Vodafone Hub and ASUS Zen WiFi XT8 ?

[Clueless101]

I’ve just bought the ASUS zen WiFi XT8 for mesh networking our house which has thick stone walls and is U-shaped, but didn’t check to see if it would work with the Vodafone Hub. I’m clueless to these things so please be kind with the tech waffle. 
Is the Hub a modem and router in one? Do I still plug in the internet line to  the Hub and an Ethernet from WAN port of 1 ASUS to LAN port of Hub?  Thanks ! 

[Anonymous]

If you are superfast 1 or 2 then you would do better to buy a modem such as the Huawei HG612 V3b (unlocked) or the Draytek Vigor 130.  If you are on Gigafast then you can connect the Asus Zen to the ONT.

In either case, those setups will require you to get your Username & Password and to add just a couple of other settings too.  Connecting the Zen mesh to your VF Modem router is possible, if you just set one up as an access point and the other as a pure mesh device but it'll be very crippled. Or connecing the a Zens Wan port to a Lan port on the VF but that "double nats" which has the potential to cause issues left right and centre!

[JamesBand]

Firstly, from what I hear the ASUS Zen Wifi XT8 is great system with a Wifi 6 backbone and excellent "real world" speeds. So well done on getting it! There are multiple options as far as I am aware with the Vodafone Hub connected to your ONT, or Mastersocket:
1. Connect the main ASUS Zen node to the Vodafone Hub using an ethernet cable and TURN OFF the Vodafone Hub's Wifi. You can then set up the other ASUS nodes around the house (using the ASUS instructions to pair nodes if required and set up optimal locations) to link up wirelessly.  All devices in your house can be set up to connect to the ASUS Zen network via wifi, or plugged in via ethernet cable to regional nodes. At the Vodafone Hub itself, you can also still plug in things via ethernet into the Vodafone Hub (or ASUS main node). The main ASUS node will provide Wifi and devices will connect to the overall Mesh wirelessly. The ASUS system would use the Wifi 6 dedicated backhaul to transmit the internet to each node.

2. The same as above, but slightly different. Connect the main ASUS node to the Vodafone Hub and turn off the Vodafone Hub's Wifi. Then use either internal, or external shielded Cat7/Cat8 ethernet cables (or plastic fibre cables) to connect the main ASUS node to the other Mesh nodes via a wired connection. This will provide a wired backhaul (and thus the full might of the internet speed coming into the house). Same as Option 1 regarding connecting Devices via Wifi to the overall ASUS Mesh network, or via an ethernet cable into either the Vodafone hub, or any ASUS node.

A wired backhaul might be preferable if you need to get a connection speed of 900Mbps to every device in the vicinity of the regional Mesh nodes. The Wifi 6 backhaul network is pretty decent though, and would most likely be ample to get around 500Mbps to the Mesh nodes through walls wirelessly.

The speed with which a Device can ultimately connect depends on Distance from the Wifi source and the technology it possesses (as to whether it can connect on Wifi 5, Wifi 6, what type of antenna etc).  

As for connecting via LAN directly, that is personal preference. But unless you wish to tweak specific internet settings, you can still use the ISP router to connect at the ONT/mastersocket.

[Clueless101]

I’ve tried your solutions given and it’s been a good 6 months now but the kids insist that the ASUS mesh has made our speed so much slower, but we can now have internet throughout the house, albeit at “dial up”speed! It hasn’t bothered me with what I use it for but gaming has been impossible now. Is there something I have done wrong? I connected the Vodafone hub to the mastersocket, turned off its WiFi, used an Ethernet cable to connect from V. hub LAN port to ASUS main node. Other ASUS nodes connect to the main one via WiFi. 
I do also have the huawei modem ordered from eBay that was suggested, but not yet used. 
Could anyone offer any further suggestions? 
Btw, our Vodafone is the 38 fibre package which is all we can get in our area. In reality, download speeds are usually less than half of that from a WiFi device though. 
TIA. 

[HappyNomad]

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@Clueless101 wrote:

Is there something I have done wrong? I connected the Vodafone hub to the mastersocket, turned off its WiFi, used an Ethernet cable to connect from V. hub LAN port to ASUS main node. Other ASUS nodes connect to the main one via WiFi. 
I do also have the huawei modem ordered from eBay that was suggested, but not yet used. 
Could anyone offer any further suggestions? 

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I set up a three node Linksys mesh network hanging off the Vodafone router.  Operating in bridge mode, the mesh kit effectively gave me an expensive three node wifi extender that worked insofar as it extended the wifi range throughout the house but still gave less than satisfactory performance.

I then replaced the Vodafone router with a Draytek V130 modem and a Linksys mesh router which is simply a standard node packaged in a traditional wifi router case with multiple LAN ports etc.  (A standard node set as the primary router would have done the exactly the same job). 

Haven’t looked back since.  By and large, it has all performed consistently well over many months with full wifi range and decent speed throughout the house.  Based only on my personal experience then, the suggestion has to be go all mesh - swap your VF device out for a stand-alone modem with a mesh node as the primary router.    

Keep the Vodafone router though as you will need to reconnect it if you need VF support at any time.

[Anonymous]

As HappyNomad has said, get rid of the VF hub (though keep it) off the network and replace it with a modem.

I'm still using my Vigor 130 modem, connected to an Asus RT-AC86U, which is then meshed to a 2012 pre-release RT-AC68U (complete with internal fly patch leads, replaced thermal compound, and a replaced cap).  The full WAN bandwidth is available to everywhere in the house on a system that your Zen XT8 ought to put to shame!

*Regards gaming, there should be a new Asus firmware out shortly that implements full hardware-accelerated QOS.

**If the network here underperforms I hear about it in minutes, if not seconds!

***Whether you decided to use the XT8 in bridged mode, or to double NAT, you need to link from a LAN port on the VF Hub to the WAN port on the XT8.  If you decided to double NAT, then you should ideally change the subnet on the XT8 from 192.168.1.x to 192.168.2.x or similar.

[Clueless101]

Thank you both. I tried connecting the modem (disconnected the VF hub) to the ASUS but now it wouldn’t pick up the internet signal so I will try again today whilst the kids are still asleep. I get lynched if the internet goes off! 

[Anonymous]

If need be, I can post a screenshot of the Router WAN settings page.  Most "unlocked" BT and UK sourced Vigor130 modems come with the VLAN tag preset to 101 and as such are pretty well plug and play.

It's getting the Username (complete with @ broadband.vodafone.co.uk at the end) and Password, that are the most common sticking points with none VF equipment!

[HappyNomad]

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@Clueless101 wrote:

Thank you both. I tried connecting the modem (disconnected the VF hub) to the ASUS but now it wouldn’t pick up the internet signal so I will try again today whilst the kids are still asleep. I get lynched if the internet goes off! 

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To expand on Keith’s comments above and at risk of asking silly questions, have you obtained your username and password from Vodafone and entered same into your new modem's PPPoE settings?  It won’t connect to t'interweb without this 

If yes, check the format of your username which should be: 

dsl123456789atbroadbanddotvodafonedotcodotuk (Changing red text to the characters indicated)

My password is a mix of 8 upper & lower case letters but whether that is a standard format, I don’t know.

If no, get on to live chat and ask for it.  They have a bit of a reputation for missing the 'dsl' and or the bit after the nine numbers - something to be aware of and print the chat transcript rather than rely on a scribbled down copy.

Of course, if you have entered your VF creds into your modem then ignore the above.