ASUS ZenWiFi Pro ET12 AXE11000 half WiFi speed

[Raptor7777]

So I am suffering from 1/2 speed on WiFi. I’ve seen some others have the issue but I haven’t found a resolution or seen one posted. They all just end with no fix.


Here is what I have

I am an certified/experienced IT professional


1gps home fiber internet ( had them upgrade all my equipment 2 weeks ago)

Cat8 wired. CAT8 2.5GPS backhaul

iPhone 15 pro max and ASUS z790 board with WiFi 6.

First, set up password. SSids dhcp pool, and T-Mobile data backup modem

First tests. Hardwired 980mps up and down.
First test iPhone 15 pro max. ( phone was reset 1 week prior to getting this setup). 480mbs

Resetting both units multiple times hasn’t changed speeds.

Updated bios to latest ASUS beta.
Test on pc and iPhone steady around 550-600mbs

Flashed back to lasted ASUS Fw.
Attempted Merlin FW. Bad image error every time I’ve tried I’ve tried to flash from either beta or lasted ASUS FW doesn’t work. Tried using rescue but it could never find my router. It always came back your router is not in rescue mode.

I have reset via reset and WPS reset. Same

I have set up new ssd after flashing with nothing else on the WiFi. I’m using 6g. Same 400-510 speed

I have tried some tweaks that I have seen on here. Nothing changed. I’ve been googling individual settings to see what everything does No luck


I’ve sent a feedback message to ASUS today.

Is this something so simple I’ve just browsed past the setting I need to change? Or is this a known hardware issue with these things? I’ve been banging my head against a wall for a week. Does anyone have a magic fix?? Thanks in advance!

 

[Tech9]

Single unit or pair? If pair - wired or wireless backhaul? This model defaults on 6GHz radio backhaul.

Any other Wi-Fi 6E compatible clients to test with? What link speeds it shows in the GUI? Wi-Fi 6E is short range.

 

[Raptor7777]

Single unit or pair? If pair - wired or wireless backhaul? This model defaults on 6GHz radio backhaul.

Any other Wi-Fi 6E compatible clients to test with? What link speeds it shows in the GUI? Wi-Fi 6E is short range.

Pair. Cat8 wired backhaul. Tried WiFi 6 on pc 3’ from second node. No change. HP laptop WiFi 6 same if 3’ or 20’ away. iPhone 15 pro max. Iphone 15. iPhone 13 5g 4-500mbs other than iPhone 13 everything has been checked 5 and 6g. No real difference between the 2

 

[Tech9]

Confirm in AiMesh section wired backhaul is actually working. Many Cat 8 cables on the market are lower quality than Cat 6A. Confirm in Wireless Log your AX-class devices connect with 1200Mbps (80MHz channel bandwidth) and 2400Mbps link speeds (160MHz channel bandwidth). Try disabling OFDMA, it's known to impact the performance, leave AX/AC Beamforming only. You may work in IT and have different expectations, but this product was designed for the consumer market. Much more marketing is involved compared to business products and the new 3.0.0.6 firmware is work in progress. Mobile devices may also not show you maximum speed due to built-in power saving features you can't control. Make sure PCs/laptops have updated wireless drivers.

 

[Raptor7777]

Confirm in AiMesh section wired backhaul is actually working. Many Cat 8 cables on the market are lower quality than Cat 6A. Confirm in Wireless Log your AX-class devices connect with 1200Mbps (80MHz channel bandwidth) and 2400Mbps link speeds (160MHz channel bandwidth). Try disabling OFDMA, it's known to impact the performance, leave AX/AC Beamforming only. You may work in IT and have different expectations, but this product was designed for the consumer market. Much more marketing is involved compared to business products and the new 3.0.0.6 firmware is work in progress. Mobile devices may also not show you maximum speed due to built-in power saving features you can't control. Make sure PCs/laptops have updated wireless drivers.

Tech9
Thanks for the response see screen shots. I have shielded CAT8. none of it was cheap. my PC which is connected to the mesh node via cat8. link speed 2.5GPS. OFDMA has been disabled for a while. Beamforming is disabled I didn't see a AX/AC only. wokr vs home? in my experiance my home speeds have always been blazing compared to work. 1GPS fiber at work. 40-50 people I'm getting DL speeds of 20mbs and that's normal. Work environment is always crowded and speeds are very low. lol

 

[Tech9]

The single 6GHz capable client shown on the only readable screenshot is at very low signal level -82dBm. It can't get good speeds.

 

[degrub]

Sometimes the ports and chips used on consumer grade gear do not expect to see the signal characteristics of CAT7 and 8 which are intended for data center use business grade gear. Doesn't mean it won't work. If the shielding termination is not handled correctly, you get either a ground loop or an antenna.

 

[Raptor7777]

The single 6GHz capable client shown on the only readable screenshot is at very low signal level -82dBm. It can't get good speeds.

My IPhone 15pro max is the only one connected to the 6g network. I have a separate SSID for that. I'm not sure how tom get that number down to 50-60.

 

[Raptor7777]

Sometimes the ports and chips used on consumer grade gear do not expect to see the signal characteristics of CAT7 and 8 which are intended for data center use business grade gear. Doesn't mean it won't work. If the shielding termination is not handled correctly, you get either a ground loop or an antenna.

degrub, like i said earlier its all shielded. link speed is 2.5GPS i get high 900s on my desktop connected to the second mesh unit with CAT8 Shielded wire. as of Friday i went back and pulled wall terminations out and rechecked my punch downs. they are all god

 

[Raptor7777]

The single 6GHz capable client shown on the only readable screenshot is at very low signal level -82dBm. It can't get good speeds.

 

[Tech9]

Honestly, the hardware choice for someone working in IT and with wired infrastructure available is surprising to me. Quick research shows this specific ET12 model had firmware delays in the past and still doesn't have Asuswrt 5.0 firmware, already available for much cheaper models and for months. Clearly there are some ongoing issues with it. In consumer world expensive doesn't translate to better. You may have to wait for them to fix it.

 

[Raptor7777]

Honestly, the hardware choice for someone working in IT and with wired infrastructure available is surprising to me. Quick research shows this specific ET12 model had firmware delays in the past and still doesn't have Asuswrt 5.0 firmware, already available for much cheaper models and for months. Clearly there are some ongoing issues with it. In consumer world expensive doesn't translate to better. You may have to wait for them to fix it.

Surprising? I’m replacing 2 ax88s and a ac88??
I don’t want 5 routers in my house to get a good connection. I have a 3000 sf house and 8000sf property. My coverage is way better with these 2 ET12s. And another ax88u in the garage

If all these units performed at half speed no one would buy them. Yes I may have a hardware problem. I cannot flash Merlin FM onto either of these ET12s. I have run Merlin for a long time and have had very few issues. Like I said in the beginning I found think 2 or 3 poss about this same thing but never any fixes posted

 

[Tech9]

Well, this Pro model was released >2 years ago and has no Pro firmware yet. Not popular because of the price tag, no 3rd party firmware and no USB port. Even if Asuswrt-Merlin was available for it - limited use for whatever doesn't require USB storage. I'm using business class APs with PoE power and native VLAN support on all my networks and have nothing to fix. Most folks working in IT will probably have the same approach.

 

[Raptor7777]

So. I’m looking for help on my routers. They are not full speed. In regards to a work environment or business class APs. None of that is relevant to my issue. So if we could stick to that I would appreciate it

 

[Tech9]

I would test the speed with single unit only first. Standard non-DFS range, fixed channel at 80MHz wide for 5GHz band. Close to the router common AX-class 2-stream client has to connect and maintain 1200Mbps link speed and have about 850Mbps throughput. Somewhat quiet Wi-Fi environment is needed, Wi-Fi spectrum is shared. For 6GHz and 320MHz wide channel realistic expectations are - high speed in the same room only, most likely will deteriorate rapidly through single wall. I would also test with plugged in laptop to reduce power saving features impact.

 

[Raptor7777]

I would test the speed with single unit only first. Standard non-DFS range, fixed channel at 80MHz wide for 5GHz band. Close to the router common AX-class 2-stream client has to connect and maintain 1200Mbps link speed and have about 850Mbps throughput. Somewhat quiet Wi-Fi environment is needed, Wi-Fi spectrum is shared. For 6GHz and 320MHz wide channel realistic expectations are - high speed in the same room only, most likely will deteriorate rapidly through single wall. I would also test with plugged in laptop to reduce power saving features impact.

Texh9
I’m going to go ahead and reset them both again tomorrow. And run thru it again with your suggestion. That being said, I have reset both of these units and isolated them with a new SSID. So my phone and my Pc were the only 2 items on the network. ( disconnected my switch that connects all the feeds). 5g 6g all the same 485-520 roughly, my wired pc 986/990.

 

[Tech9]

I wouldn't worry too much about phones/tablets. They have nothing to do with Gigabit speeds anyway. For laptops may be somewhat annoying, desktops can be wired. Not sure what's going on with AXE router models, but even the flagship GT-AXE16000 is lagging behind in firmware support and owners are not happy. Don't stress yourself too much, use what you have, wait for firmware update and test again later.

 

[Raptor7777]

Intend to agree. I’m waiting for a call from ASUS tomorrow. I think it’s hardware. I moved my wan to the 2.5g lan and my up speeds now match my down speeds on mobile devices. But still half speed but up from 2/10 speed lol. I think the couple of posts I have seen about half speed problems, they never came back because I think they got replacements and they work great

 

[Tech9]

The whole story is like déjà vu. I recently had a conversation with another person in IT, just like you he wanted something simpler than SMB at home, got 3x Asus routers for wired AiMesh, fought with connection issues, found one of the units defective and now is waiting for a replacement to arrive.

 

[Raptor7777]

The whole story is like déjà vu. I recently had a conversation with another person in IT, just like you he wanted something simpler than SMB at home, got 3x Asus routers for wired AiMesh, fought with connection issues, found one of the units defective and now is waiting for a replacement to arrive.

I will update this after my call with ASUS