Wi-Fi standards: Wi-Fi 7 | Wi-Fi 6E| UNII-4 (5.9GHz) | Wi-Fi 6 | What is Wi-Fi? | Wi-Fi antennas (dBi) | Wi-Fi broadcasting/signal power (dBm) Optimized memory utilization and fixed an occasional server error when registering DDNS with an app. ZenWiFi Pro XT12 vs ZenWiFi Pro ET12: You must turn them on and look at the front lights to know which is which. Still, for many, the XT12 will be cheaper than a full, business-class Cisco Meraki deployment but, if you’re weighing up that as an option, don’t forget to factor-in on-going support costs as part of the total cost of ownership (aka TCO). And there are even more similarities, as you’ll note in the hardware specifications below. Hardware specifications: ZenWiFi Pro XT12 vs ZenWiFi Pro ET12

Ultimately, the features on offer make the XT12 feel like a souped-up consumer router with SMB-friendly features, which is no bad thing. In some ways it’s like a consumer-friendly Draytek router – a brand that is all about no-nonsense SMB Wi-Fi without the bells, whistles or performance boosts found here. But we’ll have to wait and see whether that’s enough for SMBs to actually use it as the foundation of their core network though – that level of adoption tends to take years of trust to develop. SYDNEY , Australia, February 17, 2022 —Today marked the launch of ASUS ZenWiFi ® Pro XT12, a high-performance tri-band WiFi 6 (802.11ax) mesh networking system designed to provide fast whole-home WiFi coverage. This is one of the top routers from Asus, promising speeds of up to 11,000 Mbps, and 6,000 sq ft of coverage with just two nodes. Impressive? Only if you read the fine print. The unit offers Tri-Band connectivity, including 2.4Ghz, 5Ghz-1 and 5Ghz-2, and 2.5G multi-gig ports for high speed direct connection from either node, optimal for NAS systems, gaming or just about any workflow demanding the fastest connection possible. And all three combined offer the magical 11,000 Mbps, of 4,804 Mbps each for 5Ghz, and 1,148 Mbps for 2Ghz. Getting connected: Dual-WAN vs Link Aggregation | Dual-band vs Tri-band vs Quad-band | Fiber-optic vs Cable | Getting your home wired | Multi-Gig explained | Cable modem activation | Routers explained | Mesh explained As a WiFi 6E router, the ZenWiFi Pro ET12 offers all the congestion-alleviating technologies of WiFi 6 with access to the wide-open spectrum of the 6GHz band as the cherry on top. To open a new frontier of wireless networking, the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted access to the 6GHz band. Because the congestion-management and latency-reducing features of WiFi 6 are mandatory for devices compatible with this spectrum, they’ll enjoy low interference and top-end performance when they’re connected to a network managed by the ET12.

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On the other hand, as a Wi-Fi 6E device, the Zen Wi-Fi Pro ET12 has a 2.4GHz band, a 5GHz band, and a 6GHz band. Up close it scored 627Mbps, which is fast but about 100Mbps slower than other top Wi-Fi 6 rivals. Next to the secondary node it scored 609Mbps – which represents only a 3% drop-off and the fastest speed we’ve ever seen from a test by a secondary node on a mesh!

The ZenWiFi Pro XT12 is a traditional Tri-band with an additional 5GHz band (the 5GHz-2). So it has 2.4GHz and two 5GHz bands (5GHz-1 and 5GHz-2).ASUS ZenWiFi Pro XT12 includes ASUS RangeBoost Plus — the latest, most powerful version of RangeBoost — which improves coverage for all WiFi devices including legacy devices. In combination with ASUS RF technology and other exclusive ASUS technologies, RangeBoost Plus dramatically improves WiFi signal range and coverage by up to 38% [i] . The two-node configuration supplied should be sufficient for coverage up to approximately 6000 square feet. Coverage can be extended even further for larger homes using any ASUS AiMesh-compatible router. Futuristic design In terms of speed, the 11,000 Mbps on the marketing material was nothing more than wishful thinking but also because in Singapore, the common standard offered is 1 GBPS (1,000 Mbps), which is decent but a far cry from the 4,804Mbps ASUS mentions for its 5Ghz band. Each node has four Ethernet ports: 2.5GbE WAN, 2.5GbE LAN and dual 1GbE LAN. The later can be aggregated for a 2GbE connection which is great for attaching things like NAS boxes. Each node also has WPS and reset buttons, plus a power switch. Note that there are no USB ports. The 2.4GHz band offers excellent range and broad compatibility, and the 5GHz band provides higher performance, but both are increasingly crowded with devices and can be prone to interference. The WiFi 6 technologies on the ZenWiFi Pro XT12 can alleviate congestion when it’s managing a network of compatible WiFi 6 devices. Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) allows the router to communicate with multiple devices simultaneously by dividing slices of the frequency spectrum into sub-channels. OFDMA is complemented by multi-user, multiple input, multiple output (MU-MIMO), which uses multiple transmit and receive antennas so that the router can talk to many devices at the same time. Be noted: This is an early stage beta, there might be bugs. This version can be downgraded via web GUI only.

It can be hard to get the wireless performance you expect in today’s hyper-connected homes. The ZenWiFi Pro ET12 and ZenWiFi Pro XT12 let all your devices enjoy the stable, high-performance wireless internet you demand. As mesh networking systems, these wireless routers make it easy to deliver that bandwidth to every corner of your home. Technically, we’re supposed to be able to use the XT12 and ET12 hardware together in a single mesh system, per the way AiMesh works. And eventually, that likely will be the case. The message I got when adding the ZenWiFi Pro XT12 to my GT-AXE16000 Wi-Fi 6E (or the ZenWiFi Pro ET12). While this might change, it’s not a good idea to mix Wi-Fi standards in a mesh system, anyway. The ARP response issue has been resolved, along with the connection issue between the router and the ROG Phone 6 and 7.Per Asus’ naming convention, X is short for Wi-Fi 6 (802.11a x), and E is for Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax e). The letter T signifies that these are Tri-band broadcasters — they both have three Wi-Fi bands. If you only need a single unit, my take is the ET12’s support for the 6GHz band is more valuable than the XT12’s support for UNII-4 (or the fact it has a second 5GHz band). But either will do just fine and you’ll save some dough going with the XT12. For now, in my trial, that was not possible yet. No matter how much I tried, I couldn’t link them together. The AiMesh setup process would just fail every single time. And I tried many times. You can buy either or none no matter your situation and the world will keep spinning for the foreseeable future.

The Asus ZenWiFi Pro XT12 is a tri-band Wi-Fi 6 router with two 5GHz channels and a 2.4GHz channel that offer a combined, theoretical throughput of 11,000Mbps. That said, fibre speeds are not fixed, and dependent on a lot of other factors, including service provider and its network set-up, and other physical factors that end-users are not always able to control.Additionally, on the 5GHz-2, the XT12 supports the latest UNII-4 portion to have a third 160MHz band which is free for DFS channels. By default, the ET12’s 6GHz band doesn’t have to deal with DFS. Many routers offer 5GHz connections, but not all 5GHz routers are built the same. The ZenWiFi Pro ET12 can access a high-power 160MHz slice of the 5GHz spectrum. Only recently made available for home WiFi in the United States, this 5.9GHz band is unaffected by radar signals, and it offers wider coverage than you’ve come to expect from 5GHz. The ZenWiFi Pro XT12 is traditional Tri-band hardware. As such, it works great in a fully wireless mesh setup. You should get it if you live in a large home and are too lazy to run network cables.