help please - can I ????

[MarkR]

So, I have a couple of questions I cannot see explicit answers to in the manuals. I am a long term user of a variety of networking kit - and am severely hacked off at the lack of support from TP-Link. As such I am looking for an alternative and the Asus TUF routers look good candidates. I'm not into gaming, but want a reliable setup that supports my home NAS/Streaming/Home Automation/Smart heating systems, we have a 600Mb/s broadband (with an offer of a 1Gb/s connection in a couple of months) so I want reliability and to use the broadband well as well as be able to run local services if the broadband ever has issues. Whatever I invest in also needs to have the performance to support the next couple of years of performance growth - so throughput/packet rates need to be comfortable at 1Gb/s and have headroom above that.

My current setup has an Archer C7 router as the main device - with 4 x deco m5's being access points (1 was meant to be the router - but due to issue 2 below this doesn't work) - all are hardwired. but.... only 2 are wired directly to the main router. The others are daisychained (the deco's have 2 gig ethernet ports each). I have a bunch of issues with the tplink company support as well as the products.

The deco family products all fail if access to the internet is removed - they require an active cloud connection, and this is utterly unacceptable. It's been document on the uplink support forum for well over 2 years and they refuse to accept there is an issue (and continue to launch products that behave the same). The suggested workaround is to install an extra router (hence the C7 in my setup) ands the deco's as AP's - but that doesn't work as the Deco's still crap out without access to the cloud.

I'm thinking to get a TUF-AX6000 for the main router (with the NAS, HA Systems and various local audio and video streamers connected locally - Plex and Roon mainly), with a TUF-AX4200 (as an access point) in the main living area with a direct gigabit ethernet connection to the main router. I would then use a TUF-AX3000 to provide cover to an work/office outbuilding (with a cat6 cable direct to the ax6000) and cable link from that AX3000 to another AX3000 to provide cover in a guesthouse. Would this work ? can you suggest a more cost effective setup? The first 2 locations want the best performance, the other areas need decent wifi but are end points

my issues with TP Link are (and therefore my questions are would going Asus fix these?)

1) TPLink are utterly unresponsive to customers reporting firmware issues - so are Asus responsive at all ?

3) do the Asus AIMesh setups require an active broadband or will they function without a live internet connection?

4) can I daisy chain cable connections with AIMesh devices like I have the deco's to support remote locations or does each need a connection do the main router?

any thoughts/comment gratefully accepted (and I hope the descriptions and questions make sense)

TIA

Mark

 

[L&LD]

Welcome to the forums @MarkR.

Netgear vs Asus

Hi, Would the netgear be close competition to the crowd favorite AC86U? I just need the built-in OpenVPN functionality and a reliable parental control mobile app. House is only 1300sqft so coverage and speeds won't be an issue with either I guess. Currently on gig speed UFB on Linksys WRT...

www.snbforums.com

 

[glens]

The deco family products all fail if access to the internet is removed - they require an active cloud connection, and this is utterly unacceptable.

I concur. That (for me) would be totally unacceptable. My question to you would be "Why do you still have them?" but you're fixin' to remedy that...

1) TPLink are utterly unresponsive to customers reporting firmware issues - so are Asus responsive at all ?

That's something I have no experience with. It does seem from this forum that Asus is perhaps busying themselves more with getting Wifi7 rolled out than with any issues pertaining to 5 and 6 at this time. But that's to be expected, I'd think.

3) do the Asus AIMesh setups require an active broadband or will they function without a live internet connection?

(What happened to "2"?)
So far as I've experienced the in-home system functions fully without a live Internet connection.

4) can I daisy chain cable connections with AIMesh devices like I have the deco's to support remote locations or does each need a connection do the main router?

Daisy is fine. Though, of course, it could lead to some congestion impacting the fringe experience, but that's just physics and not brand-specific.

I would suggest that whatever you settle on should have the capability to communicate internally at greater than 1Gb rates over wire, as well have ability to run the Merlin firmware. Perhaps TUF stuff is setting your sights slightly low.

 

[PureSpeed]

Sooo

With the tp-link decos or really anything with there stuff they never listen to there customers about anything a lot of people have the same complaints lack of support and firmware issues. I have had there decos and there standalone routers and the decos lack of channel selection is terrible and they don’t play nicely with a lot of IOT devices especially ring. Now as far as the TUF series Asus I have had the AX5400 router and I had a lot of issues with it and had it replaced 3 times wireless issues and wired speed issues. It was really one the first times I’ve ever had a problem with an Asus device I haven’t used the 6000. The 3000 was good the 5400 seems to be a dud.But that’s just my opinion on that one. But if your going with aimesh why not just go with something like an XT9 or XT12 especially if your wiring them in. XT12 will be pricey but will be solid performance wise. XT9 will be a little cheaper but also solid. 2 pack of either of them will do very nicely from what you described in your setup. Asus is also pretty good about there firmwares but also has RMerlin Support Or GNUTONS firmware both bring awesome support and reliability. Yes you can definitely daisy chain them in.Happy Holidays

 

[MarkR]

I concur. That (for me) would be totally unacceptable. My question to you would be "Why do you still have them?" but you're fixin' to remedy that...


That's something I have no experience with. It does seem from this forum that Asus is perhaps busying themselves more with getting Wifi7 rolled out than with any issues pertaining to 5 and 6 at this time. But that's to be expected, I'd think.


(What happened to "2"?)
So far as I've experienced the in-home system functions fully without a live Internet connection.


Daisy is fine. Though, of course, it could lead to some congestion impacting the fringe experience, but that's just physics and not brand-specific.

I would suggest that whatever you settle on should have the capability to communicate internally at greater than 1Gb rates over wire, as well have ability to run the Merlin firmware. Perhaps TUF stuff is setting your sights slightly low.

@glens

thank you for your comments - especially the one about Asus routers being routers and working properly without a connection to a remote cloud system!

2 disappeared as I reread my post and realised the original 2 was actually a description without a question - so moved the text, then forgot to renumber ! Doh!

I still have them as I didn't find the root cause of the issue until after the period in which I could have returned them had expired (we didn't have a broadband outage for some months - so the system appeared to be working... for a while!). I wish I'd not bought them and there are 00's of people with the same symptom commenting on the TP-Link support pages - with no response. I know I can sell them (on fleabay or similar) but feel some guilt unloading something with a problem I know about to someone unsuspecting who may be less able to work around it. Also I had an issue with binning several £00's of kit and so ended up with an impasse of trying to reconfigure the household network so the heating (at least) continued to work in the absence of broadband and living with the rest until I could justify replacing the kit. The Deco's as a router were fast enough to support about 80% of the broadband speed, the old archer c7 that's been implemented to make the heating continue to work gets about 45% rated speed. With an upcoming speed bump due, it's time to stop procrastinating and do something about it.

As I have no (recent) experience of Asus routers (my last one was probably >15 years ago), I am contemplating buying one of them and using it to replace the c7 initially (it'll be much faster than the c7v2 which is currently bodging the network and I will continue short term with the deco's being AP's) and then to add lower spec Asus stuff to run just as access points as I can justify binning the tplink stuff. As an alternative strategy that would also mean that I could buy increasingly powerful routers - each time relegating the previous one to being an AP only if I found the performance useful.

I get the daisy chained cable could be an issue at some point but TBH they remote location is actually a holiday let rental, and anything close to Gb speed in there is a bonus for the guests! the only long term devices connected are a solar pv plant I monitor (which is rs485 speeds!) and a Roku streamer which is limited to 1080p - neither stress even a 100Mb link The heaviest use of this link was during the covid lockdown when we had a family staying with kids who were doing remove schooling whilst the parents worked remotely. They are all on a guest network and so can't see anything else on the LAN, their only access being to the internet - so they were unaffected by the rubbish FW in the deco's. My part of the network on the other hand - with 4k video and HD audio streaming along with necessary services such as the heating, HA and so on - are much more of an issue if the LAN fails due to external factors.

Thanks again for your reply

Mark

 

[MarkR]

Sooo

With the tp-link decos or really anything with there stuff they never listen to there customers about anything a lot of people have the same complaints lack of support and firmware issues. I have had there decos and there standalone routers and the decos lack of channel selection is terrible and they don’t play nicely with a lot of IOT devices especially ring. Now as far as the TUF series Asus I have had the AX5400 router and I had a lot of issues with it and had it replaced 3 times wireless issues and wired speed issues. It was really one the first times I’ve ever had a problem with an Asus device I haven’t used the 6000. The 3000 was good the 5400 seems to be a dud.But that’s just my opinion on that one. But if your going with aimesh why not just go with something like an XT9 or XT12 especially if your wiring them in. XT12 will be pricey but will be solid performance wise. XT9 will be a little cheaper but also solid. 2 pack of either of them will do very nicely from what you described in your setup. Asus is also pretty good about there firmwares but also has RMerlin Support Or GNUTONS firmware both bring awesome support and reliability. Yes you can definitely daisy chain them in.Happy Holidays

I liked the idea of the mesh concept - when I installed them I discovered that in my home it was useless and I hardwired every connection - making mesh only an 'easy configuration' option and therefore not really of value. I'm happy to configure stuff myself as at least I then know what the hell it is doing! When I configured the deco's to start with I did describe the UI as a bit 'Fisher Price' but if it worked, then ok, but ultimately it didn't work and that became an issue. The existing c7 router has had openwrt installed at periods in an attempt to fix the issues, but I've finally got an excuse to fix the problem as a local club has asked for help sorting the clubhouse network and with a 40Mb broadband connection anything new is overkill and my c7 is just about right - I therefore have a reuse for a working piece of kit and can justify spending on new toys

sadly - a bit like insurance companies, you only find out how good (or how lacking!) support is when you have a problem and need them. TP-Link have in me, lost a long term customer as as someone who worked in the IT industry for 35+ years, they've also lost anyone in my family and anyone I am asked to help!

as to not looking at the xt9 or xt12 (or xt8), that was driven by the math that said it's cheaper to build it from routers (to replace what I have I need 5!) - even if the routers all look a bit "Barry'd" (he say's hoping you are old enough to know the reference!) and the xt stuff would look nicer around the home

Happy holidays and thank you for your comments

Mark

 

[nickie]

Sooo

With the tp-link decos or really anything with there stuff they never listen to there customers about anything a lot of people have the same complaints lack of support and firmware issues. I have had there decos and there standalone routers and the decos lack of channel selection is terrible and they don’t play nicely with a lot of IOT devices especially ring. Now as far as the TUF series Asus I have had the AX5400 router and I had a lot of issues with it and had it replaced 3 times wireless issues and wired speed issues. It was really one the first times I’ve ever had a problem with an Asus device I haven’t used the 6000. The 3000 was good the 5400 seems to be a dud.But that’s just my opinion on that one. But if your going with aimesh why not just go with something like an XT9 or XT12 especially if your wiring them in. XT12 will be pricey but will be solid performance wise. XT9 will be a little cheaper but also solid. 2 pack of either of them will do very nicely from what you described in your setup. Asus is also pretty good about there firmwares but also has RMerlin Support Or GNUTONS firmware both bring awesome support and reliability. Yes you can definitely daisy chain them in.Happy Holidays

My TUF-AX5400 has been working flawlessly since I purchased it a couple of years ago or so.

 

[glens]

First off I recommend either a GT-AX6000 or RT-AX88U_Pro, whichever's cheaper the day you place the order. They're both based on very much exactly the same components, providing exceptional 2.4 and (single) 5 GHz performance, and have 2.5Gb ethernet interfaces both sides of the router. Plus both have next-gen (VLAN) support via the stock firmware and both have full Merlin firmware support, though at the pre-VLAN level at this time. Prices jockey one above the other over time but the average has been the mid-$200s here in the US for some time.

Probably in the same class would be the gl-inet flint2 for even less money.