Is it worth the extra $100?

[TyantA]

I feel like I've been catching up on the router industry for days. I've been a Linksys guy for years and my trusty WRT54GS running Tomato has served me well over the years but I moved to a ~2500 sq 2 story home and I'm noticing the range is a bit of an issue. I have a use for this ol guy elsewhere so it's time to upgrade.

I first looked at the Linksys WRT1900AC but its main benefit seems to be read/write speeds to USB 3. I have an unraid box so I doubt I'll use the router's USB for storage that often.

I was wooed by the AC87U and I'm intrigued by the adaptive QoS (I rely heavily on VOIP for communications). Is there any chance that will make its way to the AC68U? Basically I have both of these routers in my cart and I'm trying to decide which to go through with.

Don't even get me started on the AC3200... it's not available in Canada yet it seems so I can't really consider it as an option. (I need to make a purchase sooner than later).

My last house was wired and I'd like to do the same in the house but it's going to be trickier. As it stands I have cables running all over the house waiting to find their way through walls and floors. I don't look forward to that job. So the other thought was pick up a high end wireless router and be done with it. My preference is still to get it wired at some point.

As for clients, aside from wired devices, I have my HTPC up one level from the router that I'd prefer to be wired but may consider going wireless. I have an ac 2x2 Dell laptop, Surface Pro 3, asus netbook with wireless n, 3 phones and two Zunes (don't laugh!)

Suggestions?

 

[thiggins]

You're going to see a performance improvement with most any router you buy. The RT-AC87 and R7500 are not stable yet, so I would stay away. In wireless you really don't want to buy bleeding edge unless you like being a beta tester.

Best bang for your buck will be an AC1750 or AC1900 class router. Top-ranked AC1900 is the NETGEAR R7000.

Top-ranked AC1750 is TP-LINK Archer C7, a screaming deal at below $100.

 

[RMerlin]

I was wooed by the AC87U and I'm intrigued by the adaptive QoS (I rely heavily on VOIP for communications). Is there any chance that will make its way to the AC68U? Basically I have both of these routers in my cart and I'm trying to decide which to go through with.

The TrendMicro engine should be ported to the RT-AC68U and RT-AC56U by the end of the year.

One thing that might be worth considering in your decision is the firmware you will be running. Since you are coming from Tomato, you might want to make sure that your future router will either run Tomato itself, or it will have at least a firmware (stock or otherwise) with the same functionality you were using from Tomato. At this time, Tomato support on newer models is quite limited. There's support for the RT-AC56 and RT-AC68, but it's still unstable. There's also been a few reports of bricked RT-AC56 from Tomato (including a friend of mine), so be cautious there.

 

[TyantA]

The TrendMicro engine should be ported to the RT-AC68U and RT-AC56U by the end of the year.

One thing that might be worth considering in your decision is the firmware you will be running. Since you are coming from Tomato, you might want to make sure that your future router will either run Tomato itself, or it will have at least a firmware (stock or otherwise) with the same functionality you were using from Tomato. At this time, Tomato support on newer models is quite limited. There's support for the RT-AC56 and RT-AC68, but it's still unstable. There's also been a few reports of bricked RT-AC56 from Tomato (including a friend of mine), so be cautious there.

Thanks for the reply RMerlin. That's great insight. Is the TrendMicro engine responsible for the adaptive QoS? I'm guessing it's what's doing the DPI so, yes? If that's the case I'm leaning even more towards the RT-AC68. I think it will be more than adequate for my wireless needs and if the rest of the features are back ported then I'm golden

I'm not married to Tomato but point taken.

You're going to see a performance improvement with most any router you buy. The RT-AC87 and R7500 are not stable yet, so I would stay away. In wireless you really don't want to buy bleeding edge unless you like being a beta tester.

Best bang for your buck will be an AC1750 or AC1900 class router. Top-ranked AC1900 is the NETGEAR R7000.

Top-ranked AC1750 is TP-LINK Archer C7, a screaming deal at below $100.

Thanks for the reply. I read a review on the R8000 but was still more drawn to Asus. Another factor for me is the poor internet connectivity where I am (I'm on a wireless provider that often goes down). I love the dual WAN option to maybe add some 4G failover someday once prices come down.

 

[TyantA]

So I pulled the trigger on the AC68U without doing the normal research I'd do (ran out of time on another sale item in the order).

Now I'm wondering if I made a mistake. Looking at the router ranker features, it only mentions failover for the dual wan, not load balance or aggregation. Also, on Asus' website comparing the two only the 87u has open vpn server and client support.

Is this just outdated information or did I falsely assume the 68U had more of the 87U feature set than it does?

 

[mromero]

So I pulled the trigger on the AC68U without doing the normal research I'd do (ran out of time on another sale item in the order).

Now I'm wondering if I made a mistake. Looking at the router ranker features, it only mentions failover for the dual wan, not load balance or aggregation. Also, on Asus' website comparing the two only the 87u has open vpn server and client support.

Is this just outdated information or did I falsely assume the 68U had more of the 87U feature set than it does?

I would cancel the AC68U and get the Aus AC87R/U. It is a more modern router and will get better with the firmware upgrades.

The Adaptive QOS sucks almost as bad as the borked QOS on the older models but I am holding hope that future official firmware upgrades will fix this. At this time, it cannot approach the QOS features of Tomato firmware, so be forewarned.

The fail-over WAN especially with the very popular Huawei line for load balancing appears to be flaky from comments I've seen on other forums.

The Netgear law suit has certainly put the clamps I think on Asus routers, (power, range, etc,) but overall, I still think they are the best choice today - short of enterprise class in the Cisco / Huawei and others lineup.

 

[RMerlin]

So I pulled the trigger on the AC68U without doing the normal research I'd do (ran out of time on another sale item in the order).

Now I'm wondering if I made a mistake. Looking at the router ranker features, it only mentions failover for the dual wan, not load balance or aggregation. Also, on Asus' website comparing the two only the 87u has open vpn server and client support.

Is this just outdated information or did I falsely assume the 68U had more of the 87U feature set than it does?

Some of these features were added only after the official launch of the RT-AC68U. It does support both load balancing and failover mode, as well as OpenVPN client and server support.

 

[L&LD]

On the Dual Wan AC68u don't hold ur breath boy on it working u will turn BLUE!

May depend on what two ISP 'connections' you're using.

Customer has 2xcable dual wan / balance enabled for months now with various versions of firmware with no issues.

And no turning blue either.

 

[TyantA]

I would cancel the AC68U and get the Aus AC87R/U. It is a more modern router and will get better with the firmware upgrades.

This is why I called yesterday to swap out for the AC87U. From what I've read, using it "as is" without too many tweaks nets reasonable stability for now. I figure it will get more attention sooner, over the long-run.

I can't do anything just yet with dual wan as I pay $90 for 5/1 terrestrial wireless service. The only other option here is 4G satellite or 4G cellular. I just want to keep my options open as options hopefully improve.

Thanks for the input everyone.

RMerlin, you mention load balancing and failover... the latter would make sense for the often times my connection goes down however I can't justify spending as much as I'd have to just to have a "what if" connection. Aggregate connections sounds much more appealing to me.