I have two Zenwifi ET12’s and want to expand in a large house — do I buy more E12s or a router like the GT-AXE16000?

[meshymesh]

As the title says, I'm at a crossroads with how to expand my mesh network. I started with two ET12's. Would I get more coverage with more ET12's or with a router like the GT-AXE16000? The house is three story and 4,000 SF. There's also a barn in the distance I need to reach.

Thanks for your help!

 

[RMerlin]

A single router will never improve upon a mesh setup, as they are still limited by regulations as to the power they are allowed to transmit at, or the laws of physics when it comes to attenuation.

One possibility could be to replace the main ET12 with a router, and reuse the nodes then to further expand your coverage. That depends on your budget (price difference between a third node and a full router).

 

[meshymesh]

A single router will never improve upon a mesh setup, as they are still limited by regulations as to the power they are allowed to transmit at, or the laws of physics when it comes to attenuation.

One possibility could be to replace the main ET12 with a router, and reuse the nodes then to further expand your coverage. That depends on your budget (price difference between a third node and a full router).

Thank you for your response!

Yes, one scenario is that I use the GT-AXE16000 as the primary node, connected to the modem, and use the ET12's as nodes. Would the be better coverage than another ET12? All of these are AiMesh compatible.

 

[Tech9]

This 6GHz wireless backhaul may have shorter range. You have to try it in your environment somehow before you make a decision.

 

[RMerlin]

This 6GHz wireless backhaul may have shorter range. You have to try it in your environment somehow before you make a decision.

It would probably be best to use 5 GHz for the backhaul indeed, or even 2.4 GHz if having extreme range issues and not too concerned about the speed at the nodes (you don`t need a 2400 Mbps backhaul to browse Facebook while sitting on the can, for example).

Yes, one scenario is that I use the GT-AXE16000 as the primary node, connected to the modem, and use the ET12's as nodes. Would the be better coverage than another ET12? All of these are AiMesh compatible.

Is there enough high throughput clients that would be close to that router to justify its upgrade? If most of these are connected to the nodes instead, then another ET12 would make more sense.

 

[meshymesh]

It would probably be best to use 5 GHz for the backhaul indeed, or even 2.4 GHz if having extreme range issues and not too concerned about the speed at the nodes (you don`t need a 2400 Mbps backhaul to browse Facebook while sitting on the can, for example).

I was actually more concerned about the backhaul range between the nodes. Do you know if a router like GT-AXE16000 has a longer backhaul reach to an ET12 than two ET12's have to each other? I need to put one node in a barn, which is farther away from the house. My goal is to make sure it can reach the rest of the mesh network at the highest speed.

 

[RMerlin]

Do you know if a router like GT-AXE16000 has a longer backhaul reach to an ET12 than two ET12's have to each other?

No idea.

 

[Bhoot®]

I am running AXE16000 + 3x XT12s and previously AX11000 + 3x XT8s. Also had ET12s. For max range for wireless aimesh, then its using 5Ghz band 1 and band2. Typically, 5-band2 is used for backhaul. If your using ET12s, then these routers only support 2.4Ghz, 5Ghz band 1 and 6Ghz (also called WIFI 6e). WIFI 6e is the same speed as 5Ghz-band2 but has really low range. ET12 routers are great for wired backhaul. I bought ET12s, tested them out on wireless aimesh & then returned them as the wireless aimesh performance + range is severely lacking for my use. Also bear in mind, the amount of bandwidth you need. You can do aimmesh router > wifi node1>wifi node2 which will increase the range but will lowers the overall speed you get on node2.
If it was myself I had ET12s and wanted to expand the setup for bigger coverage, then I'd expand using ET12 but only via wired aimesh nodes. As for AXE16k, it had 2.4Ghz/5Ghz-band1/5Ghz-band2/6Ghz and also supports 160mhz bands on 5-1/5-2/6Ghz bands, hopefully AXE16k gets UNII4 support so wireless mesh speeds get even better. My advice is that its your money. Learn what radios each router you have has, how the mesh works if your using wireless, then see how it fits. At the moment, AX routers are best for range, remember - ET12s in wired backhaul will give you 2.5Gbps backhaul bandwidth & full speed 5ghz + 6Ghz from the ET12 (ET12 to ET12).

 

[meshymesh]

I am running AXE16000 + 3x XT12s and previously AX11000 + 3x XT8s. Also had ET12s. For max range for wireless aimesh, then its using 5Ghz band 1 and band2. Typically, 5-band2 is used for backhaul. If your using ET12s, then these routers only support 2.4Ghz, 5Ghz band 1 and 6Ghz (also called WIFI 6e). WIFI 6e is the same speed as 5Ghz-band2 but has really low range. ET12 routers are great for wired backhaul. I bought ET12s, tested them out on wireless aimesh & then returned them as the wireless aimesh performance + range is severely lacking for my use. Also bear in mind, the amount of bandwidth you need. You can do aimmesh router > wifi node1>wifi node2 which will increase the range but will lowers the overall speed you get on node2.
If it was myself I had ET12s and wanted to expand the setup for bigger coverage, then I'd expand using ET12 but only via wired aimesh nodes. As for AXE16k, it had 2.4Ghz/5Ghz-band1/5Ghz-band2/6Ghz and also supports 160mhz bands on 5-1/5-2/6Ghz bands, hopefully AXE16k gets UNII4 support so wireless mesh speeds get even better. My advice is that its your money. Learn what radios each router you have has, how the mesh works if your using wireless, then see how it fits. At the moment, AX routers are best for range, remember - ET12s in wired backhaul will give you 2.5Gbps backhaul bandwidth & full speed 5ghz + 6Ghz from the ET12 (ET12 to ET12).

Thank you, Bhoot, this is very helpful. In my case, I can't do wired backhaul, unfortunately. For wireless backhaul, generally speaking, do you think the ET 12 to AXE16k has a farther reach than two ET12's to each other? I know the AXE16k has farther wifi reach, but curious if it also has farther backhaul reach in your experience.

 

[rexet]

I would be interested also.
I am currently running two ET12 with a wireless 6Ghz backhaul.
The first unit is used as the main router. It is connected to the ISP box (in bridge mode) with a 2.5Gbits forfait.
The second unit is in the best room and my main computer is wired to the 2.5G port.
With this set up I can get a average speed of 1400mbits (out of the 2500 of my ISP) on my PC.

I am wondering if switching the ET12 that act as the main routeur by an AXE16000 would increase the AImesh performance with the ET12 in the room, meaning the speed I can get on my PC out of the 2500Mbits of my ISP.
I am considering this upgrade because it would also allows me to use a Merlin firmware (since the ET12 doesn't seem to be on the priority list of Merlin development).