What's the 'state of the union' on the AC87 / AC3200 stability these days?

[pete y testing]

hi

have had the rt-ac87u working on 100/40M and it works very well , i have just got the rt-ac3200 and with the latest firmware its still problematic , the time based access control doesnt work as in you can put devices in the list but when you go to add times it does not change to the light blue color and thus cant set times , the client list is also quite hit and miss as to if all the devices connected show up or not , just wondering if any with the ac320 have noticed these issues as well , not to mention the smart connect that doesnt work well at all

the rt-ac87u is working correctly and i have to say is a monster of a router i have prob 35 client devices with reserved ip addresses and with all the parental control and protection features enabled it just works and works very well

the rt-ac3200 will be good once asus spend some time ironing out the bugs etc but at this stage if the choice is between the two i woud recommend the rt-ac87u

 

[MasterBash]

I got the AC87U and its the worst router when it comes to compatibility. 5ghz disconnects a lot depending on the Control Channel and my N66U as bridge is unusable on the 5ghz band. I also get 2ms to the AC87U when connected to 5ghz, which makes it really bad for games.

Unfortunately, I bought it for the 5ghz, but the extra latency and compatibility issue makes it unusable to me.

 

[jegesq]

Can't speak to the 87U, since I skipped that (went straight to the AC3200 from two RT-AC66U's (one as router, the other as repeater). I have never run the AC32oo with anything but Merlin FW, and I am currently using Merlin 378.53, which is absolutely rock-solid stable. Never crashes, never chokes, never lose the 5ghz radios, or the 2.4ghz either.

I'm on TWC 300/20, and have terrific coverage everywhere in my home; 5ghz coverage seems to be better and more stable than the 66U's (and I'm still using those too, one as a Media Bridge and the other as Repeater), and they are also running Merlin 378.53.

I see that Merlin recently came out with 378.54 for the 3200, but unless there's some really absolutely compelling reason (like a patch of a security flaw), I'm sticking with what works. And the AC3200 with 378.53 is just great...really, can't say enough good things about it.

I am not using Smart Connect, and don't care about monitoring traffic. I can get all the info I need from the wireless logs and other logs. Frankly, all I care about is stability and speeds, and the AC3200 with Eric's 378.53 firmware provides both.

I can't say the same for the earlier iterations of the Merlin 3200 FW (e.g., 378.51 and .52) since those had some minor issues (e.g., couldn't remotely access the GUI's of the repeater or the media bridge, and those devices would sometimes lose their connections) but since upgrading the FW to 378.53, everything has been absolutely stable. I use the lower 5ghz band for about half of my AC devices and the upper 5ghz band for the other half of my AC devices (I've switched everything I own to AC if it's using wireless....anything that isn't AC is connected to a LAN port on either the router or the bridge or repeater). Phenomenal wireless performance, never chokes, stutters or falters in any way.

I did have one minor issue, but it seems to have happened only once and never again: We had a power outage about two months ago, and of course, my router (and everything else) went down for a couple of minutes until our power came back on. I noticed that the upper-band 5ghz radio was able to connect to wireless devices but the light on the front of the router was dark (not on), and I had only limited connectivity (device would connect to router, but no internet...hence the client device showed "limited connectivity) on the 5ghz upper band (using channel 161). I opened up the GUI of the AC3200, changed the channel from 161 to 153, and the front light for the 5ghz immediately came on after the channel switch and my devices had full internet connectivity. I switced back to channel 161, and have never experienced the problem since.

Maybe I'm just lucky, maybe my needs are limited....but with more than 30 devices now, and more than 20 of them wireless, the AC3200 running Merlin's 378.53 meets all of my needs.

 

[jerry6]

3 months with RT 3200 , no problems . No dead spots in the house , had a few with all the other routers I tried . Only time I reboot is for FW updates .
Not using any smart connect , it's not really needed , all clients are getting a strong signal with no drops .

 

[GTvert90]

Can't speak to the 87U, since I skipped that (went straight to the AC3200 from two RT-AC66U's (one as router, the other as repeater). I have never run the AC32oo with anything but Merlin FW, and I am currently using Merlin 378.53, which is absolutely rock-solid stable. Never crashes, never chokes, never lose the 5ghz radios, or the 2.4ghz either.

I'm on TWC 300/20, and have terrific coverage everywhere in my home; 5ghz coverage seems to be better and more stable than the 66U's (and I'm still using those too, one as a Media Bridge and the other as Repeater), and they are also running Merlin 378.53.

I see that Merlin recently came out with 378.54 for the 3200, but unless there's some really absolutely compelling reason (like a patch of a security flaw), I'm sticking with what works. And the AC3200 with 378.53 is just great...really, can't say enough good things about it.

I am not using Smart Connect, and don't care about monitoring traffic. I can get all the info I need from the wireless logs and other logs. Frankly, all I care about is stability and speeds, and the AC3200 with Eric's 378.53 firmware provides both.

I can't say the same for the earlier iterations of the Merlin 3200 FW (e.g., 378.51 and .52) since those had some minor issues (e.g., couldn't remotely access the GUI's of the repeater or the media bridge, and those devices would sometimes lose their connections) but since upgrading the FW to 378.53, everything has been absolutely stable. I use the lower 5ghz band for about half of my AC devices and the upper 5ghz band for the other half of my AC devices (I've switched everything I own to AC if it's using wireless....anything that isn't AC is connected to a LAN port on either the router or the bridge or repeater). Phenomenal wireless performance, never chokes, stutters or falters in any way.

I did have one minor issue, but it seems to have happened only once and never again: We had a power outage about two months ago, and of course, my router (and everything else) went down for a couple of minutes until our power came back on. I noticed that the upper-band 5ghz radio was able to connect to wireless devices but the light on the front of the router was dark (not on), and I had only limited connectivity (device would connect to router, but no internet...hence the client device showed "limited connectivity) on the 5ghz upper band (using channel 161). I opened up the GUI of the AC3200, changed the channel from 161 to 153, and the front light for the 5ghz immediately came on after the channel switch and my devices had full internet connectivity. I switced back to channel 161, and have never experienced the problem since.

Maybe I'm just lucky, maybe my needs are limited....but with more than 30 devices now, and more than 20 of them wireless, the AC3200 running Merlin's 378.53 meets all of my needs.

Good to hear that someone else came from the 66u. How's the range compare? I know environment makes a difference just curious your experience.

 

[jegesq]

The range on the 3200 is definitely better, perhaps by as much as 20%-30% for the upper band 5ghz in my particular environment. For example, where the theoretical link rate with the AC66U had been (at this location) no greater than 325 Mbps, it's now at 585 (using 80mhz channels on the upper 5ghz band, typically channel 153 or 161).

Of course, I am measuring this by using the reported connection rates from the AC3200 router as shown on the AC66U media bridge (which now sits where I formerly was using the same AC66U as a repeater for the other AC66U). My second AC66U has now been moved to a more distant location in the lower floor at the back of my home and connects to the AC66 as repeater (repeating the same 5ghz upper band).

At close range (and I mean less than 15-20ft and only going through two walls), the difference between the AC3200 and the AC66U where the latter was acting as a router is not detectable. For LAN-connected devices, there's no difference. And at short distances, for wireless devices, I've seen no discernible differences. What the AC3200 does provide is greater coverage than the AC66U's where the distances and number of walls penetrated is greater (as opposed to shorter distances), and it also allows me to balance the loads by specifically assigning devices among and between the various channels.

I also misspoke when I said that I am now exclusively 802.11ac on all wireless devices; I neglected to mention that I have an Amazon Fire Stick which is .11n and a Roxio Stick which is also .11n. I use the Fire Stick on a TV located in our master bedroom upstairs which is at an extremely short distance from the router (next room, separated by two walls that consist of the stairwell from downstairs to upstairs that separate the study where the router and modem are located from the bedroom); and the Roxio is connected downstairs to a TV that I connect to the repeater so it has little impact since we rarely use the Roxio (only for streaming Netflix and the occasional Amazon Prime or Hulu show that is no longer on cable on-demand). These are the only two 802.11 n devices and they do not appear in any way to degrade the performance of the 5ghz .11ac radios.

In short, the range of the 3200 is better at distance; no different close range.

 

[GTvert90]

I appreciate the info thanks man.