Upgraded from RT-AC86U to Two GT-AX6000

[shallo62]

Hello all,
After 6 years of sterling performance from my RT-AC86U i thought it was time to upgrade.
The furthest bedroom upstairs always suffered poor wifi reception, so I used an obsolete RT-N66U as an access point.
This AP was hard wired to my main switch downstairs where the RT-AC86U was located.
I managed quite by accident to get two GT-AX6000 at a great price, just as well as the next day the price jumped back up.
My orginal plan was to use the second GT-AX6000 in Aimesh mode in hard wired backhaul mode, to provide excellent wifi coverage around the house.
Testing today, it seems i have excellent wifi coverage around the house with just one router, eliminating the need for the second router.
So my questions to you guys is should i return the second router and invest in say a 2.5GHz switch or is there some other benefit in using it as a Aimesh node that i havent thought of?
Any opinions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[drinkingbird]

Hello all,
After 6 years of sterling performance from my RT-AC68U i thought it was time to upgrade.
The furthest bedroom upstairs allways suffered poor wifi reception, so I used an obsolete RT-N66U as an access point.
This AP was hard wired to my main switch downstairs where the RT-AC68U was located.
I managed quite by accident to get two GT-AX6000 at a great price, just as well as the next day the price jumped back up.
My orginal plan was to use the second GT-AX6000 in Aimesh mode in hard wired backhaul mode, to provide excellant wifi coverage around the house.
Testing today, it seems i have excellant wifi coverage around the house with just one router, elimanating the need for the second router.
So my questions to you guys is should i return the second router and invest in say a 2.5GHz switch or is there some other benefit in using it as a Aimesh node that i havent thought of?
Any opinions but would be greatly appreciated.

Adding additional wifi when you don't need it will likely cause you issues that you don't have with a single unit.

Can't see any reason to keep the second one if you are satisfied with the signal throughout your house.

As far as investing in a 2.5Gbit switch, that's only necessary if you have devices with a 2.5G port and can actually utilize that kind of throughput.

 

[shallo62]

Adding additional wifi when you don't need it will likely cause you issues that you don't have with a single unit.

Can't see any reason to keep the second one if you are satisfied with the signal throughout your house.

As far as investing in a 2.5Gbit switch, that's only necessary if you have devices with a 2.5G port and can actually utilize that kind of throughput.

Thank you for your response, appreciated.

 

[L&LD]

You're seeing expected results when moving from an AC class router to an AX class router (select models, of course. But the GT-AX6000 is currently the king for bang-for-the-buck value vs. performance.

Just would like to clarify what router you actually upgraded from though. Is it the RT-AC68U in your title, or the RT-AC86U in the first post?

(And, if it was the latter, that was the official king of AC class routers too).

 

[shallo62]

You're seeing expected results when moving from an AC class router to an AX class router (select models, of course. But the GT-AX6000 is currently the king for bang-for-the-buck value vs. performance.

Just would like to clarify what router you actually upgraded from though. Is it the RT-AC68U in your title, or the RT-AC86U in the first post?

(And, if it was the latter, that was the official king of AC class routers too).

Hi again, I had to edit my original post as i listed the wrong router i upgraded from. My original router was the RT-AC86U.
By the way the GT-AX6000 is a fantastic router and working so well that for now i wont upgrade the firmware to Rmerlin's.
If it ain't broke don't fix it

 

[Clark Griswald]

@shallo62
RMerlin FW FTW! See My Sig

 

[shallo62]

@shallo62
RMerlin FW FTW! See My Sig

Duly noted

 

[glens]

Late to the game here. Just saw the thread. If you could afford the "deal" cost of the second unit, you could disable 2.4GHz on it, if not needed, and wire it as AP on different 5GHz channels from the main unit.

What have you decided?

 

[coxhaus]

Late to the game here. Just saw the thread. If you could afford the "deal" cost of the second unit, you could disable 2.4GHz on it, if not needed, and wire it as AP on different 5GHz channels from the main unit.

What have you decided?

Rather than turning off 2.4GHz just reduce the power and share on 2 channels to where each router uses a different channel just like you are doing with 5 GHz.

 

[Fredex]

I just ran into these threads on hardware failures in (apparently many) RT-AC86U routers, got scared and just ordered an RT-AX86U Pro.

my AC86U was mfg in 2017, I bought it in Jan 2018, so it is now six years old. From the postings I can't tell if the failures are "infant mortality" or long-term mortality. Mine runs 24 hours a day and so far (knock on wood) it has been reliable--not even needing a periodic reboot, as some seem to require.

I would have liked a less expensive router, but couldn't find any (from ASUS, not even looking at other makers) that had a couple of features I depend on.

Fred

 

[L&LD]

The RT-AX86U Pro is not a good buy today.

 

[Tech9]

I would have liked a less expensive router, but couldn't find any

What you ordered is good. It is the least expensive Pro model router and popular around. Asuswrt-Merlin supported as well.