List of ASUS AX router wireless settings that only work with AX clients?

[SR-71]

Hi, does anyone have a list, guide, and/or site links that list, or better, explain which ASUS router settings under the General and Professional tabs ONLY work with AX clients?

Here’s why:

Currently, I only have non-AX clients with the RT-AX3000 router and it would be helpful to know which settings I can/should disable until I add an AX client to my network. The goal being to optimize wireless performance further for a mix of N & AC clients for now, if possible.

I’ve already proactively disabled WiFi 6 mode on both bands and several other features on the Professional tab (Airtime Fairness, MU-MIMO, and Universal Beamforming), but am wondering about Target Wake Time and Wi-Fi Agile Multiband (both currently enabled), Protected Management Frames (capable vs. disabled), etc.

I’m also wondering which newer features and their setting values could help optimize performance for non-AX clients vs. the opposite.

I don’t mind experimenting, just looking for more guidance/info so I can figure it out best for my situation (first AX router). Searching online regarding individual features hasn’t been as helpful on the practical side. Most tend to talk about using these newer features with AX clients.

 

[fields987]

Hi, does anyone have a list, guide, and/or site links that list, or better, explain which ASUS router settings under the General and Professional tabs ONLY work with AX clients?

Here’s why:

Currently, I only have non-AX clients with the RT-AX3000 router and it would be helpful to know which settings I can/should disable until I add an AX client to my network. The goal being to optimize wireless performance further for a mix of N & AC clients for now, if possible.

I’ve already proactively disabled WiFi 6 mode on both bands and several other features on the Professional tab (Airtime Fairness, MU-MIMO, and Universal Beamforming), but am wondering about Target Wake Time and Wi-Fi Agile Multiband (both currently enabled), Protected Management Frames (capable vs. disabled), etc.

I’m also wondering which newer features and their setting values could help optimize performance for non-AX clients vs. the opposite.

I don’t mind experimenting, just looking for more guidance/info so I can figure it out best for my situation (first AX router). Searching online regarding individual features hasn’t been as helpful on the practical side. Most tend to talk about using these newer features with AX clients.

Anything with ofdma is ax. I believe agile multiband and target wake time is ax only. Protected management frames is not specific to ax, but is required to be set to at least capable if using wpa3, which also is not specific to ax. Airtime fairness and mu-mimo are not ax specific though it’s usually a good idea to turn off as a baseline. Universal beamforming should be disabled as it’s not baked into either the ac or ax spec, but you can leave explicit or ac/ax beamforming on as it is baked into those specs.

also remember ax works on both 2.4 and 5ghz bands so make sure you’re checking both when verifying settings.

 

[Paapaa]

Why is it necessary to disable those features? Can't you just leave them on? Is there some harm if they are left on?

 

[SR-71]

Thanks fields987. Appreciated both the explanation and confirmation as that’s what I’ve done so far as well.

My challenge is not knowing their interdependencies while trying to figure what each of the newer settings do.

 

[SR-71]

Why is it necessary to disable those features? Can't you just leave them on? Is there some harm if they are left on?

It helps to understand when attempting to get the best or at least balanced performance for my “legacy” devices — until I add an AX client (next laptop). For example, some settings seem to sacrifice legacy device performance when enabled, to boost performance for newer wireless devices.

Here’s another example: I just found this very recent thread searching for what agile multiband does, so I’m not the only one trying to figure out these relatively new settings and their interdependencies:

More about Wi-Fi Agile Multiband setting?

I saw this setting on my new GT-AX11000, and read the Asus FAQ https://www.asus.com/us/support/FAQ/1042471/. I see that by default, it is disabled, when I turned it on and then added a non-AX access point (RT-AC68u) as an AiMesh node, it became disabled again. (The RT-AC68u does not have this...

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