Recommendations and question on the states of current mesh systems

[dinkeyes]

I've been having a hell of a time getting stable wifi and am looking for some advice on systems. I'll try to summarize this as short as I can but with details.

ISP Plan; 2gbps coming in house through coaxial into Xfinity xb8 modem bridged

Asus rt-be96u as single unit for old house; worked decent, couldn't reach 1.5 stories above very well understandably, occasionally went down entirely and I had to instruct family to reboot as I work industrial construction on the road.

New house I would reach max 30mbps over wifi 7 w/ all bands same ssid when in master bedroom, could barely stream my jellyfin in that room (I run a home server with adguard DNS + home assistant server w/backup adguard DNS synched)

Here's what I tried
1) Zenwifi BT8 in that room, updated firmware, cat 5e backhaul to one of the 10g ports (had to knock server down to 1g port). Constant disconnects from WiFi network and reconnects lasting 30s

2) Returned BT8 for rt-be92u, update firmware, same setup, same issue. Tried it wirelessly for maybe ten minutes before bed and seemed stable @ 700mbps but not enough time to test. Woke up, went to bedroom bathroom, 30mbps, didn't notice disconnects, assumed my cat 5e was shot since it seemed to work wiressly, decided if going wireless backhaul I should exchange for the BT8, they only had a 2 pack left, I grabbed it, needed to leave for work the next day no time to waste. Hooked one up to that cat 5e and wirelessly on other side of house up a half story, seem to have no disconnects convince to myself it was the cat cable from node to wall since I used provided cable, got brave, updated firmware, constant drops, even directly above the main router (so likely not the cat 5e because I was far enough from that room id either be on primary router or the wireless node that was just above the router)

Very frustrated I put the Zenwifi back in the box and ask the wife to return it while I'm at work, I'll just stick with the be96u and poor signal in the master room while I research better options and hopefully come home on my day off to implement it. Three hours on road the whole router goes down. Instructed wife to power cycle everything in the morning.

Sorry that there is so much info given there but I want to be thorough.

Now obviously, I've come to the conclusion that Asus mesh is half baked. I also called my ISP on a hunch and my modem had poor signal from coax due to grounding issue, they've fixed that but I feel like a burp in signal wouldn't kick my devices entirely off WiFi and then back on working in 15-30s, I'd think I'd stay on a no wan connected wifi?

The point of this post is essentially to see if anyone has answers to

1) Is there a consensus that Asus is dookie mesh or did I get unlucky?I still have the Zenwifi 2pack not returned yet and the be96u, but with return and selling the router I can get back about $1300 cad and use a different system

2) Enter Eero 7 Max, ordered 2 pack on sale $1200 cad, almost bought one before and settled on Asus because of Dongs horrible review. Start reading more and see alot of praise of Max 7, I avoid Dongs review this time because he strikes me potentially as a shill with a hate on for Eero. So I order it, keep researching because I'm obsessive, start seeing reports of poor 5ghz range, then I remember I think that's what dong was bitching about. Has this reported lack of 5ghz performance been patched? I am willing to also get a third node later to run wirelessly on floor 2.5 or maybe terminate the cat cable up there and wired (it's a rental house). This can be returned if need be

3) I could potentially swing for Deco, but I hear alot of reports of disconnects there too?

Basically I need/want
Multi-Gig WAN Port
At least three Multi-Gig LAN
Need to be able to reserve LAN addresses on devices
Need to be able to change DNS
No wifi drops and no whole system crashes
Not unifi
WiFi 7


So it looks like Eero is the only solution for reliability, but is there still 5ghz issues and should I avoid Deco?

 

[degrub]

We know nothing of the design of the home interior and layout, available/potential lan cabling (CAT or RG coax), WIFI environment e.g. neighbors, etc. Hard to give solid advice.

 

[bbunge]

You may have had better luck with AX class routers. Some here consider WIFI 7 as still in beta.

And, do you really need all that bandwidth?

 

[dinkeyes]

It's a bit of a mixed bag for me, where wifi 6e is likely adequate, we already have 3 devices in the house using WiFi 7 and I am always upgrading. I like the idea of MLO for wireless backhaul for when and if It need wireless backhaul.

The entire house is wired with cat 5e, all of the cables in the basement are terminated, but the only one that terminated into a room is in the master bedroom. I am able to terminate the one in kids room #2 for a second wired backhaul if needed (the garage is underneath there and people hang out there alot)

This picture took entirely too long to make in hotel on a S25 Ultra with no pen but maybe it can help since I already wrote out the excessively long original post

The black X is where cat 5e terminates in master room. The purple Y is where there's an unterminated Cat 5E in the wall. The yellow X is where coax comes in basement, note that I realize now right above it is the pantry closet so my main router was below the pantry closet though I also got some cable extenders on the way that will put it essentially underneath the door to the pantry so above it won't be a sealed room. Garage below both kids room and extending out, I didn't draw it. If you're wondering why the basement doesn't take up the whole house, there's an attached suite.

So for right now I have 2 Eero 7 Max waiting at home I plan to wall mount one in basement below pantry door but high on the wall, then a cat 5e will run to the main bedroom where another 7 max will be. I can get a third one if needed and run it wireless backhaul in Kids Room 1 or I can try my hand at terminating that cat 5e and having wired.

The last setup I had that did not work well with lots of disconnects was rt-be96u on wall below pantry (by the yellow X), wired backhaul to master room to Zenwifi BT8, and a wireless backhaul BT8 in the small hallway outside the kids room. I was disconnecting in the living room from on my S25 Ultra, Apple TV 4k, Denon receiver, and disconnecting in the master bedroom so I took out the Zenwifis and there seems to be no wifi disconnects, but the range isn't enough and the rt-be96u has gone down and needed manual intervention once so far at this house in the week we've been there.

 

[dinkeyes]

I should mention though
If I run cat from ISP modem to master bedroom to primary router , I have to put my server in there which isn't ideal, and I won't be able to wired backhaul to anything else. The only way to potentially have multiple wired backhaul is to use the basement where the coax meets ISP modem.

 

[Tech9]

looking for some advice on systems

The entire house is wired with cat 5e

Ever thought about something better than over the counter consumer equipment?

 

[dinkeyes]

Ever thought about something better than over the counter consumer equipment?

The thing is the house is a rental, and we will likely only be there a year or two, once we purchase our own house then I will definitely be either building it with or upgrading with high quality wiring throughout and that will be an option

 

[Tech9]

The thing is the house is a rental

Then Nest, Eero or Deco. Qualcomm hardware mesh systems work better in general. Mesh features are built into SoC and drivers and directly supported by Qualcomm upstream. AiMesh is Asus invention on top of usually cheaper consumer oriented Broadcom.

 

[dinkeyes]

Then Eero or Deco. Qualcomm hardware mesh systems work better in general. Mesh features are built into SoC and drivers and directly supported by Qualcomm upstream. AiMesh is Asus invention on top of usually cheaper consumer oriented Broadcom.

Perfect, thank you. I'll probably stick with the Eero, sounds like from the more I research they're pretty equal with Eero maybe being more reliable

 

[Tech9]

You need something portable, if Eero doesn't work well check Deco BE65/85. They also have positive "just works" reviews. We had a happy forum member replacing Asus BQ16 with Deco BE65 and in wireless setup.

 

[dinkeyes]

You need something portable, if Eero doesn't work well check Deco BE65/85. They also have positive "just works" reviews. We had a happy forum member replacing Asus BT10 with Deco BE65 and in wireless setup.

Yes I've read alot of people saying they were getting disconnects with Deco but another bundle of people are very happy with it

 

[Tech9]

Nothing wireless is guaranteed. You are in a better position with Ethernet available. I don't know anything about new Wi-Fi 7 Deco sets, but have installed a few Wi-Fi 6 and never heard back about issues. They are in Easy Button category, user friendliness first, app control limited features, but provide reliable Wi-Fi and this is what most home users want.

 

[Tech9]

Here is one BE-class Deco experience (had to find the thread):

Struggling with Asus ZenWiFi BE30000 aka 3 node BQ16 Pro bundle

Other than waiting for firmware, any ideas? With the Stock settings, the Asus Radios are set to automatically pick the best Channel. It's possible upon your first boot that they did in fact pick a good channel, then at some point automatically switched to (what they perceived to be) a better...

www.snbforums.com

Try Eero first though, you have it anyway. May be good enough.