Is the grass greener on the ASUS side?

[digital10]

I have been researching routers and ASUS is about the only brand I have no idea about. I was a Netgear guy since I had a satisfactory experience with the R7000 but after purchasing a $250 device that died after few uses, forced data collection, and frustrating and glitchy Orbi, I am seeing the grass greener on the ASUS side.

Tell me about your experience, is it stable? is the hardware reliable? is the software dependable?

ASUS and Netgear are the two big dogs in this market. All other options are either inferior or limited, except Ubiquiti if you want to go that route.

 

[OzarkEdge]

I have been researching routers and ASUS is about the only brand I have no idea about. I was a Netgear guy since I had a satisfactory experience with the R7000 but after purchasing a $250 device that died after few uses, forced data collection, and frustrating and glitchy Orbi, I am seeing the grass greener on the ASUS side.

Tell me about your experience, is it stable? is the hardware reliable? is the software dependable?

ASUS and Netgear are the two big dogs in this market. All other options are either inferior or limited, except Ubiquiti if you want to go that route.

I would buy another Asus router... AC86U now, tri-band WiFi6e later. A few differences worth noting are Asuswrt-Merlin ( I don't use) and Asus AiMesh (I do use).

OE

 

[ColinTaylor]

"Is the grass greener" - Probably not, it's just a different type of grass. You'd need to read the reviews/posts about the particular router you're interested in rather than relying on an opinion of the brand in general.

 

[bbunge]

Currently use AC86U about three months old. This is my third Asus and the other two still work. Also have two AC68U'S in a business environment that have been reliable.

 

[Klueless]

No all-in-one home router is perfect but, IMO, one of the things that sets Asus apart is its built-in real time traffic monitor. It allows you to peek at real time bandwidth consumption to "help" ascertain if problems are local or Internet related. (It also lets me "see" what time my grandson went to bed : -)

As I've only a few sites, I'm no expert and can only offer personal anecdotal "evidence". So, that said, I've found Asus to be very competitive; range, performance, stability, reliability. I started with the N66U and now run 86Us, 1900P and ... even a Blue Cave.

I have used Netgear, Linksys & ISP (ubee, arris) supplied solutions in the past.

 

[K-2SO]

Excluding wireless g/n era the most stable, compatible and predictable home routers for me were Netgear R7000 and Asus RT-AC68U. I currently have 2 RT-AC86U. One of them failed in about a year time. Not good Asus RMA experience. After 10 firmware updates finally a good one arrived. Replacing my 2 RT-AC68U was a mistake. Not that green grass with new ones. Merlin makes things acceptable.

Netgate 3100/5100 appliance and proper centrally managed wireless is my next planned upgrade.

 

[indark]

the grass is always greener on the other side XD
my friends pick up netgear, he has no issue. I use Asus, I have no issue.
I just let the router do the router work, grab an actual NAS for network storage.
other than that just make sure you grab a UPS to pair with the router you end up with.

 

[K-2SO]

I just let the router do the router work

Must be in every Wiki, first page, bold letters, size 36.
Here is a visual representation of some folks forum signatures:

My rear tire looks a bit flat. Anyone know hot fix without removing the 6 kids?

 

[retuor]

Excluding wireless g/n era the most stable, compatible and predictable home routers for me were Netgear R7000 and Asus RT-AC68U. I currently have 2 RT-AC86U. One of them failed in about a year time. Not good Asus RMA experience. After 10 firmware updates finally a good one arrived. Replacing my 2 RT-AC68U was a mistake. Not that green grass with new ones. Merlin makes things acceptable.

Netgate 3100/5100 appliance and proper centrally managed wireless is my next planned upgrade.

I finally got my 2 x RT-AC86U to function without any wifi breakdowns. It's been almost 30 days.
The breakdowns at the time were:

1. 2.4 not working within about 24 hours of node reboot.
2. Sometimes 5 not working
3. Sometimes the Wireless Log would be truncated. There would be nothing after the 2.4 information.

I found out that it was two of my no-brand-name 2.4 wifi cube cameras that could have caused the node 86U to go crazy. Ever since I turned them off, both 86U's have been solid. I even switched from 20MHz to 20/40MHz and still no breakdowns.... yet.

Before I suspected my cube cameras, I thought it was my node 86U going crazy because the main router's System Log would show the node somehow being disconnected from wifi. Also the node 86U's 2.4 LED would remain solid instead of flashing (to indicate activity).

I actually have good experiences with ASUS RMA. I detailed what happened and they allowed my return. I paid for their discounted Fedex shipping and within about a week or so they sent me a new 86U.

Unfortunately the same problems appeared and after a few months of experimenting with unsuccessful router changes to fix the problems, I finally gave up and contacted ASUS RMA and went through the same procedure. Again ASUS allowed my return. I paid for the discounted Fedex shipping and within about a week or so I received a new 86U again.

During the times when I sent my node 86U out, I would break out my previous router, RT-AC68R, as the node. The 68R has been solid. It does once in a while disconnect from the main router, 86U, but it also somehow manages to re-establish wireless connectivity. I like this better than the 86U because the 86U doesn't act like the Terminator in Terminator 2 where it finds an alternate power source to re-gain life.

Since my 86U's have been working for almost 30 days, I decided to list my 68R for sale. After reading this, now I'm having second thoughts about selling it because I think I want a backup if the wifi breaks down again or if it fails like what some users have reported here.

 

[K-2SO]

so they sent me a new 86U

so I received a new 86U again

I may speed up the upgrade plans.

 

[retuor]

I may speed up the upgrade plans.

 

[digital10]

No all-in-one home router is perfect but, IMO, one of the things that sets Asus apart is its built-in real time traffic monitor. It allows you to peek at real time bandwidth consumption to "help" ascertain if problems are local or Internet related. (It also lets me "see" what time my grandson went to bed : -)

As I've only a few sites, I'm no expert and can only offer personal anecdotal "evidence". So, that said, I've found Asus to be very competitive; range, performance, stability, reliability. I started with the N66U and now run 86Us, 1900P and ... even a Blue Cave.

I have used Netgear, Linksys & ISP (ubee, arris) supplied solutions in the past.

I have thought about have an separate router and then use consumer 3in1 devices as AP and switch. People report stable performance doing so

 

[digital10]

"Is the grass greener" - Probably not, it's just a different type of grass. You'd need to read the reviews/posts about the particular router you're interested in rather than relying on an opinion of the brand in general.

Yes, unfortunately this is the 21st century where the brand name has no meaning. There was a time when you saw “Sony” on a product and you knew, whatever it was, its going to be solid quality and performance wise.

 

[digital10]

I finally got my 2 x RT-AC86U to function without any wifi breakdowns. It's been almost 30 days.
The breakdowns at the time were:

1. 2.4 not working within about 24 hours of node reboot.
2. Sometimes 5 not working
3. Sometimes the Wireless Log would be truncated. There would be nothing after the 2.4 information.

I found out that it was two of my no-brand-name 2.4 wifi cube cameras that could have caused the node 86U to go crazy. Ever since I turned them off, both 86U's have been solid. I even switched from 20MHz to 20/40MHz and still no breakdowns.... yet.

Before I suspected my cube cameras, I thought it was my node 86U going crazy because the main router's System Log would show the node somehow being disconnected from wifi. Also the node 86U's 2.4 LED would remain solid instead of flashing (to indicate activity).

I actually have good experiences with ASUS RMA. I detailed what happened and they allowed my return. I paid for their discounted Fedex shipping and within about a week or so they sent me a new 86U.

Unfortunately the same problems appeared and after a few months of experimenting with unsuccessful router changes to fix the problems, I finally gave up and contacted ASUS RMA and went through the same procedure. Again ASUS allowed my return. I paid for the discounted Fedex shipping and within about a week or so I received a new 86U again.

During the times when I sent my node 86U out, I would break out my previous router, RT-AC68R, as the node. The 68R has been solid. It does once in a while disconnect from the main router, 86U, but it also somehow manages to re-establish wireless connectivity. I like this better than the 86U because the 86U doesn't act like the Terminator in Terminator 2 where it finds an alternate power source to re-gain life.

Since my 86U's have been working for almost 30 days, I decided to list my 68R for sale. After reading this, now I'm having second thoughts about selling it because I think I want a backup if the wifi breaks down again or if it fails like what some users have reported here.

Excluding wireless g/n era the most stable, compatible and predictable home routers for me were Netgear R7000 and Asus RT-AC68U. I currently have 2 RT-AC86U. One of them failed in about a year time. Not good Asus RMA experience. After 10 firmware updates finally a good one arrived. Replacing my 2 RT-AC68U was a mistake. Not that green grass with new ones. Merlin makes things acceptable.
Netgate 3100/5100 appliance and proper centrally managed wireless is my next planned upgrade.

Thanks for reporting this, I guess its not greener. This is my main fear, if something is broken within few months of usage and the replacement isn’t any better you know its shoddy.

 

[digital10]

I would buy another Asus router... AC86U now, tri-band WiFi6e later. A few differences worth noting are Asuswrt-Merlin ( I don't use) and Asus AiMesh (I do use).

OE

do you have mesh system? is it reliable?

 

[K-2SO]

Yes, unfortunately this is the 21st century...

Look at this link:
http://en.techinfodepot.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Arcadyan
All those routers were made by the same manufacturer.

This is my main fear, if something is broken within few months

May happen to any brand and any model. Choose one and test your luck. This is 21st century.

 

[retuor]

Thanks for reporting this, I guess its not greener. This is my main fear, if something is broken within few months of usage and the replacement isn’t any better you know its shoddy.

Good luck with your research!

I do however want to give ASUS some credit.

I agree with K-2SO that the 68 routers are solid.

I started out with RT-AC68R and that worked beautifully.

I then added RT-AC86U as main and moved 68R to node and that also worked beautifully.

After that I ran into roadblocks.

The first roadblock was 86U having strange wifi problems where the name would not match what I configured and the wifi security would always be WEP. I don't know how this happened but I attribute it to updating firmwares.

The second roadblock was node 86U having 2.4 and sometimes 5 disconnection problems to the main. Initially I thought it was the router and I went through two replacements. Now I think the cause is my no-brand-name 2.4 wifi cube cameras.

So far my 2 x 86U have been running for almost 30 days without having to reboot the node. So knock on wood...

But when I use 68R as a node it appears that it has a recovery process versus the 86U which doesn't.

 

[OzarkEdge]

I would buy another Asus router... AC86U now, tri-band WiFi6e later. A few differences worth noting are Asuswrt-Merlin ( I don't use) and Asus AiMesh (I do use).

OE

do you have mesh system? is it reliable?

Yes, it is reliable... but that remains to be proven for each installation.

OE

 

[coxhaus]

Out of all the Cisco small business networking equipment I have bought even used or new over the last 20 years I have not had to return any. I am sure there are some but it has been reliable for me. What happens with old Cisco gear is it just gets too old to run any more.

PS
I lied I just remember 1 Cisco router it may still have been a Linksys back then. There was a hardware error and Cisco was giving replacement routers with the new hardware.

 

[digital10]

Out of all the Cisco small business networking equipment I have bought even used or new over the last 20 years I have not had to return any. I am sure there are some but it has been reliable for me. What happens with old Cisco gear is it just gets too old to run any more.

PS
I lied I just remember 1 Cisco router it may still have been a Linksys back then. There was a hardware error and Cisco was giving replacement routers with the new hardware.

is there a small business equipement from cisco? I know there is consumer level then enterprise level.

Also, mere mortals like us call the Wifi device "router", I know in reality its a router+switch+wifi and this is the device I am looking for.

So far I am running Orbi with Voxel and the results are outstanding(touch wood). But can't rely on 1 person who does software as a hobby on extremely limited models your Wifi vendor but its working so far for me.