Problem with all of these routers is not a software problem when you get WAN speeds exceeding 150 to 300mbps. Most routers have a single CPU and that is definitely not enough… And even the dual core CPUs found in the RT 68 U you is still not enough
With a 350 Mb connection, the 68 unit is capable of actually routing and network address translating 350 Mb worth of data using one single connection – which also means one file – or one data Stream. That has CPU number one at 100% and CPU number two at 50 to 60%....now streamto unlimited bandwidth, and the 68 unit caps out at 25 MB per second which is 150 Mb per second – this is because both CPUs are maxed out at 100% and are also burning themselves up and are running at nearly 80 C – this is in a room that is kept at a constant 66° year round – which is my home office with three PCs… That 66°F… That kind of strain and he will cause the 68 unit to need a reboot several times per day… So well that unit can handle one connection at 350 Mb, the Instant you start establishing other connections, and downloading data, the more load is put on the CPUs… You could have 20 to 30 connections that are barely uploading or downloading data or periodically doing it that will not affect your overall band with to you to see if you limitations… But if you were to try to have 20 connection is down below 20 files , One file each from various websites that support your Internet speed… The 68 unit would be capable only about 50 to 75 Mb worth of data
So their whole advertisement about their routers being able to tackle 30,000 connections is a bunch of BS… They can definitely handle 30,000 connections providing your Internet speed doesn't exceed 35 Mb
The 87u is unique router in all of the routers ASUS makes for residential and small business use. It is the only router that has four CPU cores. Actually two separate 2 core CPUs. The main double core CPU is clocked at 1 GHz and does everything that is not Wi-Fi... It also has another double core CPU that runs at 500 MHz that does everything Wi-Fi… So if you have a hard drive hooked into the unit as a media server, these processors handle everything from streaming data from the hard drive through Wi-Fi, and if you were going from Wi-Fi to lan or vice then all four cores would be involved, and the dedicated CPU to Wi-Fi would be taking a massive load off the main units CPU... If this unit did not have this special processing said, it would not be able to handle much more WAN data vs the 68 unit as you would simply have a next-generation dual CPU going to hundred megahertz faster... What that would have given somebody is probably 2 to 3 connection is downloading all out and achieving a total combined download of 350 Mb… But add any more serious downloading connections and you would probably drop down to 100 Mb total due to cup overload. But because of the 87 design, you can get away with about 10 to 20 hard-core downloading connections and we still on for 350 to 400 Mb… Maybe even 500
Even newer more expensive routers from asus this unique combination. 87 you still cost about US$268… Yet they make routers for residential and small businesses that go all the way up to $500 in cost… That's because they are concentrating on making these for f 87 UCO costs about US$268… Yet they make routers for residential and small businesses that go all the way up to $500 in cost… That's because they are concentrating on making these super fast wifi 4x4 or soon 5x5 AC connections... Because technically 802.11 AC can use a 160 MHz wide channel… That would take up all standard 5 GHz channels except 165… And in the USA you can only access channel 165 if the 5 GHz band is set to 20 megahertz wide ...that's sort of a little secret most people don't now… It's very hard to overcrowd the 5 GHz band but it is very possible In a highly populated urban area with lots of apartments crammed together...so if you grow desperate, you can use the hidden channel 165 at 20 MHz wide...Unfortunately using 802.11 and this is a maximum throughput of hundred megabits... However if you are using 802.11 AC with multiple MIMO..You can probably squeeze 200 to 300 Mb out of this minor little secret channel
Anyway… I know of no residential or small business router that is actually, truly capable of handling a one gigabit connection… If you actually attempted to DL One gigabit per second worth of total data from five or six different connections on the same or multiple devices… And try to achieve a total combined download of one gigabits for everything – it's not possible… It's not even possible with One connection ... Is possible if you were using IP six because that eliminates nar routing, that takes a massive weight off the CPU load ... My advice is if your ISP supports IP six – turn it on… Time Warner cable now fully supports IP six in most areas… Before I swapped out my 68 with my 87 because my 87 was just being used as an access point… I was to squeeze more data from my Internet connection by turning off firewalls and D DOS protection and anything else that could possibly use the CPU… And then I enabled IPv6… So if I did a heavy download from an IP six site, normally under IP4 that would take up one point 5 of the double CPU system ... And then I initiated a sec it download using IP four, the 68 unit suddenly can only pull 150 Mb total because of CPU overload… But I ran a test and disabled IP for on my PC… And then Had steam DL a game. And it does support IP six… And lo and behold I got 45 MB per second ...that was not possible under ip4… And technically, I probably could have initiated a Nother steam download on another computer, and each would've gotten about 22 to 23 MB per second - 300 Mb per second..I Pay for 300 Mb connection, but Twc gives customers a bit extra – especially business.
So if you can't afford another router, and you're even stuck with the 66 unit...at unit will perform even worse because it only has one cpu. 1 core. That unit is completely incapable of handling any connection over 100 Mb… Enabling IPv6 may help those of you who have this router… But it will only help if the site that you are accessing supports IPv6 also ....keep in mind your Internet provider must fully support.. Example Time Warner cable's IP six DNS servers will allow IPv6 queries, but they don't return a true IPv6 address. What they return is an IP6 address in an Ip4 format. May look like an IP six address… And tactically it is but it's the way to show an IP for address and IP six… This does create problems because you will not always be able to access true IP six websites in some cases. So if you have Twc , recommend you run your own IP six DNS server, or use a public full blown IP six DNS server
As far as setting up ip6... This can vary greatly from ISP the ISP… With many of them using conversion techniques and other things that are not native… These routers do support that but they are much more difficult to configure… If you're lucky your provider supports native IPv6 support like Time Warner cable. They support both stateless and steak they support both stateless and stateful and they have DCHP-PD - meaning they take care of assigning you – actually all of your devices and IP six address… Now you can choose state full or stateless and let the ISP you do everything... You can do what I do is choose the mode where the DHCP server just gives you the main IPv6 prefix, and allows you to choose the very last number for your IP pool… Trust me you'll have a lot – it's well over 10,000 IP addresses ... IPv6 has so many combinations that and Isp it easily afford to do that ... Anyway that gives you a little bit more control… But these routers will not let you manually and you're a Mac address and set at IP six address like you can in ip4. However there is a little bit of a drawback because all your devices are getting public addresses and you're not behind a network address translation meaning anybody on the Internet can see all your devices because when they advertise themselves they advertise out into the public because they couldn't do that before… So enabling an IP 6 fire well on the router helps but if you're trying to save CPU resources than this is a bad idea… Instead and Abel the routers DHCP IPv6 server .... That causes something very interesting to happen… Each device ends up with two IPv6 addresses and this is all part of the IP six rules and regulations… Each device actually if they support IP six months support three IPv6 address is: temporary IPv6 address, a link local IP six Address, and the regular full blown IPv6 address… When you enable all your routers IP 6 dchp server , it will assign a private network of IP addresses to all of your devices… Depending on the device and operating system this private address will either go into the link local spot – which is the most common, or it could go into the temporary spot… Either way this presents any of your computer and device announcements from going out in the Internet because the computers and devices have their own routing tables and they will use local and temporary IPv6 addresses for local transmission of data, and use the real IPv6 address within Internet is accessed… another reason to do this is because your router is no longer the gateway anymore under IP six… The gateway is with your ISP… So once ISP is fully used a lot of things go away. But you can firewall each of your computers for safety… And for the most part It's very hard for somebody to hack your cell phone unless you have a jailbroken and didn't change the password