BT 10 with XT12 in Mesh - Poor Performance Even for Wifi 6?

[Stuza]

Hi all,

Current set up is an Asus AI Mesh and I'm currently topping out at 600 up/600 down on my internal WLAN. I don't believe I'm getting full 5Ghz speed from these even though they have line of sight and are only about 10feet from each other. Sometimes, on rare occasions it will top out around 1Gbps but that's very, very rare.

I'd like to upgrade from 500meg to gigabit but, can't see much point if my network can't fully use it.

My equipment is:

Asus Zenwifi BT10 (Wifi 7) - AI Mesh Master router and internet (PPPoE configured)
Asus Zenwifi Xt12 (Wifi 6) - AI Mesh Node


Using a channel scanner on my phone I can see there are no other routers sharing the same channel. Although, do note that I am unable to de-select Auto for channel selection and there are no channel numbers listed - I wonder if this is the problem? Currently, according the phone scanner app I have the following (channels hard to see these clearly/exactly):


- 2.4Ghz, channels 10 to 14, used only for smart home devices
- 5Ghz, channels 35 to 50 ish and 98 to 110 ish, used by a media streamer over the bridge between the routers
- 6Ghz, 1 to 63, just used by phones and tablets

The 5Ghz AI Mesh (and bridge) has a media server/gaming PC plugged in to it. This is used as I can't run a cat 6 across the corridor.


I've attached my settings in the hope that someone with more knowledge than me might be able to advise me with a magic button to make the 1Gbps more normal rather than the exception.

Any advice?

Thanks for any help!!

P.s. All the testing of the 5Ghz channel was done with the media streamer OFF.
P.P.S OpenSpeedTest local install on a mini-PC with cat 6 to the BT10 router (this easily pushes 7000++ when testing to its own IP address and 1800+ with Wifi 7 clients)

 

[Stuza]

Hi all,

Current set up is an Asus AI Mesh and I'm currently topping out at 600 up/600 down on my internal WLAN. I don't believe I'm getting full 5Ghz speed from these even though they have line of sight and are only about 10feet from each other. Sometimes, on rare occasions it will top out around 1Gbps but that's very, very rare.

I'd like to upgrade from 500meg to gigabit but, can't see much point if my network can't fully use it.

My equipment is:

Asus Zenwifi BT10 (Wifi 7) - AI Mesh Master router and internet (PPPoE configured)
Asus Zenwifi Xt12 (Wifi 6) - AI Mesh Node


Using a channel scanner on my phone I can see there are no other routers sharing the same channel. Although, do note that I am unable to de-select Auto for channel selection and there are no channel numbers listed - I wonder if this is the problem? Currently, according the phone scanner app I have the following (channels hard to see these clearly/exactly):


- 2.4Ghz, channels 10 to 14, used only for smart home devices
- 5Ghz, channels 35 to 50 ish and 98 to 110 ish, used by a media streamer over the bridge between the routers
- 6Ghz, 1 to 63, just used by phones and tablets

The 5Ghz AI Mesh (and bridge) has a media server/gaming PC plugged in to it. This is used as I can't run a cat 6 across the corridor.


I've attached my settings in the hope that someone with more knowledge than me might be able to advise me with a magic button to make the 1Gbps more normal rather than the exception.

Any advice?

Thanks for any help!!

P.s. All the testing of the 5Ghz channel was done with the media streamer OFF.
P.P.S OpenSpeedTest local install on a mini-PC with cat 6 to the BT10 router (this easily pushes 7000++ when testing to its own IP address and 1800+ with Wifi 7 clients)




View attachment 67179View attachment 67175View attachment 67176View attachment 67177View attachment 67178

And here you can see the XT12 close up with the BT10 in the red highlight. To the left of the BT10 is a mini-pc with windows and OpenSpeedTest installed.

 

[jzchen]

As an AiMesh you've basically lost control of 5 GHz-2 on the XT12... (I have a similar situation with a GT-BE98 Pro dual 6 GHz, and GT-AXE16000 node dual 5 GHz. But mine are wired backhaul so I switched the AXE16000 to Access Point Mode and assigned a static IP).

You might try experimenting with switching the XT12 to Repeater Mode to see if you can then control/utilize 5 GHz-2 on that unit.

 

[Stuza]

Good suggestion but, not worked out so well, sadly.

In repeater mode it will only connect on the 2.4Ghz meaning i'm getting appalling data rates. On the XT12, unlike mesh mode there doesn't seem to be a way to turn off unwanted bands like 2.4Ghz or set a preference connection band.

I know you said that I lose control of the 5GHz 2 but, is that a problem? I mean, I actually WANT it to be totally dedicated for backhaul (or is it fronthaul?) so, I'm OK with not having access with other devices.

 

[jzchen]

Good point about 5 GHz-2 for backhaul. Can you tell if 5 GHz on the BT10 is solely used for backhaul, or is it split fronthaul/backhaul? My guess it is split in half fronthaul/backhaul, so about half of 5 GHz-2 is "available". If you could dedicate it to backhaul then 5 GHz-1 on the XT12 could be your 5 GHz for the house? Also, supposedly the 5 GHz-2 SSID has _dwb appended to the end AND it is supposed to be accessible to clients. In practice I could not connect clients to that SSID_dwb...

This would probably be somewhat easily solved if a dual 5 GHz WiFi 7 router was substituted for the BT10. Are you in a country where you can purchase a GT-BE98 (non-Pro version)? (I realize there's a great price difference and I apologize for sloppily recommending it). I know of one person who ended up giving up use of his GT-AXE16000 and purchased 2 GT-BE98 Pros, because he also needed wireless backhaul.

 

[Stuza]

5GHz 2 is used 100% for the backhaul and it is appended with _dwb. I've not connected anything else to it as I didn't want to interfere with it and happy to leave it alone.

To be honest, these devices are so buggy I'm loathed to spend any more money on them when they won't even work properly now at 5GHz. If I could get the 5GHz to work properly then I would consider another 6Ghz BT10 but right now, the risk of it not working and throwing more money for no improvement (or potentially worse!) is not something I'm happy to do.

Can you guess if my next router in a few years will be an Asus?

 

[jzchen]

Yes unfortunately they are buggy...

If 5 GHz-2 is 160 MHz then the 5 GHz of the BT10 is also going to be 160 MHz. Not sure I understand how it works but is it 80 MHz for backhaul and 80 MHz for fronthaul/clients?...

There are two WiFi 7 settings in Professional tab for 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz:

WIFI 7 OFDMA
WIFI 7 MU-MIMO

Since non-WiFi 7 clients can't use these I suggest try disabling them to see if performance improves. (I would not touch them on 6 GHz unless you exclusively have 6E and no WiFi 7 devices, if that makes sense)...

 

[Stuza]

Yes unfortunately they are buggy...

If 5 GHz-2 is 160 MHz then the 5 GHz of the BT10 is also going to be 160 MHz. Not sure I understand how it works but is it 80 MHz for backhaul and 80 MHz for fronthaul/clients?...

There are two WiFi 7 settings in Professional tab for 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz:

WIFI 7 OFDMA
WIFI 7 MU-MIMO

Since non-WiFi 7 clients can't use these I suggest try disabling them to see if performance improves. (I would not touch them on 6 GHz unless you exclusively have 6E and no WiFi 7 devices, if that makes sense)...

Actually, there are three settings in Professional when in AI Mesh Mode (and 4, I believe when not):
2.4GHz
5Ghz
6Ghz

and when not in Mesh there is the additional 5-2 GHz

Not sure what you're saying re Wifi 7 but, it's not a Wifi 7 (6GHz) issue. This is a Wifi 5Ghz issue. Even when I had 2 Wifi 5 devices (the XT and a GT-AX11000) I could never get full speed from them.

 

[jzchen]

2.4 GHz and 5 GHz also have a WiFi 7 mode which uses AES + GCMP (aka 256-bit encryption) and also 4k QAM. If you aren't having issues with 2.4 and 5 GHz device connection then I wouldn't worry about it. (I personally turn those two settings off for 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz).

 

[Stuza]

2.4 GHz and 5 GHz also have a WiFi 7 mode which uses AES + GCMP (aka 256-bit encryption) and also 4k QAM. If you aren't having issues with 2.4 and 5 GHz device connection then I wouldn't worry about it. (I personally turn those two settings off for 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz).

BUt i am having issues with 5GHz and slow bandwidth. Please can you tell me exactly what to turn off and assume in Professional settings?

 

[jzchen]

There are two ways to turn off WiFi 7 that I know of. I tried to number the items in white.

#1, #2, #3 (in order, my 2.4 and 5 GHz are smart connected so settings apply to both here)

#1, #2 (not in any particular order)

 

[jzchen]

I noticed upon inspection that your 5 GHz is limited to a maximum of 80 MHz, so it is split in half backhaul / fronthaul...