Need help setting up my new mesh network

[trathbruto]

Hi,
I'm in need of some assistance, but first let me tell you my situation.
I have an old router (ASUS RT-AC51U) from a few years back and it fails miserably at covering my desired wireless area.
I need to get better reception in my living room for my smart TV and gaming console, currently I can't watch 4K and sometimes not even 1080P on my TV without buffering. I also I need better reception in the garage.

So today I went ahead and bought Asus ZenWiFi AX Mini XD4 (3 pack), a pretty expensive mesh system, so I was expecting a lot from it.
One downside to it that I saw immediately was that the main router only has 2 WAN/LAN ports. I am going to have to use both of those for WAN and the other for my Smart Light HUB.

I've had some experience before on another router I had briefly a few years back where I was using Wi-Fi on my main computer (Gaming) with a small USB 2.0 ASUS Wi-Fi adapter, and it worked great. Full coverage on 5Ghz, very stable at above 500Mbit/s at all times with the same stable ping as a wired connection (I had 500/500Mbit/s fiber at the time).

So I decided to go this route with my new mesh setup.
Unfortunately, I noticed that I was getting unstable, spiking ping on my computer. some really bad spikes. I then tried turning off Wi-Fi 6 to see if that changed anything, since my phone is the only device capable of Wi-Fi 6/802.11ax at the moment it doesn't really matter (even though I bought this system for this feature, or to be future-proof). And that for some reason seems to give better results, still spikes but not nearly as high.

If we set that aside though, I'm getting REALLY good coverage compared to before. The TV and gaming console increased their speed by a lot, from about 5Mbit/s to 70Mbit/s. No problems streaming 4K now...
I currently have 100/100Mbit/s fiber.

But the question is, how would you guys set this network up?
I'm going to need more ports to plug my Main computer into the network.
My thought is the following:




Would this be a good way to do it? I'm not sure and wanted some suggestions before I try. Or could I put the old router into the main part of the new mesh system and then plug the PC and Smart lighting into the old router? Like so:




Will I still be able to access all the other devices in both scenarios? For example from my Main Computer, cast Video or music to my TV or Chromecast?

Thank you in advance!

 

[don256us]

In senario 1, the old router is being used as a router with no WiFi. Turn off DHCP from your MESH router.

Senario 2 has your old router as a switch so don't use the WAN port for senario 2. Turn off DHCP on the old router.

For the ping issue, I would do a quick survey of the area around your house to see if you have any interference. Your cell phone can be a good tool for that if your gear does not have something built in. Also, 5GHz does not go through concrete very well. 2.4 GHz does better and therefore has better range.

 

[David]

This might be a double NAT issue - I'd have the ZenWifi directly connected to the modem and turn the DCHP server off (as don says) for the older router so that it is just acting as a switch and not a router.

FWIW my home set up uses the ZenWifi as well - this connects directly into a modem. I have one unit in the living room where the modem is (because the phone line comes in there) and the second unit in the study downstairs. My PC is connected to the second unit via ethernet.

I guess you could also just get a cheap-ish ethernet switch and ditch the old router entirely.