TP-Link AX6600 dead, Asus ZenWifi a possible replacement?

[Mysterae_]

Today my TP-Link AX6600 router died and it's not even a year old. It's going through a continuous boot cycle it seems, with the orange LED at the front just pulsing away. Everything TP-Link support suggested (extremely basic I'll add) didn't do anything and even a forced firmware update failed as the unit would just reset again at 53% updated. Hopefully returning it to the supplier as I don't want to mess about with a RMA as I don't want another as a replacement.

It's never been very good. It's crashed a number of times since I've had it and those required a factory reset to fix, which meant setting up the network again and all the devices that were connected to it - a major pain. It's range was also no where near that advertised either; with 8 antennas sticking up like a dead spider I'd thought I'd get a good signal outside the house but it would lose it about a metre from the outside wall. I expected more from a router at this price point.

Anyway, I'm looking at the Asus ZenWifi mesh systems with the XT8 fitting the bill nicely although the Pro XT12 could extend the range outdoors but that's so expensive it's hard to justify the cost. Does anybody have the Asus ZenWifi models and share their feedback of them?

 

[ChrisD.]

Personally I wouldn’t touch Asus networking equipment with a barge pole due to their extremely poor attitude toward security in their products. Look at a proper Wi-Fi system from the likes of UniFi.

 

[WJA96]

How fast is your ISP internet connection? If it’s not 900/110!bps on PPPoE (ie Openreach) then the Ubiquiti UniFi Dream Router (UDR) is a decent option but there is a bug in UniFi currently that caps out the PPPoE connection at around 650Mbps. If you’re with Virgin or one of the ISPs that doesn’t use PPPoE (Upp, Daisy) then the UDR is a great option.

For anything else I would usually go the opposite direction and recommend the Huawei AX3000 Quad-core. You should be able to pick up a three-pack for around £100 depending on their promotion (it’s always on Promotion) and they work very well in meshed configurations. It’s just an unfashionable manufacturer.

 

[Mysterae_]

Personally I wouldn’t touch Asus networking equipment with a barge pole due to their extremely poor attitude toward security in their products. Look at a proper Wi-Fi system from the likes of UniFi.

Is this from first hand experience and is there something I can read about? TP-Link's approach was woeful and charged you extra for many features. It's actually something that attracted me to the Asus, the security and parental controls that are advertised but I'm a sucker for a fancy website advertising those features when in reality it turns out to be something else.

How fast is your ISP internet connection? If it’s not 900/110!bps on PPPoE (ie Openreach) then the Ubiquiti UniFi Dream Router (UDR) is a decent option but there is a bug in UniFi currently that caps out the PPPoE connection at around 650Mbps. If you’re with Virgin or one of the ISPs that doesn’t use PPPoE (Upp, Daisy) then the UDR is a great option.

For anything else I would usually go the opposite direction and recommend the Huawei AX3000 Quad-core. You should be able to pick up a three-pack for around £100 depending on their promotion (it’s always on Promotion) and they work very well in meshed configurations. It’s just an unfashionable manufacturer.

Don't laugh but have some pity, my connection is 36Mbps with PlusNet which is quite good considering my location. The speeds of many of the modern routers are certainly overkill for my connection but for us as a household it's about reliability, ease of setup & use, and range. I've experienced poor reliability with the AX6600 previously, it's no fun having to configure all the devices when it bombed each time. I'm getting too old and disinterested in setting up and configuring networks, I want something I can plug in, configure once including parental controls and off we go. It's a large house so good range is required, for example my son took the Echo Show outside in the garden to listen to some music and the previous router couldn't handle the short distance, crap!

So my shortlist is:
- Asus ZenWifi XT8
- Ubiquiti Unifi Dream Router (or Dream Machine possibly?)
- Huawei Mesh 7 AX6600 (why did they give it the same name as the cursed TP-Link unit , and the few reviews I seen say it's range is crap and their app side-loads, naughty Huawei!).

Edit - just realised the AX6600 designates the speed doh!

 

[ChrisD.]

Is this from first hand experience and is there something I can read about? TP-Link's approach was woeful and charged you extra for many features. It's actually something that attracted me to the Asus, the security and parental controls that are advertised but I'm a sucker for a fancy website advertising those features when in reality it turns out to be something else.

Sorry, busy day...

Asus are absolutely woeful when it comes to security patching, updates and even RMA. They were grossly negligent with their firmware on Asus routers to the point where they were trivial to hack, and indeed tens of thousands of them were. The US FTC ended up stepping in and suing them, and they were ordered to undergo twenty years of security audits to be allowed to continue selling technology. Here's a link, and here's another with some details. To put it bluntly, you may as well throw your money at a smack addict. At least then you can see the results of your rewarding bad behaviour (and your home would be safer at the end).

Here's another good piece on why this type of router is a bad idea, more generally speaking. If you really want a consumer router, at least get something half decent with a good history of patching bugs and offering firmware for longer than 6 months (if that) from purchase. Better yet, as I said in my last post, get something that you know is supported by one or more open source alternatives with a years-long support roadmap (OpenWRT, DD-WRT, Merlin, VyOS). Ideally, just build your own. Heck the amount of times we see threads like this I'm tempted to start selling in-house Linux and BSD routers with remote support and 10 year updates included. I'd clean up.

@Rainmaker summed it up well on here previously.

The UDM might be a good fit for you, they're miles better than when originally released.

 

[Mysterae_]

Cheers, @ChrisD. , I asked for evidence and you gave it .

That's quite shocking about Asus. Off the list!

 

[WJA96]

The UDM is AC Wireless LAN and has no PoE output for powering a second access point or camera. UDR is cheaper with better feature (WiFi6 and PoE).

 

[Mysterae_]

So lots of research and reviews of various mesh systems and I'm still quite undecided.

Considered the Orbi mesh system from Netgear but I'm disappointed about what I read about their technical support costs after 90 days and lack of included parental controls, it adds to the cost. The stuff from Unifi/Ubiquity/Amplifi is such a minefield they should add an Ambiguiti product line to their website(s). Their UDR looks ideal but what to add to it without having to hardwire it and bumping up the total cost? I've put the Asus back on my shortlist as it seems to tick a lot of boxes and who knows, after having their backside skelped by the FTC perhaps they now take security more seriously.

Ugh, networks.

 

[WJA96]

So lots of research and reviews of various mesh systems and I'm still quite undecided.

Considered the Orbi mesh system from Netgear but I'm disappointed about what I read about their technical support costs after 90 days and lack of included parental controls, it adds to the cost. The stuff from Unifi/Ubiquity/Amplifi is such a minefield they should add an Ambiguiti product line to their website(s). Their UDR looks ideal but what to add to it without having to hardwire it and bumping up the total cost? I've put the Asus back on my shortlist as it seems to tick a lot of boxes and who knows, after having their backside skelped by the FTC perhaps they now take security more seriously.

Ugh, networks.

Any Unifi Access Point can be added to the UDR as they all mesh wirelessly. You do need to power them so in reality nothing is cable free. A UDR with Unifi U6-Mesh access points will give you all the coverage you need, it is better to hard-wire them for maximum throughput though.

If you're genuinely considering Orbi then the Unifi gear is very cheap, even allowing for a couple of hundred pounds to get someone to run a cable up into your loft so you can ceiling mount the remote access point.

 

[Mysterae_]

The secondary node or unit can only be powered by the mains and not PoE. I'm not "getting someone in" to run a network cable; my house is quite large and we don't want network cable tacked around or chased in walls, plus the loft is boarded so the job just gets bigger. I know some posters have said in the past no cabling and then done the opposite and ran cables, but it won't be me.

I get it, the Ubiquiti stuff is awesome and has an almost cult following but understand your audience here, I want something that I can plonk here, plonk there, config some and be done.

 

[WJA96]

Unifi U6-Mesh comes with a mains powered PoE injector so knock yourself out. But everyone who is really interested in decent coverage goes cabled eventually.

 

[Mysterae_]

I'll probably go wired eventually but now is not the time.

 

[Mysterae_]

I should have updated this thread - I eventually settled on the Asus XT12 mesh system, so far quite impressed.

 

[Firegod]

I should have updated this thread - I eventually settled on the Asus XT12 mesh system, so far quite impressed.

Nice. I have the same and they've been really great. I have them on lowest power for 2.4Ghz and balanced for 5Ghz and get good coverage. A very nice improvement over my old Orbi units. Took me a good few days to get all the advanced settings done and dusted as I like them. One issue I ran into is the WAN would disconnect with a DHCP timeout. Would occur randomly. Changing the setting under the WAN option to "continous" seems to have fixed it but it is very much an ISP dependant thing by the looks of it, so you may be totally fine. The firmware update process is also seamless and nice that you have the option to turn off auto updates. I like that you can schedule them to reboot, so I do mine once a week. I also find the app is nice to use.

 

[Mysterae_]

Thanks for the tips @Firegod. I missed the feature of enabling the reboot scheduler so I've set that up now . Also changed the WPS button's behaviour to turn off the LEDs although I hoped there would be an option to schedule when the LEDs are on and off.

I've had no problems at all since I set it up, no dropouts or disconnects which I had quite frequently with my old TP-Link router. The biggest standout feature for me has been the excellent range and no wifi dead spots in the house at all.

 

[WJA96]

I hadn’t actually appreciated just how enormous those things were. They’re not exactly subtle. I’m happy you’re happy.

 

[Firegod]

Yeah they are pretty beefy. I think it is because the design acts as a giant heatsink, I don't believe it has any active cooling (don't quote me on that).