ZenWiFi XT9

Asus XT8s and XT9s are fantastic.

Aussie broadband. Asus XT12 (wifi 6), ET12 wifi 6e, BQ16 (wifi 7). XT and ET have unrivalled range. BQ16 a close second with quad band support. All mesh systems. Coverage with one centralised router is outstanding with all 3. You can’t beat Aussie broadband no matter how hard people nut hug on leaptel, launtel and Neptune. I’ve tried all four.

Recently installed ASUS XT9, works great.

Wired. But if you can’t or won’t just get a 3-4 unit mesh system with dedicated wireless backhaul. I know of a friend of a friend that lives in an apartment in the Bay Area that was converted from an industrial building. Most walls are more like 8-14” exterior walls. Zero chance of wired. They had 2 Asus XT9s when they moved in and bought 2 more. The guest BR is the furthest room and if I remember correctly I was still getting over 250Mbps.

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

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.