ASUS RT-AC86U Experiences

Soldato
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Is anyone using the above router? I'm thinking of ordering one because it gets a lot of great reviews. However it also has lots of negative ones because of the 2.4 G dropping out.

I just wondered who here is using one and if you would recommend it?
Thanks
Scott
 
Soldato
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ASUS is a marketing company who make dubious products with an especially chequered history in networking and to a lesser extent in motherboards. If you want network products that work as advertised, buy them from brands that actually make networking products and have a proven track record... they usually won’t say ASUS on them.

To answer what is likely going to be your next question, we’d need a minimum of connection type, budget, any particular needs/features required etc.
 
Soldato
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I do dislike Asus after having poor warranty service from them in the past but it seems no matter what router I look at there's good and bad reviews.

I only have a 25mb connection and I'm currently using a Billion 7800DX I've been finding my wireless connection increasingly unreliable I'd like to be able to transfer files between my pcs at a reasonable speed, game on Xbox and PC and have reliable connection to my smart speakers. I don't think it's a signal issue as my router is in the middle of my single storey house. The billion is quite old now and I wonder if it's struggling with the amount of devices I have connected.
 
Associate
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Mine works fine with my connection. 420/40

I know there where issues with models manufactured in a set year, 2018? i think?

Had this one since 2017 and it still seems to be fine!
 
Soldato
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If the issue is wireless, a decent AP is probably a better solution.

The reasons not to choose ASUS are its really poor record on resolving well known long term stability/security issues, it’s been fined multiple times and ordered to submit to external auditing for decades as part of a legal case in the US because it didn’t patch glaring security holes for years, it faked results to claim FCC safety certification, has a lousy history of switches and AP interfaces dropping from routers due to poor manufacturing and worse still it’s affected multiple generations of products. Every OEM drops the ball, intel, AMD, Nvidia, apple, Microsoft etc. have all done it, but the important bit of the process is how it’s dealt with, fixes/recalls and improving manufacturing/design so it doesn’t happen again and consumers know you accept that if you sell them poorly made crap, you have an obligation to fix it. ASUS don’t do that. The whole company sucks from a RMA perspective - they will literally ignore returns and refuse to honour warranty/send you broken replacements.
 
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I feel quite guilty about buying one after reading this ha
If the issue is wireless, a decent AP is probably a better solution.

The reasons not to choose ASUS are its really poor record on resolving well known long term stability/security issues, it’s been fined multiple times and ordered to submit to external auditing for decades as part of a legal case in the US because it didn’t patch glaring security holes for years, it faked results to claim FCC safety certification, has a lousy history of switches and AP interfaces dropping from routers due to poor manufacturing and worse still it’s affected multiple generations of products. Every OEM drops the ball, intel, AMD, Nvidia, apple, Microsoft etc. have all done it, but the important bit of the process is how it’s dealt with, fixes/recalls and improving manufacturing/design so it doesn’t happen again and consumers know you accept that if you sell them poorly made crap, you have an obligation to fix it. ASUS don’t do that. The whole company sucks from a RMA perspective - they will literally ignore returns and refuse to honour warranty/send you broken replacements.
 

R3X

R3X

Soldato
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I feel quite guilty about buying one after reading this ha

Was reading Avalons great informative post and right after it, sonics reply of his A86u working flawless:D

I did read about Asus fining and questionable mistakes, but I believe they have to endure 20 years of auditing with a fine comb so hopefully are set on the better path.

Other than that I love mine, it's been rock solid and stable and been far easier to use and set up then pfsense for the past year. Props to Asus adding AES support for VPNs also, I have not looked into other brands too much but if netgear or others do routers with faster cpus and AES support I would like to try them in the future if speeds ever get upgraded my end that is.
 
Soldato
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If the issue is wireless, a decent AP is probably a better solution.

The reasons not to choose ASUS are its really poor record on resolving well known long term stability/security issues, it’s been fined multiple times and ordered to submit to external auditing for decades as part of a legal case in the US because it didn’t patch glaring security holes for years, it faked results to claim FCC safety certification, has a lousy history of switches and AP interfaces dropping from routers due to poor manufacturing and worse still it’s affected multiple generations of products. Every OEM drops the ball, intel, AMD, Nvidia, apple, Microsoft etc. have all done it, but the important bit of the process is how it’s dealt with, fixes/recalls and improving manufacturing/design so it doesn’t happen again and consumers know you accept that if you sell them poorly made crap, you have an obligation to fix it. ASUS don’t do that. The whole company sucks from a RMA perspective - they will literally ignore returns and refuse to honour warranty/send you broken replacements.

heh, I can confirm that. all 4 ports on my rt-n56u died and it was a common issue with them.
 
Soldato
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Asus + Merlin firmware has been completely fine for me. Had the AC68U for years and it's been rock solid with no downtime. I no longer use the wi-fi on it though and instead use a few Unifi APs in mesh but that's more due to coverage requirements. I was briefly using the BT HH6 but that had issues with my Google Home devices, and moving back to the Asus solved it.
 
Soldato
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Props to Asus adding AES support for VPNs also, I have not looked into other brands too much but if netgear or others do routers with faster cpus and AES support I would like to try them in the future if speeds ever get upgraded my end that is.

The AES implementation is from the CPU used, every router using the same CPU has it, nothing directly to do with ASUS - the main article that people refer to at the bottom shows it’s used by other OEM’s iirc.
 
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I've had it 2 years with default firmware and its fine for wired connections but I was a bit disappointed about with the WiFi performance considering it had good reviews.

Especially on 2.4 GHz it drops out sometimes and I notice poor internet performance. 5GHz works ok but the throughput drops off fast once you move more than a few meters away and even when close doesn't seem consistent. For browsing internet on my phone or laptop the WiFi works ok, but for Xbox, TV, PC and HTPC I use cabled connections, the WiFi isnt good enough for these to work as well as they should.
 
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I don't buy routers i build my own pfsense routers got a Mikrotik ap works fine if i need wifi bit hardly ever use it, in fact its powered off at the moment. I have my tv on a vlan to stop that snooping on my network.
 
Soldato
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Is anyone using the above router? I'm thinking of ordering one because it gets a lot of great reviews. However it also has lots of negative ones because of the 2.4 G dropping out.

I just wondered who here is using one and if you would recommend it?
Thanks
Scott

They work great, i use all Asus gear but they will die after about 4 years or use, don’t expect them to last much beyond that.
 
Soldato
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They work great, i use all Asus gear but they will die after about 4 years or use, don’t expect them to last much beyond that.

How did we get to the stage where ‘They work great’ and ‘will die after about 4 years’ were acceptable terms in the same sentence for a networking product?
 
Soldato
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Mine is definitely performing better than my old billion 7800DX.

Initially I thought I had 2.4ghz issues but I changed a few settings and it's been great for the last week.

I know it's not expensive compared to some routers but it's expensive enough that I'll be disappointed if it dies after 4 years.
 
Soldato
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How did we get to the stage where ‘They work great’ and ‘will die after about 4 years’ were acceptable terms in the same sentence for a networking product?

For Home use, the CPU/WIFI tech upgrades mean that your router is obsolete around that time limit anyway.

I am on my 2nd set of ASUS gear in approx 8 years and I rotate kit out for the latest model once it fails.

Every upgrade has resulted in a large throughput and feature increase.

I have about 2 years left in my current AC kit, I am hoping that AX kit is improved by then :)
 
Soldato
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For Home use, the CPU/WIFI tech upgrades mean that your router is obsolete around that time limit anyway.

I am on my 2nd set of ASUS gear in approx 8 years and I rotate kit out for the latest model once it fails.

Every upgrade has resulted in a large throughput and feature increase.
No, it's not obsolete, that's just you wanting the latest kit which is fine of course.

I only bought an AC router a year ago - I've no intention of buying any wifi 6 kit any time soon.
 
Soldato
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FYI - I went from asus dual band ac rated kit to tri-band AC and the throughout jump was massive.

If i jumped to AX kit right now i doubt i would see any improvement.
 
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