Reply To: ASUS New DSL-AX82U Modem Router Combo – Wifi 6 ASUS New DSL-AX82U Modem Router Combo / Wifi 6 At long last I am now able to (officially) confirm that ASUS are in the process of releasing there latest addition…

[David Doran]

I’d just like to say thank you very much to both of you. It’s been refreshing signing up to a forum and getting great and detailed responses (especially even taking the time to attach actual camera photo).

Sentinel, I would like your take on my situation. I don’t feel right creating a new thread and since it’s technically still pertinent to the DSL-AX82U, I hope you don’t mind if I ask here.

So my family have somehow been able to get along ok in a 3 story house with something as simple as a Billion 8800NL (in the center of the whole property). Sure it had complete dead spots at the far corners and outside reception was just not a thing but it worked. However, the wireless on it just simply died recently. It would not broadcast an SSID anymore. I managed to get a replacement 8800NL from Ebay for £15 and that was fine. The issue is my brother got some Blink outdoor wireless cameras for the property and as you can guess, it’s having trouble to connect. Now the cameras directly screwed above the doors work good enough (1-2 bar connection) but the one we were thinking of placing approx 10 foot on an adjacent wall to look over the complete driveway is not working well if at all.

It seemed time to look at a new router or better yet, a mesh system to completely cover the house. With only having a 40/10 BT line, it doesn’t really matter the speeds of the satellite nodes. They just have to be able to extend the signal enough to allow the cameras to connect reliably. I have a gaming PC but this will always be wired into the main router. Everything else on the wireless doesn’t need super fast pings or speed.

For years I always thought that ping spikes while downloading or others using internet was just because the CPU on the router sucked. I now know after alot of research recently it’s likely bufferbloat so I thought I may aswell try and solve that problem at the same time (for the wired in gaming PC anyway). I know I needed a router with SQM features (preferably cake or fq_codel).

The options I came up with was Eero, TP-Link Deco and ofcourse ASUS. I also thought to myself that since I’m on FTTC now but FTTP is apparently coming soon, I should get one that will be directly compatible with both. How I saw the products:

Eero: This is such a mixed bag. From all my reading the 2nd gen product seems to be the best because it has cake compared to what I read is a very flawed implementation of fq_codel on the newer 6 models (something about offload engines and very technical stuff). However, as I stated above about PPPoE the 2nd gen eero with cake does not support PPPoE directly. It always has to have a modem infront. The 6 models do support PPPoE directly but then I have an SQM method that barely works and with how expensive it is, not ideal. The thing is I can’t just bridge the 2nd gen as then you lose access to SQM feature…. ahhhhh!!!!!!

TP-Link Deco: This should on paper be a pretty good solution but… something tells me it won’t be. They sell DSL versions of the products (X20-DSL and X73-DSL). The plan there is FTTC directly into the unit and then when FTTP comes, just use one of the 4 ethernet ports on the router (all 4 support PPPoE WAN). The only downside (besides being tied to a smartphone app like Eero) is they have some form of a QoS feature but it’s never going to be anywhere close to cake which is super “plug n play” on Eero. I can’t even find anyone with a Deco product willing to run bufferbloat tests for me to see if their QoS even does anything.

The other thing putting me off TP-Link is privacy issues: https://www.reddit.com/r/hardware/comments/tbthjj/psa_newer_tplink_routers_send_all_your_web/

They said they “fixed” this in firmware updates but none of those DSL units I am looking at had firmware updates.

Asus: The DSL-AX82U seems perfect as a standalone router. It will do the FTTC modem route and serve me well on the move to FTTP. The problem I see myself having is that’s only for one router. I know that all routers have to adhere to transmission power regulations or whatever so I can’t magically think that it will be better than the Billion I have for range (cameras only work on 2.4 Ghz). Since I will need merlin firmware to enable cake, my instincts tell me that I will likely have some issues if I try to add other Asus access points via AiMesh. It’s likely not been tested that much. Plus if I go the multiple Asus router route, it can get somewhat expensive. Even if I go for the non DSL modem equivalent (the TUF-AX5400) that’s still £132. 3 of them and you’re looking at basically £400. With the TP-Link and Eero I can get 3 packs all for under £300 that are unlikely to have as many firmware bugs since it’s official release stuff.

Now I know after reading all this you are likely just gonna say stuff like “just wire access points” but nobody in the house has experience with drilling or laying cables and my family already thinks it’s weird that we now will require 2 devices for internet (gonna use the 8800NL in modem bridge mode for the router/mesh system). Laying cables would just be a no no.

Thanks for any suggestions on that wall of text.

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