ASUS Lyra Home WiFi System Review

With the increase in demand for Wi-Fi connectivity, especially in your home, do you ensure that your Wi-Fi signal does not wane for your household members? One way is to have a centrally located router with various extenders around your home. That can cause some headaches, though, when you are trying to find Wi-Fi extenders or repeaters that are compatible with your main Wi-Fi router.

Want to know the best way to ensure you have the best signal possible throughout your home? Wi-Fi mesh networks are built specifically for this purpose and today, we take a look at the ASUS Lyra Home WiFi System.

A Robust Wi-Fi Network for Your Home or Small Office

What is a Wi-Fi mesh network?

Generally, it starts with a single Wi-Fi router (or base unit) and then the other Wi-Fi routers are placed (somewhat) strategically throughout the area. The mesh portion of the network allows each of these Wi-Fi base units to talk to one another and they can be used interchangeably. Any unit can act as the base unit (connected to your modem), and any unit can be a node.

To you and your devices, it looks like just one large Wi-Fi network. You don’t have multiple SSIDs that you have to register your device with. You register with one SSID and the Wi-Fi mesh networking equipment handles the rest for you, seamlessly.

Take a typical one Wi-Fi router setup in a home such as the following.

Here you have a single router set up in the best place you can get it. Depending on how big your home is, you will probably have dead spots. In the image above, the living room, master bedroom and porch are covered, leaving the other two bedrooms almost bare to a Wi-Fi signal. Now granted, this isn’t a great representation of a Wi-Fi signal, but hopefully you get the gist of it. Typically a Wi-Fi signal can reach up to say about 300 feet with no obstructions.

Now if you were to add 2 more base units, you could essentially cover your entire floor with great Wi-Fi signal like the image below.

The great thing about a setup like this is that it will not just work for one floor, but multiple floors too. You can place a unit on the ground floor, a unit on the top floor and cover the entire two floors with strong Wi-Fi.

So how can you set something up like this? How hard is it to set something up like this?

First Impressions and What’s in the Box?

One thing I always notice first is the weight of the boxes that I receive and the ASUS Lyra was heavier than expected. In this case, the units themselves were what made up the bulk of the weight though, whereas the previous Wi-Fi mesh networking kit we looked at, its weight was mainly from the retail box it came packaged in.

Opening the box was a bit like one of those Russian nesting dolls. You know those Matryoshka dolls that have dolls within dolls? That’s what the packaging of the ASUS Lyra is like. You first open one box, to be shown another box. When you open the inner box, you are presented with additional layers you need to remove.

Each inner layer contains one of the ASUS Lyra units.

The quickstart guide and included cables are found at the very bottom within yet another little box. I would have probably packaged the cables and quickstart guide at the very top, that way I would not have had to remove all the items from the box and spread them around the table.

Included in the box were the following:

• 3x ASUS Lyra units
• 3x AC power adapters
• 2m (6.5ft) Ethernet cable
• Quickstart guide

Similar to the design of the TP-Link Deco M5 units we previously looked at, the ASUS Lyra units are round as well.

The white plastic shell has a decorative pattern on top (the LEDs shine through it), with 2 Gigabit Ethernet ports, a power port and a small button on the side for pairing the units together. They are a little larger than the TP-Link Deco M5 units but still keep a fairly small footprint with a minimal design. The white finish also helps blend them into the home surroundings.

The two Ethernet ports have a dual purpose. You plug your modem into one of them and use the other as a network switch. It does not matter which you plug your modem into as the units are smart enough to be configured to use either port. The power supplies are the typical style you see with most electronics. Be sure not to lose your AC adapters when moving the units around!

Underneath each Lyra unit is the reset button. There’s no need to make use of a pointy object to reset these devices as it will easily depress with a finger-tip.

The physical size of the units are not very big. They are a tad larger than the TP-Link units we took a look at previously. As you can see in the above image, the Apple iPhone 7 gives you a bit of scale. They’re small enough to fit almost anywhere within your home. Don’t let their size fool you though; they are packed with good hardware to keep your Wi-Fi network performing up to your standards.

Specs and Feature Highlights

Each of the ASUS Lyra units have the same features, so you can deploy one of them or all three, adding more if required.

• AC2200 – 400Mbps at 2.4 GHz and 2x 867Mbps at 5GHz
• MU-MIMO Technology – 7 internal antennas
• 700 MHz quad-core CPU
• 256MB RAM
• 2 Gigabit Ethernet Ports per unit
• Compatible with IPv6
• QoS – Quality of Service (by device and/or application)
• AiProtection
• Parental Controls – time restrictive, URL and app filtering
• Coverage for large homes

The feature set of these units are similar to other products of its kind on the market. Being able to deploy these units and not worry about integration between units is what makes these Wi-Fi mesh network devices stand out from more standard wireless routers.

Setup with the Mobile App

In today’s age of technology, people want things that are easy to setup. They don’t want to have to go to school for four years to learn how to setup their own home Wi-Fi network; they just want to pull the units out of the box, plug them in and be off to the races within minutes. The ASUS Lyra setup process is just like that–simple.

You do require either an iOS or Android device. When you download the app, plug in one of the devices and you can start configuring it right away. When you have plugged in your first Lyra unit, load up the Lyra app on your phone. It will communicate with the unit via Bluetooth and you will be presented with the following screens:

When you are ready to start configuring your Lyra unit (and subsequent units), just follow along in the screens. Setup is easy and fairly quick.

There you go, you have setup the first ASUS Lyra unit. At this time, you can also add the other two Lyra units to create your mesh network.

Configuration Settings

When you have completed the initial setup, everything is fully operational. If you need to dive further into the configuration of your newly setup WiFi mesh network, you can do so with the Lyra mobile app.

Navigate to the Settings option and then you can change things such as:

• Username (login credentials)
• Wi-Fi Network Name (SSID) and Password
• WAN Type
• DNS
• Port Forwarding
• IP Binding
• Firmware Update
• LED settings
• Dynamic DNS

If you want to work with the more advanced router settings, you can access the Lyra units via a Web UI. This is one aspect of the ASUS Lyra Home WiFi System that differs from many other WiFI mesh network kits out there: an available Web UI.

If you are familiar with ASUS networking products, then you will have probably seen the above screen before. You can control the typical router settings, but you cannot configure the mesh network settings or family member settings as that is specific to the Lyra product line.

I won’t go into the details on the Web UI, but it’s there for those who want to dive a bit more into the tweakability of their WiFi network.

Nitty Gritty Details

As I’ve mentioned above, setup is essentially all done once you have gotten the Lyra units up and talking to each other. The brains under the hood of each unit will do most of the hard work for you, such as picking which channels are least busy to which unit your wireless devices should be connecting through.

As with other mesh networking kit, ASUS has made things simple and easy to use. One feature I’d like to touch on with these units are the Parental Controls. With so many families and their household members being connected in some form or another with their wireless devices, one thing that can be hard is to ensure your family members are cyber-safe!

Parental Controls

Some people might not find Parental Controls needed in their situation or home setup, but I like to mention them because more and more families have everyone in the household with a device that is somehow connected to the Internet. In the case of the ASUS Lyra, they offer the ability to create family member profiles and assign devices to them.

You can then either set Internet usage via a schedule such as Monday to Friday, lock the Internet out between bedtime hours, or you can block Internet access by specific applications or service, such as Facebook, YouTube, or more adult based websites.

Though unlike other mesh solutions I’ve looked at, there have been some issues with the current firmware with the ASUS Lyra. I’ve been working with their tech support team to pin-point the exact configuration, but for now all you can do is block ALL Internet access at ALL times or allow ALL Internet access. They might want to take a page from TP-Link and allow one to block based on URLs that devices are accessing.

Perhaps we will see a fix for this in the next firmware release for the Lyra. My dealings with ASUS’ technical support team have been great so far; they are trying to track down what is going on and why I am experiencing issues. I receive periodic updates from their customer support team saying they are working with their engineering team to find out what is causing the issue I am seeing with the Parental Controls. I like that they are actively looking into the issue in hopes to find a solution. Thumbs-up for ASUS in my books for that.

Network Security with TrendMicro

When it comes to your network security, you want to have it all in one place and usually at the very front of your network (i.e., where it comes into your home). In most cases, it will be your Internet modem. The ASUS Lyra comes protected with ASUS AiProtection powered by TrendMirco. The AiProtection brings you an Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) and blocks all common Internet-based attacks such as ransomware, Trojans and more. AiProtection protects you and your network from malicious websites and the ASUS Lyra will check the Trend Micro’s official database. Essentially any threats to your network and connected devices are stopped at the door!

The ASUS Lyra transparently protects you and your network. The Lyra with AiProtection does it all for you without you needing to worry. I’m not going to purposely try and trigger the system into protecting my attached devices, so I’m just going to have to go on their word. I know on other mesh network systems can browse what the Trend Micro’s security engine is doing, but I guess with ASUS and their AiProtection, they just want to take out the worry of having to check periodically.

Network Performance Tests

How does the ASUS Lyra Home WiFi System perform when all 3 units are deployed? With my test setup, it might be a bit different than the average household. I’ve placed the 3 included ASUS Lyra units on the same floor of a office setting. The office space consists of a lot of full-height cubicles which many have some sort of WiFi interference going on.

At the time of this writing, there are currently 33 deployed WiFi access points, which results in a lot of extra interference, which can potentially decrease WiFi performance. I’ve made use of my Apple iPhone 7 for these general speed tests which is 802.11ac capable, but of course it is not MU-MIMO, so I do not expect to see the full 867 Mbps theoretical speeds. Plenty enough power for every day use though.

When testing the throughput, I found that I (of course) would get greater speeds closer to each of the ASUS Lyra unit. I would easily average 344 Mbps as seen in the above image near each unit. As I walked between the units, speeds would fluctuate (slowly drop down) as various elements would come in to place (such as building corners, cubical walls, etc). When my iPhone would transition between one ASUS Lyra unit and the next the connection would never drop and would speed back up to the 344 Mbps average.

Also remember that with these units, they will decide what the best frequency to run at for your devices. If you have a 5 GHz capable device, it will most likely use the 5 GHz frequency unless you are a bit further away and the 2.4 GHz frequency is better. After all, you will always want the fastest speeds possible for your equipment!

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Setting up the ASUS Lyra was a cake-walk with the ASUS Lyra app. The app guides you through all the steps necessary to set up the three included units with ease. As long as your follow the screens, the devices are up and running in under 10 minutes, quicker if you only start off with 1 unit. The app is only available for iOS or Android users, and the web UI is only for configuring the more advanced features of the router and WiFi itself. You cannot sync the ASUS Lyra units up with the web UI, which means you cannot do the initial setup without an iOS or Android device.

The WiFi features themselves are like most other WiFi routers on the market, but because this is a mesh networking device, it will allow you to create a larger WiFi network with ease. Without having to worry about purchasing additional WiFi repeaters or expanders down the road, you just deal with essentially one device from one manufacturer, so the units talk to each other with ease. There’s no worry about having to update each one independently or having to go to multiple manufacturer websites to download various firmware files; the app will update them all if and when needed with a single click of a button!

The test speeds were what would have been expected in a less noisy environment, but to see them perform well within such a noisy environment (remember, I mentioned there are 33 other WiFi access points) was great. No need to worry about your neighbour’s WiFi signal(s) interfering with yours with these beauties. Set them up and forget them!

If you are looking for a easy to setup WiFi network that covers a lot of square footage, the ASUS Lyra has you covered! ASUS says it will handle up to 6,000 square feet between the three included units. That’s a lot of room!

The cost of course might deter people, with an MRSP of $499.99 CAD (and about $400 US), it is a bit of investment. But if you look at buying a higher-end router and then extra repeaters or extenders, you will easily catch up to that price. The ASUS Lyra Whole Home WiFi System is an all-in-one package that takes the headache out of setting up a wireless network.