New ASUS ZenWiFi ET8 with Wifi 6E

[leerees]

I'm not limiting my experience to routing performance. Like I mentioned, the 'network' experience, overall, was increased.

To me, your statements above are contradicting each other.

I understand what you're saying, but I still know what I see too. I didn't/don't upgrade routers for no reason. I upgraded specifically for the network improvements they may offer. I know that mere hardware isn't enough to give this increase, but with the right magic (firmware/code), the improvements are tangible not just for myself, but for my customers too.

Even with identical hardware, the RT-AX88U and the RT-AX86U are not identical, for example. In how responsive the network is.

The RT-AX86U is leaps and bounds better (and cheaper too), for anyone that feels latency vs. the spec-wise 'equivalent' RT-AX88U.

I think most power users are also home network enthusiasts and will have setup their own NAS boxes etc, thus negating the need for extra CPU and RAM.

I don't believe you need all that extra CPU and RAM just to route traffic. I expect routing traffic uses very specific instructions and Asus would have chosen the CPU that's the most efficient at performing those instructions.

It's not going to hurt having more CPU cores and RAM, but if you are paying a premium for it; it's money down the drain.

 

[neoprimal]

Folks, I'm so tired. I just want a network that works that I don't have to fiddle with weekly. I've been eying the XT8s for a long time and nearly pull the trigger out of desperation but most everyone that has them uses the word I use for my network, annoying. I am really hoping that the ET8s are better.

TL;DR: I want to switch to mesh because of really bad anecdotal experiences with supposedly powerful lone routers. Instead of looking at CPU and RAM, I'm now more interested in what the manuf. claims the network capacity to be. I think I'll be safe if they advertise 100+ devices and since a mesh setup includes 2 routers at a minimum generally, I'm hoping it works. It's going to be either 2xET8 or 2xAsus router in AI Mesh mode. I'm done with solo routers. I also really wanted Wifi 6E because I'd rather not have to hardwire router 2. Hoping the 6E band saturates and allows router 2 to connect at awesome speeds wirelessly.

I'll be watching here for your reviews, etc.

_____

I'll tell you a bit about what I've gone through. I live in FL. To make the homes here a bit less prone to hurricane damage, newer FL homes are built using brick/cement (at least the main floor). My home was built in 2016 and is no different. The main floor is cement/brick/block, even some parts on the inside and is 2200 sq ft, the top floor is mostly wood or whatever that is called (plaster?) and is also 2200 sq ft. That being said, I've gone through 2 pretty expensive routers that just didn't work the way I want/needed them to. I have an R8000 (Netgear) which did well before we moved into our current home. The main issue I had with that one is that beyond 20ft, the 2nd 5Ghz band would drop to 2Mbps and sometimes, nothing. The router would also crash if not monthly, then weekly at worst. By crash I mean it would drop everything on the 2.4ghz network and nothing could connect unless I power cycled it. It would also sometimes (but much more rarely) happen on the 5ghz band. I thought, well OK, maybe I need something more powerful so I got an Archer 5400 (TP-Link), the same thing. Now, I'm not an advanced or power user but I do know my stuff. I know that in between testing we always want to fac. reset, also after new FW installations. Did all of this, many, many times. My working config. for a long time ended up being a total Frankenstein of a network, the TP-Link as my main router, getting actual internet from a Centurylink Fiber modem. I turned the 2.4 off because it kept crashing (when bad, daily) and just used the 2x5Ghz networks and the 2.4 from a Linksys EA6900 and a mesh Tenda MW6 with 5 nodes. This worked for almost a year. Eventually, the TP-Link got some weird bug where I could not surf many websites, and even after many reboots, power cycles and turning the AV/Malware/Firewall off, it didn't fix it. Equally annoying, it also would drop whenever the Centurylink modem got a different IP. The pickup just wasn't graceful and when I called Centurylink, they verified that setup was fine. It was definitely the TP-Link router. So I took the opportunity to fac. reset and try the main Centurylink router that was given to me (but I'd never used) when I first signed up. Since then I no longer have the issue with having to reboot at all, however, this router is painfully weak. The 2.4 is definitely crashing all the time (as of right now, my iPhone won't/can't connect to it, nor my smart speakers, etc.) and the 5Ghz is weak. I put the TP-Link back in, in bridged mode as well as the Tenda MW6 nodes. Ironically, the Tenda has been the most reliable router in terms of bridging and it is what sustains my 2.4Ghz network.

My network is demanding. At any one time there are over 100 devices connected and at least ~50 or so running in some capacity. As an example. I run a partial smarthome so every bedroom (5) has a wifi light switch. All other main rooms (Kitchen, Family Room, Living Room, Rec. area, etc) have a Wifi or Z-wave light switch as well. This saves a lot of money because I set them to timer shut off automatically and there's the convenience of not having to walk over to turn them off/on, etc and also using motion detectors to turn them on/off. I also have a lot of wifi controlled power outlets. I have 5 cams in the front (n) of my home, 1 on each side (east and west) and 3 facing the yard (s) end. Then I have 4 on the main floor and 2 upstairs. We have 3 smart TVs and then a bunch of Rokus, Apple TVs, Fire Cubes attached to them as well as 3 non-smart HDTVs. There's an Echo Show in every bedroom and one in the main bathroom. There's an Echo Studio in the main bedroom in addition to the Show v3. There are 3 Polk Magnifi Minis (Main bedroom, Living Room, Office) and the Fam. Room has a Vizio Smartcast 5.1 setup. We have a bunch of PCs (at least 4) and laptops (at least 4) and several iPads (3) and phones (5). We also have a lot of Smart bulbs (every lamp [7], the porch [2] and veranda [2]). I'm fairly certain that I'm forgetting stuff too. I think this may be my main problem. So I've decided to go from looking at routers based on CPU and RAM and go for based on advertised network capacity.

 

[jmpr]

I use a XT8 as a standalone router with SmartConnect enabled (3 bands with same ssid and router moving device between them as needed). When a device is far from for a 5ghz band, router moves it to 2'4 (supoorts AX in 2'4). I have another AX router, an Asus AX55, but I do not need it to be an AiMesh node, I have set it as a wifi bridge to give internet to PS4, and some NAS, so that PS$, for example, that is only AC, is connectet to internet at 1200 pure mbps in AX. I'm very happy with XT8. There are few devices with wifi 6E. If you buy it, you almost "loose" one of the 3 bands. I prefer XT8 by now, as it has 2'4 and two 5GHz bands. It is stable, as I use about 40 devices and CPU use is very low and there are no lags (two of the devices are IP ATAs for voip and you notice problesm quickly when making a call. Regards.

I think that 2 or 3 XT8 or ET8 will be perfect for your use. For me, TPLink no more ever forever. Have not tried Netgear.

 

[thiggins]

@neoprimal Concrete walls are tough on Wi-Fi signals, especially 5 GHz. 2.4 GHz will penetrate walls better, but has limited bandwidth. With the number and mix of devices you have, no single router is going to work.

Ignore manufacturer claims of coverage and # of devices supported. They are rules of thumb at best.

The best solution would be to use multiple Access Points/mesh nodes/routers in AP mode connected by Ethernet. I'd also suggest separating devices onto different networks. Start by getting all the audio streaming and IoT devices on their own 2.4 GHz network and go from there.

 

[Raven76]

WARNING! Don't buy an ET8 to use it in conjunction with an XT8. The mesh network between the two devices is in fact possible ONLY on the 2.4Ghz network. In fact the Asus XT8 allows 5Ghz backhaul only on the 5Ghz-2 network on channels 100-140.
The problem is that the 5Ghz network of ET8 does NOT include such channels, but only 36-48 and 149-165.
So the connection between the two can ONLY take place on 2.4Ghz.

 

[RadarJammer]

WARNING! Don't buy an ET8 to use it in conjunction with an XT8. The mesh network between the two devices is in fact possible ONLY on the 2.4Ghz network. In fact the Asus XT8 allows 5Ghz backhaul only on the 5Ghz-2 network on channels 100-140.
The problem is that the 5Ghz network of ET8 does NOT include such channels, but only 36-48 and 149-165.
So the connection between the two can ONLY take place on 2.4Ghz.

I would not generalize that. The current channel setup is for the North American and maybe Chinese and APAC markets. But since the EU has recently agreed on those 6 GHz frequencies not already in use for other purposes to be dedicated to WiFi 6E and the member states now implementing the necessary regulations, soon there will be ET8 firmware setups for European markets which will offer channels 100-140 instead of 149-165.

How do I know? As I wrote in another thread, the XT8 is a XD4R with an additional 4x4 5 GHz radio among other added features. They share the common 1.5 Ghz quadcore SoC, 512 MB RAM (Asus publishes fake 256 MB RAM specs for the XD4R) and the two standard 2x2 radios. The XD4R single 5 GHz radio offers the channels 100-140 in Europe, too. It looks like the ET8 simply swapped the second 5Ghz radio to a 6 GHz radio, so it remains part of the family, unlike the XD6, which seems to be a better looking AX82U.

My impression is that manufactures of routers with two 5GHz radios avoid overlapping channels among those radios. With former tri-band Linksys EA8300, channels were strictly divided among 5 GHz radios, like on the XT8. That is no longer necessary for the ET8.

 

[nicholb]

Just got the ET8 yesterday. So far it is much better than the Orbi RBK50 it replaced. I'm getting speed tests near or above my rated internet download speed everywhere in the house, 350-450 on a 400 down. Orbi was under 200 on wireless. Clients are noticeably quicker. Backhaul is running on the 6Ghz band. Setup was very easy and I like both the web and mobile admins much better than the Orbi.

 

[Eric67ct]

but it is so beautiful....

I have an XT8, and happy with it (although bad latest firm). Set it and forget it.

What firmware are you using? I'm seeing frequent disconnects and I'm on 3.0.0.4.386_43181-g6099e58.

-Eric

 

[RogerSC]

What firmware are you using? I'm seeing frequent disconnects and I'm on 3.0.0.4.386_43181-g6099e58.

-Eric

42095 is the most solid "recent" release. Hoping that the next release (after 43181) will be more reliable so that can get the security updates. But 42095 works very well on the ZenWifi AX.

 

[jmpr]

What firmware are you using? I'm seeing frequent disconnects and I'm on 3.0.0.4.386_43181-g6099e58.

-Eric

The same: Version 3.0.0.4.386.43181

 

[nicholb]

Well not unexpected, I'm seeing occasional internet drop outs on the ET8, sometimes requiring a router reboot. Being as it is initial release firmware I was anticipating at least one bug. I don't' think I've ever bought a newly released router that didn't have some period of issues before a stable firmware comes out.

Router admin shows no internet connection. Rebooting the modem does not resolve it, but rebooting the router does. I've set the router to auto reboot at night now to see if that helps.

Current Version : 3.0.0.4.386_43981-g8cc0fd3

 

[johny_2000]

Unfortunately for ET8 there is no older and more stable firmware version like 42095 as for XT8. But this puts even more pressure on ASUS to find and fix bugs in their latest firmware. Hopefully this will be a comprehensive solution for both ET8 and XT8.
So far, my XT8 has been running stable at 42095 for several weeks.

 

[JagoUK]

WARNING! Don't buy an ET8 to use it in conjunction with an XT8. The mesh network between the two devices is in fact possible ONLY on the 2.4Ghz network. In fact the Asus XT8 allows 5Ghz backhaul only on the 5Ghz-2 network on channels 100-140.
The problem is that the 5Ghz network of ET8 does NOT include such channels, but only 36-48 and 149-165.
So the connection between the two can ONLY take place on 2.4Ghz.

I hope that is a bug. 100-140 is standard in UK for 5ghz.

One of the things that bugged me about the XT8 was that I couldn't put 5ghz2 on lower band and 5ghz1 on higher band. Yet on my RT-N66U I could put 5ghz on either lower or higher.

 

[thiggins]

I hope that is a bug. 100-140 is standard in UK for 5ghz.

One of the things that bugged me about the XT8 was that I couldn't put 5ghz2 on lower band and 5ghz1 on higher band. Yet on my RT-N66U I could put 5ghz on either lower or higher.

That's because the XT8 has two 5 GHz radios. One is limited to low band, the other to high band. The N66U has only one 5 GHz radio

 

[JagoUK]

That's because the XT8 has two 5 GHz radios. One is limited to low band, the other to high band. The N66U has only one 5 GHz radio

I just don't understand the limitation.

As you said. N66U only has one 5ghz radio yet supports high and low bands.

I understand they wouldn't want 5ghz 1 & 2 conflicting by being on same band, but swapping bands shouldn't have been an issue.

 

[L&LD]

The limitation is because there are three radio's but only two (full) bands. And the 5GHz radio's are hardwired to upper or lower 5GHz band duty.

 

[thiggins]

Each of the 5 GHz radios has filters that prevent it from interfering with the other. It's a hardware limitation.

 

[nicholb]

Internet drop outs continue with a frequency of anywhere from once in a couple days to several in an hour. I've tried turning off various optional settings to see if any of them affect it. So far AiProtection, Traffic Analyzer, and QOS do not make any difference.

I have noticed today many times the web admin is reporting DHCP is failing to get a response from the ISP. I'm trying setting the router to use a static IP of the one the DHCP assigned. I'll update after that has run awhile.

 

[opq]

We upgraded to the ET8 recently and here are a few things that helped:

increasing the dwell time and trigger conditions for switching between the bands. For some reason the et8 defaults are much more sensitive than previous.

Disabling “roaming assistant” has significantly improved the stability for us. There used to be frequent disconnect-reconnects but no more. iOS devices seem to be pretty good about moving between nodes even without the Asus roaming assistant.

As for remaining issues.. we seem to be getting random router reboots followed by the clock being reset to May 4? i can’t tell whats causing what but a few times now I notice the clock being reset back to May 4 and our wifi going away for a few minutes… I guess the ET8 firmware is only on its initial release…

 

[nicholb]

Setting a static IP won't work. I did notice devices continued to work when the web admin showed Internet down, but my ISP almost immediately switched my IP to one in a different subnet and everything went down until I switched back to DHCP on the WAN.

I did try setting DHCP from the default of aggressive to normal. Ultimately it'll probably take a firmware update to fix. Reaching the end of wife acceptance so I may be forced to put the Orbi back in even though the current firmware also has a bug that causes DNS to fail, but it's dropouts are at least less frequent.