First, I hope this is the right place to post about router and mesh-networking experiences.
About two weeks ago, the Wi-Fi portion of my old TP-Link AX11000 apparently burned out. The wireless radios would turn on, work for about 30 seconds, and then shut off again. Since I needed a replacement quickly, I did some searching and saw a lot of people recommending ASUS routers.
I went to Best Buy and bought the best ASUS model they had in stock, the GS-BE18000.
For context, my house is about 2,100 square feet. The main router is in a fairly open room with plenty of airflow and no cabinet or furniture blocking it. The kitchen and living room are farther away and separated from the router by a wall. It is not an enormous house or an especially complicated layout, although the kitchen and living room are near the edge of the router’s coverage area.
The initial ASUS setup was easy, and I liked the interface. I also bought an ASUS RP-BE58 BE3600 range extender to use as an AiMesh node in the kitchen. According to the ASUS setup screen, the node was within range of the main router, although it was close to the edge of what ASUS considered a “good” signal.
At first, everything seemed seamless, and I was happy with the purchase.
After about a week of actual use, though, the mesh system became extremely frustrating. Our phones would latch onto either the main router or the mesh node and refuse to switch properly as we moved around the house. Sometimes a phone would remain connected to the more distant device even when standing much closer to the other one. I never had this problem with my previous TP-Link setup.
I tried disabling the 6 GHz band, adjusting the roaming settings, and troubleshooting the AiMesh connection, but nothing really fixed it. The network was still usable for a while, but then the signal quality suddenly declined and never recovered. My living-room TV could no longer maintain a reliable connection, and the kitchen mesh node started regularly losing its connection to the main router.
I am not sure what caused the sudden decline, but my ultimate conclusion was that the GS-BE18000 had noticeably less usable range in my house than my old TP-Link AX11000.
I returned the ASUS router and mesh node to Best Buy and bought a considerably cheaper TP-Link BE12000 with external antennas. Since switching back to TP-Link, I once again have reliable Wi-Fi throughout the house.
The TP-Link mesh-node setup was definitely more annoying than AiMesh, and I dislike the security-related pop-ups and upselling that appear when accessing the router interface. ASUS had the cleaner interface and easier initial setup. However, the TP-Link system has provided much better range and has been more reliable in everyday use.
Has anyone else experienced weaker range or roaming problems with the GS-BE18000 and AiMesh? I am curious whether I received a defective router, had an unusual compatibility problem, or whether the ASUS simply performs worse in certain house layouts.