When I moved into this current home thereabout five years ago, mesh routers were expensive. And I opted to set up my home network with two routers. One was set up as a router and another one as an access point. With dual-band, I ended up with 4 SSID, which was a nightmare to connect. It also made my Sono connectivity kind of wonky as I had to connect all my Sono devices – Playbar, Sub, two SL One, and Roam – onto the same network and kind of defeated the purpose of a router/access point setup. I should have opted for a mesh router network solution when all SSID collapsed into one!
Paired, from the factory.
After much research, I have decided to pick up a pair of Asus ZenWiFi AX (XT8) as my network solution. The Lazada 6.6 discount was generous. It is a midrange product and it suits my need.
Looking back, setup was still easier than in the early days when I had to go through the menu and figure things out. Now, I just need to connect the routers, download an app, and configure the network from there.
Except, the QR code scan didn’t work for this model. I had to go through a manual setup by manually connecting to a temporary network (and I had to guess which one of the two, which wasn’t that difficult judging by the network strength). I had to guess an alternate option to set up through the app (not ZenWiFi but a generic Asus router because the app doesn’t support the QR code setup of this model!). The node did not work immediately. I had to try to extend it manually. It seemed to have failed and then magically, the app recognize the node.
Cool thing. My mesh network is up! Took me a while to figure out how to upgrade the firmware (the app is really not that user-friendly). But I got that sorted.
Switching my Sono app to the new network was a pain. First, each device would try to connect to my new wifi and it would fail. Next, the Sono app would prompt me to manually reset each Sono device and connect to a temporary wifi (Sono). It would fail once but the next time it would work. Then it would take 3 mins or more to update the network.
Each and every Sonos device! I have 5.
Of course, I couldn’t guess which of the Sonos SL One – left and right – the Sonos app referred to. It was kind of a guesswork.
Next, resetting the wifi of the Mi Robot Vacuum was much easier than Sonos.
The rest were standard procedures. Like my gaming laptop, Nintendo Switch …
What a hassle. But I enjoy one single SSID for sure!
And WiFi 6.
One reply on “Finally Upgraded to a Meshed Router Network – Asus ZenWiFi AX (XT8)”
Hi Wilfred,
I hope this comment finds its way to you. I was hoping you had a public email address on your website or YouTube profile, but this will have to do.
I don’t know where your feelings stand on Marvel Heroes. You may or may not miss it based on the state of the game when it went under. However, there is a small group of developers working on a server emulator. They’re about a month in, and have made good progress. You can load a local server that spoofs the login process, which gets you into the game. You can load any hero and run around a number of zones. It’s not really a game, more of a limited sandbox, but in my opinion, it’s a remarkable amount of progress for a month of work.
Anyway, the reason I mention this to you is you were one of the top content creators for the game. I wondered if you might know of someone that captured packets between the client and server when the game was still alive? The developer group has some packets already, but can always use more. The project will take years of work, obviously, but every little bit of data helps.
Also, the team is looking for more developers. I don’t know what your engineering background focuses on, but if you have any skill at reverse engineering, or have a colleague who does, feel free to reach out. The project is hosted here https://github.com/Crypto137/MHServerEmu. You can download the server emulator and have a run around Avengers Tower. The link to the developer’s Discord is there as well if you’re interested.
In general, I hope you are well. You always seemed like a pleasant man, and your YouTube videos are great. 🙂