100 Mbps to 800 Mbps: How Cedric Hsu transformed his home network with the ZenWiFi BT8 mesh router

You can’t judge a home WiFi network with just one measuring stick. Fast top-end speeds matter, but coverage, reliability, management tools, and security are vital, too. And out of all those qualities, coverage is the one where too many networks come up short. Even for homes with a fast internet plan, modern devices, and a decent router, coverage can be an issue. There are options for tackling this problem, but the work of getting a reliable signal to every room on every floor can’t always be tackled by one router alone. Sometimes, it takes a team.

Like many modern households, Cedric Hsu’s home had great WiFi — at least, in the room with the router. But on the far side of the house in the bedrooms, the signal was weak enough that he couldn’t count on a stable connection, let alone the internet speeds that he was paying for. After upgrading his network with the ASUS ZenWiFi BT8 mesh router, Cedric turned a frustrating connection bottleneck into a seamless high-speed experience. Through a fast and easy mesh WiFi makeover, he was able to boost speeds in his bedroom from 100 Mbps to nearly 800 Mbps.

The challenge: fast internet plan, but slow speeds in the bedroom

Cedric’s home was equipped with AT&T Fiber, providing gigabit-class internet at the source. But like many homes, real-world performance didn’t match expectations in every room. While the living room enjoyed strong speeds, the bedroom — located farther from the router — struggled with significantly reduced throughput.

Checking his connection speed with his smartphone, Cedric found that he was getting his money’s worth out of his gigabit internet plan when he was standing in his living room. A quick speed check showed 1Gbps speeds, exactly what he was paying for.

Back in his bedroom, it was a different story. At the home PC setup beside his bed, Cedric couldn’t count on a stable, high-speed connection. Using the same speed test on the same smartphone, Cedric measured internet speeds that barely cracked 100 Mbps. That’s less than 10% of the full gigabit connection speeds that he was paying for.

But it wasn’t just about the value, about not getting his money’s worth. Cedric’s work-at-home days were an exercise in frustration. The poor connection made accessing company data over the VPN excruciatingly slow. Meetings were prone to drop. His voice would sound robotic in meetings when he tried to talk. When he streamed a show on Netflix or Disney+, the image quality would periodically drop noticeably. The poor connection was affecting his social life, too. He had tried to squad up with his college friends for Arc Raiders, but latency and dropped connections kept hitting at the worst times. Tired of feeling like the weakest link on the team, Cedric had mostly stopped joining the weekly gaming hangout.

Why your WiFi signal can be strong in one room but not another

Why wasn’t Cedric getting a good signal in his bedroom? Here’s what was happening behind the scenes. Every router has a certain limit to WiFi signal range, with signal quality decreasing the farther away you get from the router. But walls, wiring, and the structural materials in your house can all conspire to reduce signal integrity. Rooms on a different floor as your router, or located on the other end of the house from your router, often don’t get the high-quality signal that you want them to have.

Some people find that they can resolve coverage issues by moving their router closer to the center of their home. Others can fix things by upgrading to a router with wider coverage. But for many homes, the answer is to break away from the old model of a single standalone router entirely.

Overhauling his home network with the ZenWiFi BT8 mesh router

To eliminate dead zones and unlock the full potential of his fiber connection, Cedric deployed a three-node ASUS ZenWiFi BT8 mesh system.

Unlike Cedric’s old router, the ZenWiFi BT8 mesh router can use multiple nodes spaced out around his home to provide coverage to every room. They work as a team, determining in real time which node is best positioned to connect each device on the network. The system even works with devices that travel with you, like your smartphone. The nodes will seamlessly pass off devices to each other without interrupting your connection or requiring you to connect to a different WiFi network.

To get the most out of his mesh system, Cedric connected the primary node to the AT&T Fiber gateway, like he did with his old router. He powered on all three units in the same room during a quick setup process, and then he positioned the second and third units strategically around his home. Cedric placed the second ZenWiFi BT8 node in the hallway where it could act as a signal bridge to extend coverage deeper into his home.

The third node went straight to Cedric’s problem area: his bedroom. The flexibility of a mesh system allowed to put a node right he needed to improve his network coverage the most. One gentle suggestion for Cedric: he’d benefit from moving the node up off the floor. Routers of all kinds work better when they’re positioned about five to seven feet above the floor. Putting it on a small wall-mounted shelf, or even an end table, would make a difference.

But we can’t argue with results, and that’s exactly what Cedric got with his new setup. Before installing the ZenWiFi BT8 mesh WiFi system, he measured 100 Mbps speeds in his bedroom. After, he posted 800 Mbps.

Massive speed gains where it matters most

The difference was immediate and measurable, but installing the ZenWiFi BT8 mesh WiFi system gave Cedric a lot more than a bigger number on an internet speed test. He got his online life back.

Streaming just worked again. No buffering, no drops in quality. Video calls stabilized. He sounded like himself when he spoke, and he stopped having to deal with the embarrassment of losing his connection during conferences with coworkers. Files downloaded faster, making him more productive and more likely to check out new games. He was able to join his friends in Arc Raiders without having to deal with latency as his worst enemy.

And that’s just in his bedroom. Across Cedric’s home, WiFi coverage improved dramatically. In all the places where he’d learned to expect a slowdown — the back porch, the hallway, the kitchen, the bathroom — he no longer had to worry about WiFi coverage. In fact, after a day or two of his new system, Cedric stopped paying attention to the signal strength bars on his smartphone at all. Everything just worked.

How does a mesh router fix network coverage?

Earlier, we looked at the basic structure of a mesh WiFi system, at how it uses multiple nodes working together as a unified system to eliminate dead zones and maintain strong signal strength across larger spaces.

But ASUS AiMesh technology is just one part of the ZenWiFi BT8’s recipe for delivering wide coverage and strong WiFi connections. Part of our latest WiFi 7 series, the ZenWiFi BT8 uses WiFi 7 technology to offer an out-of-the-box speed boost over last-gen routers. One new addition to WiFi 7 is Multi-Link Operation (MLO), and it’s especially valuable for mesh routers. The nodes in a mesh system communicate with each other over what’s called a “backhaul,” and while you can use reliable Ethernet cables to run the backhaul, many people find it impractical to run Ethernet cables in their home. The Smart AiMesh wireless backhaul with the ZenWiFi BT8 intelligently leverages WiFi 7 MLO, automatically aggregating or switching across multiple bands for optimized performance and low latency.

The dual 2.5G ports on the ZenWiFi BT8 make sure that there’s no roadblock between Cedric and his gigabit internet plan. Any device within easy reach of the primary router in his living room, like a smart television, mini-PC, or game console, can access that full bandwidth with a short, wired connection to the router.

Cedric now also has a wealth of options for connecting his smart home intelligently and securely. He’ll have comprehensive triple-level protection to shield his network, the ability to set up a subnetwork just for connecting to his employer’s VPN, easy options for setting up separate networks for kids, guests, and IoT devices, and hassle-free visibility and control of it all through the ASUS Router smartphone app.

A smarter approach to whole-home WiFi

Today, Cedric enjoys consistent performance across his entire home. What used to be a slow bedroom connection is now capable of handling 4K streaming, online gaming, remote work and video conferencing, large file transfers, and multiple devices running simultaneously, all without compromise. He doesn’t have to hover near the router for mission-critical computing. He’s gotten the freedom of his own home back.

Cedric’s experience shows that internet speed alone doesn’t guarantee performance. Great coverage makes sure that he can access that speed in all the places that it matters. By deploying a three-node ZenWiFi BT8 mesh system, he transformed a high-speed fiber connection into a truly whole-home experience. He started with an inconsistent 100 Mbps connection in his bedroom. After a quick and easy setup process later, he enjoyed around 800 Mbps connections. That’s the difference smart mesh placement can make.

Find the best ZenWiFi mesh router for your home

ZenWiFi mesh routers come in a wide range of configurations running from wallet-friendly entry level systems to premium sets geared for professionals. Click here for an overview of the whole family.

Here, we’ll highlight three models that make the most sense for homes like Cedric’s. For homes that are full of smartphones, laptops, PCs, gaming devices, televisions, tablets, and smart home devices all competing for signal, these routers offer a great connection through WiFi 7 tech, support for the 6GHz band, and plentiful bandwidth.

The ZenWiFi BT6 is the most affordable of the three, and it offers a great balance of features. The 2-pack offers up to 5800 square feet of coverage. With up to 9400 Mbps total bandwidth, it’s a drop-in upgrade for many homes. And its 2.5G WAN port will let you take advantage of a multi-gig internet connection.

Your networking needs might make one of the higher-end options a better play for your home. The ZenWiFi BT8 offers more total streams, allowing it to communicate with more devices at once, and it offers more total bandwidth to share with them, too. In addition to a 2.5G WAN port, it has a 2.5G LAN port. Since 2.5G Ethernet ports are very common on modern motherboards, this mesh router will give you a high-bandwidth pipeline running all the way from your modem to your PC.

The ZenWiFi BT10 is the most premium pick of the three, offering a feature set that approaches what you get from our top-end quad-band options. This tri-band mesh router offers more streams, more bandwidth, and greater coverage than the BT8 and BT6, but the most important difference might lie in its Ethernet port selection. Equipped with both a 10G WAN/LAN port and a 10G LAN port, the ZenWiFi BT10 kicks off your ambitions for a 10G smart home.