[Maylyn - Networking] ASUS RT-AC88U

[RMerlin]

Eric,

Do you feel the performance difference between the AC87U & the AC88U is enough to make upgrading worthwhile? I have finally got my AC87R up and running with a stable configuration and do not wish to go through that experience again.

Thanks for any insight that you see fit to provide!

Hard to tell without knowing the final retail price. Chances are it will cost as much, if not more as the RT-AC87U I suspect. In that case, I doubt it's worth paying that much just for the performance improvement over a one year old 250$ router, unless you badly need the faster CPU for either VPN performance or because you need to run your router with NAT acceleration disabled.

For someone who bought his last router 2+ years ago, it might be easier to justify the expense.

 

[RMerlin]

MIMO firmware feature will be available by the end of 2015.

I have a felling they will delay it to the end of 2016 and they will tell us to upgrade to rt89u if we want the ultra fast lane MU-MIMO Feature [emoji23]

Unlikely. I have more faith in Broadcom there than I ever had in QTN.

The funny thing is, QTN is also very close to finally shipping it. I saw the first traces of MU-MIMO support appear in recent firmware code.

 

[IAAI]

Looks like Repeater mode is not available under operation mode. Is it merlins feature ?

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[RMerlin]

Looks like Repeater mode is not available under operation mode. Is it merlins feature ?

It's model-specific.

 

[RamGuy]

What is all this Ping Accelerator, WTFast stuff all about? Sounds like gimmick to me? This looks just like the thing I want instead of this RT-AC3200 and its Smart Connect features that causes more harm than anything else.

 

[Haggster]

What a nice machine, lovin it already. So this time Asus went all-Broadcom; interesting.

Does anyone know whether it will support 160MHz wide channels?

How has Asus achieved this improvement in storage throughput performance compared to earlier models - is it due to the more powerful CPUs?

Would be nice to see if they are finally using a 3.x kernel for this, which would make CoDel congestion control possible.

Very happy to see this, as this is the first "real" successor to the AC87, unlike those other models with more than 4 antennas.

And yes, a discount for having bought the AC87 would be amazing, lol. Oh well...

 

[RamGuy]

"Real" successor to the RT-AC87? More like the "real" successor to RT-AC68, the RT-AC87 gave me nothing but trouble with its 5.0GHz.

 

[RamGuy]

It's model-specific.

What makes some models have this feature while others don't? This shouldn't have anything to do with hardware.

 

[RMerlin]

What makes some models have this feature while others don't? This shouldn't have anything to do with hardware.

Biggest thing is whether or not the Broadcom SDK supports it. Repeater mode isn't officially supported by Broadcom in their newer SDKs, so models based on these don't have it either.

 

[RMerlin]

How has Asus achieved this improvement in storage throughput performance compared to earlier models - is it due to the more powerful CPUs?

Faster CPU, and improvements (both hardware and software) by Broadcom.

Would be nice to see if they are finally using a 3.x kernel for this, which would make CoDel congestion control possible.

Broadcom is still using 2.6.36 with SDK7. I've been told by external sources that even their newest SDK10 is still on 2.6.36.

 

[RMerlin]

What is all this Ping Accelerator, WTFast stuff all about? Sounds like gimmick to me? This looks just like the thing I want instead of this RT-AC3200 and its Smart Connect features that causes more harm than anything else.

http://www.wtfast.com/

It's basically a gamer-oriented VPN tunnel service.

This isn't something done by Asus, they merely include the client and free Basic accounts to that third party's service.

 

[Deleted member 22229]

FYI
http://www.asus.com/Networking/RT-AC88U/

It at least appears they are using the same power (on/off) button they used in the RT-N66U i really hope that dont become a issue like many have posted about the N66 switch failure. If the reviews are good this just may be my next router investment.

 

[RMerlin]

It at least appears they are using the same power (on/off) button they used in the RT-N66U i really hope that dont become a issue like many have posted about the N66 switch failure. If the reviews are good this just may be my next router investment.

That switch has been completely different for quite a few models now. It's definitely different from the one used in the N66U and AC66U.

 

[Deleted member 22229]

That switch has been completely different for quite a few models now. It's definitely different from the one used in the N66U and AC66U.

Thanks Merlin that's good to know..

 

[JunKhaos]

I hope they are still committed to fixing the stability problem on RT-AC87U after this new model is released.

 

[Dijkstra88]

@RMerlin, could you give us your opinion about why we should go for the AC5300 or the AC88U, after reviewing it in due course. I have now the 87U and would like to use that one as repeater and buy one of the above models als main router.

 

[alarsen77]

I just bought an AC87U yesterday at Best Buy, I have merlins 378.55 running on it now and seems to be working well so far. However knowing the issues with the AC87U I got the geek squad protection which they said if they don't have this model available it will be replaced with the new model. So if I do end up having issues with it dropping the 5G band I can wait for the AC88U to hit best buy stores and put a geek squad claim in and get upgraded to this one. I am hoping the AC87U works quite well for me though.

 

[VANT]

http://www.wtfast.com/

It's basically a gamer-oriented VPN tunnel service.

This isn't something done by Asus, they merely include the client and free Basic accounts to that third party's service.

can be enabled in others models ?

 

[Infoholic]

I notice what looks like a ventilated area on the top of the case in the centre. It appears that someone with a basic understanding of the physics of heat dissipation had some input to the case design, unlike the 87U.


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[joms]

I wonder how the range is on this router? Do you think it will go much farther than my n66u?