Solved Extender Advice

[Spartacus]

I have an Asus ZenWifi XT8 mesh network with the router and a single node. It seems Asus in their infinite wisdom chooses not to sell single nodes. I can't get a decent signal outside my house and thought an extra node might help. It seems I have two options:

1. Get a new router that supports AIMesh and use the current router as an additional node
2. Get a compatible range extender from Asus

Option 2 is cheaper but is it the best option?

 

[L&LD]

Option 2 is cheaper because you're buying throwaway garbage.

You can buy another two pack and sell one privately.

Buying a new router that is AiMesh capable is the better long-term solution, IMO. Much more options are available to you, and to the future owner of that hardware too (vs. the already limited (and usually outdated) range extenders).

 

[Tech9]

It seems Asus in their infinite wisdom chooses not to sell single nodes.

I've got a single XT8 unit recently from Amazon in Canada.

 

[ColinTaylor]

It seems Asus in their infinite wisdom chooses not to sell single nodes.

They're available in the UK as 1 packs or 2 packs, in black or white. Even a 1 pack seems like an expensive option.

 

[Tech9]

Definitely overpriced for what it is. The only reason to go with this unit was friend's wife design acceptance threshold.

 

[tgl]

FWIW, Amazon US sells individual "renewed" XT8 units, for $250 presently which seems kinda high for refurbished gear. I took a flyer on one anyway a couple months back, because I didn't need two more units and didn't want to deal with reselling one of a pair.

What I got was a refurbished ET8.

That happened to meet my needs, because I'm running it as a media bridge so it only has to talk to the 5GHZ-1 client radio in the main XT8 node. I'd have been pretty pissed if I wanted to use it as a wireless-backhaul AIMesh node, because I don't think its 6GHZ radio will interoperate with the 5GHZ-2 radios in my XT8s. Still, maybe in a year or three when I have some 6GHZ clients I will have a use for that radio, so I didn't send it back.

 

[Tech9]

The one I've got was about USD200 new. Still overpriced, but some people prefer the looks.

 

[Spartacus]

Thanks to all who responded. Seems you can find a single unit on Amazon if you use the correct search terms