Switching to Fidium & RT-AX88U

[Louis James]

Currently I have xFinity (Comcast) using a Motorola MB8611 Cable Modem and the Asus RT-AX88U with Merlin. Advertised is 1.2 Gb Down/ 35 Mb Up but I'm getting maybe 980 Mb. (Pay about $130/month)

Fidium is offering 2 Gb Down / 2 Gb Up for $75/month and it's FTTH (Fiber To The Home). They provide (I think) the modem.

Are there any concerns I should have regarding Fidium and my Asus Router? I just want to make sure I'm setting myself up for unseen problems.

Thank you in advance for any thoughts

Louis

 

[Tech9]

Your Asus router has Gigabit ports, up to 940Mbps throughput. It also has hardware capable of processing ~350Mbps with no NAT acceleration. You'll never see anything above Gigabit speeds to single client even if you use WAN aggregation and it works. Compatible modem needed. You have to be careful of what firmware options you enable and make sure Runner/Flow Cache are in use. Get the FTTH connection because it's cheaper, but if you want to chase the speed it will cost you. You need a new router like RT-AX88u Pro with 2.5GbE ports. Attention to NAT acceleration still applies. No single device above Gigabit still applies, unless you test your luck with 160MHz wide channels and it works. Compatible client needed and available DFS range. Above Gigabit on LAN - only to 2.5GbE capable client. If you do have more than one capable wired clients - extra 2.5GbE switch needed. Good chance for aggregate throughput above Gigabit, if ever needed. Your speedtest numbers may be the only immediate improvement.

 

[Louis James]

...You need a new router like RT-AX88u Pro with 2.5GbE ports....

Thank you so much for the heads-up on getting RT-AX88U Pro. I've checked into this and this is the solution I believe I need. What is great is that I can use my existing RT-AX88U as a node for the mesh network. That means the "old" router is not wasted.

Thank you again for your reply and sorry for the slow response. I was checking and studying. Thanks.

Louis