Why ASUS?

[darkarn]

Hi, I am shopping for a new router to go with my new fiber connection (or rather, deciding whether to take the 868L) and noticed that many people keep recommending the ASUS routers. I read many reviews but still am unsure why would ASUS will be the best (one reason would be the custom firmware here but I need other reasons too )

May I know why you picked ASUS over other brands?

Thanks!

 

[Pierino]

For me they have way better customer support than netgear. I didn't even consider d-link.
I've had bad experiences with netgear customer support and nothing but good for asus.
Also netgear tends to drop support for units once they release a new unit.
I had a netgear r6300v1 that hasn't had a firmware update in like 2 years. Look how long asus releases firmware for their units.

 

[darkarn]

For me they have way better customer support than netgear. I didn't even consider d-link.
I've had bad experiences with netgear customer support and nothing but good for asus.
Also netgear tends to drop support for units once they release a new unit.
I had a netgear r6300v1 that hasn't had a firmware update in like 2 years. Look how long asus releases firmware for their units.

Thanks! I didn't consider this point until you mentioned it... Yeah, I just realised that D-Link did not post that many FWs. Of course, this can also mean that they are confident in their FW.

 

[AdvHomeServer]

I chose an Asus router by reviewing sales sites such as Amazon and Newegg and reading reviews. I looked for routers with a lot of reviews, a high number of positive reviews, and a low number of bad reviews. Then I threw the dice.

The router I picked was a RT-N56U about three years ago. It was and still is a good router. Today, it has Padavan's firmware and is a spare router. It worked well.

I also have a pair of TP-Link travel routers that are pretty good. One is a travel router. The other is used to make a wireless connection for my Slingbox.

I have had good success with refurbished Netgear routers. I put DD-WRT on each but I would go slow there if you are not familiar with DD-WRT. New releases have had reliability problems for several months. I would find an older reliable release or wait for a track record of no complaints at the DD-WRT forum. Netgear stock firmware is as good as most (except AC1450, upgrade that to a R6300V2)

 

[microchip]

I have both an AC66U and a TP-Link Archer C7. I can recommend both, from a technical point of view and from support one. TP-Link is very responsive to questions and they release firmwares for all their current routers, regardless if they released a new router or not (see comment on Netgear above).

 

[TonyH]

Hi,
OP, Isn't coming on this forum good enough reason to pick ASUS?, LOL! IMO, majority owns
ASUS routers.

 

[RMerlin]

Initially went from Linksys to Asus when I got an RT-N66U because of inovation and performance. At the time, Asus were frequently ahead of the competition, since back to the RT-N16 release.

The main reasons why I favor Asus (both for my own use and at my work) is because:

1- Pricing is decent (back then, anything similar from Linksys would be notably more expensive)
2- Long-term support (they still even support old models such as the RT-N12 or RT-N16, adding new features, and fixing things)
3- Overall build quality is good (in this area I'd say they are on par with recent Netgear models and Linksys)
4- Bad personal experiences with D-Link (they die early, they often have esoteric bugs that never get fixed because support ends after about one year, and recently discovered backdoors)
5- Open source support
6- Software innovation

In the firmware department they do have their share of bugs, however I don't face the risk of being told that "oh, that model is one year old, we no longer develop for that model, please buy the new model to resolve issue X", so I know that any bug has a pretty high chance of eventually being resolved. Quite frankly, the vast majority of router manufacturers have firmware issues. There's a reason why third party firmwares are SO popular with routers, more than with any other type of device.

(and those are all my arguments from a pure end-user point of view, not taking into account the rest related to my own work there)

Currently, my recommendations are Asus or Netgear for high-end models. I used to distrust Netgear routers due to bad experiences with quite a few of my customers, but their modern products have been quite good overall. Not a fan of Linksys' cloud-based approach, and they are lagging feature-wise. Buffalo is a non-player here in Canada, and I'm not too sure yet about TP-Link since they come off as a DLink clone in terms of quality (but I admit that my experience with their products is limited to their switches - got two of them at home, both working perfectly well).

I wouldn't touch Belkin's own brand.

 

[microchip]

@RMerlin

I can assure you TP-Link can't be compared to D-Link (except for the Link name ). I've own multiple routers from them and they are very decent and extremely stable. They also tend to update their firmware frequently and longer compared to D-Link

 

[L&LD]

I had started with a Linksys router and that lasted almost a decade (the good old 54), used and had recommended many Linksys routers since then, but none could reach the stability or performance of that first one (as many can attest to).

I bought a few no names (for customers, based on their budget) that got returned immediately and then I started looking a little more seriously. That is when I discovered the Netgear 3700. What a huge upgrade from everything else I had used up until that point. But with very few firmware updates, issues that persisted for years and finally, what looked like hardware failure in my environment (it wasn't, the router is still working in a less demanding environment), I looked at what to buy next.

That is when the RT-N66U was bought. And then I discovered the RMerlin firmware. The comparisons to what I had for routers previously is like comparing a bicycle to a spaceship (okay, I'm exaggerating for effect ).

Sure, it is a little frustrating to see fixes coming so often and other offerings may seem more stable in comparison. But the reality is that a router is a computer and a computer that is not kept updated is fairly limited in its usefulness (especially when it needs to be online).

As a router is the first point of our networks that is 'online', the continuous updates that Asus is committed to is a breath of fresh air from my point of view, not an indication of less quality, but rather a way to use equipment from 3, 4 and more years ago safely, today and tomorrow too.

Sure, I've made customers networks run acceptably with other brands. But interestingly, the ones that run the various Asus routers I've recommended are the ones that are most likely to ask their home network be upgraded to an Asus (like at work).

I've replaced once top of the line DLink routers with a $30 Asus and the owners couldn't believe the upgrade their network received. Yes, a few years makes a huge difference for technology items. But this particular customer called me to ask to get a new, current DLink router working for them. I did; the solution, get rid of the DLink.

 

[NGRhodes]

I don't go specifically for any brand.
I pick the cheapest routers that has the features/performance I need and has 3rd party firmware availability (in case the stock firmware sucks). I do a sanity check on google to make sure the model(s) I am interested in are not lemons.

 

[Slamb]

Asus has cool firmware, well updated and even my quite old RT-N56U has great wired (1 Gb/s) and wireless (100+ Mb/s) performance the only sad thing about Asus is, they don't make routers with optical wan connector... may be in future

 

[TonyH]

Hi,
Whatever comes along. If I have to pay out of my own pocket , then ASUS is always in the short list. I like their laptops too, well made, reliable. As a hobbyist I always tinker, not afraid of breaking and fixing when it's broken. I always learn some thing new at age 74... Still practicing SMT soldering. My home network up time is ~100%. I only disturb it for upgrade or testing when every one is asleep. I always keep one known good router as a back up. It is all a matter of logical mind.

 

[darkarn]

Thanks guys for the fast responses so far, I didn't know the FW will play *that* a big part of router performance!

As for my situation, I have to stick with the 868L for now as my ISP won't allow me to change it to a rebate of this month's bills...

 

[doubleroll]

1. RMerlin's excellent firmware builds
2. Jumbo Frame support
3. Performance

 

[jegesq]

1. Best routers I've had in 25 years (and I've had many from Linksys, Belkin, Netgear, etc.).

2. Firmware updates and features

3. Wireless range and signal strength and throughput-- again, best routers I've owned.

4. Merlin's Firmware -- making an already excellent product even better.

 

[DoctorA]

Thanks for the informative post. New member here. Just upgraded from Netgear r6300 to Asus RT-AC68U. Been happy with it. The Netgear firmware got corrupted shortly after buying and went through hoops with Netgear support and flashed the firmware to fix. When it happened again for no apparent reason I decided to go with Asus.

 

[BreakingDad]

I bought an ASUS RT-N66U because it is called "The Dark Knight" and it's Black.

As I am super cool, I have to have the router to match.

Oh the performance and firmware are great to

 

[OGroteKoning]

I played with Intellinet 300n 3G, TP-Link MR3420 and Asus RT-N66u. In order of preference:

1. Asus by a landslide. Build quality is great, good looking, super fast, and runs almost any 3G modem I throw at it. Great after sale service and of course Merlin sorting out our firmware. It's damn beautiful and does what it says on the box better than it says on the box.

2. Intellinet. Great little router that takes almost any modem (struggles with the same ones the Asus struggles with) and simply does start it says on the box effortlessly. Lifetime guarantee (Manhatten backed). Probably the best after sales service I ever encountered. When I had a modem issue, they stuck with me asking for logs and building firmware for me to test. They didn't stop until my problem was sorted. My current travel router. The only downside for me was the speed. Only 7.2Mbps max

3. TP-Link. I swopped the piece of rubbish for 500g ground coffee. I was the winner. Horrible service. Modems that worked on the Intellinet didn't in this. Their service was limited to giving me a sniffer tool to sort out the issues myself. Won't support them ever again.

 

[martinr]

With all routers I looked at, Amazon reviews always had at least 10% giving it one star, so as long as it wasn't much more than that, I accepted there was no perfect router.

I wanted to get away from DD-WRT. The DD stands for Dog's Dinner. If Microsoft's quality control were so bad that it had many different builds, some many years old, warnings not to use the database to look up which version you should use, forums full of confused users, people would not put up with it, but because DDWRT is free, produced by volunteers and open source, people accept it and presume it has no vulnerabilities. I was prepared to give Tomato a try: it appears to be better controlled and better documented. I'd become so disillusioned and concerned that I'd decided that I'd even go with manufacturers' stock firmware in preference: at least that gets documented upgrades. So when I realised that Merlin's firmware was a perfect halfway-house between open source and stock firmware, giving me features such as ssh and vpn, there was no contest,and Asus was the only choice. It also gave me the options to use Tomato and, shoulfd I relent, DDWRT.

I have not been disappointed: I'm very happy with my Asus RT-AC68U and I can't imagine flashing with anything other than Merlin's firmware. Setting everything up was childs play, whereas it took me weeks to get DDNS working in DDWRT.

And it also has deep blue LEDs - a real bonus!

But on customer support I can't be so enthusiastic: I wanted to give feedback to improve the User Manual. I found it impossible on the website, even trying the US instead of the UK website did not help. I 'phoned and asked for an email address to which I could send my comments and ended up back at the dead end on the website. At that stage I gave up believing even if I managed to despatch my feedback, I hadn't got much faith it would be acted upon. There are also small glitches in grammar/spelling in the stock firmware text; it's much better than it was I'm told but it still should not be there: it makes you start thinking about the level of attention to detail.

I guess nothing's perfect, as Amazon reviews tend to show.

Martin

 

[NGRhodes]

I forgot to mention, the promise of Adaptive QoS for my router was also a small factor in my choice.