Asus - Routeur WiFi ZenWifi AX XT8 blanc

I had my doubts about some of the reviews on here, but I went for the plunge. I wasn't sure if I need 1 or 2 devices, we have an old house with very thick walls and have a few dead wifi rooms upstairs and in the garden.Before installing this router I thought I explain my current setup. I have Virgin broadband to fix my black spots, I had connected a long cable from the router to another old SKY router upstairs. This router provided WIFI upstairs. For the back of the house and the garden I used another RJ45 slot on the back of the router to a powerline adapter. In the back of the house I had the powerline adapter this time connected to an old BT router. My son room need faster internet connection to play online, so he also has a wired connection from the router to a network hub in his room. This all worked fine but I did have 3 different WIFI SIDs. It was a pain keeping the other two routers updated.Setup was easy, I just put my Virgin router into modem mode, then connected my ASUS router to Virgin. I rebooted the ASUS. I installed the app on my iPAD and went straight into setup mode.With 1 router I now have no blackspot in the house. My WIFI 40% faster in almost every room. The one room that had no WIFI at all was my sons bedroom who plays xBOX. He can play online fine using the new WIFI. He switched from hardwired to WIFI and hasnt noticed any difference.Overall I very happy with this device, it had made my network quicker and simpler to manage. Note I am only using the 1 router, so cant comment on how it performs with 2.

I live in a fairly large house with thick walls and heavy concrete slab between the floors(>4,000 SQ.ft.). Previously had a draytek firewall with 4 access points, patchy, not completely satisfactory. APs stopped receiving firmware update so needed to replace. Suitable replacement draytek system with wifi6 would have cost in excess of €1,500 ( house wired with CAT6, i installed previous system and found the process not user friendly. I was not eager to repeat).Replaced with 3 of these. Setup very easy through app. Straightforward to modify setting through app or web GUI. My skills in this regard are overall very modest, general knowledge only. I can follow instructions, that's about it.Setup<30 minutes, more from me taking my time than anything else. Slight delay in installing initial firmware update, but not a big deal. "Router" in main living room, connected to ISP router via switch in garage (previous cabling installed by prior owner, not a good place for useful wifi coverage). I expected to need to use an Ethernet backhaul, but was delighted to find that it was not in any way required. Wireless 5-GHz-2 backhaul more than adequate. You might need to use wired connection if you have>500Mbps connection and connection speed is absolutely crucial in all parts of your house, otherwise it's unlikely. 1 node in study at front of house, second in central position upstairs. The house is bathed in stable wifi with nearly no speed difference compared to direct Ethernet connection to ISP router. In addition, the garden has a stable wifi connection throughout. Good quality connection to approx 30 metres from any node through walls.Included security software more than adequate for the vast majority of home users.Some of the difficulties mentioned by other users could be due to prior firmware versions, which according to problems mentioned ASUS users forums may have introduced some issues. Current version (3.0.0.4.386_45934) seems stable without major issues.I would recommend without hesitation, especially if you have a house with internal architectural "complexities". Much easier than using a standard firewall with wired access points, also much cheaper. Expensive by compared to other available mesh systems for sure, but worth it.

I was planning to follow the reviews here with using the app to pair install but due to wanting a black one for the lounge and a white one for the office they didn't arrive together... worse than that the white one was lost in the Amazon internal shipping process twice. Third time lucky. Hint tick the box to get the parcel wrapped although can't see that on the app. The one coming in from Barcelona to the UK kept getting lost. When it did arrive it's address sticker was on a cellophane wrapper of the box stuck on. It had fell off.Waited two weeks for the second one. Thus set up the first one in the meantime so didn't pair out of the box. The trip point on why the 5 ghz backhaul isn't used is on the Asus page Google asus support FAQ 1012132If you have set up the hub with smart connect set off, you have to set it back on with Smart Connect Dual-Band Smart Connect (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) and Band 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. Save etc. You do the pairing as per the instructions but toggle the Smart Connect to on if you have turned it off in the meantime by separating the bands.That triggers the backhaul on the 5ghz-2 band if you dont do that the backhaul wont be enabled on the 5ghz-2 band, backhaul may use the 2.4ghz band. That's what happened to me, said the signal was weak and was using the 2.4ghz band for backhaul. Didn't make sense to me says it was showing 800+ on the 5ghz band connection speed on the old router on line of site through a thin wall, across the landing and lounge - the two position points. Toggling changed this to "good" on the aimesh network app map shows this (green line). Bit of classic screwy programming telling you the connection was weak when it wasn't connected correctly.You can then change enable smart connect to off thereafter if you want to customise the 2.4Ghz channels. Use 20mhz band with for a upnp renderer so switched this back to off. Kept the SSIDs on the 2.4ghz and 5ghz-1 band as the same. Turned off the broadcast SSID of the 5ghz-2 so it's invisible... but you don't need to do that. It is the backhaul band since it moans if you try to rename it to the same as 2.4ghz / 5 ghz-1 telling you the backhaul band must have a different name.Bit more reading you can also use the backhaul band as well on devices other than backhaul (needs to be enable above as 160mhz when configured above to max out). Reckon best not to use it for devices just keep that for backhaul if you arrnt using wired ethernet to connect the mesh, which is why I hid the SSID. Any wifi 6 devices you could use on that I guess as the lower 5ghz band could get crowed but if you haven't got any, not an issue.I also enabled WiFi agile on the 2.4 GHz band. Asus says it works better on your modern internet devices quickly switching nodes. Internet of things devices. Thought this might be better on the Humax eye camera, boiler heater switch and Airstream upnp renderers. I had been watching via the app whether they had been connecting to the logical closest node. Seems about right now. I didn't tune up the switching parameters on RSSI left those as predefined. Just WiFi agile as described, the smart toggle as described else the backhaul wont connect on the 5ghz-2 channel if you are manually pairing the Mesh routers and using wireless backhaul. I tend to pick my own WiFi channels using InSSIDer rather than use the auto feature. Take up squatter rights on 1, 6 or 11 on the lower bandwidth. Ditto on 5ghz-1. Signal isn't propagated so far so isn't an issue. Left the backhaul band 5ghz-2 on auto select.My 5 ghz tablet I take to bed faithfully changes nodes between the upstairs lounge node and the office hub which serves the bedroom side of the house. The upstairs lounge node serves the downstairs kitchen and dining room. Open balcony affair with a wrap around upstairs lounge, antrim dining room / sun room. Upstairs office hub serves the five bedrooms (Office one) on two floors. Utility room gets the signal from the lounge mostly. So the house divides into two discrete areas. The backhaul 5 ghz top band linking through the office wall across the landing across the lounge to the node. No way you could install Ethernet cable into the office from the lounge without it showing. Had been using power line adaptors for this link and others but too problematic having pinned the issue down to ripples in the power. Get the BT Ethernet internet from the Smarthub2 on the lower floor just below via one BT black disc bought from Amazon into the Asus hub in the office. The BT disc ethernet port at the back is cabled into the Asus hub (both sit on top of a tall Ikea office unit). It was that using a powerline adaptors throu the house wiring that was causing grief with my old Asus tri band 3200 and TP link setup to the office. Basically power line adaptors turned out to be unreliable in the house with frequent glitches, mesh and wireless is better.All is good now. Think this is where people have issues where they can't get the backhaul working correctly since its not enabled when they add an aimesh to an existing configured hub. The Asus FAQ above "[Wireless] How to configure the Smart Connect on ASUSWRT?" is the key. Wonky programming.... best described as a feature. So you got to configure that correctly if you manually add a mesh unit unit rather than the two pair out of the box purchase and set up. Think this is why the reviews split into good and bad. The bad reviews trip on getting the backhaul to work correctly since they have manually configured and not stumbled over the secret that they need to toggle smart connect on during the pairing of the Mesh, as per the FAQ referenced for exact parameters, the unit is listed in that FAQ. The good reviews are either not using wireless backhaul or purchased two units together and used the automatic pairing.Useful tools obviously inSSIDer and Fast.com app.Footnote.On use for a month had one instance where the backhaul was triggered to orange on the app rather than green. The original issue. Needed the node switched on and off cleared it. Software reboot didn't. Two months in all very stable and reliable.Did an over the air firmware update on both nodes in situ, all ok. Did the original one out of the box on both units before pairing. Originally due to the second unit getting lost in the post configured the white unit destined for the office as the hub. Backed that up. Restored that on the black unit and did a factory reset on the white one, then did the pairing.The node has a spare Ethernet port which you can also use, giving one aditional Ethernet ports on the node unit, you can use a network switch to give additional ports, use network switches on both units in the lounge and office for traditional Ethernet cabling of devices. The USB port which can be used as a music server is only available on the hub. The other USB port on the node isn't available for use. Obviously the hub one supports upnp across the mesh.USB port can also be used with a 4g dongle, did test, works like my old Ac3200. Hopefully BT Openreach is reliable enough not to need to use it.All in all impressive mesh solution.Footnote 2 (November 2021) now on full fibre to the premises (FTTP)Reviewed the wireless backhaul speed on the net since it wasn't shifting the data fast enough. The tip on the net works. You make Wireless Mode "Ax only" on the backhaul band. Enable 802.11ax / Wifi6 mode, 20/40/80/160 Mhz and enable 160 Mhz band (force the bandwidth to 160 Mhz for Max speed, not Auto). Think it's the Ax only forces it into the top speed but getting the other parameters right helps. Now speed tests show similar whether it's on the backhaul or not.Also need to ensure Smart Connect toggle is set to on and activate the management settings. This steers your device between nodes (Asus material on that). The defacto settings work. Originally it appears I had this setting off which left the devices to use their own intelligence, fine with slow broadband. Once on full fibre to the premises you need to ensure that Smart Connect is set on via the WiFi setting screen and the toggle shows the band's bunched together. This is critical since the devices stopped being steered without this (probably with the higher bit rate the intelligence I was using in the devices by themselves failed to jump to the best node). You can alter the default steering property parameters, seemed complex but doable if required. Left as is and see how it goes. My tablet is now moving around the house to the nearest node, it had stopped. That goes for all other devices in the house.I'd also take it off automatic band selection. Test bands as to which are the best, keep it manually set. Getting a wired connection out of the node on backhaul fast.com test checks whether the backhaul is good. First footnote and WiFi speed checks on the normal 5ghz band.Footnote 3. Bought another node now. Disconnected the Smarthub2 on FTTP go in via WAN setting PPPoE, login [email protected] password bt. That is a fixed built in login that's default if you replace the BT supplied router. So back to where I was with Virgin 200 Mbit/s service in London, own equipment, but in rural Wales with FTTP and an Asus xt8 mesh rather than the rt3200 in London. Speeds 800 and 700 in the office and lounge nodes. Three WiFi points in the property. The house is like two detached houses in size so needs good coverage. Interesting the master "home" supplies the two nodes via the backhaul going up on one and across the property on the other, not daisy chaining. The mesh management screens work well. A development from the original Asus software. For backhaul connection you hit the optimise button and it selects the best connection for the mesh topography, although you need to work on the settings for a bit e.g. ax only, 160 Mhz bandwidth etc for the backhaul. Having found the best mesh backhaul route you can then twig the direction of the devices to help it along a bit. Between floors the backhaul with the fast.com test reveals the full 900 Mhz speed. Across the house, diagonal to the other node, 720 Mhz. The Asus menu via PC gives backhaul rates. As said in the text, good to check the node via link for green connection equals good but the Asus software also grades the links.Footnote 4 June 2022All was going well till Asus released "ASUS ZenWiFi XT8 Firmware version 3.0.0.4.386.48706 (2022/05/03)" this is buggy I reverted back to 3.0.0.4.386.46061. Useful forum snbforums look under AsusWRT Official. They have threads running on each software version for the XT8. The 3 series are the official releases you pick up from the software firmware updates from the Asus site - can get back releases from the Asus site. I reverted each node back to the 3.0.0.4.386.46061 early 2022 release. No issues with that there after. Expect the fix for 3.0.0.4.386.48706 July time 2022 or so. Will go back to the current released when fixed.Doing a manual firmware update isnt that difficult, just fiddly. To May 2022 since I've had it all of the delivered firm updates have been fine. Possible the historic negative reviews were using a buggy release of the firmware similar to 3.0.0.4.386.48706. Something to watch out for, negative reviews on a duff quarterly or so firmware update.Seems a good idea to keep an eye on the snbforums for the Asus XT8 if you get issues after a firmware update. I'm eyeballing that to see what they will say about the next release. It was the WiFi backhaul that was effected by this release in question and long passwords, two issues.The other recent issue I had was with the top band 5GHz backhaul getting knocked out and the network running slow. The app under the network view picture, if it doesn't show the green link and "good" means the backhaul is degraded. Fast speedtests will show a drop of speed.There were two things going on when this happended, big military operations going on at the local live firing range and a new HP laptop top I had put on the network. One of the two. The world of WiFi some bands use "DFS" frequencies. DFS is used by radar, so a shared frequencies. The router will once a day tests whether a DFS frequency is being used if tuned into it and on automatic channel selection move off this. I use manual channel selection which the experts on said forum say is better. Always have. The 5ghz-1 band not backhaul, and 5ghz-2 band was on a high DFS channel. DFS marked channels are country dependent. I moved the 5ghz-1 back to channel 32 which is an non DFS channel in the UK. Had shifted it out of the way of BT Smarthub2 router which don't use those shared frequencies in the UK. So back to 32. Rural area, wide housing distance have never seen anybody else use the 5Ghz band, in London it was cluttered.The issue might have been a radio harmonic generated by the HP laptop which clashed with the backhaul messing up the DFS daily check on the 5Ghz-2 band which took down the link or that 3 week military local training operation. All is now fine and stable. Fingers crossed.The other thing I did was to put the 5ghz-2 backhaul beacon slap in the middle of the top band. So I moved that up from the lower point away from the 5ghz-2 channel. Wiki provides tables of Wifi frequency allocation by country. I set the beacon to channel 112. The whole 5ghz-2 backhaul band in the UK is taken up by the mesh if you select 160mhz band which you should to force Wifi6 on the backhaul and also hide the SSID. That gives speeds that are way above 1Ghz wired Ethernet on the backhaul and will accommodate Openreaches FTTP 920 speed service to the premise. E.g.. it will give you a wired speed connection between the mesh nodes if the distances are not long. Wired PC into the mesh will show no speed loss on a speed test over the mesh. Lesser devices connected via the 5ghz-1 band I've only seen a top speed of 720. Obviously these issues won't concern you if you haven't paid for the RR broadband service from your provider. A good backbone speed does allow fast internal networking, printers, file transfer etc hence the need to get the 5ghz-2 backhaul band on wifi6 by forcing the 160 bandwidth, not automatic in the settings. Green is good on the network map from the app, not green the backbone is compromised.Footnote July 2022 Firestick interferenceMight not have been the military radar upsetting the backhaul so you lost the "great" connection shown by the green lines on the app e.g. the backhaul was degraded so it stops using the dedicated top band. If using an Amazon 4k stick with the Amazon remote that comes with it, it uses its own WiFi that transmits on the same channel as your router. You can see it on inSSIDer popping up. A Google of Amazon Firestick Inference on Wi-Fi reveals it. See Reddit posts. The fix is to buy a newer Amazon Alex Firestick remote, they use Bluetooth. Can go the hole hog and connect up with an Ethernet / USB converter. The first should do the trick thou. Pulling out the Firestick did stop the issue which started to become regular. Having another beacon clashing with the channels isn't good that's sitting close to the router. Something to watch out for if you use an Amazon Firestick. Only specific models use WiFi to connect the remote back to the Firestick, the 4k one, is one of them. That's the story.The low cost option to stop the pesky tranmission of the beacon from the Firestick when not using it you hit hibernate the Firestick rather than leaving it live. You press the centre home button to make it up again and up pops the beacon. Pausing / hibernating stops the beacon so in the night or whenever the mesh is auditing it's backhaul it doesn't get confused with the Firestick sitting on one of its channels. I believe this was the root of the issue.Even with the Bluetooth remote the Firestick still puts out a WiFi SSID that is used for mirroring. Much message board stuff on that issue with people trying to get rid of it.Don't buy a Ethernet / USB stick with an OTG cable if not designed for the Firestick. Again that didn't work. The Firestick must have a proprietary way of using Amazon's own Ethernet / USB Firestick box they sell. Will test later. Waste of money if you try to mix and max yourself a Ethernet / USB adaptor with a cable and Firestick. You will find many posts of people having difficulties with OTG cables on the Firestick.More testing. You can use the Amazon Firestick Ethernet accessory to sort out the issue. You connect up the accessory, pull the Ethernet cable out. Delete the WiFi connection to your router so it stops connecting that way. Plug Ethernet cable back in. Move the Asus routers channel off where it was. Had mine in 36, set to 52 away from it since the Firestick will still send out the Mirrorlink beacon SSID you can't turn off. That then separates your mesh clashing with the beacon. All's been good since then. Stayed "green" all the way on the app diagram. See picture. The SSID for the 5ghz is shown in the image. Firestick beacon on the left with the arrow (pesky broadcast that starts up and stops from time to time). Next the 5ghz-1 band you connect to on a three mesh system I have (middle bar) plus the backhaul channel beacon on the right - hidden SSID name. Image via InSSIDer app which is very useful to check neighbourhood channel layout.So yes beware the Firestick on the Asus mesh but there are solutions. Connecting via the Amazon Ethernet accessory is the cleanest solution. Others to suspend the Firestick when not in use but obviously might effect things when it us turned on or stop broadcasting the Asus SSID, connect via Mac address and change channels... Just buy the £14 box and do what I said above, disable the Firestick WiFi and change router channels to leave the beacon you can't turn off, merrily transmitting intermittently but off the manual assigned Asus channels 👍.Jury still out (August 2022) on whether it was the hot heat wave which made the backhaul disconnect and shift to the 2.4ghz band or DFS radar interference (local military radar and the local port). Now shifted the 5ghz-1 to a channel within 36 - 48 inclusive. Following UK regulations router software does not need to check for DFS transmission in that range, 52 and above it does. Suspect it was tripping up on the DFS test, fixed channel and gave up. You check the WiFi log. It did link the 5ghz-1 band channel and the 5ghz-2 with failure. Suspect tripped on DFS on 5ghz-1 and then closed down 5ghz-2 backhaul. Keep in the range 36-48 and this shouldnt happen.Lasted a week now but then the hot weather has gone. Running latest firmware. Released in the summer had the same issue so either running hot in the hot weather or using a fixed channel in the 5ghz-1 band which shares with DFS solution put the beacon on 36-48 range. For the backhaul 5ghz-2 band use 160mhz bandwidth, WiFi 6 so you get 1ghz+ Ethernet backhaul speeds although on 160 bandwidth it takes over all of the UK top end band (5ghz-2). Don't hide the SSID for that. July issue of the firmware tells you not to. It synchs up faster if you don't hide it.In summary for manual channel selection and wireless backhaul:2.4ghz 1, 6, 11 (might need 20 mHz bandwidth if pairing upnp)5ghz-1 32-485ghz-2 112 selecting 160 bandwidth, wifi6 for backhaul.