ASUS - ROG Rapture GT6

I have 3 Asus GT-6 routers in mesh formation. MOCA coax backhaul between them and they work great. I have about the same number of devices and priorities.

Same. my original Orbi from precovid was garbage performance originally, but after about 6-8 months of continual firmware upgrade was WONDERFUL and blindly fast 880 on a 1GB , symmetric up/down . Rock solid unflappable. But, they stopped updating any firmware and my security software was screaming at me to patch holes. So I researched and almost no one can deal with the new Netgear stuff you and others mention here. So, I went with a pair of Asus ROG GT6's... Stable but otherwise disappointing performance. fantastic tweaking software, but despite this, just 'meh' overall. highly asymmetric performance: fast-ish – still only slightly faster than HALF of what the 5 year old Netgear got on the download. And it's horrible on the upload. So seriously disappointed in Asus. Everyone seems to think Ubiquiti is the best (within reason) and I'm going to sell my Asus Stuff and try that too. Thanks for your info.

Asus GT6. I installed this a year ago and didn’t find any issues. Mine is 400 sq meters

Really liked my Asus rog WiFi mesh system. Just upgraded my home internet and the Eero 7 max wifi router mesh system is pretty good too, easy setup.

Disagree. We had Google mesh years ago. A newer, good triband system with dedicated wireless backhaul will help. Even WiFi 6 ASU rog has a good system. Also recommend the new Eero WiFi max 7 mesh system. it doubles our mesh speeds in a huge home.

I used to like the nest but never got the speeds promised until I bought Asus rog router and mesh link wow I’m getting the whole gig almost every where in the house

I hated the WiFi 6 Orbi system I bought. It was lacking so many fairly basic features, such as QoS, firmware updates breaking basic functionality, and a very lackluster app-focused experience.  I replaced it with an ASUS WiFi 7 system comprised of a RoG router with two Zen nodes and it’s been a lot more solid with far more configuration options than I’ve ever seen on a residential router.  Maybe the Orbi WiFi 7 line has solved their earlier issues, but I’ll never buy one again based on my prior experience. 

Not troubleshooting, but there’s a lot of configuration options that might require playing with things if you’re not a pro. Do I want MIMO? Should I configure an IoT network? There’s a lot of things it suggests to do but doesn’t really hold your hand in explaining why you should set them up.  In my case, I’ve done a lot of testing to try to reduce latency to portable gaming devices, but it can still be kind of opaque what’s going on. But generally, the basics work find out of the box. 

my asus tri-band does really well. i get hardwired speeds on 5G using the dedicated 6G backhaul but the 6G band does not penetrate well, so it's important to not put too much distance or material between the main router and the mesh units

I have been using the Asus AI-Mesh system for years. Seems very robust, to me. Devices seemlessly switch between the nodes. It handles 2.4ghz and 5ghz fine. Sonos works without a hitch. I am definitely using wired ethernet backhaul, however, from the remote node. Currently two of the Asus RT-AX55.

Hey OP. I've been living with wireless backhaul mesh for the last few months in our new place and with a few tweaks, it's been fine. I'm using Asus AiMesh with two remote nodes, plus a couple of old OpenWRT routers purely as bridges for wired devices. I'm in the process of running cable just now just to make the most of my FTTP connection but some generic tips that seemed to help me, if you do go down the wireless route. - Choose a system with multiple radios in each node, so you can dedicate a channel to the backhaul. - Look for mesh nodes that allow you to plug devices into them and position them accordingly. The "wired" devices will obviously still be using wireless via the mesh, but keeping their own radios quiet keeps the spectrum free for the mesh nodes and wireless-only devices to talk. The mesh nodes will almost certainly have better antennae and radios than the client devices. - Try to position the nodes so they are all talking with the main router rather than hopping via each other. On consumer gear this can be more of an art than a science but it boils down to finding different locations with the same signal strength to the main router so they link directly. - Although not acting as mesh nodes, I've repurposed a couple of old routers running OpenWRT + Relayd in the office and games room, so my PCs and old consoles without wireless can get internet. - Some mesh systems allow you to lock clients to a particular node. Play around with this - you can steer dumb devices to their nearest node rather than them trying to pick up a faint signal from a further one and shouting over everything else. Smart speakers and displays are particularly bad for this. In my office, about 25 metres and 1.5 floors (it's a L-shaped split level house) away from the main AP, my main PC wired into a mesh node can pull around 400Mbps down on a 990Mbps fibre connection. Previously with the PC and laptop using their own radios, I'd be lucky to see over 150 on either. Good luck!

Netgear isn’t who I’d recommend. Not only are they expensive but they need a specific base station router rather than all the satellites being capable of running the whole thing. ASUS with AImesh is the most versatile as it will work with any of their own products even older ones and you can mix and match freely. I don’t think you can mix and match TP link but at least they don’t require a specific base station so you can use the routers in any location/configuration and extend/replace as needed without a worry that it’s not compatible because it’s only a satellite/base station. TP-Link/Netgear software and features are worse than ASUS and far more basic/limited. Eero requires a subscription for stuff you get for free/default on ASUS, also MerlinWRT is a god send.

Unifi is not the way for WiFI mesh and even if you don’t need mesh it’s not for the average joe either. They are expensive but the easiest setup and most feature rich for the average consumer is ASUS.