Asus AC86U vs AX68U

[Route66]

Note its C86 vs X68

My budget is basically, one of these. Not interesting in mesh networking since its for a small house. Basically looking to get good wifi reception, advanced config options, and ability to act as high performance openvpn server. As per my research, both of these routers can handle openvpn with little loss of speed and can run merlin firmware.

AC86U: quite old, overheating issues, no official firmware from asus in a while. Pros: Quite reliable
AX68U: few people reporting wifi issues (but apparently there is a firmware now?) . Pros: Newer model, official firmware updates available, same broadcom aes-ni chip, support for wifi 6

Seems like AX68U is a hands down better choice, except for few reports of wifi issues. Should I just go ahead with AX68U then?

 

[Treadler]

Note its C86 vs X68

My budget is basically, one of these. Not interesting in mesh networking since its for a small house. Basically looking to get good wifi reception, advanced config options, and ability to act as high performance openvpn server. As per my research, both of these routers can handle openvpn with little loss of speed and can run merlin firmware.

AC86U: quite old, overheating issues, no official firmware from asus in a while. Pros: Quite reliable
AX68U: few people reporting wifi issues (but apparently there is a firmware now?) . Pros: Newer model, official firmware updates available, same broadcom aes-ni chip, support for wifi 6

Seems like AX68U is a hands down better choice, except for few reports of wifi issues. Should I just go ahead with AX68U then?

AC86U had a factory firmware release a few days ago.
(Welcome to the forum).

 

[Tech9]

Pros: Quite reliable

Quite the opposite. The most unreliable Asus router.

can handle openvpn with little loss

Little loss, if your ISP connection speed is up to 200Mbps.

 

[OzarkEdge]

Note its C86 vs X68

My budget is basically, one of these. Not interesting in mesh networking since its for a small house. Basically looking to get good wifi reception, advanced config options, and ability to act as high performance openvpn server. As per my research, both of these routers can handle openvpn with little loss of speed and can run merlin firmware.

AC86U: quite old, overheating issues, no official firmware from asus in a while. Pros: Quite reliable
AX68U: few people reporting wifi issues (but apparently there is a firmware now?) . Pros: Newer model, official firmware updates available, same broadcom aes-ni chip, support for wifi 6

Seems like AX68U is a hands down better choice, except for few reports of wifi issues. Should I just go ahead with AX68U then?

The most recent AC86U firmware 3.0.0.4.386.45956 was released 2021/11/25, and there will most likely be more to come for some time. But this router suffers premature hardware failure and Asus is not fixing it, so at this stage of the WiFi6 game I would buy a newer AX router.

I suggest the AX86U or similar.

OE

 

[Treadler]

Yup, AX is the way.

 

[Route66]

Quite the opposite. The most unreliable Asus router.



Little loss, if your ISP connection speed is up to 200Mbps.

Since its still being sold and has positive reviews on amazon, I assumed it was reliable. 200Mbps openvpn is good enough for my needs. Is there any model that can support even faster openvpn speeds?

 

[Route66]

The most recent AC86U firmware 3.0.0.4.386.45956 was released 2021/11/25, and there will most likely be more to come for some time. But this router suffers premature hardware failure and Asus is not fixing it, so at this stage of the WiFi6 game I would buy a newer AX router.

I suggest the AX86U or similar.

OE

AX86U is quite expensive and I don't do gaming or have a large house to justify that price tag, so AX68U should good enough for my needs?

Regarding firmware, can't recall where but I did come across some post saying something along the lines of its been 4 years since a firmware for AC86U was released. Good to know that there was a new firmware, but still makes sense to go with newer AX routers.

 

[OzarkEdge]

AX86U is quite expensive and I don't do gaming or have a large house to justify that price tag, so AX68U should good enough for my needs?

Regarding firmware, can't recall where but I did come across some post saying something along the lines of its been 4 years since a firmware for AC86U was released. Good to know that there was a new firmware, but still makes sense to go with newer AX routers.

Sounds reasonable.

You can find firmware on the ASUS Support website for your model router.

RT-AX68U｜WiFi Routers｜ASUS USA

OE

 

[Tech9]

Is there any model that can support even faster openvpn speeds?

It's close to 170Mbps in 386 firmware. This is what routers with similar cores can do. Faster - x86 firewall.

I did come across some post saying something along the lines of its been 4 years since a firmware for AC86U was released

It's >4 years now since the router was released, not the firmware. Don't trust Amazon reviews, read SNB forums.

 

[DarkKnight75]

My AX86U this morning for some reason rebooted on its own. It was behaving strangely after i updated to latest firmware couple of days ago, but didnt think anything of it since it was running fine. In any case, i did another reset via gui and re-configured this morning. I have AX6 off (2 devices currently support it) Those that have it on, anything special for configuration other than enabling AX and turning on 160GHZ. So ch 36 doesnt work for me, set it to 149 and auto detect speed and will see what happens.

 

[L&LD]

@Route66, the following links are applicable to your queries.

Report - 2x RT-AX68U upgrade over 2x RT-AC86U in wireless backhaul mode

Report - 2x RT-AX68U upgrade - Followup questions/answers


And overall, this is what I suggest today.

Current Order of Recommended Routers Late 2021


As for the misrepresented RT-AC86U by some above, the following post may be useful.

Asus Aimesh/AP network advice

I guess if you wanted access to using Merlin firmware you could use the 68U as your gateway router and then use the CT8 as an AiMesh pair running in AP mode. That way you get the mesh benefits of the CT8 platform and the features of the Merlin firmware on the 68U. Is it possible to setup...

www.snbforums.com

Keeping the order (above) in mind, buy the most router you can for the best price available in your market.

 

[salsashark]

Recently purchased the AX68U. It is a dud. Will most likely return it.

ASUS AX68U 5GHz Band Dropping / Disappearing

Hi, I purchased a ASUS AX68U last week and am having a problem with the 5GHz band disappearing and all connections dropping. Initially set it up with separate 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands with some devices connected to each band. All of a sudden the 5 GHz disappears and no devices can connect to it...

www.snbforums.com

 

[L&LD]

The specific unit may have hardware issues, but the RT-AX68U is certainly not a dud. See further info in your other thread (and the post above yours, here).

 

[Route66]

Dropping of wifi is the issue I was specifically asking about in terms of AX68U reliability, because some other reviews on amazon etc mentioned it as well.

 

[L&LD]

Just checked with my customers and their router reports 62 days and 9 hours uptime, no issues.

Report - 2x RT-AX68U upgrade over 2x RT-AC86U in wireless backhaul mode

I don't see stability issues when the router is properly updated, flashed, and configured.

 

[L&LD]

Not blaming anyone.

Simply sharing what works for me and my customers.

Calling people names won't get you any support to fix the issues.

Fact: problems are posted in far greater magnitude than solutions. Search better.

 

[anotherengineer]

If budget is a thing. Can you try an old ac68u? I’m still using one without issue. However I do not have experience with it and vpn.

 

[SoCalReviews]

This does not appear to be true. I followed your instructions on how to update and flash the device. Turned on only the 5GHz radio and the 5GHz dropping problems and network disappearing still occur.

Looked at the log and saw many entries stating:
"Disassociated because sending station is leaving" and "Deauthenticated because sending station is leaving".

Searching for these statements finds 100s of posts with these problems on different Asus devices and no real fix. Bunch of band aid fixes such as rolling back to older firmware, turning off features, etc, yet the posters still have problems.

Really seems to be a widespread problem as a simple search on Google, Reddit and this forum show many hits. Yet posters like you will minimize the problem and blame the user. Ask them to jump through a bunch of hoops to get it to work with no success.

I am done with Asus and their crap routers. Really think the people promoting this junk are Asus shills!

It's good you tried all the suggestions. At least you can sleep a little better at night that you narrowed down more of what the source of the problem was and as your logs indicate 5Ghz still does appear to be problematic and dropping connection for whatever reason (firmware, hardware, other settings issue, etc.)

I realize it's disturbing to have these problems with a new purchase but the AX68U is still a relatively newer Asus router compared to the most popular AX86U which is a rock solid performer. I only can fully recommend routers I own myself and so far the AX86U is the best router I have ever owned of any brand.

 

[dingo69]

If that helps:
Using Asus AC68U with Merlin (Firmware Version: 386.3_2)
Running OpenVPN with NordVPN VPN client.
Having FTTH 300Mb/s to the router. Using Wifi 5 and having ~110Mb/s speeds on my pc (using wifi PCI-e card), laptop, and Android.
Having ZERO problems with my internet. Simultaneously running youtube (1080 quality) and GTA5 online with no online gaming problems.
So, in my experience, I will recommend the Asus AC86U router.

 

[Ice9]

The most recent AC86U firmware 3.0.0.4.386.45956 was released 2021/11/25, and there will most likely be more to come for some time. But this router suffers premature hardware failure and Asus is not fixing it, so at this stage of the WiFi6 game I would buy a newer AX router.

I suggest the AX86U or similar.

OE

I just had my Asus RT-AC86U fail a few months ago. I am currently still using my older RT-AC68U that I kept as a backup/spare (I haven't gotten around to looking for a proper replacement for my AC86U yet), but I have noticed that OpenVPN performance is really bad on the AC68U when I run it through the Router to connected devices such as a couple of media players I have in other rooms to stream through it (I use OpenVPN on the Router to unlock geo-restricted content).

Is there any kind of list of the OpenVPN performance on all the Asus Routers that support it?

Anyway, was just curious about the hardware failure thing. Mine was working fine for a couple of years, but then I woke up one morning 4 or so months ago and noticed the router has no power. I tried unplugging it and powering it back on, but nothing happened, so I assumed it had crapped out (wasn't sure if it was the Power supply or something in the router itself?). I was actually thinking of getting a brand new RT-AC86U, but if you're saying even the newer built ones are still prone to this hardware failure, what would be a good replacement that has similar OpenVPN performance?

Is it possible to get something similar feature and performance wise to the AC86U for a similar price, or do I have to look at more expensive models like the AX86U (this is out of my price range unfortunately) if I want similar performance/features?

If nothing similar feature wise, what would have similar OpenVPN performance on the lesser AX models? Should I just get another AC86U (I am happy to do so, but your comment about hardware failure threw me off getting another one).