Asus RT AX92U ax6100 wifi 6 Mesh Network

Asus RT-AX92U Review: A Cute and Effective Little Odd One Out of AiMesh

The Asus RT-AX92U, first released in mid-2019, is a compelling case for two reasons. First, you find it during the transition from Wi-Fi 5 to Wi-Fi 6. And secondly, well, I reviewed it twice.

But to chop to the chase, on the one hand, the RT-AX92U maybe a cute little tri-band Wi-Fi 6 router, almost perfect for a bit of home. On the opposite, when working as a mesh, its odd specs make things a touch complicated — you would possibly mistake what you’ll get out of it.

So, here’s the deal: If you reside during a home of 1800 ft² (167 m²) approximately, at the present cost of some $230, the RT-AX92U is a superb standalone Wi-Fi solution, especially if you would like to stay in your personal space neat and tidy and play online games tons.

As a $350 2-pack mesh, though, there are belongings you should know before pulling the trigger. So, keep reading.

Asus RT-AX92U: A cute compact Wi-Fi 6 router

The Asus RT-AX92U the littlest Wi-Fi 6 router I’ve tested. It’s a miniature version of the GT-AX11000, taking the form of a little square box, measuring 6.1-inch (15.5 cm) wide and a couple of .1-inch (5.5 cm) tall, with four antennas on top.

You can raise these antennas upward for better coverage or collapse them on top of the router to form the entire thing even adorable. Either way, the router works. By the way, the router is wall-mountable, which is usually a pleasant touch.

A little tri-band powerhouse

Despite the tiny footprint, the router comes with the standard one Gigabit WAN port and 4 Gigabit LAN ports. It even has room for 2 USB ports to host storage, printers, or a cellular modem.

The router has no multi-gig port, but it does have Link Aggregation (both WAN and LAN sides) and Dual-WAN. the previous enables you to mix two ports into a 2Gbps connection, and therefore the latter allows for turning one among its LAN ports or a USB port into a second WAN connection.

On the within, the Asus RT-AX92U may be a tri-band router with non-conventional specs. It’s a broadcaster with a 2×2 Wi-Fi 5 band, a 4×4 Wi-Fi 6 5GHz band, and a 2×2 Wi-Fi 4 2.4GHz band,

When using it as one router, you’ll lump these bands together using Smart Connect. Otherwise, you can name each with a separate SSID (Wi-Fi network).

The router uses a dual-core 1.8 GHz processor, 512 MB of RAM, and 256 MB of non-volatile storage for processing power. It’s not the main potent router I’ve seen but still quite impressive considering its tiny physical size.

Asus RT-AX92U: Hardware specifications

Again, the Asus RT-AX92U is among the tri-band routers that use different Wi-Fi standards for its three bands.

When you use multiple units in an AiMesh setup, it’ll dedicate its fastest Wi-Fi 6 band (the 5GHz-2) because of the dedicated backhaul that links the branches up. Consequently, it delivers an equivalent throughput as a 2×2 Wi-Fi 5 system from connected clients’ perspectives.

Specifically, as one router, current 2×2 Wi-Fi 6 clients can expect to attach at 2.4Gbps, while 4×4 Wi-Fi 5 can rise to 1.73Gbps. As a mesh, all wireless clients will get a ceiling speed of 867 Mbps. These are theoretical speeds, and real-world sustained rates will vary.

The familiar setup process, settings, and features

At its core, the Asus RT-AX92U is like all other Asus routers. you’ll set it up using its web interface or the Asus Router mobile app.

I prefer the previous, which involves connecting a computer to it, then opening up a browser. You’ll then automatically run into the initial setup wizard that walks you thru the setup process.

Alternatively, you’ll always reach the router’s interface by navigating the browser to its default IP address, 192.168.50.1, or router.asus.com.

The Asus RT-AX92U shares an equivalent web interface as other Asus routers and has an equivalent set of network settings and features.

Most notably, it’s AiProtection that has free online real-time protection and a group of Parental Control settings. There’s also Adaptive QoS that permits for a simple prioritization of the web traffic for various purposes.

What’s more, the router even supports WTFast Gamers Private Network. Available in just select Asus routers, WTFast allows the router, hence the network it hosts, to be a part of a proprietary VPN designed to deliver the simplest online gaming experience given the broadband speed.

The support for WTFast makes the RT-AX92U even more sort of a mini version of the GT-AX11000, which is Asus’s flagship gaming router, additionally to the RT-AX8xU.

Asus RT-AX92U: Not a real Wi-Fi 6 mesh router

While simple as a standalone router, the RT-AX92U is sort of different from a mesh system. Again, that’s because it dedicates its only Wi-Fi 6 band, the 5GHz-2, because of the dedicated backhaul.

A Wi-Fi 5 mesh system at its core

As a result, by default, Wi-Fi clients can only hook up with it via the Wi-Fi 5 standard. In other words, when employing a 2-pack as a mesh, which Asus calls AiMesh AX6100 Wi-Fi System, the Asus RT-AX92U is about an equivalent as a daily Wi-Fi 5 system, like the ZenWiFi AC CT8.

Having a robust backhaul, though, you’ll place the hardware units farther apart to deliver a broader coverage — Asus claims the mesh can handle up to 6000 ft² (557 m2).

But in terms of speed, the system’s ceiling speed will cap at 867 Mbps. Real-world rates are going to be much lower. Keep that in mind if you’ve got Gigabit-class Internet and need to ascertain that on your end device.

(Note: Like all tri-band AiMesh systems, you’ll turn the Asus RT-AX92U’s 5GHz-2 band into a non-dedicated backhaul to also use it for clients. Considering this is often a 4×4 band with high bandwidth, opening it up to clients isn’t necessarily a bad idea in most cases.)