Well if Asus lists the model as EoL, I don't think they plan to update the firmware anymore. Last update was a month ago and it didn't have any security patches or bug fixes or anything like that, and I think that will be the last update.
If you want to stay with Asus, the RT-BE92u is probably great. Haven't heard too much about it to be honest, bad or good. Main thing I notice is it has 1 10Gb WAN port and 4 2.5Gb LAN ports. Why do you need a switch? Have more then 4 wired devices?
If you are going to buy it, but ASAP. With the new tariffs on chips that routers use, I think prices will go up. Not meant as political, just a warning from one Asus user to another. If you want a separate router and AP, look into Unifi. That is the way to go if you have the ability to run ethernet to backhaul the AP and set up a controller to improve roaming. More expensive and complex to set up though. Unifi also has a site/app to help you decide what hardware you need and where it should be placed.
My 2nd RT-AC68U was used for mesh with a wired 1GBE backhaul, but the automatic roaming was terrible. And some non-roaming wireless would switch from the Asus that was only 10 ft away for the one that was 50ft away and more walls in the way. I had to start blacklisting some devices from the unit that was the farthest from them. But that was only an option for non-roaming devices. It was not a good working mesh at all for 2.4 or 5 ghz. So I finally moved the primary RT-AC68U to the center of the house and removed the mesh. I really like the interface and what I get included without subscription from Asus. So I probably won't jump to a separate router & AP anytime soon.
Here is most but not all of my home setup. I try to have everything wired as much as possible. And I need more UPS units since I shifted things around. This isn't the ideal wiring that I would have done, but the previous owner had a mess of ethernet routing in the walls and attic and this was the best I could do without ripping it all out and starting over. Which I am tempted to do. I personally would have done a single star topology with the attic wiring.
One day I will probably redo some of the previous owner's work to at least remove the switch in the closet. They were cheap on wire instead of pulling multiple long home runs.
Legend: Blue connections represent in-wall ethernet.
Setup looks good. Having cascading so many switches is not optimal, but it shouldn't cause any issues.
As for seamless roaming, not only do you need the right hardware, but the device you are using needs to support the method used by the router/APs. It should roam eventually, it's just a matter of how long it takes and how much data you lose during the transition. Like if you use voip while walking around the house, you can have issues.
Yeah, I haven't had any issues with 4-5 switch hops. Likely not hitting any saturation on any one switch. But it drives my OCD crazy. My last house I wired to be home runs to all the rooms with multiple ports for a single star topology. And then only a few switches for things like printers, the AV cabinet, and test devices. It annoying knowing that this house's wall jacks are dependant on a switch in another room so if anything happens to one switch it can take multiple rooms down.
I never had roaming issues of weak signals and drops with my last small office design using Aruba APs with decentralized controllers. But I wouldn't spend my own money on that for my home. Luckily now that I have moved my single wifi point to the center of my house, the wifi is great everywhere including the garage.
I don't have the funds for it right now, but I would love to upgrade to the Arris S34 or Hitron CODA56 cable modem (Both support mid split for faster uploads), and the ASUS RT-BE92U or similar Wifi 7 by Asus.
Unless money is the prime concern, stay away from the Hitron modems. They use the inferior(IMO) Intel PUMA CPU and they designed the firmware to make it difficult to access the 192.168.100.1 diagnostic page. I suggest the S34. Still not sure what the difference is between the S33 and S34, but I think they might have stopped manufacturing the S33 so the question is moot.
