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Michael James

Occasional Visitor
So I kind of jumped into the whole mesh scene last year. Since I already had an Asus router, so I decided to expand using that.
At that time, I was just worried about compatible mesh components.
My home network is not for gaming. its for cameras around the house and for streaming movies for my wife and I (Firestick 4k and Apple TV 4k)
Asus RT-AC88U main router and added 4 RT-AX82U as client mesh. Setup mesh so the wireless cameras were close to a client mesh router or I could plugin cameras as wired units.
TV's all wired.

I have 14 cameras:
3 Amcrest ASH43 (4 MP)-2 wireless, 1 wired,
3 Amcrest IP4M-1041 PTZ (4MP) 2 wired, 1 wireless,
1 Loryta SD49225XA-HNR Dahua PTZ (2MP)-wired,
1 SD49425XB (4MP)-wired,
1 REOLINK RLC-523WA PTZ (5MP)-wired,
2 Foscam R43 (4 MP)-1 wireless, 1 wired,
1 Foscam F1990P (1080P)-wireless,
1 Foscam Z2 1080p-wireless,
1 RCA Doorbell ‎HSDB1 (1080p)-wireless

Asus laptop UX501VW i7-6700HQ 24 gig RAM running Blue Iris 5, external WD hard drive 2 TB USB 3.0
Each camera is either 2.4 or 5ghz compatible.


I'm wondering if I need to move toward WIFI 6/6e? I dont believe my RT-AC88U is WIFI 6 compatible. if so, replace main router with what? What will I gain going WIFI 6 / 6e?
 
If you're using LAN ports 5-8 of your current router, you may run into issues sooner than later (known failure points, and not just the ports are affected, other portions of the router are too when these begin acting up).

Buying a 5-port or 8-port switch for $10 to $20 is the easy solution with any other 4-port router (see below), and in some cases can also be useful to continue using an RT-AC88U when the ports/router do begin to act up too (by using a switch with only ports 1-4).

If you were to buy a new router today, there is no point in buying AC class equipment anymore.

The GT-AX6000 is what I would recommend testing in your environment today.
 
If you're using LAN ports 5-8 of your current router, you may run into issues sooner than later (known failure points, and not just the ports are affected, other portions of the router are too when these begin acting up).

Buying a 5-port or 8-port switch for $10 to $20 is the easy solution with any other 4-port router (see below), and in some cases can also be useful to continue using an RT-AC88U when the ports/router do begin to act up too (by using a switch with only ports 1-4).

If you were to buy a new router today, there is no point in buying AC class equipment anymore.

The GT-AX6000 is what I would recommend testing in your environment today.
I guess my question is this... Is going to WIFI 6 or 6E going to get me large gains?
 
Google your question.

OE

Thank you..but I am asking in regards to my specific setup where I am using a lot of cameras to feed a laptop on the internal network. And then using BI software to remote into those cameras. I dont find anything specific to this setup on a Google search.
 
How many of your cameras support Wi-Fi 6 or 6E? My guess is - none. This is the gain you are going to get - none.

How big is your property and why do you need 5x routers in AiMesh? More Wi-Fi makes things only worse, not better.
 
Thank you..but I am asking in regards to my specific setup where I am using a lot of cameras to feed a laptop on the internal network. And then using BI software to remote into those cameras. I dont find anything specific to this setup on a Google search.

Your setup is simply ASUS AiMesh with a WiFi5 router and WiFi6 nodes with wired and wireless clients, some simple IoT clients. Are the AiMesh backhauls wired or wireless?

If your ax nodes are wireless backhaul to the ac router, an ax router may improve those links a bit. You could note their current ac connection details (NSS, RSSI, Tx rate) in the Wireless Log; then swap one of your WiFi6/ax nodes into router duty (set the AC88U aside for quick recovery) and see if your wireless backhauls improve... a bit.

What is the sq ft area/footprint you are covering with 5 APs? I use two to cover a 2ac property.

OE
 
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I'm wondering if I need to move toward WIFI 6/6e? I dont believe my RT-AC88U is WIFI 6 compatible. if so, replace main router with what? What will I gain going WIFI 6 / 6e?
As others have said, you are likely to gain nothing, nothing at all.

Is there a problem you are trying to fix?
 
thx everyone for the feedback. All 4 of the mesh routers are wireless. I am going wired from the cameras to the mesh routers in order to use the antennaes on the mesh routers. I am getting a lot less drop outs now. I was considering changing the main router and going to WIFI 6 because I thought it might handle the load better with tehse cameras contantly streaming.
 
I guess my question is this... Is going to WIFI 6 or 6E going to get me large gains?

For many aspects, yes. Look what a single, entry-level AX class router, does to two top-drawer AC class routers (in AiMesh mode).

In your case, I would turn off all routers in your home and begin with just the GT-AX6000, adding AiMesh nodes as needed (only). Do you really need 5 routers in your home (even if you do today, you may not with an upgraded AX class main router)

Report - 2x RT-AX68U upgrade over 2x RT-AC86U in wireless backhaul mode
 
I am going wired from the cameras to the mesh routers in order to use the antennaes on the mesh routers.

For this purpose you don't need AiMesh nodes (repeater to wireless devices), but Media Bridges (wireless bridge to wired devices).

Your cameras don't need that much bandwidth. The streams are compressed. You overpaid for 4x "gaming" routers for no good reason.
 
For many aspects, yes. Look what a single, entry-level AX class router, does to two top-drawer AC class routers (in AiMesh mode).

In your case, I would turn off all routers in your home and begin with just the GT-AX6000, adding AiMesh nodes as needed (only). Do you really need 5 routers in your home (even if you do today, you may not with an upgraded AX class main router)

Report - 2x RT-AX68U upgrade over 2x RT-AC86U in wireless backhaul mode

Which GT-AX6000 would you suggest? They range from $270 to $600. Currently have 4 RT-AX82U's client mesh
 
Sorry, I mean the Asus GT-AX6000. Wait for the best deal if you have to. I am not familiar with the RT-AX82Us, but be prepared to part with them if associating even one of them brings the 'AX6000 to their expected levels (expected = RT-AX58U, not the most memorable router Asus has ever offered).
 
If you're using LAN ports 5-8 of your current router, you may run into issues sooner than later (known failure points, and not just the ports are affected, other portions of the router are too when these begin acting up).

Buying a 5-port or 8-port switch for $10 to $20 is the easy solution with any other 4-port router (see below), and in some cases can also be useful to continue using an RT-AC88U when the ports/router do begin to act up too (by using a switch with only ports 1-4).

If you were to buy a new router today, there is no point in buying AC class equipment anymore.

The GT-AX6000 is what I would recommend testing in your environment today.

Based on what I would be using it for.... (ie no gaming) What is the difference between the ASUS ROG Rapture WiFi 6 AX Gaming Router (GT-AX6000) - Dual Band 2.5G WAN/LAN Ports, Quad-Core 2.0Ghz and the ASUS AX6000 WiFi 6 Gaming Router (RT-AX88U) - Dual Band Gigabit Wireless Router, 8 GB Ports. Which would be better for my application of cameras, laptop with WIFI 6 card, Samsung S21 with WIFI 6, 4 RT-AX82U mesh as I have described above. One is arounbd $275 adn the other $325. Which for me isnt a big deal.
 
The RT-AX88U is three years old now. The GT-AX6000 is new (this year's model).

The upgraded LAN ports (the dual 2.5GbE) will help with internal LAN transfers and with future ISP speeds.

The other thing to consider is that the 8 ports of the RT-AX88U aren't a bonus. Many issues may possibly creep into your network because of the way Asus puts 2x 5 port switches together, internally.

For $50 or less (on sale) difference, the RT-AX88U isn't a model to consider going forward today.
 
The RT-AX88U is three years old now. The GT-AX6000 is new (this year's model).

The upgraded LAN ports (the dual 2.5GbE) will help with internal LAN transfers and with future ISP speeds.

The other thing to consider is that the 8 ports of the RT-AX88U aren't a bonus. Many issues may possibly creep into your network because of the way Asus puts 2x 5 port switches together, internally.

For $50 or less (on sale) difference, the RT-AX88U isn't a model to consider going forward today.
Is there a particular GT-AX6000 you like better than the others?
 
See post 13, above.
 
There are no variants as far as I know. Only one Asus GT-AX6000 to buy today (I believe).
 

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