ASUS - ZenWiFi BT8

FYI , all of our current routers and mesh product all have extensive on router functionality including Open, Wireguard and much more. As such you could pick BT6, 8, 10, 16 our any of the routers. Also all of the units have our Gaming QoS option for prioritizing game packets and or specific systems, if you want a more streamlined experience our gaming models ( ROG, ROG STRIX, TUF GAMING ) also have dedicated Gaming Ports which are pre configured should you connect your device to that port. You can also do this manually through our firmware/app. Also note unless you need the coverage specific to a kit ( which can be done via AiMesh ) on the router side you have the benefit of no backhual use maximizing throughput if you are within the coverage area of a router.

Not familiar with DD-WRT but my ISP was slumping out Asus Zenwifi's BT8's for $180 so picked one of those up. Newly released OpenWRT on it now. You can't find that price probably (Telia @ Sweden) but pretty happy with it. Great wifi coverage in all rooms incl 5ghz (I have no wifi 7 device), 2,5g WAN +LAN (+2 1gb ports),I picked up a 2,5g flex mini to get everything on 2,5g.

Greetings just changed my Asus Router with a new Asus ZenWiFi BE14000 Wifi 7 system speeds and coverage is not great. I have a 2Gb plan on fiber my WiFi download and upload speed is worse than what it was with my old router (which only supported 1Gb speeds hence why I changed). Even in front of the main unit O can't get even 1Gb and upload is less than 5Mb lol. Yes my phone says it's connected with WiFi 7 which is how I'm testing and was also my previous way of testing with old router (have a Pixel 9 pro XL). Any advice on what could be going wrong? Thanks!

Works well. I get nearly 1Gbps on my laptop via wifi. Seems like a stable connection. Not sure how far it works though as I only have a small living space. Also seems that OpenWRT will support it at some point in the (near) future so that is something I'm keeping my eye on. Perfectly happy with it.

I have the Hitron CODA56 modem and the Asus ZenWiFi BT10 (and BT8) router. I think it’s a great combo, although I did have some weird issues with my router losing connection periodically at first. Wi-Fi 7 capable and lots of advanced networking options (for free, no subscription) if you want to go deeper, or you can keep it simple and just use the app.

I too have recently purchased an ASUS ZenWiFi BE14000 and have been experiencing connection issues. This biggest problem is it's not consistant, and might only lag for 5 seconds, so running speed test does not help. This is becoming a big problem with Zoom and Teams calls. My old 8year old Orbi RBR50 never had these issues. I've tried all the quick steps for resolve. Considering returning this and going back to Orbi. I really like the ASUS application and parental controls which is a shame.

You're not wrong, but It's a little more complex than that. They used a Qualcomm chip in the Flint 3 and Slate 7 and Qualcomm are not interested in open source support for their SDK. These products are unlikely to ever have the same level of support by the community lead OpenWRT project because of this. The Flint 2 and Beryl AX used Mediatek chips which is well supported by the open source community. The Mediatek Wifi 7 chips support in OpenWRT (I have an Asus BT8) is improving, and does currently work with somewhat mixed results. I'd call it a work in progress, at present. It's serviceable if you are a dedicated nerd, and performance/support will improve with time, but the nature of OpenWRT being community developed means it will always lag quite a bit behind the 1st party "off-the-shelf" products. The good thing with investing into OpenWRT supporting devices, even if they arent currently entirely stable, is that you will retain support and updates for significantly longer that the OEM would provide. That said, Wifi 7 is absolutely not essential and Wifi 6 devices are getting so cheap that I would probably suggest picking up something like a Flint 2 on sale (which happens reguarly) and waiting it out.

The exact cause of the problem is beyond my tech knowledge, but I can attest this is a specific issue with fios and asus mesh wifi routers. I had the exact same issue about a month ago. Upgraded to the ASUS BE 14000 from my old TP link. I had xfinity gig internet and fios had just come to our area. I decided not to cancel xfinity until I got fios up and running, but that day never came. They installed fios, it tested amazingly fast up and down on a direct connected device, but as soon as we plugged it into the router everything slowed, especially the upload speed. Uploads were 1 to 3 mbs. I figured it was a router setting so I let the tech leave. Two weeks later, trying everything from changing wires, multiple tech calls, to factory resetting devices, firmware checks, dual wan, literally everything I could think of, find on the web and that ChatGPT suggested. The final suggestion from a tech (which I did not try) was to use their WIFI router connect that wired to my three node Asus mesh wifi. I didn't do that, because even if that does somehow solve it, it's a shit setup. Long story short, I went back to Xfinity and canceled fios (which is actually what one of the fios tech's recommended after seeing the xfinity speed vs fios in person). Overall I had two tech's on site, 3 phone calls with tech's and a tech call with ASUS. Nobody could explain why, ASUS blamed Fios and Fios blamed ASUS. Either way, there's something about the asus mesh system that doesn't communicate well with the fios ONT. After all this I noticed reviews on Amazon warning of this exact issue. I know this doesn't exactly help, but it's not you, it's them.

Both the BT6 and BT8 are good with the BT8 offering double speed on the 5Ghz and 6Ghz band. So either would work for a 1gig plan and just depends on budget. If you can afford BT8 then push for that else settling with BT6 is also good

I’ll pick BT8. My experience over wireless backhaul has been great and I still get my full bandwidth via either wired or 6ghz band from the 2nd node.

Was there any evidence you found by the time you returned your setup that was the root cause? I just purchased the BE14000 setup myself a few days ago and I am experiencing what seems to be the exact same situation you dealt with. I happen to be on AT&T Fiber.

Have been researching WiFi 7 Routers now for months in an attempt to replace my Deco W7200 (which is starting to struggle with the number of devices I have running). I have watched 1,000 you tube videos, read 3,000 reviews, studied about 4,000 posts on reddit, etc., etc. and after extensive research this is what I have learned: When it comes to affordable mesh systems the Deco BE63 sucks or is awesome, the Orbi 770 sucks or is awesome, and the Asus BT6/BT8 either sucks or are awesome. Then we have stand alone routers: the TP-Link BE800 and BE805 both suck or are both awesome, the Asus RT-BE92U sucks or is awesome, and the Netgear RS600/RS700 either sucks or is awesome. All of them seem to suck more unless they are awesome, then they seem to suck less. All their firmware sucks or is just fine and all of them have constant drops or they don't. You have to have triband or they will suck, unless you go dual band in which case they will suck. Or it's possible to have awesome triband or awesome dual band, albeit unlikely. There is also Eero 7, pro, or max, or super max, which are all awesome but also all suck because they don't have MAC cloning which is a must with my ISP. Of course they may also suck in generally depending on who you ask. Or I could sell a kidney and stop paying my bills for 3 months and turn my house into some kind of Ubiquity super network which will definitely either suck or be awesome. Starting to think I should just throw a dart in Best Buy or Costco and buy whatever it hits. Or just keep the W7200 and start throwing away IOT devices.

Thanks. Right now I am leaning toward the Asus BT6 or BT8 due to cost, brand reputation, and lifetime security/parent controls without a subscription. I only have 1gbps fiber. I don't see my ISP moving up to 2.5 anytime soon and 5 won't happen for decades. I have had TP-Link Decos for years with average results but recent issues and concerns about their security has me looking elsewhere. I will post about whatever I end up with for sure.

20 devices is nothing; I have 80+ devices running effortlessly on my Asus wifi 7 mesh

Asus ZenWiFi mesh system (2pk)... Thread closed... 😉

I bought an Asus zenwifi system but eventually hardwired the satellites to a switch plugged into the main unit. Works great.

asus zen wifi. with a house you should have it wired for ethernet anyway. the zen wifi can handle both and 2.5gb in the wifi 7 model.

If you want an easy setup, nice user interface and ability to tweak options/configurations down the road, ASUS ZenWiFi is a good option. Another bonus with ASUS is you can use a mobile phone app \*or\* a web interface on a laptop/computer to manage the system. Many other mesh systems from TP-Link, Netgear, Eero only let you manage them with a mobile phone app. That is fine if you have basic needs but if you want to get more control over settings, often not an option. For example TP-Link may not let you select WiFi channels for its wireless networks. With ASUS you have control over a multitude of settings. Or just leave it on the defaults and if you ever wish to dive into the config, it will be ready and waiting for you. I asked Google Gemini for some thoughts too (another poster used Ai so I gave it a try too). I see ASUS ZenWiFi is in the list along with others. Since your needs don't seem very complex any of these should work pretty well. Unfamiliar with Eero, but you stated they are "difficult" to move into AP mode, no idea why but if you know that to be true then I suppose you could remove Eero from your consideration list. Have fun! Click below image to make it larger... https://preview.redd.it/q9mu50skxxrf1.png?width=925&format=png&auto=webp&s=1fb6721ce7d5fb1ded5fee09f45ed12ce365b752

Hello! I have an asus zen WiFi mesh net with two of the three nodes set up. I have Ethernet over coax and have the downstairs node connected via Ethernet. I should (based on the range of these routers) have excellent coverage in the house. I have noticed however my devices sometimes get confused which node it should connect to, resulting in sub par speeds. The nodes are very far apart. When I did add the third node I felt I was getting crazy interference. Any suggestions?

Yeah, extenders don't work in big houses. For 3500 sq ft, get a mesh system like TP-Link Deco or ASUS ZenWiFi.Covers everything, no dead zones, no 5G or 2.4GHz.

500mbs is more than enough for couple of people. Even for doing 4k streaming is fine. Don't really see any benefits of 1gig unless you are downloading/uploading tons of data. 2gb is just overkill and definitely not required. Look at review website dongknows to narrow down the choice of routers based on your requirement. Everyone is different so hard recommend, still some are good. Few router recommendations 1. Unifi UDR7. Great all-in-one router with lots of features. 2. Asus with wifi 7 and support for merlin firmware. Check above website for reviews. 3. If you want more control and would like to go DIY route, Any N100 mini pc with dual nic running opnsense/pfsense on it. Maybe directly or virtualized. Add an AP like unifi or omada or something else.

I'm no expert at all in networks. I use Asus tri band routera running Merlin firmware. I have one router at the far end of the house on the 1at floor and the second router at the opposite end on the second floor. The signal extends to the yard and fully covers the house with Wi-Fi 6. House is close to 3k square feet. I have the routers hardwired since that provided the best connection. If you go the Merlin website you'll see what routers are supported.

Was doing research on deco mesh systems and one thing i noticed is that there’s a lot of complaints about hardware revisions and firmware. I was interested in the ability to select preferred connection between decos and device preferred connection. That way i could set the mesh topology as i wanted while steering non mobile devices to specific decos where signals are strong from multiple decos to the correct one. Simple right? Nope. The updated firmware for this feature only applied to specific versions of hw. So a v1 xe75 got it but not a v2 at the time. Then an xe200 didnt have it at all and it some older popular models never got it at all. It just seemed like a mess and the model i ordered didnt have it but amazon lost the pkg so i got an asus instead that feature is just naturally in their firmware… Their wifi7 models all support it but it’s like they just stop supporting previous popular hardware and move on so quickly

If the internal walls in your apartment are concrete and you don't have line of sight to the router it can be hard to get reliable wifi in multiple rooms even in a small apartment. The issue is made worse by the fact that there are a lot of competing signals in most places in Hong Kong. WiFi 7 does deal with these issues better than previous technology, but is expensive. I use as Asus WiFi 7 router and it is a distinct improvement on the one that it replaced. With a 2.5G connection I am seeing download speeds in a 700sq ft apartment of 500mbps at worst and about 1100mbps as best.

If the internal walls in your apartment are concrete and you don't have line of sight to the router it can be hard to get reliable wifi in multiple rooms even in a small apartment. The issue is made worse by the fact that there are a lot of competing signals in most places in Hong Kong. WiFi 7 does deal with these issues better than previous technology, but is expensive. I use as Asus WiFi 7 router and it is a distinct improvement on the one that it replaced. With a 2.5G connection I am seeing download speeds in a 700sq ft apartment of 500mbps at worst and about 1100mbps as best.

Asus zenwifi is worth considering. Just got 2 nodes of the 6E one from 2023 for $200 @ microcenter. After some issues with a new fully updated asus wifi7 router constantly rebooting & some similar claims across a few of their wifi7 devices i fear they've got a bug. The 6E has been running fantastic for ~4days now

Avoid tp-link and any other CCP networking equipment. Don't intentionally put stuff with backdoors in them just to save a few bucks. Unifi is great but it's expensive and you really should use it wired. If you're just looking for plug and play mesh Asus has good offerings. Their AI mesh system works well

I've had zero problems with M1 for many years. Only went down once, and that was for scheduled maintenance in the middle of the night. Also, it's not just your internet plan that could be the cause of any issues. If your router isn't good enough, or is in a terrible position, or is overheating, or the bomb shelter is between your laptop and the router, you are gonna have issues no matter what plan you have. I have a standard 1Gbps plan but an Asus gaming router with ethernet cables going to the 3 heaviest users in the home – PS5, living TV and bedroom TV. I also set up a second router using Asus AImesh to provide wifi signal to one of the further corners of the house.

I've been using AiMesh since the beginning, and it was rocky at first, but now I'm currently quite happy with it. One solid main router and two APs outside. What unifi did you get to replace your setup and do you think it was worth the cost?

Asus AiMesh - Yea TP-Link Deco - Yes TP-Link Easy Mesh - Not sure

ASUS aimesh is the best option besides true ap based systems.

I've been using Asus Aimesh for years. 3 nodes and seamless switching when walking around. There does seem to be a client limit at about 75-80 wifi devices whiche forced me to move iot devices to a separate wifi network. Asus is great to start with but unifi likely my next system

I use Asus routers in my Ai mesh network and it gives me complete control over everything and I've loved it. I use that coupled with family link from Google and I feel like I've done my job as a parent blocking as much bullshit as I can for my kids.  But don't worry, their friends who's parents don't care about a single thing they consume will come along and ruin your hard work. Or your kids will be kids and find loop holes, which they always do. But you still tried. 

Asus AiMesh can be configured without an app and uses local credentials for management.

For gaming use cable, for wifi coverage of this size, you can do well with asus aimesh, you can pick two routers of your choice, cheaper than ismesh system and many settings available.

I went from DD-WRT for years to ASUS AiMesh and have been on Unifi equipment for a good four years now. I never have any issues with roaming (3600+ home) and I can fine tune whenever necessary (rare). I love the Unifi and don't plan on moving away any time soon. If you want peace of mind, I definitely also recommend Unifi.

As has been said, plug in everything you can. For a basic option, the Asus routers with AiMesh are a pretty simple solution. Start with one on the second floor centrally located and see if you need more. Use inSSIDer to see how your signal strength is as what kind of interference you have and set settings accordingly. If you’re not reaching all corners, add another compatible Asus and put them on floors 1 and 3 (both wired connection to WAN jack)

ASUS AIMESH Stable and cheap.