Customer Ratings & Reviews

I will preface this review with some information about our prior wifi installation to give you an idea of what we were dealing with and how the ASUS Zenwifi tri-band fits in here. Prior to installing the Asus mesh, we had a single Netgear Nighthawk router handling our 1400ft² house. Overall the performance was fine for most of our stuff inside; outside was a different story. We spend a lot of time on our back patio, use an Amazon Echo out there for streaming audio and occasionally we like to take an iPad out to watch streaming television. The problem was that we could not get any reliable wifi out there in the 5Ghz band. It had to run at 2.4ac to get streaming content and it was just not reliable. We are in a subdivision with neighbors on 3 sides and all of them have wifi running. So it is a crowded spectrum issue here along with the fact that my cable modem is located in an opposite corner of the house. The Nighthawk router had a very good run, to be sure. I think I had had it maybe 7 years here and it had never failed us other than maybe needing a reboot occasionally. But the range and inability to get the higher performance of the 5Ghz outside drove me to investigating a more modern mesh system. I definitely wanted to get something that supported the new wifi 6 home network specification and after reading reviews and determining that a wired backhaul between nodes was out of the question here, a tri-band setup with dedicated backhaul channel was a must have. After reading many reviews - taking them all with a grain of salt, as should everyone - I determined that the Asus ZenWiFi AX XT8 was probably our best bet to try first. This system features two identical nodes, each of which can serve as the main router and the other as remote node. They have to be installed in a location where they can "talk" clearly in the 5Ghz dedicated 3rd band. I set the main router up in the same location the Nighthawk had sat in for years, in our back corner office where the cable internet comes into the house. The mesh node device I moved out into our living room where it has a clear shot to the patio area. It worked first try. As soon as I got both the router and node setup and configured the backhaul connection in both the browser and iOS apps showed up as "Great!" It took maybe 30 minutes to get everything hooked up. I saved a lot of time by just using our old SSID setup to avoid having to reprogram every IOT device we have. As soon as the network came back up everything we have connected to the new devices pretty much as before. I did have one problem with our Ambient Weather WS-2000 weather station. For some reason the console did not want to stay connected to the mesh. I solved that problem by basically doing a reset on the weather station that included a firmware upgrade. Since I did that the disconnection problems have stopped. I also had an issue with our Ryobi garage door opener that I fixed by resetting (erasing the old network and reinstalling it) Those were the only two devices with hiccups. Everything else just reconnected and worked. I guess the key thing I want to share is that our old problems with getting 5Ghz wifi anywhere in the house or on the patio are completely gone. I keep our wifi bands separate, meaning I have two SSIDs running: "Network" and "Network-5" (not their real names, of course, but you get the drift.) Now with the Asus mesh, we just leave our personal devices on the "-5" side and move about wherever we want. We do not have to worry about which radio we are connected to. The mesh system handles all of the handoffs from main unit to node seamlessly. I do not have to manage any of it. It just works. And that is the answer to my biggest question about Asus mesh operations. Would I have to somehow nurse the thing or spend hours trying to make the handoffs seamless? I did not. Right out of the box after configuring things we found that we could move freely about and the brains of the mesh system would hand devices back and forth between the node and the main router without any intervention or dropouts. Out on our patio, where I could barely get a 5Ghz signal before, I get super performance. My iphone 12 variant has a wifi 6 radio and I can get 400mbs download speed sitting outside! The main thing is we are no longer getting streaming dropouts out there and we never have to worry about changing our devices to the 2.4Ghz band. Our problems have been solved. Granted, we do not have a large house and I have no idea how the Asus would perform in another environment. What I do know is that it absolutely works as advertised in our place. Everything about it, including the control interface via web or app, is straight-forward and not fussy. The Asus is on the more expensive side for a mesh system but considering it is both wifi-6 enabled and tri-band equipped with a dedicated radio backhaul, it is not a bad bet for the $450 price point. About my only caveat would be how would it work in a multi-story with only two nodes? That one I can't answer, but I do know that the system can be expanded to more than two if needed as all of the mesh units are identical and can be configured on the fly. All in all I really recommend this mesh system. Happy we got it.

I use this product for almost a year now and it’s getting worse with every firmware upgrade. If you’re an advanced user using many wireless devices (Smart home, security systems etc.) on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies then just buy something else. Cameras go offline all the time, smart home bridge go offline, since December upgrade some of the Sonos speakers won’t connect to AX model at all (known issue). An option is to downgrade firmware but then you’re at security risk. I added my old Asus RT68 router to the mesh and binded “problematic” devices to that router. They work fine until.. Asus firmware still moves them to AX routers “because they know better” even if you bind the device (pic added). Some wireless devicess will show as “wired” and firmware won’t give you an option to re-connect. Extremely problematic with hardwired cameras since there is no option to power-cycle it. I really hoped that this product will work for my home especially that I use Asus routers for years and was happy with them. It did for the first 4-5 months until 2020 Q3 firmware upgrades. If you’re a basic user and will just use it for computer, tablet or phone it will most likely work. If you have more wireless devices on the network try something else. I really wish that I could still return it because I will be replacing this expensive hardware with other brand shortly

Easy to setup and much faster than our AT&T/Pace 5268 gateway. I’m very happy with this product.

This highly-rated home mesh wifi system is a breeze to set up following the enclosed instructions and has been rock solid for the month since I installed it in our home. Placing the units in the house was simple and the signal coverage throughout is excellent. I replaced an 8 year old Mac Airport Extreme. Our internet package is fibre-optic and delivers 40mB service. I saw an immediate ~35% increase in download speed and a 100% increase in upload speed. Our home had a number of wifi "dead spots" due to a cement wall that runs through the house and a custom spread-out layout. This resulted variable connection reliability and frequent dropped cell calls. All of those problems have disappeared. The Asus - ZenWiFi AX is pricier than some other home mesh systems but I'm extremely pleased with the performance so far, and am looking forward to 5G WiFi service when it arrives here.

So Far, awesome. Super easy installation and setup. Just had to make sure that all devices in the household had to connect to new Wifi including all Nest products. But when done, my download speeds were 4 X from Linksys Mesh network I have had for 3 years. Coverage much better in whole house. The signal so far seems to be very reliable. I thought I needed a new Spectrum Cable router, but turns out it was my own Mesh net.

I had my doubts but I was pleasantly surprised that they work as advertised. Totally worth the money.

I was a long time Netgear fan, as the Orbi had solved a number of issues in my household over the years. However, Netgear's propensity to delivering bad firmware kept their hardware from being great. It also was not a true mesh system, as all of the traffic from the satellites only communicated with the main router. Enter Asus's Zenwifi system. I chose to buy the AX version even though I only have wifi 5 components right now, in an effort to future proof. The two piece system is comprised of two identical routers, which can be paired to form one mesh. My house has a difficult layout, so placing the second mesh node in the right location to maximize signal was difficult. The node had great connection back to the router, but covering every corner was difficult. I solved this by purchasing an additional set. The mesh now covers my entire house with little or no drop in speeds even in the furthest areas. I am extremely pleased with coverage, wireless options, security and parental controls offered for free by the system (in comparison, Netgear made all of those a-la-carte purchases). So, why the four stars? Well, for one, firmware is buggy. As of today, the latest firmware will drop all clients connection after four or five days of up time. Also, there can be some delay in switching from node to node within the mesh. Asus tech support has also been a joke. I emailed them for two separate issues (unrelated to each other) and received the same identical email with the same steps used to correct the issues. Moreover, I'd already communicated with them after the first issue to let them know that the steps they were asking me to take were not correct for the Asus Zenwifi interface. So, to receive the same lame cut and paste email showed me that they aren't really working to help, but to stall. Overall, great hardware and reasonable pricing for it. Software and support can be much better.

I bought the router because I liked the combination of TriBand, WiFi 6 and Mesh. It works pretty well. We have had a few issues where the network dropped and sometimes devices don’t connect to WiFi and you need to repeat the setup. I really like the app and the visuals it provides to show status of your network and all the devices connected. Setup was really easy and very intuitive via the app. It probably requires a few more fw updates to make it better.

Excellent router IF you are willing to clean up the firmware issues AND understand its limitations with regard to how the ethernet backhaul works. Also, the XT8 and AIMesh syncing requires that all of the modules be next to the base as part of the initial pairing process. Don't think it can be paired via ethernet. Initially, pairing must be done within a about 10 feet of the base. I had difficulty pairing 4 XT8 modules because I placed them within about 10 feet but some were lower than the base unit by 5 feet. Turns out it isn't just distance but also height based (no more than 2-3 feet below the base for some odd reason and within 8 feet). Secondly, the pair process is SLOW. It took nearly 25 minutes to pair all 4 modules. Firmware updates are really slow and two of the modules failed, requiring multiple resets and manual uploading. If you have different AIMesh compatible routers like me (AC86, AC68, Trio), it turns out that they sometimes pair correctly and other times keep dropping inexplicably. Be prepared for odd drops. Ethernet Backhaul. My home is partially hardwired with Cat5e. Turns out that all of the modules must be hardwired for the ethernet backhaul to work. I didn't run into this with my Netgear Orbi mesh routers. I swapped from Orbi to XT8 because I'm upgrading to fiber and need 2.5G connections. HOWEVER, 1 strategically placed XT8 module is being placed in a spot where there is no ethernet cabling. Turns out the wired backhaul ONLY works if every module is wired. I've tried linking everyone via wired first then disconnecting the one remote one. Nope. Messes up the backhaul and either AIMesh doesn't see it or I get frequent drops. Ugh. Netgear (and I understand Linksys) worked out the mixed wired and wireless backhaul issues. Not sure why Asus can't do the same. I guess it is true that the XT8 is designed for wireless backhauling (and not for mixed wired/wireless) per Dong Knows review and others. I didn't believe it. I do now. Signal strength. I highly recommend that you use a wireless sniffer program to see where you optimally place any remote. This sounds silly but I found out that the 5G backhaul is sensitive to windows and walls. If I have actual line-of-sight, the signal is substantially better but only if there are no windows between the unit. Not sure why (not an electrical engineer). Walls do degrade the 5G backhaul a bit. The parent controls are useless. Enough said. It doesn't actually say in the manual but you can use the WAN port on the remote modules as an uplink/downlink to the base for hardwired settings. Make sure to connect to the base directly, if possible. It can handle 45+ devices pretty handily but I've run into streaming issues if someone is online gaming and I'm watching Netflix. The QOS isn't sensitive enough to steer bandwith unlike the Orbi RB50. I think it has something to do with how the 5G backhaul module interfaces with wired module. When I disconnected the wired module from the ethernet connect, it smoothed out but I definitely experienced a decrease in overall speed. I'm still experimenting but there is definitely something going on with the interface between wired and wireless modules. WIFI6 Ready? Yes, shemaybe. It works but be prepared to tinker and play with the configuration. ASUS technical support isn't useful and its FAQ is worse. If you want a plug and play, go with another brand. This is definitely a product that requires technical skills and patience.

I was lucky to get this. The stock fluctuates a lot. Probably because the unit is in high demand. Anyway, I am very happy with this Zen Wi-Fi AX mesh system. I had the dual router nest Wi-Fi, sold exclusively by Amazon, before this... This Wi-Fi unit is much better in coverage. I have the router and the node about 38 to 40 ft apart. Still getting around 400 megabits transfer between the two. That's really not that bad. And much better than the nest Wi-Fi I had. the app really is easy to use. I haven't used the web interface yet. I probably don't plan on it. I think the app was very well written. Still provides a lot of options. And of course, it makes the nest Wi-Fi app look like crap. When I set this up, I set it up with smart connect off. I have heard too many horror stories in the past with the single SSID approach to mesh systems. And even experienced it myself first hand with other systems. I think you'll probably be much better off if you create two separate SSIDs for the 5 gigahertz and then the 2.4 gigahertz bands. The unit provides a lot of coverage. So from my phone I only connect to the 5 gigahertz band. And it stays connected no matter where I am in the house. I follow the same process with my other devices. I only let them connect to one band and that is sufficient. I don't blame ASUS for the issue. This is a common problem in virtually all mesh systems. If your phones are having trouble disconnecting from the router and connecting to the node, don't blame the mesh system. That's almost always caused by the client device. Would definitely recommend this to others. I'm pretty happy with it so far.

Having been loyal to Netgear and Linksys for a long time, I decided to give this Asus wifi 6 mesh system a try as other similar systems were far more expensive than this one. I am pleasantly surprised at the performance of this system. Coverage is great and there's tons of features that can be accessed through the app or web GUI. Setup was more or less simple, the mesh units need to be paired in the app then the web GUI can be used if desired. The web GUI is superior in the information presented and settings present, though one thing to note is that MU-MIMO, DDNS, and most security features are disabled by default so you will have to manually activate them. I also liked that this router comes with free lifetime security features, something which other brands have turned into a subscription which makes a superior value proposition for this system. Furthermore, each unit has a 2.5gbps WAN interface and each can be used independently as a router if desired. My only gripes are the decreased functionality of the app (limited settings access) and the amount of RAM in the router as a solution this expensive could stand to have at least 1gb. My system hovers between 70-80% memory usage and I'm concerned how this may play out in the future, perhaps a future firmware update can optimize that usage. 4 stars due to these. Overall I'm happy with this system, it handles 3 people working from home and up to two dozen devices are connected to the system at any given time without connection problems thus far. Furthermore, I've yet to see another wifi 6 mesh system with comparable features at this price point.

This is an amazing product. We have a 4 bdrm, 2400 square foot home on 2 levels, plus a basement. The router sits in the basement and the node on the main floor. We get coverage everywhere. I had purchased the 3-pack, mini-version of this product about a month earlier, and while it was good (slower, and suffered from dropouts), this more premium model is GREAT! It's far speedier (using Google's Speed Test) throughout the house, especially on the 2nd floor. This is the case even though the more premium unit only has 2 nodes (vs. 3 in the mini). We don't have dropouts anymore. I had also purchased a competing brand's mesh network about 6 months ago for mediocre performance. So, based on lots of research and 3 trials, I'm confident this unit is superior. It took a while to set up (I finally used the ethernet cord to plug into your laptop to set it up there - wireless setup via the phone app didn't work for me). Enjoy!

Coming up on 3 years of nest Wi-Fi, this product is by far the best coverage and user friendly in my opinion.

At the end of 2022 after much research I opted to upgrade my home wifi to the ASUS ZenWifi, XT8 - 2 modem system. I have an old 150 year brick home with brick walls everywhere and I can say this system is simply light years better than my prior network. Signal strength and speed is strong everywhere, even in the back 40! I am very satisfied!! XT8, ZenWifi AX Wireless Router

Easy setup. Coverage is impressive. WiFi 6 support. All around fast. Router's admin interface provides an abundance of controls and details regarding status, configuration and connected devices. A major upgrade from my previous mesh system.

We get Comcast higher end service at our house but the wi-fi in areas of our 3400 sq ft home (2 stories) was pretty poor. Easy to setup and greatly increased the wi-fi strength through the entire house. My son and I went around the house and did speed tests on my iphone 11 and his 2 year old Ipad and some areas prior to setting up the Asus product were less than a Mb. Not anywhere from 100mb to 400mb download. His computer is directly connected to one of them and he claims the speed on that has increased as well. Pros: Easy to setup and definitely drives the speed up. This is WiFi 6 so ahead of the technology aside from the newer iphones Cons: A bit pricier than similar products and the interface on my phone is fairly slow to connect especially when I am not at the house and I want to shut off the kids for a break.

Just finished installing this mesh system and all I can say is WOW! What a tremendous improvement over my previous Orbi wifi 5 mesh. I finally have full speed internet throughout my house. I have a 3000 sq. ft. home with steel beam construction and lots of twists, turns, and corners. The Orbi system always struggled to provide coverage in my home-frequent drops, devices that wouldn't connect, devices that connected to the furthest node instead of the closest, etc. Plus it had difficulty reaching my office in the corner of my house. The Asus flat out works and gives me max speed everywhere in the house. It took me about an hour to set up because I had an issue with the firmware upgrade and had to reset and start over. Otherwise it would have been a 10 minute setup. Simple app, simple setup. Easily 5+ stars.

This is great. I have great coverage in my house and the signal is strong. The third dedicated channel really helps to keep things moving without slowing down the rest of the network. The control over devices also is great as I can limit how long my kids have access.

We were very excited to finally get an in stock alert on this ZenWifi system for our new home. We set everything up on our Suddenlink Gigabit internet connection and were off to the races. We used a wireless backhaul on each side of the house and saw good speeds throughout. Speeds are important, for sure. However, what seemed to happen - even after a firmware update - was not going to work for us. We kept getting disconnect notices on multiple devices. We would reboot everything from the modem to the routers to the devices. A day later, things would start disconnecting again. We set up a scheduled reboot of the devices. Still, inconsistency abound. It's almost as if this is a beta product not quite ready for production. That said, I have read on other blogs that a common problem is caused when you set these up with a mobile device. Some have said they have had fewer, if any, disconnects when they set up their ZenWifi system using their desktop or laptop instead of mobile. I wouldn't know as we had sent these back before I had a chance to test. If you really want to give these a shot, I think that advice would stand reason to consider. We ended up moving over to an Amplifi product Best Buy doesn't currently carry. It's been stable so far and one unit has covered our entire house without the need for mesh.

Pros: - White units blends well with decor - Very fast network speeds (even without using DFS channels, see below) - Can use as little or as many options to customize settings as you want - 3 on-board ethernet ports per node allowed removal of old router used as a switch Cons: - Height of nodes not as discreet - If you live in an urban/suburban environment with lots of weather stations, stock settings can lead to frequent disconnects between nodes if using wireless backhaul (see below) - Firmware updates are hit-or-miss on network performance Upgraded from the TP-Link Deco M5 which was fine for my previous 200 Mbps internet, but really showed its speed disadvantage with only dual bands available for the satellite nodes (ethernet backhaul is a non-starter in my house for now) with my current 400 Mbps service. After setting up the ASUS routers, at default settings I was getting full speed at both nodes and all was great until I experienced my first connection drop. My home office equipment is all connected to the upstairs (non-primary) node and a video call I was on just completely dropped, as well as my laptops internet connection. The ASUS node was blinking blue for a period of time and when I checked the app, it went from showing no connection to the main node, to showing the backhaul connected via 2.4 Ghz (very slow!) rather than the proper 5 Ghz band. After hours of research, I learned that the 2nd 5 GHz band, at default settings, basically uses DFS channels (think radar like weather stations, etc), so when it detects radar being used, it drops the backhaul to the 2.4 Ghz band, where its supposed to stay there for a set period of time and then reestablish the link to the 5 Ghz. I couldn't find any official documentation about this at all specific to the XT8. If this is all that happened and it worked as advertised, then I'd knock only 1 star off. The reason for the 2nd star is because sometimes the backhaul connection would just stay at the 2.4 Ghz band until I restarted the satellite node. Seeing that this node has my important work-related connections, that is unacceptable. During my hours of research, I learned that you can disable the 2nd 5 Ghz band's use of the DFS channels by limiting the channel bandwidth (no 160 Mhz) through the web interface, but what average user would know how to do that? Especially if they came from something simple like the Deco M5? All said and done, I plan on keeping this set as now my home network is in a great position and I'd rather not try out another set that may give different headaches. There is a newer (but more expensive and harder to find) version of this called the ET8 that uses the newest WiFi 6E 6 Ghz band as the wireless backhaul that supposedly eliminates the connection drops the XT8 experiences.