Worrying about purchasing "Special " routers like some Asus.

[Lola]

I've been really interested in the Asus RT AC-68 Derivatives that keep appearing like the AC68U, 68R, 68P. 1900P just to identify a few. Taking the latest one (I think) RT AC 1900P as an example, it is being sold exclusively by Best Buy stores. But it has never been reviewed on "SNB" so I am just waiting to see what happens.
Today another thought came to me, are the aftermarket firmware guys going to make firmware for these routers for very long if at all because of them being an exclusive item from one merchant (BB) and not sold by anyone who wants to, limiting their exposure very much? If no one is making any money from them who is going to support them, Asus?

 

[L&LD]

Yes, Asus. Based on their past history.

For the RT-AC1900P in particular, RMerlin himself (and others) have verified that the RT-AC68U firmware version works with this router.

 

[sfx2000]

Something tells me that this is part of a product line move forward - the RT-AC68's (all of them) are pretty old, and the RT-AC1900 is the AC1900 class device for the 2016 product line - that it's at BB first, it's because BB needs to keep shelf spaces full... some of the other vendors probably still have AC68 series in stock, but I'd expect that they'll run out soon enough, and they'll get the new model in it's place...

channel management in retail... BB has a lot of brick/mortar stores out there along with their online presence...

And from a SW perspective, it's pretty much the same as the AC68 series, which is a plus...

 

[Lola]

Thanks to all for commenting, I sure hope you guys are right.

Another problem I was wondering about is the CPU designations, starting at 800 MHz for the 68U series to now at the 1.4 GHz level with the 68P series (I think it's 1.4). Are these CPU's built around said frequencies or, have they been bumping them to these levels?

 

[RMerlin]

Thanks to all for commenting, I sure hope you guys are right.

Another problem I was wondering about is the CPU designations, starting at 800 MHz for the 68U series to now at the 1.4 GHz level with the 68P series (I think it's 1.4). Are these CPU's built around said frequencies or, have they been bumping them to these levels?

Different chips.

800 MHz is a BCM4708
1 GHz is a BCM4709
1.4 GHz is a BCM4709C0

 

[System Error Message]

the AC1900 capable routers has been distributed by ISPs in the UK, while not great they at least dont use all channels that asus wifi routers have.

CPU on the AC68 doesnt matter unless there is something feature specific you want from the newer CPUs. You can still overclock the CPUs. I just hope they've improved cooling on the newer variants.

 

[sfx2000]

the AC1900 capable routers has been distributed by ISPs in the UK, while not great they at least dont use all channels that asus wifi routers have.

Customer Premises Equipement (CPE) - we're seeing more of this in the US as well - after a long time of poor quality devices, the recent crop is actually pretty decent from a basic functional perspective... carriers are getting a clue or two that what they provide is important - I think streaming for their stuff is a driver, along with IoT for smart home services...

 

[System Error Message]

Customer Premises Equipement (CPE) - we're seeing more of this in the US as well - after a long time of poor quality devices, the recent crop is actually pretty decent from a basic functional perspective... carriers are getting a clue or two that what they provide is important - I think streaming for their stuff is a driver, along with IoT for smart home services...

There still is a reason to buy consumer wifi routers like asus, its that they have more 5Ghz wifi channels available than the ones given by ISPs if in the UK. This is an advantage because some wifi routers on auto will just use the same channel your router uses even if there lots of available channels so in an environment of many wifi routers some will have really bad firmwares relating to auto which could mean poor wifi performance. QoS is another reason.

I still wish consumer wifi router manufacturers would allow use of all channels as the US has the entire 5Ghz spectrum available on the unlicensed band. Tx power doesnt matter much when you have free wifi space to use. You can check wikipedia to confirm this so i dont see why routers need their firmwares locked when its only the tx power that the authorities are worried about.