ZenWiFi BQ16 Pro Quad-Band WiFi 7 Mesh Router (2 Pack), up to 8000 sqft, 2X 10G Ports Each, Smart Home Master with Multi-SSID, VPN & Parental Controls, Subscription-Free Security, AiMesh

We purchased a new, larger house, and I needed to resolve some coverage and speed issues. My AX86U did an admirable job and while I could have just purchased another, we have some Wifi 7 devices so I figured I'd go ahead and futureproof. I read a lot about my options (primarily Wifi 6E and Wifi 7) on several sites, but ultimately, DongKnowsTech is what convinced me to buy this unit over others. My main reason for writing this review is because there are not many reviews yet, and there are a lot of experiences posted elsewhere that were not good. Based on my experience and what I've read, I believe that this is likely related to bad software on release and has been resolved with firmware updates. Perhaps my experience will help you feel more confident about buying this unit if you are strongly considering it. I was nervous about the setup and performance based on experiences some other people had. The only issue that I had during setup was that the node MUST be close to the main unit when setting it up. Even though they can communicate in different areas of the house, it has a difficult time completing setup if they're not close by and will just flash blue. If you experience this and it's in another room, move it in the same room temporarily to complete setup. Once the setup was complete, I updated firmware on both devices, and updated the MAC address on my ATT Fiber modem which was already in Passthrough mode. Once that was complete, I moved the node upstairs and confirmed that it was working. Since I have ethernet in the room that it's in, I plugged in to utilize ethernet backhaul. I also changed a couple of settings in the Asus router app to prioritize ethernet backhaul over wireless backhaul. Once that was done, I confirmed that I still had a connection upstairs, and the app confirmed that it was using wired backhaul. Ran some speed tests on my phone and I was getting 700+mbps on the unit upstairs on 5ghz. Faster than I expected. Wifi downstairs is just as strong. My office and gaming pcs are plugged in ethernet, and I'm capping out at 900-1000mbps whereas I was previously hitting 600-750mbps. NOTE: I switched out all of my ethernet cables to Cat 6A, so this may have had an impact on speeds. Previously, I had Cat 5E and some cables that were not marked and may have been lower grade. One odd thing that I have run into is that my Bravia 7 does not want to connect to any network that has 2.4, 5, and 6ghz available. If I limit it to 2.4 and 5, or one or the other, OR just 6ghz, it will connect fine. But, it will not connect to a network with all 3 active. For now, I have it on it's own network using 6ghz but I'll have to dig into this. I have not had any issues with any other devices connecting. That includes TVs, Hue bridge/bulbs, tablets, game consoles, soundbars, robot vacuum, smartwatches. Everything is working. Overall, I'm very happy with the product. The setup was painless and though I expected good coverage, the speeds are better than expected. It has the same Asus features that I'm familiar with, without extra fees. The only thing that I'm not happy about is the price. I know it will come down and Wifi7 devices will be cheaper in time, but I needed a solution now and didn't want to re-visit again in a couple of years. Since I used Amazon Rewards, in combination with a lower priced Like New unit with Amazon Resale, the price was quite as hard a pill to swallow.

SUMMARY: I chose not to listen to poor reviews for this router in favor of more recent reviews that mentioned firmware updates have resolved the issues. I'm on the latest firmware and after 16 days of testing I've finally decided to warn you not to buy this router. Key negative points: terrible stability for smart home devices, mesh coverage is questionable, and a horrible support team. I'd have patience with the network issues if I felt like the support team was keeping me informed of firmware updates their working on, but they have completely ghosted me after I provided all the proof that this is an issue on their end. ISSUE: Anyone spending this much money on a router mesh system is likely doing so because they have a large number of smart home devices. In big letters on the front of the box, it bills itself as a "Worry-free Smart Home Mesh". Those words will sting with painful irony if you go through the lengths I have to try to get this to be stable and reliable. I'm a full-stack developer and work with complicated systems for a living so I'm no stranger to troubleshooting, configuring, researching, etc. I've given it my all and I can't get this to work with my existing network of 2.4 ghz-only smart home devices. PRO-TIP: No support team told me this, this is just something I discovered on my own. If you're having trouble getting devices to even sign in on the 2.4 ghz or IoT networks, then disable MLO and disable the radio bands for the 6 ghz networks. It makes no sense, because that shouldn't interfere with the IoT network or 2.4 ghz bands, but things will magically connect if you do that (so basically disable everything you're paying a premium for). The problem is, after they connect, they will only have a connection lifespan of 15 or so minutes before they lose connection and then take a while to reconnect - even if the signal is excellent (which is not a problem I've ever had with my 8-year-old Netgear routers). HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SUPPORT: I've spent hours in communication with the third-party support teams for my smart home devices (a big chunk of these devices are LIFX - their support team is excellent, btw). After trying all the configuration changes suggested by other experts, I finally reached out to ASUS support to see what they could offer. Their phone support line is a joke... I'd be on hold for 5 to 10 minutes and then it would hang up on me before ever connecting me with a person... It took 6 of these calls before I reached somebody. When I finally did and explained my situation as well as all the troubleshooting steps I'd tried so far. He admitted that I'd already gone above and beyond all the troubleshooting steps that he would've suggested and he'd elevate this to their advanced team. He had me send router logs and comments to get a ticket started... all good, seemed like I was finally going somewhere. 2 business days later, I got an email asking for the same logs sent a different way, plus many different forms and technical information that they wanted to gather... I spent a good hour or two collecting all of that information for them and sent it off... 4 business days later, I got an email asking really low-level questions that would have had me repeating information. I answered the questions and asked if they have reviewed the documentation I've already sent (because if they had, they wouldn't have needed to ask those questions again). After not hearing anything 4 business days later, I reached out again asking if they could let me know if they had given up or were still reviewing my case. And now today, an additional 5 business days later I still haven't received any reply... That's three weeks of the support team stalling me until they ghosted me. I honestly think that there is no "advanced support team" and they didn't expect anyone to have the patience to get this far. Their script doesn't cover how to continue pretending like they're doing something. THE GOOD AND THE BAD: It's unfortunate... I really wanted this to work out as ASUS offers parental controls and other protections that other brands charge a subscription fee for. They've got a *ton* of nice customization options and ways you can set things up. If it *worked*, it would be an excellent choice. That's about as positive as I can be with this router. If I paid $50 for this router, I might give 3 or 4 stars with a "you get what you pay for" kind of review. The value and support is not there for the premium cost which justifies the 1 star review. Ignore my review if you're ready for a "Worry-Filled Smart Home Mesh". First and last ASUS purchase for me and now all this wasted time and effort is going to be returned to Amazon.

I'm using this as an AiMesh node with my main BE98 Pro router. ​The initial setup was a pain, but after it was done, it started working great. A quick tip: I'd recommend setting up three WiFi networks at most. Use the main MLO WiFi for your important devices like your phone, tablet, console and PC. Then, put all your IoT devices (surveillance cameras, smart bulbs, smart TV and etc.) on the separate 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks. ​Also, make sure get rid of any old devices that are still on 802.11ac or older (even some devices using 802.11n). They really do bottleneck your router's bandwidth and slow everything down. ​This router has a lot of great features, and it was easy to set up AdGuard Dns and NordVPN. The speed is super steady and rock-solid. ​The only thing I don't like about these new Asus routers is that you have to reboot the router and all the nodes every single time when you add a new IoT devices. If you don't, it just connects and disconnects over and over. ​ The range for 2.4GHz and 5GHz is really great, but the 6GHz range isn't. If you have a big house with a lot of walls, the 6GHz signal won't be very good. Overall, I recommend this routers. It's pricy but worth to buy it.

I have approx. 60 devices in my home and a 2Gb internet connection. Mostly 2.4g, some 5g, a few 6g and 1 wifi7 MLO (my phone). Saying that, I setup my mesh (2 nodes) with a basic main net (all bands, Wi-Fi 7, MLO) and a IOT Net (2.4g only). Ethernet backhaul. Everything is set up with default settings. Setup went quick, everything was running and most devices connected (had to reboot a few) in < 30 mins. Results: Performance (when it works) is awesome. My phone’s speed test is ~1.9Gb. Problem is that it’s totally random. No consistency. My connection is constantly degrading to wifi 6, or just randomly resetting – a lot. I’m constantly switching my wifi on/off on my phone to get a better connection. Wifi6 devices seem to work, no issues. Update: Lowering my ratting by two stars because of the bad firmware. I labeled all my nodes in the web UI (it took a couple of hours) and the router reset them after reboot. DHCP server also just started assigning addresses without a default GW gateway it took me a bunch of time to figure that out. And finally, my Sonos devices (Arc, Era300, Sub Mini) don't like staying connected after router reboots (and trust me u do a LOT of rebooting). Really disappointed. I still buy their routers because when they work, they work. They have a ton of geek features to mess with, free parental controls, firewall, ad block, and outstanding HW and net performance. Their unstable SW is more than just annoying; it can be a pain in the butt sometimes. Most issues, non-power users won’t even notice. You, as the person that just spent a $1000 on a router, will.

I replaced an 8-year-old Linksys with this Asus ZenWiFi BQ 16 Pro. Nothing wrong with the Linksys, but the new Asus has so many new features and security options. The two-module model covers the entire house and some more. The mesh network reaches everywhere even on the farthest areas on the deck. I have ethernet to the mesh module, so it connected simply. The security settings allow tuning many options to turn off features such as WPS and UPNP which you do not need. You can also set up as many sub networks that you need. I have three: main, IoT and Guest. All devices had no issue except my two Amazon Smart Plugs. For some reason they did not work. After much back and forth with Alexa support including trying two new ones they sent, the solution was to change to Amazon Basics Smart Plugs (cheaper and they work). My old Linksys had 8 ports; this router has only three. No big deal as you can buy a small switch and get more ports with it (see picture). Set up is really simple. I found doing it on my computer easier than on a mobile. All you have to do is to connect the computer to the router. The Asus app is intuitive and after a few minutes you can master it. One trick is to print out the manual before and note all the things you will want to change or adjust when the app is started. Helps not to miss anything. The router is a bit pricey, but when you consider it is for several years, worth it. All in all, quite happy with the choice and the capabilities.

The BQ16 Pro started out rough for me. It was crashing often and would lose it's configuration settings occasionally. I was assuming it was just a bad system. But I called ASUS support and we were able to determine that one of the nodes was defective. After receiving the replacement, it has been phenomenal. 1. The speed is fantastic. I was looking for a system that would allow us to take advantage of our 1GB Internet connection via AT&T. Speed from my iPhone 17 are over 1 GB when connected to the main router, and around 500 mbs when connected to the node. 2. Pretty easy to set up. I have an IT background, but I think that most would find this to be a relatively painless implementation. 3. Control over my network was the most important factor to me, and the BQ16 Pro delivered that in spades. I have different groups configured that have settings for Internet filtering and scheduled downtime. I'm easily able to temporarily bypass scheduled downtime via the app. My only complaint here is that my previous WiFi system would send me a notification if a new device joined the network. I'm not able to do that with the BQ16 Pro. 4. Note that configuration of the IoT network is going to be a "must have" if you have a lot of devices in your home. Some of my TP-Link smart switch devices could not connect to the regular network, as well as a scale. Surprisingly, my Peloton had trouble with the main WiFi network as well. Putting all of them on the IoT network fixed the problem. 5. Reporting features are fantastic. I'm able to see top consumers of bandwidth, traffic monitors and analyzers, statistics, etc. Lots of stuff for me to geek out on. 6. Coverage is great. I have a 3,300 Sq. Ft 2 story home. The main router is in a corner office on the 1st floor. (Not an ideal location being in the corner of the house, but that's where the AT&T router is). The node is also on the 1st floor in the middle of the house. I was nervous about going from 3 to 2 access points and how that would impact the 2nd floor. But there isn't a place in the house that doesn't have a strong connection. 7. Very easy backup and restore of system settings. This may sound small, but when I received my replacement system I did a quick restore, saving me hours of configuration time. 8. The Trend Micro protection that comes free is great as well. (Unlike some of the competition that charges an additional fee for such protection). I'm giving it 4 stars instead of 5 for: 1. Not providing a way to receive a notification when new devices come on the network. This is important to me as when my kids' friends come and get on the network, there is no filtering on their device unless I go in and put them in a group. 2. The tech support was weak. Granted, we were able to determine that one of the devices was defective. The technician was very friendly and was trying his hardest to help. But there was a major language barrier. He clearly didn't understand a lot of the things I was saying, and would respond with a few of the lines he had memorized in English no matter what I said or asked. Overall, definitely worth the money. These are a lot more expensive than other options out there. But I just couldn't find other options that were cheaper and checked all the boxes I was looking for.

Why did you pick this product vs others?: ​Why did you pick this product vs others?:​ Comcast/Infinity replaced my failing modem, and snuck in a router which destroyed my home network (DHCP conflicts, although it took a while to comprehend what was wrong). I discussed with Grok what home router was reliable and not prone to intervention by the CCP, and Grok stated that this router had an excellent reputation for reliable hardware with a 3 year warranty, extra large heat sinks, etc., so I bought a pair. First, this widget worked with my as yet unknown second router that I did not appreciate Comcast had snuck in, the "AI" in thing is clearly real, it handled the DHCP conflicts itself before I figured out what was going on, second for the first time ever I get strong signals all over the house (I have subfloors and drywall that RF just does not propagate through), third it is very fast, and fourth "it just works." The "AI" in this thing is really real, much to my surprise. I suspect it is using active beamforming to get such a strong signal and while many advertise this, this one actually functions! I strongly recommend this device. Eventually I discovered that Comcast/Xfinity had snuck the router in, despite denying it, and I think Xfinity stands for infinitely stupid tech support, but despite the router address conflicts, this router "just worked" from the outset, plug it in, run through the setup, "it just works." Therefore, I can very strongly recommend this router for "solving everything," "just working," has the strongest WiFi signal I have ever experienced (in 15 years), and is all around very solid. Novice or pro, this router preserves your time, which is priceless. Pay the price. Get the best.

I was very excited to get ZenWiFi BQ16 Pro router in order to upgrade my network to WiFi 7 and improve performance. Unfortunately, while there is a lot of positive experience, I think I'll be returning this router for a refund. Starting with positive, I did notice improved WiFi performance with transmission speeds above 1Gbps and the router seems to be able to handle more traffic than my previous router. I also like all the advanced options that are available. (VPN, Time Machine support, secondary WAN) Great looking device that I don't have to hide in a closet. (although it's a bit bigger than I expected) Now with the negatives: - WiFi drops Occasionally clients lose connectivity to Internet with no obvious reasons. Mobile devices detect lack of Internet connection and switch to cellular, but other devices simply stop providing content. WiFi is up and local network is accessible, but not external. It seems to be related to DNS resolution, but I haven't found a way to fix it. I tried manually specifying DNS, but has the same problem. The issue is temporary and resolves itself in a couple of minutes. - Reboots Many settings require WiFi restart which causes all devices to lose connection. Firstly, it's not always clear when this can occur. Secondly, I have over 60 devices and when they all disconnect from WiFi it take a while to get them all back. Some devices don't manage to come up and require reboot. And this can happen from something as simple as adding a manual IP assignment to a host. - UI Mobile app UI is very nice, fast and modern looking. Web UI is so different from mobile that it makes it hard to find certain features. Web UI is so old looking that it makes me wonder why I paid so much for this router. I can easily block a device from accessing Internet in the mobile app, but I have no idea how to do this in the web UI. - Documentation It is hard to find documentation for the features that are available in the router. There are a lot of pages about how to change something, but not about what it means.

There's work even better than I'd hoped. I have 900 Mbps broadband and I now get the full speed in another room, through two brick walls with just wireless backhaul (no cable). The functionality is also exceptional. So far I have a separate IoT wireless network and a Wireguard VPN server set up and it's only day one. Very expensive, but they live up to the hype.

Son fáciles de configurar y es la mejor tecnología de Wifi

Enfin un réseau Wi‑Fi digne de ce nom ! Le ZenWiFi BQ16 Pro d’ASUS m’a permis d’obtenir une connexion stable, puissante et constante dans toute la maison — et même au jardin ! L’installation est un vrai jeu d’enfant, tout est intuitif et bien pensé. La qualité du produit est tout simplement phénoménale : design élégant, performances impressionnantes et couverture jusqu’à 8 000 m² parfaitement assurée. ASUS confirme encore une fois sa réputation d’excellence dans le matériel informatique : fiabilité, puissance et simplicité réunies dans un seul appareil. Je recommande sans hésitation !

Terrible product. Kept dropping connections after initial setup, and I couldn't load web pages without broken images or watch a YouTube clip without major timeouts. Not what I expected from a top-of-the-line router.

I screwed up my first attempt at setting it up, but resetting the "base" unit allowed me to do it properly, and since then it's been flawlessly issuing a ~1GB signal without interruption. Handles multiple IOT devices as well as sometimes two laptops, two tablets, two handhelds, and one or two video streaming devices, with no interruption in service. Expensive, but worth it.