Rt-ac68u

[jyeah]

Well I have an R6300v1 that is absolutely horrible!! Worked great for almost a year now it drops lan connectivity constantly. I had the AC66R and returned it last week in anticipation of the AC68U. Never a Netgear again.

I was just using a R7000 as an example as to why to upgrade to an AC68U. I also returned my AC66 and ordered a AC68, since I was planning to setup an NAS.

 

[F5ing]

I personally will never purchase anything with the linksys name after my experience with the EA4200. Their support sux!
I am sticking with ASUS and Merlin, its a sure bet they will keep updaing/fixing the AC68 long after Linksys moves on from the EA6900

Steve

I don't think Belkin can do any worse than Cisco's support for the Linksys brand. Gave up on the Linksys brand under Cisco a couple of years ago after being "on the fence" with them for a year or so before that. I'll never say "never" though .

Asus/Merlin provide regular updates to improve; not so with Linksys/Cisco unless the hardware or admin GUI was basically "unusable".

 

[maylyn]

Probably not fully replicated to mirrors yet, I only see the FW - the GPL returns a 404.

Hi RMerlin,

You should be able to download it now i have tried and have downloaded it

I think smallnetbuilder has received their ASUS RT-AC68U unit as well

 

[DaveMishSr]

Hi RMerlin,

You should be able to download it now i have tried and have downloaded it

I think smallnetbuilder has received their ASUS RT-AC68U unit as well

I just got my RT-AC68U! I am setting it up later today. Once I verify it is up and running OK I will be auctioning off my 2 RT-AC66U's on eBay. I like the new vertical design as my AC66U's are both set up vertically to promote better cooling. The AC68U also has a LED on/off switch and a radio on/off button as well in addition to a power button. I am very impressed with its design. Let's just hope it performs as well as it looks.

 

[Asmodian]

I got my RT-AC68U yesterday, it is running very well and I do get a better 5 Ghz connection on my GS4 vs my "old" RT-AC66U. I too like the new design and the device feel very high quality.

Now we just need a Merlin firmware so I can setup OpenVPN again.

 

[thiggins]

RT-AC68U Test Results Posted

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/rankers/router/ranking/AC1900?rank=6

ASUS has a big problem in 2.4 GHz uplink.

Couldn't get the PCE-AC68 to link at 600 Mbps with it or the NETGEAR R7000 either.

 

[Andy24]

Dang, that stinks, I've been waiting for this thing for months to get replace the freakin' slow as snails Linksys 6500.

 

[sm00thpapa]

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/rankers/router/ranking/AC1900?rank=6

ASUS has a big problem in 2.4 GHz uplink.

Couldn't get the PCE-AC68 to link at 600 Mbps with it or the NETGEAR R7000 either.

Thanks Tim. Guess I won't be in a hurry to pick up the AC68U.

 

[Tsun]

802.11ac performances are very disappointing compared to AC1750 routers - I expected much bigger gain from the new generation.

EA6900 numbers coming any time soon?

 

[NightOwl326]

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/rankers/router/ranking/AC1900?rank=6

ASUS has a big problem in 2.4 GHz uplink.

Couldn't get the PCE-AC68 to link at 600 Mbps with it or the NETGEAR R7000 either.

So if I was going to make a purchase this weekend of this generation router, what would be your advice at this point? And does the r7000 really have a cooling fan?

 

[whsbuss]

So if I was going to make a purchase this weekend of this generation router, what would be your advice at this point? And does the r7000 really have a cooling fan?

I can only give my opinion. My R6300 is less than 1 year old and all the LAN ports drop packets constantly. Their latest f/w has a problem with very long ping times and they haven't addressed it. Their support is terrible and they have a tendency to stop support too soon on their routers.

I'd stay away. Even with this issue Tim has found I would go with the 68u.

 

[sm00thpapa]

So if I was going to make a purchase this weekend of this generation router, what would be your advice at this point? And does the r7000 really have a cooling fan?

I would wait on a purchase till all the AC1900 have been reviewed. Seems like they all have bugs that need to be worked out.

 

[RMerlin]

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/rankers/router/ranking/AC1900?rank=6

ASUS has a big problem in 2.4 GHz uplink.

Couldn't get the PCE-AC68 to link at 600 Mbps with it or the NETGEAR R7000 either.

Looking at that graph, maybe Asus ought to sue Netgear for outputting more power than what is allowed

More seriously tho, which firmware version did you use in your tests? Asus released an update on their website last week, that might be newer than what was shipped with your router perhaps. Might also be good to Email AK about this, just in case he might have a beta FW for you to try out.

 

[RMerlin]

For those better than I at reading these wireless charts, how you sumerize what you see on both bands between the 2 and in general?

According to this graph, 2.4 GHz performance on the RT-AC68U is about a third of what the R7000 (or any other 450 Mbits router should get on the 2.4 GHz band) gets. Which is definitely wrong.

 

[RMerlin]

Is that only on uplink? How does 5ghz, range on both bands and 2.4 downlink compare?

Just look at the graphs that Tim linked, they should be fairly easy to read.

 

[PrivateJoker]

According to this graph, 2.4 GHz performance on the RT-AC68U is about a third of what the R7000 (or any other 450 Mbits router should get on the 2.4 GHz band) gets. Which is definitely wrong.

Or, they could put a positive spin on it and say "it's the 2nd fastest 2.4ghz uplink of any AC1900 router."

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanwan/router-charts/view (then pull down "2.4ghz uplink" for sort on list.

 

[NightOwl326]

Looking at these charts I don't see much that the rt-ac68u excels at. Don't see much to make this a $220.00 wireless router upgrade.

 

[RMerlin]

Looking at these charts I don't see much that the rt-ac68u excels at. Don't see much to make this a $220.00 wireless router upgrade.

Depends what you are upgrading from. Upgrading from an RT-AC66U just for the faster CPU and USB performance would make no sense - buy an entry level NAS instead, and plug it to your RT-AC66U. Upgrading from an RT-N16 however would be a worthwhile upgrade. Upgrading from an WRT54GL would be a big improvement.

Anyway, when you get into the 200$ price range for a router, this is clearly targeted at enthusiasts. The same type of customer who pays 500$ for a CPU that is only 5% faster than the 250$ one - they want the top of the line, and they can afford it.

For most users looking at better wifi speed, personally I recommend the RT-AC56U. Very few users have triple-stream capable NICs anyway, so the dual stream RT-AC56U would get them in business. They would get the same WAN or USB performance as with the RT-AC68U as well.

If range/coverage is an issue, the RT-AC66U remains a top contender.

 

[RMerlin]

Those who got one, did Asus implement the Turbo mode that previously mentioned?

 

[Sky1111]

While it is too early to judge, I do suspect that Netgear R7000 will win this race.

People are not restricted to Netgear FW anymore - OpenRouter site already has DD-WRT firmware which supports things like VPN Client: http://www.myopenrouter.com/download/51635/DD-WRT-Firmware-for-NETGEAR-R7000-Wi-Fi-Router/

While both more expensive Linksys 6900 and AC68U are running the CPU at 800MHz, Netgear is officially running 1GHz. 20% CPU clock does make difference - esp for people who are not planning to overclock it.

Netgear is cheaper from the fist wave of AC1900 routers - at least in US:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...=BESTMATCH&Description=AC1900&N=-1&isNodeId=1

What remains open is memory they used in the routers... In my observation, boosting the RAM from default 533MHz to 800MHz made a huge impact on wired network transfer rates...

Can't wait for full reviews and a detailed hardware comparison between these 3...