I am reviewing what I have… ASUS - ROG Rapture GT-AX11000 Pro. I know this is a beast but I’m wondering if I made a small mistake with this after talking to some friends.
My house is totally covered by this and the speeds are great. I really have no issues at all with it. I was talking to a friend who has a “longer” house where his router is in 1 corner so he has trouble reaching wifi at the other end. Naturally I recommended a mesh system and sent his family a Nest Wifi 6e Pro which will be delivered tomorrow.
It made me wonder why I bought the router I bought instead of upgrading my older Nest Wifi (from 2019 I think) to also getting a Nest Wifi 6e Pro. And that made me wonder why anyone even makes these routers anyway that aren’t just mesh systems…
Yes, I know the AX11000 can use Asus AImesh proprietary thing but I don’t think it would work as well as a router designed to work around mesh like eero or Nest.
Thoughts? Why does anyone sell stand-alone routers at all? Simply cost?
Mesh networks use bandwidth to make the network… That bandwidth could be utilized for your traffic instead of sustaining the network.
Mesh networks are generally for lazy people who cannot do cabling. That’s why most consumer network products are mesh crap.
Mesh can certainly be viable in situations where it is simply not possible or practical to install ethernet to support traditional access points.
You could be in an apartment or rental housing where you can’t readily install the necessary cabling because you don’t own the property, are in a historic home where you can’t or don’t want to risk damage to finished surfaces, or simply don’t want the interruptions to the aesthetics. Or you might be in a home where there aren’t accessible wall or ceiling cavities to run cabling.
Then there is always the balance between affordability and portability.
That being said, distributed WiFi via traditional ceiling-mounted access points are generally better than integrated table-top mesh units, both from a performance and stability stand point.
Stand-alone, non-mesh routers. . . probably about profitability. Low cost routers for the folks that can’t afford, or don’t need more advanced devices.
You can use mesh even with Ethernet. You get the benefits of seamless roaming, better home coverage, and faster backhaul communication. Idk why people keep saying either/or when mesh can complement traditional Ethernet networks.
I don’t believe that I said it was either/or in my reply.
Other folks were claiming that wireless mesh shouldn’t be used, and that mesh units / access points should always be wired.
I responded with examples of why some folks would choose (wirelessly deployed) mesh systems, which, for them, might be the only viable option.
Then I mentioned that traditional (ostensibly pro-sumer based) access points were more stable, and often provided better overall performance compared to integrated (consumer-based) table-top systems.
Lastly, I offered one possible answer to OP, with regards to why some folks wouldn’t automatically buy mesh, versus using a WiFi-type router.
What? Mesh always underperforms against properly deployed AP’s. Mesh is shittier in every way.
Isn’t an access point part of a mesh network? Sorry if that’s a dumb question, I guess I just don’t understand it as much
Because SDN setups are significantly better than Mesh
I will and would never use Wi-Fi mesh. All access points always wired (they need PoE anyway) for best throughput and lowest latency (8ms to 8.8.8.8) possible. Wi-Fi mesh is pure marketing.
It worked very well for me for nearly 5 years. Why is mesh marketing? I think mesh is better than a WiFi extender for example
Becaue crappy mesh Wi-Fi will cut your bandwidth in half and add a lot of latency where as a crappy wired access point will just no seerve many clients at the same time.
It’s cheaper to install ethernet with wireless access points, which work better than a mesh network.
Mesh networks should only be used where you can’t install ethernet for some legitimate reason. If you can install ethernet it would be silly to pay more for worse performance.
I’d run a cable across the floors of a house before relying on mesh
If you are a home user and IT ignorant, MESH is fine.
Not something I would ever use, but I’m sure the glossy ads sell plenty of units, along with fanciful max speeds.
But then thise same users are exactly the type who would also have uPnP enabled…
🤣🤣🤣
Having a purpose built router with Access Points would be one reason.
Mesh networks use bandwidth to make the network… That bandwidth could be utilized for your traffic instead of sustaining the network.
Mesh networks are generally for lazy people who cannot do cabling. That’s why most consumer network products are mesh crap.
I used mesh wifi in a house of mine as I didn’t want to run cables through 3 floors. It served it’s purpose to the various smart devices around the house and I didn’t have issues with latency in gaming. Sometimes the mesh hotspots would crash or de-sync which would cause some headaches (especially from the inept ex) if I was out of town. Next home I will probably run wires with APs. I think mesh WiFi is good for standard home use but for power users a wired connection will always be better\less headache.
Let’s say you have two scenarios. Scenario 1: Two AP, both wired
Scenario 2: One wired AP, the other AP using mesh
Would it make a difference for mobile devices when switch between the two AP in terms of one having a better signal because you changed your position?
I’m not taking about bandwidth, of course the both wired AP will have better bandwidth. I’m just asking about which scenario provides better automatic switching for mobile devices connected via wifi.