Asus BE-98 Pro Aimesh with 2 router AX

[Spoon]

Hello, I’m new here. I wish I had known about your site earlier because it has a lot of useful information.


I have a question regarding AiMesh. I currently have three routers in my house (1,200 sq. ft.). In the upper left corner of the house (living room), I have a BE-98 Pro that I recently purchased—thanks to a gift card. It’s a bit overkill, I admit, but I was looking for something to play cloud gaming or remote play on 6 GHz with my Asus ROG Ally. My old Wi-Fi 6 router didn’t give me an optimal experience.


Then, I placed my old GT-AX6000 in my wife’s office in the basement at the far right of the house, connected to the BE-98 Pro via Ethernet. I also have a third router in my garage, which is separate from the house, about 50 feet from the GT-AX6000 with two insulated walls between them. This one is also connected via Ethernet to the GT-AX6000.


I must admit that it works relatively well, except that my tablet or phone often tends to stay connected to the GT-AX6000 even when I’m closer to the BE-98. Is there something I could do, like maybe reduce the 5 GHz signal strength? Do I have too many nodes in the house? All routers are on the latest official firmware.


Thank you.

 

[OzarkEdge]

Hello, I’m new here. I wish I had known about your site earlier because it has a lot of useful information.


I have a question regarding AiMesh. I currently have three routers in my house (1,200 sq. ft.). In the upper left corner of the house (living room), I have a BE-98 Pro that I recently purchased—thanks to a gift card. It’s a bit overkill, I admit, but I was looking for something to play cloud gaming or remote play on 6 GHz with my Asus ROG Ally. My old Wi-Fi 6 router didn’t give me an optimal experience.


Then, I placed my old GT-AX6000 in my wife’s office in the basement at the far right of the house, connected to the BE-98 Pro via Ethernet. I also have a third router in my garage, which is separate from the house, about 50 feet from the GT-AX6000 with two insulated walls between them. This one is also connected via Ethernet to the GT-AX6000.


I must admit that it works relatively well, except that my tablet or phone often tends to stay connected to the GT-AX6000 even when I’m closer to the BE-98. Is there something I could do, like maybe reduce the 5 GHz signal strength? Do I have too many nodes in the house? All routers are on the latest official firmware.


Thank you.

AiMesh is not designed for tuning its APs for proper coverage... most home users want full broadcast power for coverage with a minimal number of APs to purchase and maintain. Adding too much radio in too small an area is counterproductive... connectivity and roaming may suffer.

So, I use AiMesh at full AP power... setting less Tx power may not work like it should with the firmware... and only two APs (router and node) to cover 2 acres, spread suitably apart for my radio space conditons (77' to detached brick garage) to ensure 5.0 band Received Signal Strength at an AP is in the sweet spot -dBm range for both good connectivity and good roaming... not too far <-74dBm RSSI, too near >-55dBm RSSI, too many; not low/behind/obstructed.

Given your 1200 sq ft coverage foot print, my preference would be options 1 to avoid the WiFi7 bleeding edge for now (keeps it simple):
1. one AX router
1. one AX router with one AX node (what was wrong with this?)

If you want to moved forward now with likely more network admin overhead (troubleshooting), then options 2:
2. one BE router
2. one BE router with one AX node.

Given WiFi7 new features/settings, my approach would be to migrate to it after I have it built and working well enough for my users. I'm not interested until my current AX network can't do what I want.

OE

 

[degrub]

Very likely too much RF if only 1200 sqr ft.. One router/AP can probably cover that unless the walls are concrete.
If you don't have devices that use 2.4 GHz band (IOT mostly), turn that off on all but the main router. Walk around with a wifi app and see if you have any coverage gaps that are significant. You can use Apple Airport Utility to get RSSI readings if you have an iPhone or iPad. Be sure to enable wifi scan in settings. Anything greater than ( lower negative number e.g. -50 dB is stronger than -65 dB) about -65 dB should be fine.

You can experiment with a node in that approximate area to cover the gap in the 5 GHz coverage if the power level is < - 70 dB.

Clients determine when to switch radios, not the AP. We can specify the radio to disconnect the client at a certain power level - maybe -70 to -75 dB to encourage it to look for another AP radio, but it still may not want to switch.

2.4 GHz will penetrate 2-3 sheetrock walls, which is the reason to turn it off in such a small space on all but the 1 wifi router.

 

[Spoon]

Yes, I have a lot of smart devices. I’ll start by disabling the 2.4 GHz radios on my two nodes. I’ll see how that goes, but I’m a bit worried about the devices in the garage. And I’ll try your suggestion to disconnect devices at a certain signal level.

 

[degrub]

Translated by google -
Yes, I have a lot of connected devices. I'll start by disabling the 2.4 GHz radios on my two nodes. I'll see what happens, but I'm a little worried about the devices in the garage. And I'll try your advice about disconnecting the devices at a certain signal level.

 

[degrub]

What is the wifi router in the garage being used for ? What type of clients ?

 

[Spoon]

I have 2 thermostats, 1 smart lock, 1 light switch, a garage door opener, and a Wi-Fi amplifier. Most importantly, I need a network for YouTube on my tablet to watch mechanical tutorials whenever I have a problem."