Chaining in mesh system both AX and AC routers/nodes

[Damit1]

Hi

Got a mesh system running, with 2pcs AX88U, after a lot of fights to stabilize it- works about few months with Merlin and everything is fantastic.
I got an area in which I have a lack of WiFi discover.

I consider buying a AC86U because of a good local retail price, and most important is the ASUSWRT-MERLIN computability for this router.
I dont need there any astronomic speeds just to run YOUTUBE, and got there a CAT5E network cable to connect as a WAN.

I heard any suggestions it is not a good idea to mix AX & AC routers/nodes in same network because the lower tech node (AC) will "dominate" the network- is there any truth in that?
If it is correct, any ideas for low-cost AX router that WORKS with MERLIN ?

Thanks for any advise in advance

 

[SimoniZ]

Currently I am using RT-AX68U as my main router and the RT-AC86U as a mesh node. I ran into my own connectivity issues, but was able to overcome these by connecting both routers together with a Cat7 cable and enabling the Ethernet backhaul feature. I do not think that these connectivity issues had anything to do with the fact that one router was AX and the other AC.

Cat 5e will work as well and the RT-AX68U I think makes more sense to buy today instead of the RT-AC86U. If you buy the RT-AX68U please keep these two things in mind:

-> RT-AX68U supports 3 streams per host instead of four like your RT-AX88U and RT-AC86U do (only 5GHz 3x3 or 2.4GHz 3x3)....Based on if you client's support this. Most clients are 2x2 anyways.

-> RT-AX68U does not support 160Mhz channel width, but neither does the RT-AC86U; required to get potential bandwidth beyond 1Gbps.

With the RT-AX68U you will get a router that is newer and supports parts of the Wi-Fi 6 spec that the RT-AC86U does not. Also sells for a pretty decent price. I got mine on newegg on sale for 176 CAD after applying a free coupon, usually goes on sale for 199 CAD.

 

[Damit1]

Currently I am using RT-AX68U as my main router and the RT-AC86U as a mesh node. I ran into my own connectivity issues, but was able to overcome these by connecting both routers together with a Cat7 cable and enabling the Ethernet backhaul feature. I do not think that these connectivity issues had anything to do with the fact that one router was AX and the other AC.

Cat 5e will work as well and the RT-AX68U I think makes more sense to buy today instead of the RT-AC86U. If you buy the RT-AX68U please keep these two things in mind:

-> RT-AX68U supports 3 streams per host instead of four like your RT-AX88U and RT-AC86U do (only 5GHz 3x3)....Based on if you client's support this. Most clients are 2x2 anyways.

-> RT-AX68U does not support 160Mhz channel width, but neither does the RT-AC86U; required to get potential bandwidth beyond 1Gbps.

With the RT-AX68U you will get a router that is newer and supports parts of the Wi-Fi 6 spec that the RT-AC86U does not. Also sells for a pretty decent price. I got mine on newegg on sale for 176 CAD after applying a free coupon, usually goes on sale for 199 CAD.

The price currently for AX68U is much higher than planned to invest on that area- barely visited.
NEWEGG price incl. shipping and VAT is about 273 USD for AX68U (not offered in the local market).
AC86U is about 150USD in local market.
Almost double the price...

150USD is ok for me- but the question is whether the AC Wireless Speed will be the dominates one in a mixed network.

The current topology is:
AX88U as main router- AX88U as a wireless mesh node (wireless backhaul, cannot wire any cable to that place so I preferred a mesh wireless network with a good speeds)- and will connect with a cable from the Mesh node to the AC86U to get a fair signal in the remote area.
All I need there is a good signal (IoT devices connected there) and fair speed (expected to have around 100M because of the length of the cable, cable type etc).

Is that a moderate plan or the AC86U will drop the entire network to AC speeds?
If it will, it does not resolve the issue and create a new once.
I did check and the next model in my budget is AX55- but does not have Merlin FW, and the next one is 20usd or so higher (AX58U).
I rather not spend on a higher cost WIFI AX node because that are is not much in use.

Thanks for any advise

 

[SimoniZ]

Strange, here in Ontario Cananda the price of the RT-AC86U is actually higher in comparison to the RT-AX68U.
I think you should be just fine with the RT-AC86U, I use it as a mesh node and it use to be my main router for a few years.

 

[Damit1]

Strange, here in Ontario Cananda the price of the RT-AC86U is actually higher in comparison to the RT-AX68U.
I think you should be just fine with the RT-AC86U, I use it as a mesh node and it use to be my main router for a few years.

No issues with lower speeds of AC stabdard?
I think you mentioned you use the AC86U hardwire?
In the case i use the system hybrid- some wired backhaul and some wireless, should not be an issue?

Will wait for some more comments so I dont spend 150usd for nothing.
I want to solve this matter best way possible

 

[Damit1]

Oh, I forgot ans maybe even more important-
The mix I do here is with Eu and american Asus devices-
2 AMERICAN AX88U and the AC68U would be probably EU import.
Meaning- AC86U probably will have less ch (limited to 64~ I believe).
Would it be a matter -
As a wireless backhaul, or as a client channel use?
Maybe in both matters it does not change at all...

 

[SimoniZ]

I do not have any experience with Asus routers made for other regions, all of the Asus products I have ever owned were made for the Canadian market. When you configure your routers in AiMesh mode, you only configure from the main router.

On my RT-AX68U I enable under wireless settings the 802.11ax/WiFi 6 mode and set the 5GHz channel width to 20/40/80. My RT-AC86U is clearly a WiFi 5 router, but these settings work just fine. Please keep in mind that if you want to obtain the full bandwidth/throughput of the WiFi 6 spec, you need to enable 160Mhz channel width on the 5GHz wireless band.

RT-AX68U does not support 160MHz channel width, so I have no way of telling if my only WiFi 6 enabled device (Apple IPAD Air 4) is able to transfer data at WiFi 6 speeds when connected to RT-AX68U.

I suspect that if you connect a WiFi 6 client to one of your RT-AX88U that you will not limit the bandwidth available to that client, but if you connect that same client to the RT-AC86U then of course the bandwidth will be limited as RT-AC86U is a WiFi 5 router, not WiFi 6.