Question Mesh Wifi - Asus XT8 vs Deco XE75

[flyyyp]

Hi All,

I'd really appreciate your thoughts on this WIFI Mesh system.

My wife and I are working full-time from home, it's important for us to get this right

Is it best to buy a mesh networking system + a router to go with it?

Not sure of internet speeds yet (have not moved in), but I'm hoping for 200+ Mbps down / 30 Mbps UP

Use case: (Location: Australia, Perth)
Working from home from two rooms.
The offices' rooms are directly on top of each other
Internet: NBN, FTTN via IINET

3 Adults living in the house, no kids.
PCs used: 5 desktop PCs connected 4 x LAN cables 1x wifi
Other devices: 3 smartphones, 2 tablets

I'd like to run 4x Hikvision POE cameras into a Hikvision NVR. The network would only be used to view WIFI streams on phone.
Also planning to run simple home automation with Samsung smart things later.

PDF Map of home: https://pdfhost.io/v/8zT0.l9~P_Home_Wif_PDF

A few mesh system on my list:

Asus XT8
Satellites: 2
WiFi 6E – Cover up to 510 m²
WiFi Bands:Tri-band
NBN Compatibility: FTTN, FTTP
Price: $799 AUD

Downsides:
Need to add 1 more satellite as 510 SQM is not enough?


Deco XE75
Satellites: 3
WiFi 6E – Cover up to 670 m²
Price: $804 (AUD)

Downsides:
Wifi speeds might be less than 100 mbps

NETGEAR Orbi Quad-band AXE11000
Satellites: 3
WiFi 6E
Covers: 835 m²
Price: $2,799 (AUD)

Downsides:
Costs as much as the house xD

 

[bill001g]

Any form of mesh system should be your last option.

Because I dislike mesh so much I tend to not know the details of the various models. The key reason the netgear appears to cost so much is because it has dedicated backhaul radio network. You do not want to use the same radio network to talk to the end device as you do to talk to the main router. This is the key reason you loose at least half your bandwidth on the cheaper version of mesh/repeater systems. You have 2 copies of the data competing for the same bandwidth. Even with the better systems you still have 2 radio networks that can be interfered with. With wifi6e you need 2.4g, 5g,6g radio chips...I guess called tri-band but that name has many meanings. With a proper mesh system you need those 3 radio chips plus a fourth one for the communication between the main and remote units. This might actually work better on wifi6e not sure. The problem was there was no room to run a 2 160mhz signals on the 5g radio band so even if you had devices with a 2.4g and 2 5g radios you could not actually get the full speed because it was impossible to get 2 full speed connection in the 5g radio band. The 6g radio band has massive amounts of new bandwidth. Note Australia like the EU has only about half the new bandwidth as the USA on 6ghz so it is likely this will get overcrowded much faster.

Your very best option to expand wifi coverage is to have ethernet cable run from the main router location to the remote rooms. You use less expensive routers as AP or actual AP if you like to provide the wifi in the remote room.

At the pricing you are talking about for these units you likely can pay someone to run ethernet cables if you do not already have them. It also is not real hard to do yourself if you have access to a attic or basement.

The next option is going to be to use MoCA in place of ethernet. You need to have coax cable in both locations to do this.

Another option although sometimes a big slower than wifi but a much more stable connection is to use powerline networks instead of ethernet.

The huge problem now days is people are believing more is better and buy all kinds of hardware....but you know the marketing guy told me it was a good idea Most these unit are improperly placed and interfere with each other.

What you might want to do is see how bad the coverage is in the house with a router in the main room and nothing else. Some houses you get great coverage and other where the walls are made from concreate you get nothing. You can always change it later. In general the coverage provided by the ISP router will be the same as any other router. Not so sure about wifi6e since the 6g radio band will be absorbed at different rates than 2.4 and 5. Wifi6e is so new and few end devices currently support it there is not a lot of data from you more standard end consumer. Almost everything you see is from fake review sites and people who like to brag about how big there "number" is.

Again mesh should be your very last option. This is almost all marketing hype to get people to buy expensive equipment. Large business does not use mesh they use the same method they have used since the start of wifi, ethernet cables with remote AP.

 

[flyyyp]

Thanks a lot for the detailed answer, Bill.

That makes a lot of sense and I'm completely open to having someone run the cables.
I understand the benefits of running cable to an AP and also feel more comfortable with that setup.

Our ceiling walls are indeed made of concrete 😱

I'll hold off for now on purchasing any access points.

@bill001g, Do you happen to have a suggestion for a router?

Currently, I'm using the one provided by my ISP:

Technicolor TG789vac v2
Afaik the VDSL2 makes the NBN work?
So I will need to keep this and run a cable to the new router?

There is a whole list of NBN approved routers: (I have NBN FTTN - Fibre to the node)
https://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/fttn_registered_modem_router

 

[bill001g]

I don't know much about that ISP restrictions on replacing their router. In general you just need a VDSL2 device.

If they include the router as part of their package and you do not save any money by not using it I would just try it and see how bad it works.

In general there will not be a lot of difference in the Wifi performance as most commercial routers. The link you had shows it uses the same broadcom radio chips as most other routers. Almost all routers put out the maximum legal radio power which is what dictates coverage...and what is eaten by the concrete walls.

If you want wifi6e then you would need a different "router" technically you only want the radio part so you could run it is a AP off the ISP router to make the network simpler.

Your main issue is that having a DSL modem in the box limits your choice. For example I don't think any support wifi6e yet. This likely means you would need to keep the ISP router even if you only used it as a modem. Depending on your needs you might be able to run the ISP device as a router also. Most people only use the NAT function in a router and that is now done in hardware so even very inexpensive routers can run full gigabit wan/lan. It is the other features say like parental controls or maybe vpn that you would need your own router for. It is these other software features that the ISP device do not have, mostly because few people use them.

Unless there is some extra monthly charge I suspect you can use the ISP router as is and then add other router/ap just to get say wifi6e or remote coverage. You can always turn off the wifi radio chips in the ISP router if you want to.

 

[flyyyp]

I don't know much about that ISP restrictions on replacing their router. In general you just need a VDSL2 device.

If they include the router as part of their package and you do not save any money by not using it I would just try it and see how bad it works.

In general there will not be a lot of difference in the Wifi performance as most commercial routers. The link you had shows it uses the same broadcom radio chips as most other routers. Almost all routers put out the maximum legal radio power which is what dictates coverage...and what is eaten by the concrete walls.

If you want wifi6e then you would need a different "router" technically you only want the radio part so you could run it is a AP off the ISP router to make the network simpler.

Your main issue is that having a DSL modem in the box limits your choice. For example I don't think any support wifi6e yet. This likely means you would need to keep the ISP router even if you only used it as a modem. Depending on your needs you might be able to run the ISP device as a router also. Most people only use the NAT function in a router and that is now done in hardware so even very inexpensive routers can run full gigabit wan/lan. It is the other features say like parental controls or maybe vpn that you would need your own router for. It is these other software features that the ISP device do not have, mostly because few people use them.

Unless there is some extra monthly charge I suspect you can use the ISP router as is and then add other router/ap just to get say wifi6e or remote coverage. You can always turn off the wifi radio chips in the ISP router if you want to.

That makes sense.
Thanks a lot Bill, you are a legend!
You saved me from getting a mesh system that would likely not meet my needs....👍