Need advice on choosing an ASUS Wireless Router

[sfx2000]

Now that I've adult children and grandkids who've moved in with me I suspect I'll be making updates to both my network and my thinking. Maybe downgrade TV package, dump HBO, etc. and get Netflix. Replace POTS w/ VoIP. Use the savings to upgrade from 5 x 0.35 Mbps to 30 x 5 Mbps (which I would now need).

I think everyone should evaluate their current comms costs (broadband/TV/Phone) and one might be surprised - I did a recent review, and I'm realigning things now over the next couple of weeks, and I'll see those costs cut by half - and the only thing I lose is about 130 cable channels that I don't watch - and get similar service via Satellite DBS and a Terrestrial Antenna, along with a couple of IPTV over the top solutions, and come out better on the other side..

 

[chrisinsocalif]

Take a look at Newegg's combo deals. IF you have time, wait for them to go on sale and get a great deal.
I was able to pick up an AC88U router plus an Arris 6183 modem for 275, not counting the 50 dollar rebate. You can sell whatever it's bundle with (or keep it) and get a router pretty cheap. So far my router is performing well.

 

[sfx2000]

Take a look at Newegg's combo deals. IF you have time, wait for them to go on sale and get a great deal.
I was able to pick up an AC88U router plus an Arris 6183 modem for 275, not counting the 50 dollar rebate. You can sell whatever it's bundle with (or keep it) and get a router pretty cheap. So far my router is performing well.

sweet deal - make sure that the CableCo supports the SB6183 (which is a great modem) before jumping on the combo deal - but if they do...

 

[mabhz]

Just a couple of quick notes on the above posts:

What may be gained (depending on the environment, clients and type of network use) of a 4 antennae (or higher) router vs. a 3 or 2 antennae router is higher range, throughput and of course the future promise (when clients become more widely available) of MU-MIMO. The radio design is (or at least, should be)more sophisticated in a router with more antennae. Even with clients with less than the maximum number of antennae the router offers, performance will be (usually) better.
(...)
What is called for here is to test the range and models you're interested in in your actual environment. Return the product that is inferior for you.

L&LD, your post caught my attention!

I'm moving to a two floor larger house with very old and thick brick walls and I'm currently on the hunt for the companion to my RT AC68U, so I can place one on each floor and connect both with cable, and hopefully cover the intire house.

My question to you si simple: will the newer project and the 4 antennas of the AC88U give me a WIDER wifi coverage compared to the AC68U?

I don't care for all those fancy features, just for a more powerful wifi signal. I'll have lots of iPhone, gaming consoles, Macs, PCs, iPads, etc, connected to both througout the house.

I'm getting recommendations here in this forum to settle for another AC68U, but your post gave me the impression that the additional antenna and the more powerful and updated internals of the AC88U will probably provide a slightly better signal performance, specially consideing its a large house with those typical old thick brick and ciment houses of the 50's (in my country).

Am I correct to assume that?

 

[L&LD]

L&LD, your post caught my attention!

I'm moving to a two floor larger house with very old and thick brick walls and I'm currently on the hunt for the companion to my RT AC68U, so I can place one on each floor and connect both with cable, and hopefully cover the intire house.

My question to you si simple: will the newer project and the 4 antennas of the AC88U give me a WIDER wifi coverage compared to the AC68U?

I don't care for all those fancy features, just for a more powerful wifi signal. I'll have lots of iPhone, gaming consoles, Macs, PCs, iPads, etc, connected to both througout the house.

I'm getting recommendations here in this forum to settle for another AC68U, but your post gave me the impression that the additional antenna and the more powerful and updated internals of the AC88U will probably provide a slightly better signal performance, specially consideing its a large house with those typical old thick brick and ciment houses of the 50's (in my country).

Am I correct to assume that?

Thick brick internal walls (between rooms, not exterior walls)?

What is 'lots of iPhone, gaming consoles, Macs, PC's, ipads' etc.? Specifically (a single number)?

What the RT-AC88U can offer (eventually, when you have the required clients that support MU-MIMO in the immediate or near future) is the ability to continue being useful for your networking requirements (wired and wireless) by giving you better overall network performance as time goes by. While the RT-AC68U in the same situation may prove to be overwhelmed (depending on the above answers to my questions).

You have indicated previously that budget wise, you are able to get the higher end model. I have never seen a downside to doing so (if it works for you initially, in your network environment, it will continue to give similar (great) results). Depending on the actual number of clients, an RT-AC5300 may also be worth considering too (because you'll be able to put slower/older clients to one of three radios and your faster or more demanding clients to the remaining two radios).

 

[mabhz]

Thick brick internal walls (between rooms, not exterior walls)?

What is 'lots of iPhone, gaming consoles, Macs, PC's, ipads' etc.? Specifically (a single number)?

What the RT-AC88U can offer (eventually, when you have the required clients that support MU-MIMO in the immediate or near future) is the ability to continue being useful for your networking requirements (wired and wireless) by giving you better overall network performance as time goes by. While the RT-AC68U in the same situation may prove to be overwhelmed (depending on the above answers to my questions).

You have indicated previously that budget wise, you are able to get the higher end model. I have never seen a downside to doing so (if it works for you initially, in your network environment, it will continue to give similar (great) results). Depending on the actual number of clients, an RT-AC5300 may also be worth considering too (because you'll be able to put slower/older clients to one of three radios and your faster or more demanding clients to the remaining two radios).

Thank you very much for your reply!

Ok, so here are the infos you asked for:

1. Its a very old house from the 1950´s, and it was constructed using very thick bricks laying down (as opossed to standing up) and lots of sand with cement-like material to cover the walls, so they are thick, like at least 20cm, between rooms, and extra-thick exterior walls (30~40cm) around the house.

2. Well, lets see....
02 iPhones
02 Windows smartphones
02 Windows laptops
02 Windows desktops
01 MacBook
01 iMac (sometimes wired, sometimes wireless)
04 consoles (PS4/PS3/Xbox One/Xbox 360)
04 iPads (02 minis/02 iPad 4)
01 Smart TV
01 Apple TV
USAGE : extreme daily use of 02 Spotify clientes, intense daily use of Netflix and YouTube (both on TV and iPads) and very frequent use of online gaming on consoles, somewhat frequent torrent downloads on one desktop/laptop.

When I move to this new 2 floor house, you can probably add:

01 smart TV
01 laptop
maybe another Apple TV
surely another PS4 or a Xbox One (both with some time)


3. Well, off course money is an issue, but since its a very complicated process to purchase an equipment like these in my country, and I can only do it once every few years, I have to make every cent count, so I MUST choose an equipment thats not just very good, but that also "exceeds" my current needs a little bit, so it will last longer and still be a good choice in two or three years time.

Do you understand my point?

Im NOT in USA or Europe, and I can´t just walk into a store and ask for a refund I´m not satisfied with a certain piece of equipment.

I consider these purchases as investments, so I look for the best current equipment, that will still be very good in a couple of years.

AC68U was THE BEST/top equipment one year ago, and it an excellent equipment today, but it wont be such an excellent equipment in 2018, and it probaly wont be adeequate for my network by that time.

Almost 10 years ago I purchased a very expensive router made by Linksys, the WRT54GL, if I remember it well. I was VERY expensive for me, but it had amazing online reviews and when it arrived, it was a huge improvement for my home network. It served me very well for at least 3 or 4 more years. Had I purchaased a cheap D-Link at that time, I probably would have to replace it in a year or so...

That said, if you assure me that given my currrent equipment list (that surely will grow over time!), a RT5300 or a AC88U will definitely provide a more powerfull signal performance/coverage than the AC68U, covering far corners of the housewont AC68U wont be able, I´ll definitely get one of these, even if I dont need 80% of the features they have.

Poor and slow WiFi signal is better than no signal at all.

My biggest concern are the tests I have seen on various reviews (including on SNB) stating that at 2,4Ghz, over 30feet tests, both AC88U and RT5300 have inferior performance compared to AC68U.

 

[L&LD]

Thank you very much for your reply!

Ok, so here are the infos you asked for:

1. Its a very old house from the 1950´s, and it was constructed using very thick bricks laying down (as opossed to standing up) and lots of sand with cement-like material to cover the walls, so they are thick, like at least 20cm, between rooms, and extra-thick exterior walls (30~40cm) around the house.

2. Well, lets see....
02 iPhones
02 Windows smartphones
02 Windows laptops
02 Windows desktops
01 MacBook
01 iMac (sometimes wired, sometimes wireless)
04 consoles (PS4/PS3/Xbox One/Xbox 360)
04 iPads (02 minis/02 iPad 4)
01 Smart TV
01 Apple TV
USAGE : extreme daily use of 02 Spotify clientes, intense daily use of Netflix and YouTube (both on TV and iPads) and very frequent use of online gaming on consoles, somewhat frequent torrent downloads on one desktop/laptop.

When I move to this new 2 floor house, you can probably add:

01 smart TV
01 laptop
maybe another Apple TV
surely another PS4 or a Xbox One (both with some time)


3. Well, off course money is an issue, but since its a very complicated process to purchase an equipment like these in my country, and I can only do it once every few years, I have to make every cent count, so I MUST choose an equipment thats not just very good, but that also "exceeds" my current needs a little bit, so it will last longer and still be a good choice in two or three years time.

Do you understand my point?

Im NOT in USA or Europe, and I can´t just walk into a store and ask for a refund I´m not satisfied with a certain piece of equipment.

I consider these purchases as investments, so I look for the best current equipment, that will still be very good in a couple of years.

AC68U was THE BEST/top equipment one year ago, and it an excellent equipment today, but it wont be such an excellent equipment in 2018, and it probaly wont be adeequate for my network by that time.

Almost 10 years ago I purchased a very expensive router made by Linksys, the WRT54GL, if I remember it well. I was VERY expensive for me, but it had amazing online reviews and when it arrived, it was a huge improvement for my home network. It served me very well for at least 3 or 4 more years. Had I purchaased a cheap D-Link at that time, I probably would have to replace it in a year or so...

That said, if you assure me that given my currrent equipment list (that surely will grow over time!), a RT5300 or a AC88U will definitely provide a more powerfull signal performance/coverage than the AC68U, covering far corners of the housewont AC68U wont be able, I´ll definitely get one of these, even if I dont need 80% of the features they have.

Poor and slow WiFi signal is better than no signal at all.

My biggest concern are the tests I have seen on various reviews (including on SNB) stating that at 2,4Ghz, over 30feet tests, both AC88U and RT5300 have inferior performance compared to AC68U.

First off, I too consider these type of purchases as investments. Buying lower end equipment does not pay off in the long run.

Secondly, I cannot assure you that any specific router will be a better fit for your network and expectations for the next few years. But, going back to my first point, it seems obvious to me that a lower end solution today cannot be a better fit going forward (even if it is now).

Lastly, I can appreciate that returns are not possible for you. But surely you can minimize your cost and risk by reselling via ebay or such?

With such lofty goals as you have spelled out here, what is your ISP connection and is it adequate to cover all expected (consecutively connected) devices?

1. With this type of construction, it seems wiser to buy multiple routers and use them as AP's (no; I do not recommend nor use 'repeaters', 'extenders' or any other narrowly focused hardware). But even so, the wireless signal may not be bothered as much as we might surmise (sight unseen and equipment untested); again, it depends on the actual environment (in detail and in total).

2. With this many devices today (and the number growing) and the various max loads they can put on the network, a 3 radio router like an RT-AC5300 may be beneficial over a normal dual band router. The extra radio (5GHz band) may help to allow all devices to reach their max potential while not interfering (or at least interfering minimally) with the other connected devices via WiFi. I believe that one of the latest routers is needed because it is almost certain that you will employee many features of this router. Including QoS (Adaptive) and possibly bandwidth limiter too (and this will take a fast processor).

3. To expand a little on why I think paying for the latest equipment (with their high prices) is worth it if you have the need (and it seems you do), there are no routers available that can truthfully be called 'overkill' for a network such as yours. Too little memory, too little processor power and too little storage capacity (when it's measured in MB's, you know it's too small) to even begin to be considered a real computer, imo. I think that while the latest routers are still underpowered and overpriced (for my wallet), they are still a better long term deal than anything below them at even half the cost or less. Assuming you have the network requirements (and it seems in your case, you do) for the best we can get today while still watching the wallet closely.


Yes, you can spend money on a commercial install but that will easily be 10x the cost of what is being considered here. And still no guarantee that it will 'grow' with you as your network needs change.

Also consider that you don't need identical routers for your upstairs and downstairs locations, even if you can use the most powerful main router possible for the busiest areas.

One more thing before I wrap this up (and having re-read your post). A more powerful router may or may not give you better range or coverage vs. a more run of the mill example. But, my experience so far is that the newest equipment is usually the better equipment, particularly as time marches on.

An RT-AC68U is now a senior member of the Asus router club. It debuted back in 2013 and was probably on the drawing board since 2012 if we're lucky (and 2011 if we're not). That RF design has been superseded by the latest routers, of that I have no doubt.

And I again want to stress that just because you can't buy with an opportunity to return, that doesn't mean you can't simply sell it and buy something else that hopefully will work as you expect.

And the tests you see online? Unless you have the exact same network environment and conditions (nobody does), I would take those results with a large grain of salt too.

 

[mabhz]

And the tests you see online? Unless you have the exact same network environment and conditions (nobody does), I would take those results with a large grain of salt too.

Thank you very much for all your comments and recomendations! But if you dont mind, I have a few more points I´d like to ask, specially regarding your commets:

1. Yes, I can SELL any unsatisfying router here in my country, not using ebay, but a similar service. Purchasing is a whole different world... I wont have the oportunity to purchase another to router until at least two years from now.

2. I just upgraded to 25Mb from 15Mb, but already thinking of going up to 50Mb soon.

3. Pete and Merlin already convinced me of using wired access points instead of repeaters, and thats why im going for a wired AC68U/AC88U/RT5300 working with my currente AC68U. I have about 4 various other cheap routers here I could use, if I could find a way to extend a network to other parts of the house.

3. Even though I think RT5300 is a beast, I am not really sure about the benefits of a second 5GHz... Do you think i REALLY have the need for that? From the list I provided, could you please tell me which equipaments can connect on the 5GHz and which are limited to 2Ghz? I know PS3 and Ps4 only "see" the 2.4Ghz.

4. Still on the RT5300 subjetc, I definitely feel "safer" just by looking at its pletora of antena. But, technically speaking, do the absurd ammount of antenas play any relevant role in the signal performance (more antenas, more signal, more coverage?)

5. My biggest "FEAR" of purchasing the RT5300 is the possbility of it becoming the "next RT3200" - a good but flawled router. Isnt it too soon to know if its a good succesfull engineering project, like the AC68U was, or a "failed one", that will need a few urgente hardware revision?

6. The AC68U was almost a consensus regarding its excellent performance, all the reviews praised its exceptional signal coverage, and it turned out to be the real truth. I have seem many performance tests on the RT5300 showing slower speeds, specially at longer distances on 2,4Ghz, when compared to RT AC68U. I sincerely find it hard to consider a "bad test" or a environment issue.

 

[L&LD]

Thank you very much for all your comments and recomendations! But if you dont mind, I have a few more points I´d like to ask, specially regarding your commets:

1. Yes, I can SELL any unsatisfying router here in my country, not using ebay, but a similar service. Purchasing is a whole different world... I wont have the oportunity to purchase another to router until at least two years from now.

2. I just upgraded to 25Mb from 15Mb, but already thinking of going up to 50Mb soon.

3. Pete and Merlin already convinced me of using wired access points instead of repeaters, and thats why im going for a wired AC68U/AC88U/RT5300 working with my currente AC68U. I have about 4 various other cheap routers here I could use, if I could find a way to extend a network to other parts of the house.

3. Even though I think RT5300 is a beast, I am not really sure about the benefits of a second 5GHz... Do you think i REALLY have the need for that? From the list I provided, could you please tell me which equipaments can connect on the 5GHz and which are limited to 2Ghz? I know PS3 and Ps4 only "see" the 2.4Ghz.

4. Still on the RT5300 subjetc, I definitely feel "safer" just by looking at its pletora of antena. But, technically speaking, do the absurd ammount of antenas play any relevant role in the signal performance (more antenas, more signal, more coverage?)

5. My biggest "FEAR" of purchasing the RT5300 is the possbility of it becoming the "next RT3200" - a good but flawled router. Isnt it too soon to know if its a good succesfull engineering project, like the AC68U was, or a "failed one", that will need a few urgente hardware revision?

6. The AC68U was almost a consensus regarding its excellent performance, all the reviews praised its exceptional signal coverage, and it turned out to be the real truth. I have seem many performance tests on the RT5300 showing slower speeds, specially at longer distances on 2,4Ghz, when compared to RT AC68U. I sincerely find it hard to consider a "bad test" or a environment issue.

You're welcome. Just know that we are just other users here (except maybe for sfx2000 and a couple of others) and can only comment on what we've experienced personally, okay?

1. If that is the case, in your position I would buy all possible routers that you think may work for you, now (and then sell off the ones that you don't want).

2. Even at the 50Mbps service level from your ISP, in theory, all routers you're considering have enough oomph to give you a good enough experience within the limitations of the ISP service.

3. This is a decision you might need to make on your own. When certain devices join the network, do the rest of the users suffer? This test can be made now and continuously to check for how sensitive the other devices are to any older devices you still want to use. I would guess that the bigger the range from new devices to old devices (in WiFi performance and standards) would give more impact to the newer devices vs. just using the newest devices by themselves on the network. Of course, which band they use (or can't use) also comes into play here. But in general, any future (handheld) device you buy will be 5GHz capable and most likely better than anything you have now.

You can see which of your devices is dual band and of those, which perform better on the 5GHz band too vs. the 2.4GHz band (and your current router). I would be guessing and possibly lying through my teeth if I were to offer any such comments (particularly for your specific network environment).

4. When matched with the right devices and environment, yes, the additional antennae, radios, processor and RF design give a better network experience, overall. For some, even when not matched 100% too.

I keep coming back to this. Testing in your own environment and your own devices is a must to see if it will work for you.

5. I do not see the future clearly anymore than anyone else can. I think it isn't too late for the venerable RT-AC68U to be a 'dud' in the end too. We make a decision and roll with it. Tomorrow is another day for other decisions and challenges to be faced and acted upon. When I have done my due diligence, to the best of my abilities, nothing that can happen in the near or far future will make me second guess my original decision (ever). Because I know that at the time, I would decide the same way again.

Yes, new info may make you lean towards a different outcome the next time. But a part of gaining experience is having to pay for it (in one way or another, be it in time or money or both).

6. There are some standout performers, yes, from years ago. But they weren't outstanding when they were first introduced (it took a good long while for them to get there). And I've already mentioned that time has passed them all by. All these past great performers were a gamble for a lot of people for a very long time to buy and see (in hindsight) that they were so great. But getting a known or safe purchase from yesterday is not going to give you the network you've been asking for, imo. At least not into the next three to five years you're expecting something to last.

Again, on the seemingly invariable results of the 'testing'. Anything can be tested to show its good side. 'Deals' made with some online sites and manufacturers may cloud the conclusions reached. Real scientific testing is great for a comparative analysis between models that are tested and available at the same time to each of us. But in the end, the important things missing are our network devices (at various stages of firmware, drivers, usage and abuse), our specific environment (wired and wireless) and the interaction between all these variables that will never be matched in any review.

I have read many, many tests that were 'bad' and were a waste of my time just reading them (let alone needing to rely on them for an actual purchase). I have even seen manufacturers skew the results by 'fixing' the testing conditions and their products too to give better 'results'. The number one rule I learned a long time ago in school was that if money was involved? Question everything. And testing routers in your own environment and coming to your own conclusion is the best version of this 'questioning' that I can suggest to you or anyone else.