ASUS RT-BE92U

[GJJ]

if your router/nodes are too close together, you will likely create an environment with too much radio power and thus cause more issues for yourself. In the consumer world, more is often not better, even if you have "more" devices using the radio.

In an ideal world, mesh APs should actively adjust their power outputs to manage the number clients attached to them and the amount of work they have to do, just like with mobile/cell towers. (A busy node would reduce its power and clients would then jump onto another less busy node. In reality, I think nodes manage their client load by just blocking access.)
But we know the world isn't ideal and I might be expecting too much of current consumer products. It will be interesting to find out how it goes.

I'm not in a mesh setup, but I do reduce my 2.4GHz radio power 1 notch to be nice to my neighbours. (Small house with lots of others close by) Works in theory, whether it does anything in the real world, idk. I feel better about it though.

GJ

 

[jzchen]

I run a 10 Gigabit backbone. And have around 150 devices on my network. Around 70 or so are wireless and the rest are wired.

My plan now is just to run the BE-92U units with a 2.5GbE connection. And run them all to the 2.5GbE ports in the Primary BE-92U. And then I will run the 10GbE port to an 8 port 10GbE switch. Which will feed my other switches, on the wired part of my network.

With all the feedback about the BE-92U, I just might go ahead and purchase the ZenWiFi BT10 3 pack while it's on sale. So I will have it just in case I need it. But, ideally I would just stick with the BE-92U models.

You can connect the other BE92Us to the 10 Gb Ethernet Switch. You don't have to connect them directly to the primary BE92U router. (Just in case you weren't already aware)...

 

[aaronwt]

You can connect the other BE92Us to the 10 Gb Ethernet Switch. You don't have to connect them directly to the primary BE92U router. (Just in case you weren't already aware)...

That is how I have my setup now. Only I'm using a 2.5GbE switch, with a 10GbE uplink. I got a new 8 port 10GbE switch to install. But, I wanted to change things up and keep my wifi devices connected directly to the router.

I got everything setup last night and currently have everything in one room to test it. I have six devices connected to see how it does. So far, everything has been responsive and I've seen no reboots. But, it's only been up 12 hours so far.

My four Be92u units are hardware revision 4.0. And I upgraded all of them to the 11/18/25 firmware, version 3.0.0.6.102_38980. Before resetting them and starting from scratch. My only real complaint is the new password requirements. Since I have always made passwords that included a couple of repeating characters and letters in them. I've made hundreds of passwords that way over the last 40+ years so I'm not used to creating and remembering a password like that.

Otherwise, so far, the GUI is as responsive as my my Rt-AX89X and ET12. And, I've seen the same 1.5Gbps+ speeds in testing as I get from my two ZenWiFi Pro ET12 units, over 6Ghz. But, I only have two devices using each wifi frequency right now.

 

[jzchen]

@aaronwt Please check with a WiFi analyzer app to make sure all three channels are broadcasting. I was finding 5 GHz would stop working at some point. (Of course it doesn't help that all my channels are Smart Connected and the same SSID and Password, minus MLO, (which I do not/can't enable on my ASUS network). For the new password requirements I have had my accounts hacked in the past and have a pretty complex one...

I currently have the latest Merlin release installed and it is supposed to allow repeats. Also haven't noticed it dropping any WiFi channels....

 

[aaronwt]

@aaronwt Please check with a WiFi analyzer app to make sure all three channels are broadcasting. I was finding 5 GHz would stop working at some point. (Of course it doesn't help that all my channels are Smart Connected and the same SSID and Password, minus MLO, (which I do not/can't enable on my ASUS network). For the new password requirements I have had my accounts hacked in the past and have a pretty complex one...

I currently have the latest Merlin release installed and it is supposed to allow repeats. Also haven't noticed it dropping any WiFi channels....

So far, everytime I have checked, with the WiFiman app, it showed them being broadcast. As well as when I checked with my wifi devices. But, with the wifi analyzer app, it wouldn't show them broadcasting sometimes. Plus, the wifi analyzer app wouldn't properly show that the 6ghz signal was 320mhz wide. It would only show it as 20Mhz. So I switched to using the WiFiman app, to analyze the wifi signals.

I had heard about the WiFiman app on Linus Tech Tips. And had installed it on all my devices a while ago. But I had not used it before. It gives much more information than the WiFi Analyzer app I had been using.

 

[jzchen]

Thank you for sharing that app. There are so many that the names can be easily mixed up. This is my current analyzer app. I'm afraid the one I used and shared before caused my Ascend Mate 2 to freeze and need a factory reset, (maybe because I increased the sampling frequency, which I did not change in this one, only enabled 6 GHz).

Network Analyzer App

Network Analyzer is an iPhone and Android app offering various net diagnostics tools such as wifi/LAN/port scanner, ping, traceroute, whois, DNS and others

techet.net

 

[TnF]

https://www.reddit.com/r/ASUS/comments/1nttapl/adaptive_qos_has_been_broken_for_a_year_on_all

ASUS still not caring about QoS being broken

 

[aaronwt]

I opened up my system to more devices. I have 25 devices connected to it. It seems to be working fine. But I noticed that CPU core 3 is pegged at 98% to 99%. I tried disabling the AI stuff but it made no difference. So I rebooted the system. And the CPu usage was normal for a few minutes. But, then CPU core 3 went back to that high percentage. So I just re-enabled the AI stuff. Since it didn't make a difference.

Also, with that one core usage very high, the gui became sluggish. But access from the Asus app is fine.

 

[aaronwt]

I just installed Merlin in my BE-92U used as the router. To see if that fixes the high CPU usage of core 3.
So far, the usage is still at normal levels.

But, should I also install Merlin in the three BE-92 nodes? Or does it only need to be installed in the unit used as the router?

EDIT: crap. I just looked again and CPU Core 3 is back to 99% usage with the Merlin firmware too.

EDIT: I just did a full reset of the router, to see if the high CPU usage comes back.

 

[degrub]

What are the system logs saying ?
you may want to elevate the log level for more details.

 

[Tech9]

EDIT: crap.

This is just the beginning...

 

[aaronwt]

After I reset the router with Merlin installed, I changed how I setup my wifi networks. The CPU usage has been normal now for 11.25 hours, so far. Before, it only took a few minutes for the one core to start maxing out. I don't see where any of the thirty wireless devices have disconnected. But, only time will tell what happens. I might try opening it up to twenty more wireless devices today, to see how it fares.

I was still wondering about having Merlin installed on my three nodes. Should I install Merlin on them? Or keep sticking with the Asus stock firmware on the nodes?

 

[aaronwt]

With the cores at normal usage the GUI is still snappy from a web browser. But once that one core was at 99%, the GUI became sluggish. The RAM use was also high, with only around 100MB. Since last night my free RAM has stayed around 300MB.

If things could stay how it is now, I would be extremely happy. But it seems like that might not be the case, from what people have said. So I will continue testing it over the next few days. I also need to start adding some wired devices to it, to see how they affect things.

I do really like the changes that Merlin brought to the GUI. It is much better than the stock Asus firmware.

 

[Tech9]

Monitor the behavior.

Release - Asuswrt-Merlin 3006.102.6 is now available

Asus BE92U Dirty flash from 102.5 to 102.6 went ok. Just don't try it from a mobile phone 😆. Not had any issues so far with my setup. Thanks @RMerlin

www.snbforums.com

 

[aaronwt]

Things have been extremely stable over the last 38 or so hours. I've had as many as 45 wireless and 15 wired devices connected. And the mesh system has worked very well with them. I can still get around 1.5Gbps+ speeds when testing throughput, and it's working great when I use play everywhere music with my 21 Echo devices.

I'm going to go ahead and try to replace my existing setup with the four BE92U units today. But first I need to add all my DHCP reservations and port forwarding rules. Once I add all those, then I can decommission my RT-AX89X router and my two ZenWiFi Pro ET12 units in a Mesh AP.

Last night I made a $10 donation to Asuswrt-Merlin since it was extremely helpful with my setup.

 

[aaronwt]

I've been having inconsistent connections with some of my 2.4 ghz devices. No idea why. Snce in my test setup it was solid. Plus. When I add the 2nd or 3rd node, it also becomes unstable. Again, no idea why since in the test setup with the three nodes it was solid.

So, I went ahead and ordered two RT-BE96U units, since they were on sale for $399. And I will return the four BE92U units. Hopefully that BE96U wifi is stable. Since my previous Asus devices were rock solid with wifi too.

At least it's no issue returning them to best buy. I had already returned two BE92U units that were hardware revision 3.

 

[Tech9]

Continue exploring AiMesh.

 

[Spartan]

I've been having inconsistent connections with some of my 2.4 ghz devices. No idea why. Snce in my test setup it was solid. Plus. When I add the 2nd or 3rd node, it also becomes unstable. Again, no idea why since in the test setup with the three nodes it was solid.

So, I went ahead and ordered two RT-BE96U units, since they were on sale for $399. And I will return the four BE92U units. Hopefully that BE96U wifi is stable. Since my previous Asus devices were rock solid with wifi too.

At least it's no issue returning them to best buy. I had already returned two BE92U units that were hardware revision 3.

We use 2x BE96U in AiMesh mode at work, very slow and unstable routers.

But for me personall, I had 2x BE92U's. I sold one of my BE92U routers (had 2 connected in AiMesh) and replaced the main one with the GT-BE19000. Much faster now with way better range. This thing's a beast. Now the other BE92U is just a node in my AiMesh system; never had any issues with it.

 

[aaronwt]

Wow!! I just have no words for these BE92U routers. I figured they would at least be stable with one as a router and one to three individual APs. But, even in that setup I have issues with some 2.4Ghz devices.

I have several devices, like a couple of Radon detectors, that report data every hour. I have never had the data not reported every hour. But, with the BE92U units it might report for two hours straight, and then nothing for the next three hours. Then one report, and then nothing for six hours. Plus I have four Ecowitt base stations connected to dozens of temperature, humidty, and air quality sensors. Those report every minute. And many of those reports are also missing. I have never seen that with any Asus setup I've had over the last seventeen years. Everything had always been rock solid.

I will say it is more solid as individual APs, instead of in a mesh setup. But it is still not reliable. I will get my BE96U in a day or two. And will get them installed this weekend. And, hopefully, they are stable like my previous Asus devices have been.

Otherwise I should not need to get an $800 or $900 Asus router to make things stable. Heck, I could go back to my ancient setup, with an RT-N56U router and three RT-N65U APs. And those ancient devices would run circles around the BE92U. But, those ancient units are also well beyond end of life and any more updates. Which is why I stopped using them.

And, hopefully, I don't have issues with the BE96U like Spartan did.
Because, at this point, all the sale are over with. So it the BE96U units don't work out, then I will need to go back to my AX89X router and Zen WiFi Pro ET AP mesh.

Although, my plan was to repurpose my ET12 units to the part of the network I use with my seventeen IP cameras.

 

[Tech9]

When your Wi-Fi 7 dreams are over, you realize how much time you have wasted in AiMesh experiments and you had enough trips to BesyBuy - get UCG-Max gateway, USW-Flex-2.5G-8-PoE switch, UACC-Adapter-AC-210W for the switch and 4x U6-Pro access points. Set it up once and forget about it, ~$1100. Your network users will thank you. Plus full network control for you to satisfy your eventual tinkering needs.