[Advice Needed] New ASUS Router

[Skeptical.me]

Currently I have the RT-AC87U but being who I am I want something new. Whats people's thoughts on the RT-AC88U? I like the fact it will give me greater bandwidth within my LAN, but do you think for an ASUS router in that price range I could get better or is this model a good one, in your opinion and experience?

 

[skeal]

Currently I have the RT-AC87U but being who I am I want something new. Whats people's thoughts on the RT-AC88U? I like the fact it will give me greater bandwidth within my LAN, but do you think for an ASUS router in that price range I could get better or is this model a good one, in your opinion and experience?

If you can afford it I would go with the AC86U it's the flagship and an awesomely powerful router.

 

[Skeptical.me]

If you can afford it I would go with the AC86U it's the flagship and an awesomely powerful router.

Thanks for the reply,

Ok, cool. I'll look at the specs and compare the two. I've had my current router for a while now and want something with a bit more power and signal range. I'm currently using a WifI extender as the house I live in is very long. From my bedroom to the lounge room the signal drops out without the range extender.

 

[Deleted member 22229]

None of them have greater range. If range is your issue try the Netgear R7800.

 

[Skeptical.me]

None of them have greater range. If range is your issue try the Netgear R7800.

oh, ok. range is important but I'd rather stay with ASUS because of Merlin. I love the ASUS/Merlin UI and its relatively easy to learn and use everything it has to offer. But I'll have a look at the Netgear R7800 regardless. Thanks

 

[Deleted member 22229]

Yeah cant hurt to check it out. The 7800 was voted number one right here on SNB reviews. The only drawback is Netgears firmware is lacking in features but there are some third party firmwares available.

https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wir...ghthawk-x4s-smart-wifi-gaming-router-reviewed

 

[FadgewackeR]

I personally just went through the new router conundrum, considered the 7800 vs 86U and decided to go with the 86U for a number of reasons.

• Latest flagship ASUS vs ~ 4 year old platform
• Newer, faster CPU
• Better Stock Bufferbloat management
• Merlin
• Better track record of product firmware support from the manufacturer
• I preferred the Asus WebGUI

While wifi range wasn't the be all and end all for me, it may be for others.

As it happens, wifi range and speed have been significantly increased over my old router (N55U), which was ageing. I can get 98% of my max throughput on speedtests while standing in the far corner of my garden nowadays

 

[jpclarke]

I would stick with your current router and deploy dedicated Ubiquiti APs, you can then place the APs where you need coverage.

 

[Mutzli]

I would stay with your current router for a while longer. New technologies are coming soon, WPA3 and 802.11ax. If you must, go for the RT-AC86U, much better range than the RT-AC87U.

 

[Sinner]

ive been incredibly impressed with my ac3100 for range.. its actually too much. I get signal way down the street like 300m away I can still Netflix. ive turned my signal strength down to medium"balanced" I believe as full power was just not nessisary.

 

[Skeptical.me]

I personally just went through the new router conundrum, considered the 7800 vs 86U and decided to go with the 86U for a number of reasons.

• Latest flagship ASUS vs ~ 4 year old platform
• Far superior CPU
• Merlin
• Better track record of product firmware support from the manufacturer
• I preferred the Asus WebGUI

While wifi range wasn't the be all and end all for me, it may be for others.

As it happens, wifi range and speed have been significantly increased over my old router (N55U), which was ageing. I can get 98% of my max throughput on speedtests while standing in the far corner of my garden nowadays

That helps.

I looked at the specs and you're correct the CPU is excellent. The RT-AC86U looks like a mighty fine router. ANd all of the reasons you've detailed I agree with. I think I'm going to buy it, but not until next month. And I'll still get a good price for my 87U on eBay so that will help towards the no interest credit card payment lol

 

[Skeptical.me]

ive been incredibly impressed with my ac3100 for range.. its actually too much. I get signal way down the street like 300m away I can still Netflix. ive turned my signal strength down to medium"balanced" I believe as full power was just not nessisary.

Wow, that's incredible, I definitely don't get that range with my 87U, don't get me wrong its a great router but it doesn't get anywhere near that range.

 

[jpclarke]

Honestly, the ubiquiti APs are fantastic and are regularly updated.

They also offer meshing and roaming out of the box.

Separating out the WiFi also means when the router reboots internal services should not be affected I.e. they stay connected to WiFi.

 

[FadgewackeR]

Honestly, the ubiquiti APs are fantastic and are regularly updated.

They also offer meshing and roaming out of the box.

Separating out the WiFi also means when the router reboots internal services should not be affected I.e. they stay connected to WiFi.

Need to be ceiling minted though don’t they? That put me off, as I don’t have the ability to run cables without major surgery.

 

[jpclarke]

I place mine on top of two bookcases face up, one upstairs and the other downstairs.

They can also be run over powerline adapters if you can’t run wires or they can mesh together.

 

[FadgewackeR]

I place mine on top of two bookcases face up, one upstairs and the other downstairs.

They can also be run over powerline adapters if you can’t run wires or they can mesh together.

I've traditionally not gotten the performance via powerline adapters in my property, and my wifi (now 86U) is now some way faster than the powerlines could previously give me, so I've retired 1 of the 3 that I have and the 2nd on the list.

I (personally) wouldn't pay for the Ubiquiti APs to only have them throttled by powerline architecture, but it comes down to a decision based on:

1. What range really is necessary
2. Performance at that range
3. What needs to make use of your bandwidth at that range (VOIP? Games?)
4. Whether you can afford to ship some speed to implement the solution (powerlines)

 

[FadgewackeR]

I suppose I should add, as I am having this issue at present:

If QOS is important to you, you may want to hold off on the 86U due to the following.

All WiFi UPLOAD traffic is not recognised by the QoS function, and therefore doesn’t obey its rules, at the very least in regards to throttling the throughput. All download traffic is fine. All wired traffic is fine, up and down.

Not a major issue for me at present, as there’s very little WiFi upload that does go on when my top priority services need protection, but an annoyance at best, all the same.

ASUS need to fix this. It can’t be worked around.

 

[jpclarke]

Remember they can also mesh where wiring is not available but as you said it depends on your requirements and if you can be bothered in breaking out some of the service an all in one router does.

If you run a setup like ubiquiti for APs the qos issue will be fixed? This will be because all traffic will be wired to the router.

 

[FadgewackeR]

If you run a setup like ubiquiti for APs the qos issue will be fixed? This will be because all traffic will be wired to the router.

A very good point regards wifi traffic, which I'd not considered, but I'll be damned if I'm going to spend hundreds of pounds on 3rd party eq to make a feature work correctly on a flagship router that I've just spend hundreds of pounds on

Aside from the wifi upload traffic not being correctly identified, it's working fantastically well.

 

[microchip]

• Far superior CPU

Can you explain this a little bit? What is "far" superior in the Broadcom CPU vs the Qualcomm CPU in the R7800 which is really a Krait design also used in the older Snapdragons. Also, the QCA solution is a 2 x 2, 2 CPU cores for applications and other stuff and 2 lower-clocked CPU cores specifically for packet processing. AFAIK, and correct me if I'm wrong, the Broadcom CPU in the AC86U doesn't have such a setup. It is also faster by 100 MHz but as we all know, MHz is not everything

https://www.qualcomm.com/products/ipq8065