RT-AC87U Upgrade Questions

[jgrove]

Hi All,

I have read with interest the various reviews of the AC87 router from Asus, all of them comment on various firmware problems, and no hardware problems.

I currently use a RT-N66U router and it has proved extremely reliable, however i have never really stressed the WIFI radios as the bandwidth hogging clients are wired in via a netgear switch (managed)

I am wanting to remove some of the wiring and use the 5ghz wifi network for my clients (nearly all support it)

I am concerned that the firmware isnt mature enough and that any upgrade from a mature N66U would may for the time being proove to be a downgrade,

I am merely looking for some guidance on the overall impact the AC87U would have on my network.

I do struggle with signal strength in my house, for a number of reasons, so any gain in that would be a huge advantage for me.

Please keep in mind that the UK price for the AC87U is 209 UK Pounds, which is around 330 US Dollars, so its not a cheap unit given that most users seem to be testing the firmware.

Any advice or guidance appropriated as i was going to order one today,

I should also state that the unit would be wall mounted in the same way the N66U is, so i am hoping the screw holes line up!

Regards

 

[psychopomp1]

Its a fact of life that people usually post on forums to complain and the same applies to the AC87R. That said, no router is immune from bugs. I'm also in the UK and had the AC87R (bought from BestBuy in USA) for a few months now and use it with my TalkTalk Business FTTC 80/20 mbps connection and its the best router i've had for speed & range. Its the first ever Asus router i've had, used to be a Linksys fan but after the OpenWRT debacle with the WRT1900AC, i ain't going back to Linksys anytime soon. My advice would be to buy it from Amazon UK, you have up to 30 days to return it if doesn't meet your expectations but pretty sure you will be happy

 

[wouterv]

Hi All,

I have read with interest the various reviews of the AC87 router from Asus, all of them comment on various firmware problems, and no hardware problems.

I currently use a RT-N66U router and it has proved extremely reliable, however i have never really stressed the WIFI radios as the bandwidth hogging clients are wired in via a netgear switch (managed)

I am wanting to remove some of the wiring and use the 5ghz wifi network for my clients (nearly all support it)

I am concerned that the firmware isnt mature enough and that any upgrade from a mature N66U would may for the time being proove to be a downgrade,

I am merely looking for some guidance on the overall impact the AC87U would have on my network.

I do struggle with signal strength in my house, for a number of reasons, so any gain in that would be a huge advantage for me.

Please keep in mind that the UK price for the AC87U is 209 UK Pounds, which is around 330 US Dollars, so its not a cheap unit given that most users seem to be testing the firmware.

Any advice or guidance appropriated as i was going to order one today,

I should also state that the unit would be wall mounted in the same way the N66U is, so i am hoping the screw holes line up!

Regards

Wireless range is allways the question and issue.
You deal with the nature of radio signals and the typicals for wireless networks.

At first, no matter what modern router, 2.4 GHz will behave the same with similar performance. The range is usually sufficient for an average home if you manage to find a reasonable free channel out of 1, 6 or 11. Neighbor disturbance is a problem in crowded areas.

Differences between routers are in the 5 GHz part, with different implementations of current available standards. Disadvantage of 5 GHz is the range: count for at least half of what you get with 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz is in general good enough for one room. Also read about the issues around DFS. Do not expect long range miracles from 5 GHz of any router, you have to deal with the natural limitations of such a high frequency radio signal.
802.11n is fully developped (and is the same as with your RT-N66U).
802.11ac is in full development and theorethically gives many advantages. The implementation of 802.11ac is different for many routers and only works out the best if the client end does support the same 802.11ac implementation which is seldom true. The 802.11ac specification for the client end is usually poorly documented.
You can even hardly find if there are one or more antenna's in a portable device. Many portable devices only have one antenna, which dramatically limits the wireless performance.
In short: specifying a device support 802.11ac IS NOT ENOUGH, you must know the details and see how they match with your (future) router.
Finally you may hope DFS doesn't play up too bad.

Fitting any router against the wall is not a good idea, unless you have paper or cardboard walls. Brick, concrete, steel, liquids: they all absorb or reflect radio signals and have great impact on the range and coverage.

For good coverage through a whole house there is one solutions: multiple access points, connected by a wire or powerlines to the router.

Anyway: if you can return the RT-AC87, it may be worth to try, but do not expect miracles.

 

[wouterv]

Worth to read:
http://www.timhiggins.com/wireless/...oes-an-ac-router-improve-n-device-performance

 

[arrow201]

From the posts I've read here, it seems some are having none/few problems
to the other extreme with those having many problems. From this, I think
there could be some hardware issues. Maybe it's tolerances, maybe it's
overheating issues ..I don't know. Maybe I'm lucky to have a good one. I find
the range and throughput fantastic on both bands. It might be a good idea to
spend a bit more and also pickup a laptop fan to put under the router(?)

 

[jegesq]

Personally I'd go along with Tim Higgins' previously posted suggestions, at least for now (and until there are any real 4x4 client devices available that can take advantage of some of the newest routers), posted recently in another thread where even he suggested that he would not get an 87U or the Netgear R7500 and Linksys E8350 at this point. For nearly $100 less, you can get an AC68 and it will be more than capable of fulfilling your requirements. I think there are definite performance advantages to using an AC router, and it's pretty simple to upgrade most clients (at least the ones with USB ports) to also use AC adapters. Go with the 68U and you'll be very happy.