Can the AC86U handle 1000 Mbps up/down fiber?

[XIII]

Next week my internet connection will be upgraded from 300/30 Mbps cable to 1000/1000 Mbps fiber. Can my AC86u handle this?

Or should I try to get a newer (Asuswrt-merllin compatible) ASUS router (AX86U?) during Black Friday?

 

[DreaZ]

Don't know. But I get about 900+/900+ upload/download on speedtest.net with my fiber. And that is with Wireguard on my PC. Never reached the magical 1000 ;-)

AC86U with merlin fw.

 

[dlandiss]

Tim's charts (elsewhere in Small Net Builder) suggest that even the newest models from every manufacturer are topping out just above 920Mbps.

 

[XIII]

Alas, no AX86U on sale on Black Friday in my region, so I'll find out how the AC86U performs, later this week.

 

[Clark Griswald]

You shouldn't have a problem with the AC86.
I've been trying for years to justify the leap to the AX86, yet the AC86 hasn't let me down.
RMerlin adding models (GT-AX) to his supported list has me watching for the next AX86 successor,
My AC88 (from Main to AP) has been working since 2017.

 

[Tech9]

Next week my internet connection will be upgraded from 300/30 Mbps cable to 1000/1000 Mbps fiber.

You'll be limited by your existing clients. Without extra workload on the router (AiProtection, Parental Controls, QoS), wired clients will get up to 940Mbps, wireless to common 2-stream radio ~500Mbps. AC86U and AX86U use the same type single CPU core for routing and both have about the same routing performance. AX86U will have an advantage to AX clients only. If your AX clients are mostly mobile devices, the increased AX speed doesn't matter. Phones/tablets have nothing to do with Gigabit Internet. Your browsing experience will be about the same between 300Mbps and Gigabit. Fiber advantage is in upload speed and lower latency. Don't use QoS on symmetrical fiber connection and don't waste your time measuring bufferbloat with online tools.

 

[DarkKnight75]

I had been running ac86u for last 2 years (rock solid) but i'm not sure how many years left of firmware update are left on this model (maybe 1 or 2) In any case, B&H has the ax86u in stock so i took leap and picked up one up. I already have a couple of ax devices, so im at least good for a couple of years. Dont really care for 6e at this point.

 

[bbunge]

Wait for Cyber Monday. An AX86U just might be on sale!

 

[coxhaus]

If you want to achieve gig through put on wireless you will need multiple AP and several clients. It takes WiFi 6 to achieve this kind of through put so you need many clients and multiple APs to reach a gig.

I the best plan for the future is multiple APs.

 

[DarkKnight75]

Wait for Cyber Monday. An AX86U just might be on sale!

I doubt it..that router has been a hot commodity over the last year..wasnt going to take chance having it go OOS again!

 

[XIII]

Thank you all for helping me getting more realistic expectations before the switch!

 

[XIII]

Even with more realistic expectations I’m a bit disappointed…

• The AC86u reports ~500/750 Mbps
• My MacBook Pro reports ~750/750 Mbps, over WiFi
• My PC reports ~200/80 Mbps, wired
• A Raspberry Pi reports ~300/300 Mbps, wired

Looks like the router and Pi are resource constrained?

Unfortunately my Ethernet dongle died so I can’t test wired via the MacBook. I have ordered a different brand, which should arrive later this week. Hope to do some additional testing then.

In the mean time I might investigate the slowness of the PC. Being 10 years old it might just not be capable of more?

 

[ColinTaylor]

The router's built-in speed test is known to be CPU limited on the RT-AC86U so you can discount that. The 750Mbps MacBook speed might be more accurate given that it's over WiFi. The Pi speed looks about right as I think most Pi's only supported 2.4GHz. The PC speed is an anomaly.

If you still can't get over 750Mbps try plugging an Ethernet device directly into your modem to confirm your ISP speeds. If they show ~920Mbps then go back to the router and disable anything that might effect hardware acceleration, like QoS or AiProtection.

 

[XIII]

I just tested on my old Mac Mini (mid 2011), which reports ~900/750 (wired).

Also ran SG TCP Optimizer on the PC and now it reports ~270/200 (wired).

PC's speed is slow on both Windows 10 and Ubuntu. I also tried using different cables, but the cable used for the Mac still gives the subpar results on the PC. The PC is really old (from 2008?), but MSI, the manufacturer of the mainboard (P45 Neo3-FR), claims the Realtek 8111C chipset supports PCI Express LAN 10/100/1000 Fast Ethernet. I'm using the "Realtek PCI GbE Family Adapter" driver version 10.53.1001.2021 (from 1-Oct-2021) on Windows 10 21H2 64-bit.

Any tips to get better performance on the PC (until I buy a Mac in 2022)?

 

[ColinTaylor]

Try uninstalling the driver and going back to a much older version. I had to go back to a 2016 Broadcom driver on one laptop because all the recent Windows 10 versions had performance issues.

 

[Tech9]

• The AC86u reports ~500/750 Mbps
• My MacBook Pro reports ~750/750 Mbps, over WiFi
• My PC reports ~200/80 Mbps, wired
• A Raspberry Pi reports ~300/300 Mbps, wired

- Not accurate, CPU dependent
- Excellent, must be a MBP model with 3x3 AC Wi-Fi
- A PC from 2008 - driver or low hardware specs related
- Only RPi4 supports full Gigabit, the pervious RPi3 B+ is limited to 300Mbps.

 

[XIII]

MacBook Pro (2019) wired, via Anker PowerExpand+ USB-C hub, scores over 900/900.

Definitely something wrong with that PC…

 

[XIII]

Accidentally ran some speed tests in Edge (I normally only use Firefox) and DL/UL speeds are up to 2-4 times faster than Firefox (even Firefox with a brand new profile).

Huh?

 

[L&LD]

Edge is superior. Has been for many moons now.

 

[follower]

Next week my internet connection will be upgraded from 300/30 Mbps cable to 1000/1000 Mbps fiber. Can my AC86u handle this?

Or should I try to get a newer (Asuswrt-merllin compatible) ASUS router (AX86U?) during Black Friday?

Yes it can. AC68U can handle it too. Above 900 usually.