Can RT-BE88U be as bad as it seems compared to GS-AX3000?

[dwp]

I am trying to get my new RT-BE88U to function at least as well as my old GS-AX3000 and so far the results are beyond disappointing. Almost immediately, I got the impression that things are slower, much slower. However, system resources abound.

I did not use the stock firmware at all and went straight to the latest Merlin as that was one big reason I wanted to go with the new router. So I cannot say if this would be different without Merlin.

My stuff is mostly older - a mix of wifi as well as ethernet directly to the router. I have disabled Wifi7 (don't need it). I have tried to make the setup/config as near exactly the same as I can. Some devices that were really solid before and dropping off/on now. I don't get it. Seems like most of the serious issues involve the 2.4Ghz wifi.

The unit I got was an open box unit. So I know someone returned it for some reason. Maybe it is just a lemon?

I know I have not provided much info here. But I am so sorely tempted to go back... Thanks

 

[Tech9]

I told you already with your long list of requirements including single vendor you options are zero.

 

[dwp]

I told you already with your long list of requirements including single vendor you options are zero.

Well my experience MAY prove you right! Thanks

 

[dwp]

Well my experience MAY prove you right! Thanks

I decided to get rid of that thing back to the seller. I had the old router back up and everything running as before within 5 minutes.

 

[Tech9]

See what I have replied to you in the other thread:

New RT-BE88U With Latest Merlin -- Beamforming?

I am having trouble with my new router communicating with a repeater out in my garage. My old GS-AX3000 did this ok. I recall the old router had beam forming enabled and if that would make a difference? I went looking through the Merlin UI and am not seeing it. I saw reference here to enabling...

www.snbforums.com

Explore other options as well. ASUS routers with ever growing number of marketing checkbox options are getting closer to niche products often requiring MRGA. It's "Make Router Great Again" by disabling all unnecessary features, often the ones you have paid extra for.

 

[jzchen]

I'm afraid you're suffering because on each forum I follow you on you put different key pieces of information, so it is hard to help you holistically. Also your user name is different on this one but I understand many seem to do this...

If I recall correctly from what I've compiled is that you have at least one NT ASUS router, if not two. So as you upgrade the primary router you now have WiFi 7 down to WiFi 4 is it, on the same AiMesh network. Closest I've tried is WiFi 7 down to WiFi 5, my RT-AC68U which I now have in my RT-BE92U box. (When I did try, I also had the benefit of Ethernet Backhaul Mode, which I do not recall your setup having wired backhaul. With WiFi backhaul and an NT router in AiMesh, you're basically splitting the bandwidth of the NT router in half, and forcing your primary router to function at that limitation for seamless roaming)....

 

[jzchen]

What I can recall of my 3 Generation on one AiMesh network experiment was that even though I placed the WiFi 5 router in the corner of the house, meaning it was not centrally located, up to six clients were shown as connected to it simultaneously. I can only guess that since all my nodes were functioning at WiFi 5 that backwards compatibility does not work as well as true WiFi 5 router, so the majority of my clients were connecting to the AC router in the corner. I have been slowly improving specs from the bottom up and now the client distribution makes more sense to me based on hardware specs....

ASUS makes a RP-BE58, which you can plug into a wall outlet away from your wife's vision, which you may want to replace the EOL routers you are still using...

 

[Tech9]

on the same AiMesh network

There is no AiMesh information provided on SNB Forums. One router with repeater and access point(s), eventually.

 

[jzchen]

https://rog-forum.asus.com/t5/gaming-routers/smaller-alternative-to-gt-ax11000-pro/m-p/1144701/highlight/true#M11479

I did not catch it but there are three old routers listed at the bottom. Also wish I had warned him that USB share is notoriously harmful to WiFi based on my experience with WiFi 7 ASUS routers, and specifically 2.4 GHz which there are many client devices...

 

[Tech9]

This is interesting and quite common behavior. People start with AI first, which by itself is a sign of no idea how to solve the problem, then ask humans on few different places the same questions expecting the right answer, but since they have no idea they don't know which one is the right answer... and then they go back to AI to factcheck the humans, which reads the same information written by humans and generates some aggregate nonsense. In my childhood we used to call this "broken phone" game.

 

[dwp]

There is no AiMesh information provided on SNB Forums. One router with repeater and access point(s), eventually.

This is exactly correct. At one point, I did try to switch my own, main router (GS-AX3000) into mesh mode along with the repeater RT-AC1750. My goal at the time was not to solve the device limit issue I sensed I was having but to control device connections so that I could ensure that specific devices connected to specific LAN nodes only. Sadly, that did not work and so I returned things to as they had been previously.

 

[jzchen]

This is exactly correct. At one point, I did try to switch my own, main router (GS-AX3000) into mesh mode along with the repeater RT-AC1750. My goal at the time was not to solve the device limit issue I sensed I was having but to control device connections so that I could ensure that specific devices connected to specific LAN nodes only. Sadly, that did not work and so I returned things to as they had been previously.

For whatever reason the binding of devices to specific nodes only appears to work to move a client to another node. Once moved I highly recommend turning off the binding, because they might suddenly drop off the network completely, (sometimes with poor likelyhood to reconnect). I am not sure why AiMesh might move a client from one to another node but I suspect the nodes have some sort of stability logic. For example if one of the nodes gets a firmware update, client devices will avoid connecting to that node for a while, (I assume it is considering the node as unstable due to down time)....

Overall if you don't use AiMesh then ASUS brand is not quite a determining factor, IMHO. I built around my old RT-AC68U. At first when I was looking for an upgrade I got a Linksys Hydra. But once I found I could AiMesh the AC68U I stuck to ASUS....

 

[dwp]

For whatever reason the binding of devices to specific nodes only appears to work to move a client to another node. Once moved I highly recommend turning off the binding, because they might suddenly drop off the network completely, (sometimes with poor likelyhood to reconnect). I am not sure why AiMesh might move a client from one to another node but I suspect the nodes have some sort of stability logic. For example if one of the nodes gets a firmware update, client devices will avoid connecting to that node for a while, (I assume it is considering the node as unstable due to down time)....

Overall if you don't use AiMesh then ASUS brand is not quite a determining factor, IMHO. I built around my old RT-AC68U. At first when I was looking for an upgrade I got a Linksys Hydra. But once I found I could AiMesh the AC68U I stuck to ASUS....

Well, I too am pretty much stuck on Asus as well at this point. I tend to hack around in various attempts to force things to my will. Compared to more modern AsusWRT (not, for example, my ancient RT-N10+), all of the other consumer-type routers I have looked at fall WAY SHORT of my needs/hopes. Some do not even offer ssh access, for example. The lure of Merlin still pulls me. Despite the lack of Merlin on my GS-AX3000, I was, with the help of those on this site, able to things like this. I am pretty sure that with most consumer-type routers other than Asus, this would not have been possible.