New ROG GT-BE98 Pro

[ualdrivr]

Hi fellas,

Five days ago I purchase a new ASUS ROG GT-BE98 Pro. It is a massive router and it looks really cool. I wire backhauled my good old RT-AX86U to it. The network has been working well. The only thing I don't like is how the 2.4Ghz channel works. I have about 28 devices at any given time on my Network. Right now the majority of the 2.4Ghz equipment pairs with the AX86U which is the Node, instead of the main router which is the GT-BE98 Pro. I even have an Epson printer Workforce 845 right next to it and instead of pairing with the main router, it pairs with the Node which is three rooms away!!!!

My settings are the same they've always been on my Network. I tried to hard bind a few devices to the BE98 Pro and it worked for awhile, but this morning they were all off the network, until I unbound them and they appeared again, but connected to the AX-86U. Weird.....!

I have the WiFi 7 setting off on the 2.4Ghz network and I use WPA/WPA2 Personal on it. Is it the fact that my 2.4Ghz devices are more used to the old router, rather than the new one? Or is it because the Beast of a Router that the BE98-Pro is, it's too new and it needs some more Firmware work to be done by ASUS?

BTW, the two 6Ghz channels are very fast, but the range of them is pretty pitiful. They remind me of the 5Ghz Network when it first came out...

Any input would be appreciated.

 

[jzchen]

I have the two routers you mention, along with others....

My 2.4 and 5 GHz are Smart Connected, and set to WPA2/WPA3. Do you have devices that require WPA? I have a single WPA2 device in the household, an old iPad Air 2. It's the only thing that stops working if I switch to WPA3 exclusively...

 

[ualdrivr]

@jzchen I do not see a smart connect feature on the GT-98U Pro. My bricked GT-AX6000 router had it and I never used it.

My Epson printer is an oldie but goodie and that is the only device that drops off the Network the most. I had an exchange with Dong Ngo on his website and he told me that problems like that should be expected with a new Router that is WiFi 7 and has four bands. He told me to leave things as they are for now and maybe connect the printer via ethernet cable which I'd rather not do because that will kill the Airprint capabilities of it. It seems like most of the 2.4GHz devices on my Network prefer the AX-86U.

 

[Tech9]

@jzchen I do not see a smart connect feature on the GT-98U Pro.

Because the new firmware comes with new ways of doing things. More information here:

RT-BE86U - how to disable Smart connect?

I have exactly the same problem. I have 2 Shelly 1 and an electrodragon that do not connect to my 2.4Ghz network. I've tried everything. With my other Synolgy RT-2600AC router they connect without problem with the same SSID and password with the same encryption. I have reset it from the factory...

www.snbforums.com

 

[skypx]

My Epson printer is an oldie but goodie and that is the only device that drops off the Network the most. I had an exchange with Dong Ngo on his website and he told me that problems like that should be expected with a new Router that is WiFi 7 and has four bands. He told me to leave things as they are for now and maybe connect the printer via ethernet cable which I'd rather not do because that will kill the Airprint capabilities of it.

Airprint will work the same wired or wireless. The printer and client devices just need to be on the same network.

 

[ualdrivr]

Hi fellas,

Five days ago I purchase a new ASUS ROG GT-BE98 Pro. It is a massive router and it looks really cool. I wire backhauled my good old RT-AX86U to it. The network has been working well. The only thing I don't like is how the 2.4Ghz channel works. I have about 28 devices at any given time on my Network. Right now the majority of the 2.4Ghz equipment pairs with the AX86U which is the Node, instead of the main router which is the GT-BE98 Pro. I even have an Epson printer Workforce 845 right next to it and instead of pairing with the main router, it pairs with the Node which is three rooms away!!!!

My settings are the same they've always been on my Network. I tried to hard bind a few devices to the BE98 Pro and it worked for awhile, but this morning they were all off the network, until I unbound them and they appeared again, but connected to the AX-86U. Weird.....!

I have the WiFi 7 setting off on the 2.4Ghz network and I use WPA/WPA2 Personal on it. Is it the fact that my 2.4Ghz devices are more used to the old router, rather than the new one? Or is it because the Beast of a Router that the BE98-Pro is, it's too new and it needs some more Firmware work to be done by ASUS?

BTW, the two 6Ghz channels are very fast, but the range of them is pretty pitiful. They remind me of the 5Ghz Network when it first came out...

Any input would be appreciated.

Well, guys,

I gave this beast of a router a chance for a whole month. It has been nothing but trouble.

The 2.4Ghz band is almost useless with IoT clients. The 6Ghz is nice but only if you are very close to the router and your client is 6Ghz and WiFi 7 compatible. If you remember I backhauled meshed it with my good ole' trusty RT-AX86U and ironically, Wi-Fi wise, that was the hardest working router in the mesh system. The BE98-Pro sat there doing only Ethernet work and some 6Ghz work with our new iPhone 16 Pro Max.

I undid the mesh and WPS hard reset the BE98 Pro. I set it all over again. The other annoying thing was that every time the router rebooted it wasn't connecting to the internet. The Internet red light stayed on for ever, until I rebooted the Modem...No Bueno at all. Very aggravating, to say the least. There's a lot of posts about this in the Asus forums for this router.

I even created a separate 2.4Ghz network for IoT devices with only 20Mhz bandwidth. It didn't matter. The 2.4Ghz clients in my network they would connect for maybe half hour and then they would drop out again. Extremely frustrating!!!

To make a long story short, I had until January 30 to return the router and get my money back from Amazon and that is what I did. I packed it in it's massive box and send it back. I am waiting for finalization of the refund.

I reset the RT-AX86U as a primary router again and I just received a brand new RT-AX86U Pro, which I meshed via wire backhaul to the AX86U and my Network is literally, in a WiFi Nirvana.
Everything is working and it's plenty fast and seamless.

The WiFi 7 thing is still in diapers and very unstable IMHO, fughedaboutit ! I tried the MLO thing and with the exception of the new iPhone 16 Pro Max nothing else worked on that network.

These routers have a very long way to go, until they are fully compatible with existing clients. Until then, I'll stick with the flawless WiFi 6.

Cheers

 

[Tech9]

I had until January 30 to return the router and get my money back from Amazon and that is what I did.

You did the right thing.

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/asus-bt10-still-not-stable-at-all-even-after-latest-firmware-been-tinkering-for-months-high-frustration.93726/page-2#post-943789

 

[Gregory Phillips]

I kept mine but turned my old ax88u into an aimesh node to extend the 2.4 and 5ghz bands. Dual wan is still broken on this router and I never heard a peep from asus after reporting it. If someone else would make dual wan routers I would probably switch to them.

 

[jzchen]

I kept mine but turned my old ax88u into an aimesh node to extend the 2.4 and 5ghz bands. Dual wan is still broken on this router and I never heard a peep from asus after reporting it. If someone else would make dual wan routers I would probably switch to them.

Hmm. Load balancing worked back in January 2024. Haven't had the opportunity to try ever since though...

Load balance or Failover?

 

[ualdrivr]

IMHO the whole WiFi 7 quad channel MLO or non MLO system, it's a PITA. Like I said above, my network is in Nirvana now and I like it. It will be a long while before I cross the $700 router line in order to get NOTHING out of it. All I have to say to Asus is that they need to work on it, A LOT!

BTW, I got them to remove the router off my account as a registered product too.

 

[Tech9]

Issues are not limited to Asus products and Broadcom. I somewhat follow Ubiquiti community and U7 series Qualcomm APs went through many software and hardware fixes before the number of complaints finally went down. Took many months to get them to acceptable working state for IoT devices in particular. At the beginning it was strictly "do not buy" advice across the board.