Rt-ac68u

[kamaran]

The Cnet review found the rt-AC68u to outperform the r7000

http://m.cnet.com/reviews/netgear-nighthawk-ac1900-smart-wi-fi-router-r7000/35828277

 

[sm00thpapa]

The Cnet review found the rt-AC68u to outperform the r7000

http://m.cnet.com/reviews/netgear-nighthawk-ac1900-smart-wi-fi-router-r7000/35828277

IMO Cnet is a joke with their reviews. That Dong Ngo guy knows nothing about routers and can't even speak English.

 

[whsbuss]

The Cnet review found the rt-AC68u to outperform the r7000

http://m.cnet.com/reviews/netgear-nighthawk-ac1900-smart-wi-fi-router-r7000/35828277

What I find interesting is Cnet shows better 2.4ghz performance than the R7000. Tim's initial testing shows the opposite. Also, Cnet states the R7000 supports Time Machine on their USB ports...... but in fact the manual says just the opposite:

"HFS+ Journal is read-only because this router does not support Time Machine. For more information about Time Machine, visit www.netgear.com/readyshare or see your Mac’s documentation."

 

[thiggins]

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

You guys should know better than to jump right on a new ASUS router. They don't like sending them to me for review until they get a couple of firmware spins done.

But I have told them that if routers are good enough to sell, they are good enough to review.

 

[thiggins]

IMO Cnet is a joke with their reviews. That Dong Ngo guy knows nothing about routers and can't even speak English.

Actually Dong is pretty well respected and one of the better reviewers out there. It would be better, however, if he posted details on his test procedure.

I may have missed it, but I didn't even see what clients he used for the test and whether the throughputs posted are uplink or downlink.

 

[thiggins]

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.

I used that latest posted version and confirmed it with ASUS.

I review only with publicly released firmware.

 

[whsbuss]

Tim,

Have you reported the 2.4ghz issue to Asus? I know you haven't finished the in-depth review but if there is that much of a degradation of throughput that is a serious issue.

 

[thiggins]

I am under no obligation to do so and usually do not share test results before reviews are posted.

But since results have been publicly posted, I have sent copies of data for all four test runs (not just the single best run posted) to ASUS and NETGEAR. Each company got only the results for their product.

 

[dawson46]

2.4 Ghz performance

I have an RT-AC66U as an access point and the RT-AC68U. The 2.4 from the 68 is much stronger performance wise and distance than the 66. But on 5GHz, I'm seeing the opposite. Signal degrades faster the same distance away on the 68. The settings for wifi are the same on both devices (except SSID and Channel)

 

[whsbuss]

I have an RT-AC66U as an access point and the RT-AC68U. The 2.4 from the 68 is much stronger performance wise and distance than the 66. But on 5GHz, I'm seeing the opposite. Signal degrades faster the same distance away on the 68. The settings for wifi are the same on both devices (except SSID and Channel)

WOW that's interesting. I use 5ghz for my macbook and apple TV. 2.4ghz for all other devices.

 

[whsbuss]

I am under no obligation to do so and usually do not share test results before reviews are posted.

But since results have been publicly posted, I have sent copies of data for all four test runs (not just the single best run posted) to ASUS and NETGEAR. Each company got only the results for their product.

Thanks. Still hoping the Asus performs well as my Netgear router experience has been terrible.

 

[dawson46]

Netgear

I had issues with the Netgear in that once I got Directv's Nomad, the Mac computers would sometimes find their time machine backups on a WD Worldbook and 2 MyBookLives. Not sure why Nomad made such a traffic increase but the AC68 handles it without a drop.

My only complaint is to find away around the double NAT DDNS issue. There was a storm that fried most of the cable modems in our plan. Comcast gave everyone the Comcast Wireless gateways. Not sure if there is a way around that.

 

[PrivateJoker]

I have an RT-AC66U as an access point and the RT-AC68U. The 2.4 from the 68 is much stronger performance wise and distance than the 66. But on 5GHz, I'm seeing the opposite. Signal degrades faster the same distance away on the 68. The settings for wifi are the same on both devices (except SSID and Channel)

To test apples to apples are you comparing placing them in the same point of reference (one at a time) and using the same channel settings at that physical place? Even moving one just 50-100ft away you have uncontrolled RF (or even the RF that you are producing) and non-identical signal pathways. The wifi bands have some seriously different transmission & reflection properties through different building materials, even rotating your AP 90° in place can yield different RSSI & throughput.

I'm not totally discounting that there are probably differences between the routers, just saying it's probably not a totally sound & repeatable observation until you use the same equipment in the same place and do repeated back to back tests with comparable f/ws from multiple physical points of observation.

 

[dawson46]

Used InSSIDer when they are both running concurrently they use different channels. Doing the testing I used channel 1 (oddly only 1 cochannel) and 157 and had the opposite device powered down.

 

[Poseidon]

...............

 

[PrivateJoker]

Used InSSIDer when they are both running concurrently they use different channels. Doing the testing I used channel 1 (oddly only 1 cochannel) and 157 and had the opposite device powered down.

Right, did you measure them when they were in the same place in physical space set on the same channel, measured from the same place?

And you mention "cochannel" 2.4ghz channels it sounds like one or both devices might be using 40mhz channels? 2 APs in same RF space cannot both be on 40mhz wide non-overlapping frequency spectrum.

 

[Mavin]

While I'm sure the new AC68U is a great router - but according to RMerlin, it's pretty much identical to the AC66U. .

Does not seem identical to me?

 

[RMerlin]

Without knowing their methodology (which could be different between devices), this isn't of much help. I'd wait for Tim's in-depth review personally, at least he fully discloses his methodology, which ensures that you are comparing apples with apples.

 

[Mavin]

Without knowing their methodology (which could be different between devices), this isn't of much help. I'd wait for Tim's in-depth review personally, at least he fully discloses his methodology, which ensures that you are comparing apples with apples.

Ah ok. My Newegg preorder comes on Tuesday anyway. Upgrading from the RT-N16, will be a nice upgrade regardless.

 

[DaveMishSr]

To test apples to apples are you comparing placing them in the same point of reference (one at a time) and using the same channel settings at that physical place? Even moving one just 50-100ft away you have uncontrolled RF (or even the RF that you are producing) and non-identical signal pathways. The wifi bands have some seriously different transmission & reflection properties through different building materials, even rotating your AP 90° in place can yield different RSSI & throughput.

I'm not totally discounting that there are probably differences between the routers, just saying it's probably not a totally sound & repeatable observation until you use the same equipment in the same place and do repeated back to back tests with comparable f/ws from multiple physical points of observation.

I have seen the same issue. My RT-AC68U is great with the 2.4 GHz band but the 5 GHz band performance is not as good as my old RT-AC66U. The settings are identical with regard to channel, etc. However, for some reason the 68's 5 GHz band suffers from greater attenuation than the 66's.