ASUS - ZenWiFi BQ16

I've been using Google Nest WiFi Pro (6E) for several weeks now and found it having zero issues. Paid $220 for Open Box deal with three units. A coworker, who has been heavily using Nest WiFi for four years, recommended the system, My house is a two-storey one, with an attached garage and several Ring cameras outside. Once I've installed the three Nest WiFi Pros -- all connectivity issues are gone. My Rings are up and running, with streaming starting right after opening a live view. It takes a couple of seconds to see up-to-date snapshot in Ring app's dashboard -- I've never had that kind of performance with any of below mentioned setups. I'd had TP-Link AX5400 Pro (wifi 6) with three extenders and briefly Asus BE92u (wifi 7) with BE8s as mesh nodes. I'd tried Asus BE8 (wifi 7) mesh (of three) as a sole system too -- second and distant second to the Google's. I'd tried Asus BE10 (wifi 7) mesh (of three) -- complete mess with Verizon's Fios. Unreliable and super-slow upload speeds. No fix. The Nest WiFi Pro is better in every respect, expect it has very basic feature set. Tried Verizon Fios (wifi 6E) router. They do not even offer wireless backhaul for their extenders! As a separate router it is exceptional, with the best coverage area, but won't cover all I need without extenders -- a no-go for me. IMO the best option is Google Nest WiFi Pro (6E). Do not pay more than $250 for three units. Last but not least -- Netflix 4K (and others) streaming is instantaneous, WFH is stellar too.

Asus zenwifi is a great and user friendly. Get the BT10 or BQ16.

I’ve got a set of BQ16s. HomeKit works great with them. I’ve got concrete floors as well which really impacts the WiFi strength everywhere. Not using Ethernet backhaul either. Speed of them are fantastic as well. I’ve got 900mb down / 100 up. And the furthest point away from a node, I’m getting 500 down / 100 up on my phone. Everywhere else is 800-900 down.

I’ve actually got 3. 3 floor townhouse, concrete floors and 0 desire to hardwire them as looking to move in the near future. The 3 units give me coverage and speed everywhere. I followed the dongknows review and setup of them, seems to have worked well. My dream previously was to get Eeros. But the moment Amazon bought them I decided not to. I try to limit support (for many reasons) of Amazon, but their approach to privacy is what really put me off. I just can’t believe that at some point, they won’t be logging something that is conveniently shared with another aspect of the conglomerate. And yeah… I know thats the case with 99% of big companies, but you’ve got to try and pick some battles 😅

I originally had 2 and they worked fine. Floor 1 and 3. But then I realised that hard-wiring in Apple TV, PlayStation etc on floor 2 into a node got me sustained 900mb down and 100mb up (exactly what I pay for) over the node-node connection, was worth it for me.

First went with an Asus Zenwifi BQ16 (2 packs) which provided excellent performance and coverage but later replaced it with ubiquiti UDR7 + UX7 as AP because my home lab required more network features such as local DNS which I didn't want to run on a docker server or use DNS services such as cloudflare. Both would be an overkill for your bandwidth so you can look at WiFi 6 mesh unless you're going to upgrade your bandwidth in the future which you currently don't need. You can look at Asus Pro ET12 or BT8 unless you need more then welcome to the Unifi ecosystem

You could look between Asus Zenwifi BQ16, Deco BE95 or Netgear Orbi 970. I currently use the Asus Zenwifi BQ16 and it’s been flawless with zero issues plus good coverage. I also get the full speed from each node and haven’t had any latency issues. If you’re in the US, it will be BQ16 Pro Note: They all have issues with 2.4ghz for your IoT devices and you might have to manually setup your IoT network separately rather than use the out of the box IoT network setup. Also the 4th band is used as a dedicated backhaul and not really exposed to your devices.

No overheating so far. It’s been running for about 6 weeks now and I’m yet to setup a reboot schedule.

For your budget you probably can get a Deco XE75 Pro off eBay or CEX if you want something under budget with a dedicated wireless backhaul. Another option is a used Deco BE6500. Right now I don’t think £400 would get you a new mesh with good wireless backhaul. Depending on your layout, you would need at 3 nodes and a tri-band router which can use one band as a dedicated backhaul. I’m also in UK and I’m using an Asus BQ16 mesh over a wireless backhaul via MLO which has been great and worked though my concrete walls to an extent and I’m still getting my full 1gb from the second node on an EE 1gb bandwidth. I used this to replace the EE router completely

If you’re heavy on Apple devices then WiFi 7 won’t be coming for a while and you should be okay with a WiFi 6E router for the next 5 years. However, if you want to go forward with you can look at Ubiquiti CG Fibre and U7 or UX7 AP. The router should be future proof and allow you upgrade your AP nodes based on which band you want. If you want a different mesh brand then you can look between Deco (best on budget), Asus Zenwifi BT10 (tri-band) / BQ16 (quad-band) or Orbi 770 / 870 / 970. This are the top 3 brands with top mesh systems and best coverage. Nevertheless, your bandwidth and devices should decide your choice (added with budget) Honorable mention will be Eero Max 7 but it’s barely customizable and you have to do things the Eero way

I did same and I was torn between Asus BQ16 and Unifi UDR7 but ended up buying an Asus BQ16 2-pack and it’s been great so far. I chose these cause I don’t have the option to wire them and I have them on wireless backhaul and still get my close to my 1 gig bandwidth on my iPhone 15 pro max and all my WiFi 6E or 7 devices. https://www.speedtest.net/result/i/6735896909 There are lots of great mesh or routers and each seems to have their pros and cons. So I’ll say you pick based on your use case.

I have 2 ASUS bq16. In a 3 story town house. 1 top floor. 1 bottom floor. I’m getting a 4000mbit back haul connection. And 900mbit WiFi speed throughout my house (on a gigabit line speed)

Powerline is not and mixed depending on your electric ring. And if your upstairs is on a different ring the speed will be awful. I have ASUS bq16 for mesh AP in a 3 story house. I get 4000mbit backhaul over 3 floors which delivers a solid 800-900mbit WiFi speed on a gigabit line

The ASUS BQ16 is fantastic, I've found, and yes, if you need an extra node in a remote location, you can use one of your current ones. Obviously it won't have bands it doesn't have now, but there are probably places where that's perfectly fine. I reused one of my XT12 nodes in the bedroom - I have no need for 6 ghz there, 5 is perfectly fast and fine.

WiFi Mesh in my experience is great if there are good sight lines and few thick walls! Can you wire the house for Ethernet backhaul? My wife won’t let me wire the flat (which twists and turns and has very thick 19th century walls - and has the internet intake in absolutely the farthest corner from where I’d want it) so I’ve finally just gotten a decent mesh going with two Asus BQ16s and two Zen XT12. I found the high end processors in the 12 made a huge difference when I upgraded from the XT8. The BQ16 are a really good upgrade but not absolutely necessary: I could have stayed with an all XT12 set up but the XT8’s were simply not powerful enough for my set up. Obviously I have a long daisy chain going but it now works well and is fast. In a consumer/prosumer set up you won’t get the monitoring/notifying you seem to want - they all are pretty much set it up and hold your breath.

I have an Asus BQ16 mesh and am more than happy. Rock solid. Fast. No fuss.

I have psychic scars from my old Netgear Orbi system that I could never get stable. By contrast I hardly ever look at the Asus. Sometimes I get twitchy that I’m not checking up on it so I do and it is always rock solid. I don’t even regularly reboot. The only issues I’ve had have been from my ISP. Not from the Asus.

Ubiquiti is good.. But wouldn't call them the best mesh...the Asus BQ16 would likely outperform any ubiquiti system that has a wireless backhaul. I'd even bet that cheaper Asus mesh would also do better

Hi, I have bt10 with 2 units and works well,good coverage and good performance,one disadvantage is 3 lan port is nor enough,bq16 lots of lan ports,ı think it is better than bt10

you get what you pay for; that ASUS BQ16 is great

Go for a WIFI 7 Mesh system. I Love ASUS, excellent software,frequent firmware updates. Good Luck!