ASUS RT-AC86U Dual Band AC2900 Wireless Router Reviewed

[ualdrivr]

Anyone with a mesh config of RT-68U and RT-86U that can tell us how it works? Is the combination of the two a good thing or cumbersome? I have the 68U with @RMerlin / @john9527 fork and it has been working great for years, now. I do have the Linksys RE6500HG range extender on my network and it has been working, but I think two routers would be even more powerful, what do you guys think of a setup like that? Cheers.

 

[dlandiss]

Considering the issues discussed by users in the forum that covers ASUS mesh, I would not recommend counting on it at this time. If you enjoy experimenting and troubleshooting, go for it.

 

[Wally173]

The Broadcom “Range Boost” feature in this new chip that supposedly makes the signal better. Does that apply only to the 5ghz band? Or does it also work on the 2.4ghz band too?

Could not find any info while googling about it and was curious

 

[dlandiss]

Wally, you can read more about the wireless performance in Tim's review. My best guess is that without a client having matching ability you won't see a whole lot of improvement--you need the extra radio streams to get much advantage:

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

 

[garnikg]

after about 2 months from the purchase date, my router is found dead today on return home. I tried recovery mode/asus firmware utility, it finishes "successfully", but still not coming back on; if I have no devices on Ethernet ports - power light is solid on, blinking after every ~25sec; if I have Ethernet devices connected, appropriate lights are blinking fast but going off all at once every 10 seconds or so, and they go off together with power light when it blinks. similar thing happened ~2 weeks ago when I restarted the router because routing was dead (no internet), I noticed this blinking cycles, but router eventually started after ~5mins. This time it is permanent. I was on the phone with support for about 1hr now, of course they told me to try this and that, but eventually provided RMA, and guess what - I have to pay to ship it to them.

 

[VANT]

The Broadcom “Range Boost” feature in this new chip that supposedly makes the signal better. Does that apply only to the 5ghz band? Or does it also work on the 2.4ghz band too?

Could not find any info while googling about it and was curious

from wiki

BCM4365E PCIe abgn+ac 3x3:3
(1.3Gbps) 2016-11-15 800MHz ARM Cortex A7
3x3 MU-MIMO Wave2
RangeBoost (1024-QAM)

BCM4366E PCIe abgn+ac 4x4:4
(1.7Gbps) 2017-04-14 800MHz ARM Cortex A7
4x4 MU-MIMO Wave2
RangeBoost (1024-QAM)

So both band have RangeBoost

 

[OzarkEdge]

The Broadcom “Range Boost” feature in this new chip that supposedly makes the signal better. Does that apply only to the 5ghz band? Or does it also work on the 2.4ghz band too?

Could not find any info while googling about it and was curious

I just upgraded a 2x68U AiMesh to a 2x86U AiMesh to see if I could get by with only 2 routers. So far, the 86Us have appreciably improved WiFi signals on both bands... I think I'm going to be ok.

The front elevation from left to right is a 1700 sq. ft. brick garage connected to a 3-level brick house with 1600 sq. ft. per level. The router is on the main level at the far right of the house. The node is on the main level at the far right of the garage. They are about 95 feet apart. The node signal quality is 4 bars, up from 2-3 bars with the 68Us. Lower and upper level WiFi coverage is excellent to good... excellent where I need it most. Antennas are straight up.

I tried the 2nd node inside the house in preparation for daisy chaining a 3rd node/68U in the garage, but the 86U signals coming from each end of the same level were just too much WiFi.

OE

 

[Quadcore]

According to source code (https://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin.ng/blob/master/release/src-rt/target.mak), RT-AC86U currently is not supporting ALEXA and IFTTT services (IFTTT=n ALEXA=n).
Do you have an idea if Asus and/or @RMerlin will support these services in the future? Thanks.

 

[RMerlin]

According to source code (https://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin.ng/blob/master/release/src-rt/target.mak), RT-AC86U currently is not supporting ALEXA and IFTTT services (IFTTT=n ALEXA=n).
Do you have an idea if Asus and/or @RMerlin will support these services in the future? Thanks.

Not from me.

Why the rush to put your router at risk of being hacked? These features are major security risks.

 

[Quadcore]

Not from me.

Why the rush to put your router at risk of being hacked? These features are major security risks.

These services are included in other Asus routers such as RT-AC88U, RT-AC3100 and RT-AC5300. So why these services are not safe? And why Asus has included these services in those 3 routers if these services are not safe? Is it really a matter of security or there are other reasons they have been included only in routers based on "Broadcom SDK 7.14 ARM platform" (as per source code)?

 

[RMerlin]

So why these services are not safe?

Because they require your router to open the webui to the Internet. And recently there's been another wave of compromised routers through security holes found in the web server used by Asuswrt. Every few months new security issues are found in it, and from time to time (like this last time), the router can be compromised remotely.

Is it really a matter of security or there are other reasons they have been included only in routers based on "Broadcom SDK 7.14 ARM platform" (as per source code)?

They are probably implementing it in waves. They have dozens of models to develop and test, so new features tend to only gradually appear in models over a certain period of time.

I personally consider the whole thing a serious security issue. They don't. Different point of view here, where their design decisions are guided by marketing. My point of view is from an advanced user's.

 

[garnikg]

I got replacement router from ASUS (different unit, used but working). They sent 3 extra antennas, so if someone needs - let me know.

 

[username0475]

Wally, you can read more about the wireless performance in Tim's review. My best guess is that without a client having matching ability you won't see a whole lot of improvement--you need the extra radio streams to get much advantage:

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

I think this is confirmed by the article:

Since both support Broadcom's non-standard 1024 QAM, the inflated "class math" comes out to 750 Mbps for 2.4 GHz + 2167 Mbps for 5 GHz = 2917 Mbps, which ASUS has shockingly rounded down to 2900.

ASUS has made a smart move by increasing the number of 5 GHz streams, which should help improve performance in that band. But precious few devices—ASUS' PCE-AC88 PCIe desktop adapter being the most notable—support 1024 QAM and you need very strong signals to reach the advertised maximum link rates.

 

[maxbraketorque]

I think this is confirmed by the article:

Since both support Broadcom's non-standard 1024 QAM, the inflated "class math" comes out to 750 Mbps for 2.4 GHz + 2167 Mbps for 5 GHz = 2917 Mbps, which ASUS has shockingly rounded down to 2900.

ASUS has made a smart move by increasing the number of 5 GHz streams, which should help improve performance in that band. But precious few devices—ASUS' PCE-AC88 PCIe desktop adapter being the most notable—support 1024 QAM and you need very strong signals to reach the advertised maximum link rates.

I do totally agree that the non-standard 1024 QAM stuff and Range Boost is all marketing. However, I saw small but clear improvements in upload and download speeds especially at long range for the AC86U over the AC68U and AC3100 with my existing devices that don't use any ASUS client hardware. While the 4x4 5 GHz stream capacity of the AC86U is greater than the AC68U 3x3, the AC3100 has a 4x4 arrangement for both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. Laptops and other mobile devices are unlikely to exceed a 3x3 arrangement any time soon, and most are still using a 2x2 arrangement.

 

[MagnusJ]

I returned my router to the place I purchased it. Under IPTV, it says you can't Enable multicast routing because of hardware limitations. This prevented me from using my IPTV setup.
Anyone knows if this "hardware" limitation is a software bug or an actual issue, because it is not listed anywhere. My old RT-N66U handles this without any issues.
"Due to hardware limitation, IGMP proxy cannot co-exist with IPTV function"

 

[maxbraketorque]

Do you need IGMP proxy?

 

[MagnusJ]

Do you need IGMP proxy?

From my understanding I do need it, I have two switches between the router and the IPTV.
I have port 4 (IPTV) and port 1 (LAN) from the router going into a Netgear GS105 which has a trunk to the next switch Netgear GS108. There I "untag" the IPTV VID 300 to the port for the IPTV.
This did not work without IGMP proxy.
(if this explanation makes sense)

Below is the settings in my N66U (IGMP proxy enabled) and the IPTV worked immidiatley.

 

[MasterBash]

I am still getting disconnections on the 5ghz band. Rarely - like 2-3 times a day. I have no idea what is causing that at all. I disabled MU-MIMO, universal beamforming and airtime fairness. Tried all firmware since I bought the router. It is still bothering because when I get those disconnections, its usually when I do something important.

Any idea if I can do something else about it? I have a TP-Link T9E as my pci-e adapter. 2.4ghz is fine.

 

[jsmiddleton4]

Put me in the group who doesn't quite understand how the R7800 holds its own but yet gets rated lower. Price is less here in the US too for the R7800.

 

[maxbraketorque]

Put me in the group who doesn't quite understand how the R7800 holds its own but yet gets rated lower. Price is less here in the US too for the R7800.

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