Asus RT-AC87 with 378.55_0 vs. Asus RT-AC66 with Fork 374.43_2-13E1j9527

[Just Checking]

I purchased a RT-AC87 router last week (refurbished on sale for US$149 at Newegg) because I installed all the other Asus routers I had and needed a backup. I decided to test this new router out and compare it to my RT-AC66 router that I use in my own home.

My research indicated that the RT-AC87 with stock Asus firmware has problems with wireless disconnects so I installed the latest Asus-Merlin 378.55_0 firmware. I normally never run the stock Asus firmware anyway. All the other Asus routers I use/maintain have John's Fork 374.43_2-13E1j9527 firmware installed. That firmware provides me with routers that are high reliability, excellent signal strength on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, and no disconnects. I also replace one of the antenna on the RT-AC66 router with a 17dBi High-Gain omni-directional antenna to boost the 2.4GHz signal strength.

For my testing, I set the RT-AC87 at 95% for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. I set the RT-AC66 at 110mW for the 2.4GHz band and 120mW for the 5GHz band. I set the antenna positions at what I found to be optimum for each router. The routers were side-by-side and at the same elevation. Since my network gives me the ability to have multiple WANs, both the routers were connnected to the Internet and fully operational on separate networks. I tested the signal strength at various locations using a HP Elitebook 8460p with Intel WiFi card (an N card which only allows a maximum of 300Mbps) and a Samsung Galaxy S5 which has AC WiFi capability and link rates up to 867Mbps.

My observation is that I am not getting as high a signal strength or link rate on either the 2.4GHz or 5GHz bands from the RT-AC87 as I do with the RT-AC66 router. The measured signal strength is about 6-10dBi less with the RT-AC87 on either band than the RT-AC66. That is a huge difference. The link rate was about 25% lower with the RT-AC87 than with the RT-AC66. I did some quick wireless transfers using the HP Elitebook 8460p and saw an actual transfer rate (upload and download) difference of about 15%-20%, with the RT-AC87 being the loser. I tried both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. I even tried switch the 5GHz band on the RT-AC87 from the 153 channel down to channel 44 to see if it would make a difference (not even at 20 meters away through several walls).

Is the 378.55_0 firmware on the RT-87 router giving that much of a hit against that routers performance? If that is case, what can I do to improve it? I tried to change the antenna positions and even the best position was no better than I reported above. I tried switching out one of the stock antenna for a 17dBi High-Gain antenna. That improved the 2.4GHz measured signal strength from -33dBi to -21dBi but changed the 5GHz signal strength from -36dBi to -44dBi. Implementing beam-forming, or not, didn't make a lot of difference and the RT-AC66 still outperformed the RT-AC87.

I have 36 wired/wireless clients on my RT-AC66 router and it handles them without a hiccup. I am still setting up the RT-AC87 for DHCP assignments so I can switch out the routers to test how it handles the load from a large number of client devices.

So far, I am very disappointed with this RT-AC87. Should I just send this back and get another refurbished RT-AC66? I can buy those for US$94 and they use the Fork firmware. I like the AI Protect feature of the RT-AC87 and the USB 3.0 is actually functional at high speed. Those features are not as important to me as reliable and high speed wireless connections.

I also tested the RT-AC87 against a RT-AC68 and the RT-AC87 lost out there too. I just don't like the RT-AC68 routers because the ones I tested run hot (IMO) and drop more wireless connections than the RT-AC66 routers.

 

[Deleted member 22229]

All of them are capped at 80mw output with Asus and Merlin builds. John's fork IMO is the best firmware out there right now for the routers he supports. As for the 87U what can i say read around many unhappy people. I had one 2 weeks and returned it for a refund it wasthe worse router i ever owned constant issues to the point your family will hate you over it.

 

[TurboFreak68]

I have a Rt-AC87U since 5-6 months back and had different issues with both Wifi and other stuff like freezing and dropping Internet and so on, but since last month I have been running RMerlin latest version 378.55 and longest uptime 31 days without any hickups or dropouts, then my ISP got big problem so I had to reboot it.

Have different clients on it as well PC, tablets Android/Ipad, smartphones Android/Iphone and couple of notebooks. usually have like 7-8 clients and when hole family is gathered like 15-18 clients. It is steady as a rock for now so Im very happy with it.

My ISP is Telia with 100MB/100MB both directions and no VPN or proxy running.

Forgot to mention that my apartment is 103 squaremeter and it is cover this very well too compared to Rt-AC66U I had before this one.

 

[L&LD]

Why not test the hggomes fork of RMerlin's firmware?

 

[Gravityz]

yes i would like to see that test also.
that's the one with all the unlocked stuff and nice Merlin Features but with the FCC crippled firmware.(sorry but Merlin can not fix this)

so if you use this firmware and boost the power to a higher level(which it can) then you should get the same power output as the fork from john.

Why not test the hggomes fork of RMerlin's firmware?

 

[Just Checking]

yes i would like to see that test also.
that's the one with all the unlocked stuff and nice Merlin Features but with the FCC crippled firmware.(sorry but Merlin can not fix this)

so if you use this firmware and boost the power to a higher level(which it can) then you should get the same power output as the fork from john.

Sorry for taking so long to reply to this thread. I had to read the hggomes thread through to understand it more fully before replying.

From reading that string I understand that:
1) The firmware has not been uploaded to github and that there are security and transparency issues with that. (Please correct this if I have incomplete/outdated information since the thread was locked.)
2) The firmware is not available through download unless someone sends it to you by PM.
3) There are issues with the FW loading properly and it requires a hard reset to implement (not a problem, I just need that clarified).
4) Hggomes FW has problems with PPPOE implementation. Since my ISP requires that, it is very important for me to understand how to implement it. The thread was locked and there were only 2-3 posts which mentioned it so I am not fully conversant with the problems of PPPOE or, whether there was ever a fix implemented.
5) There is NO documentation on the Hggomes FW. People who are using it either have no other alternatives (router not supported by Merlin, John, or others) or, they are users who just want to try stuff out.
6) This FW version can only provide an improvement to the potential download speed of the router but will have no effect on the upload speed. The RT-AC87 has poorer performance than my RT-AC66 in terms of both download and upload transfer rates.

I am neither desperate, nor am I willing to try such questionable software just to get a RT-AC87 router to have the same performance as one that is 2 generations older but has rock solid performance on well accepted and supported FW. I do appreciate the suggestion and the thread was an interesting read (albeit the start of a flame war did get somewhat tiresome).

Can anyone who has a Asus RT-AC87 router tell me that this one has distinct advantages over the
RT-AC66 or RT-AC68 (aside from the AIProtect feature and a functional USB 3.0 port). If so, I would like to know what they are so I can decide whether to return this router and get another RT-AC66 or RT-AC68.

 

[sfx2000]

I am neither desperate, nor am I willing to try such questionable software just to get a RT-AC87 router to have the same performance as one that is 2 generations older but has rock solid performance on well accepted and supported FW. I do appreciate the suggestion and the thread was an interesting read (albeit the start of a flame war did get somewhat tiresome).

Can anyone who has a Asus RT-AC87 router tell me that this one has distinct advantages over the
RT-AC66 or RT-AC68 (aside from the AIProtect feature and a functional USB 3.0 port). If so, I would like to know what they are so I can decide whether to return this router and get another RT-AC66 or RT-AC68.

Just return it and get an RT-AC68U - your clients/workstations won't know the difference, except that the internet stops dropping out...

 

[L&LD]

Sorry for taking so long to reply to this thread. I had to read the hggomes thread through to understand it more fully before replying.

From reading that string I understand that:
1) The firmware has not been uploaded to github and that there are security and transparency issues with that. (Please correct this if I have incomplete/outdated information since the thread was locked.)
2) The firmware is not available through download unless someone sends it to you by PM.
3) There are issues with the FW loading properly and it requires a hard reset to implement (not a problem, I just need that clarified).
4) Hggomes FW has problems with PPPOE implementation. Since my ISP requires that, it is very important for me to understand how to implement it. The thread was locked and there were only 2-3 posts which mentioned it so I am not fully conversant with the problems of PPPOE or, whether there was ever a fix implemented.
5) There is NO documentation on the Hggomes FW. People who are using it either have no other alternatives (router not supported by Merlin, John, or others) or, they are users who just want to try stuff out.
6) This FW version can only provide an improvement to the potential download speed of the router but will have no effect on the upload speed. The RT-AC87 has poorer performance than my RT-AC66 in terms of both download and upload transfer rates.

I am neither desperate, nor am I willing to try such questionable software just to get a RT-AC87 router to have the same performance as one that is 2 generations older but has rock solid performance on well accepted and supported FW. I do appreciate the suggestion and the thread was an interesting read (albeit the start of a flame war did get somewhat tiresome).

Can anyone who has a Asus RT-AC87 router tell me that this one has distinct advantages over the
RT-AC66 or RT-AC68 (aside from the AIProtect feature and a functional USB 3.0 port). If so, I would like to know what they are so I can decide whether to return this router and get another RT-AC66 or RT-AC68.

You don't need to be desperate to try this firmware. Yes it does need a full reset to factory defaults to give any benefit after loading it (I suggest you use new ssid's too).

There are no issues loading the firmware if you first flash the RMerlin latest first. (RMerlin's firmware makes sure that any in-between update requirements are handled with that single flash).

If you're really paranoid about the source, setup a double nat network if you can and monitor if anything untoward is happening.

Allowing the full capabilities of the hardware and putting the responsibility of the 'legal' side of it to the owner is how it should be, imo.

Only your testing will show you if the alternate firmware meets your expectations.

The RT-AC66U, while stable for you, has failed (physically dead) many times for my customers and is much below what the RT-AC68U and above is capable of, ime.

You have the RT-AC87U. Try the firmware available to see if it becomes the router you hope it should be.

 

[Just Checking]

You don't need to be desperate to try this firmware. Yes it does need a full reset to factory defaults to give any benefit after loading it (I suggest you use new ssid's too).

There are no issues loading the firmware if you first flash the RMerlin latest first. (RMerlin's firmware makes sure that any in-between update requirements are handled with that single flash).

The RT-AC66U, while stable for you, has failed (physically dead) many times for my customers and is much below what the RT-AC68U and above is capable of, ime.

You have the RT-AC87U. Try the firmware available to see if it becomes the router you hope it should be.

I was hoping that I might be able to use the RT-AC87 as a single unit where I am currently using multiple RT-AC66's in AP mode. The marketing claims of being able to cover a "5000 ft2" building does not appear to be accurate (not really surprising). I guess I'll put this one down in the columns of "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is" and "You will just have to learn for yourself".

I ordered another RT-AC68 as a backup (Picked up a Refurb at Newegg for US$99- hard to pass that one up). I have a week, or so to evaluate the hggomes FW before I need to send back the RT-AC87. Can someone send me a PM or link to a download site for the hggomes FW for an RT-AC87? I will stick with John's Fork for the routers it supports since it works fine for those.

L&LD, while I believe that you have had poor experiences with RT-AC66's, my experiences have been the opposite. I have purchased and installed more than a dozen of these RT-AC66 routers at different locations and clients and have had no problems with uptime or reliability. Since switching to John's Fork FW at ver 2, I have had absolutely no complaints about connections or feature sets. With the addition of a high gain (17dBi stick type) and after playing around with antenna positions and WiFi settings, my customers and, therefore, I am satisfied with the range, transfer speed, and connection reliability of these units. Granted, most of my clients are not sophisticated and do not use most of the features of these routers - they just want reliable, strong wired and wireless connections with basic firewall and device support.

I have evaluated two RT-AC68 routers and, while they appeared to have higher signal strength for equivalent settings and FW, I was never able to achieve any better transfer rates than with the RT-AC66 in my testing. They benefit from the same antenna configuration as the RT-AC66 but don't achieve any better wireless performance. My monitoring says they run hotter than the RT-AC66's do. Under heavy load, the RT-AC68 routers that I have tested will drop connections where the RT-AC66's do not. This may be due to overheating and improperly installed heat sinks. I intend to disassemble one of the RT-AC68's I have, to see if the heat sink is warped or the screws over-torqued as has been shown in this forum. If I can get the RT-AC68's to be more reliable, I will feel comfortable with them as replacements for the RT-AC66's.

 

[joegreat]

Hi,

Here are my 2 cents:
When it comes to WLAN power and range, the best solution is still the N66U (guess why I have one )!

Even with Merlin's firmware (as in my case) it's blowing away the AC68U on the other side of my home...
If you need more power, you can use John's Fork as it's based on an "older and better standard" for power limits.

Although you have a "more powerful router" you might consider the same solution as I have to overcome the regulatory power limits for WLAN, AND still be on the legal side when it come to signal power and channels used!!!

With kind regards
Joe

 

[gschra11]

My AC87U seems to be working fine. I've not had any freezes. The 5 GHz radio does seem to drop, but it's hard to tell what is most at fault. I only have two 5 GHz devices in my home. One is my iPad 3 and the other is my Samsung Galaxy S6. While I've caught my Samsung dropping off of 5 GHz many times, I've never caught my iPad doing it once. The phone seems to like to jump between the 5 GHz band and the 2.4 GHz bands often, whereas the iPad seems to be content staying on the 5 GHz band once it connects.

I really like the hardware acceleration. My wired connections just fly. To me, AiProtection with Parental Controls (and DNS filtering with Merlin) and wired connections took priority over the wireless anyway, so I was OK with going with the better processing power to sacrifice (or, perhaps better worded, "risk") wireless performance.

I'm using ASUSWRT-Merlin 378.55_0

 

[nubyOz]

Hi,
I have just switched to John's fork on my RT-AC68U from 54.2.
They key issue I had was connectivity and stability.
My nest Thermostat and Protect frequently (3-4 times a week) connection and took often router restart to re-connect.
Laptop and mobile devices often lost connection for a moment (2-3 times day).
After upgrade to Windows 10 (Intel 7260 card) when switching from 2.4 to 5.2 band it seems to trigger a freeze of the router, all devices lost connection and needed to restart the router.

No issues since switching to the latest John's fork.
Still a big fan of RMerlin, I suspect its the new driver SDK which is out of Merlin's control.

Cheers

 

[Just Checking]

You don't need to be desperate to try this firmware. Yes it does need a full reset to factory defaults to give any benefit after loading it (I suggest you use new ssid's too).

There are no issues loading the firmware if you first flash the RMerlin latest first. (RMerlin's firmware makes sure that any in-between update requirements are handled with that single flash).

If you're really paranoid about the source, setup a double nat network if you can and monitor if anything untoward is happening.

Allowing the full capabilities of the hardware and putting the responsibility of the 'legal' side of it to the owner is how it should be, imo.

Only your testing will show you if the alternate firmware meets your expectations.

The RT-AC66U, while stable for you, has failed (physically dead) many times for my customers and is much below what the RT-AC68U and above is capable of, ime.

You have the RT-AC87U. Try the firmware available to see if it becomes the router you hope it should be.

Thanks to L&LD I was able to download the HGGomez 378.55_3 latest FW for the Asus RT-AC87 router. I previously had been testing the RMerlin latest FW ver 378.55_0. I have not had a lot of time to test out all the features on the HGGomez FW but, here is a short synopsis of the testing I have done so far. I had to rely on measuring signal strength on a HP Elitebook 8460p laptop and link rate on a Samsung Galaxy S5 instead of actually transfering real large files like I usually do to get upload and download transfer speeds. When I have more time, I will take the measurements to report them.

RMerlin 378.55_0 settings:
Power settings: 2.4GHz - 100%, channel 11, N only, Explicit Beamforming ON, Implicit Beamforming Off
5GHz - 100%, channel 44, Auto, AC Beamforming ON, Universal Beamforming OFF
AIProtect: ON
QOS: OFF
PPPoE - Required by my ISP
IPv4 Firewall
IPv6 Tunneling 6to4 - ISP does not support native IpV6
Port Forwarding
DCHP assignments
Jumbo Packets: On

CPU Utilization: CPU 1 - 0%, CPU2 - 1%-3%
RAM Utilization: 102MB
2.4GHz Radio Temp: 55 C.; 5GHz Radio Temp: 57 C.; CPU Temp: 71 C.


HGGomez 378.55_3 settings:
Power settings: 2.4GHz - 11%, channel 11, N only, Explicit Beamforming ON, Implicit Beamforming Off
5GHz - 18%, channel 44, Auto, AC Beamforming ON, Universal Beamforming OFF
AIProtect: ON
QOS: OFF
PPPoE - Required by my ISP
IPv4 Firewall
IPv6 Tunneling 6to4 - ISP does not support native IpV6
Port Forwarding
DCHP assignments
Jumbo Packets: On

CPU Utilization: CPU 1 - 0%, CPU2 - 1%-3%
RAM Utilization: 86MB
2.4GHz Radio Temp: 47 C.; 5GHz Radio Temp: 71 C.; CPU Temp: 87 C.

You may wonder why I chose the power settings that I did for the HGGomez FW. From the string on this FW, I knew that a setting of about 10% was close to the stock 80mW maximum. I started there and adjusted the power setting until I achieved rough equivalency to the RT-AC66 signal strength as measured by an HP Elitebook 8440p laptop at a distance of 2 meters away. I know that the wireless card is not as good in the 8440p as the 8460p (a generation older) which I used to test the signal strength at 20 meters distance. It was the laptop I had on hand.

The RT-AC66 router I tested this against has one 17dBi High Gain omni-directional antenna in the vertical position on the right side of the router with the other two stock antenna in the 45 and 90 degree (horizontal) positions. Through trial and error, I found that this is the optimum configuration for the RT-AC66 router in the environments I have tested. The power settings for this router were 2.4GHz - 110 mW; 5GHz - 120mW. Again, I found that this was the best compromise of measured signal output strength vs. radio temperature. These settings allow me to keep the radio temperature between 51C - 56C. Higher power settings increase temperature significantly with little gain in signal strength. I want reliable router output with maximum uptime and no dropped connections.

Pros of HGGomez FW:
- Uses less RAM
- Gives higher signal strength than RMerlin FW
- Can give higher link rate than my RT-AC66 router running John's Fork 374.43_2-13E1 FW
- UI is the same and all the features I tested (small fraction) seem to work the same as RMerlin FW.
- Easy to download and Flash the FW.
- Many more channels to choose from on both the 2.4GHz & 5GHZ bands.
- Achieved higher link rates (158Mbps vs. 117Mbps) on the 2.4GHz band at 20 meters away than the RT-AC66.
- 2.4GHz signal and connection was rock steady.
- Measured 2.4GHz signal strength at 20 meters was -32dBi with the RT-AC87 vs. -40dBi with the RT-AC66 (17dBi High Gain Antenna).
- Achieved higher 5GHz maximum link rate (780Mbps vs. 585Mbps) at 20 meters with the RT-AC87 vs the RT-AC66.
- Achieved higher 5GHz signal stength (-62dBi vs -74dBi) with the RT-AC87 vs. the RT-AC66.

Cons of HGGomez FW:
- Way higher 5GHz radio and CPU Temps. I understand why the 5GHz radio temp is higher since I am putting out more power but I have no idea why the CPU temp went way up. I get concerned about this (even though RMerlin says these routers are built to take the higher temp) since I experienced more dropped connections as the temps increases.
- The 5GHz connection link rate was highly variable when tested multiple times. At 20 meters away from the router through several plaster and lathe walls with copper piping, romex wiring, and cast iron waste lines, I got link rates on my Samsung S5 ranging from 117 Mbps to 780Mbps. At the same location I was getting a rock steady 585Mbps with the RT-AC66 router.
- The 5GHz connection dropped a couple times during the testing with the HGGomez FW. I encountered no problems with either the RMerlin 378.55_0 on the RT-AC87 or, John's Fork 374.43_2-13E1 on the RT-AC66 router.

Conclusions:
The HGGomez FW does allow me to achieve higher signal strength and maximum link rates with the RT-AC87 router than RMerlins FW and higher than the RT-AC66 with John's Fork FW. It allows me to choose multiple channels that are not available with the other FW options with out writing my own code. The cost of higher power output is higher radio temperatures on the 5GHz band, higher CPU temperatures (not sure why this is occuring), highly variable 5GHz link rate, and more dropped connections. I was not seeing the dropped connections using RMerlins 378.55_0 FW but I was not stressing the router with many simultaneous client connections either.

My priorities for a router are 1) Reliability - Not having to reset the router except for updates. 2) Uptime - Must be available to clients 24/7. 3) No Dropped Connections 4) Ability to handle large numbers of diverse client devices. 5) Wireless Range. 6) Wireless Link Rate. The HGGomez FW does give me priorities 5 & 6 but not 1-3. The RMerlin 378.55_0 FW is better suited for my priorities with this RT-AC87 router.

I guess I will just return this RT-AC87 and eat the shipping fees. It was interesting to play with with but the extra features (AiProtection & Functional USB3.0 port) do not justify the extra cost - even at the refurbished unit price I paid.

 

[L&LD]

I see you took your time and tried to test the firmware versions as fairly as possible and you've based your decision on it fairly with the requirements you had. Even if I may have tested with different parameters myself.

Thank you for your follow up post. It is always interesting to see what others find more or less important. For the temp differences, I do not find that with the hggomes fork. But I haven't tried it on an RT-AC87U either.

Hope you find a router that matches your expectations exactly.

 

[Chrysalis]

I back up the suggestions to get an AC68 and use with john's fork, its probably the best asus router to choose right now and may well be for a long time due to the wifi crippling of newer firmwares.

I came from an ac66, and in terms of wifi stability, there is no regression on the ac68, in fact I reckon it performs better.

In terms of heat levels, when I had it at stock speeds, it was warmer than I expected but not dangerously hot, I now active cool it but thats mostly because I am also overclocking it. Active cooling isnt that hard to do as sticking a fan to the left side above the ethernet ports (looking from the front) at the back of the device provides enough airflow to cool the internal parts, especially if you power it via a usb port meaning no external power required.

 

[Just Checking]

I see you took your time and tried to test the firmware versions as fairly as possible and you've based your decision on it fairly with the requirements you had. Even if I may have tested with different parameters myself.

L&LD; Thanks again for sending the link.

Just curious, what parameters would you have tested and what are your priorities for evaluation? I know that you have also installed routers at client locations, not just your own home. I will be interested to see what you look at and prioritize in that situation.

 

[Goofie Newfie]

3 weeks in, merlins firmware, no drops on 5gig at all and I'm working remotely via rdp on my Surface 3 pro nightly so I would notice. 2.4 range rock solid. No reboots needed. 30 devices, cameras, Nest protects, idevices, wired pcs, consoles. I've removed all my AP's that other routers could never reach in my home and now only run the Asus.

This is on a 87u.

I'm not doubting people here have had issues, but knock on wood, I'm not seeing them.......so far. A month from now who knows maybe I'll toss it in the garbage in frustration.

My biggest complaint - Asus firmware gui was a mess and felt like Beta. Also - heat. Solved with a laptop cooler and cpu hovers around 62C. But I should NEVER have to worry about heat on a home router. Design is good looking, but no vents, and plastic feels cheap cheap cheap. As someone that has built countless Asus PC's - that surprised me.

All the bad comments on this forum have me paranoid about it, but yet it works for me so far.

 

[The Asgard]

3 weeks in, merlins firmware, no drops on 5gig at all and I'm working remotely via rdp on my Surface 3 pro nightly so I would notice. 2.4 range rock solid. No reboots needed. 30 devices, cameras, Nest protects, idevices, wired pcs, consoles. I've removed all my AP's that other routers could never reach in my home and now only run the Asus.

This is on a 87u.

I'm not doubting people here have had issues, but knock on wood, I'm not seeing them.......so far. A month from now who knows maybe I'll toss it in the garbage in frustration.

My biggest complaint - Asus firmware gui was a mess and felt like Beta. Also - heat. Solved with a laptop cooler and cpu hovers around 62C. But I should NEVER have to worry about heat on a home router. Design is good looking, but no vents, and plastic feels cheap cheap cheap. As someone that has built countless Asus PC's - that surprised me.

All the bad comments on this forum have me paranoid about it, but yet it works for me so far.

Ditto for me too, my AC87 is solid too on the latest firmware.

Build quality is no different to a Nighthawk.

 

[Just Checking]

I did a few tests with the HGGomes 378.55_3 FW on the RT-AC87 router. I tried to test the number of streams I could get on this router with the firmware and compare it to an RT-AC66 router using John's 374.43_2-13E1. I used some HP Elitebook 8460p laptops and a Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphone to connect into some Plex Media Servers through the routers remotely. I accessed some 720p and 1080p media files and just kept adding more users until I got hangups.

With the RT-AC87, I started getting error messages after starting the 2nd stream that my connection was not fast enough and to switch to a lower streaming rate (All my tests were conducted at a 8Mbps streaming rate which is the minimum setting for a 1080p stream on Plex). When I added the 3rd media stream I started to get hangups of the video portion of the stream. I could not start a 4th stream. The RT-AC87 was in the same room as the devices I was streaming to so the link rate was maximized. It should also be noted that I only do my testing on the 5GHz band to minimize signal interference from other radio sources. My testing is done in an urban environment in multi-family housing (apartment buildings). I often see more than 20 other radio sources on the 2.4GHz band so I have pretty much abandoned that for testing.

Using a RT-AC66 router that was 2 floors and 20+ meters away from the devices, I did not get error messages until the 3rd stream and I did not get hangups until I started the 6th video stream. I was able to start 7 video streams and could not start an 8th stream. The RT-AC66 router was able to handle twice the number of connections as the RT-AC87 router.

This is a fair comparison to make between the routers. If anything, I skewed it in favor of the RT-AC87 by placing the client streaming devices close enough to the router to maximize the signal strength and minimize the delay. Placing the RT-AC66 so far away (it was in another apartment unit in the building) gave a much weaker signal strength and lower link speed.

I know people will say that it is not a fair comparison because the firmware isn't the same. Sorry, If I could have used John's Fork on the RT-AC87 I would have but it isn't compatible. The RT-AC87 is supposed to have 2 5GHz radios I believe and a much faster ARM-7 processor. It should have every advantage over the RT-AC66 router. I just can't make it perform as good as the RT-AC66 router.

If anybody has suggestions on how to do other real world comparisons between these routers. I'm open to suggestions. I will be returning the RT-AC87 next week so I have a little time.

 

[Goofie Newfie]

Your using a refurbished unit correct?

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