ASUS Announces RT-AX86U and RT-AX82U

[gfondeur]

Canceled order...sticking with my ac86u for now.

Me too

 

[Mainerunr]

Canceled order...sticking with my ac86u for now.

Me too

Curious why you changed your mind?

I mean, if I had a perfectly good working AC86U, I probably wouldn't be looking for a new one but I've got an N that is becoming more frequently problematic and two kids who need wifi access to do their school work (and I'm not home to fix the problems when they happen) so something new it is...

 

[tallytr]

Curious why you changed your mind?

I mean, if I had a perfectly good working AC86U, I probably wouldn't be looking for a new one but I've got an N that is becoming more frequently problematic and two kids who need wifi access to do their school work (and I'm not home to fix the problems when they happen) so something new it is...

Its a no brainer if you have an N-router (Wifi 4)
AC86U is Wifi-5 and the AX RT-AX86U is really only better if you need faster than Gigabit speeds, I seriously doubt many need the features in 2020/2021...
In my case I send it back, using RT-AC86U only as router, and wired TP-Link access points in our house (3 levels)...

 

[gfondeur]

Curious why you changed your mind?

I mean, if I had a perfectly good working AC86U, I probably wouldn't be looking for a new one but I've got an N that is becoming more frequently problematic and two kids who need wifi access to do their school work (and I'm not home to fix the problems when they happen) so something new it is...

My AC86U it's working beyond expectations, actually I compared it side by side with several differents test with an AX from netgear and my AC devices didn't gained anything compared to my AC86U. So for right now for me it doesn't make any sense to make de investment.

 

[RogerSC]

Note on buying from Newegg...if you think that you might return a router, don't buy at Newegg, they'll make you pay for the privilege of returning an item that doesn't work for you. On the other hand, if you buy from Best Buy or directly from Amazon, for example, you'll have a much easier time getting your money back. I actually have removed my account from Newegg because I felt that they charged me fees that were unmerited. Will not buy there again. I don't mind paying return postage if the product isn't defective, but other fees on top of that are unacceptable to me as a consumer.

Sorry, felt like I should mention that, Newegg isn't in line with the other retailers I've used, and evidently doesn't care about purchaser's good will. I often see advice like "try it and return" if a particular product doesn't work for you...it isn't always that simple, different retailers have very different policies.

 

[gfondeur]

Sorry, felt like I should mention that, Newegg isn't in line with the other retailers I've used, and evidently doesn't care about purchaser's good will. I often see advice like "try it and return" if a particular product doesn't work for you...it isn't always that simple, different retailers have very different policies.

I stopped buying from them a long time ago for the same BS

 

[1ceLaz0r]

Newegg has ALWAYS charged restocking fee's, so I dunno why you are so surprised by this.

 

[gfondeur]

Newegg has ALWAYS charged restocking fee's, so I dunno why you are so surprised by this.

You were born knowing things?
Obviously went I find out I stopped using them, duh

 

[1ceLaz0r]

No but I knew about this 20 years ago when I first started building PC's and amazon wasn't really what it is today

 

[gfondeur]

No but I knew about this 20 years ago when I first started building PC's and amazon wasn't really what it is today

That still doesn't keep you from look like jerk with your comment

 

[RMerlin]

Restocking fees are fairly common for stores/resellers, as they can no longer resell the product at full price afterward, forcing them to drop its price to sell it as an opened box. My own national suppliers charges me those fees if I wanted to return anything to them that one of my own customers had returned.

Amazon has the profit margins to absorb those losses. Smaller resellers like Newegg don't.

Just one of the many reasons why I stopped selling any hardware a couple of years ago.

 

[1ceLaz0r]

That still doesn't keep you from look like jerk with your comment

The return/RMA/restocking fee conditions are very clearly indicated and findable on Newegg's website and have been for 2 decades. Sorry, but my sympathy boat isn't leaving the dock for you

 

[dfunked]

Seems crazy to me that distance selling regulations aren't a thing everywhere... Is there nothing like a 14 day cooling off period where you can return items for any reason?

 

[1ceLaz0r]

Seems crazy to me that distance selling regulations aren't a thing everywhere... Is there nothing like a 14 day cooling off period where you can return items for any reason?

There is no such legally backed up consumer protection requirement in the USA. It solely up to private resellers discretion

 

[wouterv]

Does the RT-AX86U support 160MHz for 802.11AC as well, or AX only?

 

[tallytr]

The return/RMA/restocking fee conditions are very clearly indicated and findable on Newegg's website and have been for 2 decades. Sorry, but my sympathy boat isn't leaving the dock for you

I am OK with this, I wanted test it out, I did, returned it.

 

[1ceLaz0r]

Does the RT-AX86U support 160MHz for 802.11AC as well, or AX only?

AX only, which is the main reason to buy an AX router vs AC.

 

[Zifnab76]

Got tired of WRT3200ACM, terrible wifi. It will just drop every few days, official, ddwrt or openwrt doesn't matter. Wifi speeds were atrocious, ethernet speeds were fine. Samba support and speeds are awful. Wouldn't surprise me if its the worst AC3200 router. Don't ever buy a router with a Marvell chip. TBH I think this will be my last Linksys/Belkin product.

From just a home user who wants simplicity. Decided to go Asus again since the AC68U did well, until sort of soft bricked it switching between Tomato and Merlin, and made the unfortunate decision to buy Linksys. Went with AX86U because AC86U is $200… AX86U is $250. I also wanted quad core since noticed CPU usage rockets on dual core with USB storage. This has dual USB 3 ports. Won't be upgrading to a NAS until I need to, dual 8tb drives should last another year or more. Couldn't care less about this argument about AC vs AX and wait for Wifi6e, until Xfinity offers 2gig service none of that means anything to me. Wifi 6E and 6ghz hype seems ridiculously overrated, Wifi 6 works on 160 fine, and I don't have any issues with 5ghz congestion and I live in an apartment complex. Plus on the negative, all the documentation I've seen posted so far with google search, 6ghz range will be even shorter than 5ghz... I would be shocked if my next laptop or phone will have Wifi 6E support, both which I plan to keep for another 3+ years. Also doesn't matter to me if it is SMBv1, 2 or 3, as long as it works.

 

[Chuckles67]

I also wanted quad core since noticed CPU usage rockets on dual core with USB storage. This has dual USB 3 ports. Won't be upgrading to a NAS until I need to, dual 8tb drives should last another year or more

I'm curious: are you using both USB3 ports, each connected to an 8TB drive? If so how is the RT-AX86U WiFi performance on 2.4GHz band during disk activity - particularly further away from the router?

(Background: I have an RT-AC66U-B1 and using USB3 with disk activity causes a *huge* drop in WiFi 2.4GHz performance when 30+ feet away. I've tried different disk enclosures/cables with mechanical and SSD drives. I'm wondering if this is no longer a problem with RT-AX86U).

 

[SoCalReviews]

I'm curious: are you using both USB3 ports, each connected to an 8TB drive? If so how is the RT-AX86U WiFi performance on 2.4GHz band during disk activity - particularly further away from the router?

(Background: I have an RT-AC66U-B1 and using USB3 with disk activity causes a *huge* drop in WiFi 2.4GHz performance when 30+ feet away. I've tried different disk enclosures/cables with mechanical and SSD drives. I'm wondering if this is no longer a problem with RT-AX86U).

I can't speak directly about your USB 3.0 disk activity issue since I haven't been using the USB 3.x ports on my Asus routers. It sounds more like your issue could be a signal interference problem between the 2.4Ghz radio and the USB 3.0 port on the router. You might want to try upgrading to a more shielded USB 3.x cable. Otherwise it may be an Asus RT-AC66U router USB 3.0 port shielding issue. It could also be a problem related to the AC66U struggling to handle processing the combined extra throughput data.

Regardless of those possible issues I think you would definitely benefit by upgrading to the RT-AX86U router. I doubt if you will experience the same USB 3.x issue as it relates to the router since this is an all new updated product. This router has a quad core 1.8 Ghz main processor (system on a chip) and the latest updated high speed USB 3.1/3.2 ports. My AX86U package came with it's own USB 3.x cable included. The Wifi range and overall wired and wireless speed of this router is exceptional. I don't think you will be disappointed and it would provide an immediate and long term Wifi 6 solution for years to come.

Here is my brief summary review of the Asus RT-AX86U to help you and others to decide:

I used to use RT-N66U routers for home and business then I upgraded to the RT-AC68U router line or more specifically the RT-AC68P (BB 1Ghz model). From my experience the original N66U router had incredible 2.4Ghz range but I know that changed with future versions and firmware updates. The AC68U and AC68P routers seemed to have ok range at first but over the years as more neighbors flooded the frequency space my Wifi signals for 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz ranges to my clients (Galaxy Note phone, iPad, gaming systems, etc.) in areas of my home became very unstable.

I saw that the new RT-AX86U was released over a month ago so I ordered one and I so far I have been thrilled with the results. The new AX86U stock firmware was immediately updated to the latest stock version and I configured with basically the same settings as the older AC68U with the exception of the Wifi settings which left AX support and auto frequency selection and 160Ghz channel support turned ON or enabled. To ensure worry free maximum compatibility with my older AC clients I have the Asus Smart connect feature OFF and I set encryption for WPA2 with AES instead of the default of WPA3 even lthough WPA3 is suppose to be fully backward compatible. I will enable it when I own some newer Wifi 6/WPA3 clients. I also turned WPA OFF since I never use it.

The overall speed, reliability and range to my older AC clients has excelled using the new AX86U. I no longer get the Wifi drops in the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz band that I had before with the AC68U. The signal strength and data throughput speed has increased substantially at farther ranges (three large rooms away on both levels) to my notebook computer to the point where the there is practically no detectable difference using Speedtest.net between a direct wired Ethernet (using a CAT 8 cable to the notebook and from the router to the modem) and wireless performance on a 100Mbs Internet service (I get under 10ms latency and over 107Mbs download/11Mbs upload on both). The range for both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz covers an entire 2 level 2K sq. ft. home with thick plaster and some concrete walling. I don't use the USB ports for external storage so I can't comment on their performance. At this point I can highly recommend the AX86U to anyone upgrading from most of the older Asus AC routers with the exceptions being owners of AC routers that are using the newer BCM (Broadcom) 1.8Ghz chipsets and newer Wifi radios. Those newer models of Asus AC routers may not see as much benefit to an AX86U upgrade.

I still would recommend the AX86U for its enhanced gaming features with a specific LAN gaming port, extra 2.5Ghz Ethernet port (configurable as LAN/ main WAN or as part of a Dual WAN with the main WAN port) and USB 3.1/3.2 compatible ports. You wouldn't have known this at first glance but the AX86U also features 3 external and 1 internal antennas. It seems this AX86 is a more mature and stable AX/Wifi 6 solution for Asus enthusiasts. There is so much more that I haven't covered here such as the enhanced gaming features, security and antivirus features, etc.. I have just scratched the surface of what this router can do. The AX86U is the most featureful Asus router I have owned to date. Unless you are waiting for the next models of Asus routers supporting Wifi 6E (Wifi 6 with 6Ghz band support) this is definitely a Wifi 6 router to consider. A week after my first purchase I have purchased two more Asus AX86U routers for business use and those are also showing excellent performance and reliability.