Connection of ISP router to Asus RT-AC86U (AC2900)

[Radleydm]

I am looking for advice in connecting my ISP router (FiberGateway GR241AG on which MEO will not allow a VPN) to an Asus RT-AC86U (AC2900) which I am about to buy and install Nord VPN, and then see if I can use my existing Asus RT-AC66U.B1 as an extender. The reason is that the existing 66U.B1 with VPN restricts speed to 40Mbps.

The present setup is that the GR241AG is connected to the WAN socket on the AC66U.B1 and I have Nord VPN on the Asus. The Asus is set in Wireless router mode / AiMesh Router mode (Default) with other options being
Access Point(AP) mode / AiMesh Router in AP mode, Repeater mode, Media Bridge and AiMesh Node.
The GR241AG has bridge mode disabled with the note: The activation of the bridge mode will make use of LAN 4.
If I connect the GR241AG to the new Asus AC86U (WAN) should it (the GR241) not be in bridge mode?

If I then use the existing Asus AC66U.B1 as an extender (connected to the new AC86U) in an area well away from the other two routers what should the setting be on it?
All of the routers will be connected by ethernet cables.

The reason for the change is that with the existing setup a speed of 500Mbps from the ISP router to the Asus 66U.B1 falls to ±120Mbps from the Asus to my desktop and when Nord VPN is on the Asus the speed is only 40Mbps. I have alraedy learned from this forum that the latest Asus RT-AC86U may give up to 200Mbps but that the output would only be whatever the Nord server can provide which seems to be in the region of 100/120 Mbps.

Appreciate advice please.

 

[CaptainSTX]

I am looking for advice in connecting my ISP router (FiberGateway GR241AG on which MEO will not allow a VPN) to an Asus RT-AC86U (AC2900) which I am about to buy and install Nord VPN, and then see if I can use my existing Asus RT-AC66U.B1 as an extender. The reason is that the existing 66U.B1 with VPN restricts speed to 40Mbps.

The present setup is that the GR241AG is connected to the WAN socket on the AC66U.B1 and I have Nord VPN on the Asus. The Asus is set in Wireless router mode / AiMesh Router mode (Default) with other options being
Access Point(AP) mode / AiMesh Router in AP mode, Repeater mode, Media Bridge and AiMesh Node.
The GR241AG has bridge mode disabled with the note: The activation of the bridge mode will make use of LAN 4.
If I connect the GR241AG to the new Asus AC86U (WAN) should it (the GR241) not be in bridge mode?

If I then use the existing Asus AC66U.B1 as an extender (connected to the new AC86U) in an area well away from the other two routers what should the setting be on it?
All of the routers will be connected by ethernet cables.

The reason for the change is that with the existing setup a speed of 500Mbps from the ISP router to the Asus 66U.B1 falls to ±120Mbps from the Asus to my desktop and when Nord VPN is on the Asus the speed is only 40Mbps. I have alraedy learned from this forum that the latest Asus RT-AC86U may give up to 200Mbps but that the output would only be whatever the Nord server can provide which seems to be in the region of 100/120 Mbps.

Appreciate advice please.

You need to double NAT your new AC86 behind the ISP's router if it can't easily be put into the bridge mode. There is no speed penalty in having a double NAT setup.

You then you set your N66U up as an AP. Once you put it into the AP mode most settings on it our disabled. On the AC86 you probably want to five the N66 a static IP. Just be sure the radio channels used on all routers are different. Complete instruction on re purposing a router as an AP can be found on this site.

 

[ColinTaylor]

The GR241AG has bridge mode disabled with the note: The activation of the bridge mode will make use of LAN 4.
If I connect the GR241AG to the new Asus AC86U (WAN) should it (the GR241) not be in bridge mode?

Whether you configure the GR241AG in bridge mode is up to you and has no particular bearing on your new router. If you wanted to you could use it in bridge mode today with your existing RT-AC66U_B1. The new RT-AC86U will be no different. Obviously if you do use bridge mode then you can no longer use the GR241AG's WiFi or its other LAN ports.

@CaptainSTX He has an RT-AC66U_B1 not an RT-N66U.

 

[Radleydm]

Again many thanks Colin Taylor. I will not put the GR2421AG in bridge mode. Thank you Captain STX - I will look on the site for the instructions for setting the AC66U.B1 as an access point.

 

[ColinTaylor]

With the RT-AC66U_B1 you have a choice. You can either configure it as a simple access point, or you could configure it as an AiMesh node. I'm not sure there's that much practical difference between doing either. AiMesh makes more sense when you have more than one node.

 

[CaptainSTX]

@CaptainSTX He has an RT-AC66U_B1 not an RT-N66U

My mistake. As you say with RT-AC66U he does have the choice of AP or mesh.

 

[Radleydm]

I was just about to place the order for an AC86U (AC2900) but looking at various items in the forum (and elsewhere) there seems to be numerous problems with this model including firmware issues. I am able to cope with my existing AC66U-B1 setup, firmware updates etc. but what is the overall general opinion of the AC86U?
I really want to get another router which will not limit the Nord VPN download speeds to 40Mbps and while it seems that Nord here in Portugal only reach speeds of ±100Mbps that would suffice. I would also like to use the AC66U.B1 as an access point with the new router.
Would appreciate the pluses and minuses please.

 

[Val D.]

what is the overall general opinion of the AC86U?

Avoid this particular model is my opinion. I already sold mine, wasn't even close to the reliability of RT-AC68U, both in hardware and software. If you like to supervise your router daily to make sure all the services are still running on it, go ahead. If you want something set-and-forget, better look elsewhere. I moved away from consumer market altogether. Too much false advertising, too many disposable products, low quality control. Newer ASUS products are no exception.

Another victim of RT-AC86U from yesterday:
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/one-of-my-rt-ac86us-died-and-shipped-to-asus.62318/

 

[Radleydm]

Thank you. Does the RT-AC68U restrict download speed to 40Mbps as does the AC66U.B1 or will it allow the speed of the Nord server which is about 120Mbps?

 

[Grisu]

They are the same (68U and 66U_B1) in terms of hard- and firmware only in different housing.
AC86U will give you full VPN speed for a good price (some have troubles others are happy) or the much more expensive AX88U which will have other problems and still in some kind of beta phase (Wifi6 isn't finalized).
Maybe best to order both and stay with the better performing one after 1 or 2 weeks testing everything.

 

[Val D.]

Thank you. Does the RT-AC68U restrict download speed to 40Mbps as does the AC66U.B1 or will it allow the speed of the Nord server which is about 120Mbps?

RT-AC86U is actually capable of >250Mbps through OpenVPN. The CPU has AES hardware support. Not all commercial VPN servers will provide >200Mbps speeds though, no matter what the user hardware is capable of. Not sure why @Radleydm wants to run a high-speed VPN Client on the router though, this setup has some pros, but some serious cons too.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Not sure why @Radleydm wants to run a high-speed VPN Client on the router though, this setup has some pros, but some serious cons too.

What would you consider to be the serious cons?

 

[Val D.]

What would you consider to be the serious cons?

Mainly the ability to change configurations fast on high-speed VPN demanding devices like PCs and turn VPN on and off. VPN Client on a PC can change the server, protocol, country, etc. in just few clicks. Multiple PCs may have unlimited configuration options, depending on what is needed at the moment. NordVPN, for example, allows 6 devices, so there is room for separate clients. VPN Client on the router requires more time and knowledge, it has to be me making changes. My wife couldn't do it, for example. Another visible difference I noticed is in responsiveness of Internet, the real feel when you open pages and start data transfers when multiple users generate some traffic on the ISP line (on the router). VPN Client on the router means all VPN traffic is processed by relatively weak CPU. RT-AC86U has good routing speed, but limited VPN processing speed (even though it's one of the best on a router). With the router doing routing only and few x86 PCs processing their own VPN traffic there is a difference.

All the issues have a solution with scripts, selective routing, etc... we all know that, but it's not very user friendly. I'm not the only one using Internet and VPN in my home and I'm not always available to help. Some devices with relatively fixed VPN needs and no local VPN Clients (available or needed) can go through router's VPN Client, but not all the devices using VPN, especially high-speed devices. I used to run all-network VPN as an experiment, then cut some clients off (I mean on WAN), then had to satisfy other family members requirements (frequently changing requirements) and at the end of the day ended up with few only devices on the router, the rest whatever the user wants. I'm not coming home from work to start working on user requests again, you know. I also purchased RT-AC86U with an idea to run almost everything through VPN on it, but it turns out it's not a very good idea. Different users may have different needs (probably much simpler than mine), but I'm sharing my experience with multiple devices using VPN.

I know, VPN on the router, Skynet, Diversion, AiProtection...
If you want to explain those things to my 3 women at home, be my guest.

 

[Radleydm]

They are the same (68U and 66U_B1) in terms of hard- and firmware only in different housing.
AC86U will give you full VPN speed for a good price (some have troubles others are happy) or the much more expensive AX88U which will have other problems and still in some kind of beta phase (Wifi6 isn't finalized).
Maybe best to order both and stay with the better performing one after 1 or 2 weeks testing everything.

Thank you

 

[Radleydm]

Mainly the ability to change configurations fast on high-speed VPN demanding devices like PCs and turn VPN on and off. VPN Client on a PC can change the server, protocol, country, etc. in just few clicks. Multiple PCs may have unlimited configuration options, depending on what is needed at the moment. NordVPN, for example, allows 6 devices, so there is room for separate clients. VPN Client on the router requires more time and knowledge, it has to be me making changes. My wife couldn't do it, for example. Another visible difference I noticed is in responsiveness of Internet, the real feel when you open pages and start data transfers when multiple users generate some traffic on the ISP line (on the router). VPN Client on the router means all VPN traffic is processed by relatively weak CPU. RT-AC86U has good routing speed, but limited VPN processing speed (even though it's one of the best on a router). With the router doing routing only and few x86 PCs processing their own VPN traffic there is a difference.

All the issues have a solution with scripts, selective routing, etc... we all know that, but it's not very user friendly. I'm not the only one using Internet and VPN in my home and I'm not always available to help. Some devices with relatively fixed VPN needs and no local VPN Clients (available or needed) can go through router's VPN Client, but not all the devices using VPN, especially high-speed devices. I used to run all-network VPN as an experiment, then cut some clients off (I mean on WAN), then had to satisfy other family members requirements (frequently changing requirements) and at the end of the day ended up with few only devices on the router, the rest whatever the user wants. I'm not coming home from work to start working on user requests again, you know. I also purchased RT-AC86U with an idea to run almost everything through VPN on it, but it turns out it's not a very good idea. Different users may have different needs (probably much simpler than mine), but I'm sharing my experience with multiple devices using VPN.

I know, VPN on the router, Skynet, Diversion, AiProtection...
If you want to explain those things to my 3 women at home, be my guest.

Thank you and sorry for the delay - Covid-19 affecting everything at the moment.
I bought the AC86U yesterday. I have (I think) understood all that you say but my situation is simple.
The AC66U with VPN restricts download to ±40Mbps and my IPTV set top boxes restrict even further - sometimes down to ±10Mbps which causes buffering etc. The VPN server here in Portugal (Nord) operates at ±100Mbps. The AC66U without VPN gives a download of ±85Mbps allowing the IPTV boxes to operate at ±40Mbps which eliminates the buffering.
From what I have learned the AC86U with VPN will allow downloads of ±85Mbps which should solve my problem.
My usage is my desktop PC and the two IPTV boxes (all hardwired) in addition to two mobile phones which operate wirelessly from the ISP router and with VPN on them.

I would appreciate further advice please. The new router has Asuswrt firmware 3.0.0.4.384_32799 while my exisiting AC66U has asuswrt-merlin 384.13. Is the merlin better and is that firmware OK for the AC86U.

 

[Smokey613]

I went from a 68U to an 86U and I could not be happier. No gui reboot or other issues. I run the items listed in my signature but no VPNs as I have not found a need for them in my environment thus far. I have 22 devices on my network including Amazon echo devices, smart plugs, Hue lighting, Bond hub, two laptops, one windows server, NAS, iPads, iPhones, etc. My 86U just keeps running without any issues so far. I guess I got a good one.

 

[Radleydm]

I went from a 68U to an 86U and I could not be happier. No gui reboot or other issues. I run the items listed in my signature but no VPNs as I have not found a need for them in my environment thus far. I have 22 devices on my network including Amazon echo devices, smart plugs, Hue lighting, Bond hub, two laptops, one windows server, NAS, iPads, iPhones, etc. My 86U just keeps running without any issues so far. I guess I got a good one.

Great. Hope mine is as good !!

 

[whitey019]

I have two RT-AC86Us that work great for me. One has been in operation for over two years and a second one that I keep for backup. Having a backup has nothing to do with the model, but just the fact that if the internet in my went down the whole world would come to a complete stop. The second I found for <$100 as an open box item.

 

[OzarkEdge]

I would appreciate further advice please. The new router has Asuswrt firmware 3.0.0.4.384_32799 while my exisiting AC66U has asuswrt-merlin 384.13. Is the merlin better and is that firmware OK for the AC86U.

You can learn about Asuswrt-Merlin here https://www.asuswrt-merlin.net/ and in the Asuswrt-Merlin forum.

OE

 

[Radleydm]

Thanks to all
RT-AC86U up and running with Merlin and with Nord VPN and I am getting download speed of 130Mbps to the desktop and about 65Mbps to the IPTV boxes so mission accomplished.
Tomorrow I want to try and set up AiMesh between the two routers. Presumably Wireless router mode / AiMesh Router mode (Default) on the new AC86 and just AiMesh node on the old AC66U?
Have appreciated all of the help. Hope tomorrow finalizes it all.