ASUS RT-AX86U Pro

[joebloogs]

I am about to order an RT-AX86U Pro to replace my aging RT-AC68U....to be fair, RT-AC68U has served me over 8 years without a glitch and is still going strong, but i feel like it has fallen behind, as far as technology goes.
My question is...will i notice anything different in functionality with RT-AX86U Pro? Is reboot time shorter with the RT-AX86U Pro?

 

[Tech9]

It will be very noticeable performance upgrade for both WAN and LAN/WLAN with very likely wider coverage area. Reboot time is about 4 times faster. In addition you get new Asuswrt 5.0 features and extended support. Asuswrt-Merlin supported model as well, currently on Asuswrt 4.0 base.

 

[joebloogs]

It will be very noticeable performance upgrade for both WAN and LAN/WLAN with very likely wider coverage area. Reboot time is about 4 times faster. In addition you get new Asuswrt 5.0 features and extended support. Asuswrt-Merlin supported model as well, currently on Asuswrt 4.0 base.

Thank you for your input...I do use Asuswrt-Merlin on the RT-AC68U so will be using Asuswrt-Merlin on the RT-AX86U Pro too...I am glad reboot time is considerably faster as RT-AC68U takes ages to reboot.
Not worried about coverage that much, as my house is two floors concrete building and RT-AC68U had no problem sending the signal to the far end even on the second floor.
I am happy as the RT-AX86U Pro has a 2.5G port which an be used as a second WAN input, as this will free one of the 4 LAN ports for me...
You see, i have two ISP's going into the router and up to now, i have been using one of the LAN ports as WAN to enter the second ISP connection into the router..

 

[bennor]

My question is...will i notice anything different in functionality with RT-AX86U Pro? Is reboot time shorter with the RT-AX86U Pro?

While things may depend on your use case, yes you will likely notice an improvement over the RT-AC68U.
Yes the RT-AX86U Pro will likely boot faster than the RT-AC68U (mine does), where you may get a longer delay is if using RT-AX86U Pro's DFS /160Ghz frequency on the 5GHZ. Depending on your location you could have the 5Ghz take up to 5 or more minutes to come online due to how DFS negotiates the frequency with other frequencies used by radar and other services.

As someone who went from RT-AC68U to RTAX86U Pro, it was an improvement over the RT-AC68U in my use case. You get added benefits of a 2.5Ghz port for either WAN or LAN if you need it. You get ASUSWRT5.0 (Guest Network Pro and VLAN - 3.0.0.6.x firmware). You get more RAM/NVRAM, better processor, and don't have the low NVRAM that plagues the RT-AC68U. You get the ability to configure a 5th LAN port (either 1GB or 2.5GB) on the RT-AX86U Pro versus 4 LAN ports on the RT-AC68U. Several of my WiFi clients are getting faster WiFi speed with the RT-AX86U Pro. You get Wireguard VPN with the RT-AX86U Pro. There are likely other benefits I'm not thinking of off the top of my head.

But the biggest disadvantage of the 10 year old RT-AC68U is that it is EOL by Asus and likely won't be receiving any future firmware updates (beyond a serious CVE vulnerability fix). If you use Asus-Merlin firmware, the developer (RMerlin) will likely be ending support for the AC series routers by the end of 2024. The RT-AX86U Pro should continue to be supported by Asus firmware and the Asus-Merlin firmware (3004.388.x firmware branch for now) for the next couple of years at the very least.

As always YMMV based on your use case.

 

[bbunge]

Thank you for your input...I do use Asuswrt-Merlin on the RT-AC68U so will be using Asuswrt-Merlin on the RT-AX86U Pro too...I am glad reboot time is considerably faster as RT-AC68U takes ages to reboot.
Not worried about coverage that much, as my house is two floors concrete building and RT-AC68U had no problem sending the signal to the far end even on the second floor.
I am happy as the RT-AX86U Pro has a 2.5G port which an be used as a second WAN input, as this will free one of the 4 LAN ports for me...
You see, i have two ISP's going into the router and up to now, i have been using one of the LAN ports as WAN to enter the second ISP connection into the router..

As you are a Merlin user now you will be pleased with Merlin on the AX86U Pro.

Caution! Set the new router up manually. Do not try to use the settings file or backup from the old router. You may know this but it is worth repeating....

 

[Tech9]

so will be using Asuswrt-Merlin on the RT-AX86U Pro too

You may want to explore the new Asuswrt 5.0 first. Asuswrt-Merlin is still Asuswrt 4.0 based, no Pro firmware specific features.

2.5G port which an be used as a second WAN input

Dual WAN feature was never reliable on Asus routers, but test your luck. There is a custom script as well improving fail back/over.

 

[joebloogs]

Dual WAN feature was never reliable on Asus routers, but test your luck. There is a custom script as well improving fail back/over.

I have never used fail over mode in dual WAN...always Load Balance and it works OK for me...
You see, one of my connections has 4 times the bandwidth of the second connection, so i use that as my Primary WAN and pretty much every client is connected to that,
My second connection is only 1/4 of the first, but has better latency, so i prefer to use that for my mobile gaming...
Load Balance mode gives me the chance to assign my ipad to use this connection as Secondary WAN for gaming on ipad...
so, since ipad is the only client on Secondary WAN i get no interruptions while gaming due to other clients using the bandwidth...
downside is, i cannot use Mobile Gaming Mode on Load Balance as it requires Fail Over mode to work...(not that i know if Mobile Gaming mode would do a difference)