ASUS ZenWiFi BT8 Whole Home Tri-Band Mesh WiFi 7 System – Official Thread

[Nick Holland]

I have just upgraded my ASUS AiMesh system from 3 x ET12 (with one ET12 as the main router) and 7 x XD4 to 6 x BT8 (with one BT8 as the main router) and 3 x ET12 (as ASUS finally released WRT 5.0 for ET12).

Everything works well and the two different models seem to coexist properly. All the mesh nodes have wired backhaul and I have four SSIDs, one for the 2.4GHz, 5GHz and 6GHz bands and one 2.4GHz for my IOT devices.

However, I now also have 9 new visible SSIDs with 32 alphanumeric character names, 3 for each band. I imagine these are for the wireless backhaul channels on the ET12s, which I don’t use. Is there any way these can be hidden?

BT8 FW Version: 3.0.0.6.102_56839 and ET12 FW Version:3.0.0.6.102_36597

I originally made some posts in the ET12 topic before I purchased the BT8s

 

Share the knowledge

Always embrace change and new technology. Never say "I can't do that" instead say "I haven't done that before, but I'll give it a try"

You need to login in order to vote

[UK Sentinel]

Common feature (problem) with ASUS AiMesh backhaul – just check that Ethernet Backhaul Mode is enabled as this should then make wireless backhaul OFF, but often doesn’t work as you would expect ?

ASUS ZenWiFi Pro ET12 uses the 6 GHz band for wireless backhaul, maybe worth looking at ASUS UI > Advanced Settings > Wireless > General and see if there is an option for ‘BAND’ 6 GHz  to ‘Hide SSID that would have been used for the backhaul’, but unsure if this would have any impact on you other 6 GHz band SSIDs and if any clients are connected to them ?

FWiW: setting EBM to disabled to will allow failover to wireless backhaul should your wired backhaul ever fail, so it is there for a reason but all this extra visible SSIDs are annoying.

EBM prioritises wired connections for backhaul, but if the wired connection is unavailable, disabling EBM will enable the system to switch to using wireless backhaul for communication between mesh nodes or access point.

Share the knowledge

In a completely sane world, madness is the only freedom (J.G.Ballard).

You need to login in order to vote

[UK Sentinel]

. Nick Holland Said:

 

However, I now also have 9 new visible SSIDs with 32 alphanumeric character names, 3 for each band. I imagine these are for the wireless backhaul channels on the ET12s, which I don’t use. Is there any way these can be hidden?

 

 

Always embrace change and new technology. Never say “I can’t do that” instead say “I haven’t done that before, but I’ll give it a try”

 

Did you ever manage to hide your extra SSIDs ?

Share the knowledge

In a completely sane world, madness is the only freedom (J.G.Ballard).

You need to login in order to vote

[Nick Holland]

I removed the three ET12 nodes, but it made no difference. I also made sure EBM was switched on. There is also a new option in ‘System Settings’ called ‘AiMesh node Ethernet auto setup’ but I have no idea what it does and it is not referenced anywhere in the manual. I couldn’t even find anything in a Google search. When I checked the iPhone ASUS Router App, I found all the BT8s ‘Backhaul Connection Priority’ were set to ‘Auto’, so I changed them to ‘2.5G WAN Only’. However this still made no difference even after restarting the main BT8 router.

I am considering disconnecting the main BT8 router, powering down all the other 8 nodes and factory resetting the main BT* and then just setting it up on it’s own to see which SSIDs I get. Any ideas?

 

Share the knowledge

Always embrace change and new technology. Never say "I can't do that" instead say "I haven't done that before, but I'll give it a try"

Liked by:

You need to login in order to vote

[UK Sentinel]

I will see if I can gain access to some details on the new ‘AiMesh node Ethernet auto setup’ directly from ASUS.

Just a thought, is Guest Wifi enabled  ?

Share the knowledge

In a completely sane world, madness is the only freedom (J.G.Ballard).

You need to login in order to vote

[Nick Holland]

I have enabled the IOT (Guest) Network for my IOT devices on 2.4Ghz in addition to the three frequencies in the Main network.

I have also attached screenshots of the new ‘AiMesh node Ethernet auto setup’ option and the IOT Network.

Share the knowledge

Attachments:

1. 

   IMG_0494-scaled.jpeg
   

2. 

   Screenshot-2025-05-17-at-19.34.28-scaled.png
   

Always embrace change and new technology. Never say "I can't do that" instead say "I haven't done that before, but I'll give it a try"

You need to login in order to vote

[UK Sentinel]

I would not reset main BT8 router or any others as those extra 9 hidden SSIDs you’re seeing—3 per band (2.4GHz, 5GHz, 6GHz)—are probable internal backhaul and management SSIDs and important.

Even on wired backhaul, ASUS currently does not disable or allow to be disabled these wireless interfaces by default.

These SSIDs cannot be controlled individually via the Web UI. However, some can be hidden using NVRAM tweaks — via SSH, by editing the configuration of virtual interfaces (BSS), but this is only temporary and will not survive a reboot.

 

 

eg. (example – for reference purposes only)

 

—————–

nvram set wl2.2_closed=1
nvram commit
service restart_wireless

————–

 

Interface Naming Breakdown Examples

– wl2

This refers to the main physical interface of the third wireless radio, which in your case (with tri-band routers like the ET12 and BT8) is usually the:

• 6 GHz band

 

– wl2.0

This is the primary SSID (BSS0) on that radio — the one you configured in the GUI.

• This is your main 6GHz SSID visible to users.

 

– wl2.1, wl2.2, etc.

These are virtual SSIDs (VAPs/BSSes) associated with the same physical radio. ASUS uses them for:

• Hidden backhaul SSIDs
• Management/control communication between AiMesh nodes
• WPA3 transition management frames
• Diagnostics or ASUS-specific functions

Share the knowledge

In a completely sane world, madness is the only freedom (J.G.Ballard).

You need to login in order to vote

[Grisu]

They are necessary to have full mesh functionality even if LAN-backhaul fails, then it automatically will switch to WLAN-backhaul.

Share the knowledge

Liked by:

You need to login in order to vote

[Nick Holland]

Thanks for the info and feedback. However, when I had three ET12s and seven XD4s in the mesh, I never saw any extra SSIDs. It’s only since changing to six BT8s plus the old three ET12s that I saw the extra SSIDs. However the ET12s were updated from WRT 4 to WRT 5 so perhaps this is the reason. But it’s not causing any issues, I just imagined the backhaul SSIDs would be hidden.

Share the knowledge

Always embrace change and new technology. Never say "I can't do that" instead say "I haven't done that before, but I'll give it a try"

Liked by:

You need to login in order to vote

[UK Sentinel]

Hopefully over time, ASUS will add in the options to make these type of SSIDs hidden.

Feedback forms at the ready

Share the knowledge

In a completely sane world, madness is the only freedom (J.G.Ballard).

You need to login in order to vote

[UK Sentinel]

. Nick Holland Said:

I removed the three ET12 nodes, but it made no difference. I also made sure EBM was switched on. There is also a new option in ‘System Settings’ called ‘AiMesh node Ethernet auto setup’ but I have no idea what it does and it is not referenced anywhere in the manual.

 

Always embrace change and new technology. Never say “I can’t do that” instead say “I haven’t done that before, but I’ll give it a try”

 

ASUS have kindly come back and said for ‘AiMesh node Ethernet auto setup.

AiMesh node Ethernet auto setup supports a new method for AiMesh Node onboarding.

e.g. If there is an external ethernet switch between AiMesh Router and AiMesh Node, it would have failed in previous firmwares.

Share the knowledge

In a completely sane world, madness is the only freedom (J.G.Ballard).

Liked by:

You need to login in order to vote

[Nick Holland]

Thanks for the ASUS feedback. As I have multiple 2.5G Ethernet switches between the main AIMesh Router and the AiMesh Nodes, I will enable this option to avoid any future issues.

Share the knowledge

Always embrace change and new technology. Never say "I can't do that" instead say "I haven't done that before, but I'll give it a try"

Liked by:

You need to login in order to vote

[Nick Holland]

ASUS have finally added a ‘Hide Backhaul SSID’ option in System Settings. When you select it, you get a warning, but as mine are all hardwired and on the latest firmware, I enabled it. See screenshots below. All the Backhaul SSIDs then disappeared.

 

Share the knowledge

Attachments:

1. 

   ASUS-BT8-Hide-Backhaul-SSID.png
   

2. 

   ASUS-BT8-Hide-Backhaul-SSID-Message.png
   

3. 

   ASUS-BT8-Hide-Backhaul-SSID-Enabled.png
   

Always embrace change and new technology. Never say "I can't do that" instead say "I haven't done that before, but I'll give it a try"

Liked by:

You need to login in order to vote

[UK Sentinel]

That is good news and glad ASUS are listening

Is this with ASUS ZenWiFi BT8 Firmware version 3.0.0.6.102_56914 ?

Share the knowledge

In a completely sane world, madness is the only freedom (J.G.Ballard).

You need to login in order to vote

[Nick Holland]

Yes, unintentionally ‘Auto Firmware Upgrade’ was defaulted to ON when I installed the BT8s so it is on 56914.

I am not happy with the performance of the 5 x BT8s and the 3 x ET12s so I have ordered an extra 4 x BT8s to go back to my original setup of 10 mesh nodes. I think the issue is caused by ‘Smart Home Master’ which is only on the BT8s and not the ET12s and seems to restrict the performance of the ET12s.

Share the knowledge

Always embrace change and new technology. Never say "I can't do that" instead say "I haven't done that before, but I'll give it a try"

Liked by:

You need to login in order to vote

[Author]

Posts