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The Asus RT-AX92U, first released in mid-2019, is an interesting case for two reasons. First, you only find it during the transition from Wi-Fi 5 to Wi-Fi 6. And secondly, well, I reviewed it twice.
Dong’s note: That’s right! You’re reading the updated review published on January 7, 2021, with tests done using the latest firmware that features AiMesh 2.0. The original review of this router first went live on February 20, 2020.
But to cut to the chase, on the one hand, the RT-AX92U is a cute little tri-band Wi-Fi 6 router, almost perfect for a small home. On the other, when working as a mesh, its odd specs make things a bit complicated—you might mistake what you’ll get out of it.
So, here’s the deal: If you live in a home of 1800 ft² (167 m²) or so, at the current cost of some $230, the RT-AX92U is an excellent standalone Wi-Fi solution, especially if you want to keep your personal space tidy and play online games a lot.
As a $350 2-pack mesh, though, there are things you should know before pulling the trigger. So, keep reading.
Asus RT-AX92U: A cute compact Wi-Fi 6 router
The Asus RT-AX92U is the smallest Wi-Fi 6 router I’ve tested. It looks like a miniature version of the GT-AX11000, taking the shape of a small square box, measuring 6.1 inches (15.5 cm) wide and 2.1 inches (5.5 cm) tall, with four antennas on top.
You can raise these antennas upward for better coverage or collapse them on top of the router to make the whole thing even more adorable. Either way, the router works. By the way, the router is wall-mountable, which is always a nice touch.
A little tri-band powerhouse
The router comes with the usual one Gigabit WAN port and four Gigabit LAN ports despite the small footprint. It even has room for two USB ports to host storage, printers, or a cellular modem.
The router has no multi-gig port, but it does have Link Aggregation (both WAN and LAN sides) and Dual-WAN. The former enables you to combine two ports into a 2Gbps connection, and the latter allows for turning one of its LAN ports or a USB port into a second WAN connection.
On the inside, the RT-AX92U is a tri-band router with non-conventional specs. It’s a broadcaster with a 2×2 Wi-Fi 5 band, a 4×4 Wi-Fi 6 5GHz band, and a 2×2 Wi-Fi 4 2.4GHz band,
When using it as a single router, you can lump all these bands together using Smart Connect or name each with a separate SSID (Wi-Fi network).
The router uses a dual-core 1.8 GHz processor, 512 MB of RAM, and 256 MB of flash memory for processing power. It’s not the most potent router I’ve seen but still quite impressive considering its tiny physical size.
Asus RT-AX92U: Hardware specifications
Again, the RT-AX92U is one of the tri-band routers that use different Wi-Fi standards for its three bands.
Using multiple units in an AiMesh setup will dedicate its fastest Wi-Fi 6 band (the 5GHz-2) as the dedicated backhaul that links the units up. Consequently, it delivers the same throughputs as a 2×2 Wi-Fi 5 system from connected clients’ perspectives.
| Full Name | Asus RT-AX92U AX6100 Tri-band Wi-Fi 6 Router |
| Model | RT-AX92U |
| Mesh-Ready | Yes (AiMesh) |
| Dimensions | 6.1 x 6.1 x 2.07 inc (15.5 x 15.5 x 5.26 cm) |
| Weight | 1.43 lbs (651 g) |
| 5GHz-1 Wi-Fi Specs | 2×2 Wi-Fi 5: up to 867Mbps (low band) |
| 5GHz-2 Wi-Fi Specs | 4×4 Wi-Fi 6: up to 4804Mbps (high band) |
| 2.4GHz Wi-Fi Specs | 2×2 Wi-Fi 4: up to 400Mbps |
| Channel Width Supported | 20Mhz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 160MHz (5GHz-2 only) |
| Backward Compatibility | 802.11ac/n/g/a/b |
| Mobile App | Asus Router |
| Web User Interface | Yes (Comprehensive) |
| AP Mode | Yes (As a single route or a mesh) |
| USB Port | 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1, 1x USB 2.0 |
| Network Ports | 4 x Gigabit LAN ports, 1 x Gigabit WAN port |
| LAN Link Aggregation | Yes (LAN1 + LAN2) |
| WAN Link Aggregation | Yes (WAN + LAN4) |
| Dual-WAN | Yes (WAN + LAN 1, or WAN + USB) |
| Firmware Version (at review) | 1st try: 3.0.0.4.384_79.77 2nd try: 3.0.0.4.386_41535 |
| Multi-Gig Port | None |
| Processing power | Dual-core 1.8Ghz CPU, 512 MB RAM, 256 MB Flash |
Specifically, as a single router, current 2×2 Wi-Fi 6 clients can expect to connect at 2.4Gbps, while 4×4 Wi-Fi 5 can get up to 1.73Gbps. As a mesh, all wireless clients will get a ceiling speed of 867 Mbps. These are theoretical speeds, and real-world sustained rates will vary—more below.
Asus RT-AX92U’s photos
The familiar setup process, settings, and features
At its core, the RT-AX92U is like any other Asus router. You can set it up using its web user interface or the Asus Router mobile app.
I prefer the former, which involves connecting a computer to it and then opening up a browser. You’ll then automatically run into the initial setup wizard that walks you through the setup process.
Alternatively, you can always reach the router’s interface by navigating the browser to its default IP address, 192.168.50.1, or router.asus.com.
The RT-AX92U shares the same web interface as other Asus routers and has the same set of network settings and features.
Most notably, it has AiProtection that includes free online real-time protection and a set of Parental Control settings. There’s also Adaptive QoS that allows for easy prioritization of the Internet traffic for different purposes.
What’s more, the router even supports WTFast Gamers Private Network. Available in only select Asus routers, WTFast allows the router, hence the network it hosts, to be part of a proprietary VPN designed to deliver the best online gaming experience given the broadband speed.
The support for WTFast makes the RT-AX92U even more like a mini version of the GT-AX11000, which is Asus’s flagship gaming router, in addition to the RT-AX8xU.
Asus RT-AX92U: Not a real Wi-Fi 6 mesh router
While straightforward as a standalone router, the RT-AX92U is quite different from a mesh system. Again, that’s because it dedicates its only Wi-Fi 6 band, the 5GHz-2, as the dedicated backhaul.
It’s important to note that this band uses DFS channels, and as such, it might be less reliable if you live near a radar station.
Also, clients that don’t support DFS might not be able to connect to it. Keep this in mind if you intend to use an RT-AX92U as a standalone router.
A Wi-Fi 5 mesh system at its core
As a result, by default, Wi-Fi clients can only connect to it via the Wi-Fi 5 standard. In other words, when using a 2-pack as a mesh, which Asus calls AiMesh AX6100 Wi-Fi System, the RT-AX92U is about the same as a regular Wi-Fi 5 system, such as the ZenWiFi AC CT8.
Having a strong Wi-Fi 6 backhaul, though, you can place the hardware units farther apart to deliver a broader coverage—Asus claims the mesh can handle up to 6000 ft² (557 m2).
But in terms of speed, the system’s ceiling speed will cap at 867 Mbps. Real-world rates will be much lower. Keep that in mind if you have Gigabit-class Internet and want to see that on your end device.
(Note: Like all tri-band AiMesh systems, you can turn the RT-AX92U’s 5GHz-2 band into a non-dedicated backhaul to also use for clients—making all three bands available to the fronthaul. Considering this is a 4×4 Wi-Fi 6 band with a ton of bandwidth, opening it up to clients is not necessarily a bad idea in most cases.)
AiMesh 2.0 support
But if you have sub-Gigabit Internet, the RT-AX92U will make an excellent mesh. That’s because, with the latest firmware, the 2-pack RT-AX92U is one of the first that gets AiMesh 2.0.
Among other things, it can now deliver up to three Guest networks (one for each band) throughout the mesh system, and not just at the router unit.
It also comes with a new AiMesh section within the web interface with a one-click mesh Optimization function. And now, if you choose to use a wired backhaul, the 5GHz-2 band will be made available to clients automatically.
By the way, the support for AiMesh 2.0 (and system-wide Guest networks) remains when you use other AiMesh routers as nodes. Just make sure they have firmware version 3.0.0.4.386 or later.
Non-pre-synced hardware, wired backhaul support
I tested a 2-pack of the RT-AX92U and found that out of the box, the hardware units are not pre-synced, like the case of the recently released ZenWiFi AX. All this means you’ll have to add the 2nd unit to the first to form a mesh manually, the way you do any AiMesh router.
And adding the second unit, or any other AiMesh router for that matter, to the mesh hosted by an RT-AX92U proved to be a bit problematic. I had to try a couple of times. The lesson I learned is:
- If you get a 2-pack and set up both units as a wireless mesh system from scratch, you’ll likely have no problem. You’ll note that the 5GHz-2 Wi-Fi 6 band automatically works as the dedicated backhaul in this case.
- If you have used just one unit as a single router and now want to expand the coverage, here’s the best way to go about that:
- Reset the router and set up the mesh from scratch if you want to use them wirelessly. Or
- Keep the current router’s setting but use a network cable to connect the node unit’s WAN port to its LAN port.
I’d say using wired backhaul is the way to go since you’ll get a full Wi-Fi 6 system out of a 2-pack RT-AX92U set.
Asus RT-AX92U’s performance: Excellent with the latest firmware
I tested the RT-AX92U first as a standalone router and then as a wireless AiMesh system. A year ago, the router proved to be a bit of a rough ride. This second time around, with the latest firmware, things were much better.
Fast but still no 2.4Gbps Wi-Fi 6 connection
The most noticeable improvement was the fact the 5GHz-2 Wi-Fi 6 band worked much better. I was able to connect all clients, including legacy ones, to it with ease.
But one thing remained. My 2×2 Wi-Fi 6 client never connected to the router at its top 2.4Gbps negotiated speed, but only at 1.2Gbps, even when I made the router use the 160MHz channel width and work in Wi-Fi 6-only mode.
For this reason, RT-AX92U’s Wi-Fi 6 band delivered the same performance as it did a year ago, with Wi-Fi 6 clients. You can expect close to 900Mbps out of it.
(Realistically, though, considering the router has no Multi-Gig port, chances are my tests wouldn’t register any faster number since the router’s Gigabit LAN port limits the speed.)
What clearly improved is the support for Wi-Fi 5 clients. My 3×3 clients got faster than the previous time when I placed some 40 feet (12m) away.
It’s worth noting that, at the close range, my 4×4 Wi-Fi 5 client could connect (to the 5GHz-2 band) at 1.74Gbps and yielded faster throughput than that of the 2×2 Wi-Fi client shown above.
The RT-AX92U’s 2.4GHz band delivered the same performance as that of most routers. There was nothing of note here.
Faster than most Wi-Fi 5 mesh counterparts
I tested a 2-pack RT-AX92U as a mesh via a wireless setup. Again, from the clients’ perspective, it was no longer a Wi-Fi 6 system but only a 2×2 Wi-Fi 5.
In this case, the system’s router unit’s real-world speed sustained at about the same as any other 2×2 Wi-Fi 5 router, averaging about 610 Mbps at close range and some 415 Mbps at long range.
However, the satellite (node) unit, which I placed 40 feet (12 m) from the router, topped the chart, registering more than 560 Mbps (close range) and some 500 Mbps (long range.)
Clearly, the fast Wi-Fi 6 backhaul band played a big role in the RT-AX92U satellite’s stellar speed. That said, generally, you can expect the RT-AX92U to deliver the full speed of the system’s 2×2 Wi-Fi front-haul, which caps at 867 Mbps on paper.
Good range, excellent add-on AiMesh node
This second time around, I tested the RT-AX92U for some 10 days, proving to be reliable. There was no disconnection or any other issues.
As for coverage, a single RT-AX92U router had about the same range as the Netgear RAX50 or RT-AX82U in my testing, which was not the best I’ve seen but wasn’t too shabby, either.
With the two-unit combined, you can expect to cover some 4000 ft² (372 m²), or possibly more, but your mileage will vary depending on the layout of your home and the type of walls.
By the way, I also tried the two RT-AX92U units as add-on nodes to my GT-AX11000 router using wired backhaul, and they have been working quite well.
Fast NAS speed
Considering the RT-AX92U has no Multi-Gig port, I didn’t expect much from it regarding network-attached storage performance. But the router did well.
I tested it with the SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD, and via a gigabit wired connection, it registered sustained copy speeds of almost 70 MB/s for writing and more than 112 MB/s for reading.
Generally, it’s a good idea to get a real NAS server. Still, if you want to do some casual network storage, the RT-AX92U will do, especially considering its vast amount of storage-related features.
ASUS RT-AX92U's Rating
Pros
Compact design, tri-band specs
Good performance, large coverage
Excellent set of features, including online protection, WTFast VPN for gamers, and system-wide Guest network when working as a mesh
Link Aggregation and Dual-WAN support, wall-mountable
Comparatively affordable
Cons
Wi-Fi 6 available only on one of the 5GHz bands
No Multi-Gig port
Conclusion
With the latest firmware, I can recommend RT-AX92U with no reservation as a single router.
If you’re getting it as a wireless mesh system, consider the dedicated backhaul notion mentioned above. If you can live with that, the RT-AX92U proved to be a reliable solution as long as you don’t live near a radar station.
The fact it can give you up to six system-wide Guest networks is an excellent bonus that you can’t get (yet) from most other AiMesh combos.
Hi Dong,
I have an AX92U, with a 1000mbit cable net (the provider usually gives just around 700 mbit downloading). After renovating the house I want to move the router into the basement, so I’ll need one more Asus router to make an AIMesh. In the basement there will be a separated Synology NAS connected to the router , and I’m also a gamer (just on PS5). I’ll connect the satellite node via LAN cable to the primary node router.
Could you help me, that:
– should I use the AX92U as the primary, or the satellite node?
– could you advise me other Asus router(s) to this system next to the AX92U? I would like to set up a reliably system.
Thank you!
Since you have wiring, Gabor, it’s best to use one of these 6E option as the primary routers. For more check out this post on how to pick an AiMesh combo.
But you can also get another AX-92U unit.
Thx!!
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Hi Dong
great site and reviews. We have 2 RT-AX92U. mainly used for temp construction sites. we love how compact the units are and with the collapsable antenna it makes it easy to move around without damaging the units.
I understand the units are discontinued. can you recommend any routers with similar housing? our first choice would be Asus but open to exploring other brands.
You can and should keep using them until they no longer work, Stan. More here. But if you want to replace, the RT-AXE7800 is similar in physical size.
Hi Dong,
fantastic website. What puts it above everyone else are not only the structured detailed reviews, but the comparison reviews that you do as well. You also go to town on router families/groups. Thanks for putting the effort in.
Now onto my question. I bought the AX92U 2 pack on the strength of your best 5 tri band routers, but I intend to use as a mesh. I didn’t pay enough attention at the time to the mesh speed and that it was slower than the single router speed.
My situation is I’m in Australia where broadband is slow. I’m about to start a 100mbps / 40 mbps plan. In haste I bought the AX92U pair.
Since then I’ve come to realise perhaps I needed the Zenwifi XT8 as in the next 2 years the fibre plans will come down in price and Oz will start to see multi-gigabit speeds. I currently have 4 wifi 6 capable clients. However there is also a 4K smart TV which is only 802.11ac! 2 storey house with 300 sq metres in total (around 3,200 sq ft??). I’m wired fully with Cat6 and will use that as backhaul between the 2 units.
I have read all your Asus articles and AImesh articles. Maybe trying to justify pulling the trigger too early on AX92U, but I do not think you have measured the AX92U wifi 6 client speed with a wired backhaul. Any reason why (technical, didn’t have time)?
All your tests and comparison tables only list performance with wireless backhaul.
What would your expectation be for wifi 6 wired backhaul for a 2 unit pack? I think with the firmware updates, my understanding is wifi 6 mesh with wired backhaul is possible.
p.s. Australia’s NBN plans to have cheaper multi-gigabit around 2026 – so I have around 2 years perhaps with these units.
Via wired backhauling, Cedrick, you’ll get 1Gbps (before overhead — so around 900Mbps real-world) out of the RT-AX92, especially its 5GHz-2 band. I think you’re fine. Make sure you put them in the Ethernet Backhaul Mode. Use that for a few years before moving to Wi-Fi 7. Good luck!
Thanks Dong for the reassurance. After 1 week post connection and setup i can happily report my wifi LAN works like a dream. Wifi 6 throughout the entire house with high negotiated speeds for those 4 clients. Screen mirroring to the smart TV is very smooth unlike any other router before .
I’m also very happy with the Asus router admin management features.
Thanks for your work in not only reviewing but educating us. I’m still reading throughout your site!
yes this setup will definitely last me a while.
👍
Hi Dong,
I am currently using DLink Cobra DSL5300 at home and looking to upgrade my routers (options below), can you please advise me which it is the best option considering 4+ bed room house and casual gaming, multiple devices connected.
– MSI Radix AX6600 WiFi 6 Tri-Band Gaming Router
– Asus RT-AX92U Tri-Band WiFi 6 Gaming Router
– TP Link Archer AX90
Thank you
You’ll need a separate modem first, Paul. After that, I’d go with the MSI out of the ones you mentioned.
I’ve been testing a pair of RT-AX92U with a RT-AX86U as the main router. one of the 92u has a ethernet backhaul with the 86u, the 92U are on wifi backhaul and if I’m not mistaken there on 5ghz-2.
and so far super easy to configure almost plug and play( plug ethernetcable in wan , and add node in asus gui repeat ). after 1week no downtime, i use to have a 82u as a node and time to time i had to reboot the system because the 82u had 1mbps speed.
thank you for your work.
Great! Thanks for sharing, Olivier!
Hi Dong,
I currently have a Asus CT8 mesh and want to extend coverage.
If I go for a pair of AX92u’s (with AX92u as a main broadcaster) will the two CT8s and the remaining AX92U connect with a dedicated wireless backhaul with zero issues?
It might work, but chances you will run into issues. More here.
Thanks for your reply. Yeah, I was afraid that might be an issue.
Second scenario:
Run the two AX92u’s via their dedicated wireless backhaul. Then wire first CT8 as a node and set the second CT8 to connect with it through a wireless backhaul.
A have a huge area to cover…
That might work better than the previous one, or you can use the CT8, as a system, in the AP mode on top of the AX92U — this will definitely work well, but you can’t manage the CT8 via the AX92’s interface.
Hi Dong,
i am currently doing market research for Mesh and ran into your page (which i’m extremely glad for). I live in a 3 story house where (for various reasons) the main router (an Asus AC68U) sits on the bottom floor. With two kids who like to play online, the connectivity using wireless is quite bad with this setup and so i found that also the 68u (using Merlin firmware) has the AIMesh option.
While its a bit new to me (dual-band/tri-band back-haul) i was considering a setup where i have the main router (the AC68u) connected wirelessly to an AX92-u on the second floor and then a second AX92-u on the third floor (where the kids have their room), using one dedicated 5ghz band as the back-haul.
Would such a setup work decently well? (atm, they get measly ~3mbit/sec on the top-floor using AC-wifi)
No, it won’t work well, if at all, Daniel — you won’t have a dedicated backhaul like that. More in this post. Check out the related posts at the top if you have more questions. Pay attention is the key, don’t skip around.
Hi Dong. I get your point. I’ve had the asus router for quite many years and perhaps now is the time to retire it. I ended up ordering (and recieved today) a 3-pack of t-link deco xe75 units and tomorrow i will replace the single asus unit with this mesh network (and hopefully it will ensure good and consisten coverage in my house).
Kudos 🙂
You’ll get better coverage for sure, Daniel. Cheers!
Hi Dong, been reading articles here for a while and appreciate your perspective!
Picked up the AX92U on a good sale for my family to replace their older Asus AC3100 and it works well, no issues or restarts needed since deploying it a couple months ago now. It is surprisingly small compared to the huge AC3100.
The previous AC3100 had issues with randomly dropping a nearby Wyze doorbell camera which this one does not. Ironically the nearly decade old Samsung laser printer connected via wired network to the router now drops every few days, but I’m replacing the printer for them anyway so not a major problem. The one other device wired to the router is an Apple TV 4K gen2 and thats had no issues.
I did want to mention the memory/ram at 512MB does seem to be a limitation for this unit as other comments have mentioned, I turned off all the extra services but it can still sit around 450MB of usage which might be an issue with future software update bloat, time will tell though and I see that Asus even sells new AX routers with 256MB of ram (example RT-AX1800S) so perhaps its just some sort of caching using up the ram.
Every hardware has its limitation. But if you’re not expecting the world, most will work fine. 🙂
A quick question to help me to decide which one to go for, the AX88U or the AX89X
I have at the moment an AX86U and I want to get another ASUS to do an Aimesh connection and use the new router as a node
This router is going to be in my office room connected to the main router wirelessly and I will be using the 8 ports on it to connect wired devices
The most important thing for me is the new router (node) connected by wifi to the main router and use the 8 LAN ports on the node router
Which router should I go for AX88U or the AX89X?
Any help would be apreciated
Of the two, I’d go with the 88U, Carlos.
Thank you Dong Ngo I will wait for the 88U availability.
Is it ok to use the 86U as the main router and the 88U as the node?
Thanks
👍
Hi Dong,
Brilliant article (as always), I really appreciate the insights you put into each article, and the real life scenarios.
My current situation is this. Using an RT-AC68u as a single router for a relatively small, but long, single-storey home (25m x 10m). The router is sitting around the 10m point of the length due, to the location of the network port. So on the far end of the home, about 15m from the router, with plaster walls in between, the signal starts to drop off quite quickly. It’s not a highly used area, but I’d still like it to have decent wireless signal strength. Most of the heavy consumption devices (tv, consoles, desktop) are close to the router.
What I think I would like to do is replace the existing router with either the RT-AX92U or the RT-AC86U, and to then use the current RT-AC68U in an AI mesh configuration, placing it closer to where the signal starts to drop-off.
In your expert opinion, would the RT-AX92U be better than the RT-AC86U? Is it worth the extra cost? I don’t mind spending a little more if it will future-proof my setup.
Thanks again.
Run a network cable and use the RT-AC86U or another RT-AC68U, Melvin.
Thanks Dong.
Without running a cable (which I am seriously considering now that you’ve recommended), what would be your next recommendation?
Are there other routers (single or AI mesh) I should consider?
Thanks
Then you should go with Tri-band hardware. So either the RT-AX92U or the ZenWiFi XT8 if you want to be conservative or the XT12 if you want to go all out. In this case, you should let the AC hardware go. Technically you can use a couple of RT-AC68U (or 86U) units but they won’t work out well (enough).
If you need more information, check out this post on AiMesh and the related ones. I generally don’t comment on specific situations — if you want to figure out if a single router or a mesh is needed this post will help.
Good luck!
Thanks so much Dong. I do appreciate your advice. I’ve just made a donation as a thank you.
Thanks, Melvin! Appreciate it.
ASUS RT-AX92U AX6100 Wi-Fi6 Tri-band Router
Hi, I bought Asus RT-AX92U AX6100 Tri-Band Wi-Fi 6 Router from Amazon.
Configuration was similar to my previous TP Link Archer AC2600. So it is running with good speed and power.
But I have a different problems in connecting my Wyze Cam V3 camera with new ASUS Router.which was working fine with TP Link Archer AC2600 but router broke and I changed my Router and tried several times to connect with my Asus RT-AX92U AX6100 Tri-Band Wi-Fi 6 but failed after several tries. Kindly send all steps to connect it. I did not get any ip address too.
Requesting for help.
Check out this post, Mike. Make sure you read through. For more connection issues, this one will help going forward.
Hi Dong, thanks for providing such great information. I was just about ready to buy the Asus AX68U when I saw your review of AX92U and it looks like it might be a good fit for my house when meshed with 2 units. The house isn’t huge, 2000 ft2, but is a long CA ranch with my ATT DSL line at the far end. I don’t really want a big flashy router that screams gamer so I like the compact size and unobtrusive design. With two meshed I can have good coverage at the opposite end of the house and in the garage next to that end which has always been a dead zone. And a big plus is that Amazon has the 2 pack for $20 less than the AX68U.
We have new phones and laptops that are wifi 6 capable so I want that. We do have a wired connection to a bedroom/office where I could put the second unit. So my questions, if I understand the review my wired connection will preserve the wifi 6 for use rather than using it for the mesh connection? And second, is my best setup to install the first router at the DSL connection and then connect the second one by ethernet and mesh them? thanks for your help, routers are a foreign language for me.
You’re correct, Kent. Go for it. Make sure you follow this post and turn on Ethernet Backbackhaul mode. https://dongknows.com/asus-aimesh-setup-and-signal-handoff/
Thanks for the quick reply Dong. I think more impressive than your content, and it is the best I’ve seen for thoroughness and no BS, is your engagement with us as we visit and ask questions.
I’ve been reading a lot of your posts since I discovered you a few days ago. Even after I asked you my question I kept reading and came across your Best WiFi 6 Mesh systems for 2022. And when I saw your Asus ZenWiFi XD6 nod I knew that was the setup I’ve really been looking for so I bought a set of two last night for about the same price as the RT-AX92U twin pack. Thanks again, I’m glad I discovered your website.
Thanks, Kent. And you’re welcome! 🙂
Dong, thanks. I still have a question you surely know the answer. Is there any difference in 5ghz range coverage and speed between XT8, XD6 and AX92U?
AX92U and XD6 has pretty the same price, while XT8 is 60$ more expensive
They are quite similar in range but the XT8 will be faster at the same distance.
Hello Dong. Resurrecting this subject. This router is probably best on flat surface with antennas up. However, for the wall mount, it seems like it will be best to have them folded, so two form horizontal doughnut and other two -vertical? Thanks!
Not really, Tarsiklv, but you can do that if you want. More on the antenna in this post.
Hi Dong,
I purchased this router recently. I enabled 160Mhz and the 5GHz-2 band so I could run some comparison tests, and not much difference noted in compatible devices with using 802.11ax / WiFi 6 mode.
Question: I disabled this and just went back to dual band with smart connect enabled. But the “xxxxx_dwb” 5GHz-2 SSID is still showing up. Do you know what I need to do to make the router stop broadcasting it?
You can disable a band (a.k.a radio) entirely using the Professional tab of the Wi-Fi section in the web interface, Collin. Here’s a screenshot.
But there’s no benefit in disabling it. You can use it as a separate SSID for a certain group of 5GHz devices (Wi-Fi 6 or Wi-Fi 5). The band uses a different portion of the spectrum.
I haven’t looked at routers in years and was pleasantly surprised to find a website dedicated to them. Great work!!!
I’m looking at the 5GHz Wi-Fi 6 Single Router Performance via high-end Wi-Fi 5 clients tests. It says the close range (10′) performance of the RT-AX92U with a 4×4 client is 515.96 mbps, while performance with a a 3×3 client at long range (40′) is 908 mbps. Are these numbers accidentally reversed? Or am I completely missing something?
Glad to have you, Maike. And yes, that was a mistake. It’ll be fixed soon. Thanks for pointing that out.
Hello,
Which one is better or are they of similar power? I would like your opinion
“Asus GS-AX3000” or “Asus RT-AX92U”
I can get both for the same price.
Thank you for your answer, it’s urgent 🙂
Read the reviews! That decision is on you. 🙂
Hi Dong, I wonder if you can help. I find it surprising that reviews of routers never seem to test or report on any restrictions applying to the maximum number of connections supported. The information supplied by manufacturers seems misleading with regard to the number of connections supported (particularly) on the 2.4GHz band. This is critical in intelligent house applications as most of the clients currently available do not support 5GHz. In my own situation I want to connect 105 light switches and sockets as well as computers, printers, security cameras, intercomms, televisions, kitchen equipment and Amazon Echo’s. Currently about 125 of these clients only support 2.4GHz wifi however my RT-AX92U mesh network will only accept a limited number of these clients and seems to become unstable above 64. How would you advise me to solve this problem? For your further information I have a 600Mb synchronous fibre internet connection and the mesh network is attached to the proprietary ISP modem via DMZ as my phone is connected to the ISP router. My primary RT-AZ92U is configured as a router and is cable connected to three slave units.
There’s no way to “test” that, Doughlas. It’s a matter of bandwidth — more in this post. In other words, a truck’s hauling capacity is measured in “tons” and not in the number of chickens it can carry, for a reason.
The 2.4GHz band has extremely low real-world bandwidth (much lower than the number you see on paper), so you can’t really count on it — it’s more of a backup. Also, just because a device has “smart” in its name doesn’t mean it’s “intelligent” to use them. More in this post. For your situation, remove as many of them from your network as possible, and refrain from falling your house “intelligent.” Don’t buy into the marketing hype. You’ll be disappointed. 🙂
Hi Dong, I’m incredibly grateful for your site. Tons of knowledge here and the best website I’ve seen with router reviews. Had to donate since I’m so happy I found this site.
So I’m interested in this model and wanted to know the best way to set it up with my current network. Currently I have ATT gigabit internet and have the BGW210 Modem/Router. I’m looking to add the RT-AX92U to the setup and I’m wondering if it’ll be any better for performance if I use the BGW210 in bridge mode (aka passthrough in the router settings) or if I just setup the AX92U as an access point. I ask because if I use it as an access point, it seems I will still get coverage from the original router (which is in my bedroom) which would help cover that side of the apt.
Now I’m looking specifically for performance only, so basically max speeds, bandwidth and range. Not too concerned about the features outside of that, as I’m only looking at this router thanks to its tri-band support and the fact I have quite a few 5ghz compatible products, as well as Quest 2 I plan to use with Airlink. Hopefully what I’m asking makes sense.
Happy to have you, X, and thanks for the support.
The bridge mode is definitely the way to go. More in this post on Double NAT vs Single NAT. And this one is for what you can do with AirLink.
Thank you! Just the article I was looking for!
Sure, Christopher. 🙂
Hi Dong – thanks so much for all the research (almost too much!) I’ve decided to replace my RT-AC87U with this wireless mesh setup of two ax92u’s as my house is about 2,500sft and no ethernet wiring.
I’m assuming this should provide better coverage than my older single AC87U?
I have one other question. I know that if I set them up in a wireless mesh the Wifi6 band is used as the backhaul. But in your article you mention:
(Note: Like all tri-band AiMesh systems, you can turn the RT-AX92U’s 5GHz-2 band into a non-dedicated backhaul to also use it for clients. Considering this is a 4×4 Wi-Fi 6 band with a ton of bandwidth, opening it up to clients is not necessarily a bad idea in most cases.)
…so there is the ability to use the 5GHz-2 band as the backhaul AND another band for clients to use?
I think in my case that would make sense if I could.
Looks more like still not enough, Jules. 🙂 Yes, the new hardware will be much better. In your case, the 5GHz-2 will work to serve the client. Since you have the wired backhaul, you can totally set that band free, which its interface would suggest you do. What I mentioned there only applies to when you use the hardware in a wireless setup — and yes, as such, your understanding of what I wrote is correct.
Thanks – glad to know it works that way, as I’ve bought the units already!
I’m going to be using them in a wireless backhaul setup – as my house is not wired.
In my case my main router is on one side of the house and this node will almost be dedicated to me on the other side of the house. So with only a couple clients on the satellite node was trying to figure out if it would be beneficial converting it to a non-dedicated backhaul. (ie shared with clients)
Hey Dong –
I have a GT-AC5300 as my main router, and am thinking of using the RT-AX92U-2 as mesh nodes. I currently have an older RT-AC3100 as the only node in a wired backhaul setup off the 5300. The problem is the signal doesn’t reach to the upper level of my house very well. Only the 2.4Ghz band reaches, and its quite slow.
My house is a split level, the 5300 being in the basement close to the stairs, the wired 3100 on the far end of the middle half level. The 3100 has an almost open straight line up to the 3rd level hallway, but the signal doesn’t reach up there well at all. The house is total 2700 sq ft.
Can the AX92Us connect to each other spaced 50′ apart? It would mostly be a straight open path between them.
Here is a basic drawing of the layout, hopefully it works.
https://imgur.com/a/roUsFkz
You don’t want to mix wifi standards in a wireless setup, Neil. This post will explain more. To answer you question, yes, especially if there’s a line of sight between them, but it’s a matter of degree.
Gotcha. I’ll spend some time to figure a way to get a wire up to the top floor so it’s all wired. I know that’s the way to go.
Presuming that top floor node is now wired, would you think the AX92Us would be a good option?
Or should I stick with another AC3100 until I am ready to spend the $ to upgrade all three nodes to Wifi 6?
Thanks for your insight!
Stick with Wi-Fi 5, Neill.
Hi Mr. Dong!
I just want to upgrade my n17u unit.
My broadband service will upgrade from vdsl(100/10) to ftth(100/10) in a few days.
I am interested in ax92u, ax82u or ac86u.
I have read your reviews for all of them but I am confused with the ax92u tri-band functionality.
I just want to use the router as standalone and not mesh.
I also own just one “ax” laptop, some “ac” devices like tv and mobile phones and some “n” devices like a wireless printer and a robotic vacuum.
As I have understood from your review, the “ax” laptop will be able to connect to the 3rd band(5GHz-2) and benefit from the wifi 6 if I use it as standalone router, am I right?
Maybe ax82u
Moreover, I intend to use smart connect to have one ssid. Will this work in standalone mode with all 3 bands?
Finally, which of the 3 routers I mentioned you believe that fits better my situation.
Maybe ax92u/82u are overkill?
Yes and yes to your questions, A, but generally, if you want to make sure a device will connect to a particular band, then separate them, and you should do that considering you have N devices. Using SmartConnect means you trade the control for convenience and it might not work as you’d imagine. I’d go with the RT-AX82U in your case.
Hello Dong, thanks for the wonderful reviews you do in such detail.
I just picked up a 2 pack of the AX92u and am finding that a single units range is not as good as my ac88u. Should these each not provide larger coverage?
I have removed my old router and I am only using the two units spaces about 20-22ft apart from each other to provide coverage in each area of the hom.
My current setup is modem to main unit and then I am using a Ethernet backbaul to the satellite unit. The wireless was causing a lot of latency and intermittent connectivity.
You have two units, Salvitor, so your question is a moot point. And no the RT-AX92U is not supposed to have larger coverage than the RT-AC88U. More in this post.
Hello ,
Ref : Asus AX92U / DualWan – Specific Query
About the Dual WAN feature.
Primary Broadband : FibreNet (RJ45-Ehternet output directly available from ISP) – Practically Unlimited Data.
Secondary : USB Based (4G SIM Card Mobile Data via Android Phone) – Annual Quota of Data – Always connected to charger and router.
I wish to have absolutely un-interrupted (zero second down) Internet.
Another reason to use One Wired and One Wireless means to connect – to avoid PowerCut / Regional Area/Builiding originated Issues.
I intend to use it as in the Load Balancing Mode at 98:2.
Why Not ‘FailOver’ Mode : The momentary delay in changing over is Not acceptable.
My Question is :
If the Primary Broadband fails , will it automatically utilize the full potential of the 4G Sim MobileData.
And revert back to Primary Broadband at 98% Utilization once its back up.
Will there be a disconnect ? How will the functioning be ?
On Normal usage , it will keep consuming 2% of my data usage via the 4G – which is fine.
I am not able to think , why this is not always a better option than FailOver mode.
Is it not in effect : a zero second FailOver.
There’s no such thing as “absolutely un-interrupted (zero second down) Internet”. PERIOD. What you’re looking for doesn’t exist, Aditya. Good luck!
What would be the closest / second best option that we can try to achieve ?
By setting Load Balancing to 98:2 – What would happen in above described setup ?
Hi Dong:
First of all, let me thank you for your thorough and complete review of these routers. Your knowledge, insight and thoroughness is much appreciated.
I am currently in a state of perplexity about what path to take with my home routers and need to decide soon. Currently, Amazon Japan has this AX-92U at ¥ 25,000 with a ¥ 3,000 discount coupon valid through tomorrow only. Here’s my current setup (all ASUS)
AC-5300U (used for over 3 years now)
AX-86U (recently purchased 9/8 and returnable)
Home area: approximately 92 sq.m.
My AC-5300U I’ve deployed to the living room as an AI Mesh node. AX-86U is in my office/room and using as the main.
I am planning to sell off the AC-5300U on auction and:
(1) Buy one AX-92U as replacement to use with the AX-86U
or
(2) Buy 2 AX-92U units on sale, and return the AX-86U I bought which is still returnable.
I am confused on which way to proceed. Any guiding light you can provide will be most appreciated. Whichever way I go, I want to take advantage of this sale in a timely fashion. And, you as an affiliate, if there is any way that credit can be applied purchasing through Amazon Japan, I will be happy to oblige. Thanks a lot. 2021-09-23 @ 10:14:35 JST
Jerry
You put me in a difficult position by offering to buy something on Amazon to explicitly support me, Jerry. Thanks, but that may violate Amazon’s affiliate policies on my part, not to mention it turns me into a cheap consulting service. :). That said, spend some time on the site, especially this post, and you’ll find out what you should do for your situation and how to support this site if you’re so inclined. Take care!
OK. Not a problem. I shall do my own research and due diligence. Thanks for your reply.
Thanks for your reply. Understood and not a problem. A couple basic tech questions if I may. This is home use for just a couple users, and not corporate.
Tri-band & throughput
Is it better to consolidate the channels or configure as independent channels?
Wired vs Wireless
Would it be advantageous to use WiFi and ethernet aggregated or just choose one over the other?
Thanks.
You can’t “consolidate” channels, Jerry. I think you’re talking about Smart Connect or using each band as an SSID, that’s totally personal preference. In any case, this post will answer your questions on using multiple hardware units, and this one explains configuring your router in case you have connection issues.
Make sure you use the site search and spend some time on those posts (and related ones) before asking any further questions — I don’t want to repeat myself. 🙂
Hi Dong.
I’ve been doing that. And yes, they do answer many questions. You are quite thorough compared to an amateur like myself. Thanks for your kind patience and follow up reply. Cheers.
Hi, Thank you for a great review. I was considering various option to upgrade my nearly 6 years old routers. I like the Asus RT-AX92U design (odd, I know).
I have a question may be you xan help answer. I bought 2 RT-AX92U from Asus and installed them with AiMesh. Everything went well. But I notice if I shake the routers a bit (I even notice this when I first unbox and remove the routers), there seem to be rattling noise from inside the routers. Does anyone notice this? Should I be concern about this?
I think it may comes from the connection of the build-it antenna. The noise seem to stop if I open up the antenna and keep my fingers on all 4 antenna pushing them to stay at the furthest position. And both have this rattling noise BTW so I don’ think it is anything loose inside since it nearly impossible for two units brand new to have the same rattling noise when shake the router.
Thanks.
I wouldn’t worry about it, AK. And don’t shake or drop your routers. Be gentle with them!
Hahaha thanks Dong, I didn’t mean to shake them really. I noticed the rattling just by picking them up from the box when I open it and just curious as I thought there is no moving parts in a router. Anyway, I could be wrong since the AX92U has built-in antenna so may be some springs or something connecting to the antenna making the noise when I pick them up and move them.
Thanks.
The wires connecting the board to the external antennas likely have some slack. That’s quite common in many routers. If something is loose, you’ll hear it rolling inside when you rotate the router gently. If you shake hard enough, everything will make noise…
Hi Dong, first of all thanks for all this great info you post! It’s super in-depth while staying readable.
I just got an RT-AX92U now in Canada for a single router setup (on the latest firmware: 3.0.0.4.386_44985-gd27c0a3) and set up the 3 bands to be separate, yet for the 5GHz-2 channel in Wifi 6-only mode, I do not see 160 MHz in the dropdown or the checkbox. It only lets me choose 20/40/80 (or those individually).
Perhaps this is some regulatory issue in Canada? I.e. 5 Ghz @ 160 MHz bandwith is not allowed? I wonder if I should try an American firmware version for this. Any advice is greatly appreciated!
Thank you,
AP
I’m not sure, but that’s likely the case, AP. The U.S. firmware might help unless the hardware itself is different there.
That makes sense, thanks for the help and quick reply!
I love the small size of the AX-92U but don’t like the fact that it does not offer a multi-gig WAN port. I have 1Gbps Verizon FIOS that sometimes go above 1Gbps at times and I don’t want the extra to get cut off. So I plan to use the 92’s as nodes instead of the main router. I know in your past posts that you should use the most powerful router as the main router but it seems that the only ASUS router more powerful than the 92 is the GT-AX11000 (tri-band and WIFI6). That thing is a monster and expensive!
What would I miss out on if I were to use a dual-band w/multi-gig (RT-AX86U) as the main router instead? Thanks!
You can, V but in this case, you might waste the RT-AX-92U’s 2nd 5GHz band unless you use it in the AP mode. More here. https://dongknows.com/best-aimesh-routers-and-combos/
Oh no – the precious 4×4 band! Maybe I will go for the AX-11000 after all. If I go for the AXE-11000, I suspect I will lose the 2nd 5GHz band as well since it’s third band is 6E and not 6, right?
That’s correct, V. You can think of the GT-AXE11000 of a new type of “dual-band” router. Here’s my review on it where I talked about this issue.
For your case, I’d stay with what you have right now. Seriously having a bit extra in the WAN speed won’t make much of a difference, or better yet, get your home wired and you can have a lot more options. 🙂
Yup – my home is wired and I try to use wired connections whenever possible and will use wired backhaul. Don’t have any routers yet but between 1) 3 RT-AX92U’s, 2) RT-AX86U (main) and 2 RT-AX92U’s, and 3) AX-11000 (main) and 2 RT-AX92U’s, it sounds like you might be recommending option 1… then probably 3 over 2
Yes. Or you can go with 2 and use the RT-AX92 in the AP mode. That’ll work, too.
Hello. I just installed my 2 Ax92u. So far so good. I have set up the system as tri band smart connect – all wifi 5. However, most of my 5ghz clients but one connected to 5ghz-2! Should I set the load balancing rule in the smart connect setting? Thx
That’s how it is, David. The 5GHz-2 is working as the backhaul. Read the review!
I might have misunderstood your review but since I use a wired backhaul and I released the 3rd wifi network for tri band smart connect then I believe all 3 wifi bands are available to wifi clients, am i wrong?
Then make sure the mesh uses the wired backhaul, David. After that you can try separating the two 5GHz bands as two SSIDs. That’ll work. More in this post. https://dongknows.com/how-to-fix-wi-fi-dropping-and-disconnection-issues/
Definitely using the wired backhaul. The issue I think is with the smart connect functionality that seems to redirect all clients to 5ghz-2.
Yeap, David, that happens and it’s complicated so your best bet is to separate the two bands to make sure the Wi-Fi 6 band works with your clients first.
Hi Dong,
I had Ax86u which is the aimesh router. If I use 2 pack Ax92u as aimesh nodes with ethernet backhaul (I had my house wired connection), will all my clients get wifi 6?
No, Ben, unless you use the 92Us in the AP mode. More in this post.
Hi Dong,
First of all thanks a million for all your detailed and honest reviews, since deciding to retire my trusty Netgear “Fresh Tomato” R7000 your site has been top of my list of reading material.
I tested an ASUS RT-AX86U (a fabulous beast) but decided a more pressing issue was eliminating the dead zone of my bedroom and ultimately settled on a pair of AI-mesh ASUS RT-AX92Us – and your reviews and straight talking replies to the comments were instrumental in helping me make an informed decision.
So… enough of the high praise, my question is as follows…
I have been testing the AI-protection feature on the 92U, and I made two observations:
1. There is an averaged 10% drop off of network speed when AI-protection is turned on.
2. It pushes the 92U’s memory usage (or at least displayed usage) to over 90% when idle. When turned off it idles at about 75%.
I am not too bothered by the network speed drop off (it’s not a significant amount) and I’m also not all that bothered by Trend Micro harvesting my browsing data (we are too far gone to stop data harvesting in this day and age), however do you think there is anything to be concerned about regarding the increased idle memory use? The 92U is a terrific little router but excessive amounts of memory is not it’s strong point.
And as an aside (just out of curiosity) do you personally advocate the use of AI-protection in general?
I wouldn’t worry about memory usage, John. But you can turn the Network Protection off and use a separate firewall device, like the Firewalla. You can’t have protection without somebody watching over you.
Ain’t that the truth. The internet is full of people obsessing over Trend Micro monitoring ones browsing data, makes you wonder how these people think security firms gather data on malicious sites in the first place!? 😉
I will check out the Firewalla for sure, but good to know that there shouldn’t be concerns on maxing out the 92U’s memory.
I mean, I know memory is there to be used but psychologically (yet probably illogically) it doesn’t feel right to not have a buffer.
Keep up the great work.
Hi Dong,
Very much appreciate your article.
I have 2 units of RT-AX92U, one as a router, another one serves as AiMesh node.
Recently, I’m facing an issue that a certain bandwidth could not be connected suddenly. Sometimes, 2.4GHz can not be connected, all its clients were lost connection. Sometimes 5GHz can not be connected. Reboot the system could solve the issue temporarily, but it came back after 1 or 2 days.
Can you advise a guide? Thank you very much for your time.
Try backing up the router, reset the system and set up from scratch. After that, refrain from making too many changes, Mori. You can also schedule the router to restart every few days.
Hello Dong, seems like a scheduled reboot is my only way to go. I had factory reset my system before, the issue still happened, I would say quite frequently. Anyway, thank you so much for your time and advice!
Sure, Jack. 🙂
Hi Dong,
I used one rt-ac3100 and one netgear r7000 to make aimesh, and they are very unstable so I purchase two more rt-ax92u to make a new aimesh which is much better. The question here is if it is a good idea to use the old rt-ac3100 as aimesh node to extend coverage and better 2.4g signal/speed?
Thanks a lot
You can’t have an AiMesh using non-Asus hardware, Cass. More on your questions in this post.
Hi Dong,
I think I made you confused by my original post. The actual question I want to ask is if there is any good to add my old Rt-ac3100 to my 2 rt-ax92u mesh? or the ac3100 will make the aimesh unstable since it is dual-band
The post I linked answers the question, Cass.
Any recommendations if I were to have more than 300 IP addresses at my home – which has 4 units of AX92U mesh all wired up?
I used to have two subnets before with my previous router but this one is limited to just one and hence limiting it to 255 IP addresses.
There are multiple ways, Sekhar. Example.
1. You can get a managed switch with VLAN support (almost all managed switches have this).
2. Use the RT-AX92Us each as different subnet (double nat). More here.
Hi Dong,
Amazing review, I have been reading your reviews for a while and it’s because of you that I bought a AX-11000.
I’m moving to a bigger home, and I would need AirMesh capabilities.
Currently, all the wired connections and the internet connections (from ISP) is happening in the basement.
I was thinking of using a AX-92U to connect to the modem from the ISP in the basement, and use my AX-11000 (which is prettier) as a wired node in my home office (2nd floor).
My questions are:
1. Would you recommend this setup?2
2. Would I benefit from the extra features of the AX-11000 with this setup? Or it would only work if I use the AX-11000 as the main router directly connected to the modem.
Thank you!
It’s “AiMesh” Mike 🙂
1. This will work well but it’s a waste. You can just go with dual-band hardware. More in this post.
2. No, the main router of an AiMesh system decides the features of the network. More in this post.
I’m running a pair of AX92U and I thought I could live without Merlin, but I sure do miss it. Is there any talk of Merlin for the AX 92U?
Just to clarify my question.
If I’m understanding correctly, if I use the AX-92U as the main router and AX-11000 as the node, I won’t be able to get wifi6 is that correct?
And even if I used AX-11000 as the main router and the AX-92U as the node, I still won’t be able to get wifi6?
If so, the only way to get wifi6 would be to use 2 AX-11000?
Thank you so much for your help!
Clearly, you didn’t *read* the linked posts or this review, Mike. 🙂
Since you have a wired backhaul, you’ll get Wi-Fi 6 in both cases. But even if you don’t use a network cable, you can still get it with some tricks. I hate it when folks make me read my own posts for them. 🙁
Hi Dong,
Totally learnt a lot from your review and got the AX92U for myself. Generally, they are working as you described and I love them. 1 week later, issues started to pop up, and hopefully you can shed some light on these issues.
1. Both my Galaxy Note 10+ and laptop are at the same spot. Laptop is using an old D-Link DWA-182 wifi adaptor (AC1200 dual band b/g/n/ac). My Note 10+ connects only to the 2.4GHz of the AX92U (main unit), where as the D-Link connects to the 5GHz of the same unit. I don’t know why, my phone can only connect to 5Ghz if i’m in front of AX92U, and if i leave the unit out of sight, my phone switches to 2.4GHz. I had rebooted the router to no avail. Phone still connects to 2.4GHz while the wifi adaptor connects to 5GHz. How can I make the phone to select 5GHz? However, if i goto the node (located upstair) coverage area, phone connects to its 5GHz without issue. How can I make my phone connects to 5GHz of the main unit?
2. My daughters Samsung Note 8 always connected to the main unit at 2.4GHz which is located on the ground floor (thus getting very slow speed), where as the node is located right outside her room, but the phone just refused to connect to the node. Any way to solve this issue?
2. My Canon E480 wifi printer disconnected to any of the AX92U units after 1 week problem free usage. I had hard reset the printer, it just won’t connect. It manages to locate the SSID, asking whether to connect to one router or multiple routers, and I tried both, it just won’t connect. I tried another wifi printer, Canon E460, same issue.
My settings in AX92U are hard wired back haul, latest firmware 3.0.0.4.386_43084 on both units, tri band smart connect, tried WPA/WPA2 and WPA2/WPA3 authentication (using this now). Pretty much everything else is default.
Sorry about the long posting, hopefully you can help me.
Thanks again in advance and keep up the great work,
Rad
Separate the 2GHz and 5GHz bands as different SSIDs, Rad. That’s the only way to control which band you want a device to connect to consistently.
Hi Dong, we had contact before on this combo. As per your advice, I supplemented these with the AX-GT11000. There’s two things I can’t figure out and I’m curious:
1. One node is wired to the 11000, the other is wirelessly connected (no other option available) I know that the second Wifi band (wifi-6) is used exclusively for the backhaul. But does that also mean that no device can connect via wifi-6 to the 11000 either?
2. Suppose I find a way to wire the second node to the 11000 as well in the future and can then make the second wifi band available for clients. I like it when I do not have to select a network ID when I run around the house. Why is it that you advise to give the wifi-6 band another SSID? By the way, if I name that band similar to the other tow, I even get a waning message from the ASUS -app?
I’m curious
1. The other 5GHz band is available to clients, Henk.
2. You can’t use the 5GHz-2 band as part of SmartConnect in this case, at least with the firmware I was using. Check out this post for more. Read it, don’t just scan through. https://dongknows.com/asus-aimesh-overview/
Hi Dong,
Thanks for your reply. So the 11000 has al bands available for clients That’s good to know, since that is something to consider where to place my 11000.
I did read that article, but due to my lack of knowledge I did not fully comprehend what I was reading. What threw me of was what was written below:
Update: With AiMesh 2.0, there’s now an option to group all three bands into one network via the Tri-band SmartConnect when you use wired backhaul. This option is first available in the ZenWiFi family, but all tri-band routers will likely get it over time. AiMeshh 2.0 is more applicable to Wi-Fi 6 broadcasters. Wi-Fi 5 hardware might not get all of its improvements.
So if I understand correctly; If in the pulldown menu of the router you can choose for Tri-band SmartConnect, (which I can’t) you can have the same SSID and password for all 3 bands. If not you’d better get a different SSID for the 5GHZ-2 band when you make it available to clients.
Correct? Many thanks Henk
That’s about right, Henk. Just pay a bit of attention and don’t make any assumptions and you’d figure things out. 🙂
Hi Dong, clear now Thanks
Henk
Sure, Henk.
I’ve read many of your reviews and finally settled upon a 2-pack of this router for myself. Your research is thorough, well-formatted and I’ve learned a lot through your analysis’.
No questions in particular; I just wanted to let you know I appreciate your work and anyone who’s reading this, DISABLE YOUR ADBLOCKER!
Thank you!
Thanks for the support, Charleston!
Hi Dong,
I’m choosing between the AX92u and AX86u – I don’t plan on using the mesh capabilities for now. I don’t have a multigig broadband connection, but I do have a HDD I use for shared storage. and I also have a couple of AX clients. The prices I found are £230 for AX86 and £180 for AX92. Is the extra £50 worth it? I don’t really plan on using them for gaming, just want a future proof quality AX router with excellent coverage (house is not that big, so no problem there, but the further it extends in the garden, the better).
Thanks!
No, G. Go with the one 92U.
Thanks! AX86 has double the cores and double the RAM – would that help in any real life scenarios? Like if I configure the router as a VPN client? Also did you see any difference in coverage – which of the two is better (if slightly)?
It’s like the differences between two cars, G. I don’t have all the answers on specificities. My previous reply was mostly in terms of cost. Check out their reviews for more.
Hi Dong Ngo,
Read your extensive testson the AiMesh. I hv a AX58U as Primary router & the 2x AX92U as nodes with Gigabit wired backhaul. If I use Smart Connect, will I be able to use the WiFi6 of 5GHz-2 of AX92U (my WiFi6 laptop only connects as WiFi5). If not, how do I configure the 5GHz-2 SSID since the AX58U is Dual-band & does not have 5GHz-2.
You should use one of the 92Us as the main router, Eric. Check out this post. https://dongknows.com/best-aimesh-routers-and-combos/
Hi Dong Ngo,
Thanks for your reply. Do you mean if I use the AX58U, I win’t be able to use the 5GHz-2 band? I use the AX58U as the main router because of the 3 core CPU as the AX92U only 2 core. Will reduce to 2 core as the main router cause any issue?
I will not answer questions that are already answered in the post, Eric. So read the post I linked in the previous reply. As for the cores, don’t get too hung up on them. That of the 58U is a budget CPU.
Hello Dong! Fabulous website you have, truly!
I’m looking for a setup of 2 identical Asus routers to help me use my gigabit internet through WIFI 6 within a 2 floors house.
I’ve read on a YouTube review video that even if you switch to a wired backhaul for this set, the node router will not support 5ghz-2 for WIFI6,only from the main router. Is this true?
I’m looking to have 1 device downstairs acting as main router behind the ISP modem, and a second device upstairs broadcasting WIFI, there is a CAT6 cable between both floors so it can be a wired backhaul, and I only need the upstairs device to act as an access point preferably having the same SSID so devices can switch with handoff between floors…
I’ve read all your website but I am uncertain if my best choice would be:
2 x RT-AC86U (even if WIFI5 it may get close to 900mbps?)
2 x AX92U
2 x RT-AX58U
2 x RT-AX82U
Thank you very much for your valuable time to answer based on your expert opinion.
That’s not true all, as I mentioned in this review, Andrei. More in this post. Make sure you read, though — learning via youtube only get you so far. 🙂 https://dongknows.com/best-aimesh-routers-and-combos/
Note: comments are moderated as noted in the comment section. There’s no need to post multiple ones. Again, make sure you read and pay attention.
Hi Doug – Great review, very insightful.
My existing setup (until 2 days ago) was an RT-AC5300 and RT-AC68U in an AiMesh network with wired back haul. I was using Smart Connect but only with the 5GHz bands. The AC68U bit the dust and I am in the market to replace it.
I have 2 notebooks with AX210’s and 2 cell phones that have WiFi-6.
Is using the RT-AX92U as my primary AiMesh router with the RT-AC5300 as a node with wired back haul a reasonable solution? If I isolate the 5GHz-2 with a unique SSID and bind the notebooks to the RT-AX92U would they enjoy the throughput of WIFI-6? The laptops when in the house would live in the same room with the RT-AX92U.
Is there a better solution using a different model of ASUS router that would provide my laptops with WiFi 6?
Thank you for any insight you can provide.
Yes and yes and you can use another RT-AX92U but the current combo is fine considering the wired backhaul. More in this post about AiMesh combo.
Great article! – So would you recommend to buy something like the Zen AX as primary and connect an existing and repurposed rt-ax92u as an edge in the mesh? Would that mean the faster 5ghz(wifi6) is still available from the Zen and the 92u uses it’s fastest channel in the mesh and basically becomes a wifi5 extender… Hypothetically?
I’d use the 92U as the main router and the XT8 as nodes, Andy.
Thanks Dong!
Why would you use the 92u as main router? Thx
Check out their reviews, Dave. Also, it’s a personal choice.
Hello!
I am in need of a router that has better range since in some rooms i wont get enough wifi-signal.
I mostly have devices that are compatible with wifi 5.
Should i got Asus RT AC86U for 170 usd or purchase Asus rt ax92u for 225.
Is it worth paying extra for wifi 6? Will ax92 give me better range than ac86u?
Best regards
If the range is what you care about, there’s almost no difference between the two, Enrique. More on that here.
Thanks!
I found the ax92 for just 24 usd more than ac86.
Guess I’m going with the ax92 for more future proofing .
BR
Hi Dong,
I’m still lurking around here while I decide…
I was going to buy this router, but I’m really thrown off by “2.4GHz Wi-Fi Specs: 2×2 Wi-Fi 4: up to 400Mbps” for this router. Specifically the “Wi-Fi 4.”
Some other websites it says 2.4 GHz is basically only capable with Wi-Fi 4, but some of your other reviews have 2.4 GHz with Wi-Fi 6. Is 2.4 GHz only compatible with WiFi 4? If there is an article on helping understand this, that’d be helpful, or am I overthinking it.
My clients are WiFi 5, but does that mean when they connect to 2.4 Ghz they are still only WiFi 4 regardless of the WiFi 5 / WiFi 6 router, or is it only with this particular router?
I basically only care about having good (~100 MBps), reliable internet at long range, for my WiFi 5 devices. The rest, I couldn’t care about.
Side note: I wish you had a review for the TP-Link Archer A20. Hope they send you one to review.
Thanks again for your time and commitment.
There’s no 2.4GHz in Wi-Fi 5, Lucka, so you only have either 4 or 6. But seriously, I’ve never seen any Wi-Fi 6 routers outdoing Wi-Fi 4 routers on this band. Don’t get too hung up on the standards.
Thanks 🙂
Thanks for recommending this to me over the AC86U. I replaced an AC68U with a single AX92U and now have good enough range that a mesh setup would have been unnecessary and a waste of the 5 GHz-2 band.
Smart Connect sounds good in theory but from what I’ve read you will end up seeing some of your 5 Ghz devices on the 2.4 Ghz band, so I decided to keep separate SSIDs with Smart Connect off. I guess an optimal way to split everything would be to go into the documentation of everything to figure out which Wi-Fi 5 clients are 2×2 and connect them to the 5 GHz-1 band, but I’ve decided to save time and put anything that connects to the router at less than 200 Mbps on 5 GHz-1 and put the rest on 5 GHz-2.
Sure, Toby. And yes, separating this bands will give you more control. Also, note the the 2.4GHz has the longest range.
Give smart connect another chance, especially with the latest firmware.
It really is flawless now.
Walking to the end of your garden puts you on 2.4ghz, the second you step back inside it’s already back on 5ghz.
I’m utilizing 3 units!
I have ax11000 as my main and 2 ac5300. You said it’s not a good idea to mix WiFi 5 and WiFi 6. But after reading this if I do get a pair of ax92u and connect them to the ax11000 then pretty much I’m back to having a WiFi 5 system and why I say that is that I can only use wired between 2 units and wirelessly for the 3rd.
Would you get the pair of ac92u to replace the ac5300 or just continue with the current setup?
Thank you, great work
Stay with the current, Sterling.
So these routers are all over the place but I can only use 2 wired and 3 node wirelessly. How would you order these routers, ASUS GT-AX11000, ASUS RT-AX92u and ASUS GT-AC5300?
Is it a waste having this mix? I have at least 30 devices (a mid of WiFi 5 and 6). Unfortunately I cannot use wire all throughout.
I appreciate your advice.
Thank you Dong
Check out this post, Dos.
Quick question – if this is a WiFi 5 setup only in wireless mesh mode what’s the point in buying it over an actual WiFi 5 tri band wireless mesh setup?
I’m looking to upgrade and I’d like WiFi 6 as my laptop and phone are both WiFi 6 clients, both connecting wirelessly to my network. I’ve currently got a tri-band Netgear X8 R8500 and an EX7500 mesh extender and they work well enough in my reasonably small flat.
Currently my connection is under the gig but my ISP is looking to introduce 1gig shortly and I will likely upgrade to that then. I would prefer wireless backhaul because wiring the two units together would be a pain, requiring wiring around a bunch of doors and walls, or lifting flooring to get wiring under the floor.
The point is you have a much stronger backhaul, Lindsay, as I mentioned in the review. But you can read more on Wi-Fi 6 here.
Ah yes, I see that – so, much better speeds from the satellite module in wireless mesh mode than my current setup would be providing with the same clients and a sub gig connection. That would probably be helpful as there are a few devices which connect to the network via the mesh extender
And I suppose if I get enough WiFi 6 clients and upgrade to 1gig connection then I could always get invest in the effort to change to a wired backhaul…
Thanks for the input.
Yes, and you can open up the backhaul band for clients, too. It remains a different SSID but it works.
So I’ve got the RT-AX92U units set up as a mesh, and I’ve connected my laptop and S20 Ultra to the wifi 6 backhaul band. My phone reports network speed of 1.2gbps as I would expect and maxes out my 350 down connection (actually around 385)
I upgraded the laptop with an Intel Dual Band 2.4Gbps Wi-Fi 6 Wireless AX200NGW 802.11ax/ac Bluetooth 5.0 Network Card. Device manager and Intel Driver Support Assistant both say it is what it’s meant to be. 802.1ax mode is enabled.
However, my laptop, on the same SSID as the phone and sitting in exactly the same location, records the speed as varying between 155mbps and 700+. The network strength also varies whereas the phone is rock solid full strength (as I’d expect given I’m about 12 feet in a straight line from the router with nothing blocking).
The device list in the Asus GUI shows the phone as 1201.0 Tx rate and full strength signal and the laptop as varying up to around 720.6 and two bars out of four signal strength.
I can’t figure out why my WiFi 6 enabled laptop isn’t showing the speed and signal strength as 1.2gbps same as my WiFi 6 enabled phone when they are both connected to the WiFi 6 band at the same place in the room. Would you have any ideas?
A couple of things Lindsay:
1. Don’t expect Wi-Fi to behave like network cables. The point is it FLUTUATES.
2. The number you saw (1.2Gbps) is the negotiated speed which is not always indicative of signal strengths or sustained speeds. By the ay you should be able to connect at 2.4Gbps — make sure your intel AX200 adapter has the latest driver.
3. The router has two different 5GHz bands, one of them is actually 2×2 Wi-Fi 5 that caps at just 867 MBps. Make sure you connect to the right one on your laptop. You can separate the bands as different SSIDs.
5. Using Internet to test Wi-Fi will almost always give you wrong results. More here.
Thanks for the reply Dong. I’m not sure this is going to connect to your previous reply to my comment as there doesn’t appear to be a reply button under your last comment! Sorry if it lands out of position.
1. I understand that – when I was referring to speed I wasn’t talking about internet speed tests, I was talking about the speed and signal quality reported via the Network Connections Status info from Windows 10 (and on the equivalent from the phone). My fault for not being clear what I was reporting
2. I’ve been told the S20 Ultra phone SOC has a lower total throughput of 1.77gbps so maybe that’s why it’s reporting 1.2gbps. The laptop should be reporting negotiated speed at 2.4gbps. WiFi AX200 adaptor drivers are the latest version, updated on 3 Mar 2021 to Version 22.40.0.7
3. Both the phone and the laptop are connected to the 5GHz-2 band, it has a separate SSID, which I connected them both to. The SSID is now hidden again (both the phone and the laptop can connect to it even when the SSID is hidden once they are initially connected) and I’ve set wireless mode on the band to AX only so none of the rest of my devices could connect to it even if they could see it.
My other laptop is connected to 5GHz-1 and it reports negotiated speed of 866mpbs with no fluctuation
5. I wasn’t reporting internet speed tests, I was noting what Network Connection Status was reporting on Windows (and also the device list on the Asus GUI). Actual speed tests mostly max out the 350 down connection on both the phone and laptop, although the laptop is varying a bit when the reported speed on Network Connection Status changes.
My problem is that I can’t figure out why the reported negotiated speed is not reporting as 1.2 or 2.4gbps on my laptop, but instead fluctuating so wildly.
Don’t worry about that number, Lindsay. It’s software issues. I’ve noted that myself during testing, the card reported just 300Mbps of negotiated speed, but I was able to get north of 1Gbps out of it in real-world performance. Try some real testing, and you’ll see that the negotiated speed (shown within the interface) can be wildly different from the sustained speed as I mentioned earlier.
Yeah, I did notice that the speed test / file transfer from my wired NAS to my wireless laptop didn’t seem to bear much of a relationship to the negotiated speed advised by Windows. Just don’t like it when things are not reporting right, it offends my eyes, but I guess I can live with it 🙂
On a screen what you see is never what you get, anyway, Linday.
Dong,
Hello. I have an ASUS RT-AX92u set that I recently purchased. They have the latest bios and are running using a wired backhaul. I can’t get the AirMesh node to recognize my USB Segate backup drive or any thumb drives. Appreciate any direction you can offer.
Thanks,
Jim
Jim,
Log into the main router unit’s web interface (use a computer, not the mobile app), go to the AiMesh section -> Click on the node in question -> Click on Management -> Click on USB Application -> Login (using the same username and password of the main router). You should be able to figure things out from there.
Thanks.
I’ve to many reviews and have read myself into a corner. Mesh, no mesh, ac, ax, arrrrrrr.
I’ve currently got a Linksys EA9500 that covers the majority of my 5k SqFt home due to the central location that the router is located (there are a few dead spots, but I can mostly live with these).
I’m starting to experience drops and it’s time to get a new router.
My work computer is wired and I have 3 other computers that are 100% WiFi. My streaming setup is wired into the EA9500. All other wireless hardware are IoT devices (roughly 15). All wire is Cat6.
Most WiFi clients are NOT WiFi 6… I suspect it will take me years before I have a meaningful amount of these in my house.
I’m confused about the wired backhaul…
My current setup is Modem –> Router (several items wired here) –> Switch –> Devices
So, a few questions…
1.) I would only be able to get to the satellite is via the switch… will that work? So, it would be Router –> Switch –> Satellite … it will take a bit of work as I would have to pull some new cable.
2.) I like the AX88U, but if I want to add a AIMesh Satellite later, will that really lock me into needing to do a wired backhaul? Could I just add a standard extender to deal with a few spots I might want to add coverage?
3.) Should I really just be looking at the XT8 at this point to future proof? Are the speeds comparable?
Thanks in advance for any advice you might give.
Your situation is easy, Rob, considering you already wired your home.
1. Yes. More on mesh here.
2. Yes. More on AiMesh here.
3. No, for your case, the XT8 is not a good fit. More on which AiMesh combos here. Or just use a USB portable drive and connect it directly into the MAC.
Great Write up – I did purchase the 2 pack with the intent of setting them both up as aimesh nodes to my Rt-ac82u router. I was wondering if I could connect a smart tv to one of the lan ports on one of the 92’s and operate the stream mode with that? Thanks Ron Cantoni
Check out this post, Ron. The short and answer is yes. https://dongknows.com/asus-aimesh-overview/
Hi Dong,
Following your recommendation on AX92U, I like to confirm something.
When using a pair of AX92U in a Aimesh wireless setup, I understand that 5Ghz-2 is used for the back haul connection.
As for the 5Ghz-1, I read and see different info. Can I confirm that the 5ghz-1 is running on a 4 x 4 (1734Mbpz) ac mode in a Aimesh environment?
Read the review, Jason.
Hi Dong,
Thanks for your reviews, great content, though I still can figure want/need to get.
Quick background, upgrading because I have bad signal where my work computer is. I’m also waiting for gig fiber to be installed. We are in a 2,500ft 2 story house. I have router in router set up (one side for IoT devices and the other home network. My old routers were Asus running Merlin (probably over kill as I’m not advance user).
Anyway, I purchased the Orbi RBK753, seemd to work just fine until I logged in for work, I connect work computers to my guest network and yhat causes issues, I get disconnected in minutes after connecting. This is not an issue on the main is n wifi.
I think I want to return the Orbi and get an Asus. I don’t have the ability to write the backhaul, so triband is a must. What’s your recommendations, I read about connectivity issues on the XT8? I’m open to mix and match, budget is around 500.
Thanks!
Get the RT-AX92U, Kiko. Make sure you use the latest firmware.
Thanks, the concern is that the AX92 will not be wifi6 when on wifi mesh, or did i miss understand?
Read the review, Kiko.
Hello Thanks for you write up, they are very helpful, my question is this.
I initially started with one Asus RT-AC86U, I added an Asus AC5300 as a node using the 86U as the Primary in an early version AI-Mesh. It covers roughly 3K SQ but I have very thick walls, it worked reasonably well. Instead of replacing the RT-AC86U I recently purchased a RT-AX92U and added it to my existing Ai Mesh system as a node.
I read that you recommended setting up your newest router as the primary router which I did not do. I wanted to know if I would see a substantial performance upgrade or any other benefits by resetting my Ai Mesh to use the RT-AX92U as the primary router? To my understanding, the only way I can do this is by factory resetting all the routers and starting from scratch.
You definitely should use the tri-band router as the main, Erik. However, you’re mixing Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 5 hardware in a wireless setup. That might not work out well in terms of reliability — more in this post.
Hi Dong,
I have a RT-AX88U but would like to use the triband routers. Can I use my backed up copy of the 88U settings to restore to the AX92U to get started?
Thank you,
Frank
Yes, Frank. Since they have a different number of bands, I’d recommend restoring the settings to the target router, then back up that target router then retore it again from its own backup.
Hi Dong
Great review. I’ve just bought this set and I was very satisfied.
My apartment is 90sqm, so one router should provide range, but with walls and possible router placements some places has weak signal.
I have only one disapointment: very poor functionality of parental controls. There is no log of blocked content, it’s not possible to manualy block sites etc.
What can you suggest to replace it with?
I’m looking now for alternative. I’d like to use wired backhaul and have at least 3 LAN ports in main router. It’s nice to have it “future proof” but wifi6 is not a must.
I like Synology RT2600ac with MR2200ac. They have realy good featues. And I consider Netgear Orbi WiFi 6 RBK 352 AX1800 or more expensive WiFi Orbi RBK50 AC3000.
I don’t have any suggestion for that feature, Marek. I personally don’t use Parental Control. But the Synology routers will work out great. They are the only true alternatives to the Asus.
What about Link-aggregated backhaul?
That’s not supported, Vasya. Also, it’d be a bit cumbersome considering you have to run two cables.
Oh that’s a great shame – Vasya beat me to it as that’s exactly what I wondered about. My cottage is nearly 200 years old and a friend put dual UTP socket and pair of cables in each room probably about 20 years ago, so they’re firstly Cat-5E at best (but quite possibly Cat-5) and secondly in some cases long since buried under plaster (and with a partner who is averse to new cables)
TBH I have read a lot of Dong’s excellent reviews recently, purchased a pair of RT-AX92U units which were indeed surprisingly easy to get up and providing a lovely little aimesh. Also bought a 2TB Sandisk Extreme 1050, connected to the node and that is sitting there providing pretty good rates even over my ropey old cables – I had just wondered if I was missing a trick, so glad to know I’m not, thanks 🙂
Just to say that if anyone else tests their other usb drives on one of their RT-AX92U routers, but then finds that the gui hangs on the current firmware when they attempt to disable samba or dlna from the gui, then there is a workaround I found via google where you can disable it over ssh:-
nvram set enable_samba=0
nvram set dms_enable=0
nvram commit
reboot
Hi dong, i would to buy an AX92U router because of the new wifi6 but i want to know if for the AC connections the AX92U will use band1 5ghz 2×2 867Mbps or band2 5ghz 4×4 faster 1734Mbps when a device with only wifi5 AC will connect to the AX92U…? In conclusion i want to know if the AX92U faster BAND 2-5ghz 4×4 will be used for the AC connection too or only for AX wifi6 device connection?! To explain I will use the AX92U as MEDIA BRIDGE connected to the main faster asus router (5ghz 4×4 AC ONLY) at the first floor of my house (will be replaced next year with an AX)…sorry my english Thanks
Technically, it does, Mark. In reality, you might run into problems since mixing different standards, in your use case, is not a good idea. Go with an AC router for that media bridge role.
Hi, sorry for bothering you.Wired network 10/100/1000, 110sqm on the ground floor and 50sqm on the first floor. Best wired mesh network with 1Gbs FTTH connection? Ax92u kit, Asus xt8 or other?
The characteristics that I’m searching for are wifi 6, mu-mimo, only wired mesh, max speed.
The node is forced to put it on the third cascade switch in the false ceiling (I have the electrical system on the ceiling). The farthest point where the wifi is not reaching.
I hope you answer me, thanks.
Go with a dual-band hardware set, Alessio. Like a combo of these two or multiple units of each.
thanks for the availability shown. you have been very helpful to me.
Dong,
what a great site / content you have there! Spend hours reading your great articles.
I moved to a rural place where my only access to internet is via a rusty old cable (really), >3 km from the DSLAM, dangling on a pole in the garden.
Lovely place, but with 0.4 – 0.6Mbit (on good days) I have bad internet (you can’t have it all I guess).
Having said that, I’m hoping to add a bit of bandwidth by using a 4G – parabolic antenna modem on my roof (oh did I mention I live in a valley and my normal 4G is, well, as good as not existing); we’re hoping to add 10 to 20Mb… (streaming HD, maybe 4K in the future).
Comes to my question, I already have an Asus RT-68u (as gaming accesspoint), with a wired backhaul to the main router (currently from the ISP provider which doesn’t perform great) which I want/need to change. The RT68U has also a fried WAN port; had to use the old subnet trick to use the router as a wireless access-point switch, most likely not efficient)
Long intro (sorry) so here it goes…
1. I was thinking to use a dual WAN to combine / separate certain traffic and have a backup in case the parabolic goes awol (bad weather, too many clients on the emitting antenna).
So since I’m sticking to WiFi 5, I took a look at the AC88U (overkill, but I do like the features & Asus routers).
Would I be able to route certain traffic to a defined WAN port? Or would I better leave the router do the load balancing?
2. However.
I can get the AX92U cheaper. Which would add WiFi6 but really don’t need it today (and most likely in the near future as well, we not early adaptors at home), but I don’t need the 8 LAN ports, only need 1 for the backhaul.
3. I guess I would need to replace the 68U if I would really make advantage of the (wired) AiMesh
What would you advise? The AC88U or AX92U
(ps. checked internet satellite (lag too big), WiMax (radio solution) not available…, fiber.. hahahahaha)
Many thanks in advance and keep on producing the good stuff.
Best regards
Wim
Happy to have you, Wim.
1. Dual-WAN is tricky, generally, if both lines are of similar speeds, then you can do load balancing, if not, use the slow one as a backup. And yes, with the former, you can program the two WANs’ traffic to a certain extent but don’t count on it.
2. Since you have wired your home, either of the said routers is fine. They all have the same set of features anyway (including Dual-WAN). With the RT-AX92U, you have the option of having a separate 5GHz-only network in a mesh setup. More here.
3. Yes, considering its WAN port is toasted.
Thanks for the review (which I read last year) and for the update.
I have a 2-pack system, and the first time I read your review and the fact that it won’t work as a wifi6 system if not using wired backhaul, I of course got disappointed.
However, I am confused about what benefits we are getting in our home, as we have chosen to connect our Samsung S10 and iPhone 11 (with wifi6) to the 5GHz-2 SSID. My phone also indicates it being on wifi 6.
So what does that mean? That we are cannibalizing on the “dedicated” backhaul?
What are we losing compared to a true wifi6 mesh system?
Sorry that I’m confused… I’m normally very tech savvy.
Yes, Martin, the 5GHz-2 is the only Wi-Fi 6 band. With AiMesh 2.0, you have an “easy” option of making this band NOT dedicated and you might have chosen that. That means you will only get 1/2 bandwidth of that bad at most due to signal loss. In most cases though, that doesn’t affect anything since you’re using a 2×2 device and the router is 4×4. I wouldn’t worry about it.
Thanks for the quick reply.
Actually I have set it up to use 5GHz-2 as dedicated backhaul, but it doesn’t hinder me from connecting to it.
I just checked, and it says
“5 GHz-2
5 GHz-2 is now used as dedicated WiFi backhaul under AiMesh mode.”
So that it why I’m confused about what this means for our system and backhaul, when we are using it for our phones while it’s also serving as backhaul.
Possibly that’s a new thing with the latest firmware. You can just not connect to that band (it uses a different SSID) or just don’t worry about it. Also, maybe your phone is faulty in showing the type of connection it’s using.
Hi Dong, if I have two ZenWifi AX XT8’s and one RT-ax92U, would you recommend that I connect the AX-92U directly to the modem and use the Zenwifi’s as additional nodes? Thank you.
Sorry, I just noticed that you replied on the other review (Zenwifi XT8). Sorry for the duplicate question!
Hi Dong, my 5ghz capable phone + tablet connects to the 2.4ghz band in my 2x AX92u mesh setup most of the time. Even if I’m a 5ft away from the 2nd node, my note 8 phone + Tab S6 will connect to 2.4ghz.
Any idea why? I have smart connect on. My 2nd node has RSSI = -71dBm. The Asus router app on my phone lists both devices as connected to 2.4ghz.
That happens a lot, and it’s hard to know why because it depends on the environment and the clients themselves, Bill. The only way to make sure is to separate the bands as different networks. (Turn Smart Connect off.)
Has ASUS made any changes to the way Guest SSID’s work? Previously I recall they only had the Guest SSID broadcasting from the main unit and not the mesh unit. Has that improved in AiMesh 2.0?
Check out this post, Mukesh. But the short answer is yes, especially for the RT-AX92U.
Hello,
I purchased the 92U after a week of having the XD4.
The XD4 had no issues but like you said… I obsess over numbers.
The AX-92U only pulls 400-700Mb when testing in QOS and even as I plug straight to computer.
The XD4 gave me 950 at all times.
It seems to get slower each test. Any idea what I may have done wrong?
I just wanted a more future proof setup that I’d not have to touch for a few years.
Maybe I shouldn’t have switched.
Oh – speaking of switch – would a managed S8000 switch cause any problems? It’s difficult to get to and remove so asking ahead before I try.
You’re going backward with the RT-AX92, read the review. READ. DON’T SKIMP OVER IT. I can’t help you if you don’t pay attention. And no, you shouldn’t use a managed switch nor should you have removed the XD4. The best is the enemy of the good. Why a managed switch to begin with? Why get a tri-band when you have wired your place? Take some time and read stuff again, Chris. Here’s the list:
1. Basic network stuff (including switches).
2. Basic router stuff
3. Basic mesh stuff
4. All AiMesh stuff.
5. Wi-Fi/Intenet testing.
6. Gigabit Internet.
If you read any of those thoroughly you’ll see how silly the stuff you did. Do yourself a favor and *READ* them all, you need that.
Hi Dong, great site. I feel much more empowered as well as future proofed with my home network given your extensive articles and discussion. Thank you. Anyway I have recently installed two XT8’s that are functioning really well and I have them set through wireless backhaul. Set up was a breeze and I’m now maxing out speeds of my 400mbs connection on a number of devices. Happy days.
I’ve tweaked a few things and I now only have a couple of issues to solve so was just wondering what your thoughts are on the following.
1) Randomly only one device in the garage (an Apple TV) seems to want to jump between the two nodes and therefore temporarily lose connection. I’ve added it to the roaming block list to bind it to the one in the kitchen which is closer and hopefully more stable. My question is why would this be happening when it is the furthest device from the main node?Arguably the second node could be put further away from the main router/node but as long as the ATV can reach both it seems pointless moving anything and deteriorate the wireless backhaul and lose the two devices I have wired into it.
2) If I decided on a 3rd Aimesh node for my garage would the RT-AX92U be the best bet? It seems to tick a lot of the same boxes as the XT8 (tri band, wireless backhaul, WiFi 6 etc) but is a bit cheaper when bought as a single unit. Just wondering if there were any others that you would lean towards?
Thanks as always!
Hi Tom,
1. This is partly why I try to avoid Apple stuff. 🙂 But it was likely because the device wants to switch to the 2.4GHz band which is stronger (compared to its current 5Ghz). Why it didn’t pick the 2.4GHz of the closer unit, you have to ask Apple. But I think you got a fix there.
2. I wouldn’t say be the best, that’d be another unit of the XT8, but it will work fine.
Thanks for the quick reply Dong. I had a thread with ASUS going and the detail and the reply time was a little lackluster to say the least so really grateful. Point taken on Apple but i’m invested now so no turning back. Hopefully the fix will work!
I’ll debate another XT8 but if not the AX9TU will have to do! It’s only going to serve the garage and some outdoor cameras so it doesnt have to be perfect, just reliable. Thank you again for the help
Sure, Tom. 🙂
Dong,
Still enjoying all the reviews. I mentioned earlier on the week (the guy obsessed w numbers) i purchased the X4 for my 3,000 sf home.
Coverage seems well but the 2.4 speeds are slower than my old R7000 Netgear.
On the 5 band I’m much faster, around 600Mbps.
I have a gig connection and every room wired so I use wired backhaul.
I do notice the garage gets a little less coverage (could be just the car having issues)and was wondering…..
After reviewing this system again- would you recommend this over the X4?
Again- I’d be using wired backhaul. Seems this is a bit more feature ready.
I tried reading other articles to see if you’d compared. I’m sorry if this was cleared up before and appreciate you taking the time to help us all out.
Have a great weekend!
When sitting between the two nodes i get reakky unstable connections.
Zoom calls, games both loose connection on a frequent basis.
Is this issue apparent with all mesh systems? My Asus Mesh backhaul has a “great” connection
Check out the DFS section in this post, Sam.
Hi, glad you recently reviewed this device again.
I’m going to buy two or three devices for a three-story house, but I’m not sure what to do.
First question I have is, is there any difference between specific “whole-mesh” systems (as Asus says in the website) compared to individual routers with AiMesh support?
Second, I have run cables to all rooms but due to the layout of my house, placing a node on any room in the third floor wouldn’t cover the full floor, so I would need to have a mixed setup. First (node) and second (router) floors with wired backhaul, third (node) and second with wireless backhaul.
I don’t mind AX speeds on the third floor. If needed, it would be on a room, so I can just plug a cable into the installation I have already done.
Bearing this is mind, would you recommend me these routers, the XT8, or something else?
Thanks.
Ayo,
“Whole-mesh” or “canned mesh” or “purpose-built mesh” refers to a system that comes out with multiple hardware pieces in a pack. In AiMesh, the difference is just that the hardware is pre-sync and not much else. More here. In your case, either the RT-AX92U or the CT8 will work, but I’d recommend the former.
Doug,
I stumbled upon this article and I could use some advice. Currently I have two D-Link DGL-4500 routers that I was able to set up as one one SSID. I think one of them is starting to fail because my internet connection is started failing while watching 4k content on my Roku it will time out error that there is no internet connect even it if it the only thing streaming. I should note that my Roku is hard wired.
I have been considering the ASUS RT-AX92U (2 PACK Mesh Kit) in your review, but in the comments to another person you mention the RT-AX3000. And I was wondering would it be better to run two RT-AX3000 in a wired backhaul configuration vs the RT-AX92U (2 PACK Mesh Kit). I ask because two RT-AX3000’s would be slightly cheaper than the 2 pack mesh kit.
Thank you so much for putting out reviews like this.
The Asus will help, Steven. And yes, go with the dual-band if you have (Gigabit) wired backhaul. More here. However, the issue you got there might be Internet-related. No router can make your Internet faster if it’s already not fast enough for the application at hand. I’d recommend checking to make sure your Internet is good first. After that, try QoS — Asus routers have excellent QoS. By the way, the name is Dong. 🙂
My apologies Dong.
I understand that no router will make my internet faster. This set up has run flawlessly for many years without issue. Now my internet drops even if it is just my wife and I gaming on our phones.
I have reset the cable modem, and both routers. I just ran the Speedtest in the “try QoS” I am got the following results:
Ping: 10 ms, Jitter: 1 ms, D/L: 105.2Mbps, D/L: 1.7 Mbps
Regarding the D/L, it was 10.7 Mbps, but then dropped mid test to the 1.7 Mbps, and when I tried to run a second test it wouldn’t connect to the server.
This was right at my wired PC with everything connected, eveything being the cable modem, the 2 DGL-4500’s, and a Netgear 8-port unmanned switch.
All that being noted, I am supposed to get 100Mbps D/L and 10 Mbps, so I don’t think my ISP is the issue. I would suspect that if I added more to my Intranet then this suddenly started happening.
When I log into both of the DGL-4500’s the one that is set up like a normal wi-fi router is very slow to navigate through, while the secondary one is instantaneous interaction. I took 16 seconds to see the dashboard after I entered the password, that is why I think it is bad.
So I would like to make sure I understand “(Gigabit) wired backhaul” correctly. Is this just a single CAT-5 cable that connects the two routers? In your article “Mesh Wi-Fi System Explained:”, in the wired backhaul section you mention “cables”, I assume that is one cable linking each device and want to verify.
Thank you so much Dong, and again so sorry for the initial error in your name.
Steve
100/10 cable should be plenty for 4K streaming, as you say, no problems there.
I hadn’t looked up your router model when I made my previous post, but I just did a quick search and it appears to be **13 years old**? Upgrading is a must — no firmware updates were released after 2013 (!!!) which means that any security vulnerabilities found after that year are still just sitting there, waiting to compromise your home network. It might be OK to use such a device inside your network, as a “dumb” access point, switch, or wireless bridge, but never as the front line of defense against the public internet.
That said, you don’t *have* to get the very newest WiFi 6 kit, Dong has some good articles about how WiFi 5 still has plenty of life in it, and that’s certainly true if your ISP connection is “only” 100Mbps down. You could consider lower-spec devices if you’re trying to save money.
James, in regards to security, yesterday my routers passed a shield test that I found while researching my issues. But I agree, It is time to catch up with the times. I need both 2.4 and 5 I do like the idea of guest log ins too.
I’m getting pretty off-topic for this review, so I don’t want to make a big thing of it, but there have been a lot of exploits found in recent years that target your router from *inside* your network. Scripts can run on a webpage (say, injected in an ad, or a compromised CDN) on any device you own, making requests to commonly-used IPs (192.168.0.1, etc) looking for known vulnerable router web interfaces.
Those “shield test” web pages are a good idea, but I’m not aware of any that test for LAN (vs WAN) vulnerabilities. That’s why I always want my infrastructure to be getting automatic updates from the vendor.
No worries about the name, Steven. That happens a lot.
That speed (100Mbps) is more than fast enough for a single 4K streaming. But if you (somebody else) do something else at the same time, you might not have enough bandwidth for streaming. The Roku might be the culprit, too, since it might not have enough storage for 4K local buffering. It can be a lot of things. I’d recommend checking your switch and cables (yes network cables) — a restart always helps. And go ahead and get the Asus.
Thank you Dong, I’ll get the 3100’s and report back.
Dong,
Got the pair of 3100 routers installed and the intranet in my house is fantastic!
My daughter had a zoom meeting and we were able to stream a 4k movie without a single issue.
Thank you for your help.
Do some testing. If you’re streaming Netflix (or, if it happens with Netflix content on that Roku), try wiring up a computer directly to your router/ISP gateway, and also in the same place as the Roku. Then go to fast.com, which is a speed test hosted by Netflix, so your results should be representative of real-world Netflix performance.
The results can help you figure out if it’s your ISP, a home network issue, or something wrong with the Roku. If your results at the router are under, say, 40-50Mbps, I’d think about an upgrade from your ISP. (For 4K, Netflix suggests at least 25Mbps, but I’d want some headroom beyond that.) If you get great speeds at the router but poor or inconsistent performance where the Roku is hooked up, a home network upgrade could help. If you get great speeds everywhere, maybe your Roku is the problem.
James thanks for the input, if you can please read my reply to Dong to avoid cluttering his page.
Steve
Agreed, thinking a pair of 3100’s is the winner for me. “Future proofs” me for a while.
Superb research and, like many others have said, your page is my go-to site for in-depth router info.
I’ve initially gone for the Asus RT-AX92U pair in my cat6-wired 4-storey home to see how I get on. I might be tempted by the an AX11000 if I need more hardware and it becomes available again in the UK. The walls in my 1920’s house are thick cinder-block, so I need an AP on each floor with my current n/Wifi4 gear.
I wish PoE was more available, as ceiling mounting is the way I’d like to go for my mesh APs.
That’s the way to go. With wired backhaul, almost any AiMesh router will work well in your case. But since you already have the RT-AX92U, another unit or the GT-AX11000 makes more sense.
Hi Dong,
Your content is amazing! I am now using it as my primary method of research on my hunt for a new network setup. I have a few questions because after reading your articles I have realised my initial plan won’t work.
I like the Asus AX1100 as it is triband, wifi 6 and has VPN Fusion. My initial plan was to set it up with a RT AX92U. However I would be using wireless backhaul which you mentioned would make it wifi 5 instead of 6.
My questions are:
1) Would you recommend getting a wifi 6 setup or will wifi 5 suffice? I think the only wifi 6 device I have at the moment is a Oculus Quest 2. I also ask this because the AC1100 is out of stock everywhere here in the UK and was thinking of picking up the AC5300 instead. Would you recommended this in 2021 or should I stick to wifi 6? Only issue is that the other Asus wifi 6 routers are all dual band and I know you have said in the past that for a mesh setup they should be tri band.
So do I wait for the AX1100 to come in stock and pair it with another node? If so what setup would you suggest?
Do you have an alternative setup suggestion if I can’t get the AX1100?
Any advice is much appreciated.
Happy to have you, Harmoon.
1. Wi-Fi 5 will work out well for a long time to come. More in this post. With that, you can use the GT-AX11000 + RT-AX92U combo (or just the latter) — you can make the backhaul band work for clients, too, and that band is Wi-Fi 6. More on that in this post. It’ll work out great.
2. The RT-AC5300 will work out well.
In your case, any tri-band hardware will workout. Just make sure you use those of the same Wi-Fi standard for the backhaul link.
Awesome thank you for the advice. I am going to go for the AX1100 and RT AX92U. If I use a wireless backhaul will I still lose the wifi 6 band? Happy to set it up for clients as you suggested if I am to lose it. Also what will happen to the Gaming wifi band on the AX1100 when I use a wireless backhaul. Will I lose that?
Use some deductive reasoning, Harmoon. :). But the basic thing is you will NOT have everything. Something has to give.
Dong, how about adding the wireless/wired backhual distinction in your writing and call it done 😉
I don’t test via wired backhaul, Hanna. That’s because in that case you can expect the same numbers as those of the main router unit.
Hi thanks for the great review, I have a question I have 4 AX92U ( 3 node and 1 main router) and I am actually waiting for an AX89X to arrive to have 4 ax92u node’s and the ax89x for main fouter. Is there anyway I can have WiFi 6 on my set up. Thanks.
Not really, Jaybe. In fact, chances are you won’t be able to access the RT-AX92U’s Wi-Fi 6 band at all if you use the RT-AX89X as the main router. More here.
Has this router had any significant firmware updates that fix the main issues?
I’m looking for a single router that supports >1000Mbps wifi 6 speeds and this one appears to tick a lot of boxes for a very low price.
What main issue? There have been numerous firmware updates since the release.
The Wifi 6 speeds/connectivity being inconsistent, I want to be able to reach 1200Mbps on my Oculus Quest 2 for desktop streaming
Not possible, Alex. Wi-Fi speed is inconsistent by nature. Just because you want something so badly doesn’t mean that can be real. More here — *read* the entire post!
Ok thanks for all the info Dong. Sounds like I’ll just have to buy it and see how it functions in my environment with my devices
👍🤞
Hi Dong,
Firstly, great site 🙏 !
If you don’t mind, I have a few questions about my setup:
Please note: Canadian 🇨🇦 ISP provides gigabit internet; all major devices are currently Wi-Fi 5 (TV, Macs, iPhones, iPads); I will be renovating my new house in the coming months and will make heavy use of HomeKit-based SmartHome devices (switches, lights, sensors, etc.), hence I decided to go with a Wi-Fi 6 router to make my upgrade more future-proof.
1. Is it okay to mix a RT-AX92u with a RT-AC5300 for the AiMesh (wireless backhaul)? Would they have trouble working together given one is try-band Wi-Fi 5 and the other is try-band Wi-Fi 6? Have you experienced/heard of people having trouble when meshing a Wi-Fi 5 router/node and Wi-Fi 6 router/node together?
2. I recently purchased a single Asus RT-AX92u for my current home (~1400sqft bungalow + 1400sqft basement), but will be moving into a much lager house in the coming months (~4000 sqft 2-storey home + 1200 sqft basement). What node/router would you suggest I purchase that will work in my current home and new home (on wireless backhaul now, and wired backhaul for the new home)?
3. I’m thinking about using my current single RT-AX92u wirelessly meshed with a tri-band RT-AC5300. Any comments or concerns regarding this setup?
Thank you!
Hi Singh,
1. No, I wouldn’t recommend that in a wireless setup. You’d likely have connections and speed issues
2. Other tri-band AiMesh routers or any (Wi-Fi 6) AiMesh routers.
3. See number 1.
Hi Dong, hope you’re well?
Quick Question on your comment “By the way, I also tried the two RT-AX92U units as add-on nodes to my GT-AX11000 router, using wired backhaul, and they have been working quite well.”
Can you describe quite well please? 🙂
Did you experience issues with the product whilst part of the mesh?
Was the Wi-Fi Band 6 causing issues?
Just curious and looking at options before I jump in and buy one to mesh with my Asus 11000
Hi Dong
Been reading your excellent AIMesh articles with interest
I’ve a collection of the ASUS Routers:
1x GT-AX11000 Gaming router (this is new and is my gateway/Router
I also have a twin pack of the RT-AX92U and an RT-AX82U gaming router (which the 11000 was an upgrade for).
I need to put one node down the garden in my garage and I want to get has much Wifi6 coverage as possible in the house – from what you say above I assume that whatever I put in the garage will end up slower, but what would be best to use as the wireless node (with the 11000 as main router) – one of the RT-AX92U or the RT-AX82U ? I want the fastest available inside but with coverage in garage and workshop
Many thanks …
J
Just as I forgot to say – everything indoors is wired on cat 6 – its only the garage on wireless backhaul
Put the RT-AX92 for the garange then.
If you have wired backhaul, John, the RT-AX82U is better, if not the RT-AX92U. But either will work. More in the tri-band section of this post.
I have this system, 1 router and 2 mesh nodes, how can I adjust one of the nodes settings to use it as a bridge?
By default, an AiMesh node already works as a bridge, Lance. Just use it as one. More what a bridge is here.
Hi Dong – congrats on the great site. I have a new ax86u as my main router. I have 1gb wired backhaul to the upstairs roof where I need to replace my trusty Cisco 1252agn ap with an AI-mesh Wifi 6 ap or router. But! There’s no power up there – I need to use the existing POE injector for the Cisco or a new POE injector/splitter combo like the Planet POE-171/S, which will do 19v. Is there an obvious choice for this AP? Anything in the Asus Wifi 6 world that will do POE? Any Asus POE splitter? There used to be a thing called the Asus ES-101, but that seems defunct now. Any advice much appreciated.
There’s no PoE Asus AiMesh broadcaster that I know of, Andrew. I’d recommend getting a Wi-Fi 5 PoE AP, like one of these, there since PoE Wi-Fi 6 counterparts are still very expensive.
Hey Dong,
I’ve been a follower of yours for a year now, and really love the first-class content you deliver to us.
Here’s my situation:
I’ve got a cabin home + garage / game room that are 60 yards apart. The garage is full of steel. The fiber optic laid (only 100Mbps) is coming into the Garage, and I want to extend the network to the Cabin Home.
I have Cat7 Ethernet buried to connect the two buildings, as well as a Ubiquiti NanoStation on either end.
The NanoStations have worked well for us in the past when beaming the previous DSL network (5Mbps), but now that we’re upgrading to the fiber speeds which are fantastic for the North Woods location of Wisconsin, I want the most robust, future-proof setup possible.
I’m thinking about pairing two ASUS WiFi 6 routers via Ethernet, and part away from the Ubiquiti NanoStation setup.
– I want to be sure they each (2 networks, one for home, one for garage) produce 2.4GHz + 5GHz networks, and support WiFi6 devices.
– The range should ideally be 1,000 sq ft for the garage (network1), and 2,500 sq ft around the cabin (network2).
I’m thinking either two Asus RT-AX92U , or two Asus RT-AX86U . . .
Both of these seem like overkill, but I want to have it set up correctly NOW to accommodate the event that we increase our bandwidth speeds in the future.
Please let me know your thoughts! I highly appreciate your time.
Thanks, Chris. Happy to have you. In case, I’d recommend the XT8. With the wired backhaul you have, it’ll work out great. But yes, any dual-band AiMesh set will do. Good luck! 🙂
Hi Dong, some time ago I followed your advice and added the GT-AX11000 to twin-pack of AX92U’s to install an AiMesh network at home. The GT is in the living, wired to 1 AX upstairs, wirelessly to the other AX in the kitchen. Every time I check which devices are linked to which “machine”, I notice that nearly everything connects to the AX’s. For example: I sat down within 4 meters from the GT with my laptop, and switched the wifi on it off and on again. Surprise, it connects to the AX92U upstairs! Can you give some advice how to fix that? Seems a bit of a shame that of my 14 devices, only 2 connect to the GT, one of which is the doorbell chime 😂
Under the “professional” settings you can tweak the signal strength at which it will try to hand off devices from one node to another. It’s possible, though, that you have the nodes closer together than they need to be — maybe you don’t even need one of them at all? If signal strength on the client is good, throughput is good, reliability is good… it shouldn’t really matter which node they actually connect to.
With the most recent firmware upgrade you can actually bind anything connected to your aimesh system to a specific node so it actually can’t jump to other nodes.
I did this on a few items in my system which consists of three AX92u’s with stationary equipment that does not need the benefit of mesh handoff moving around the property such a desktop computers, wifi printers, thermostat, a split system in a garage, etc..
To do this get the most recent firmware, click on the new AiMesh tab, find the device you want to bind to a specific node, then click on the little circle within the device box that looks kind of like a chain-link. From there you can actually specific with one of those nodes you want to bind it to. You can undo this and change nodes later just as easily and works great.
There is also another little circle next to the binding circle where you can reconnect devices if you are having some sort of weird connection issue just FYI. The new firmware helped a ton. Not perfect, but way better.
Hi James,
Thanks for your advice. But I already did that, following one of Dong’s articles Changed it from -70 to -67. I just find it odd that the laptop seems to connect to the node 1 floor up, and not to the router “at my feet.”
It can be a lot of things, Henk. Chances are your home is small. Try turning off the AX in question to see how things change, you’ll be able find out the issues.
Hi Dong,
I’ll do that but for the record, for European standards my house is quite large (60 ft long) and in one way or another most devices link to the AX’s. If I follow your lead, where do I have to pay attention for?
Thanks Henk
Henk,
Handoff generally doesn’t take place if the current connection is good (and the threshold for “good” is rather low). However, when you toggle the Wi-Fi setting on the device, it generally should pick the broadcaster with a stronger signal (which might or might not be the closer one). So when that doesn’t happen, check the following:
1. The distance between two broadcasters is just too close (they should be at least 40 feet apart if there’s nothing in between).
2. There’s a line of sight between the device and the father broadcaster, and something in between it and the closer broadcaster.
3. The Wi-Fi settings of the closer one is not compatible with the client.
4. Something is different about the client itself, try another client.
👍🏻
Hello Dong, Congratulations on this website, missed you on CNET. I have the 2-pack RT-AX92u setup using 1 gig ISP with CAT6 backhaul – everything is running great. With covid, kids came back home and now I have 55 devices connected, some on WiFi6 and 2-3 Zoom meetings at the same time. Asus GUI shows memory at 95% – is this an issue? Also discovered a dead spot and need another node. See above poster used your recommended GT-AX1100 which is nice but that is expensive unit not rated as high as AX88u or even AX86u. Should I buy another AX92u or make one of these my main router? thanks
Thanks, Marlon. Glad you found me here! 🙂
I wouldn’t worry about memory usage — memory is to be used. But generally, that happens when you turn on multiple features. Since you have wired backhaul, you can get another dual-band unit, like the RT-AX3000, but the RT-AX8xu is great. If you get a higher-end unit, though, like the RT-AX86U, or GT-AX11000, then make it the main router. But another RT-AX92U will work out great, too. In other words, they all will work out great but if you get another 92U unit or a low-end dual-band one to use as an additional node then it’s less work.
Thanks for your advice. You have a great site with wealth of information here. Do miss your review videos 😂, they were very funny and made my day.
You’re welcome, Marlon. I’ll think of doing videos again when this pandemic is over. Stay safe! 🙂
I thought I’d just leave a quick message because the firmware update that came out yesterday may significantly change some opinions/functionality on the 2 pack. I got the 2 pack of the 92u’s a few weeks ago and has worked well. It could work better if I relocated one of them, but need to run a wire to get it out of the basement.
Anyways, the firmware update has actually opened up a ton of new features and now has the option to use only wired backhaul where it can then do the “smart connect” feature and combine ALL 3 frequencies together. You can still separate them out on separate SSID’s, but before the most you could do is combine 2.4 and 5ghz-1.
Additional features for optimizing the mesh network have been added along with a number of other things.
I do have a 3rd Asus ac68u connected via wired connection out in the garage, but the updated firmware for this unit has not come out yet so don’t get full functionality of the new firmware on that node yet, but overall it seems like everything else is working even better now. Might check it out!
Thanks for sharing, Brian. Good to know. Think Asus has finally come to its senses in wired backhaul support.
Thanks for the heads-up! I got an email from Asus a few days ago, about how I should apply a “security critical update”, but when I checked their website the latest firmware was from May or something. It must not have been quite ready yet. One thing to note for other owners on the page, I think something changed on the server side so the auto-update function isn’t able to apply this one, you’ll have to download and apply it yourself.
Brian, did you do anything special while upgrading? I downloaded the new firmware from the website, then used the firmware management page on the main router to upload to the nodes first, then the main router. I rebooted everything but the main router couldn’t see the nodes anymore, so I used the red reset button to reset the nodes and put them back in mesh-node mode. That let me see them to add, but the add process keeps failing. I tried resetting the main router too, but the adding process still fails at the end every time.
For now, I put one of the nodes in AP mode (I’ve been using it with wired backhaul) just so I could get the house online again, but I don’t know what to do next. I guess I can downgrade back to the 384 firmware?
Hey there! I didn’t really do anything special. When I was on the the web interface it showed that the main router needed a firmware upgrade. I just pressed the button and it upgraded it automatically. It did not automatically upgrade the other node though. I just manually uploaded that to the other node and it all worked just fine. Nothing special at all.
Thanks for following up. I don’t know why the initial upgrade caused nodes to show as “offline”, but I did figure out my problem post-reset — eventually, but it took *hours*. I made a post about the issue on SmallNetBuilders and Asus’s official forums.
The short version is, if you do a factory reset, your device clock goes back to May, and can’t be fixed until it gets connected to the internet. I spent all day trying to configure my mesh offline. Once I figured out that it needed to see the internet, I was able to rebuild my mesh in a few minutes. Moral of the story: always put your AP on the LAN before adding a mesh node.
That makes sense, James. Thanks for sharing. And yes, getting the router unit set up properly is the first part of building and AiMesh.
Brian,
Concerning Tri-band smart connect over wired backhaul.
firmware: 3004 386_40451 latest as of writing.
I have been trying with this new firmware on my 2x ax92u set to use wired backhaul and smart connect on ALL 3 channelsjust as you said, but am at a loss at how to actually achieve that.
Have done so many resets and the whole family is working @home. Getting tired of it.
note: The wired backhaul I use is a stable CAT5E through a TP Link 16port desktop switch, NO filtering, just 1Gbit switch with internal 32Gbit capacity.
The thing is:
– i reset the router and node.
– setup the mesh in web interface.
– set the wired backhaul as 1st preferred on router. Give it 5 min.
–> It then only allows 2 channel smart connect. The only way I get 3 channel smart connect is to reset the router and configure without the node==without aimesh.
And also I noticed this new feature: Setting the Aimesh as wired backhaul in “Aimesh->System Settings->Wired Backhaul=ON”.
It just completely disables the mesh node.
Resetting the node does not let it get rediscovered.
Pulling the cable from the node:
I then reset the router as single router. No mesh options set, so triband smart connect is available again.
Then set up mesh over wifi, plug in the cable and select wiredbackhaul as 1st preferred does still not enable three channel smart connect.
I tested so many possible ways, also the Adroid app with total conflicting settings.
So, may I ask, how did you manage to get it working or at least were able to test it?
PS all the time the router was connected to working ISP 300Mbit stable Cable connection. NTP working fine. I want wifi 6 for my NAS with ZFS/BTRFS/TimeMachine storage and less cables around the house. Coppercable dependency is a flaw to humankind in my opinion which we need to sort out of the system ASAP.
PS great reading on this corner of the net. Thx all.
Hey Dong,
Great write up! Just curious, when running both ax92u together did you notice the RAM usage was high? I’ve been seeing 93% usage and worry about future if it will last. What configuration would you recommend while keeping security and performance?
That’s likely because you have too many features turned on, Coness. But RAM is to be used, as long as you don’t need more than what the router has, it’s fine.
Its confusing that you say this isnt a Wifi 6 mesh router, but in your other post about AiMesh you say that you can make 5ghz-2 available to clients by unhiding it. Even though this is no longer a “dedicated backhaul”, I dont see how that makes this ax92 *not* a wifi 6 mesh router. Also, along the same lines, if I use the ax92u as a satellite to an AX-11000, wouldnt the satellite still have the same issue? (I would have to make 5Ghz2 visible to clients), or AX clients would need to connect to the primary router .
Can you clarify this? How is using the AX92u with the AX11000 really any better, if I still dont have a dedicated (wireless) Wifi 6 backhaul? If dedicated backhaul is the “end all be all”, then maybe the AX92U is kind of a non-starter.
I didn’t say that, Billy. I said it was not a “real” mesh router. The keyword here is “real”. Meaning it’s still “kind of” a mesh router. And in working with the GT-AX11000, it’s still better than using a dual-band router as an AiMesh node.
Right so if it supported Wifi 6 on 5-ghz-1 Im assuming that then you would say it was a “real” mesh router. But in your article you say you will never get Wifi 6 speeds in mesh mode. But if you unhide 5ghz-2, then you AX clients should get their normal speeds.
See what Im saying, you do directly say that in mesh mode Wifi 6 clients cant connect. It might be better to say, you have to unhide 5ghz-2 so they can connect. It would be more clear than saying “you will only get wifi 5 speeds” when used as mesh. This doesnt seem to be the case.
Wi-Fi 6 clients can connect to Wi-Fi 5 broadcasters just fine, Bill. The unhiding the 5 GHz-2 is just my trick which is not a normal way you operate the RT-AX92U in a normal manner. Also, in this case, the backhaul link will be severely affected since it’s no longer dedicated. I got your point but I think you’re splitting the hair here. 🙂
Obviously you want wifi 6 clients to connect to the 5ghz-2 radio on the ax92U or they will only get wifi 5 speeds.
Which you likely won’t get if you use this one in a wireless 2-pack mesh system as intended. 🙂
I think Dong has an article about this: if you use a wireless backhaul and it’s not dedicated, you get “signal loss” which means your maximum performance is halved. The wireless frequency (channel) that each band uses is a shared medium and only one interface can use it at a time. So, either a client is “talking”, or the router is, and the other one has to wait. If you have multiple clients clogging up your backhaul band, your performance could quickly degrade to be worse than just keeping everybody on 5Ghz-1.
If you really want to use the pair with a wireless backhaul band *and* allow clients to connect at WiFi 6 speeds, you can try it and benchmark your real world performance, but I suspect you would have a better experience leaving 5Ghz-2 as dedicated backhaul. (If you run experiments, I’d love to hear about it!)
Unfortunately, I dont have any WIFI 6 clients to test with. But I did look up on ASUS product list and noticed there are no other ASUS routers capable of wireless backhaul at all besides this and the GT-AX11000. Which to me seems to be saying TRI band is sort of pointless (unless you buy 2 expensive AX11000s or the XT8, and AiMesh is really just a wired solution, which doesnt seem very “mesh-like” to me, since wiring routers together is as old as the hills and not mesh technology or new in any way. Given this, I may end up returning my AX11000 and replacing it with the dual band AX86U since I cant see wireless mesh benefitting me in the near term and Im not running cables through my house.
I don’t know where you’re seeing that other AiMesh routers can’t use a wireless backhaul. I wound up getting a 2-pack of AX92Us and the wireless backhaul is fantastic. It’s using the 5GHz-2 band (AX standard) and punches right through our troublesome floors to make a stable gigabit-plus connection, compared to 40Mbit (!) with my old powerline kit. In the future, I may pick up another AX92U or even the fancy AX11000, to get better coverage.
Is there a specific “AiMesh” badged router that says it won’t support wireless backhaul? This page lists something like twenty models as “applicable” for dedicated backhaul, and explains how they can even support it with a dual-band participant.
I think he didn’t read the posts closely, James. I explained the whole thing very clearly in this post.
Responding to your comment below. My statement is that there are only 2 routers that support wireless backhaul this one AX92U and the GT-AX11000. This is clear from the ASUS website. Since the AX92U does not support WIFI 6 with a dedicated backhaul, that means only the XT8 and GT-AX11000 do. Which means theres not much point in having an ASUS triband router at all for WIFI 6 in a mesh configuration unless you either want to spend a ton of money, dont need WIFI 6, or want to wire your clients.
Its interesting that you cant seem to understand my posts, when they are very clear. And based on this post and the ASUS website. I guess theres something lost in translation.
ALL Asus AiMesh routers support wireless backhaul, Billy.
All routers support wireless backhaul?????
Not dedicated they dont! Are you nuts?
Wireless backhaul is not necessarily dedicated, which is available only in tri- band routers. And no, I’m not nuts. Read the post, Billy.
I figured out where the miscommunication happened: from your other posts, I did not understand that you meant specifically *WiFi 6* routers, with dedicated backhaul. There are only a handful of routers anywhere that support WiFi 6 clients, the standard isn’t even finalized yet and probably the only “popular” / mass-market client is the newest iPhone. We kept talking past each other because I was saying that most AiMesh routers support dedicated wireless backhaul (which they do) without considering which ones have WiFi 6 support.
While I did buy a router with a WiFi 6 chipset, I did so knowing that I only plan to use it with WiFi 5 clients, and even if I buy another mesh node that’s WiFi 5-only, it was still a good value at the price I paid. That’s my advice to everybody: in 2020, at least, treat WiFi 6 as a nice-to-have novelty, but don’t spend a ton extra to get it.
Yeap, James. Reading the words that appear in front of you is different from looking for stuff that matches what’s already in your head. 🙂
This router is a full wifi6 router, just unhide the backhaul channel. Clients can then connect to the backhaul channel which supports AX. The backhaul channel has loads of bandwidth, using it won’t mess up the front haul channel. I can run 2 simultaneous speed tests, one on the front haul, the other on the back haul without any slowdown. My internet speed is 900mbps up/down.
Here’s the speeds i get:
Wifi 5 – 400mbps
Wifi 6 – 650mbps
The idea of this mesh network is to keep all the Wifi5 devices separate. If you have a specific need for wifi 6 allow those devices to connect to the wifi6 channel (set it to AX only).
Whilst most people would prefer to only have one SSID for a clean look having the 2 bands really helps with congestion. It’s non existent on our network with no buffer bloat.
We have torrents running, xboxs via ethernet, wifi 6 phones, wifi 5 laptops, wifi 6 desktops, old 2.4 ghz smart devices and printers. A mish mash of about 20 devices and this router delivers top tier performance every time.
On top of that we have full coverage in the entire house and front and back garden.
You’re right on, Lee. I mentioned that in this post and talked about that in detail in this one. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
I’ve been putting off pulling the trigger on a new mesh kit for a couple weeks now, and today I noticed that this one went on sale for right around 300 EUR. I had been leaning towards the Orbi RBK50, but now I’m not so sure. You seem to be a big fan of AiMesh generally, plus I need at least one “leg” of wireless backhaul and I don’t have any WiFi 6 clients yet, so this seems like a good fit. I’ve read this review and your AiMesh writeup, but it looks like you haven’t covered Orbi as much.
That said, do you have a strong feeling one way or the other? I don’t need a lot of “features” (parental controls, remote management, IoT devices/smart speakers, guest network) and my internet is currently 150/30 so raw speed is not a huge concern either. My number one priority is stability — consistent connections and seamless handoff. If I don’t have to *think* about my network for the next 3-5 years I will consider this money well spent.
I wonder if you can help… I’ve got a AX11000/AX92U setup with channels that look like this:
https://1drv.ms/u/s!Ai94da6gxaGUvM9h8rY4Ee-Ih5J9Mw?e=XBB1np
I have two questions:
1) how do I get the AX92U to move down to channel 36? I can move all the other channels around, but that one moves on its own and I can’t find a way to control it.
2) no matter what the settings, the routers refuse to use more than 40MHz. Currently, I have it set to 80MHz (not 20/40/80), but it just ignores me. What else can I try to change this.
I’d recommend leaving the setting for channels at Auto, Rick. What you see there might change significantly at other times. It’s best to let the router deal with that by itself. As for the channel width, that depends on your clients, too. If you have a client that doesn’t support the 80 MHz, then the router will use 40 MHz.
Hi again. Following your reco I tend to go for Asus. As I don’t need wireless backhaul and don’t have any 4×4 clients I consider both RT-AX92U and RT-AX58U . Which one is a better option? Btw, how to explain the that RT-AC92U performed better with WiFi5 client at longer distance than at shorter?
Best
K
I recently purchased the RT-AX92u mesh set and cannot obtain full Internet speed of 940Mbps. The max I get wired on the LAN port is 540Mbps, but if I connect my laptop directly to the Spectrum modem I get the full 940Mps. I also think this is the reason my max wireless speed is 440Mbps. I have factory reset both routers and reversed them with no luck. Asus support has no idea after submitting configuration and debugging logs. I also have a brand new Wifi 6 Killer/Dell XPS laptop. Have you heard of any issues with this model?
Try replacing the cable that connects the router to the Internet source, Michael.
Yes I already tried that with no change. Could there be a compatibility issue with the Spectrum modem model E31U2V1?
Not that I know of, Mike. My guess is might be the WAN port has issues (my Internet is quite slow so I didn’t run into any problem during testing). That said, try moving the WAN function to one of the LAN ports and see if that fixes it. You can do that in the WAN section of the web interface.
Hi Dong, I followed your lead and purchased an GT-AX11000 to use as the main router for the two AX-92U’s I have. I placed the GT-AX11000 on the first floor near the staircase (the most central spot in the house) and made a wired connection to the AX-92U in the living as the first node. And a wireless connection to the second AX-92U in the kitchen. When I open my router app, I see that all clients connect to the two nodes, and none to the GT-AX11000. Do I then use the full potential of the GT-AX11000? (on the ASUS site they state that the nodes use the full potential of the router)
I can swap the 11000 on the first floor with the 92U in the living. They will be connected via an ethernet cable. Would I benefit from that?
I hope to hear your take on my two questions. Many thanks. Henk
Neil – On the “Wireless – Professional” tab, you can choose to enable/disable each radio band separately.
Thanks, got it now
It is frustrating, right now I only have the 2 92us, the one in wireless router mode is in the cupboard but as feared clients are connecting to it when they really shouldn’t. Unless I have missed it there is no way on a 92u to turn wifi off on the unit?
Last night I tested upstairs and 8 times out of 10 my S20 Ultra connected to the boxed in main unit, with (according to wifi sweetspots) a connection speed of circa 200mbps and signal circa -65 to 70dBm, the other 2 times it connected to the lounge node with 650 mbps and signal of -50-60dBm. I have played with the roaming setting which just not seem to work at all.
Btw, also cannot see any way to switch WiFi off on an individual node only per band.
You can only do that on the router unit.
Thanks, your review and comments are much appreciated. Decided to go with the 92us and get a 3rd one for upstairs.
Out of interest you say in the review that….. ‘By the way, I also tried the two RT-AX92U units as add-on nodes to my GT-AX11000 router, using wired backhaul, and they have been working quite well.’ How did you configure that ? Operation mode, WiFi modes etc?
I setup the 92us today on wired backhaul (main unit connected directly to FTTP cabinet acting as modem/router too, 2nd unit replacing ax8 in the lounge). Wired backhaul works fine but I’m still not seeing full WiFi 6 on the 2nd band and despite it showing as connected wired I’m still getting the ‘Asus 5g-2 is now used as dedicated WiFi backhaul under AiMesh mode.’ message which I was not expecting once they were hardwired.
Speed seems good though and getting comparable to the ax8 (circa 800mbps in WiFi sweet spots apps). That is on a WiFi 6 enabled client. Extra 92u for upstairs coming tomorrow…..
Thanks again, great site 👍🏻
You should check out this post, Neil. Take your time, don’t skimp over it!
Leaning towards the rt92u as it it tri-band and I do have some wifi 6 clients so in wired backhaul mode it offers something that the AX8 does not?
If I decided to go with 3 units with one in the cupboard (with wifi off maybe) would there be any benefit to sticking with another 92u unit or would the cheaper AX56U work too?
Other option I am wondering about is if the Netgear RAX120 would make a difference over my current RAX80 in the one or 2 marginal wekaspots that I have. The improvement would not have to be huge to make the difference probably
You should go with either tri-band OR dual-band, Neil. Mixing them up will work, but not ideal. More on that here.
As for your 2nd question, you have to figure that out by yourself. This post will help.
That’s great, thanks!
Thanks, I just figured there may a chance of the signal in the cupboard still being connected to if it still had a reasonable signal coming through and my devices might ignore the better signal elsewhere?
I’ll check that out, was thinking I could go with a 56u in the cupboard and put the the 2 92us as the nodes. If I have to buy a 3rd unit.
Thanks again.
Multiple broadcasters, when placed far apart, help reduce the load on each individual one, Neil. With wired backhaul, you can use any of the AiMesh routers. In fact, you might want to consider the ZenWiFi AX Mini.
Timely review thanks, I just picked up the 92u twin pack but am yet to open and install it. Do you know if it is possible in an Asus mesh setup to have wifi deactivated on the main unit.
I want to go with wired backhaul as my house is hard-wired with cat 6, however my cabinet and the origin of all of the ethernets is stuck away in an under the stairs cupboard which is hardly the best place for any router. So I’d want 1 unit in the cupboard with wifi off feeding ethernet to 2 nodes elsewhere in the house.
Yes, you can, Neil. That’s in the Professional tab in the Wireless section. But disabling Wi-Fi in the main router unit is not necessary and will not help with anything.
Hi Dong, thanks for replying so quickly. I read your take on the powerline with regards to WiFi 6. I just did not know if I could mix wired and wireless backhaul. So thanks for that. May I assume that your advice for the AX-11000 rests on more range, compared to adding a third 92U? Because if I understand it correctly, when using the AX band for backhaul it is not very clever to connect clients to that band as well. So in my case I can’t use the AX band since I’ll connect on elf the nodes wirelessly. Or am I missing a point here? Thanks again and greetings form Holland
Good morning Dong,
I wish I would have read your review before I bought the twin-pack of RT-AX92U. I did quite some reading on it, and did the “help me choose” on the ASUS site multiple times with different parameters. I specifically chose the AiMesh i.s.o. the Zen Mesh as a result of that. Basically they promise you the world, and I find it somewhat disappointing. It lacks range, and even when I set the backhaul to wired, my iPhone 11 Pro drops the connection with the wifi-6 band all the time when I connect with it as the only client.
As you mention it is not even a real wifi-6 mesh router. I have since then read quite a bit of your articles, but I can’t put my finger on the sore spot over here in my situation.
If I want better coverage in my house, I will need an extra node. (it only has 2 floors but is quite spread out (60×40 feet) It will be difficult to accomplish getting that third one wired. So after reading up on it it seems that I have a few options.
1. Send it back and buy another system, but which one?
2. Add an extra router / node either wireless backhauled, or I’m willing invest in backhaul via a Powerline adaptor and hooking it up to that via an ethernet-cable.
If I go for option 1, I don’t really know where to start anymore.
If I go for option 2, would buying an extra RT-AX92 do the trick (with or without powerline backhaul?), or should I go for the RT-AX89X or ROG Rapture GT-AX11000 and make that the main router and reconfigure the two 92’s as nodes? (again with or without powerline backhaul for the 3rd machine?)
Could you share your light on this, because I’m running around in circles at present. I’ll be very grateful. Best regards Henk.
Better late than never, Henk. Happy to have you here.
A couple of things.
1. Make sure you upgrade the RT-AX92U to the latest firmware. In my XP, it helps.
2. Range is a very tricky issue since it depends a lot on your environment, and not just the size of your home. More on that here. That said, a different router might NOT improve in this regard.
3. Powerline is generally too slow for Wi-Fi 6. More on that here.
4. In your case, I think it’s best to get a GT-AX11000 as the main router and use the other two as nodes, vis wireless or wired backhaul (you can mix that.)
Hope this help.
Hi Dong,
I have the ASUS ROG GT-AX11000 as my main router. I wanted to add a tri-band router to reach the far corners of the second floor of my home. Do you have a recommendation between the RT-AX92U and the RT-AC5300.
Good question. I’d go with the former, Paul.
I was in agreement with you until mine stopped allowing me to connect to all 3 bands after the last firmware update. I had read your reviews including the one you referenced here which were most helpful in my decision to purchase the tri-band ax92u. Going to reset my mesh and setup again in hopes it resolves my issue and let you know.
Try it with a different client, Mike. As I mentioned in the review, this router’s 5 GHz-2 band had issue with certain Wi-Fi 5 clients. Configuring that band to make sure it works in the compatible mode will probably help.
Hey Dong, Been running a single AX92U in mesh with my GT-AC5300 and I suspect the recent firmware has changed the wired back haul settings for the worse. The GT options for my mesh are checked for wired but it will not let me connect to the 5G-2 as I could when first purchased and set up. After checking with ASUS support it appears the AX92U decides which to use wired or wireless as it see’s fit. Here is the support page link.
https://www.asus.com/us/support/FAQ/1035140/
That’s not true, Mike. You can always use the 5 GHz-2 band for clients, even when there’s no wired backhaul. More on that in this post — the tri-band part.
Hi Anthony, I researched and debated this question too. The RBK852 was also my choice. Good parental controls, functional admin web interface, malware, can reduce wifi output power, fast with wired Ethernet backhaul, and lots of extra Ethernet ports. I don’t I will be missing much with Wi-Fi 5 vs. 6. Have had for a few months and happy with the performance. Thank you for your input. David
I recommend neither. The Netgear Orbi RBK852 is the superior choice if you care about network speed. It is not as feature rich, but it just works and is currently the yardstick everything is measured.
Hi Dong,
Considering buying either the 2pack of these AX92U’s, or buying two AX52U’s. In either scenario, one would be the router, and the other an AI Mesh node via Wired Backhaul. Since I’m using wired, is there any reason to stay away from the AX92U’s and go with the AX52U’s? I have a few WiFi6 iDevices, and am looking to maximize my 1GB Fiber internet connection. I would put the WiFi 6 devices on the 5G-2 band, and the rest of my high bandwidth WiFi5 devices on the 5G-1 band, and then the IOT devices that use 2.4Mhz on the 2.4-1 band. Planning to cover about 2500 Sqft over two floors.
Only thing scaring me is that I’m reading a number of people complaining about random reboots/WAN drops on the 92U, but mostly from the first couple of months of 2020. Wondering if that’s stabilized with recent Firmware updates.
I can pick up the 2 pack of AX92U’s for $20 more than I can get two of the AX52U’s at the moment.
Get the RT-AX92U, Mike. It’ll give you the option of using the 2nd 5GHz band for your client. That’s quite nice. And yes, make sure you upgrade to the latest firmware. Also, read this post.
Hi, excelent review.
I am trying to decide between the rt-ac86u and the rt-ax92u as a single router for a two floors 1500 SQ FT house.
I still don’t have any wifi 6 capatable device.
Either will do, Miguel.
Thanks for your advice, Dong, I appreciate you reading through my lengthy post!
Something is *definitely* weird with those routers in my case.
I have no switches or anything else in-between the router and my PC. The setup is equally simple: cable modem–>CAT 6 to WAN port on the RT router–>CAT 6 to Intel network port on an ASUS motherboard. I also had another wired connection to a Mac Mini. The rest was wireless, with the wireless backhaul.
The LAN was phenomenally slow whenever a wired connection was involved, both on transferring files (wired to wired in the network, not internet, and wired to wireless!). The router reports 1GB connections on the wires, but they aren’t running anything like that. Oddly, it also reports a 100mb connection *on an empty port*. I assumed that was a firmware glitch, but maybe it’s more significant than that…
Anyway, that the internet is also slower (FTP rates, etc.) is an annoying, but telling side effect. I’m not using it to measure network speeds, but when the wireless is universally faster (LAN, WAN, and Internet)–and I’m just waiting for simple pages to load, on *both* RT units, well, something is just not right there.
By the way, it doesn’t seem to matter if QoS is on or off–it makes zero difference for the wired ports. So I hope the GT-AX11000 is (much) better and I can use one of the RTs as a mesh point!
Hi Dong, been reading your reviews and i wanted to ask your opinion on using GT-AX11000 and 3 RT-AX92U. I have 2 boys who are heavy gamers. For me i need a good mesh and i have alot of IOT in my home, security cameras which need constant connection but they are all 2.4. I am also interested in ZenWiFi XT8. I would be using the GT as the main router, what should i use as my mesh? the RT-AX92U or XT8? I have ethernet which all lead to my main switch, i dont know if i can ethernet backhaul. Lets say for now i cant until i actually set it up and test it all out.
It’s better to use the GT-AX11000 as the main router and the XT8 as nodes, Joe, as you have already figured out. Wired backhaul is the way to go for sure, especially for gamers. Good luck! And have fun, too! 🙂
Hi Dong, thanks so much for these reviews! They are truly insightful and important!
I want to know what you think the best way to use the AX 92Us with an AX1100, and if the wired connections on the AX1100 are fast (I think I know, but the AX 92Us LAN ports seem so bad, I’m not sure any more! )..
I bought the dual-pack of AX92Us before I read your review (alas!), and have them set up as an AI Mesh, with the wireless backhaul.
After a lot of firmware upgrades, this has increased the coverage of my network, and has been pretty reliable, to tell the truth. As a result, the speed of some “spread out” devices has also increased (because of the mesh), and that’s good.
As for wifi speeds, that’s good too, but not (as your article points out really well!) anything above regular wifi 5 speeds. That was fine too.
But here’s my big problem. I connected my main gaming system / PC by wired connection to the router port, and it slowed down significantly (from my previous Linksys AC router)! How can the wired connection through a router be slow?!
Even internet speeds are significantly slower through the wire, which is crazy: normal 5ghz wireless adapters are gettng consistently faster connection speeds both on the lan and from the internet!
I”ve never seen this before, with the browser slowing to a crawl through the wired connection. I’m talking less than 30mb/s download on a Gigabit internet provider. When I switch out to the Linksys, everything is fine. I’ve tried both of the AX92U units: they are the same.
I even replaced my wired LAN connection with an Intel-based wireless card (the ASUS AX 58BT) and got an immediate speed increase, though of course it’s NOT wifi 6 speeds.
So I want to replace at least one of the units with the AX1100 as the main router, with a wired connection (or a wireless wifi 6 connection) to my main machine.
For coverage, can I then run the 92u as a wireless mesh extension? Can I still have a Wifi 6 wireless channel or will that be dedicated to backhaul? Am I stuck trying to run cable through my three story place?
Sorry for all the questions, but you’re evidently one of the few people on the planet who might have some real experience here (and excellent advice)!
Running cables is always the way to go, Jamie. But if that’s not possible, you can use the AX1000 as the main router and the RT-AX92U as a node in an AiMesh setup. BTW, you shouldn’t use the Internet to test your network speed, it’s never accurate. More on that here. Also check your wiring and make sure that you don’t have a slower-than-Gigabit switch somewhere in between. Something is weird in your case.
Hello Dong, Which set-up is better ? AX11000 + 4 (FOUR) RT-AX92U or AX11000 4 (FOUR) XT8 ? thx for your help
The latter, Cyril.
Hi Dong, Started reading your reviews recently, very fascinating reviews.
I recently had one AX92U to test as single router, my main focus was to get NAS R/W speeds acceptable speed over wifi. (Via ethenet it easily do like 90MB/s, but I don’t have ethernet wiring in my home).
So when connected with 5G-2, I see link speed of 1.2Gbps with the computer (Keeping them same room), but when copying files it never reach more than 25MB/s (~250Mbps). Is that max with this router? What you recommend if i’m looking for better NAS speeds and what max speed I can achive?
Also I have general confusing about AiMesh, say I have AX11000 and AX92U if I enabled AiMesh wirelessley. still it gonna be Wifi 6 wireless mesh?
The top speeds of this router are the numbers on the charts above, Praneeth. But connecting at 1.2 Gbps means it’s already at half of its max speed. I’d check the settings and make sure it uses the 160 MHz channel width. Generally, for max NAS speed, you need a wired connection. Wi-Fi always fluctuates a great deal. As for AiMesh with the RT-AX92U I talked about that quite clearly in the read, so read it again. But in a wireless setup, the RT-AX92U is as good as a Wi-Fi 5 mesh system.
Just wanted to say thanks for the reviews! These were fantastic and not just ads. I read like 5 hours of reviews last week here and made the purchase on ASUS RT-AX92u (smaller cape cod house), after configuring it my bufferbloat is gone, ping spikes are gone and packet loss is gone (moved on from AX50 from tplink which was horrid)
You’re welcome! And thanks for the input! 🙂
Dong, I’m wondering if you can confirm something I’ve found with this unit. I have the RT-AX92U connected to my AX11000 via ethernet. I followed the recommended instructions of connecting it via WiFi first, then I moved it to its new home where it’s connected via ethernet to the AX11000.
When I perform a wireless network scan, it shows both 2.4 networks at 20 mHz, both 5G-2 networks at 80 mHz (I assume they’re at 160 but the mac is too old to recognize that), however it shows the AX11000 producing the 5G-1 network at 80 but the AX92U at 20. I for the life of me cannot figure out why that is. Do you see the same results on your units? Or am I missing something and should I re-set the AX92U?
Don’t trust those “scanner” tools, Eric. Also, you’re right, the tool can only see what your Mac can see, so at least run that on a newer machine (or one that has a newer Wi-Fi adapter.)
Well that is frustrating news. Neither is an attractive option, though the extra GT router would be cheaper than the XT8s. If I got the XT8s, would your recommendation be to use the GT as the primary in the AiMesh?
I hear you, Mike. There will be more tri-band options soon, I hope, or run network cables! And you should use the GT as the main router.
I have a GT-AX11000 and an older RT-AC68U in an AiMesh, the GT being the primary node. I have been having intermittent issues with seeing clients from either side (ie workstation on primary, NAS on secondary, etc). And just losing connectivity altogether on the RT. So it is time to replace the RT. I was looking seriously at the RT-AX92U until I saw this write up. So, thank you for that. The issue I take is no WiFi6 without a wired back-haul. Which model, in your experience and opinion, would be best to pair with the GT so I can get WiFi6 wirelessly without a wired back-haul?
For now, you’ll need another GT-AX11000, Mike. Or you can get a pair of the ZenWiFI XT8, but in this case, the Wi-Fi 6 front-haul is also limited.
I have an AX-11000 which is great. Looking to add the AX-92U as like the common UI, features etc. However, just so I am clear, I would be looking to run wired back haul via ethernet powerline adapters. Can I then use Wi-Fi 6 through the mesh? Also presume I will maintain all of the existing 2.4ghz and x2 5ghz channels?
You shouldn’t use powerline with Wi-Fi 6, Nish. It’s too slow — don’t count on the number vendor claims. Run network cables. And yes, the 5GHz-2 band will be Wi-Fi 6 throughout the mesh. More on that here.
Thank you. It’s really helpful. By far the best review I’ve ever read. Informative and easy to understand even for someone like me who doesn’t know much about network.
This review helps me learn a lot. Unfortunately I found this review a bit too late. I purchased a pair of RT-AX92U and use as the the AiMesh.
I need some question that I can’t find the answer,
My setup right now is
Main router – RT-AX92U
6 AiMesh node – AX56U (5 units) + RT-AX92U (1 unit). All connected via ethernet (wired)
If my phone (wifi6 supported) connect to AX56U (node) will I get the wifi6? or it is just wifi5.
Would you recommend replacing the RT-AX92U with RT-AX88U or GT-AX11000 and use RT-AX92U as a node?
Thank you.
This depends on how you set up the system, Wittawat. If you just use the default setting, the RT-AX92U is just a 2×2 Wi-Fi 5 router. More on that here — check out the tri-band part. Considering you have wired backhaul, you’re fine as it is. 🙂
Would two of these give me the best total horizontal coverage for the money if I used a wired backlink to connect them? I have a 1400 square foot ranch home and need better coverage for WIFI calling (including covering the area just outside of the house). I already have ethernet cable installed from one end of the house to the other, is this more effective range wise than a single AX11000? Link aggregation for a total of 2Gbps if enough for my home server needs and I have gigabit internet.
If you have wired backhaul, any of these will work well, Evan. If your place is only 1400 square feet, a single GT-AX11000 is enough.
Dear Dong,
Thank you. Another thing what if I wanted to add another Asus router like the AX11000 to my mesh network which comprise of Ax56u would that be possible since the Ax56u only support channel 20,40,80 and the Ax11000 can support 160. Would I be able to force the router to work only specific channel like only 160mhz?
No, JQ, you’ll only get 160MHz out of the GT-AX11000 in that case, if at all, and only if it works as the main router.
Dear Dong
You mean the Asus R56u work better in mesh mode?
Thank you
I haven’t tested the R56U, JQ, but if you have wired backhaul, then it makes more sense to use dual-band routers. Else, you should use tri-band routers. More on that here.
Is there any chance of Asus opening the 5Ghz-1 to 4×4 160 Mhz like they plan to do for the Zenwifi XT8 with a firmware update? I have just bought the ax92u but I can still return it and swap for a XT8. I’ve got gigabit internet so I’d like to try and maximize the 80211ac devices.
There’s a chance and they are still working on it last time I checked, Garrett. However, considering the world is in lockdown, nobody knows how long that will take.
Great article, thank you. I am just exploring a Wi-Fi 6 mesh system for a 3x story house and basement (roughly 3000 sf) with wired Ethernet on each floor. The Asus RT-AX92U 2-Pack may work for the entire house; however, if I need to add a third is it possible with a wired backhaul either a serial or star topology? If not can the third RT-AX92U be added wirelessly?
Or would you recommend another system for our house like the TP-Link X60, Netgear Orbi, or other? Having the extra Ethernet port(s) at each device is helpful and the Asus and TP-Link pricing are attractive. The Netgear Orbi seems the most flexible wired backhaul and extra Ethernet ports; however, the pricing is much higher. Thank you.
If you use wired backhaul, it doesn’t matter what topology you use, David. But you don’t need tri-band broadcasters. You can go with the TP-Link Deco X60, or a couple of units of the Asus RT-AC86U and/or RT-AX3000, and/or RT-AX88U, if you want Wi-Fi 6 with a ton of ports.)
If you use mostly dual-band routers with wired backhaul and want to add another wirelessly, you should still consider a dual-band router. That’s because the last one’s 3rd band doesn’t do anything in this case unless your main router is also a tri-band.
Hi Dong,
I am looking to upgrade as my house WiFi coverage and speed wise all are not great. I am looking at Asus 92u twin and Asus ax56u twin all set in mesh mode. Which one would be better?
Definitely the former, JQ.
Great read, I have read and watched a lot of reviews for this and no one besides you has clarified that the mesh network will not be WiFi 6 without a wired backhaul.
Personally, I’m considering this product because I want more consistent coverage in the upstairs office of my home. My main router has to be downstairs, so my hope would be to take advantage of the strong wireless backhaul between the two routers, and then connect all of my important devices upstairs via ethernet cable to the secondary router. My best possible internet speed from my provider is 1 Gb, so I don’t need true Wifi6 speeds anyways. My main priority would be stability and low latency for gaming (I’d be gaming in the upstairs office). Do you think this would be a good solution, or should I look elsewhere?
Glad you’re here, Michael.
First of all, if you’re REALLY serious about gaming — and I speak from experience — you need to think about running networking cables. The rule of thumb about gaming is either you connect the console (or computer) directly to the router via a network cable (best) or wirelessly (OK). Directly is the key here. That said, this 92U will work for you if you intend to connect your console with a wire to the node. If you’re thinking of connecting your device to the node wirelessly, no system will work well for gaming due to latency. If it does, that’s only temporarily, or you have certain types of games that don’t require low lag.
Considering you have 1Gbps Internet though, wiring is the best option. Period.
Been reading your stuff for hours. Many thanks for the work you put into this. Similar to this line of thought (although I do not play multiplayer so I care more for higher bandwidth to download games quick than latency), with a gigabit internet connection, would I be better off with a single mega fast router like the AX11000 and connecting to that router using a wifi card like the pce-ac88 which is a AC3100 wifi client or would I be better off with either a pair of XT8s or AX92Us in mesh using wireless backhaul with the PC wired by ethernet to the node? My personal feeling is wired to a XT8 or AX92U node which is connected wirelessly to the corresponding pair set as main router would be better for bandwidth as the router itself with wireless backhaul might be a stronger connection bandwidth wise than the wifi card but would be good to get some clarification.
Single router vs. a mesh system is the question of Wi-Fi coverage, Vik. For gaming, it’s best to use network cable(s). In your case, assuming the distance is not an issue, either way will make no difference in terms of performance.
I have 2 Asus routers (rt-ax92u & rt-ac88u). Which one to use as main router in AiMesh system?
Either will work, but that’s a tough combo for wireless set up. If you use wired backhaul, it doesn’t matter which you use as the main router. Otherwise, try the latter as the main router first.
Thanks for your reviews. Purchased a GT-AX11000 based on your reviews and love it, but what’s the best ASUS AI Mesh router or extender to add to my network using wireless back haul? I was going with an RT-AX92U until I read the issues you noted with the wireless back haul. I see you’re using the RT-AX92U with wired, but wired isn’t an option for me. I don’t want to shell out $400 for another AX11000 as a node as that’s overkill for me. If I’m understanding correctly there’s nothing gained by using an RT-AX92U due to the wireless back haul over something like the RP-AC1900 mesh node. And the RP-AC1900 is half the price. Do you have a recommendation for WIFI 6 AI Mesh node under $275 for use with the AX11000? (More than that amount, and I’d just think another AX11000). Thanks so much for the work you do!
Sure, Todd. Glad you’re here. Tough call. For your case, considering the budget, I think you should go with a single RT-AX92U. It will work fine and it’s better than a Wi-Fi 5 router since it’s a tri-band.
Hello Again. Per your recommendation I did purchase the RT-AX92U as my mesh node to go with the GT-AX11000. It has work great and nearly flawless for 6 months. So thank you for the input. Unfortunately, the last few weeks I have several devices that will lose WIFI connection simultaneously. The ASUS network map seems to show that the devices are still connected, but the devices themselves show disconnected status and unable to obtain IP address. They are unable to reconnect until I restart the router and/or node. Rebooting either the router or the node temporarily corrects the issue (for a time ranging from minutes to a day at best). I have hard reset both routers (router and node), and returned to defaults, but the issues remain. Firmware is updated to latest on both. I can establish no pattern. Signal is strong, no changes etc. I’ve contacted ASUS to no reply. I realize this is perhaps a long shot given the limited information I’m providing, but might you be familiar with this type of an issue that suddenly began with a system that was working excellently for months prior? Might this be a hardware failure? What things could I check or change from the default settings? Thank you so much for your time and the work that you do!
That’s very odd, Todd. Try swapping the roles of the two routers to see if that makes a difference. My take is if something happened hardware-wise, that should only happen in one unit.
Thank you for the suggestion to swap devices. Currently I’ve taken the RT-AX92U out of my network as the mesh node, to run the AX11000 as a stand-alone router. So far, no issues despite weaker signals to some devices. I plan to run this way longer to confirm the device drops don’t return. After that, I will test the router swap you recommended. However, based on this early result, I’m leaning towards a mesh issue and/or issue with the AX92U itself, but I’m certainly no expert. The GT-AX11000 / RT-AX92U combo worked great for 6 months, so hoping to get back to that state. Thank you again!
Todd, if you do wind up adding the AX92U back in and see more “weird” drop-outs, you should check the Asus section of the SmallNetBuilder forums. They’re pretty active, and I think I’ve seen some threads discussing this kind of problem there. (I haven’t dug too deeply, as I’ve been lucky enough to avoid this specific issue, thus far…)
It’s interesting. Now I have gtax11000 as router and ac88u as node. Imac connects to node with 1300Mbs speed and 450-600Mbs internet speed (ac88u is dual band ac only router)
Yeap, the GT is a much better choice in terms of speeds.
I have never reached 1G wiffi connection with neither router or a node in this kit. The best was 800M with internet speed of 300M on iMac. The whole 5M-2 is busy with backhaul
That’s exactly how it’s supposed to be, Jerzy.
I assume this will be adequate to get gigabit Internet into my bedroom on wired devices? I don’t have any WiFi 6 devices so if this does the trick it will be a cheaper option than the XT8. I’m going to be using the wireless backhaul and have a pretty small apartment (with brick walls).
No, HD. You get 867 Mbps at most. Realistically, lower.
Hi,
I tried it (twice). The first kit was unstable + router part had low connection transfer (forget about connecting ac88u to them). So I replaced it to another kit which kept disconnecting from internet hanging the router (hard reset was necessary). Now I enjoy GT-ax11000 and everything is like a music. I am not sure what’s wrong with ax92u ?hardware ?firmware, but it is so unreliable and waste of $$
I agreed. It’s prolly one of the worst Asus routers. The issue is the 5GHz-2 band which is only good when working as a backhaul.
Thanks Dong for the promo reply. Regarding set up, I restored the XT8 with the AX92 Settings and it lost the original Mesh node and I had to add it manually. I was able to add one AX92 Mesh node and it used the wifi6 backhaul channel. The CT8, in contrast, would connect its WiFi 5 to which channel of the XT8? I think the AX92 is more flexible, especially that when using a wired backhaul channel, one would get a WiFi 6 channel if it happens that one has a compatible client.
I have both a pair of the rt-AX92u as well as a pair of ZenWiFi XT8, obviously, since I have only wifi5 clients, they are both equally fast!
My question is, why would you recommend the ZenWiFi CT8 over the AX92u as a wifi5 AiMesh, considering that the ax92u has the faster Backhaul channel?
When you have both up and running, they are kinda the same. But the CT8 is much easier to set up. It also has better AiMesh implementation. If you try using the AX92U as a single router, or if you open the backhaul band to clients when using it as a mesh, you’ll note that its Wi-Fi 6 band doesn’t support mobile Wi-Fi 5 devices very well.
Great content! Super high-quality! Keep it up! 🙂
Some of their products run really hot. I personally modify them to run run cool.
James, I have no problem spending the money. I just want make sure that I buy the right stuff. When I buy, I like to keep the future tech in mind for longevity”s sake. And 200 or fiber down the road is a strong possibility too.
It just seemed like the RT-AC3100 could be a better option for about 20.00 less, so I asked.
Can these be used as cheap wifi6 client adapters to an ax1100 in bridge mode? I have an iMac that has a gigabit port but with no usb wifi 6 adapters stuck in limbo. How is the performance
It does but I don’t think yo should do that, Chris. For one, it’s too expensive. And secondly, it seems the Wi-Fi 6 band is not tuned to be compatible, so you might get very slow speed if you connect it to a Wi-Fi 5 signal.