Solved Some updates on the issues that developed with my BE92U

[iFrogMac]

Hey all, quick recap of the situation:
Last year I purchased the RT-BE92U with the main purpose of having more than one 2.5G port. With that said, I had issues out of the box with the router with some of my 2.4G smart devices such as smart plugs failing to connect with 6Ghz enabled. It wasn't a WPA3 related issue as I did testing of that by disabling WP3 on all bands and only disabling 6Ghz was the fix until I mad other changes and then I was able to get things all working together. Fast forward til a month or so ago, and the router was fine. Then it developed issues with Alexa, and my smart lights where Alexa's responses were altered, when interacting with the bulbs, and the bulb(s) were not turning the correct colors. There was real way to figure out or explain what was going on, as none of the usual documented fixes for compatibility would work. So after hearing so many negative things about that router, and thinking mine had gone bad, I threw it out, and went back to my RT-AX86U and things worked fine, but that still didn't solve the Ethernet upgrades I wanted to have in place.

So, since I knew my most important needs at this point, I tried a dual band TP-Link BE3600, because the BE9300 was out of stock. Well the dual band TP worked perfectly. However, the next day Walmart (yesterday) got the BE9300 back into stock so I got one of those to try and compare since I do want to have 6G available for future devices I get that can take advantage of it.

Anyway, I discovered that some of my iOT devices DO NOT like Tri-Band routers, because alexa acted up again with the light controls under the new router as well. However the light turned the right colors under the TP-Link, so the BE92U was making the problem worse. I then tested something yesterday, and set Alexa to "Brief Mode) which disables a lot of the spoken responses for things, and just plays a tone. Well that seems to have fixed the issue completely, or at least it's not noticeable now.

@Tech9 had suggested a Ubiquity router / AP to me, which I may get later on in a couple years or so. However in troubleshooting this issue, I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a new router since the RT-AX86U still works, and I was only focused on the Ethernet upgrade as to why I tried the cheapest dual band WiFi 7 router first which had a 2.5 WAN and 1 2.5G LAN which was perfect as only the computer with the 2.5 adapter is the only device that can currently use faster Ethernet. I was curious about the 6G issues though as well, and the other good news is, my smart plugs didn't have connection issues out of the box with the default settings with all three bands on either. So the Asus does have issues in some setups.

The other secret the BE9300 has, is there are two versions:

The BE9300 Archer 550, which is marketed with all 2.5 ports
The BE9300 Archer 9300 which is sold cheaper through places like Walmart, and is marketed and labeled as having a single 2.5 LAN and the 2.5 WAN with 3 1G LAN. turns out they both have all 2.5G ports despite the marketing and port labels.

So, for the time being, problem solved and I have access to faster Ethernet, and 6Ghz for my supported device, and any future devices I get going forward, and all smart home devices reported to be working correctly.
Oh, and I returned the dual band router yesterday, so will get the money back for that one.

One other thing I wanted to add for detail sake is, in testing, I disabled the iOT network on the tp-link, and connected my old airport extreme in bridge mode in 2.4 only and set it's SSID and pass to those of the iOT network, and it seems like the problems caused with the tri-band setup isn't WiFi specific. as it happened with the devices connected to the airport as well. So it must be a processing related issue tri band wifi 7 routers have over dual band routers.

As mentioned though, I seem to have been able to settle the issue down with the TP-Link where I wasn't able to with the BE92U.

 

[Poul Bak]

I think you could have saved a lot of trouble and money just by creating a GUEST network on the RT-BE92U with only 2.4Ghz enabled. At least my devices connect fine.

 

[iFrogMac]

I think you could have saved a lot of trouble and money just by creating a GUEST network on the RT-BE92U with only 2.4Ghz enabled. At least my devices connect fine.

I didn't mention this in my original post, but I had a dedicated iOT network on 2.4g only for the bulbs. the amazon echos, plugs and other devices were on the main 5ghz and 2.4ghz bands. So the bulbs were isolated as they were the only thing that ever had issues and isolating them to a guest / IOT network fixed the main initial problems of them dropping off randomly. The issues described here happened despite of my specific setup.
Edit, I wanted to also mention that, I never talked about this problem online much because it was so strange, that there was no way to accurately explain it online, even in video, I still think people would have needed to be in person to fully see the odd behavior. Trust me, I did everything I knew how to do before getting rid of the BE92U, and considering a new router to replace it.

 

[Tech9]

computer with the 2.5 adapter is the only device that can currently use faster Ethernet

So basically the whole hardware exchange and waste of time/money was done for zero real benefit since you don't have >Gigabit ISP line, all other devices are up to Gigabit and eventual future 2.5GbE LAN needs a switch, not a new AIO router. You just keep yourself busy.

 

[iFrogMac]

So basically the whole hardware exchange and waste of time/money was done for zero real benefit since you don't have >Gigabit ISP line, all other devices are up to Gigabit and eventual future 2.5GbE LAN needs a switch, not a new AIO router. You just keep yourself busy.

I was able to go back to the 1gig plan. it's finally stable and with the 2.5 G upgrade I get about 1.2 G to the computer now over the 940 Mbps cap. The only reason I'm not going to pay for the 2 G plan is because it's too much over 1 G for only having 100 Mbps up as well.
If Fiber was an option here, I could probably get 2 G up and down for a lot better deal than I can with Cable.

The 1G plan is 1G down and 100 Mbps up, and the 2G plan is only 100 Mbps up as well so it's not worth it over 1 G for $200 with only having 100 Mbps up.

 

[Tech9]

I get about 1.2 G to the computer now

After months of experiments and hundreds of dollars financial loss - this is truly remarkable achievement. Congratulations!

 

[iFrogMac]

After months of experiments and hundreds of dollars financial loss - this is truly remarkable achievement. Congratulations!

Well part of it was on Cox's end and part of it was on my end, and if I had realized it sooner, I could have saved time and money.

What ended up happening in a recap, was this:

I've had a gigabit connection for years, and I was just using the built in gigabit port on the computer. After moving here and having issues after a year with the cox gateway, I decided trying the own my own modem route. The modem I first got worked but turned out to also have issues in addition to the cox lines. That's why it worked, but wouldn't stay stable, and when it got unstable I couldn't keep a connection. So I used the BE92U with the 500 / 50 plan until this year when I started having connection issues again. A couple times it was Cox, so I wrote that off, but I wasn't satisfied in just assuming the modem was OK, especially after the Blue LED almost went out. If there weren't connection issues at the same time, I would have just written the LED off as bad. Anyway, I got a newer revision of the same modem, and it's been rock solid with the exception of cox issues but even with those, the modem behaves a lot better now. With that said with the issues with the BE92U and it being a known problem router. I decided to just toss it and not bother with another Asus router. So tried TPLink for WiFi 7 and so far very happy. So here are my two take away thoughts here.
One, if I had replaced the modem sooner, i could have probably been stable a lot sooner.
Two, if I had stayed with TPLink, I could have probably avoided the issues I've had with the two Asus routers. Thankfully, the RT-AX86U has matured, and is a solid backup router, but it doesn't give me the higher Ethernet capabilities.
I agree with you that it took longer and cost more in frustration and money than it should have, but I basically worked through it on my own. I'm just glad it eventually paid off. That's why I created this thread was to tell people I finally got this taken care of and I thought it was better to wait until everything was sorted instead of trying to bring people along for each step and causing more frustration and confusion on here than was was necessary as well.

 

[Tech9]

I'm just glad it eventually paid off.

So 3x modems and 4x routers if I remember correctly without counting the exchanges. You've paid out of pocked for quite a few. What exactly quality of life improvement you've got compared to before you started swapping hardware?

 

[iFrogMac]

So 3x modems and 4x routers if I remember correctly without counting the exchanges. You've paid out of pocked for quite a few. What exactly quality of life improvement you've got compared to before you started swapping hardware?

Well it was supposed to be a very simple upgrade. I didn't count on things going as out of wack as they did.
The two main things, get rid of the modem rental fee from Cox and be in charge of my own modem. Upgrade the router and Ethernet port on the computer to be able to try faster speeds to see what benefit the upgrades would bring. So, two simple things turned into a big frustrating mess. I'm sorry to have drug everyone else through this. Usually when I do something it's more organized and straight forward as this has been.

 

[Tech9]

You were given advice NOT to replace the ISP equipment because your own becomes your responsibility. You were given advice NOT to purchase a brand new to the market entry-level unpopular model router. You were given advice NOT to replace your existing very capable and supported model router running on more mature firmware base. You were asked many times what exactly do you want to "take advantage" of. Okay, now you have faster speed test to your PC from non-guaranteed ISP line overprovisioning. Have you calculated how much money you have lost in the process because of NOT following advice?

 

[iFrogMac]

You were given advice NOT to replace the ISP equipment because your own becomes your responsibility. You were given advice NOT to purchase a brand new to the market entry-level unpopular model router. You were given advice NOT to replace your existing very capable and supported model router running on more mature firmware base. You were asked many times what exactly do you want to "take advantage" of. Okay, now you have faster speed test to your PC from non-guaranteed ISP line overprovisioning. Have you calculated how much money you have lost in the process because of NOT following advice?

That was my whole point of apologizing. I usually don't need to ask for help. I usually can do my research and be pretty confident things will work out, so that's why I apologized for dragging everyone else into this.
You're right about warning about the BE92U router, as far as the modem I was aware of the risks before doing it, and one of the Cox techs encouraged me to do it after he saw my skill level and experience, so I did follow his advice. So I had already done the modem by the time I told anyone here. As far as the router goes I could have planned that better for my ethernet upgrade. Isn't the more important thing though, that despite of maybe some things I could have done better, I reached my goal in the end?

P.S. If my original plan to keep spectrum after I had moved, I never would have bothered with the modem anyway. They give just a plain modem, don't charge for it, and it just works, and they don't charge for unlimited data. Trust me, I was so frustrated with the whole thing. I've considered dropping cox several times and just living off my Verizon mobile data. A lot of stuff I do can be done from the phone, and some is easier on the computer, and TV, so that's why I didn't drop cox. At this point, my biggest consideration is breaking my lease and leaving where I'm at. as I've had more to deal with than just internet issues such as not being able to get out and do things on a daily basis like walk to places and go shopping on my own. I can't drive due to vision, and there aren't any places to safely walk to, so I've had to care about a stable internet connection a lot more here than I would have where I was living before. It was still important but at least there I was able to get out and do more on my own.

 

[iFrogMac]

Here is a screenshot of a speedtest run this morning. Because there have been ongoing outages, and upgrades in the area the upload speed doesn't go over the rated speed current, but it does get into the normal range of the 100 Mbps upload for the 1G package.

When everything in the Cox network I can get up to 115 Mbps Max. I'm happy with this though, as when it was going that high before is when I was also having all the instabilities of dropped connections. Now the upload speed my fluctuate a bit, but it's stable, and I don't loose connection, and the Download speed is consistent. Prior to when I was having issues, but up and down would jump around and become very inconsistent. As mentioned though, part of that was the first modem I bought having issues. Now whenever I have a dropped connection, it's on Cox's end and not here as It's usually listed in the mobile app under status. The other plus is, when they fix it, my network comes back online on it's own now and stays connected. Before, I usually ended up having to fight with it, and it didn't stay stable very long.

 

[Tech9]

Yes, your investment in speed test numbers finally paid off. It was a long journey, but you did it.

 

[iFrogMac]

Yes, your investment in speed test numbers finally paid off. It was a long journey, but you did it.

Thanks, I feel good about it finally paying off. Since I don't have a lot to do during the day right now, because of my reasons listed above, not being able to go out and do much on my own because of location, I thought the upgrade would be a fun project to learn form and keep busy. I just ended up dealing with stuff I didn't plan on. I also feel good about having the extra speed available to the computer if I want to download videos from YouTube to watch offline, which I do for gaming, and similar topics and add them to Plex for offline viewing, and then if I want to get back into gaming again, if I find a platform I'm happy with the extra speed will help with wait time on large downloads, depending on what I do. is there any reason to disable the 5Ghz radio in the TP-Link and use the one in the 86U? I've noticed zero difference between 2x2 vs 4x4 in my setup. the computer and streaming devices are wired, and that just leaves the google nest audio, and amazon Echo devices on 2.4, and 5Ghz, and the google is 80211ac, and the echo devices are 80211n on both 2.4, or 5ghz. I kept the echos on 2.4 because it seemed pointless to waste 5ghz bandwidth on simple devices like that, and i put the google on 5ghz because it supports ac, so it must be able to take advantage of 5ghz more than alexa can. Everything else is smart bulbs on 2.4 and they're either g, or n. So with those factors in mind that's why I never made a 4x4 router a requirement. Just hasn't made a difference when comparing the one I have access to, and the new 2x2 ones.

 

[Tech9]

Have fun with accumulated not needed hardware. Killing time, keeping yourself busy and enjoying speed test numbers are the only benefits I see so far on your end. On hardware vendors' end I guess they like your credit card numbers. Everyone is happy.