GT-AXE16000 Owner's Thread

[Tech9]

for the average home IoT devices

The average home doesn't have 180-ish IoT devices in a single home router range.

 

[MarvinAndro]

It can't easily handle 250+ devices on a /24 subnet that Asus routers are locked to.

Try powering down your entire network (the longer, the better) and bringing it up in order: Router, Switches, Client devices (wired), and Client devices (wireless). Waiting a full 10 minutes or so before moving to the next category and turning those devices on.

Nice to see an old acquaintance replying
I stepped away from Asus but I admit, I missed Merlin's tweaks and had to snatch the GT-AXE16000 when bestbuy.ca dropped it by $100.
I've not followed the latest Asus/Merling threads but out of the box, the GT-AXE16000 lets me enter 255.255.254.0 and I didn't even think about /24 limitation. It was even smart enough to populate 192.168.N.2/192.168.N+1.254 so I didn't have to touch the DHCP Server tab.
Either way, not my issue at this time as I can't get more than 70-iesh devices to stay connected. Just in the room where I work from, I have 3 Kasa switches, and see 2 more across the corridor. I can't really "turn off those devices". What I see is that a few would blink trying to connect to the new (same SSID) Wi-Fi and will succeed, while others won't. If I reboot the Asus router, the same competition will end with a different set of winners. If I power most of the Kasa switches in the house, that technically "kills the power" to the smart pot lights and now I have good 60+ Wi-Fi devices off. Reboot the router and now most of the Kasa switches would connect, but still many won't.
If I rename the GT-AXE16000 SSID to something different and Nest Wi-Fi back to the one the devices know, it takes less than a minute for 150+ devices to happily connect. Not what I was expecting from a $1000 router (yes, with GT-AXE16000_388.1_0_rog_nand_squashfs.pkgtb on it).

I still suspect Asus simply can't handle more than 60/70-ish devices per router although I don't know what the limitation is and their support isn't the greatest.

 

[L&LD]

The router can handle much more than the 60/70-ish you are experiencing.

Each WiFi Radio can only handle around ~40 clients max.

Allowing you to enter 255.255.254.0 doesn't mean it allows more than a /24.

 

[Tech9]

Not what I was expecting from a $1000 router

This $1000 router has the same 2.4GHz radio as $300 GT-AX6000 router. Both will work the same way with your IoT devices.

 

[MarvinAndro]

What's the math on the GT-AXE16000?
Specs at https://rog.asus.com/networking/rog-rapture-gt-axe16000-model/spec/ say "2.4 GHz 4 x 4". Does that mean 4 radios? With 40 clients per radio, would it be capable of 160 clients? Or that's Rx/Tx so it's 80, which is what I see on my close-to-vanilla setup?

Subnet(s) - I see clients spread across /23 and I just assigned one to 192.168.2.42 and another to 192.168.3.142, rebooted, and they stick. It's a quick test, you guys have spent months with the router, but for now, it makes me think 510 IPs should be OK for this router.

 

[Tech9]

Does that mean 4 radios?

Single 4-stream BCM6715 radio - the same as in GT-AX6000. Your IoT devices use mostly 2.4GHz band so how many bands your GT-AXE16000 has is irrelevant. You just overpaid for marketing and wrong future proofing ideas. I would get 2x GT-AX6000 routers instead and they'll support more 2.4GHz band clients than your single overpriced GT-AXE16000 router with mostly unusable 6E band. GT-AX6000 is also ridiculously large with RGB lights.

 

[MarvinAndro]

This $1000 router has the same 2.4GHz radio as $300 GT-AX6000 router. Both will work the same way with your IoT devices.

Thanks! I've been starring at the GT-AXE16000 for so long that completely missed it when Asus released GT-AX6000 at 1/3 of the price.

To put some more context on the user requirements
My wife said she can't stand the big old Asus routers that were on every floor, that's how we went to the Google WiFi, then added Nest Wifi and made that the main router.
Bell got me to the 3Gbps plan "to save me money" so I wanted to get a router with at least 3Gbps in and out (I have a 10Gbps switch). All paths lead to the GT-AXE16000 (future proof if Rogers or Bell get those 8Gbps to my house one day) and the hope was, I can put it in the basement and my boss at home will be happy, no more geeky gear on the first and second floors of the house

It looks like it's not the right path to clear the electronics from the 1st/2nd floor. I should have replicated the good old Ubiquiti "ugly gear in the basement", trying to sell the beauty of the UI APs on the first and second floors. Nest WiFi with the Assistant in a nice round shape did the trick but I still hate the primitive Google Home app and approach to magical WiFi.

 

[Tech9]

Bell got me to the 3Gbps plan "to save me money"

I know. It's a classic scenario. They give you a small discount and you spend thousands in better speedtest results.

future proof if Rogers or Bell get those 8Gbps to my house one day

Run 100Gbps optics for more future proofing. You own a dollar to @Smokey613. With your ideas close to 100, actually.

"Best" new router that supports Merlin?

My vote goes to GT-AX6000 if you are after good price and performance. But if you have money to burn then get GT-AXE16000, it's the greatest but cost 700usd.

www.snbforums.com

 

[Tech9]

A proper business class multi-AP system with PoE power and x86 firewall is the better return of investment. You already have the wires. Explore options and do it right once. You can have 10Gbps LAN, but you don't need Gigabit Wi-Fi for your mobile and IoT devices. Not too expensive 4x AX1800 class APs placed around the house will support more clients, have wider coverage area and achieve higher aggregate throughput to your existing today devices.

 

[Bandito]

If it helps, my system is working with just under 100 devices, but keep in mind that I have two GT-AXE16000s in an AI mesh configuration and the devices happen to be pretty well split between connecting to the router and the node.

 

[MarvinAndro]

A proper business class multi-AP system with PoE power and x86 firewall is the better return of investment. You already have the wires. Explore options and do it right once. You can have 10Gbps LAN, but you don't need Gigabit Wi-Fi for your mobile and IoT devices. Not too expensive 4x AX1800 class APs placed around the house will support more clients, have wider coverage area and achieve higher aggregate throughput to your existing today devices.

But the mighty Merlin uses it as his main router! That sets the standard for Canadians up there eh?

How about that feeling when your Pixel 7 Pro hits 1Gbps (https://www.waveform.com/tools/bufferbloat?test-id=463c5e41-38ba-492e-a8c8-f6e0243af34a)... It's almost like being 20 again and going 240kph on your way to Timmins with and old, used Subaru SVX

OK you sane people. I'm packing the best, dropping it off at BestBuy, and will act as a grown up in 2023.

Thanks for all the help and Happy Holidays!

 

[Tech9]

But the mighty Merlin uses it as his main router!

GT-AX6000 is currently CAD320 at BestBuy. This is the lowest price so far. You can use it as wired router with Asuswrt-Merlin and still build separate more reliable Wi-Fi system to support your IoT obsession. Keep in mind home routers are not true 2.5/10GbE capable hardware. They rely heavily on NAT acceleration hacks. The CPU is Raspberry Pi like cores and can process about 400Mbps. If you hit a firmware option incompatible with NAT acceleration your gaming multi-Gigabit marketed routers turn into up to 400Mbps capable. One WireGuard client/server or a Bandwidth Limiter on Guest Network is enough to kill your entire network performance. An Intel Celeron based x86 router/firewall is few times more capable hardware.

 

[RMerlin]

How was it?

Expensive, most likely.

 

[erick_e]

New beta firmware available today.

Firmware version 9.0.0.6.102_3506

Release note:

Be noted: This is an early stage beta, there might be bugs. This version can be downgraded via web GUI only.

- Add Guest Network Pro:
- Kids WiFi: Create a network for kids that blocks access to adult content and has a schedule to control when the network is available.
- VPN WiFi: Create a VPN network that connects to 3rd party VPN services or with ASUS site to site VPN(https://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/1048281/) to encrypts your internet connection and hides your IP address to protect your online activities from being tracked or monitored.
- IoT WiFi : Create an IoT (Internet of Things) network that blocks malicious traffic* and only allows 2.4GHz devices to connect.
- Guest WiFi: Create a guest network with a WiFi schedule and access rights to control when and how guests can use the network.

- Add VLAN in LAN settings.
- Add Auto USB WAN backup, while primary WAN is down, plug USB phone/dongle will auto enable backup internet, no setup is required.
- Add iPhone USB tethering. (Please make sure hotspot on iPhone is enabled).
- Add Multi-services WAN, create multiple profiles on a single WAN interface.

 

[Tech9]

- Add VLAN in LAN settings.

Someone running this new Beta - post a screenshot of this page, please.

 

[glens]

Or you could fetch the firmware, extract the files, and look for yourself.

 

[Tech9]

This is not possible for many reasons.

 

[Clark Griswald]

That is quite a list of "new" or enhanced features.

 

[RMerlin]

Someone running this new Beta - post a screenshot of this page, please.

Beta - RT-AX86U_Pro Beta firmware 9.0.0.6.102_3506

This seems to have gone under the radar... https://www.asus.com/networking-iot-servers/wifi-routers/asus-gaming-routers/rt-ax86u-pro/helpdesk_bios/?model2Name=RT-AX86U-Pro ASUS RT-AX86U Pro Firmware version 9.0.0.6.102.3506 Version 9.0.0.6.102.3506 Beta Version 54.47 MB Be noted: This is an...

www.snbforums.com

 

[GamerKingFaiz]

Does anyone else run into the issue of the 10Gbps ports not working after rebooting the AXE16000?

I have gigabit switches plugged into both of the 10Gbps ports and it seems like if I reboot they lose connection, I have to then go to the router and unplug/replug the ethernet cable from the 10Gbps ports for the router to recognize the switches and provide internet again.

This even happened after I added a DHCP reservation today. The router didn't need to do a full reboot (wifi still worked), but all my devices on the 2 switches lost internet until I unplugged/replugged the ethernet cable on the 10Gbps ports.

I'm on the latest public firmware according to the router's firmware upgrade page (3.0.0.4.388_21617-g1288c22).