ASUS - ZenWiFi XT9

Asus XT8s and XT9s are fantastic.

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.

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'm confident someone will suggest the best solution is not a router or mesh, but router + APs (access points) -- and I'd agree with them. To set that up you'd need to connect the APs via ethernet to the router. If that is possible, it will give you better and more reliable speeds throughout the home. If you can't cable everything together with ethernet, then a wireless mesh system is an option to consider, but performance won't be as good as a wired setup. When considering router or mesh, for a residence of that size you will need mesh. A single router isn't going to cover the whole house. Here are some options under or around $200 US I would pick for myself. Prices are what I see as I write this on [amazon.com](http://amazon.com) * **WiFi 6:** $199 - ASUS XT9 Tri-Band Mesh (2 pack covers \~529 square meters/5700 square feet). I already own and use the slightly less powerful XT8 system. Works well when my XT8 units are connected wirelessly or wired (via ethernet). I have router on top floor of house and mesh node 2 floors below with strong signal. Impressive. The XT9 is a slight upgrade from the XT8. Since XT8 & XT9 products are the same price now, I'd recommend the XT9. Like the XT8 it has a dedicated band (2nd 5ghz band) for mesh communication so client speeds are less affected by mesh traffic. WAN port has max 2.5GB and LAN ports max 1GB. Since your internet speed is less than 1GB this system wouldn't throttle your internet speeds. * **WiFi 6E:** $259 - ASUS ET8 Mesh (2 pack for \~510 sq meters/5500 sq ft). NOTE this is **only recommended** if you can connect the router and node **via ethernet**. While it's tri-band (2.4ghz/5ghz/6ghz) the 6ghz band used for backhaul is also shared with clients and it doesn't have as much range as 5ghz band. So **if you need to use the mesh in a wireless config, skip this one** \- performance over wireless won't be as good. WAN = 2.5GB max and LAN=1GB max. Unfortunately I don't have any experience with/knowledge of any other WiFi 6E mesh systems so can't suggest any (hopefully someone else can share suggestions). * **WiFi 7:** $255 - It's hard to beat TP-Link pricing for their WiFi 7 mesh systems. The Deco BE63 (BE10000) Tri-Band WiFi 7 system covers up to \~538 sq meters/5800 square feet. WAN & LAN=2.5GB max. I haven't used this unit personally but have read favorable reviews/comments from folks about this system. * The only WiFi 7 mesh system ASUS has that comes close is the BT8 but it's $420 and has 1/2 the 2.5GB ports of the TP-Link unit, so TP-Link gets the nod for this category. FYI RE: TP-Link: If you want extra security features/parental controls, TP-Link makes you pay extra each month. Something to be aware of (perhaps $50/yr, you can check tp-link's website for details). ASUS includes all security features for free. Hope that helps and good luck.

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

Asus XT9 (AX 6e) should do the trick. Wired backhaul or dedicated 5ghz channel for backhaul should work very well for your situation, and more than adequate for 1 GB connection. I personally have an ASUS AXE7800 as my main router with two XD6 as nodes in an 1800 square foot house (two-story with basement – basement square footage not included in the number). Also, the XT9 has a 2.5 GB port to connect to your service provider modem, and you can do link aggregation on two of the 1GB ports going to the other router. You can actually easily do two Asus routers together via mesh because it's essentially baked into their firmware. You don't need to get a mesh system, you can either go for prepackaged mesh or just pick up two routers and set it up as mesh. This opens up options if you look for two cheap Asus Wi-Fi 7 routers, although 66e should work just fine in your situation.

I don’t like using Amazon or Google networking equipment either. I’ve been a happy TPlink user for years. But when people starting talking about a TPlink ban (whether the talk is crazy or not), I started messing with Asus XT8/XT9 which I like a lot also.

Best bet would be to purchase two or three of the same type of router for your mesh system. I would recommend the ET9/XT9(The ET8 would also work, they can be had sometimes substantially cheaper). If you need Wi-Fi 7 go with the BT10. Since you have to use a mesh system,you're going to need at least a tri-band router. The mesh will use one of the bands specifically to talk to each other(wireless backhaul), leaving you a dual-band router for the rest of the house to actually use.

I had orbi, flakey software so changed to ASUS ZenWifi XT series. 2 pack, and just 1 alone Covers 3000sq ft. Never had to reset, I hardwired a second point over Ethernet. We have a ridiculous amount of devices, whole house is hue, Sonos, Alexa, ring etc then all the tvs, phones, iPads, blah blah. Never missed a beat I have and would continue to recommend however as always, others have had problems if you look hard enough. Orbi though, not from me again.

Asus Expert Router EBG19P seems to have some benefits over Ubiquiti Cloud Gateway, such as more ports. But it's hard to argue the awesomeness of Ubiquiti UI - I love my UDM Pro. Props to ASUS WRT (Merlin) too. Like others said, just turn off DHCP and WiFi on the ATT Gateway and let your router do the lifting. Couple with Asus Zen Wifi or TP-Link Deco mesh system in access point model for expandable, upgradeable wireless. Eero won't support this setup (no AP mode).

I've got that TP-Link and am about to sell it off. Let me know if you want it for a discount, I upgraded to an Asus ZenWifi system for my house now.

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?