$200 Asus Router ac1900+. which one? AC3100, AC3200, AC1900

[L&LD]

I have Bufferbloat according to dslreports.com. However I don't have the slightest idea what buffrbloat is! Any one care to explain it?

https://www.google.ca/?gfe_rd=cr&ei=WKkGVsjINIft8weLl7z4CA#q=what+is+bufferbloat

Grab your favorite beverage (hot or cold) and happy reading.

 

[mogulman]

Yeah.. I tried to explain it to a few of my more technical friends. Even they didn't really even care. Ahh.. Well..

 

[garyd9]

Something interesting about "bufferbloat": I was getting a "C" grade very consistently from the dslreports test (regardless of time of day, etc.) The bloat would peak while sending. I wasn't really very concerned about it, however. Today, I switched out my actual cable modem.. from a 4x4 channel to a 8x4 channel. Suddenly, the buffer bloat is gone (but no difference whatsoever in send speeds.) NOTHING else changed.

If I was getting bloat on the RX side, I could see that having double the channels would have an impact. In fact, my RX speeds went from 140 to 160-170 (I pay for 150/10.) Yet, both modems have 4 channels TX.

Whatever...

 

[msb]

Today, I switched out my actual cable modem..

From what to what? I've read that there is working being done on modem firmware to address the bufferbloat issues.

 

[nbjyo]

Keep away from ASUS, It makes you think you can use it to do everything, but it actually can do nothing perfectly. I'd just thrown my RT-AC87U in bin last week. Asus's engines don't care to make it's basic router function (IPv6 passthrough for example) correct, but always trying to add more useless functions (in my opinion) into the firmware.

 

[whsbuss]

Keep away from ASUS, It makes you think you can use it to do everything, but it actually can do nothing perfectly. I'd just thrown my RT-AC87U in bin last week. Asus's engines don't care to make it's basic router function (IPv6 passthrough for example) correct, but always trying to add more useless functions (in my opinion) into the firmware.

So what do you recommend?

 

[garyd9]

From what to what? I've read that there is working being done on modem firmware to address the bufferbloat issues.

On comcrap: I switched from a Motorola SB6120 to an Arris TM822G. (This also let me return comcast's technicolor TC8305C that I used ONLY for voice.)

(IPv6 passthrough for example)

I hate to tell you this, but no one really does IPv6 well in the consumer router world. For the most part, you'll be lucky if they've added dns/dhcpc/dhcps support... and MAYBE some primitive firewalling. This includes even dd-wrt/tomato/openwrt. If you want anything beyond the basics, your best bet is to use something that supports adding your own scripts and add your own support via scripting.

 

[L&LD]

Keep away from ASUS, It makes you think you can use it to do everything, but it actually can do nothing perfectly. I'd just thrown my RT-AC87U in bin last week. Asus's engines don't care to make it's basic router function (IPv6 passthrough for example) correct, but always trying to add more useless functions (in my opinion) into the firmware.

The RT-AC87U is a big gamble for some. The majority use it without issues. A very (vocal) few find it effectively worthless.

But that is not the general perception Asus routers have. Particularly the latest ones (from the RT-N66U up).

If you have had troubles with other Asus routers, then it may be your particular environment or network configuration and usage that is the issue? Asus routers give users many options (including RMerlin and the forks thereof) to make them do almost whatever they need.

The extra features added by Asus do not have to be enabled, but I have found the latest features to be invaluable for myself and my customers.

 

[nbjyo]

If you are a heavy user who like to burn in 3rd party firmware (which seems will been blocked by ASUS?), And nearly everytime you update your firmware, you will be recommended to "reset to factory" and cannot restore settings from a backup, if you think it's funny to do so, then ASUS is your choice. The frequently updated firmware will make you happy.

But for me, I just want a strong all-in-one Wi-Fi router that can handle all the heavy network transfer, and I can set it once then forget about it.

I am also thinking if a manufacturer get into a market and said they support the technology, they should at least make sure it works with the main ISPs on that market. Or they can just not print it on the box. Otherwise I think 1.5 years (from RT-AC68U, RT-AC68Uv2 until RT-AC87U) should be a fair enough time for them to do it right, but they didn't.

Also the ASUS routers has other bugs troubling me like it always makes my UPnP/DLAN server invisible from PS3 and PS4 until I reconnect the server or the PSs from the network.

Actually I have both Apple and Netgear and two other local brand routers, they all working correctly without these problems. Maybe they have other problems but looks good in my environment for now.

BTW I've contacted the A**S support many times, but they are totally useless. So for me, that's it. Asus is not suitable for me.

About my recommendation, I am always thinking when you buy a Wi-Fi router, you are trying your luck. So just be aware that buy a router from somewhere you can get a full refund by return it back! That's it.

 

[Lola]

The RT-AC87U is a big gamble for some. The majority use it without issues. A very (vocal) few find it effectively worthless.

But that is not the general perception Asus routers have. Particularly the latest ones (from the RT-N66U up).

If you have had troubles with other Asus routers, then it may be your particular environment or network configuration and usage that is the issue? Asus routers give users many options (including RMerlin and the forks thereof) to make them do almost whatever they need.

The extra features added by Asus do not have to be enabled, but I have found the latest features to be invaluable for myself and my customers.

From what I have been able to learn on this forum, most if not all think very highly of Asus and have indicated why vs some other brands in a very efficient and everyday language that is very helpful to new people. I also think they tell it as they see it for all brands, what more could one want in a forum than honesty, works for me.

 

[follower]

AC68U=AC68R=AC68W
AC68U: New $160 Amazon seller
AC68R: New $100~$115 amazon 3rd party sellers
AC68W: New $159 Amazon seller
But you can buy one of them for $110 from amazon seller occasionally.

AC68P: Refurbished $120Newegg seller(occasionally $110)
AC87R: Refurbished $129 Newegg seller
Your best choice is a refurbished AC87R for $129 currently.
What are you waiting for?

 

[doczenith1]

As your ISP speeds get higher and higher (I'm at 105d/23u and I feel I 'need' more than the RT-AC68U is giving me now as the first core is pegged at 100% and the second at 40% during speedtests), the need for a higher performing router (and processor) is more evident.

For comparison sake I'm at 1000d/1000u with my ISP and both cores max out at 100% during speedtests. I do get around 920 Mbps both ways. I don't have QoS turned on but do have all the AI Protection options turned on. NAT acceleration is auto/enabled. With NAT accel disabled I get around 300 both ways with core 1 at 100% and core 2 at 10%.

Well hang on...after switching NAT accel off then back on I'm seeing 100% on core 1 and core 2 averaging around 10% with the 920 down/up speeds. Not sure what changed.

 

[garyd9]

aye - CPU speed will have an impact for broadband (WAN) speeds over 150Megabit/sec.

Doing some tests on my own network... with my older 4 stream cable modem (which maxes out at around 150 Mbps), I get 150 Mbps with the AC3200 (and pretty much any other router) regardless of any test specifics.

However, when I switched to a 8 stream cable modem (which opens up my max test speed to 180 mbps), I see slow downs when I turn off NAT acceleration and have QOS enabled (and a bunch of other features that examine packets.) In addition, I MAX out at around 155 mbps with any IPv6 traffic (regardless of which features are enabled/disabled) and in those tests, one CPU core is completely maxed out.

(I'm getting the impression that the "nat acceleration" doesn't work for IPv6 traffic, as it doesn't seem to have any impact whatsoever turned on or off when speed testing IPv6.)

So, if you're completely IPv4, and your max WAN speed is 180 or slower, you'll be good with 1GHz CPU cores (if you don't go nuts with packet related features.) If you tend to use a lot of IPv6 traffic or like to turn on lots of router features, you probably won't be able to saturate your WAN link unless you get something with faster cores (or something that has better router function optimizations.)

 

[L&LD]

garyd9, the only thing I would change in your post above is anything over 50Mbps.

When I had that speed before (DSL, 50d/10u, 6ms latency), the RT-AC68U proved to be a good upgrade to my previous RT-N66U but certainly not a 'needed' upgrade. The added responsiveness to anything network related was welcome though.

When I upgraded to Fibre (raw; 120d/40u, with QoS; 105d/23u, 1ms latency), the RT-AC68U was easily overwhelmed (when looking at it's 100% on one core usage and 40% on the other core), imo. The network is still fast, but I am positive that a router with a more powerful processor will bring a noticeable difference again (and who knows, may even allow me to set QoS at higher than what it is now).

Good points about IPv4 and IPv6 (and I think you're right, there is no acceleration possible for IPv6).

I may be overly sensitive to how responsive my network is though, so about 150Mbps may be a fair assessment for others perception of the 'need' for more cpu power.

 

[garyd9]

For the record, it's actually very hard to really saturate my comcast WAN bandwidth in "normal" usage (for me and my family.) Unless I'm actually TRYING to, of course. I'd love to have fiber, but more for the uplink than the downlink. 10up (12, actually) sucks when I'm trying to send very large files to work.

 

[sfx2000]

For me at home - uplink is more important, as I telecommute, so it was easy to justify the upgrade on my WAN link - things these days are very asymmetric, chasing bigger numbers (and billable bandwidth as a result).

Moving from a 5MB uplink to a 10MB uplink was far more valuable to me that the downlink upgrade from 50MB to 150MB...

 

[garyd9]

I just did a little overclock to my AC3200 (1 GHz to 1.2GHz) and now I'm able to to hit 175 megabits/sec on IPv6. Yes, it pegs one CPU core to 100%, but at least I feel a little better. (IPv4 with CTF, QOS, etc, etc maxes out the bandwidth provisioning and barely gets to 50% usage on a core.)

Maybe in 6 to 8 months when Asus gets their act together with the newer generation routers and chipsets, I'll have to try an AC5300 again. (I'm really finding the steering to be functional and useful for my environment... )

 

[sfx2000]

I just did a little overclock to my AC3200 (1 GHz to 1.2GHz) and now I'm able to to hit 175 megabits/sec on IPv6. Yes, it pegs one CPU core to 100%, but at least I feel a little better. (IPv4 with CTF, QOS, etc, etc maxes out the bandwidth provisioning and barely gets to 50% usage on a core.)

Maybe in 6 to 8 months when Asus gets their act together with the newer generation routers and chipsets, I'll have to try an AC5300 again. (I'm really finding the steering to be functional and useful for my environment... )

There are better solutions out there - now... I'm on a 150/10 broadband connnection...

At the moment, I've got a Japanese realtime HDTV unicast stream from Hong Kong running thru the router - there's a broadcast end-point in the "cloud" and we're using some creative SDN configs in an AWS instance somewhere in Cali - no VPN, and the load here is pretty light...

see below

Not bragging... just suggesting that there are ways to find interesting content (Japanese TV in Japan is Broadcast/Multicast, but only there, and select end points for ex-pats in the Shenzen area - gotta be there to know it I guess, but I've got SDV access with 51 channels there)

 

[garyd9]

Not bragging...

I feel like I'm missing something...

 

[sfx2000]

Welcome to level something or other... internet is an interesting place...