Hi,
I’m currently running an aging ZenWIFI XT8 AX6600 that is starting to disconnect more frequently after years of use, and I thought I might want to upgrade to WiFi 7. Where my current router is situated, I’m getting >600 down and >500 up on 1 gig service. The router probably isn’t more than 20ft away, 1 floor below my computer (pretty old house- more than 100 years old). I rent and can’t run a wired connection.
I’m looking for something in the sub $300 range that would potentially give me a boost to my throughput, and I do a lot of gaming. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I looked over a lot of reviews a posts, and now I’m at the point where some advice from people with real world similar setups would really help!
I use Asus ZenWifi XT8 mesh system (3 nodes) - detached house - all working flawlessly (cat 6 for ATV/Macs/gaming and wifi 6 for iPhones/security cameras etc.). Think there is a newer version of this one now though so have a check. Totally happy with performance and speed. EDIT - all nodes are CAT6 connected back to the main node so uses Ethernet as the Backhaul.
Still OK.
But ideally you do want to run Ethernet cabling to any nodes and 100% run cat5/6 to the ATV - in my opinion. You then get full speed to each node and release extra bandwidth for the wifi network. You can hide them under the carpet edge/skirting or pop a board and run along floor joist. In our last bungalow I ran cat6 outside (in black conduit), up the wall into the loft space and connected all the wifi nodes in the loft via cat6 and mounted them to the ceiling in the rooms below (we have white units to match the ceiling so they are not noticed). One each end of the house and one upstairs in a central location. Perfect signal and rock solid.
I bought an Asus RT-BE92U recently to replace (sort of) a pair of Asus ZenWiFi XT8 in an AiMesh.
It's WiFi 7, 4 x 2.5Gbps LAN ports and 1 x 10Gbps WAN, Tri-band WiFi (very important for AiMesh imho)
It's now my router and master node for my AiMesh, with the old XT8s now being (actually quite good) nodes.
I loved my asus xt8. Super easy to use and the ddns came in handy when I was first hosting my own services. At ~60 WiFi devices it became pretty unreliable so we moved to a tplink Omada system
100% , I’ve a concrete home with bison slab floors (concrete beams and steel supports). Had years of WiFi trouble since house built in 2007, bought an ASUS WiFi mesh XT8s 3 pack back in 2019/2020 ……… almost problem free since, easily handles 20/30+ devices……. Multiple 4k streams no problem. 600mbps WiFi in most rooms.
If OP has a less challenging home might get away with 2 or even one of them.
I suspect there was a non-wifi router or also a switch in the cabinet which connected to WiFi nodes/routers around the house. If you decide to put a wifi router in the cabinet, use an older WiFi 5 or 6, not 6E or 7 because you're not going to get any 6 GHz signal out of that cabinet and most of the router's worth is going to be in ethernet gateway routing. You can connect an unmanaged switch to each wall outlet around the house to expand the number of available ethernet ports at waist or knee level and connect simpler, cheaper asus wifi nodes whose primary worth is broadcasting wifi on top of a bookcase or shelf at or above eye level instead of the more expensive combo wifi-ethernet gaming routers which end up looking like a spider hairball of antennas & ethernet cables. Either of the wifi nodes you've suggested above would be good but the BE58U would give you 6 GHz band for end devices with 6E or 7 capability whereas the Zen AX6600 model lacks 6 GHz band
Top WiFi Routers on Reddit
1
GL.iNet
GL-MT6000 (Flint 2)
91% positive of 197 users
OpenWrt enthusiast's choice; good value, but lacks 6GHz.
Aryndol
