GT-AXE16000 Owner's Thread

[CooleyRobb]

Could you refresh my memory? What was the issue with the port? Thanks.

sorry I just saw this but originally I had and a few others the 2.5/1 gig port would have very slow uploads speeds when doing a speed test I had to use one of my 10g ports to get all the speeds I was getting before. Now since the 388 update the issue seems to be fixed, In the official 388 changeling on Asus site it also says "fixed connection issues with Verizon fios"

 

[Bhoot®]

I gave up on aimesh. Configured 1x XT8 in repeater mode. Amazingly, getting 7xxmbps internal pc to pc testing, 6xxMbps with aimesh. Will see if I can get the other XT8s up in the same way.
Edit. So...replaced the XT8s with XT12s. AXE16000 is running firmware FW_GT_AXE16000_300438650168. XT12s, had to upgrade firmware to FW_ZENWIFI_XT12_300438650350. Both of these are not the latest firmware but they did allow me to get it all running in aimesh. Processs I used.
AXE16000. Factory reset via WPS button method. Login. Restore + checkbox initialize. Login. Wait 15mins. Restart via power off switch.
XT12. Factory reset via WPS button method. Login. Restore + initialize. Wait 5mins. Restart via power off switch. Connect via Ethernet cable. Set as aimesh node. Switch to AXE16000 > add aimesh node.
Note. I cable connected the routers initially. Once aimesh node is added. Wait 10mins. Restart XT12 via switch button on/off. Let aimesh sync up. Leave 10mins. Disconnect cable from XT12 to AXE16. Wait until it syncs via WiFi and backhaul is 5Ghz-2, then wait 10mins. Then switch off XT12 using switch. Power on after 20-30 seconds. Let it sync back. Wait 5 mins on sync and backhaul is 5-2 band. Switch off/move to final location.
I have the AXE1600 + aimesh wireless 2x XT12. Rebooted nodes numerous times, optimize, etc. All good so far.
What I learnt is that waiting...its actually required. Numerous times I saw the XT12 lose sync as is went from 2.4Ghz backhaul to 5-2Ghz. Switching from ethernet to wireless is causes the to re-synch several times. Firmware is offical Asus. I tried Merlin, but could not even find the aimesh node option on factory restore on XT12. If I was running 1x router, I'd go Merlin every single time but, I am fine with it.
Only odd thing is that the dual-wan is not flipping back once the primary link comes back on line, not too bothered. Just super happy I got the whole network so far, 2nd XT is first time solid

 

[blackfireball5]

will 16000 get UNII-4 soon? (XT8 got the update already)

Wondering this myself. It would be so nice to make the second 5ghz antenna a 160MHz channel.

 

[RMerlin]

Wondering this myself. It would be so nice to make the second 5ghz antenna a 160MHz channel.

Do you have any client that supports UNII-4?

Because that's the other half of the equation. Virtually no client supports it at this point (at least none of those that I tried), so having your router support it isn't going to be of much help.

 

[blackfireball5]

Do you have any client that supports UNII-4?

Because that's the other half of the equation. Virtually no client supports it at this point (at least none of those that I tried), so having your router support it isn't going to be of much help.

Since I don't have access to a router with UNII-4 support, and googling doesn't seem to offer any insight, I have no clue.

It still could be useful for 5GHz backhaul to another router, no?

 

[erick_e]

It's been two years since the FCC authorized the use of the 5.9GHz channels, and not even the new Intel AX series adapters fully support all the new 5.9GHz channels opened up, as of October 2022 they only support up to 5.895GHz, meaning they might only support two additional 20MHz channels (169 and 173) and not the full 160MHz channel (149 to 177). The older Intel series wireless cards only support up to 5.85GHz, so they won't support any of the new channels. I only see these additional 5.9GHz channels being useful for backhaul between two access points that both support the 160Mhz channel.

Intel(R) WiFi Adapter Information Guide

 

[Bhoot®]

Update. AXE16k + 2x XT12s. Upgrade from AX11000 + 3x XT8s. All wireless aimesh backhaul. I read the reviews, tests, etc and there is a clear difference between in performance between XT8s and XT12s. XT8s, my closest node got 300-400Mbps actual transfer speed, XT12 is posting near 910Mbps. I am consistently hitting wired 1Gbps speed or close to it. As or AXE12k. No stability issues no far but then again, I am still on older firmware. Going to upgrade the nodes tomorrow to latest and see how it goes. I was not expecting much of an improvement in performance but the XT12s seem far more better when it comes to aimesh wireless nodes than XT8. Will be keeping the AXE16k, its a keeper for me. Once I have the upgraded 3Gbps link installed, when benchmark again.

Update. Firmware updated to 388.21617 latest at the moment. No issues so far.
(I really really want to run Merlin, huge fan, life was simpler when it was just 1 router)

 

[tcv21]

Have you tried a rescue restore? Switch off router. Hold down reset pin and switch on router. Light should turn red/pink. Then use the asus rescue app to restore the router? I'd try Merlin as well.

Rescue restore doing the reset pin and switching on the router isnt working this way. Any other way to get it into rescue mode?

 

[Bhoot®]

Rescue restore doing the reset pin and switching on the router isnt working this way. Any other way to get it into rescue mode?

Turn off router. Hold reset pin button down. Switch on router and light will turn pink. Then use restoration app from asus site to flash. I've done this on AXE16, ET12, XT12 and XT8s. Take note, not all firmware is supported for restoration via pink light. Check the releases, if you don't find a change log record then go for earliest or oldest firmware.

 

[tcv21]

Turn off router. Hold reset pin button down. Switch on router and light will turn pink. Then use restoration app from asus site to flash. I've done this on AXE16, ET12, XT12 and XT8s. Take note, not all firmware is supported for restoration via pink light. Check the releases, if you don't find a change log record then go for earliest or oldest firmware.

THanks.... I have tried that.. all I get now is a very slow blinking white light on my AXE16000.. and when I say slow, I mean 2-3 seconds between blinks. The Asus restoration app keeps saying that the router is not in rescue mode. Something feels jacked up with this device.

 

[Bhoot®]

THanks.... I have tried that.. all I get now is a very slow blinking white light on my AXE16000.. and when I say slow, I mean 2-3 seconds between blinks. The Asus restoration app keeps saying that the router is not in rescue mode. Something feels jacked up with this device.

You've tried holding reset pin + turn on router holding WPS button and cannot get into restore mode. If you can send router back. One of the above should of worked. I've used the reset button and WPS button method numerous times in the last fews day on the AX16000, etc. The process to reset these more recent routers is the same or similar. Return.

 

[tcv21]

You've tried holding reset pin + turn on router holding WPS button and cannot get into restore mode. If you can send router back. One of the above should of worked. I've used the reset button and WPS button method numerous times in the last fews day on the AX16000, etc. The process to reset these more recent routers is the same or similar. Return.

So.. I did the WPS button method first... THEN I did the reset pin and turn on. Once I did those 2 in order, I was able to get where I needed to be. Thank you so much!

 

[Prasanna Ariyanayagam]

Has anyone run 2 x axe16000 in wifi mesh mode? How was it? Is it better than 2 x et12?

 

[Bandito]

Has anyone run 2 x axe16000 in mesh mode? How was it? Is it better than 2 x et12?

@Prasanna Ariyanayagam, I have two of these in AI mesh mode and they are working great, providing me with the best WiFi speeds that I’ve ever had.

I did run into a little trouble when playing with the radio band channel widths and DFS channels, but if I leave them at the defaults, everything is rock-solid.

I have them setup with a single SSID for all channels and all my devices, old and new, find their preferred band and connect just fine. That includes my iPad connecting on the 6GHz band as it is, so far, my only 6E device.

 

[Prasanna Ariyanayagam]

Excellent news. Can you use one of the 5ghz as backhaul? Asus or use Merlin software?

 

[Bandito]

Yes, the back haul defaults to the second 5GHz band. I am using the current ASUS firmware.

 

[MarvinAndro]

How many (IoT) devices can one GT-AXE16000 support without drops?

Sorry if this was covered and I missed it.
I just got one GT-AXE16000 and put all 4 channels on the same SSID/password, shut down my aging Nest Wifi mesh, and hoped that beast can replace it single-handedly.
So far, it allows about 90-100 devices to connect and the rest seems to have an issue. If I reboot the router, some lights, switches, etc that were connected would not connect and I can see that some of those that were not connected would connect.
I was doing OK with just under 150 IoT devices on the old Nest router with 2 points.
Anything I need to tweak on the new GT-AXE16000 to get to 180-ish IoT devices? (yes, more kasa switches and dimmers were on special those last few days).
Thanks!

 

[Tech9]

Anything I need to tweak on the new GT-AXE16000 to get to 180-ish IoT devices?

I would use dedicated business class APs for so many Wi-Fi clients.

 

[MarvinAndro]

I would use dedicated business class APs for so many Wi-Fi clients.

In other words, the answer is - NO, it can't do it - regardless of Asus support insisting that the GT-AXE16000 can easily handle 250+ devices and asking me to wait another 48 hours for engineering to provide detailed instructions?
The goal was to not go the business path for the average home IoT devices - switches, dimmers, smart pot lights. This has worked fine with Nest/Google WiFi mix, at some point I had to add another point as Google clearly said no more than 100 per point.

 

[L&LD]

It can't easily handle 250+ devices on a /24 subnet that Asus routers are locked to.

Try powering down your entire network (the longer, the better) and bringing it up in order: Router, Switches, Client devices (wired), and Client devices (wireless). Waiting a full 10 minutes or so before moving to the next category and turning those devices on.