New Asus RT-87U

[hggomes]

From a security perspective, that is extemely bad advise.

Yes, but unfortunatelly is the way it works by now, other way no connect.

 

[funkahdafi]

Could you please explain (or at least) provide more details on why you think this (i am confused as well with my decisions - so, you might help me understand all this better - thanks!)

Essentially, the AC3200 routers are not faster than the AC1900 routers. The AC2300 routers are faster. BUT: The AC3200 routers have one more radio, so they have three radios in total, and they use them to intelligently put the clients on different radios, separating them from each other.

They try to put clients with equal link speed on the same radio, so they don't interfere with faster clients. 802.11n clients will be put on one radio, slower 802.11ac clients (with only one or two streams) will be put on another and the faster 802.11ac clients will be put on yet another radio.

This will basically enhance your overall bandwidth compared to routers that only have two radios (one 2,4 and one 5 ghz). A 802.11n client or slow 802.11ac client will no longer drag down the fast 802.11ac clients.

Hope that makes some sense.

 

[damir]

It does, thank you!!

So, basically, this is very important for people having so many wi-fi devices?

For example, we have 2 phones (my wife and me) , xbox one, Toshiba Smart TV and one Laptop using wi-fi at the moment, all others are wired devices.

Now, i am thinking what is the best investment for our needs.

R7000, R8000, RT-AC87R or wait for new Asus AC3200 router

R7000 - $179.99
R8000 - $299.99
RT-AC87R - $(probably) 270-290
+ 13% tax (Ontario)

 

[sm00thpapa]

I have 25 wifi devices maybe I can benefit from an AC3200 router. But my N66U is handling all 25 flawlessly.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[damir]

I have 25 wifi devices maybe I can benefit from an AC3200 router. But my N66U is handling all 25 flawlessly.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Thats what i am thinking right now ....... right after Merlin posted that link ..........

 

[funkahdafi]

It all depends on what kind of devices you have, what link speed they have, and what you expect.

Any good router these days will support 25 devices. However, if all of these devices are mixed (g/n/ac), your maximum throughput will suffer, because the router will have to operate in a way to serve the slower devices, forcing the faster devices to slow down as well (technically, it's a bit different, but you get the point). On a smartphone or tablet on which you just browse the net or read email, it probably won't make a difference. If you are streaming high bitrate bluray files while at the same time your kids use their 802.11n toys, that might become a whole different story.

I would say for most people it's probably irrelevant. If you want the highest possible link speed, the AC2300 routers like the AC87 will be your best bet (also for range). If you can live with current AC1900 speeds, but you have a large amount of mixed devices AND you need a rock solid, high speed wifi bridge for bluray streaming, the AC3200 is the better choice.

Also note that you can always separate your devices yourself by forcing all slower devices on the 2.4 ghz radio and the true high-speed 802.11ac devices on the 5 ghz band. That can easily be done with current and last-gen routers.

Anyways, we're driftin off-topic. Let's move this discussion elsewhere. This thread is actually about the new Asus router

 

[KGB7]

Change your encryption to TKIP, that will fix your problem.

Or you can do TKIP+AES.

 

[funkahdafi]

Or you can do TKIP+AES.

That simply means you give both parties the choice to select either one. Ig they can't establish AES, they will use TKIP as a fallback. They will NOT use both together.

 

[KKLD]

It all depends on what kind of devices you have, what link speed they have, and what you expect.

Any good router these days will support 25 devices. However, if all of these devices are mixed (g/n/ac), your maximum throughput will suffer, because the router will have to operate in a way to serve the slower devices, forcing the faster devices to slow down as well (technically, it's a bit different, but you get the point). On a smartphone or tablet on which you just browse the net or read email, it probably won't make a difference. If you are streaming high bitrate bluray files while at the same time your kids use their 802.11n toys, that might become a whole different story.

I would say for most people it's probably irrelevant. If you want the highest possible link speed, the AC2300 routers like the AC87 will be your best bet (also for range). If you can live with current AC1900 speeds, but you have a large amount of mixed devices AND you need a rock solid, high speed wifi bridge for bluray streaming, the AC3200 is the better choice.

Also note that you can always separate your devices yourself by forcing all slower devices on the 2.4 ghz radio and the true high-speed 802.11ac devices on the 5 ghz band. That can easily be done with current and last-gen routers.

Anyways, we're driftin off-topic. Let's move this discussion elsewhere. This thread is actually about the new Asus router

Thanks for your insight. Just curious, why does the AC87U have longer range than the AC3200?

 

[funkahdafi]

I am not sure that it really does. Asus claims it will have a much larger coverage than the AC68. Someone with more knowledge will have to answer that. My guess is it's bacause of the fourth stream (it's a 4x4 radio) and the additional antenna. Just a guess though.

 

[Wolf26pack]

Waiting for Release

Now if they would just release the Router already . I mean it's supposedly releasing in 2 days but since some people have already purchased it they might as well officially announce it and release it. Right now I'm stuck with a 2wire Gateway from U-verse and a Linksys E1000 behind that. I'm hoping to replace the Linksys with the ASUS RT-AC87U. I don't know why the wait is killing me, but it is!!

 

[damir]

Now if they would just release the Router already . I mean it's supposedly releasing in 2 days but since some people have already purchased it they might as well officially announce it and release it. Right now I'm stuck with a 2wire Gateway from U-verse and a Linksys E1000 behind that. I'm hoping to replace the Linksys with the ASUS RT-AC87U. I don't know why the wait is killing me, but it is!!

Monday, Monday is your friend on this one.

 

[RMerlin]

Im hoping the firmware update will sort this out but as of now my Samsung Tab S 10.4 won't connect to the Internet. It does connect to the wireless network however just can't go to websites (weird I know)
I changed all the encryption settings and still nothing. I guess since this router isn't officially
out its to be expected to have a few bugs

That's why having Best Buy sell this ahead of official release time was a bad thing. You are probably currently running an older, beta firmware which was used at manufacturing time, since the final firmware was still being worked on at the time they were mass producing the routers.

Asus just finalized the first final firmware for this router today. Try the Firmware Update checker on Sunday, it should be available by then. Final firmware version is 3.0.0.4.376_1779.

Let me know if you still can't get it on Sunday, and I'll upload the copy I have on Mediafire.

 

[RMerlin]

Now if they would just release the Router already . I mean it's supposedly releasing in 2 days but since some people have already purchased it they might as well officially announce it and release it.

They didn't because the firmware was not ready yet. They prefer to have people wait a few more days to ensure a smooth ride rather than have early adopters come home with devices running beta, unfinished firmware. Not everyone would be aware than what they bought was a pre-release product, as they don't have all the good idea of reading places such as SNB

 

[RMerlin]

For those that are still unsure, keep in mind that those wifi numbers are only one small part of the equation. There is also the matter of stability, reliability, and features. So far, the RT-AC87U offers far more features than the R8000. The new QoS and Parental Control stuff also is really, really nice. Trust me... I'll post some actual details on Sunday or Monday once the product has officially launched.

If unsure, I recommend waiting for some reviews to start appearing on the web comparing both products on multiple factors. So far I don't even think there is any detailed review of the R8000 (and no, posts on sites such as Amazon don't count as reviews.)

 

[Wolf26pack]

Your Right

You have a good point there, I know the masses don't usually do much reading or reviewing, instead they tend to go by these 3 things...

-Brands
-Experience
-Word of mouth

I guess my excitement and impatience got the best of me . Although I do believe that the first people who are going to buy this are the tech enthusiasts, who are aware and do read forums etc... But I commend ASUS for not releasing a half baked product, like I see so much now a days. Especially from Videogame consoles. (I'm calling Both Sony and Microsoft out on that one)

 

[RMerlin]

For further questions regarding the availability of a final firmware release, see this thread created by an Asus representative.

 

[theveterans]

I just need a clarification. As you guys know that MU-MIMO is a wave 2 version of 802.11ac.

Is MU-MIMO a AP/router only functionality? If it is, does it mean that the Wave 1 802.11ac clients or even N 5 GHz clients benefit from MU-MIMO due to it being depended on the router's TX stream?

 

[maxtoid]

Just picked up the AC2400 today at Best Buy. Upgrading from the R7000 just because we were having slight issues with the R7000 dropping wireless clients, which is understandable given the fact that we run 20 wireless devices on average. We were debating between the AC2400 and the R8000, but initial reports are sketchy regarding the R8000 and stability seems to be an issue, as is usually the case with new netgear hardware while they iron out the kinks for the first couple months.

We're very happy with the AC2400. It's running very well so far and is outperforming the R7000 in many ways. We had issues with getting our full gigabit internet on a speed test with the R7000 while the guest network was enabled or any kind of network monitoring was enabled. It would cut in half. The AC2400 handles a guest network just fine as well as the full network monitoring and active QoS while maintaining a full 900Mbps speed test, with 20+ devices connected. It also pulls about 150Mbps faster speed tests over AC wireless than the R7000, at about 550Mbps down and 450Mbps up. Not bad considering a decent a mount of distance and interference between the test device and the router.

Overall, we've had good luck under load and great test results so far. Will update as we go forward. The final firmware was available upon setup tonight, and we're currently running firmware 3.0.0.4.376_1779

Did an unboxing and setup video, will post the link to that shortly in case anybody is interested.

 

[maxtoid]

For anyone interested, here's our unboxing and setup video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWABCJKaSFE&hd=1