ASUS ZenWiFi AX Hybrid Powerline Mesh System XP4

THIS PAIR WORKS THRU TWO BRICK HOUSES, MULTIPLE ROOMS (including THRU furnace/AC & hot water heater utility closet) AND FISH TANK!!! I paid $329/pair earlier in June for “ASUS ZenWiFi AX Hybrid Powerline Mesh WiFi6 System (XP4) 2PK – Whole Home Coverage up to 5,500 Sq.Ft. & 6+ Rooms for Thick Walls, AiMesh, Free Lifetime Security, Easy Setup, HomePlug AV2 MIMO Standard” … if you are on the fence, then just buy this set!! I found them originally thru Consumer Reports recommendation. Here on Amazon as you can see from their descriptive title (pasted here in case it changes later) they said “thick walls” and 5,500 sq ft. I have two brick homes and wanted a network to span both including across the dividing lawn. When I saw description here at Amazon, I thought, instead of getting 4 let me get just the original pair ($329 price), and let’s try it out. In full disclosure, I have an AT&T new fiber router that comes into new house center, rides cat 5 (plugged into its 5GB port) thru attic and into bedroom close to other house and I have first router acting as mesh repeater/smart hub there. Then in window of this original home (owned by BF), I have the other router acting as mesh repeater/smart hub. Then crossing this home to far side, thru a 60 gallon saltwater aquarium (I also have a 180 gallon saltwater aquarium off to the side but at least I could get something out of line of sight) and maybe more brick as technically fish room is on backside of home – I have my work home office setup and I’m wirelessly connected. SO FAR SO GOOD!! I even had to transfer a file for work earlier today and had same thru put as I have had for years on this original home’s wireless network. I bought the new-to-us next door home as my mom is disabled and legally blind, so I’m going ‘Smart Home’ configuration. Because of that, I have just purchased another pair of these to just boost up the upcoming number of everything that is (hopefully) going to work together to enable my mom to just verbally unlock doors, change TV channels, brighten/dim lights (she has some vision left) and MORE… If I had done more file transfers for work then maybe I wouldn’t feel a need for these other two, but with upcoming streaming TV (Spectrum (known for cable) doesn’t do cable anymore?! who knew!!) potentially competing with my work-from-home file transfer potential, I feel another pair is just insurance. Setup for these is EASY but LITERAL. Use the QR code and included setup guide. The included ethernet cat 7 cable is short so I have purchased a 15 foot cat 7 cable to get that new house router/hub closer to new house window (so even thru brick is going well!). Definitely glad I bought these! Also, its VERY NICE to have every device using same SSID (new AT&T router) no matter which mesh router/smarthub or router is closer! Here in original house we’ve two routers and each has different SSID for 5 vs older 2.4 and its always a decision… pick this or that… I’ve picked just my main SSID I assigned on AT&T new fiber router (which says performance degrades if two names) and I can take my personal laptop or IPad next door or here to the farthest point (fish room) and it is all the same name and always fast! I’ve just included a photo taken after a year of the one box sitting in the window and there has been no yellowing of the plastic, still white and still looks like new. At night through the window, the router in the window has a glow that seems to the uninformed like perhaps it is security related (not), but I consider that a good bonus on top of FAST networking. Love when something works BETTER than expected!!

Routers look great with LED color change indication for specific functions, excellent Processors and Memory, Gigibit WAN and LAN, Wifi 6, MIMO ready and backwards compatible with older wifi, supports 20/40/80 MHz bandwidths and WPA3-Personal with WPA2, 4 antennas each unit with Beamforming, the signal strength and coverage is strong and wide it seems. This unit has 3 options for Backhauling data between the 2 routers I find this impressive, the Backhaul Powerline HomePlug AV2 MIMO data connection option is good if you can’t run an ethernet cable between the 2 and have a home with a proper green grounding wire run from the connected power outlet to your circuit breaker box and grounded properly in the circuit breaker box, this way you get data over all 3 wires HomePlug AV2 MIMO in the outlet instead of just 2 so more data bandwidth. The user interface administration software is excellent in Asus routers in my opinion, lots of configuration possibilities if you need to get complex, lots of VPN options and Security options but if you use QOS that data goes through a 3rd party thats really not good IMHO. If your not so experienced it the software has an easy walk through connecting software front end to do so, ASUS configuration software is either from the routers or via phone app to router both are excellent. Has 2 ethernet ports that can be subnetted separately with dual WAN support but no WAN Aggregation, this could easily be used for casual gaming (though these don’t have the extras that Asus gaming routers do) and multimedia streaming, and any home connection utility devices setup all at the same time. 1 USB 3.2 Gen port that has support for many formats and functions even Apple time-machine. One problem I have encountered and it seems one other reviewer has incountered is that there can be disconnect issues with some laptops, now this seems to be the laptops issue not the Asus routers at least in my case, the older dell latitude 2012 E5530 laptops 3 of them I own that have the Broadcom BCM43XX wifi chipset these models have been know to have problems and Dell is at fault, these seem to disconnect once in a while no matter how close to either router they are, they are running windows 10 pro with up to date software and with Dells software drivers too. Other computers I have 2 Apple computers one from 2010 another from 2017 and one Acer windows 10 with Qualcomm Atheros chipset AR58WB222 and 2 iPhones 1 New and 1 4-years old they all stay connected properly, only the Dell E5530’s have issues, whats strange is the older 2010 Apple computer has a Broadcom BCM43xx chipset like the Dells but stays connected.

I got this system for my in-laws’ house which has an outbuilding with an office. This system uses the power line to carry the wifi signal and it worked fine in the outbuilding with virtually no loss of bandwidth. The setup is fairly easy with the app (it could be more intuitive), but it took a relatively long time (10+ minutes) for the system to recognize the satellite unit, so be patient. Unlike some other systems, the same unit is used for base and satellite functions. The app provides needed functions to monitor the system.