There’s always some sort of interference but you’ll be fine, J. It CAN and it’ll work, Simon. But in the end I do prioritize performance and reliability over everything else, even if I have to do some initial tweaking. Thank you so much for your time and advice Dong! My question to you is, are there any TP-link AX routers that support dual WAN for fail-over? More on that here. Excellent, John! If you have wired backhaul, this router will work fine, Jean. You won’t regret it. (More here.) Am I correct that if I bought a triband router with 4×4 5G, I could double the theoretical backhaul speed from 867 Mbs to 1733 Mbs? I had an ASUS AC3200 router which suddenly died. In most cases, there’s no improvement because all clients use 1Gbps connections anyway. Thanks again for you pro comments. The Netgear XR1000 is a bit underpowered for your situation, so I’d recommend the Asus GT-AX11000 instead. Or does it depend on what IoT devices you are talking about (a cheapo off brand security camera vs a roku or ecobee, etc?) Switching the port generally doesn’t anything if you have a Gigabit or slower plan. Would the RT-AX3000 have the same coverage, or do I need a higher model? For me, I felt that the 2.4Gs are rather weak compared to some of the other ASUS routers. The Surf SOHO is limited to 120 Mbps throughput. AiProtection: Powered by TrendMicro, this feature keeps bad things at bay and blocks infected devices within the network from dialing to a malicious server, in real-time. Check out this post! Care to advise which should i set as the main router? This depends, Alex. Can you expand a little – how to setup the link aggregation? I am upgrading from the xr500 as I got tired of the whole DumaOS nightmare. The RT-AX56U is very similar to the RT-AX58U, just slightly slower due to the lack of support for the 160 MHz channel width. Most likely Broadcom) It’s bulky and ugly and the Netgear has that Star Wars thing about it.. but something tells me I will regret the Netgear. I noticed on the bottom it said it was hardware version 1.1 instead of just 1, like on my old one. And that will continue to be so for a while. which should i go with in your opinion. The AC1900 got unreliable so I replaced it with the AX3000, which doesn’t seem to get to the basement and is not as reliable. At close range, my 4×4 test client got a sustained speed of 770 Mbps with the RT-AX3000 and almost 780 Mbps with the RT-AX58U. Great review, thank you! I get over 500 Mbps directly connected to the arris sb8200 modem, and over 500 Mbps directly connected to the ethernet ports on asus router. I’ll definitely be getting back to you with my experience! Hi Dong. The same parental controls which the XT8 has, or a paired down version? ASUS states that this feature combines two gigabit networks to increase bandwidth up to 2 gigabits. Link aggregation worked very well in my tests with the Synology DS1019+. Thanks. So, here’s the endgame: For hardcore gamers and geeks, the Asus GT-AX11000 is a nice upgrade, even at the hefty cost of some $450. Thanks for your great and detailed reviews! • We have a 150 year-old, 2500 square foot house with thick walls. Hi Dong! I’ve read that you should put them on a “guest network” as this would make it somehow more secure. After that, the rest is self-explanatory. It can work as the main router or a node when coupled with any AiMesh router from Asus. It has a ton of ports. Dong, I too have gotten the ax3000, based on your recommendation. But check out the review of the XR1000 to see it might serve you better, which depends on the kind of games you play. If you’re aware of the 92U’s issues, I’d say get it. By default, it works as a LAN port. Now I’m confused. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. More here. It may contain what is found on a physical HDD, such as disk partitions and a file system, which in turn can contain files and folders. Among other things, its excellent support for online gaming and the well-deserved bragging right it brings will make the hefty investment worthwhile. 2.5Gbps port: Apart from the usual four Gigabit LAN ports and one Gigabit WAN port, the router has a 2.5Gbps port to work either as a LAN port or a WAN port. At this point I’m losing my mind. And the performance was quite good, too. I don’t have the router set up right now the check the specifics but generally, all Wi-Fi 6 routers (and many Wi-Fi 5 ones) have those. Yes, Glen, but it’s better if you use a tri-band router. I just got this router and I had a questions. By the way, the two also worked well via a wired backhaul. Or any dual-band combos. most times if i stay still it recovers. 2.4GHz in RT-AX58U is non amplified (poor performance). This device has enough processing power to rival a storage server. Thank you in advance for any thoughts you may have. That actually makes a lot of sense! Quick question. 1. Me, neither, Marius. Asus GT-AX1100: A massively bulky box of power, The Asus GT-AX1100: Hardware specification, Still a familiar router with universal setting restoration, The Asus GT-AX1100’s prominent for-everyone features, Netgear Intros Wi-Fi 6 Routers, Hardware Membership, Synology DS419slim Review: A Little Server that Could, Keep Tabs on your Wallet with this Ekster Tracker Card, https://dongknows.com/how-to-pick-the-best-wi-fi-router-for-your-home/#10-do-i-need-to-care-about-wi-fi-routers-antennas, https://dongknows.com/gigabit-internet-and-you/, https://dongknows.com/how-to-pick-the-best-wi-fi-router-for-your-home/, https://dongknows.com/asus-aimesh-overview/, https://www.asus.com/us/Networking/XG-C100C/, https://dongknows.com/trendnet-tuc-et5g-usb-c-3-1-to-5gbase-t-ethernet-adapter-review/. Make sense? Not very good! One thing is for sure; both proved to be formidable contenders among themselves and their peers, namely the Netgear RAX40 and the TP-Link AX50. Don’t expect much faster speed on the 2.4 GHz band, either, no matter what router you use. Pick a clean channel for it. I’d go with the former, Mark. More on that here in this post: https://dongknows.com/mesh-wi-fi-system-explained/. Simply stated, this is a basic router that gets the job done at a very affordable price. 4. Btw, if you choose the GT-AX11000 (or RT-AC5300) and use AiMesh, you’ll need to create a separate backhaul band for the 5GHz-2. The GT-AX1100 is a great choice, Ken. Give it up to 10 mins for the changes to apply. Are there any settings that I should tweak in order to get this working? Am I missing stuff? Generally, all routers work with all Internet sources that have a network port. The new Asus ROG Rapture GT-AX11000 router looks so similar to the GT-AC5300 — if you think Asus has run out of design creativity with this one, that will make two of us! The GT-AX11000 won’t help in your case base. thats for the TUF Gaming AX-3000. Would that hinder the signal? Farther out, my 3×3 device drew higher than 530 Mbps. Do you meant that AIMESH wifi for AX3000 will be weaker? And this is where the GT-AX11000 is decidedly better than the RT-AX88U. If so, disregard answering on both. 500 Mbps is more than anything you’d need. Would 3 of these with a wired backhaul work better in terms of speed and range as AIMesh than the off the shelf mesh systems at a similar price? Thanks :-), John, Yes, John. Thanks for the advice, The GT-AX11000 is much better now than when I tested it, Cuco, but it’s never going to be perfect. That’s super odd, Jesse. It has a ton of useful features and the support for the venerable 160 MHz channel bandwidth. Just because a router can do a few things, doesn’t mean you should pile everything on it. Hi Dong, really appreciate your reviews, especially for the RT-AX89X. If that persists, you need a replacement. Please note that the modem connects to GT-AX11000 must support LACP-IEEE 802.3ad. Wow… Thank you for reviewing the AX3000. Last night I was watching a movie on my iPad which was connected to the node and half way through I had just lost my connection and had to toggle wifi on and off to get the connection back. I’m aware that I can connect ports 1 and 2 from the modem to ports 1 and 2 on the ax11000 after enabling it under LAN > Switch Control > Bonding/Link Aggregation. I’ve not come across much for setting for Mesh with 89X. AiMesh Node. It has more features and is much more intuitive than the TP-Link. But both sure are very similar. I experienced the same in my testing via a wireless backhaul, Josh. I’m getting the Alien. Hope Dong can help shed some light. The two you mentioned are routers of different standards, so they are apples to oranges. Again, these two are the same routers. So generally, you should wait before upgrading to Wi-Fi 6. I’m not super concerned with the cost of a new one, but I am concerned about which would be a better buy to please the gaming enthusiasts and strong reliable WIFI for the all the wireless devices. With GT-AX11000 as my main router and AX58U and AC88U as a node, both nodes will not connect to dedicated wireless backhaul if I set the wireless band 5GHz-2 manually to channel bandwith 160MHz. . And does the answer change if my back-of-house router is a dual-band wifi6 router? For more, check out this post (the Wi-Fi signal strength and hardware placement parts). If not, here’s a hint: Most NAS servers that have 2 or more network ports support LA. Is this one still top dog or are new ones like the Asus RT-AX82U actually better overall? For regular home users, the Asus GT-AX11000 is overkill. Asus are usually great for fimware updates. Both the routers are on Sale and there is a $30 difference in price. Also, by combining a dual and a tri band router, wouldn’t I be subject to more hiccups potentially? The Asus GT-AX11000’s web user interface features the ROG theme like the case of the GT-AC5300. Now the question – does Asus offer other AiMesh AX routers that perform better with simple 2×2 clients put further away from the router? Thanks for the excellent trove of reviews. There might be a setting somewhere that messes things up. I will have to go wireless aimesh with 2 nodes. (I saw your comments in other posts that having IOT devices on guest network provides no extra security – if they are isolated from the computers on the main network, doesn’t that mean that malware in them could not affect those computers?) On top of that, the GT-AX11000 has a lot of useful features for any home users. For almost a week or more my wifi failed to work. I had loved to cover that part, Tony, but I couldn’t since I didn’t have that option for testing (still don’t now.) Went with 2 AX3000s. . My apology, I typoed my comment. I was thinking of getting the AX1100 as my main router and then maybe combine it with a single AX92U node as i need an ethernet port in my study. I setup a separate linksys router i got at a garage sale ea9500 ( a beast). Bottom-line is, the amount of devices you have there is not enough to justify the need for a tri-band router (a dual-band will do just fine). What’s your opinion on these two routers stacked against each other, given that they’re pretty much the same price? FYI, wifi clients are using intel AX200 wifi cards. Asus Wi-Fi 6 routers need quite a bit of tweaking. I’m a noob when it comes to this wireless networking thing and surely there is something that I haven’t configured properly. Dear Doug, currently I have an ASUS rt ac66r. Thank you Dong. I have a large house, and have used two Asus RT-AC68U routers, one as main router and the other as an access point with a wired backhaul. Which of these other options would outperform that? And AC mode is fine. Is that range and inconsistency to be expected in the 2.4ghz band, or is there something I can do to produce a more reliable speed nearer my old average of around 80-100 Mbps? For more check out this post. You’re right, I was under the wrong section in the ASUS router. You’ll be a little surprised getting either router out of the packaging, they are much smaller than the photos on the box suggest, easily among the most compact Wi-Fi 6 routers. Or Should I use a slightly less expensive unit like the Asus RT-AX88U? Since it did not support AIMesh I had to have various repeaters to get a decent signal to our second floor. The former is a QoS engine that quickly prioritizes Internet traffic for different services, including online gaming (default). I’m a bit confused but here’s the deal with the router’s 2.5Gbps port: You can use it as either a WAN (Internet) or a LAN port (default). My pc used to connect at -52dbm but is now 44dbm. Dong is the Asus GT AX11000 compatible with the ASUS RT-AX56U in Ai Mesh mode and can it be set up in wifi6 when in AI Mesh mode? Happy to have you here, Mukesh. hi Dong i am so happy i found your website. I connected the laptop to the modem and verified that I’m getting a true 940mbps down and 50mbps up (940mbps due to ethernet overhead). But in all, the router has plenty more compared to those of the same physical size and hardware specs. But the RT-AX88U works, too. It also includes some nifty networking tools, including the Wake-on-LAN function which will come in handy if you want to turn on a local device via its interface. I have a RT-AC88U (4×4) currently. After reading a bit more the best choice is to go either 2band or 3band and not mix together. Recently for my use case I don’t see any WiFi router reviews including configurations where the ISP expects the WAN port to have PPPoE over a VLAN. In other words, again, you can call both AX3000 routers.. I got this today and set it up in the router mode. Would you recommend i return the AX58U for the AX92U? Thanks very much! So far I’m not seeing reviews that are specific enough to answer that question. Add to Basket I was wondering, for my situation, would you recommend the AX11000 or the Zen XT8 for a Mesh System (No wired backhaul available)? First is single story 3400Sq ft with router at back of house and bedrooms/study at front. Not sure if that is gone now that the Mesh is created but I can certainly go through the steps again of resetting it to see if any different. I’m achieving 900Mbps+ on wired LAN. Also my outdoor wireless camera was -78dbm and has improved to -68dbm. I’d say the two have a similar range, if not the same, Sponk. Hi Dong, Are the AX6100 2pack units supposed to be the wifi 6 AP/extender units for the AX11000 or are we still waiting for dedicated devices that would presumably be cheaper as they are not actual routers? Hi Dong! If you don’t consider the Dual WAN benefit from the ASUS, which one would you go for, based on Performance, Range, Stability and reliability between the 2? My question is there some tweak or is the wifi call issue just a reality with mesh networking? I like the Asus more in terms of web interface and the fact that it doesn’t require user account. The unit i bought came with a noticed to “upgrade Driver for some version of Intel WIFI adapters”. With this, a second AX3000 will be a good choice, or do you have a better choice for me? Hi Dong. Again faster than their direct competitors. You have a lot of options considering the wired backhaul, YiJia. Most, if not all, routers, I’ve reviewed have the PPPoE option, Derek. Normal or not it depends on many things, Roger. So it sounds like I should probably use a wired backhaul to increase the likelihood for aimesh success. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. It does not seem to recognize the Wpa2/wpa3 standard option it has. In the end, the router registered some 420 Mbps for close-range and some 125 Mbps for long-range. Yes, totally, Avalon. I don’t have a modem but is that something I’ll need to get as I purchased the gt11000 as per your Grrat review and now a little confused. I only would need a Access point, but a router would work as well. And if you have a large house that’s wired with network cables, get the couple of them to form a real mesh system. I tested this feature using a WD My Passport SSD and got the averaged sustained copy speed of around 150 MB/s, one of the fastest I’ve seen. And if you wonder which to get — in case you have the option to pick — either will do. You should use one of the XT8 as the main router and the AX58U as a node. Collectively Asus routers generally support these roles: (AiMesh) Router, Access Point, Bridge, and AiMesh node. Make sure you’re AX200 has the latest software driver and connects at 2.4 Gbps (and not 1.2 Gbps). I was always leaning towards the ax11000 but it seems most comparisons showing outperformed by the AX86u somehow. Seems most times it is some but not all devices connected to the node that are having a problem. After a few rounds of the firmware updates, it now seems ready for prime time. If I bought the AX3000 could I aiMesh it with the RT-68U? I did some debugging and determined that the disconnects only occur in WPA2/WPA3 compatibility mode (apparently my dated MacBook does not handle key rotation under WPA3 well). Luckily ASUS didn’t keep me waiting for long. I should also add that I’m only a casual gamer. Just for my cell phone. And yes, running cables is the way to go! I have tons of assigned IPs and prefer not to have yo set up from scratch. There you have it. Does that mean I need to pay for (2) 1-gigabit Xfinity service plans in order to use link aggregation/bonding? It’s best if you get your home wired, too. Right now I have the two XT8s only. Asus RT-AX3000 vs. RT-AX58U: A tale of two identical twins The RT-AX3000 and RT-AX58U are both AX3000-rated Wi-Fi 6 (802.11AX) routers.They have the top speed on the 5GHz band of 2400 Mbps and the 2.4 GHz, 600 Mbps. You can quickly select one of the pre-programmed options via a click. I currently ha a U-VERSE wireless router at 1 end and an Apple AirPort Extreme base station at other end. I have ordered an Asus AX3000. The AX6100 and the RT-AX92U are the same thing, Scott. • This often involves 3 or 4 Zoom video streams going at any one time. That doesn’t affect the performance but sure is an eyesore. Glad it worked out, PCL. I upgraded it and it seems to work better. I thought the ax11000 would be better since it has an entire channel for the wireless back haul But the coverage and speed is WORSE with the ax11000.