Asus router recommendation requested

[Fredex]

Hi all!

I'm looking to replace my aged RT-N16 with something that is (1) supported by Merlin, (2) still supported by Asus, and (3) still a good long time away from going EOL, and am hoping some of you can offer a recommendation. I haven't any clue about the lifespan of the various Asus routers, and I don't want to buy something just have it go EOL within the year.

I've come into a little bit of money over the holidays that I would like to use for this purchase, with a limit of perhaps no more than $200.

Thanks in advance for your recommendations!

Fred

 

[ColinTaylor]

If I were to buy a router today it would be the RT-AC86U.

 

[Fredex]

If I were to buy a router today it would be the RT-AC86U.

Can you tell me what it is you like about it?...Thanks!

 

[ColinTaylor]

https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wir...86u-dual-band-ac2900-wireless-router-reviewed

I think my current router, the RT-AC68U, is pretty much perfect for my needs but it's based on a pretty old design. It struggles with anything that requires a lot of CPU power - VPN, QoS, Media/File serving. The RT-AC86U looks like a "next-gen" version of the AC68U. It's based on a more modern reference design and has a much faster processor.

Of course, being a brand new product no one can predict how popular/unpopular it will become, but I'm hopeful.

 

[Fredex]

https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wir...86u-dual-band-ac2900-wireless-router-reviewed

I think my current router, the RT-AC68U, is pretty much perfect for my needs but it's based on a pretty old design. It struggles with anything that requires a lot of CPU power - VPN, QoS, Media/File serving. The RT-AC86U looks like a "next-gen" version of the AC68U. It's based on a more modern reference design and has a much faster processor.

Of course, being a brand new product no one can predict how popular/unpopular it will become, but I'm hopeful.

Thanks for the pointer. I'm just hoping I can get something that will last me several years, and importantly, with regular firmware updates to deal with bugs/security issues. If it turns out to be a dog regarding sales, who knows, Asus may drop it quickly. What would Merlin do then, continue support in the long-term? Maybe not.

thanks again!

 

[john9527]

The AC86U is the first (and only right now as far as I know) ASUS router that has a processor that has hardware encryption. I think this is going to be very important going forward.

The only thing I don't like about the AC86U, is that ASUS/Broadcom has moved a lot more of the firmware to closed source. Will limit and provide some roadblocks in what can be done with third party firmware like Merlin.

 

[unsynaps]

The AC86U is the first (and only right now as far as I know) ASUS router that has a processor that has hardware encryption. I think this is going to be very important going forward.

The only thing I don't like about the AC86U, is that ASUS/Broadcom has moved a lot more of the firmware to closed source. Will limit and provide some roadblocks in what can be done with third party firmware like Merlin.

Yeah if even remotely decent VPN speed (~40 megabit vs ~200 megabit - of course providing your ISP dishes out that kind of speed.) is a thing for you then get the 86U. Still planning on replacing my 87U with an 86U.

And if you haven't noticed. ASUS model numbers dont mean squat. DO NOT go by them alone.

 

[Beherit]

Yeah if even remotely decent VPN speed (~40 megabit vs ~200 megabit - of course providing your ISP dishes out that kind of speed.)

I have a related question, is there any router capable of handling a VPN connection at 1 gbit up/down?

My ISP just upgraded their connection and my 87U can't handle anywhere near that speed through PIA.

 

[psychopomp1]

I have a related question, is there any router capable of handling a VPN connection at 1 gbit up/down?

My ISP just upgraded their connection and my 87U can't handle anywhere near that speed through PIA.

I very much doubt any consumer router is capable of supporting 1 Gig VPN speeds and even it was, you certainly won't find any commercial VPN provider offering those speeds - probably the best you could hope for is just a few hundred Mbps over VPN.

 

[unsynaps]

I have a related question, is there any router capable of handling a VPN connection at 1 gbit up/down?

My ISP just upgraded their connection and my 87U can't handle anywhere near that speed through PIA.

What psychopomp1 said and:

You would have to build your own rig. From what I heard you almost need a i7 to pull it off (but don't quote me on that).

 

[st3v3n]

All good choices. I'm partial to our RT-AC3200, then the RT-AC68, or TM-AC1900 conversions, followed by the RT-AC66_B1, that runs around $100. It would be nice to have hardware encryption on the router. We'd have bought the AC86 for the router encryption if we hadn't gone for the 3200; don't know how much the router encryption would benefit us on our current rig, since our drives/data are encrypted and the VPN providers have done very well for us.

The electric co-op west of us has gigabit connections for $60 a month and 500 Mbit plan for $45. The co-op says that 99% of the customers buy the gigabit plan if only for bragging rights but never get close to being able to utilize that speed, it's a rather rural area but growing. That's the kind of speed that's too cheap to meter as they used to say. It would cost $200 per month after an install so it will be a bit before we need it. We average 25-35 Mb on a good day with our Asus but the converted OPNSense box I play with has an i5-660, 8 GB Ram and a 4-gig, 4-port card that's never maxed our rated speed. Cheers.

 

[Beherit]

What psychopomp1 said and:

You would have to build your own rig. From what I heard you almost need a i7 to pull it off (but don't quote me on that).

Nah, perhaps it's true when using 256 bit encryption encryption, but when running OpenVPN on my ancient Q9550 desktop computer I get almost identical throughput using AES-128-CBC as I get without using any VPN. In either case it seems the speed of the harddrive is what limits it.

This benchmark list confirms it: https://calomel.org/aesni_ssl_performance.html

1 gbit = 125 MB/s. Running the openssl benchmark command listed below the chart on that website, I get around 221 MB/s = 1,7 gbit on my Q9550 CPU. Whereas my AC87U router only gets appx 18 MB/s = 144 mbit.

 

[doczenith1]

I have a related question, is there any router capable of handling a VPN connection at 1 gbit up/down?

My ISP just upgraded their connection and my 87U can't handle anywhere near that speed through PIA.

I get around 220 Mbps using my 86U as a client on PIA. Using PIA's windows client on my aging i5-2500K I'm able to attain 250 Mbps down and 450 Mbps up. Not sure if my computer is the controlling factor or if it's PIA servers. These speeds are base on AES-128-CBC and SHA1 over UDP.

 

[Treadler]

Hi all!

I'm looking to replace my aged RT-N16 with something that is (1) supported by Merlin, (2) still supported by Asus, and (3) still a good long time away from going EOL, and am hoping some of you can offer a recommendation. I haven't any clue about the lifespan of the various Asus routers, and I don't want to buy something just have it go EOL within the year.

I've come into a little bit of money over the holidays that I would like to use for this purchase, with a limit of perhaps no more than $200.

Thanks in advance for your recommendations!

Fred

RT-AC86U.