ASUS LYRA MINI MAP-AC1300 Dual Band Whole-Home Mesh WiFi System, Up to 4500 sq ft, Corner to Corner Coverage, Commercial Grade Security, Router, Range Extender, App Easy Setup, Pack of 3, White

I bought this 2 pack Asus Lyra to accompany a recent purchase of the RT-AC86U. The RT-AC86U sits in the corner of my home, just about covering all of my home with the exception of my sons bedroom in the other far corner. I read the reviews on here which all seem to conflict with each other, so I would like to set the record straight with my opinion.I wanted to use one of the Lyras in an upstairs bedroom using ethernet backhaul via two switches.AI Mesh capability is only available once you upgrade the firmware, don't try and get anything to work until you've upgraded the Lyras. So, step 1 is to download the Lyra app. Update the firmware using the Lyra app.Step 2: It is critical to hard reset the Lyra after updating the firmware for the first time, otherwise the Lyra will not be recognised on your network as a AI Mesh device.Step 3, go into your main router's AI Mesh section and add the node from there. It should discover the Lyra and add it to the mesh.It all went downhill from here.Despite being hard wired, The Lyra decided it was not going enable it's 5ghz radio. It would only broadcast 2.4ghz. It then got itself into a reboot loop cycling colours, disconnecting and reconnecting - I suspect this was the reason the 5ghz band wouldn't enable.In the end I decided to disconnect the Lyra from the mesh and put it in AP mode. Perfect. It behaved very nicely and has been working fine ever since, I have dual band, guest network the lot. Its OK for me to use it like this as I have a wired backhaul. If you were hoping for a wireless backhaul then AP mode isn't for you and you will have to stick to AI Mesh.If you could avoid constant the constant reboots and unreliability and stick with AI Mesh then well done. Perhaps with just two Lyras, avoiding the Asus Router in the network they might play nicely together - but that's not what I wanted.You will find that when the Lyra is meshed with a main router, it does not support guest network. The guest network doesn't broadcast from the Lyra. I also notice that the Lyra chooses the same channel as the main router. That's not great as you would hope to prevent congestion on that band it would pick another free band.However, in AP mode you can choose any band you like. I was going to return the item until I discovered AP mode works in my situation and is very reliable. If you want reliability and want to mesh with an Asus modem then think again as you may well be in for a frustrating experience.As a stand alone wired ethernet AP this is working very well indeed. The wife and kids are happy (which is the main thing!). As a substitute for the lack of meshing intelligence you can enable the 'Roaming Assistant' and set the limit to something like -65 to -70db to ensure devices don't cling onto a distant AP. Do this on both the router and the Lyra.Update 27 April 2019.... So i've given up with this even in access point mode. If the wife's or kids devices are connected to a Lyra they often get no internet at all. I've had enough - they are on their way back to Amazon - they just dont work.

I have an ASUS AiMesh router and decided to buy ASUS Lyra because their web site claims "all features of the router are extended around the house". This is untrue. If you include your ASUS router in your mesh, the guest network of the router is not extended over the Lyra and it is not possible to set up a guest network on the Lyra either. So if you use Lyra and an AiMesh router you cannot have a guest network. Setup in this configuration is also difficult, the product ships with firmware which is not compatible with the router and the Lyra app also can't find the internet connection through the router, so you have to use the web GUI for each Lyra by connecting a laptop to the Lyra native WiFi and providing an ethernet connection to the internet. Then you have to set up a temporary mesh not including the router, then update the firmware, then reset to factory settings, then (at last) the router can see the Lyra.

Ok, I’d read some great reviews and some not as great, but I already have an ASUS AC86 which I absolutely love, so it made sense, to me, to pay a premium for a Lyra. It arrived, I downloaded the Lyra app for my iOS but it would not connect at all. I checked mr Google and it seemed that the firmware version on my brand new Lyra didn’t support AiMesh, which is the reason I purchased it. I installed the Lyra app on my android phone and thankfully it did connect and allowed me to update the Lyra firmware which in turn allowed my AC86 to find it and connect it to the AiMesh network! Hurray!! I have the Lyra in my summer house which is around 100 feet from the AC86 router, including several brick walls, and I have full bars and amazing speed. From a product standpoint, it’s fabulous, but if you are not willing to spend hours making it work or are not technically minded then I would think twice.Day 2 with my Lyra, when it connects it’s great, unfortunately it not great very often. I’m afraid I’m going to wear out the reset button before I achieve a stable, sustainable connection. On the bright side, the LED colours look great in the dark, beats trying to look at anything on the WIFI, which you can’t anyway, which is why I guess they do the great LEDs. There is always Day 3. I suggest you keep the original packaging if you do go for one of these.

These are physically bigger than I was expecting. This was not a problem, but they are 6 inches in diameter and nearly 2 inches deep. They can be wall mounted if desired.I have now got them working with an ASUS aimesh router (An AC1750 B1). As noted in the ASUS FAQs the router and the Lyras need to be updated to the latest firmware. Updating the Lyras was a little fiddly, and took a couple of attempts. It is worth checking that all of them have updated correctly once they have rebooted. Only then should you do a factory reset so that you can sync them with the router.I had a lot of trouble syncing the Lyras with the Router. In order to do the initial sync the Lyra needs to be connected via wired ethernet to the router, the router will not find the Lyra as a new mesh node wirelessly. The ASUS FAQs do not explicitly say this. Note that each Lyra gets an IP address, unlike a network switch.The LED light is useful for diagnosis, but is very bright in a dark room and can be turned off. All of mine ended up being turned off.Once set up, they are working well, both wired backhaul and wireless backhaul. For me the main benefit is having a single wifi setup for the whole house. In one of the reviews here I read that the person's guest network was not propagated, this was not my experience, all wifi networks have been extended for me both 2.4k and 5k Hz.Hope this helps.Jon