Best settings for Zenwifi XT8 with virgin hub 4/1gig fibre

[Benv]

Bob

 

[BobAmart]

Thanks Ben - doing it this way means only one SSID right and change of IP addresses?

 

[BobAmart]

More suggestions...pick a channel on 2.4GHz, don't default to auto select. And use 20MHz. channel width, not 20/40MHz. Same on the two 5GHz. channels...pick a channel for each, and disable 160MHz. channel width for the 5GHz-2 radio. The ZenWiFi will use 80MHz. channels on 5GHz, which is more stable and performs better around here...by the way, I use channel 44 for the 5GHz-1 radio, and 157 for the 5GHz-2 radio. This may vary at your location. Those are basically all I change for wireless. Oh yeah, I also turn off "universal beamforming" in the "Professional" wireless settings tab, and leave the other beamforming setting ("Explicit beamforming"?) on. I also use "smart connect", it has worked well for me, and I prefer to have only one SSID as well.

The above may help you, I hope so. What does the smart phone app say about the connection between your ZenWiFi router and node? Just tap the node on the map on the Home page, and it will take you to a page on the node. At the top, it gives the dBm for the connection, and also an adjective like "Great", or "Weak" or whatever. What are those? My connection strength is always more than -60dBm, and the word description is "Great". Helps my self esteem, and also works well *smile*.

so for 2.4ghz, 20Mhz and which control channel? (it currently says "Current Control Channel: 8")
5ghz-1, 80mhz, and which control channel? (it currently says "Current Control Channel: 44")
5ghz-2 80mhz (as well?) and which control channel (it currently says "Current Control Channel: 124"), and disable 160mhz

what are the benefits in specifying the above vs auto?

 

[Benv]

Thanks Ben - doing it this way means only one SSID right and change of IP addresses?

Hi Bob, I was in Dual Band SSID mode when I changed into AP Mode.
But once in AP mode & safely connected, I then split out the 2.4ghz & 5ghz modes (this helped increase speed).
Just one change of IP address, look for the LAN IP on the app after entering AP Mode.

 

[Nij2021]

Forgot I'd started this thread

How are you guys getting on with your XT8's if your still using them, mine have been stabe and working well for a while, still getting around 940 mbps wired but only get around 600 mbps using wifi 6 devices, even when i'm in the same room as the main node, so debating whether to try out the above and put my VM router back into router mode, turn off it's wifi and use my XT8's in AP mode

Can you use the ethernet sockets on both the VM hub and XT8 aswell once your back in router mode on the VM hub and AP mode on the XT8

 

[BTCRPM]

Forgot I'd started this thread

How are you guys getting on with your XT8's if your still using them, mine have been stabe and working well for a while, still getting around 940 mbps wired but only get around 600 mbps using wifi 6 devices, even when i'm in the same room as the main node, so debating whether to try out the above and put my VM router back into router mode, turn off it's wifi and use my XT8's in AP mode

Can you use the ethernet sockets on both the VM hub and XT8 aswell once your back in router mode on the VM hub and AP mode on the XT8

Good afternoon @Nij2021 I'm taking delivery of my new XT8's tomorrow and am eager to get them set up and running. Just curious if you ended up changing the Virgin hub to router mode and your XT8's to AP and whether you saw any improvement on the 600mbps that you were obtaining on your WiFi 6 devices? I do hope that with my WiFi 6 phone/laptop etc that I'm achieving slightly higher than this but time will tell, no point paying for 1gig if we're not getting near those speeds Kindest regards. Richard

 

[RogerSC]

Good afternoon @Nij2021 I'm taking delivery of my new XT8's tomorrow and am eager to get them set up and running. Just curious if you ended up changing the Virgin hub to router mode and your XT8's to AP and whether you saw any improvement on the 600mbps that you were obtaining on your WiFi 6 devices? I do hope that with my WiFi 6 phone/laptop etc that I'm achieving slightly higher than this but time will tell, no point paying for 1gig if we're not getting near those speeds Kindest regards. Richard

Good point on the gigabit speeds. We have 500/500Mbps fiber here (provisioned at about 620/620Mbps), and I get about 600Mbps via wifi-6 on the remote node (using wireless backhaul) across the house from the router node. Which is only about 50Mbps less than I got when I was on gigabit internet. And I'm paying about $25/month less now than I was for gigabit *smile*, about $45/month. Really don't need gigabit here, We could do just as well on the 300/300Mbps speed tier actually, wouldn't notice the decrease in speed. Probably drop it down to 300/300Mbps speed tier when the current promo for 500/500Mbps runs out.

 

[BTCRPM]

More suggestions...pick a channel on 2.4GHz, don't default to auto select. And use 20MHz. channel width, not 20/40MHz. Same on the two 5GHz. channels...pick a channel for each, and disable 160MHz. channel width for the 5GHz-2 radio. The ZenWiFi will use 80MHz. channels on 5GHz, which is more stable and performs better around here...by the way, I use channel 44 for the 5GHz-1 radio, and 157 for the 5GHz-2 radio. This may vary at your location. Those are basically all I change for wireless. Oh yeah, I also turn off "universal beamforming" in the "Professional" wireless settings tab, and leave the other beamforming setting ("Explicit beamforming"?) on. I also use "smart connect", it has worked well for me, and I prefer to have only one SSID as well.

The above may help you, I hope so. What does the smart phone app say about the connection between your ZenWiFi router and node? Just tap the node on the map on the Home page, and it will take you to a page on the node. At the top, it gives the dBm for the connection, and also an adjective like "Great", or "Weak" or whatever. What are those? My connection strength is always more than -60dBm, and the word description is "Great". Helps my self esteem, and also works well *smile*.

Good evening @RogerSC, hope that you're well. Just received my XT8's yesterday and have been setting them up this evening. May I ask a quick question. I note from your suggestions above, that you have chosen channel 157 for the 5Ghz-2 radio, can I ask how your XT8 gave you that option if you are in wireless backhaul mode, I thought that turned off the channels used in the 5Ghs-2 radio so channels 100-140 were unusable? Also, bit of a silly question as haven't had a chance to fully look around yet, but is there a way to change the name of each XT8 device, instead of just the location in app, would be helpful to label them as Master/Node etc?

Kindest regards.

Richard

 

[BTCRPM]

Good afternoon @Nij2021 I'm taking delivery of my new XT8's tomorrow and am eager to get them set up and running. Just curious if you ended up changing the Virgin hub to router mode and your XT8's to AP and whether you saw any improvement on the 600mbps that you were obtaining on your WiFi 6 devices? I do hope that with my WiFi 6 phone/laptop etc that I'm achieving slightly higher than this but time will tell, no point paying for 1gig if we're not getting near those speeds Kindest regards. Richard

XT8's set up, and likewise

Forgot I'd started this thread

How are you guys getting on with your XT8's if your still using them, mine have been stabe and working well for a while, still getting around 940 mbps wired but only get around 600 mbps using wifi 6 devices, even when i'm in the same room as the main node, so debating whether to try out the above and put my VM router back into router mode, turn off it's wifi and use my XT8's in AP mode

Can you use the ethernet sockets on both the VM hub and XT8 aswell once your back in router mode on the VM hub and AP mode on the XT8

Hi again @Nij2021 so, I now have my XT8's up and running, but have mine in Router mode, not AP mode, as I switched to AP mode earlier after initially setting them up, and speed tests dropped from 900mbps whilst in the same room as router, down to 250ish when I changed to AP mode. Admittedly now looking back, I didn't restart the VM Hub or the XT8's so could have been a reason why.

With regards to the Ethernet ports, the ports on the VM Hub become usable again when it's put back in router mode, similarly I believe all the Ethernet ports on the XT8 node and router are also usable.

One thought I did have, was my old Deco M5 system, is there any reason why I couldn't plug an ethernet cable in to the Main Deco eth port, set as AP's, configure new SSID's and continue using them as a secondary mesh network?

All the best.

Richard

 

[RogerSC]

Good evening @RogerSC, hope that you're well. Just received my XT8's yesterday and have been setting them up this evening. May I ask a quick question. I note from your suggestions above, that you have chosen channel 157 for the 5Ghz-2 radio, can I ask how your XT8 gave you that option if you are in wireless backhaul mode, I thought that turned off the channels used in the 5Ghs-2 radio so channels 100-140 were unusable? Also, bit of a silly question as haven't had a chance to fully look around yet, but is there a way to change the name of each XT8 device, instead of just the location in app, would be helpful to label them as Master/Node etc?

Kindest regards.

Richard

With the latest ZenWiFi AX firmware version from Asus, I've changed my configuration to use channel 149 with 160MHz. channel width enabled for the dedicated backhaul band (5GHz-2). You can now do this since Asus added in the UNII-4 channels (5.9GHz.) in their latest firmware. Very nice to be able to do this, have a "full-speed" 160MHz. backhaul channel width, without depending on DFS channels:

Release - ASUS ZenWiFi XT8 Firmware version 3.0.0.4.386.49873 (2022/08/04)

i just want to know this too....plz i am now in a beta version just to solve this problem, can anyone confirm this bug is solved. thanx a lot in advance I don't know... My passphrase is greatly under 32 characters! But I would assume that the answer is yes... A stable firmware with a...

www.snbforums.com

If you don't want to do the above with the new UNII-4 channels, you can still choose channel 157 as your control channel with channel width at 80MHz. That works well, also. Not sure why you can't do this, "turning off" channels 100 - 140, how ever you did that, doesn't affect the availability of the channels above that. So I can't answer your question, since it isn't clear to me what the problem is?

On the labeling issue, for me the location is fine. My fiber gateway and router have always been in my family room, so that's where the router node is. And the only other node I have is the remote node, in my living room. So I haven't needed any other labeling, my installation is simple and clear *smile*.