RT-AC86U hit the FCC

[doczenith1]

I like how their "flash sale" that only has a few days left and only a few pieces left has been going on for at least 4 weeks now as I was following it at one point. Back then the price was only $174.99USD

 

[Pir8pete]

I like how their "flash sale" that only has a few days left and only a few pieces left has been going on for at least 4 weeks now as I was following it at one point. Back then the price was only $174.99USD

should have bought one, its not going to get cheaper then that for some time I'd think.

 

[doczenith1]

I know brah but wasn't ready to jump in with both feet until some of y'all beta tested it out for us. I'll probably grab one here in about a month. Will give me something to play with around the holidays and Merlin's firmware with most likely be out of alpha and probably beta by then. It was about the same time last year when I grabbed a 3100 to play with. Got that router on one of Best Buy's sales for $192. Steal of a deal at the time. When I get the 86U I'll put it through the same comparison with my 68U that I did with the 3100 last year and post the results here again. Results of the 3100 vs 68U had the 3100 only edging out the 68U by a small margin hence my selling the more valuable 3100 and keeping the 68U.

 

[netok]

Luckily in China it's only 163 USD. Will buy after smallnetbuilder's review.

 

[Pierino]

I know brah but wasn't ready to jump in with both feet until some of y'all beta tested it out for us. I'll probably grab one here in about a month. Will give me something to play with around the holidays and Merlin's firmware with most likely be out of alpha and probably beta by then. It was about the same time last year when I grabbed a 3100 to play with. Got that router on one of Best Buy's sales for $192. Steal of a deal at the time. When I get the 86U I'll put it through the same comparison with my 68U that I did with the 3100 last year and post the results here again. Results of the 3100 vs 68U had the 3100 only edging out the 68U by a small margin hence my selling the more valuable 3100 and keeping the 68U.

Working well for me. Got it a microcenter for $168.

 

[matthew_eli]

Hey, is it possible with this router with kernel 4.x to connect a USB 3.0 hub on the USB3.0 port?

 

[scajjr2]

After close to 2 months of use I can say my 2 AC86U(1 router, 1 as access point) run flawlessly. Have had zero wifi connection issues on either band.

Sam

 

[Kusuri]

I have an RT-N66U running latest Merlin firmware and am slated for 1 Gbps/200 mbps service upgrade.
How much in terms of benefits should I expect in upgrading to this one?

Been using IPTV option for ISP router connecting to LAN4 and direct connection of the Asus to the ONT without any problems for years now. I gather I should, in practice, still have this same support going from N66U to AC86U, thanks to Merlin's fw, right?

Also if there are any RT-AC86U users here that have 1Gbps fiber I would be grateful if you could share some speedtest/dslreports, preferably with Merlin firmware installed.

Thanks

TEST_2G and TEST_5G

too bad I couldn't get anymore separation on the 2.4G side. I could put it to 20Mhz

There are more 5G in the area, just behide each other on the inSSIDer screenshot, but heck look at my TEST_5G all by it's self lol

I gather this is in same room more or less 1.5 m away from router?
Had any problems like Temchenko yet?

I got mine from Gearbest. It's Chinese version, but you can easily change region in Wireless professional tab and language from any place in UI. Only problem at the moment is unstable Wireless. I've sent logs to Asus and waiting for new firmware that will(hopefully) fix that.

Tried Merlin fw yet? First stable released less than 21h ago.

 

[atlantistm]

Hello,
I'm not an expert in networking so that's why I'm asking for help from someone who knows. I recently bought this router and I can firmly tell that it works really well with one exception. I set the 5 Ghz band on channel 104 or 108 where I have the highest speed but everytime the second day when I check my band with inSSIDer 4 it jumps on channel 40 and the speed in speed test is slower with aprox. 100 Mbps. Is it normal or is there a problem ? I'm also using the latest firmware 3.0.0.4_382_18219. By the way is there any setting that I can do so it permanently stays on channel 104 or 108 ?
Thank you.

 

[RMerlin]

This is a DFS channel. It means whenever the router detects potential radar traffic in that radio band, it needs to clear up the channel for a minimum period of time. This is probably what is happening in your case.

 

[thiggins]

RMerlin: I don't see DFS channels offered in the 5 GHz channel selector in the U.S., using the 18219 firmware...

 

[Internet Man]

RMerlin: I don't see DFS channels offered in the 5 GHz channel selector in the U.S., using the 18219 firmware...

A C2PC letter available today for the RT-AC86U adds DFS and AiMesh.

The DFS Test Report suggests that firmware version 3.0.0.4.382_9916 was used for the DFS tests.

 

[thiggins]

A C2PC letter available today for the RT-AC86U adds DFS and AiMesh.

The DFS Test Report suggests that firmware version 3.0.0.4.382_9916 was used for the DFS tests.

Thanks for the information. I still don't see DFS channels as an option in the channel selector.

 

[Internet Man]

Thanks for the information. I still don't see DFS channels as an option in the channel selector.

Yeah, we'll probably have to wait for a future firmware update to actually enable it in US models.

 

[RMerlin]

RMerlin: I don't see DFS channels offered in the 5 GHz channel selector in the U.S., using the 18219 firmware...

They shouldn't be indeed. So if he's on channel 104, it means he does not have a US-region model.

 

[Kusuri]

Decided to go ahead and purchase this one to replace the RT-N66U and I've lost the ability to have proper IPTV signal from my STB... freezes every 5 seconds.
Culprit is the absence of IGMP Snooping option in IPTV. Latest Merlin fw didn't have it either... Is it hidden somehow somewhere? No way to enable via telnet?
Screen from RT-N66U to show what's gone from RT-AC86U and making it unable to have IPTV... :

 

[thiggins]

Review posted. Discussion here, please.

 

[matthew_eli]

Hey, is it possible with this router with kernel 4.x to connect a USB 3.0 hub on the USB3.0 port?

I can answer by myself: yes, the USB3.0 hub works flawlessly!

 

[glugglug]

Decided to go ahead and purchase this one to replace the RT-N66U and I've lost the ability to have proper IPTV signal from my STB... freezes every 5 seconds.
Culprit is the absence of IGMP Snooping option in IPTV. Latest Merlin fw didn't have it either... Is it hidden somehow somewhere? No way to enable via telnet?
Screen from RT-N66U to show what's gone from RT-AC86U and making it unable to have IPTV... :

That sounds backwards....

To make Chromecasts work reliably, I actually have to disable IGMP snooping in the Wireless->Professional Tab for each band.
What the snooping does is it makes the router look for devices announcing they are listening to certain multicast addresses. Then when a UDP multicast packet is sent, it gets forwarded to only the listeners, instead of all devices on the LAN. With snooping disabled, the multicast UDP is sent to every device on your network, which is obviously less efficient and uses up more WiFi bandwidth, but compatibility-wise, it's better, as a lot of the casting apps turn off their explicit listening when put in the background, and miss the packets from the Chromecast otherwise.