Hi Everyone. I have a spare xt12 I want to use it at my another home. I’m not sure should I use it as Ai mesh node since it has good wifi performance or as a main router. Intend to pair it with a ac router or ax55.
Reason being if I use XT12 as router then it will be place in the cabinet in the new HDB kind. I doubt the wifi performance will be good right ?
Both equipment will be wired backhaul to the room and the node will be place at the center of the flat.
Please advice.
You may have to post your floor plan to get better advices.
1) Option 1 -- Asus Zenwifi XT12 as main router, not in DB box
The best is to use it as a main router in a central ocation so you can use its CPU power as well as wireless power. You need to have two LAN ports next to each other in the location you plan to put the router (cental location).
Usually new HDB flat will have two LAN ports in the living room but they may not be next to each other. In that case, you may have to pull a new cable.
ONT in DB box -- patch panel -- living room LAN port 1 -- main router -- livring room LAN port 2 -- patch panel -- dumb switch like TP-Link TL-SG105 (below S$30) -- patch panel -- LAN ports in other rooms.
2) Option 2 -- Asus Zenwifi XT12 as AImesh node, not in DB box
If you do not like to pull a new cable, then you have to put a router in the DB box. It depends on your use case but I will recommend no worse than RT-AX56U (512MB RAM). It will be even better to go with TUF-AX4200 (S$249) which has a better CPU. It is just me but I do not like RT-AX55 or RT-AX3000P as main router since they only have 256MB RAM. You may be okay with them, depending on your use case.
3) Option 3 -- Asus Zenwifi XT12 as main router in the DB box
Some DB Box may not block wifi too bad, in that case you can use it as the main router in the DB box. Then add another AImesh node (eg: RT-AX55) in the weak signal areas.
4) Option 4 -- use a wired router like mini PC running pfSense/OPNsense/OpenWRT and then run the Asus Zenwifi XT2 as an AP in the central location.
This is more meant for power users.
