How to get BQ16's to have a reliable connection

[DougBMA]

I am exhausted trying to get WiFi working reliable in my house. I own a typical New England Style home which is about 3500 sqft. Basement, first floor and 2nd floor. Because the basement is unfinished it doesn't count towards the square footage so about 1750sqft on the first and also the second floor. I decided to try the BQ16's. It says something like a main node and a mesh node will cover about 6000 sqft. Here's my issue with that, I have the main access point node in the middle of the 1st floor. I try to put a second node directly above it on the second floor, so about 10 ft away through a ceiling, and it can't stay connected. It will go to a solid blueish white, which means it's connected, but then 5 second later goes to flashing blue which means it's lost it connection and is trying to connect again. Maybe 20 seconds later it will connect and then 5-10 seconds later back to flashing blue. The instructions suggest that it's too far away from the main node. IT'S 10 FEET! Sure, through a ceiling but am I the only rare person that has a house which is not just one massive open room and actually has walls and ceilings?

I have ended up purchasing a total of 6 BQ16 blocks figuring I'll just have to saturate and have them everywhere but I have one on the first floor about 30-40 feel away around the corner and it does a little better but also switches back to flashing blue and struggles to connect. Any time I call ASUS they just want me to wipe them out and reconnect them all again and I have found that to be somewhat successful for a period of days and they seem to stay connect but then back to losing connection. Not sure if they get corrupted or something like that?

I tried the NetGear Orbi's (6e) a few years ago and spend 6 months trying to get them to work reliably and replace some EERO 5's. Could never do it (connection issues between the mesh nodes) and ended up upgrading to EERO 6's. The EERO 6's weren't perfect but were infinitely more reliable. Still, my wife and kids will tell me plenty of times "the WiFi sucks today". So I took a chance and went with the BQ16's and I suppose it's a little better than the Orbi's but still can't use them reliably and that is after spending $3000 for 6 of them. I find it so hard to believe that all of these WiFi's are garbage and that there must be a way to make them more reliable. I can't run Ethernet backhaul to all the nodes, that would be a real pain and I'm sure cost a lot. I am still running the EERO 6's on their own Access Point network and simultaneously running the BQ16's on their own network (different SSID). I keep wondering if they are causing interference between the networks but have been told that there should be no problem doing this.

I am not a network guru by any means so have tried some of the things other have suggested, settings to change, but ASUS always recommends that I return them to factory default settings. I'm very tempted to throw this $3000 in the trash (after only having them 6 months) and trying the EERO 7's, although with the latest tech probably won't yield the ultimate in reliable WiFi but if the EERO 6 is pretty good but the family asking for better, which way do I turn? I'm sure there would be dozens of suggestions from people who have had success with other WiFi suppliers but I feel like there's another reason for all of this that I'm just missing. I don't need unbelievably fast and I think only my phone supports WiFi 7, I just keep figuring that the latest tech will have gotten better at the wireless backhaul.

Any thoughts/recommendations?

Thanks in advance,
Doug

 

[degrub]

Sorry, but physics is physics as you found out. Those numbers quoted are just marketing and reflect unblocked free air distances/areas.
Do you have any unused coax, either RG59 or RG6 assuming in US, available ? MOCA2 or 2.5 can be an option for backhaul.
Another option is using AV2000 ethernet over power adapters. 2 -3 maximum.
Otherwise, you will likely have to run some CAT5e or 6 lan cable. You may be able to use flat cable or something similar to Panduit (covers the cables) for surface runs along the edges of walls.

Hopefully, you are still inside the return window. Different equipment may work a little better, but hard to say without knowing the details of the building construction and layout of walls, location of networking equipment, and clients.

 

[DougBMA]

Sorry, but physics is physics as you found out. Those numbers quoted are just marketing and reflect unblocked free air distances/areas.
Do you have any unused coax, either RG59 or RG6 assuming in US, available ? MOCA2 or 2.5 can be an option for backhaul.
Another option is using AV2000 ethernet over power adapters. 2 -3 maximum.
Otherwise, you will likely have to run some CAT5e or 6 lan cable. You may be able to use flat cable or something similar to Panduit (covers the cables) for surface runs along the edges of walls.

Hopefully, you are still inside the return window. Different equipment may work a little better, but hard to say without knowing the details of the building construction and layout of walls, location of networking equipment, and clients.

Ok, that's interesting. I wasn't aware of this. Yes, I am in the USA. I think I might have some spare Coax cables in other nearby rooms. I'll have to research it a bit more. I have purchased a total of (3) 2 packs of BQ16's, all from Amazon but around 6 months ago. I don't think they would refund but maybe if I push and tell them I will then by EERO 7 from them? I will say that my EERO 6, while the wife and kids complain sometimes, in general they are always connected and I don't typically see too many slow ups. So perhaps they do things a bit differently from ASUS and it just works better when in a traditional home? I know that many dislike them because of lack of options/settings, but I'm not doing anything crazy, just want it to work reasonably well.

Thanks for your input!

 

[bbunge]

Ok, that's interesting. I wasn't aware of this. Yes, I am in the USA. I think I might have some spare Coax cables in other nearby rooms. I'll have to research it a bit more. I have purchased a total of (3) 2 packs of BQ16's, all from Amazon but around 6 months ago. I don't think they would refund but maybe if I push and tell them I will then by EERO 7 from them? I will say that my EERO 6, while the wife and kids complain sometimes, in general they are always connected and I don't typically see too many slow ups. So perhaps they do things a bit differently from ASUS and it just works better when in a traditional home? I know that many dislike them because of lack of options/settings, but I'm not doing anything crazy, just want it to work reasonably well.

Thanks for your input!

My guess is that you are trying to push the WIFI to its limits bandwidth wise. This may be causing your issues. reset all the devices and start with just a router and an AiMesh node. let the router choose which band it wants to use for backhaul, Auto setting. I would set te 5 GHz to 80 MHz no DFS, both radios, and the 2.4 GHz to 20 MHz. These settings will give you the best stability, best range and will not be hit by RADAR. Get the router and one AiMesh node up and working then add another and so on. Also use WPA2-Personal only and the smart connect. This should work better for you. Wired backhaul would be better. Only add the nodes you need as more WIFI can be too much.

 

[DougBMA]

My guess is that you are trying to push the WIFI to its limits bandwidth wise. This may be causing your issues. reset all the devices and start with just a router and an AiMesh node. let the router choose which band it wants to use for backhaul, Auto setting. I would set te 5 GHz to 80 MHz no DFS, both radios, and the 2.4 GHz to 20 MHz. These settings will give you the best stability, best range and will not be hit by RADAR. Get the router and one AiMesh node up and working then add another and so on. Also use WPA2-Personal only and the smart connect. This should work better for you. Wired backhaul would be better. Only add the nodes you need as more WIFI can be too much.

Thanks for the comments. I think I will try the MoCA 2.5 first and if I can get that working then like you said, perhaps that's the best solution and if I can't get it working then I'll try your suggestions and see if I can get it to work and most importantly, continue to work.

Thanks