ASUS - ZenWiFi ET9

I had old 5 x Asus routers in AP mode and all manually optimized channel setting for a long time until they started hanging I think due to the size of my network. Switched to 3 x Deco 11000 units. I had decent experience with older Deco in a condo we have. My goal with the 11000s was to start out as out of the box as possible. Over a month I slowly customized while trying to ensure all my cameras and user devices were stable. Before holiday I was full wired backhaul and most fancy stuff turned off but still I was facing issues. I decided I was going to return to Costco after holiday. At new years I saw Deco had a new firmware. I went for it cause I was not happy. The firmware resulted in worse reliability. Family switched to cellular and hot spotting. After looking at various options and still with the goal of keeping it simple, I went with 3 x Asus ZenWifi ET9 all in AP mode and wired backhaul - 1 per floor. It was much better but still not perfect. I like that the interface is familiar and there are tons of advanced configs. I have disabled some fancy features and I am mostly back to a happy setup. I am still using the AIMesh but have a couple Samsung Frame displays that are oddly challenging. I have more I can tweak. I probably should’ve gone with Unifi but I didn’t like their ceiling mount APs and the Asus have extra Ethernet ports and stand up. I am still far from an out of box solution.

Hardwired is best. If you have extra phone lines or coax cable you can use that. If not you'll have to Go wireless. Ubiquiti is great. But, it's beyond most homeowners without really doing their homework. Therefore, I would recommend an Asus system. All of their stuff works. Just buy two, three, four of their routers in the AI mesh system will work perfectly.(Buy the exact same router for everywhere). You just need to make sure they are tri-band or quad-band routers (one band will be used exclusively for wireless backhaul). For example, et12, ET 8, et9, bt-10 are all recommended. Check out Dong knows--his website is great.

Backhaul is how the routers talk to each other. It's best to do it wired. But, if you can't they will use one of the channels on the router that becomes a dedicated circuit (band) where they talk to each other. That's why you need at least three bands. If you want Wi-Fi, 7 I would recommend the bt-10 or the expensive BE98 pro. If you just want Wi-Fi 6e, any of the routers I mentioned before would work.. et8, et9,xt9,xt12,et12. Additionally, avoid the BQ 16 and the be96u, the firmware on the routers is buggy and has not been updated. I have personally used the et8, xt9 and the be98 pro. They have all been fantastic.

I bought two identical Asus 6E routers and set them up as a mesh network. It worked so well, I have now bought a third one for my son.

First, trade in your ATT router/modem for a new one,then buy a new ASUS 6E or 7 router that has Mesh capability and use the same network and password as the ATT router. This Mesh system should give you 50-75% of your Ethernet connection which should be plenty fast for your needs. Good luck!

please!! Don't spend 1.6k on Wifi 7 Eero. EERO is great, but 600 dollars great lol. Go with Ubiquity Access points. No way is a wifi 7 mesh worth 1.6k. Let alone most of your devices being able to use it. Asus mesh 6E networks are nice. A bit of a pain to first set up. I connected 4 together for a buddy. Basement, 2nd floor main floor and backroom. Wifi reaches far into his back yard and front. That was at best 600 ish in total.

I've had success with Asus Zen Wifi and Amplifi; but I think Asus is a better product personally. I have Ubiquiti in my home right now and don't particularly like it.

After trying Google Nest and multiple Tp-Link Deco devices, I always fondly look back at one Apple’s two devices - the AirPort Extreme and AirPort Time Capsule, which continues to work fine at my home. The only devices that appear to work without a hitch are the Asus ones. I’d recommend looking at Asus mesh systems like the RT-AX92U or ZenWiFi series. They work beautifully with wired backhaul, which you can now take full advantage of. What you’ll find good: actual web interface (no more phone-only nonsense), robust VLAN support for segregating IoT devices, proper MAC filtering, and ethernet ports on every node. Given your 2200 sq ft layout with that fireplace, keeping a similar node placement with Asus units should give you solid coverage.

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

Since you have cable Internet and it runs into the basement, you hopefully have coaxial cables available to you throughout the house, and usually in key locations. Just look at the area where all the coax ends should meet, likely in the basement where your modem/router is at and plugged into. If you do find this bunch of coax, you can use it with MoCA Adapters to build a wired Ethernet network inside your home. If you can achieve that, then getting good WiFi everywhere will be easy, as well as providing wired capabilities for other devices in needed locations. MoCA Adapters can be a bit expensive, but worth the cost. If you can build this MoCA network, then whatever you choose as the router and Access Points will work very well, including a 3 pack of a reputable mesh brand. For mesh, I use and can recommend eero. But ASUS Zen mesh is also praised a lot, and has more configurability. If you want to go higher end, you can get an Ubiquiti Cloud Gateway router, a Ubiquiti PoE switch, and some Ubiquiti Access Points. It's more expensive, but very capable of advanced setups, and is very stable. I use Ubiquiti at another home and in my office location, and I can recommend them personally as well.

Yeah I like the ASUS approach as well. Mine just works, and it is so easy to add another node anytime I want since their stuff is all interoperable with the AiMesh setup.