Bought an ASUS RT-AC5300 Router

[Phoenix]

I bought an ASUS RT-AC5300 router today and will be updating this thread with my experiences with it.

First good sign is, last year I bought the ASUS RT-AC3200 router for the sole fact that it has a feature called Smart Connect which when activated, you no longer see 3 bands, 2.4GHz, 5GHz 1, and 5 GHz 2 and sit puzzled thinking "hmmm, which band is best to connect to?" as Smart Connect combines all the 3 bands into 1 SSID and as more devices connect, it assigns them to the least congested band. Sounds great on paper right? that thing never worked properly. My devices were getting randomly disconnected all the time. I tried upgrading to diff. firmwares including Merlin's builds but finally gave up and returned it. It was simply not usable.

First good sign with this router is that Smart Connect actually works now. I haven't been disconnected in the past 2 hours that I have been using the router.

I also turned on the Firewall and added a few ad sites and the Microsoft Telemetry addresses to have them blocked and it didn't affect the router's performance like it did with my RT-AC68U thanks to its 1.4 GHz Dual Core processor.

Additionally, it has an extra security layer called AiProtection which is like a built in Anti-Virus from Trend Micro. On my previous RT-AC68U and RT-AC88U, enabling AiProtection caused a bit of a performance hit. With this router you don't feel a thing, it silently works in the background with no negative impact on performance.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask



Speed Test Results (exactly the same as my RT-AC68U):

 

[Phoenix]

After 48 hours of using it with AiProtection enabled and Smart Connect, I am happy to report that I haven't experienced any disconnections! Finally, ASUS makes a router with features that actually work unlike my previous AC3200 which used to disconnect left and right when Smart Connect/AiProtection were enabled

 

[doczenith1]

On my previous RT-AC68U and RT-AC88U, enabling AiProtection caused a bit of a performance hit.

I have AiProtection enabled on my 68U and only get a performance hit on IPv6 speedtest. IPv4 test come in at 125/25 and IPv6 come in at 65/25. Also note that the internals on the AC88U are the same as your 5300 sans the extra 5 Ghz. radio.

 

[joe012594]

After 48 hours of using it with AiProtection enabled and Smart Connect, I am happy to report that I haven't experienced any disconnections! Finally, ASUS makes a router with features that actually work unlike my previous AC3200 which used to disconnect left and right when Smart Connect/AiProtection were enabled

The only problem with Smart Connect right now is that it doesn't effectively separate out N and AC clients between the two 5GHz bands like it's supposed to. If you go to the GUI and open the client list map, you'll see some of your AC clients on 5GHz-1, which is only supposed to be designated for N only clients. You might get a couple of AC clients that actually make it to 5GHz-2, but this feature definitely has some bugs that need to be sorted out.

 

[dfran1]

Hi Phoenix,
I have a ac5300 on order, after reading so many positive reviews like yours it seems Asus finally has made a router work.
I swore no more Asus but this 5300 seems like it will do what I need, hopefully no LAG for my PS4 gaming, that I had with the 68 and 87. I have very good results with the EA8500, but I find with one SSID on the EA8500 my devices have trouble swapping between the two 2.4 and 5GHz at times. I am very pleased to read so many great reviews that seem to state this works with the AC5300 and also as you state stuff seems to work.
Questions
1.) So how's it still performing??
2a.) What firmware is your current?
2b.) If not now on did you try RMerlin's firmware out and is it working better than stock (from what I read it seems to)?

( I know all this is subjective as I seem to have the most trouble with Asus routers than anyone else, though my 66 performed good)

Also would like any and all other AC5300 owners input to my questions please.

 

[jerry6]

Am I the oNly one that is satisfied with the 3200 ? Only had problems for the first few weeks , for the last 8 months have not had one drop or crash . Of course I don;t use any smart connect or other "advanced " features , been a great router so far , using Merlin FW

 

[W4RH34D]

Am I the oNly one that is satisfied with the 3200 ? Only had problems for the first few weeks , for the last 8 months have not had one drop or crash . Of course I don;t use any smart connect or other "advanced " features , been a great router so far , using Merlin FW

I've been using one without issue as an access point for a long while now. It is fantastic at that role.