Asus RT-AC66 Alternatives

[poster100]

Hi,

I would appreciate any advice on choosing an upgraded router. I have an 80Mb Fibre connection from my ISP which I am happy with, connected via BT Openreach VDSL Modem (Huawei HG612). This then feeds into a Asus RT-N12E router ( I know !).

The range is not brilliant (2 storey house) and speeds are only decent when close by. Most of the clients support AC and are dual band, although I still have some older N only clients.

Speed is secondary, as the main PC is connected via homeplugs. I'd like better range and less 'lag' - loading of pages can be slower than hoped for, I guess dual band will help with this ? As for range, I'm hoping replacing my ancient router will help, even on N clients. I'll look into access points if it doesn't.

Reading about why AC1900 is a 'waste', the Asus RT-AC66 seems a good choice, it also seems to hit the sweet spot in terms of value/price. The only thing against it, is that the router seems to be a couple of years old.

I've looked at TP LINK C7/8/9 but apparently that doesnt support Jumbo frames. Are there any others I should consider ? Thanks

 

[joegreat]

The range is not brilliant (2 storey house) and speeds are only decent when close by. Most of the clients support AC and are dual band, although I still have some older N only clients.

Hi,

When it comes to range the newer AC routers are limited due to the FCC regulations. If you want range go for the Asus RT-N66U router with the older version (but still updated) firmware from John's fork. On top the N66U is cheap and you can effort two of them compared with a Asus RT-AC68U router!
And: Keep in mind that 5 GHz networks have a much lower reach, as 2.4 GHz ones - so you might anyway end-up using 2 routers for the full coverage!

Only if you need cloud features, using the router as a file sever, etc., you need to go for a newer 2 core ARM CPU based router (e.g. RT-AC56U/AC68U).

In worst case you need then a 2nd router on the 2nd floor with a power line bridge (cable connection) from the 1st router - but with the AC routers this will get quite expensive!
At the end you might end up with a solution as I have in use (see footer)...

With kind regards
Joe

 

[poster100]

Thanks for the advice.

I won't be using cloud/file server etc so that's not an issue. The fact that the RT-AC66 is a couple of years shouldnt matter ? (maybe its more stable/mature, because of it).

 

[PolarBear]

From my perspective, 2 years is time enough for most bugs to be fixed, especially when running Merlin instead of stock formaware. For me stability is much more important than all the latest features, or raw speed.

So I chose an AC-RT66U for exactly these reasons. It's running Merlin 378.50 and the uptime is 90 days, with no problems.

The uptime would be even longer, if I had not chosen to change the configuration and then restart.

 

[Trip]

First off, it's pretty-well established that AC routers yield better N-class range and throughput compared to their legacy N counterparts, with the WRT1900AC, R7000 and AC68U sporting the best value at the moment. What is debatable, though, is whether or not an AC upgrade, or a slightly lesser N-class upgrade, would suffice to meet those gaps, or if another approach altogether would be more approrpriate, such as installing 2 or more APs, each on lower/more appropriate signal strengths with proper overlap...

If you have the budget, I'd grab an R7000 or AC68U and see what results you get. If coverage still doesn't happen, at least you know you've tried it with one of the best bang-for-the-buck options out there, and can then re-purpose the RT-N12 as an access point to fill whatever gap is needed. In either case, you win.

On the issue of "lag", you may find the increased coverage to be the fix. If not, and you very often have several bandwidth-intensive things going on, it may come down to a Quality-of-Service (QoS) issue caused by traffic contention and/or saturation of your VDSL line's bandwidth (yes, even at 80Mb/s), and you might want to make sure you purchase a router capable of effective, reliable QoS. And so there's another possible reason for an ARM-based unit -- when using firmwares like DD-WRT and Tomato, you get support for vastly superior QoS mechanisms such as fq_codel, whereby you just specify up/down link speeds, and it does the rest, and to much greater effect than a lot of other, more pain-staking approaches of manual classing, prioritizing, etc.

Anyways, I digress, but try the first approach of an AC1900 router if you can, and go from there.

 

[Just Checking]

I have quite a bit of experience with the RT-N66, RT-AC66, RT-AC68, and some experience with the RT-AC87 Asus routers. In my experience the RT-AC66 routers with John's Fork firmware (see post #2 by joegreat for the link) provides the best value of Wireless throughput to cost. I have not found any Asus router that provided higher single stream 5GHz wireless throughput than the RT-AC66 router. In repeated testing, I have not found the RT-AC68 or the RT-AC87 routers to have higher signal strength for a given power setting. Again, the price/performance favors the RT-AC66. It is possible to purchase a factory refurbished unit from Newegg.com on sale for around US$90 (sometimes a little less).

I have seen factory refurbished RT-N66 routers on sale at Newegg.com for about US$60. That is significantly less expensive but the difference in 5GHz wireless throughput is also less. That is why I install the RT-AC66's over the RT-N66's.

L&LD has told me that he found the RT-AC66's to have higher failure rates than the RT-N66's. I personally have installed more than 6 of these in different locations and with clients. I have never had any fail yet after more than 2 years service life.

Many people in this forum find the RT-AC68 to be a superior router. I personally have installed four of these. I find them to run hotter than the RT-AC66's and that they drop connections when they get hot under high loads. From reading here in this forum and others, it appears that the heat sinks can be overtorqued causing warpage and high CPU temperatures. I personally have seen some RT-AC68 routers where the CPU temp exceeds 95C under load and others where the CPU temp never exceeds 80C under load. It just depends on the luck of the draw. There are a lot of posts in this forum which show how to actively cool the RT-AC68. I prefer not to do that because of the noise, dust infiltration into electronics, and some locations do not lend themselves to the physical dimensional requirements.

The RT-AC68 does have the capability of running the newer RMerlin 378.55_0 firmware or the HGGomes Fork FW that have some nice features. Those are not enough for me to say that the RT-AC68 is a better choice.

I evaluated a RT-AC87 with RMerlins 378.55_0 firmware and saw a very significant loss of signal strength and wireless throughput compared with a RT-AC66 on John's Fork ver. 14E1. I had to install HGGomes fork 378.55_3Final to be able to adjust the signal strength to be equivalent to the RT-AC66. Wireless throughput (both uplink and downlink) never were a match to the RT-AC66 in my testing.

In my experience, the RT-AC66 is an excellent first choice for a low cost AC upgrade. You can always configure them as AP's to extend the range of your current router if you desire. The refurbished units are just a great value.

If I didn't have the investment in Asus routers, I might consider the TP-Link C5 Archer. That router is rated #1 for AC1200 routers in almost all categories. I have seen them on sale for US$75 new. You can pick them up on eBay used for under US$60. Firmware options on those appear to be pretty slim so you may not get all the bells and whistles.

Just my US$0.02.