ASUS RT-AC86U Dual Band AC2900 Wireless Router Reviewed

[OzarkEdge]

R7800 seems to get dinged for fewer useful configuration options. Wireless performance does seem to likely be better than the AC86U though.

Another factor could be brand reticence... such as been there, done that, not going back without good cause; or, never been there and happy where I'm at for now. If, for example, ASUS were to slump across the board because of say AiMesh issues, then a competing/stronger product might get the attention it deserves.

OE

 

[Jon21]

Does anyone’s AC86u make a high pitched whining sound? I’ve bought 3 of these over a couple of months from Amazon UK and each one has made this noise. It’s really annoying, so each one was sent back. Just wondering if I was just really unlucky or they all make the noise?

 

[OzarkEdge]

Does anyone’s AC86u make a high pitched whining sound? I’ve bought 3 of these over a couple of months from Amazon UK and each one has made this noise. It’s really annoying, so each one was sent back. Just wondering if I was just really unlucky or they all make the noise?

I hate that when that happens... tinnitus is bad enough!

I have two 86Us and they are both quiet. They also appear to be of sequential production, so if one had a whiny component, the other might also.

OE

 

[maxbraketorque]

I hate that when that happens... tinnitus is bad enough!

I have two 86Us and they are both quiet. They also appear to be of sequential production, so if one had a whiny component, the other might also.

OE

Mine were purchased a few months apart (both R1.5), and neither make any audible sounds as well. At least I haven't heard anything, and no one else in the house has mentioned anything.

 

[Jon21]

Thanks. If I remember correctly, it seemed to be coming from the wifi chipset. At least when I turned the wifi off with the button on the side, it went silent. Turn it back on, instantly started whining. Got another one coming today, hopefully it’s silent.

Edit: It’s arrived and this one is just the same as the other 3. High pitched whine/whistle coming from the wifi chipset. If it wasn’t going to be sited in a bedroom, like the current AC88u is, I’d put up with it. Back it goes to Amazon.

 

[dlandiss]

A high-pitched whistle is often a symptom of the coils in a switching power supply "ringing" with the reversals in the magnetic field that makes them work. It can change with the load on the power supplies, hence the change when the radios are turned off.

 

[crypto]

I just upgraded my old but rock solid N66U to the AC86U. It worked great for 2 weeks and then all clients on 2.4 said they had an auth failure and could no longer connect. 5GHz clients and wired stuff was fine. I was unable to get 2.4GHz to work again, factory reset, etc. I was on the latest ASUS firmware. I returned it to Amazon for a refund as it was still within the 30 days. I noticed several reviews on Amazon for this box saying the 2.4 radio failed after a few weeks or months. Is this common? I really liked this router and would buy it again if it would work. Any comments from the knowledgeable people here?

 

[maxbraketorque]

I just upgraded my old but rock solid N66U to the AC86U. It worked great for 2 weeks and then all clients on 2.4 said they had an auth failure and could no longer connect. 5GHz clients and wired stuff was fine. I was unable to get 2.4GHz to work again, factory reset, etc. I was on the latest ASUS firmware. I returned it to Amazon for a refund as it was still within the 30 days. I noticed several reviews on Amazon for this box saying the 2.4 radio failed after a few weeks or months. Is this common? I really liked this router and would buy it again if it would work. Any comments from the knowledgeable people here?

2.4 GHz band working fine on my AC86U main router that I've had since early January. My AC86U AP has the 2.4 GHz radio disabled, so no info there.

 

[lukaszzsch]

I just upgraded my old but rock solid N66U to the AC86U. It worked great for 2 weeks and then all clients on 2.4 said they had an auth failure and could no longer connect. 5GHz clients and wired stuff was fine. I was unable to get 2.4GHz to work again, factory reset, etc. I was on the latest ASUS firmware. I returned it to Amazon for a refund as it was still within the 30 days. I noticed several reviews on Amazon for this box saying the 2.4 radio failed after a few weeks or months. Is this common? I really liked this router and would buy it again if it would work. [emoji4] Any comments from the knowledgeable people here?

I experience similar problem that started to appear aproxx. 2 weeks after shipment, my devices can connect to 2.4 radio but its link rates are dramatically slow 5.5 mbits.

Take a look at Merlin page at this forum..there are several topics regarding to The problem with 867 and its 2.4 radio.

 

[Grisu]

I experience similar problem that started to appear aproxx. 2 weeks after shipment, my devices can connect to 2.4 radio but its link rates are dramatically slow 5.5 mbits.

MeToo, still an issue with 384_21045, 2.4G very slow down to 1Mb/s.
Help is only to set 20MHz bandwith instead 40, but with no neighbours this is not really an option!
My 68U has >100Mb/s and 86U <50Mb/s with reduced 20Mhz.

 

[arthurlien]

I just upgraded my old but rock solid N66U to the AC86U. It worked great for 2 weeks and then all clients on 2.4 said they had an auth failure and could no longer connect. 5GHz clients and wired stuff was fine. I was unable to get 2.4GHz to work again, factory reset, etc. I was on the latest ASUS firmware. I returned it to Amazon for a refund as it was still within the 30 days. I noticed several reviews on Amazon for this box saying the 2.4 radio failed after a few weeks or months. Is this common? I really liked this router and would buy it again if it would work. Any comments from the knowledgeable people here?

For 2G issue, Could you try to disabled Smart Connect ?

 

[Grisu]

Here I made a table of supported WiFi channels for different regions of chinese version RT-AC86U with changeable region:
Possibly additional choosen DFS channels in Auto-mode are not shown in this table as they are not shown for manual selection.

Region/Channels 1-11 12-13 36-48 52-64 100-112 116 132-140 149-161 165
Asia............ x ...---... x ...---....---...---...---..... x ... x
China(Default).. x ... x ...---...---....---...---...---..... x ... x
Europe.......... x ... x ... x ... x .... x ... x ... x .....---...---
Korea........... x ... x ... x ...---....---...---...---..... x ...---
Russia.......... x ... x ... x ... x .... x ... x ... x .....---...---
Singapore....... x ...---... x ...---....---...---...---..... x ... x
United States... x ...---... x ...---....---...---...---..... x ... x
Australia....... x ... x ...---...---....---...---...---..... x ... x

116, 140 and 165 can only be used in 20MHz mode or auto 20/40/80
132-136 only in 20 or 40 MHz mode or auto 20/40/80
36-48, 52-64, 100-112 and 149-161 in all bandwith modes upto 80.

5G seems to have similar power everywhere (all regions and channels) except EU ch. 100-112 about 5dB better.
2,4G ist much lower for EU and china.
But something seems to be wrong with 2,4G, I randomly get -6dB or up to -20dB weaker signal for EU. Cannot figure out what happens.
And most interesting ch 1-5 about 10dB better than 9-13 if set to EU (makes them unusable for large area).

Feedback of other users with this chinese version much appreciated for comparison.
CFE 1.0.0.6 on mine.

Udated: Russia wifi-region starting with 384.9 or 384.45149 seems to be same stettings as for EU.

 

[GuruGuy]

Purchase this router today to replace an aging Asus about six years old. Have gig Svc at home and current router shows those speeds wired and wireless. Hooked up the new 86u and speeds are in the fifties (aol speeds!). Latest firmware was downloaded at setup. WTF is going on with this router? Plugged old router back in and speeds high, new router SLOW

The only changes I made: WiFi bands are setup separate, roaming assist is disabled, channels and ssid.

 

[GuruGuy]

Purchase this router today to replace an aging Asus about six years old. Have gig Svc at home and current router shows those speeds wired and wireless. Hooked up the new 86u and speeds are in the fifties (aol speeds!). Latest firmware was downloaded at setup. WTF is going on with this router? Plugged old router back in and speeds high, new router SLOW

Found this thread: https://www.snbforums.com/threads/asus-ac86u-with-strange-problem.45505/

I currently have the old router hooked back up but will give this suggestion a shot to see if it helps. Any other suggestions are appreciated.

 

[GuruGuy]

Purchase this router today to replace an aging Asus about six years old. Have gig Svc at home and current router shows those speeds wired and wireless. Hooked up the new 86u and speeds are in the fifties (aol speeds!). Latest firmware was downloaded at setup. WTF is going on with this router? Plugged old router back in and speeds high, new router SLOW

The only changes I made: WiFi bands are setup separate, roaming assist is disabled, channels and ssid.

Tested and still didn't work. Tested wired and speeds still in fifties so I changed my approach to troubleshooting. Went methodically through settings of old and compared to new. Old had an address in the WAN Mac field. Removed it on the old working router and sure enough speeds dropped to fifties on the working router. Hum...added it back and gig speeds returned. I don't remember EVER adding an address to that field. Hooked up the new router and added the address and gig speeds worked. Did a complete factory restore again and new setup, did not change any of the multi mimo, beam forming, etc.......added in the Mac clone and also left it as the 2.4/5.0 sharing to see how things go. So far so good all is well. Definitely has more range on the 2.4 - smart tv in the far end of the house (2.4 only) had less than half signal and now has full bars.

 

[jyth_82]

bought 2 AC86U as part of a promo.... replacing the AC68U and AC66U_B1

Long story short - both routers have been crashing so often and randomly! As short as an hour , as long as 2 days.... MAX! very random. You can read further with logs and such -> https://www.snbforums.com/posts/412322/

Since this was bought at the same time (2 months back) with both have the same hardware rev R1.5, I've decided to RMA 1 first to see if the problem is on the hardware.

..... AND i can confirm that after the replacement with the new AC86U, and upgraded to latest and n-2 version of firmware; the router is still crashing!

I've sold my AC68U and am using AC66U_B1 which has been stable for 14 days non-stop!

Any idea or clue on what's going on? Loved the AC68s....

 

[doczenith1]

I purchased my 86U in November 2017. It's a H/W Ver: R1.5 and MFG YEAR: 2017 and I have had zero issues with it.

 

[FadgewackeR]

New firmware alert today... Anyone had the same?

 

[Grisu]

New firmware alert today... Anyone had the same?

which version? mine found nothing new 21140 still latest.

 

[FadgewackeR]

https://www.asus.com/uk/Networking/RT-AC86U/HelpDesk_BIOS/
ASUS RT-AC86U Firmware version 3.0.0.4.384.21140
- Fixed bugs.
- Improved system stability.

I'm on Merlin currently and this is the first time I've been notified of an update in my WebGUI

I'm thinking of downgrading to test something, but maybe someone on 21140 can help?

QOS doesn't recognise wifi upload traffic at all, and it skews the rules. Can anyone comment if that is still the case?

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/wifi-upload-not-limited-by-qos-on-rt-ac86u.44770/