RT-BE92U w/ Merlin to ZenWiFi BT8 AIMesh (w/ stock) sanity check

[bpsmicro]

Finally got Fiber to the house, upgrading my speeds from 0.03Gbps to 3Gbps. So finally my WiFi 7 router can see some real action.

Right now I have a couple of older Asus routers (running stock firmware) set up (via ethernet backhaul) as AIMesh nodes. These nodes don't have WiFi6/WiFi7, but generally have done the job with my lower speeds. But still a bit quirky and the WiFi5 coverage is still spotty in places.

After poking around, a good solution appears to be to catch a sale on a ZenWiFi BT8 2-pack and set them up as AIMesh nodes (again, ethernet backhaul) with the BE92U as the master still, and retire the old Asus routers.

I'd say 3/4 of my WiFi devices are 2.4G only (IoT stuff or a few older devices), at the moment, in case that matters.

Any obvious flaws with that plan?

 

[Poul Bak]

I use My RT-BE92U as main router, then I use my BT10 as ACCESS POINT, no AiMesh, that way they don't have to be compatible at all. Just an idea.

 

[bpsmicro]

That is an interesting idea. Seems to me that if I get ZenWifi boxes of any kind, then AIMesh is just as functional. But if I found something of equivalent specs to the BT8 or BT10 that aren't Asus, the access point idea would be viable too. I'll have to look into that.

 

[Tech9]

Any obvious flaws with that plan?

In my opinion - Yes. Investing in AiMesh when Ethernet infrastructure is available is like donating money to ASUS so they can eventually figure out AiMesh shortcomings in some near or distant future. Your main router is the model with most reported issues (ASUS is still fixing it) and permanently broken features (will most likely get to EoL like this) and your BT8 idea for MediaTek hardware is in "Good luck" category since MediaTek devices at ASUS are known for ongoing issues and shorter lifespan. BT8 will come to you at half price eventually and with potentially full set of issues for your 3/4 2.4GHz IoT devices. And very few people around will be able to help you because BT8 is not very popular model on SNB Forums.

 

[bpsmicro]

Yeah, it's just that I'm not replacing the BE92U anytime soon. I was having problems with it (the RTC crash bug) and ended up coughing up for a BE88U to maintain stability (at the expense of WiFi6 for now). So I have a lot of expensive Asus hardware kicking around I want to keep running as long as I can.

So far, from my reading, using non-Asus access points adds a lot more complexity.

 

[Tech9]

Unfortunately, big share of reported issues with ASUS BE-class devices is around 2.4GHz connectivity. You may face challenges with your 3/4 2.4GHz IoT devices. I wouldn't add BT8 to the list of expensive devices.

 

[bpsmicro]

Good to keep in mind. Curiously, I'm having very few issues with 2.4 GHz stuff, but rather finding the magic plan to get better 5Ghz coverage. Still a few weak spots.

For now I'm going to experiment with taking the current AIMesh nodes out of the "mesh" and trying them in AP mode and then moving them around to a few spots to see if I can settle things out. I'm also reading more in the other SNB forums, since we're a wee bit off-topic here now.