Asus XT8 optimal Wi-Fi settings for stability, compatibility, and performance

[HouseMusicRules]

Hi,

Just wanted to pick the community's brain on optimal Wi-Fi stability, compatibility, and performance on the Asus XT8 AiMesh router running the lastest Merlin/Gnuton 388.8_2 firmware.

After reading through the forums I've made these changes (assume nothing else was changed from Default):

Enabled Smart Connect: Off

2.4GHz:
General settings:
- wireless mode: N only
- channel width: 20 MHz
- control channel: 1
- authentication method: WPA2-Personal
Professional settings:
- enable WMM APSD: disable
- modulation scheme: up to MCS 7 (802.11n)
- explicit beamforming: disable
- universal beamforming: disable

5GHz-1:
General settings:
- wireless mode: N/AC/AX mixed
- channel width: 80 MHz
- control channel: 36
- authentication method: WPA2/WPA3-Personal
Professional settings:
- universal beamforming: disable

5GHz-2
General settings:
- wireless mode: N/AC/AX mixed
- channel width: 80 MHz
- control channel: 149
- authentication method: WPA2/WPA3-Personal
Professional settings:
- universal beamforming: disable

Anything else I should add? Again the preference is for Wi-Fi stability, compatibility, and performance.

Kind regards,

 

[Tech9]

Fail safe enough. If it works properly - no point optimizing it further.

 

[RogerSC]

If you're in the US and using wireless backhaul, you can use the 5GHz-2 radio channels that are above the old ones for the wireless backhaul (UNII-4 channels 169 - 181). This allows 160MHz. backhaul bandwidth without using the DFS channels. You can read about this elsewhere on this forum by searching for UNII-4 and XT8. Recent firmware for the XT8 will allow you to configure your XT8's to use these channels for backhaul.

 

[HouseMusicRules]

Thanks for the replies.

I am using a wireless backhaul for one of my nodes. Using the 5GHz-1 as backhaul (instead of 5GHz-2) would be great as that band is currently unused for me. However, since I live in Canada neither of the 5ghz bands support 160MHz as far as I can tell. Unless there is a way to modify it?

 

[OzarkEdge]

Again the preference is for Wi-Fi stability, compatibility, and performance.

I'd bet the defaults would be equally stable, performant, and more compatible.

OE

 

[Tech9]

Unless there is a way to modify it?

Don't modify anything and don't poke AiMesh too much. Otherwise you'll come back with many more questions.

Also make sure you have a good reason for replacing the original firmware. I would run stock Asuswrt on this mesh set.

 

[HouseMusicRules]

Any reason why stock is preferred over Merlin/Gnuton for this router? Will definitely consider it.

Also, is it better to have Merlin/Gnuton on the main router and the nodes or not the nodes?

 

[Tech9]

Any reason why stock is preferred over Merlin/Gnuton for this router?

Pretty good reason. Quite a bit Asus routers were hit by malware recently and the fix path is this:

Asuswrt -> Asuswrt-Merlin 388.8_4 -> GNUton 388.8_4 (Alpha 1) Your firmware is GNUton 388.8_2

 

[Tech9]

Also, is it better to have Merlin/Gnuton on the main router and the nodes or not the nodes?

Someone may jump right on and start calling me names for this, but... if your ultimate goal is stable AiMesh - use stock Asuswrt on all units. AiMesh is closed source Asus component, a black box for 3rd party developers. Asus own developers know best how it interacts with other available firmware components and options. Especially valid for mesh sets like yours - most likely factory paired units, they look for each other with hidden networks, preconfigure themselves after reset, etc. Messing up with all this is looking for trouble.

 

[bbunge]

Someone may jump right on and start calling me names for this, but... if your ultimate goal is stable AiMesh - use stock Asuswrt on all units. AiMesh is closed source Asus component, a black box for 3rd party developers. Asus own developers know best how it interacts with other available firmware components and options. Especially valid for mesh sets like yours - most likely factory paired units, they look for each other with hidden networks, preconfigure themselves after reset, etc. Messing up with all this is looking for trouble.

Nope. No name calling and you are spot on about AiMesh and Asus firmware. And OE is right about not messing with WIFI settings.