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ASUS ZenWifi XT8 Speed of router much faster than main Asus node

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iamdavidsalt

New Around Here
Hi All,

I have a Acer Predator X5 5G router which is connected to an ASUS XT8 node via an Ethernet cable and then wirelessly to another node.

The Ethernet cable goes from a LAN on the Acer to a WAN on the ASUS.

The issue I have is that my Acer is getting speeds of 800mb but my ASUS main node is getting 500mb less, is this normal? Both have been speed tested direct on each device.

many thanks!
 
Last edited:
Welcome to the forums @iamdavidsalt.

The 'fix' is to not test on the device. Test from an Ethernet connected (wired) client device instead.
 
Tha for your reply and the welcome!

So if I am to plug in my Apple TV to a LAN port of the main ASUS node via Ethernet that should give me a true reading?

I’ll try this.
 
I tested a client through an Ethernet cable but sadly there is still a difference of 300mb, I am using a cat 8 cable, I assume this is more than enough?

Does there tend to be a drop in speed connecting the main router to a mesh node?
 
There is no 'cat8' standard. Use a quality Cat5e cable instead to test with.
 
Yes, but it's still not a standard (is it?). That 'up to' is worrying to me.

For these test results, even Cat5e is good for 2.5GbE speeds at 100' or less.
 
Yes, but it's still not a standard (is it?).
It is.

That 'up to' is worrying to me.
"Up to" simply means you can also use it for 25 Gbps, or 10 Gbps, etc... It`s not like when your ISP says "up to" which means "whatever your phone line can handle". To be allowed to apply a Cat 8 label, the cable needs to be able to reach 40 Gbps at a certain length.

All of this is ridiculously overkill for a home (or even a regular office) tho. Anyone installing new wiring should look at Cat 6a or Cat 7 (depending on pricing).

And sadly, there are still contractors out there running Cat 5e. One of my customers discovered that recently, the wiring that was installed in their new office back in December was old Cat 5e. Customer wasn't amused, as we were starting to plan his migration to 2.5 Gbps. Thankfully 5e would be sufficient, but barely.
 
Just an update for anyone suffering the same issue. Turns out my problem was the CAT 8 cable, I changed this out for a CAT 6a and the speeds on my main ASUS node are very close to the speeds of my main router now. Not sure if I had a bad CAT 8 cable but my preference will be CAT 6a moving forward.

Thanks all for your help!
 
Yes, but it's still not a standard (is it?). That 'up to' is worrying to me.

For these test results, even Cat5e is good for 2.5GbE speeds at 100' or less.

It can even do it at the full 100 meters
 
Just an update for anyone suffering the same issue. Turns out my problem was the CAT 8 cable, I changed this out for a CAT 6a and the speeds on my main ASUS node are very close to the speeds of my main router now. Not sure if I had a bad CAT 8 cable but my preference will be CAT 6a moving forward.

Thanks all for your help!

Bad or fake cable, no reason a real CAT6e and real CAT8 would perform any different in this case. Was it a flat cable, or one of the dozens of no name brands on Amazon? Those are probably CAT 3 compliant if you're lucky. But 6A is more than enough here so you're set.
 
Yes, but it's still not a standard (is it?). That 'up to' is worrying to me.

For these test results, even Cat5e is good for 2.5GbE speeds at 100' or less.

It is CAT 7 and the variants that are only recognized by ISO, and not EIA/TIA. CAT8 is fully recognized and standard.
 
Bad or fake cable, no reason a real CAT6e and real CAT8 would perform any different in this case. Was it a flat cable, or one of the dozens of no name brands on Amazon? Those are probably CAT 3 compliant if you're lucky. But 6A is more than enough here so you're set.
I’m unsure, the quantity of reviews are largely positive, but there are a few people that have reported my issue of slow speeds. The brand is UGreen if they are familiar?
 
I’m unsure, the quantity of reviews are largely positive, but there are a few people that have reported my issue of slow speeds. The brand is UGreen if they are familiar?
They're one of the common Chinese cable brands, seem to generally be ok, but I doubt they are frequency sweeping each cable, probably a bad or loose crimp causing packet loss which translates to slow speed, or just sub par wire inside.
 

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