ASUSZenWiFi AX6600 Tri-Band Mesh WiFi 6 System (XT8 1PK) - Whole Home Coverage up to 2750 sq.ft & 4+ rooms, AiMesh, Included Lifetime Internet Security, Easy Setup, 3 SSID, Parental Control, Charcoal

I wanted to replace my old Linksys ( WRT1900AC ) with a faster ( AX ) router. So I bought the Linksys MR9600 and it performed so poorly ( hard to set up and very weak signals ) that I gave up on Linksys. Then bought the Asus XT8.Couldn't be happier. Easy to install the router and set up using the web browser interface. And it gave stronger signals housewide than any of my previous routers. Also very easy to add additional AiMesh routers as nodes.But. I had bought the combo XT8, with three routers. What to do? Turned out I didn't need the AiMesh system for improved signal strength, but I discovered a feature that I absolutely love. Namely, you can set up a Aimesh system with multiple routers and then use either wireless or wired connections for computers at the router and/or at any node. In this way I was able to have a wireless network with some of my computers connected via ethernet cable in various rooms without the nodes being connected with cables. The throughput is FAST. And when hard-wired with the proper CAT6 or better cable, it is faster than my computer's AC network adapter.Please note that this system has three channels, 1 at 2.4 GHz and 2 at 5 GHz. You can set up separate networks or a smart network ( or both, using guest networks ( with or without passwords )). But when you use AiMesh to connect the router to nodes, it uses the second 5 GHz channel for backhauling. If you are using a "smart" network and log on from a wireless computer, the "system" will determine the channel and ( if using AiMesh ) the node. With separate networks you can force a given connection to either 2.4 o5 5 GHz.You can also block internet access by device. For example I have several NAS drives connected to the router that I don't want to have internet access.Lots of other features I have not explored.Five stars. Even with several couple of quirks ( minor flaws ).First is that while you can add a USB drive to any router or node, the firmware will only allow you to configure and dismount a USB drive connected to the router, not one connected to a node. If the drive is connected to a node, you have to power off the node before safely removing the USB drive. The USB drive works fine connected to a node, with these limitations. I can live with that.Second, the router sometimes forgets the names of computers connected to the network. Doesn't have any operational impact. Just keep track of the IP addresses and enter the name of the computer yourself, or wait until the "mystery" device is powered on again or the system reboots ? Or don't worry about it.Bottom line is ... I like it so much I am going to buy a fourth XT8 as a third node to place upstairs for my daughter when she visits. Not for the improved signal strength ( which is significant ), but so she can plug in her computer and get faster data transfers.

I bought the ASUS Zen mesh Wi-Fi system to replace a Linksys Velop mesh system that is three years old and had been giving us problems. We started losing WiFi frequently. I checked the Linksys app and found that the node router had weak signal and no devices were connected to it. I checked the node and unplugged it and restarted it several times but it’s light kept slowly fading and coming back on. I never really liked the Velop system. I didn’t like that in order to use the app you had to be connected to the internet and have a Linksys account. Supposedly you could log on with the router password but that never worked. When I first set the Velop system up I had to get a lot of tech support to figure out I needed to set up separate 2.4g and 5g networks in order to use our Sonos home theater system. I only bought it because Apple discontinued the Airport routers and sold Linksys. The automated message on the Velop support line said that a recent firmware update may be causing problems and you may need to restore the routers to factory and set up again. Two things I really don’t want to do are frequently restart the WiFi and go through the setup again. So I’m not sure if there is anything wrong with the routers or if it is a firmware problem but I did not want to deal with it. Of course it was about one week past the 3 year warranty period. So I did some online research and decided to try ASUS. The setup was easy using the app on my iPad. The choice to separate 2.4g and 5g was part of the setup. Also I did not have to create an online account in order to use the ASUS app for set up or to check the system. The app is pretty easy to use. It is easy to see lists of devices that are connected to the main router and the node. One odd thing is that the app displayed the names of our desktop computers, but the mobile devices are identified by numbers. Had to figure out which number went with which device and then rename them. It’s important to recognize our devices to make sure no one has joined our network without permission. We have been using it for more than a week now and everything is fine. No more dropped WiFi, good signal throughout the house including the basement (routers are upstairs) and in the yard. We stream a lot of movies and tv, no gaming. I concur with one of the reviewers who said that the 2.4g doesn’t have blazing speed. We have 500mbps service. I used our ISP’s speed test and found that we got about 150mbps on the 2.4g network and 500mbps on the 5g. I can’t comment on their tech support because fortunately I haven’t had to use it! Very pleased with the ASUS Zen system that seems to work consistently and we don’t have to think about it.