ASUS Unveils RT-BE88U WiFi 7 Dual-Band Router

[Jbennett360]

By the way, the UniFi equipment Sam is talking about at the end of the video is $403, Ubiquiti US store prices.

- Cloud Gateway Max, $199
- U7 Pro, $189
- PoE+ Adapter 30W, $15

It adds 6GHz band support, UCG-Max has a built-in 4-port 2.5GbE switch. Extra switch may not be needed. Extra AP may be needed for larger spaces. Single AP may have less coverage compared to home router, two APs will have better coverage guaranteed. Depends on the needs and environment.

Some limitations of the above relevant to home use:
- UniFi networks don't support WPS. Folks with WPS-only setup IoT devices have to use a workaround to connect their devices to the network.

It's hard trying to get everything to be in stock in the UK store!

Max - £180
U7 Pro - £162 x2
POE Adapter - £13.20 x 2

£530

 

[Tech9]

UK pricing is quite high for some reason.

Availability of UCG-Max is a problem here too. The most popular "no storage" option shows as available for few hours and disappears. People set availability notifications and place orders the moment it shows up. If you really want one - do the same. It's like purchasing concert tickets.

 

[szymko]

Has anyone been able to restore AX-series router (non pro) settings to BE88U? I read that it's possible with AX pro routers, but not AC-series.

 

[xwildx]

Has anyone been able to restore AX-series router (non pro) settings to BE88U? I read that it's possible with AX pro routers, but not AC-series.

I really suggest to just reset to factory and configure it manually by reconfiguring it, you will save time and headache later. I already saw issue in the past in dd-wrt were function wasn't functioning properly or bug was happenning due to the fact the configuration was transfered from another router model.

 

[dominik]

I just got BE88U and plan my upgrade from AX86U,
new version seems to be small step forward, probably wifi 6E would be better choice and give more speed with 6GHz band, but maybe this particular thing can be fixed here by adding some AiMesh nodes?
Has asus some options for that? I already moved to SFP+ 10G and BE88 can make some use of that. Perfectly it would be great to connect 6GHz node wired by fiber. Maybe more than one?

If asus have no choice for such device - anything other acting just as AP?

I have some time to get 6GHz band. I was sure that I can upgrade my laptop wifi card, this should be possible on high end, big, heavy workstation thinkpad, system reported intel AX211 (should be wifi 6E?), but to my great surprise they solder wifi chip on board!
Sooner or later I will upgrade whole computer. What is perfect 6Ghz addition to BE88? Something like asus BT10? Anything other?

 

[szymko]

I really suggest to just reset to factory and configure it manually by reconfiguring it, you will save time and headache later. I already saw issue in the past in dd-wrt were function wasn't functioning properly or bug was happenning due to the fact the configuration was transfered from another router model.

Just restored it and looks like everything imported well, other than wifi SSID.
Anyone has suggestions regarding the wifi settings? Everything works well, just speeds on my wifi 7 don't impress me. There is little to no upgrade from ax86u. I am using openspeedtest on my 2.5G NAS.

 

[Tech9]

There is little to no upgrade from ax86u

You perhaps had wrong expectations. On the same 5GHz band with the same channel width and DFS limitations in close to ideal realistic conditions (80MHz channel non-DFS range, close to the router RSSI -50dBm or better) you can get about 800-850Mbps to common 2-stream Wi-Fi 6 client and around Gigabit to Wi-Fi 7 client. The difference in user experience is close to zero.

 

[jzchen]

@szymko Check if your Advanced Settings -> Network has the "WiFi 7" enabled. Maybe also try MLO, (which I do not have turned on). You'd want this where 2.4 and 5 are combined, although I set this up so long ago I can't direct you step by step I'm afraid...