Asus Zenwifi Xt8 issues.

[3s1k]

Sorry for double post. I meant to post this in the Asus AX forum.

Hello. I just purchased a pair of XT8 and I have not been getting the speeds I was expecting. I'm fairly good and googling and ended up on this forum. Signed up and looked at the last 5 pages of XT8 threads. First, I'm on a cable modem/router combod with 1gig down and 50Mbps Up. All I know about the modem/router from the ISP is that wireless has been disabled and IP pass through enabled. I'm not sure if it has built in firewall..

I have a long house front to back with the modem/router + XT8 at the back of the house in my office. My Node is at the front of the house. Initially when I set it up I chose to use different SSID for 2.4 and 5ghz not really knowing. Because my r7000 had 2 different names to distinguish the frequency.

Apparently doing so does not enable 5ghz-2 wireless backhaul. So I turned on Smart Connect which forced 2.4 and 5ghz ssid to be identical which disconnected all the devices on my network that were connected to "wifi-name-5ghz".

Now, I see in the AiMesh tab Fronthaul and Backhaul. Also, in the app under WiFi settings I see 5ghz-2 dedicated backhaul toggle to turn it on and off. So I guess that's working.

I used wifi analyzer after reading a post on here that wireless backhaul was using 80hz which mine was according to the logs. I forced it to 160hz and now see it in the logs using 160hz but wifi analyzer is still showing 80hz.

Now to my speed issues. I have my desktop connected to the XT8 router via cat6 and I'm getting speeds between 400Mbps and 790mbps. Mostly on the lower end.

On my S20 with wifi 6 I'm getting 300-600mpbs and that's with my s20 inches from the XT8 router.

I'm on the latest firmware which I believe was the 9/22 release date. I just got the XT8 yesterday. From all the reviews I should be getting speeds very close to what I pay for which is 1gb down. On the upload speeds I'm usually pretty close at around 45mpbs.

Also, from the asus app I clicked on real time traffic but I see almost 0 traffic in the wireless backhaul 5ghz-2. This is with 30ish devices on the network. With a little less than half connected to the node at the front of the house. See attached images.

I really had high hopes for the XT8 and I'm not ready to give up just yet. I have until Nov 1st to return this but I want to get this sorted it and keep it.

Oh, another thing someone said on a different post was Double Nat'ing? Possibly the cable modem/router combo could have a firewall enabled and the xt8 also has firewall enabled. I need to check that. I also have QOS off.

 

[JagoUK]

Read review in my sig. The wifi analyser 80mhz is a false reading.
Get latest version of Inssider instead.

5ghz 2 will always be used for backhaul. But you can allow clients to connect to it. I think you have to turn smart connect off though.

 

[KingBravery]

Sorry for double post. I meant to post this in the Asus AX forum.

Hello. I just purchased a pair of XT8 and I have not been getting the speeds I was expecting. I'm fairly good and googling and ended up on this forum. Signed up and looked at the last 5 pages of XT8 threads. First, I'm on a cable modem/router combod with 1gig down and 50Mbps Up. All I know about the modem/router from the ISP is that wireless has been disabled and IP pass through enabled. I'm not sure if it has built in firewall..

I have a long house front to back with the modem/router + XT8 at the back of the house in my office. My Node is at the front of the house. Initially when I set it up I chose to use different SSID for 2.4 and 5ghz not really knowing. Because my r7000 had 2 different names to distinguish the frequency.

Apparently doing so does not enable 5ghz-2 wireless backhaul. So I turned on Smart Connect which forced 2.4 and 5ghz ssid to be identical which disconnected all the devices on my network that were connected to "wifi-name-5ghz".

Now, I see in the AiMesh tab Fronthaul and Backhaul. Also, in the app under WiFi settings I see 5ghz-2 dedicated backhaul toggle to turn it on and off. So I guess that's working.

I used wifi analyzer after reading a post on here that wireless backhaul was using 80hz which mine was according to the logs. I forced it to 160hz and now see it in the logs using 160hz but wifi analyzer is still showing 80hz.

Now to my speed issues. I have my desktop connected to the XT8 router via cat6 and I'm getting speeds between 400Mbps and 790mbps. Mostly on the lower end.

On my S20 with wifi 6 I'm getting 300-600mpbs and that's with my s20 inches from the XT8 router.

I'm on the latest firmware which I believe was the 9/22 release date. I just got the XT8 yesterday. From all the reviews I should be getting speeds very close to what I pay for which is 1gb down. On the upload speeds I'm usually pretty close at around 45mpbs.

Also, from the asus app I clicked on real time traffic but I see almost 0 traffic in the wireless backhaul 5ghz-2. This is with 30ish devices on the network. With a little less than half connected to the node at the front of the house. See attached images.

I really had high hopes for the XT8 and I'm not ready to give up just yet. I have until Nov 1st to return this but I want to get this sorted it and keep it.

Oh, another thing someone said on a different post was Double Nat'ing? Possibly the cable modem/router combo could have a firewall enabled and the xt8 also has firewall enabled. I need to check that. I also have QOS off.

If want to prevent double nating, you can try using AP mode. If it still happens, something wrong with LAN cable from XT8 to ISP modem/router or its configuration. As you're using LAN cable to test the internet speed, it supposedly can get constant 940+Mbps something and not in the range 400-790Mbps which is not the usual thing for LAN common speed.

 

[3s1k]

Read review in my sig. The wifi analyser 80mhz is a false reading.
Get latest version of Inssider instead.

5ghz 2 will always be used for backhaul. But you can allow clients to connect to it. I think you have to turn smart connect off though.

Thanks JagoUK. Your review is where I read to force 160hz on the backhaul after I checked my logs it was only using 80hz. I will check out Inssider on the morning.

I know 5ghz-2 is for the backhaul, my question is how do I know the backhaul is actually being used? Unless I'm reading the Traffic statistics from the app incorrectly or, I don't truly understand how the backhaul works. In my screen shot of the traffic stats practically no data is coming through 5ghz-2. He's another screenshot from right now which is 3:15am. I believe all the green is upload traffic from all of my Nest cameras.

 

[3s1k]

If want to prevent double nating, you can try using AP mode. If it still happens, something wrong with LAN cable from XT8 to ISP modem/router or its configuration. As you're using LAN cable to test the internet speed, it supposedly can get constant 940+Mbps something and not in the range 400-790Mbps which is not the usual thing for LAN common speed.

I'll double check the cables. I know a few are cat6 i ordered from monoprice and the others I grabbed from work or what comes inside the modem box from my ISP. I agree, something is right and I have to blame the XT8 just yet.

If I switch to AP mode I believe I lose the DWB. I guess I can flip it on as a test.

 

[JagoUK]

No visual traffic on the backhaul is a known bug on the web and app interface.
If you are connected to the node and have internet access then the backhaul is working.
If you have a white light on the router and node it is working in 5ghz or ethernet (5g-2 is reserved for backhaul even if ethernet is used.)
If you have a yellow light on the node it is in 2.4ghz.

 

[3s1k]

No visual traffic on the backhaul is a known bug on the web and app interface.
If you are connected to the node and have internet access then the backhaul is working.
If you have a white light on the router and node it is working in 5ghz or ethernet (5g-2 is reserved for backhaul even if ethernet is used.)
If you have a yellow light on the node it is in 2.4ghz.

@JagoUK , thank you. I though I was beginning to go nuts lol. Yes, the router and node both have white lights and internet is passing through.

@KingBravery , I did a few tests. First I disabled the firewall on the xt8 and same results. I also swapped the cables out from router to modem and same result. Both are Cat5e cables.

Then I switched the XT8 to AP mode. Since it was in AP mode DHCP was supposed to be provided by Modem/router which it wasn't and I couldn't connect to the XT8. I'm sure I was missing something. I ended up factory resetting both XT8 to restore connectivity. I didn't see any improve on speeds even in at 4am when everyone was asleep and most streaming devices were off.

I couldn't sleep because this was bothering me lol.

 

[KingBravery]

@JagoUK , thank you. I though I was beginning to go nuts lol. Yes, the router and node both have white lights and internet is passing through.

@KingBravery , I did a few tests. First I disabled the firewall on the xt8 and same results. I also swapped the cables out from router to modem and same result. Both are Cat5e cables.

Then I switched the XT8 to AP mode. Since it was in AP mode DHCP was supposed to be provided by Modem/router which it wasn't and I couldn't connect to the XT8. I'm sure I was missing something. I ended up factory resetting both XT8 to restore connectivity. I didn't see any improve on speeds even in at 4am when everyone was asleep and most streaming devices were off.

I couldn't sleep because this was bothering me lol.

Is it full speed if testing your pc direct to the modem?

 

[Bingobob]

Sorry for double post. I meant to post this in the Asus AX forum.

Hello. I just purchased a pair of XT8 and I have not been getting the speeds I was expecting. I'm fairly good and googling and ended up on this forum. Signed up and looked at the last 5 pages of XT8 threads. First, I'm on a cable modem/router combod with 1gig down and 50Mbps Up. All I know about the modem/router from the ISP is that wireless has been disabled and IP pass through enabled. I'm not sure if it has built in firewall..

I have a long house front to back with the modem/router + XT8 at the back of the house in my office. My Node is at the front of the house. Initially when I set it up I chose to use different SSID for 2.4 and 5ghz not really knowing. Because my r7000 had 2 different names to distinguish the frequency.

Apparently doing so does not enable 5ghz-2 wireless backhaul. So I turned on Smart Connect which forced 2.4 and 5ghz ssid to be identical which disconnected all the devices on my network that were connected to "wifi-name-5ghz".

Now, I see in the AiMesh tab Fronthaul and Backhaul. Also, in the app under WiFi settings I see 5ghz-2 dedicated backhaul toggle to turn it on and off. So I guess that's working.

I used wifi analyzer after reading a post on here that wireless backhaul was using 80hz which mine was according to the logs. I forced it to 160hz and now see it in the logs using 160hz but wifi analyzer is still showing 80hz.

Now to my speed issues. I have my desktop connected to the XT8 router via cat6 and I'm getting speeds between 400Mbps and 790mbps. Mostly on the lower end.

On my S20 with wifi 6 I'm getting 300-600mpbs and that's with my s20 inches from the XT8 router.

I'm on the latest firmware which I believe was the 9/22 release date. I just got the XT8 yesterday. From all the reviews I should be getting speeds very close to what I pay for which is 1gb down. On the upload speeds I'm usually pretty close at around 45mpbs.

Also, from the asus app I clicked on real time traffic but I see almost 0 traffic in the wireless backhaul 5ghz-2. This is with 30ish devices on the network. With a little less than half connected to the node at the front of the house. See attached images.

I really had high hopes for the XT8 and I'm not ready to give up just yet. I have until Nov 1st to return this but I want to get this sorted it and keep it.

Oh, another thing someone said on a different post was Double Nat'ing? Possibly the cable modem/router combo could have a firewall enabled and the xt8 also has firewall enabled. I need to check that. I also have QOS off.

So I spent a ton of time trying to fix the router after installing the latest firmware and also went back step by step to downgrade to previous version and then almost decided to throw the router away and go buy something else. IT WAS HORRIBLE!!!

Then I ran into this thread and as a last ditch effort updated the firmware to the latest Beta RC version. Also moved the location of the satellite a little bit.

That fixed everything. Now I have a steady 400-500mbps internet in every part of the house. I have disabled wifi 6 - that's it. Try it before you give up. Here's the link it's AX-95Q

Beta - ASUSWRT 386 RC2 public beta with full functions AiMesh 2.0

Pretty cool developments, can't wait to finally try these long awaited 386 versions once they are finalized as a general release in the form of an @RMerlin firmware (once some more time goes by waiting for the GPL of course).:):cool:

www.snbforums.com

 

[digits n bits]

So I spent a ton of time trying to fix the router after installing the latest firmware and also went back step by step to downgrade to previous version and then almost decided to throw the router away and go buy something else. IT WAS HORRIBLE!!!

Then I ran into this thread and as a last ditch effort updated the firmware to the latest Beta RC version. Also moved the location of the satellite a little bit.

That fixed everything. Now I have a steady 400-500mbps internet in every part of the house. I have disabled wifi 6 - that's it. Try it before you give up. Here's the link it's AX-95Q

Beta - ASUSWRT 386 RC2 public beta with full functions AiMesh 2.0

Pretty cool developments, can't wait to finally try these long awaited 386 versions once they are finalized as a general release in the form of an @RMerlin firmware (once some more time goes by waiting for the GPL of course).:):cool:

www.snbforums.com

I believe there are five versions of the RC firmwares. The last being RC5.
What version firmware were you on before? The first few firmwares for the XT8 were pretty bad. The latest 25790 firmware for the XT8 is quite good with very few issues. These can be finicky beasts as you’re aware. Moving a node a few inches can make all the difference in the world with these.

 

[3s1k]

Is it full speed if testing your pc direct to the modem?

Here's a follow up for the hardwired connection but I'm still trying to resolve slower Wifi6 speeds when standing 1 inch from the main router.

Edit, when I direct connect to the modem I can't reach the internet. It's not giving me an IP address for some reason. I started a support chat and then disconnected and couldn't see the speeds when I directly connect to to. They did verify there was no Firewall on the modem so that rules out double NATing.

I use Sophos Home Free for my AV. It has a web filtering component that was bogging my PC and network connection down in the task manager. Sophos was making my CPU idle at 20-30% and during a speed test Sophos would use 50% cpu on its own. . I disabled the web filter and my next speed test was 940Mbps down while hardwired to the XT8. Now my slowest speeds hardwired are around 600+ and a few 940 down on the high side. I'm currently VPN to work with split tunnel, not sure if that would affect my speeds.

 

[3s1k]

@Bingobob Thanks for the kind words, I'm not giving up just yet. At least not until just before the return period ends lol.

I'm on the the firmware version @KingBravery mentioned, 25790. I can't say it works better or worse since I immediately updated it when the XT8's arrived on friday.

On a reddit post some suggested to enable those to settings. I highlighted them on my screenshot.

Multicast Rate (Mbps) - Set to OFDM 54
OFDMA/802.11ax MU-MIMO - set to DL/UL OFDMA + MU-MIMO

I seemed like it helped some but I know it didn't hurt anything yet.

I also forced DNS away from my ISP and used OpenDns instead. That seemed to help more than anything. I'm still not seeing full or even 3/4 speeds on wifi6. Maybe 40%. I submittd a ticket to ASUS with my logs. Hopefully they find something.

 

[KingBravery]

@Bingobob Thanks for the kind words, I'm not giving up just yet. At least not until just before the return period ends lol.

I'm on the the firmware version @KingBravery mentioned, 25790. I can't say it works better or worse since I immediately updated it when the XT8's arrived on friday.

On a reddit post some suggested to enable those to settings. I highlighted them on my screenshot.

Multicast Rate (Mbps) - Set to OFDM 54
OFDMA/802.11ax MU-MIMO - set to DL/UL OFDMA + MU-MIMO

I seemed like it helped some but I know it didn't hurt anything yet.

I also forced DNS away from my ISP and used OpenDns instead. That seemed to help more than anything. I'm still not seeing full or even 3/4 speeds on wifi6. Maybe 40%. I submittd a ticket to ASUS with my logs. Hopefully they find something.

Try set AUTO for multicast rate. I've also tried like this but the result was unsatisfactory.

Here's a follow up for the hardwired connection but I'm still trying to resolve slower Wifi6 speeds when standing 1 inch from the main router.

Edit, when I direct connect to the modem I can't reach the internet. It's not giving me an IP address for some reason. I started a support chat and then disconnected and couldn't see the speeds when I directly connect to to. They did verify there was no Firewall on the modem so that rules out double NATing.

I use Sophos Home Free for my AV. It has a web filtering component that was bogging my PC and network connection down in the task manager. Sophos was making my CPU idle at 20-30% and during a speed test Sophos would use 50% cpu on its own. . I disabled the web filter and my next speed test was 940Mbps down while hardwired to the XT8. Now my slowest speeds hardwired are around 600+ and a few 940 down on the high side. I'm currently VPN to work with split tunnel, not sure if that would affect my speeds.

For direct connection to modem: If your ISP use VLAN tagging, you must set it first in LAN setting (not all chipset got setting to tag VLAN).

I see your Sophos affect the cpu usage that can also affect the download speed.

VPN definitely makes the speed drop much in certain configuration.

You could try multiple variation of speedtest server as different speedtest server would give different speed and ping based on ISP route.

 

[3s1k]

@KingBravery I changed Multicast Rate back to Auto. I'll see how it does for a few days. I've been making to many changes at once and hard to keep track what's helping. What about this?

OFDMA/802.11ax MU-MIMO - set to "DL/UL OFDMA + MU-MIMO"

I'm not seeing any VLAN tagging settings. I could have sworn I seen some the other day.

What do you guys have for IPv6? Is it disabled or Native? On reddit someone said there was disabled and when they turned it on it helped with speeds. Not sure how or why. I'm not using IPv6 in the house.

On the speedtest servers. You are correct, I tested different servers around my state and all pulled different numbers. For instance Sunday was football day, my ISP server 5miles away would only give me 40Mpbs. I switched to a server a few hours away and was able to get 300Mbps. I also noticed some browsers seem to run speedtest.net better as well. Chrome has been weird for me all day so started testing on the new EDGE chromium based browser.

 

[KingBravery]

@KingBravery I changed Multicast Rate back to Auto. I'll see how it does for a few days. I've been making to many changes at once and hard to keep track what's helping. What about this?

OFDMA/802.11ax MU-MIMO - set to "DL/UL OFDMA + MU-MIMO"

I'm not seeing any VLAN tagging settings. I could have sworn I seen some the other day.

What do you guys have for IPv6? Is it disabled or Native? On reddit someone said there was disabled and when they turned it on it helped with speeds. Not sure how or why. I'm not using IPv6 in the house.

On the speedtest servers. You are correct, I tested different servers around my state and all pulled different numbers. For instance Sunday was football day, my ISP server 5miles away would only give me 40Mpbs. I switched to a server a few hours away and was able to get 300Mbps. I also noticed some browsers seem to run speedtest.net better as well. Chrome has been weird for me all day so started testing on the new EDGE chromium based browser.

For this OFDMA/802.11ax MU-MIMO - set to "DL/UL OFDMA + MU-MIMO", Merlin also said dont care about it. So I conclude that it only effective if we have too much wifi 6 device and want to divide the bandwith equally without losing the performance and improve latency.

For IPV6, you could try yourself as this depends on ISP itself. If you try and found packet loss happen, you can disable back. Different ISP provide different result.

 

[3s1k]

Thank you, I'll leave it a few days and see how it goes. I played with some NIC settings and was getting consistent 950ish download speeds on my workstation. Thats a good sign.

I'm still waiting to see what Asus support says about the lack luster wifi speeds. Best I got was 700 down on the couch about 15ft from the main router. Weird thing is when I sit at my desk I get worse speeds and I'm 3ft or less from the main router. Using my Galaxy S20+ on wifi6.

 

[3s1k]

Asus support replied back to me with these suggestions. I wanted to get peoples thoughts their suggestion. See below

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you for contacting ASUS product support. My Name is Adam P. and I hope you are doing well.

I understand that you're not getting the expected wifi speed from the router. I know the importance of having it fixed and allow me to apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced. Let me do my best to assist you.

Please make sure that the router's firmware is up to date: https://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/1008000/

Then kindly apply the following setting:
2.4GHz connection:

1. Change wireless mode to 'Legacy' (Wireless -> General -> Band = 2.4GHz)


2. Change channel bandwidth to 20 MHz' (Wireless -> General -> Band =2.4GHZ)

3. Change control channel to 1, 6, or 11 (Wireless -> General -> Band = 2.4GHz) (l = lower band, u = upper band)



4. Wireless -> Professional -> 2.4GHz -> disable Explicit beamforming and Universal Beamforming


C. 5GHz connection issues:


1. Wireless -> General -> 5GHz-1 or 5GHz-2 -> Select 'Legacy', 'N only' or 'N/AC mixed' in Wireless Mode


2. Change channel bandwidth to '40 MHz' (Wireless -> General -> Band = 5GHz-1 or 5GHz-2)

3. Wireless -> Professional -> 5GHz-1 or 5GHz-2 -> disable Explicit beamforming and Universal Beamforming
If I may be of any further assistance, please, let me know. Thank you for choosing ASUS.

 

[RMerlin]

I would also disable Airtime Fairness if your router offers that option.

 

[3s1k]

I have Airtime fairness off already. Also, I'm confused on smart connect. Does smart connect have to be on to use the 5gz-2 backhaul? In order to enable some of those settings Asus suggested I have to disable Smart Connect.

Also, for me at least, smart connect seems to be working fine. Everything I need to me on 5ghz is on it and the rest IOT's are on 2.4ghz.

Is there a benefit of having Smart connect off?

 

[3s1k]

I just wanted to update on my testing - The Mesh Node just died. It was working fine last night. I woke up to do more iPerf testing with an old laptop I forgot I had (see other thread). I was emailing Asus support on the changes they had me apply and I hopped into the WebUI to grab the serial number and I see my Node disconnected. I run up stairs and its off so I moved it to another outlet, nothing. I bring it downstairs and use the adapter from the Router that is still on/working. Nothing, no power, no lights. It's dead and I got these 6 days ago.

I'm 100% its going back to Amazon now. I'm so sad, I really really wanted to like this mesh router. Dedicated wireless backhaul and all it's features for a great price. Ughhhhhh.

Now I have to move my cable modem back upstairs and plug back my Netgear R7000 on DD-WRT that I've had for 5 years.