 clients and new firmware in work-in-progress state. User experience after the "upgrade" - 1:1 exactly the same, may be even worse.

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Hey all, I am having the Asus AX16000 Router and I do have a lot of bands. My questions are: 1. Why do I need 5G-1 and 5G-2? 2. Would it make a difference to switch one band off in terms of overall performance on the other bands? 3. If the suggestion is to use both 5G bands how to differentiate...

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[spawn]

@Tech9 I appreciate the reality which I got in the first response - so the only thing I wanted is a point of view on my 3 questions raised! I was definitely not expecting all these rude responses neither questions like "Why did you replace your existing router?" - I mean come on, don't you think you are going a bit too far here? If my questions are dumb in your view then simply don't respond and move on instead of question my life decisions.

 

[Tech9]

so the only thing I wanted is a point of view on my 3 questions raised

Impossible to answer without:

1. Region/country
2. What is Smart Connect expected to do, better range or keep the clients to their expected bands/performance
3. Based on the above, clients type and number may help

 

[jzchen]

1. Channel bandwidth settings look good in my opinion.
*EDIT* Misread the settings I wouldn't touch the MLO/SmartConnect settings...

 

[digits n bits]

@Tech9 I appreciate the reality which I got in the first response - so the only thing I wanted is a point of view on my 3 questions raised! I was definitely not expecting all these rude responses neither questions like "Why did you replace your existing router?" - I mean come on, don't you think you are going a bit too far here? If my questions are dumb in your view then simply don't respond and move on instead of question my life decisions.

Don’t be too crazy on tech 9 here. He denigrates and talks down to everyone. Along with some useful info comes a lot of unnecessary criticism and critiques on why everyone with a question doesn’t know the answer already.

 

[Tech9]

Not good at sugar coating. Some people purchase hardware/services first and then stop here asking questions. When told they made a mistake or spend too much money - get offended and take it personally. Here is what I see, my opinion/knowledge, take it or leave it:

> About 10 clients on 5/6GHz bands, 15 clients on 2.4GHz band - less than half of what dual-band router can easily handle
> Very high-speed ISP plan is good when: 1) comes cheaper; 2) replaces cable with fiber; 3) there is something using it
> Maximum wireless speed to phones/tables is good for speed tests only, doesn't improve overall user experience
> Gaming doesn't need speed, but low latency; Browsing on ISP lines >150Mbps is about the same experience
> HD/4K streaming fits in under 50Mbps compressed, Voice/Video calls fit under 10Mbps
> Gaming routers are mostly marketing, use common QoS features with fancy names, there is no gaming networking
> Multi-band routers are good for: 1) multiple clients; 2) dedicated radios to high-bandwidth clients, 3) dedicated wireless uplink
> The router in question is most likely purchased/located in Europe
> 2.4GHz band is better to stay locked at 20MHz wide channel, the one with better bandwidth available, Auto may give clues
> 2.4GHz band - Wi-Fi 6/7 disabled for best IoT compatibility is a common practice, no IoT device supports Wi-Fi 6/7 anyway
> 5GHz-1 band is better to stay locked at 80MHz wide channel non-DFS range, 36-48 (also called Ch. 42)
> 5GHz-2 band is not guaranteed to work at all, all in DFS range (Europe), local environment dependent
> 6GHz band is shorter range, good for high-bandwidth local clients like PCs or VR sets, somewhat useless for phones/tablets
> The router in question most likely has 20dBm power limit on 2.4GHz and 23dBm on 5GHz-1 bands
> The router in question most likely has 30dBm power limit on 5GHz-2 band, in case it is usable, local environment dependent
> Most common client device is 2-stream and not all support 160MHz (Wi-Fi 6) or 320MHz (Wi-Fi 7) wide channels
> Wider channels - potentially higher throughput, but in expense of shorter range with higher SNR requirements
> MLO - disabled unless there is a client actually capable of using it and it makes sense for this particular client
> Everything on Auto may cause constant best channel hunting with clients reconnection, local environment dependent
> Some clients may not reconnect after channel change on Auto, mostly IoT devices are affected
> Smart Connect may cause breaks for time sensitive applications like voice and video calls, use based on own experience

Hope it helps. Spend some time on it, rude or polite - it is what it is, my way to help. This is a short answer, Wi-Fi is complex.

Happy New Year!

 

[spawn]

ok let's restart the conversation here - I spent the last couple of days testing and so far I am happy with the setup. I made some additional changes based on @Tech9 suggestions.

However, want to use the opportunity and share my draft final settings version with all of you for future reference.

Location: Asia
Area: Highly crowded condominium with very strong interference from neighbors
High speed ISP: Fibre & Cheaper
Smart Connect: Enabled for now
IOT devices: Separated to a dedicated 2.4 GHZ band at 20MHZ fixed

Logic: 6GHZ for highest bandwidth clients (even that I might not have them today), 5GHz-1 for high bandwidth clients, 5GHz-2 fallback band to reduce DFS hopping or interference issues, and to accommodate any older or less demanding devices.

Screenshot - Wireless General, Smart Connect Rules and Output.

Notes on Smart Connect - changed RSSI and Bandwidth utilization. Logic:
-70 dBm for 6 GHz because it loses strength more quickly through walls, so devices must have a stronger signal to stay on that band.
-72 dBm on 5 GHz‑1 as a middle ground—still fairly strict, but not so aggressive that devices constantly get moved off.
-75 dBm on 5 GHz‑2 is more lenient, allowing older or weaker devices to stay connected without unnecessary switching.

Notes on Output - Looking good in my view.

Notes++ - I did not touch the DFS channels since it is fine for now.

Any comments / feedback please feel free and respond.

Happy new year.