ASUS RT-AC86U Dual Band AC2900 Wireless Router Reviewed

[glimerman]

i just got this router a few weeks ago i had a older asus i just felt like upgrading ,, well i have 400mb x25mb spectrum , for some reason this router has a issue with my pc and my lan cards and only gets 275 to 350 k sometimes 150mb if i unplug my lan cable and plug it back in the speeds go up , i updated firmware ,checked all my wires , when i hook the same wire into the modem which i bought a brand new net gear cm600 just in case that was the issue but its not when hooked to the modem i get 450 to 475 mb on every speed test, long story short i hooked up my old router i get 450mb also ,, this router maxes 350mb if im lucky ,, after reading this page i am about to try this firm ware ,i checked every setting and every possible issue but same wires different router speeds are max .. so the problem is within this router,, any tips on installing this fire ware? also are there any new asus routers that don't have this issue ? i will call amazon and just swap it out of a different one if this can be fixed that way ,,and i know its only a 100mb lose but i cant live with that lol.. so should i install this firmware and give things a try ? or what router should i buy if i return this one . my old asus never had a issue for 2 years ,this router works perfect accept for this speed issue

anyone of you guys who just got this have this problem ?

 

[Grisu]

anyone of you guys who just got this have this problem ?

seems to be no prob for others.
are you useing last firmware 32797, try other versions too like 21140.
Make a factory reset with initialize and a reset with holding WPS-button while powering on and release it 15s later.

 

[glimerman]

i will try that thank you and ya i ran about 3 firmware im going g to try merlin i never used it before but im ok with setting it up ,, a few guys mentioned this issue with there 1 gig fiber lines in this thread merlin fixed it ,, im nervous about merlin i just never used it or ever had too but i will try that next and see if that fixes it ,,and the weird thing is i think for some reason it has to do with my lan card in my pc and windows 10 , my xbox speed tests are a little faster and if it lags i unplug my lan cable and plug it back in and then it goes quick again , but im maxing 350mb with my old asus router i get 450mb so merlin is my next option thank you for replying to me , i have a gigabite board with Intel and killer-net work both built in both drivers updated im not about to redo windows 10 not in the mood at all lol .

 

[phusebox]

How could this router get such good reviews?

I installed it to replace a Netgear R7000, did the exact same settings as far as Channel and seperated 2.4 and 5 GHz was concerned. Exact same location.

Result:
Close by (< 3m)
Netgear R7000: 160 Mbps
Asus AC86U: 30 Mbps

Medium range (< 6m)
Netgear R7000: 130 Mbps
Asus AC86U: 20 Mbps

Long range (10m)
Netgear R7000: 90 Mbps
Asus AC86U: 10 Mbps

Tested with inSSIDer:
Link score for Netgear on all locations: 90-100
Link score for Asus: 25-35

I got a Blue Cave together with this one, but didn't even set that one up. If the AC86U is already this bad...

 

[OzarkEdge]

How could this router get such good reviews?

I installed it to replace a Netgear R7000, did the exact same settings as far as Channel and seperated 2.4 and 5 GHz was concerned. Exact same location.

Result:
Close by (< 3m)
Netgear R7000: 160 Mbps
Asus AC86U: 30 Mbps

Medium range (< 6m)
Netgear R7000: 130 Mbps
Asus AC86U: 20 Mbps

Long range (10m)
Netgear R7000: 90 Mbps
Asus AC86U: 10 Mbps

Tested with inSSIDer:
Link score for Netgear on all locations: 90-100
Link score for Asus: 25-35

I got a Blue Cave together with this one, but didn't even set that one up. If the AC86U is already this bad...

Didn't you conclude in another thread here that your 86U router is defective? Now you are suggesting that it's poorly designed?

I would put firmware 21140 on it, reset to factory defaults, and give it a try. If still not satisfactory, return it. I would not count on AiMeshing it with the Blue Cave until the latest firmware has had some time to 'mature'.

OE

 

[phusebox]

Didn't you conclude in another thread here that your 86U router is defective? Now you are suggesting that it's poorly designed?

OE

I said it must be defective or just a bad product... I suspect the latter.

 

[OzarkEdge]

I said it must be defective or just a bad product... I suspect the latter.

There's enough evidence on this forum to suggest the former, if it's not a firmware glitch. If it's just a firmware glitch, try 21140 followed by a factory default reset and reconfig... you may get it working like it should.

OE

 

[phusebox]

There's enough evidence on this forum to suggest the former, if it's not a firmware glitch. If it's just a firmware glitch, try 21140 followed by a factory default reset and reconfig... you may get it working like it should.

OE

I gave up. Both routers will be mailed back to the shop today. Getting an R7800 instead, whenever I feel like I have another 15 hours of spare time I want to waste on installing a router...

 

[username0475]

How could this router get such good reviews?

I installed it to replace a Netgear R7000, did the exact same settings as far as Channel and seperated 2.4 and 5 GHz was concerned. Exact same location.

My Result on 5Ghz:
Close by (< 3m)
Asus AC86U: 300 Mbps

Medium range (< 6m)
Asus AC86U: 250 Mbps

Long range (10m)
Asus AC86U: 150 Mbps

 

[phusebox]

My Result on 5Ghz:
Close by (< 3m)
Asus AC86U: 300 Mbps

Medium range (< 6m)
Asus AC86U: 250 Mbps

Long range (10m)
Asus AC86U: 150 Mbps

That's what I don't get. How can there be such a big difference...

What a fun week it's been. 15 hrs of router testing and sending back and 5 days of Samsung Note 9 testingwhich also has to be sent back. When do I catch a break when I buy something and it just works. Even my MacBook gun when I took it out of the box and booted first time.

 

[CriticJay]

I said it must be defective or just a bad product... I suspect the latter.

Unfortunately, your logic doesn't quite hold considering the tremendous number of end-users who are having the opposite experience with this product.

And if you think, for some reason, that this forum is a secret conspiracy run by Asus Corporation, I can point you to several other forums with lots of happy 86U users...

 

[phusebox]

Unfortunately, your logic doesn't quite hold considering the tremendous number of end-users who are having the opposite experience with this product.

And if you think, for some reason, that this forum is a secret conspiracy run by Asus Corporation, I can point you to several other forums with lots of happy 86U users...

If it was broken wouldn't the wifi just don't work at all? Or one of the two bands?

Perhaps you are right but after an experience like this when I spent 450 USD on new hardware I am pretty fed up with Asus routers.

 

[Grisu]

no, there are many possibilites of failure between ok and completely down.

Believe us that your router has a serious problem most others wont have (beside of possible firmware bugs)!

 

[CriticJay]

If it was broken wouldn't the wifi just don't work at all? Or one of the two bands?

Perhaps you are right but after an experience like this when I spent 450 USD on new hardware I am pretty fed up with Asus routers.

Let me tell you something. Right before my 86U, I had a defective Blue Cave router.

Even though it was defective, the wifi would still "work" - both bands.

The defect was that it would start off fine, with normal ping times on the WLAN. But after 7-10 minutes it would start to overheat incredibly easy, and as the device got hotter and hotter, wireless ping times would get worse and worse and packet loss would increase. I suspect that the heatsink was not attached properly, or maybe they forgot to apply thermal compound, or MAYBE it had really bad silicon (SoC) which snuck past Quality Control. Anyways once it reached 1 hour uptime the thing would still WORK but had 500-1000ms ping time on the WLAN and about 15-20% packet loss. If I unplugged it for 3 hours (to let it cool) and tried again, I could replicate the exact same behaviour (starts off fine, then gradually gets worse until 1000ms ping after 1 hour).

I am pretty certain that what I experienced was a defect, and not standard behaviour for the Blue Cave. After 1 hour, the unit was incredibly hot to the touch, whereas both my Archer C9 and 86U are reasonably cool all over, even after 2 weeks of uptime.

Anyways, instead of exchanging the defective Blue Cave for another one, I decided to upgrade to a better model since the 86U was on sale for the same price.

 

[phusebox]

Let me tell you something. Right before my 86U, I had a defective Blue Cave router.

Even though it was defective, the wifi would still "work" - both bands.

The defect was that it would start off fine, with normal ping times on the WLAN. But after 7-10 minutes it would start to overheat incredibly easy, and as the device got hotter and hotter, wireless ping times would get worse and worse and packet loss would increase. I suspect that the heatsink was not attached properly, or maybe they forgot to apply thermal compound, or MAYBE it had really bad silicon (SoC) which snuck past Quality Control. Anyways once it reached 1 hour uptime the thing would still WORK but had 500-1000ms ping time on the WLAN and about 15-20% packet loss. If I unplugged it for 3 hours (to let it cool) and tried again, I could replicate the exact same behaviour (starts off fine, then gradually gets worse until 1000ms ping after 1 hour).

I am pretty certain that what I experienced was a defect, and not standard behaviour for the Blue Cave. After 1 hour, the unit was incredibly hot to the touch, whereas both my Archer C9 and 86U are reasonably cool all over, even after 2 weeks of uptime.

Anyways, instead of exchanging the defective Blue Cave for another one, I decided to upgrade to a better model since the 86U was on sale for the same price.

I got the 86U for far less as the blue cave. Never thought of it as the superior router.

Well anyhow. I sent it back. The shop wouldn't exchange it for a new one so I sent both back.

 

[maxbraketorque]

How could this router get such good reviews?

I installed it to replace a Netgear R7000, did the exact same settings as far as Channel and seperated 2.4 and 5 GHz was concerned. Exact same location.

Result:
Close by (< 3m)
Netgear R7000: 160 Mbps
Asus AC86U: 30 Mbps

Medium range (< 6m)
Netgear R7000: 130 Mbps
Asus AC86U: 20 Mbps

Long range (10m)
Netgear R7000: 90 Mbps
Asus AC86U: 10 Mbps

Tested with inSSIDer:
Link score for Netgear on all locations: 90-100
Link score for Asus: 25-35

I got a Blue Cave together with this one, but didn't even set that one up. If the AC86U is already this bad...

I don't know what went wrong with your AC86U or possibly your testing, but I have done back-to-back comparisons of the AC86U, AC68U, and AC88U, and all performed way better than what your results suggest with the AC86U producing the best overall wireless performance among the three.

Anyhow, hopefully the R7800 will work as it should for you.

 

[ApexRon]

i just got this router a few weeks ago i had a older asus i just felt like upgrading ,, well i have 400mb x25mb spectrum , for some reason this router has a issue with my pc and my lan cards and only gets 275 to 350 k sometimes 150mb if i unplug my lan cable and plug it back in the speeds go up , i updated firmware ,checked all my wires , when i hook the same wire into the modem which i bought a brand new net gear cm600 just in case that was the issue but its not when hooked to the modem i get 450 to 475 mb on every speed test, long story short i hooked up my old router i get 450mb also ,, this router maxes 350mb if im lucky ,, after reading this page i am about to try this firm ware ,i checked every setting and every possible issue but same wires different router speeds are max .. so the problem is within this router,, any tips on installing this fire ware? also are there any new asus routers that don't have this issue ? i will call amazon and just swap it out of a different one if this can be fixed that way ,,and i know its only a 100mb lose but i cant live with that lol.. so should i install this fireware and give things a try ? or what router should i buy if i return this one . my old asus never had a issue for 2 years ,this router works perfect accept for this speed issue

To me, it almost sounds like an auto-negotiate issue. I recommend that you obtain a quality Cat6 cable. Remove all other LAN cables and just use the Cat6 cable for one device at a time. This will test each device's auto-negotiate capability. I have seen cases where an auto-negotiate issue with one cable/device will drag a router's overall performance to the ditch.

I have an AppleTV connected via Ethernet. Powered up it connects and runs at 1Gbps. However, when you put it to sleep the RT-AC86U drops the connection to 100Mbps but every so many seconds/minutes it marks it as 1Gbps and seconds later drops to 100Mbps. All of this was entered in system log. I discovered a way to force the port to 1Gbps and no more flipping back and forth.

 

[Grisu]

To me, it almost sounds like an auto-negotiate issue. I recommend that you obtain a quality Cat6 cable. Remove all other LAN cables and just use the Cat6 cable for one device at a time. This will test each device's auto-negotiate capability. I have seen cases where an auto-negotiate issue with one cable/device will drag a router's overall performance to the ditch.

I have an AppleTV connected via Ethernet. Powered up it connects and runs at 1Gbps. However, when you put it to sleep the RT-AC86U drops the connection to 100Mbps but every so many seconds/minutes it marks it as 1Gbps and seconds later drops to 100Mbps. All of this was entered in system log. I discovered a way to force the port to 1Gbps and no more flipping back and forth.

did you read he got a THERMAL problem, and CAT5 is perfect for 1Gb/s if you dont need maximal distance of 100m and multiple connectors like it is specified, CAT5e fully supports 1Gb-ethernet!
There is really no need for CAT6 anywhere upto 1GB!

 

[ApexRon]

did you read he got a THERMAL problem, and CAT5 is perfect for 1Gb/s if you dont need maximal distance of 100m and multiple connectors like it is specified, CAT5e fully supports 1Gb-ethernet!
There is really no need for CAT6 anywhere upto 1GB!

A thermal problem can easily be the result of a CPU race condition caused by an error condition like auto-negotiation. The point of the Cat6 cable is to use a known pristine cable. If you have to go out and get a new cable why not Cat6? The point is to remove all Ethernet cables and test each device, independently with a new cable. Since there is a cost per foot, a long cable is not needed.

It is also possible that there could be an Ethernet cable issue to the telco equipment.

 

[Grisu]

A thermal problem can easily be the result of a CPU race condition caused by an error condition like auto-negotiation. The point of the Cat6 cable is to use a known pristine cable. If you have to go out and get a new cable why not Cat6? The point is to remove all Ethernet cables and test each device, independently with a new cable. Since there is a cost per foot, a long cable is not needed.

It is also possible that there could be an Ethernet cable issue to the telco equipment.

no need to test any cable if you got full speed on devices connected via LAN to router!