Compatible mesh nodes to use with RT-BE88U

[gt67cougar]

I'm looking for advice on what the best (inexpensive) unit would be to work as a mesh node with my RT-BE88U. I ran an RT-AC88U for more than 8 years and once AiMesh got the early bugs worked out, added an RT-AC3100 as a hard wired mesh node on the opposite end of the house on top of my AV rack. Both units running Merlin firmware. I replaced the RT-AC88U with an RT-BE88U (running Merlin firmware) in February and it has worked well, pretty much covers the whole space without AiMesh. While the Wi-Fi at the fringe areas works, it isn't great so I'm considering setting up a mesh node over on the AV rack again (replacing the switch that is currently there). I was going to wipe and add the RT-AC88U as the mesh node, but figured I'd better check a little harder. After some research, it should connect as a mesh node, albite AC only, but would lose a significant number of features. I'm currently running the IoT network solely for my 2 Squeezebox Booms and 2 Squeezebox Duets (go figure, they still work great 16+ years old) which I use daily. Would the IoT still work off the BE88U, just not the AC88U mesh node? Etc.

I further looked at AiMesh in general and Dong says NO on hook-ups more than one generation apart, i.e.

Wi-Fi7 / Wi-Fi7 = BEST
Wi-Fi7 / Wi-Fi6 = OK
Wi-Fi7 / Wi-Fi5 = NO

Is this accurate? I'd love to get another RT-BE88U as a mesh node, but really can't afford another $350 out so was looking at the RT-BE58U for the mesh node? Would that work well? I realize it doesn't have the top end bandwidth of the BE88U, but in real world use I can't see that being an issue. Also know it's not supported by Merlin firmware but the stock firmware should be fine as a mesh node. I have my sister running an RT-AX88U with 2 RT-AX3000 as mesh nodes without issue. Had intended to run Merlin on all but when the AX3000's arrived they were ver 2 and not compatible anymore so have been running stock ASUS firmware on those and she's had no problems.

I've looked at the RT-BE86U as well, but for such a slight difference in price compared to BE88U, I'd much rather have the additional network ports and RAM of the BE88U. I do not need or want Tri-Band, I'm of the opinion that except for rare situations, the 6GHz band is pretty much useless in the real world.

So, would the RT-BE58U work for me as a mesh node, without loss of features? I appreciate any feedback! Thanks

 

[bbunge]

With WIFI 7 router stick with a WIFI 7 AiMesh node. If the router is a "Pro" version a non "Pro" version will work but some features will be lost.

 

[gt67cougar]

thanks, the BE88U is not a "Pro" model, they don't have one currently (yet). Far as I can tell the BE58U is lower CPU, half the ram, and 2 x 2 antennas vs 4 x 4 on the BE88U and the network port differences, which is fine.

 

[jksmurf]

If you’re looking at VLAN capabilities of mesh nodes and connectivity both wired and wireless, have a look at this thread, @visortgw provides some excellent feedback. It is something to consider wrt FW Codebases for AIMesh units.

 

[jzchen]

Sorry for the late input.

I have had WiFi 7, 6E, and 5 on AiMesh, but after a while the WiFi 5 router was listed EOL and I replaced with a 6. They appear to work fine, (on wired backhaul, actually I felt like more clients connected to the AC68U than the AX routers for some reason).

MLO- if you need this across router and nodes then the safest way is unfortunately another expensive BE88U. If you can match the bandwidth frequency by frequency, then you may get lucky like I did with a BE98 Pro and BQ16 Pro offering MLO across both, but at least one person I know carefully matched 2.4 and 5 GHz specs, but his router has a 6 GHz channel, and it does not allow to MLO across router and node. ASUS' official stance was that MLO is only available across the same model routers only.

AiMesh wise the lesser limits the greater... (If this is unclear I don't mind explaining).

 

[BobbyFlobby]

I got the BE6500 (for mesh) when it was on sale at AMZN (was going to get the BE58U) and then had an 88U as the main router, everything was working fine.
Ethernet backhaul, really base settings and DOT servers.

 

[gt67cougar]

I got the BE6500 (for mesh) when it was on sale at AMZN (was going to get the BE58U) and then had an 88U as the main router, everything was working fine.
Ethernet backhaul, really base settings and DOT servers.

So you got the RT-BE82U as a mesh unit instead of the RT-BE58U, this got tabled for me for a bit and I'm buying shortly. For $50 more, I think the RT-BE82U is the better way to go for me. All 2.5Gbps ports instead of back haul 2.5 and 4 1Gbps ports on the 58U and 4x4 5Ghz WiFi vs 2x2. Thoughts?

 

[Tech9]

Thoughts?

Seems like RT-BE82U is part of Smart Home Master series. This means it has no user VLAN control. This means you can use it as AiMesh node to your primary RT-BE88U, Guest Network Pro and the new Network will propagate to wireless devices, but you can't assign VLAN to the node's LAN ports. The clients connected there will be on the main VLAN. This may be limitation for you, depending on the use case.

 

[jzchen]

Sam's Club has the best price I could find on the RT-BE88U if you're a member (obviously) @ $299.

 

[gt67cougar]

Seems like RT-BE82U is part of Smart Home Master series. This means it has no user VLAN control. This means you can use it as AiMesh node to your primary RT-BE88U, Guest Network Pro and the new Network will propagate to wireless devices, but you can't assign VLAN to the node's LAN ports. The clients connected there will be on the main VLAN. This may be limitation for you, depending on the use case.

Thank you, hadn't thought about the VLAN though where it's going it wouldn't be required. I could run VLAN solely off the RT-BE88U and a managed switch if I had too. I don't know if it's common knowledge but I found out the hard way, NEVER connect your mesh units through a managed switch, will work fine through a dumb switch though. If connected via a managed switch it will work for say a week, drop, may connect again, maybe not, reset etc.. Hooked up directly or through dumb switch, connects immediately and is solid. I'll either get the RT-BE82U for use without VLAN on it's end or if I need VLAN, get an RT-BE86U.

 

[gt67cougar]

Sam's Club has the best price I could find on the RT-BE88U if you're a member (obviously) @ $299.

I bought my RT-BE88U on sale for $299 from B&H Photo in Feb, so have had for a while. Would love to buy another for the mesh unit on the other side of the house just can't justify the expense for a mesh node...

 

[Tech9]

This router is quite expensive for dual-band. See this:

AX11000 & obtaining 2Gbit throughput via LAN PORTS - See below.

I have and AX11000 and would like to use two ports (LAN x or other) so I can obtain a combined throughput of 2Gbit out of the 11000 to connect to a 2.5Gbit switch or 2.5Gbit LAN card in a Linux box. I know u can utilize link aggregation for the incoming WAN however I need to get 2Gbit OUT of...

www.snbforums.com

Comes to around $500 with 5-port 2.5GbE switches, tri-band Wi-Fi 7 and whatever you want VLAN options on LAN or WLAN. The more expensive variant with 8-port switches and 10GbE links works in friend's house for some time now and was never touched after installation. Everything Asus is trying to fix or implement in AiMesh is there and for less money. Higher Wife Acceptance Factor as well.

 

[gt67cougar]

This router is quite expensive for dual-band. See this:

AX11000 & obtaining 2Gbit throughput via LAN PORTS - See below.

I have and AX11000 and would like to use two ports (LAN x or other) so I can obtain a combined throughput of 2Gbit out of the 11000 to connect to a 2.5Gbit switch or 2.5Gbit LAN card in a Linux box. I know u can utilize link aggregation for the incoming WAN however I need to get 2Gbit OUT of...

www.snbforums.com

Comes to around $500 with 5-port 2.5GbE switches, tri-band Wi-Fi 7 and whatever you want VLAN options on LAN or WLAN. The more expensive variant with 8-port switches and 10GbE links works in friend's house for some time now and was never touched after installation. Everything Asus is trying to fix or implement in AiMesh is there and for less money. Higher Wife Acceptance Factor as well.

I already own and love the RT-BE88U, replaced my nearly 9 year old RT-AC88U (used it with an RT-AC3100 as mesh node for years, well, after AiMesh 2.0 came out, too many bugs in version 1). The BE88U pretty much covers my house, better than the AC88U did, but I'd like stronger WiFi on the other side of the house and 2.5Gbps ports so will add an BE82U which solves both those minor issues. Specifically wanted a dual band router as I have a fair amount of experience with 6GHz WiFi and deliberately do not want. It is extremely fast at short distances pretty much line of sight, has relatively short range, even less with obstructions and hangs on the connection with a death grip. AXe wireless on a ThinkPad will hang on to the 6GHz signal that's just terrible and barely works at 3Mbps, where if it would kick over to the 5GHz band it'd have 866Mbps. No global standard, endless troubleshooting and short range leads to a pass for me. If I have something that requires the kind of bandwidth 6GHz is capable of, I'd just hard wire it... I am putting Ubiquiti in my sisters new house under construction, but going for multigig hardwire and dual band WiFi, again no desire to troubleshoot the 6GHz band and for their use(s) no need.

 

[Tech9]

No global standard, endless troubleshooting and short range leads to a pass for me.

Agree. Same here.

 

[jzchen]

BE 6 GHz is really sensitive to noise. Found out (luckily) the easy way by initially trying my BQ16 Pro out on a simple surge strip then adding a cheap(er) UPS which immediately crippled 6 GHz, (of which the BQ16 Pro has 2). Turns out the simulated sine wave stuff does a number on it, (yes) through the AC adapter, (so smart of Ubiquiti to use USB C)...

ASUS EOL list has a list of corresponding recommended upgrades, if I'm not too late mentioning it and you've already purchased... Interestingly for the AC3100 you are interested to replace only one recommendation caught my glance to include 6 GHz, RT-AXE7800. The ZenWiFi XT9 is tri-band but dual 5 GHz.

I recently upgraded a Netgear GS-105 to a TRENDnet TEG-S762. Version 2 is much more compact than the older Version 1. That's the thing about Ubiquiti, their price is a lot more reasonable than I would expect, but the single 10 Gb port eventually leads to another can of worms so to speak...

 

[gt67cougar]

BE 6 GHz is really sensitive to noise. Found out (luckily) the easy way by initially trying my BQ16 Pro out on a simple surge strip then adding a cheap(er) UPS which immediately crippled 6 GHz, (of which the BQ16 Pro has 2). Turns out the simulated sine wave stuff does a number on it, (yes) through the AC adapter, (so smart of Ubiquiti to use USB C)...

ASUS EOL list has a list of corresponding recommended upgrades, if I'm not too late mentioning it and you've already purchased... Interestingly for the AC3100 you are interested to replace only one recommendation caught my glance to include 6 GHz, RT-AXE7800. The ZenWiFi XT9 is tri-band but dual 5 GHz.

I recently upgraded a Netgear GS-105 to a TRENDnet TEG-S762. Version 2 is much more compact than the older Version 1. That's the thing about Ubiquiti, their price is a lot more reasonable than I would expect, but the single 10 Gb port eventually leads to another can of worms so to speak...

I did get the RT-BE82U for the mesh node, it was on sale for $169 and I pulled the trigger. 2.5Gb backhaul, 2.5Gb ports and closer match on the WiFi than the RT-BE58U, it's been running just as expected, though on the stock firmware as it has no Merlin support..... perhaps someday. I really good mesh node for the RT-BE88U at roughly half the price..