Looking for a new router to take advantage of 1gb internet and the options are making my head swim - please help!

[SunrisePro]

I dream of having my own house where I could run wire in the walls and have charging ports in the electrical outlets.

I've got the AX86 at the top of the list and am keeping an eye on the price.

I am wondering though - I see that theres an AX86U and an AX86S, with the S model having a dual core cpu instead of quad core, and 512mb ram instead of 1gb. Is there is a big performance difference between them?

 

[L&LD]

Yes, particularly if you need a 2.5GbE connection. Only the RT-AX86U offers that.

 

[SunrisePro]

I don't know if I do, we're only going to have 1gb internet. I can see it from a future-proofing perspective, but the $50 difference in price puts the S squarely within my budget.

Of course, I can get the S and upgrade to the U (or something newer) in a couple of years too. I just don't know if 2.5GbE is relevant right now.

 

[L&LD]

I don't believe the $50 saved is worth it.

Upgrade from AC68U

Hi forum members, I’m thinking to upgrading trusted AC68U and almost set to either AX86U or AX68U. Is there big difference in coverage between those two models? I don’t plan to reuse AC68U as Ai-mesh node as I don’t have good experience. Appreciate your input!

www.snbforums.com

 

[SunrisePro]

That's going from AC to AX so I assume that throughput would be better.

I did just read through everything I could find here about the AX86S. It seems to be new & not as well known as the U, but it seems that they are nearly identical (save cpu/ram/2.5gbe) and that they should work similarly.

Someone did note that Unless you are running custom scripts, dual core and 512MB RAM is more than enough and I'm definitely not running custom scripts. I might give Merlin a shot though.

 

[SunrisePro]

I don't believe the $50 saved is worth it.

That's what I need to consider. $50 isn't much in the grand scheme of things and 'proven & reliable' is better. If it saves me even 30 minutes it will be worth it.

 

[Tech Junky]

$50 for a speedier connection w/o wires is worth it in my book. When you need ultimate speed the option for wiring directly is there.

2.5 / 5 GE though is best for the internal communication between devices and 2.5GE switches are ~$100 for a few ports to make things cheaper to get faster syncs between devices. Stepping to 5GE though is more of a multiple when it comes to pricing still. These are the things to think about in the future though as you might consider adding a NAS or higher res 4K streaming or something else that's data intensive where speed cuts down on the waiting game.

I run 5GE ports on my server knowing that I move data around and the card I'm using was ~$30 more than the 2.5GE version. The only time I'm using 5GE though is when I'm cabled to sync data between my server / laptop. I needed a 2.5G port for the AP and bundle 2 ports to the cable modem for 2GE on a 1G plan that yields ~1.5gbps from overprovisioning from Comcast. When you get beyond 1gbps it makes things a bit trickier to get those speeds w/o over spending on equipment to do it. This is when you want to consider going DIY with a SFF PC and becoming more modular in your approach to wring out those remaining bits. For about $350 at current prices you could put together a DIY setup w/ 4-port 5GE card to use as your router / firewall / etc. and build upon that other function such as adding a DAS connected to it to function as a NAS or port the guts from the PC into a bigger case and add the drives internally for NAS functionality.

Planning for the long game is key to saving $$$ in the long run.

 

[SunrisePro]

This is when you want to consider going DIY with a SFF PC and becoming more modular in your approach to wring out those remaining bits. For about $350 at current prices you could put together a DIY setup w/ 4-port 5GE card to use as your router / firewall / etc. and build upon that other function such as adding a DAS connected to it to function as a NAS or port the guts from the PC into a bigger case and add the drives internally for NAS functionality.

This went totally over my head. Do you mean making a PC that will replace the router?

 

[Tech Junky]

This went totally over my head. Do you mean making a PC that will replace the router?

Yes. Taking a PC and making a router is fairly simple to do and expanding upon it in a modular fashion is more cost effective than buying multiple devices.

 

[SunrisePro]

Neat. Would it handle wireless devices too?

 

[alba666]

FWIW I have a 1900sqft single storyhouse that is sort of h like shaped in layout. I have and AX86U placed where the two lines would connect on the h, if that makes sense. Kind of as far into the room as I could place it somewhat centrally. The back yard would be in the top right and is fairly sizable and the garage on the bottom right.

We get complete WiFi coverage, though the back yard and garage obviously see slower speeds. The back yard gets decent 5Ghz at least 25ft out.

Not sure how different 2 story coverage would be, but that’s just my experience.

My experience is that floors of same material as walls are about the same as wall.

IMHO, I would start with the best Asus AX AiMesh single router and put the provider’s combo box in modem only mode. Only if the single router has coverage issues would I invest in a second low end AiMesh router.

For example, I have 1400 sq ft main and 950 sq ft second floor house. I have 1 AX92 providing coverage. When I need service in the backyard, I fire up my old AC88 as a node at back of house. But my experience is that outside needs are usually from my iPhones and I have excellent 5G here. I haven’t powered on the AC88 in months.

 

[Tech Junky]

Neat. Would it handle wireless devices too?

I had an iteration of WiFi 5 where I was able to intergrate a card into the setup internally. The issue now is that there's not any 6/6E cards that work with hostapd which allows for turning a card into an AP. Which led to changing to adding an external AP via the 5ge port.

 

[Tech9]

Neat.

No. You are more confused than ever by Asus fans with "performance" expectations and DIY guys with exotic setups.

a) RT-AX86U and RT-AX86S routers use the same radios. The most common client is 2-stream, up to 1200Mbps link speed @80MHz channel. The two routers will have exactly the same Wi-Fi performance. The two routers also use exactly the same CPU cores. The routing is single core. Even routing performance is the same, as well as VPN performance. For the extra money you get 2.5GbE port (single, WAN or LAN), 2x RAM (if you want to run more things on your router), 2x more cores (usable with multiple VPN connections). Think about it and make a decision.

b) x86 hardware as router is not for you. It requires much more networking knowledge, even if you go with firewall OS like pfSense/OPNSense.

 

[L&LD]

a) For a single client, when used with stock defaults, yes. The wireless/wired performance may be the same.

When using the extra features and/or RMerlin optimized firmware, the performance would not be necessarily the same. Particularly when using multiple VPN clients and/or servers.

For the extra money, you get much better hardware, which makes it much more usable far into the future.

Either way, you slice it, the RT-AX86S model is crippled vs. the available RT-AX86U. And for long-term use as the main router, no amount of savings is worth its compromises, IMO (when we're already starting at such a high price to begin with).

 

[Tech9]

a) For a single client, when used with stock defaults, yes. The wireless/wired performance may be the same.

For all the clients Wi-Fi performance is going to be the same. Asus stock firmware or Asuswrt-Merlin - the same hardware radios with the same wireless drivers. Even LAN performance is going to be the same with up to Gigabit ISP. Routing is on Core 1 - the same type core with the same clock speed. AX86U may get higher aggregate throughput to multiple LAN clients with >Gigabit ISP. Tough to get on wireless. Both routers are hopeless with no NAT acceleration though, limited to 400Mbps WAN-LAN. If someone is going multi-gigabit on WAN, no home router is a good choice in a long term.

 

[Tech Junky]

no home router is a good choice in a long term.

 

[Tech9]

That doesn't mean everyone has to go PC with bare Linux way. There are ready to go x86 firewalls with multi-gigabit ports and x86 appliances for pfSense, OPNSense, Sophos, Untangle, IPFire, etc. At least with some support, if not on hardware, on software. Most people want GUI, not command line.

 

[Tech Junky]

You pay a lot of money for that GUI vs raw performance. After working on enterprise systems for so long it's quite evident where the money goes and it's for the support, replacement in quick manner, and standards.

I didn't say anything else other than highlight what you said though. There's tons of different OS options with varying interfaces to manage them. Going open source though leaves no where for someone to hide a potential backdoor into your systems.

 

[L&LD]

Yes, the RT-AX86U will get a higher aggregate throughput than the RT-AX86S. Even on wired connections, depending on numerous factors.

With 2 extra cores, multiple OpenVPN performance will be higher too, in aggregate, on RMerlin firmware.

I stand by what I wrote. Regardless of your inability to understand or accept the facts that overall, the network will be faster and therefore perform better for a few dollars extra a year.

As for multi-gigabyte WAN use, those 'home' routers haven't been introduced yet. A single option isn't a choice. It's the default.

 

[SunrisePro]

use exactly the same CPU cores. The routing is single core. Even routing performance is the same, as well as VPN performance. For the extra money you get 2.5GbE port (single, WAN or LAN), 2x RAM (if you want to run more things on your router), 2x more cores (usable with multiple VPN connections).

What I'm getting out of the above is that if we move up to a 2gbps internet connection then the U would be a better choice. I'm not sure when or if that's going to happen.

I'm also not sure 'what more things' I want to run on the router; I'm not going to run any servers. I'm ok with using open source firmware (Advanced Tomato helped the performance of an old router a LOT), but I dunno what else I'd be running. However, I don't want to bother with changing the firmware if it doesn't increase performance in some tangible way or make the router more reliable.

I dig the idea of having my own VPN but the chances I'll actually do it are infinitesimal (this might change depending on geopolitics)(I'm mentioning this but I don't want to delve into a discussion of it).

Mostly, I don't want to spend time doing too much configuring beyond the usual finetuning of a new device; changing the firmware would be the extent of it. I'm definitely more on the consumer side of things, my days of fiddling constantly with my computer are long gone. It used to be one of my big hobbies & interests (and helped me get a help desk job years ago), now it's a tool for me to engage in my other hobbies & interests.

To put it another way: Spending an extra $50 is worth it if it saves me time. If it doesn't save me time and the performance is the same, the cheaper option is better.