Asus Routers

GregI · 30 May 2025 at 13:47

I feel like if you still defend Asus in 2025 it's kinda like being in an abusive relationship. You keep holding off and off with "they'll change or i'll fix them" as they smack you across the face for the 18th time but it's just never happening.

It's coming up to mid 2025. If I had a bingo card I would definitely be putting "Another Asus security vulnerability exploited" by the time 2025 is over.

hominid · 30 May 2025 at 15:42

This sucks, I was close to buying an Asus router for my Sky FTTP connection as they seemed to be the best that would work with no issues.

I stopped buying Asus motherboards a few years back and now their routers seem to be a pile of rubbish too - WTF happened to them..

Avalon · 30 May 2025 at 17:46

hominid said:
This sucks, I was close to buying an Asus router for my Sky FTTP connection as they seemed to be the best that would work with no issues.

I stopped buying Asus motherboards a few years back and now their routers seem to be a pile of rubbish too - WTF happened to them..

Happened? Asus have been in a perpetual state of decline in terms of quality/support/warranty since the Pentium 2 days at this point, the network side has always been a steaming pile of dog crap, they just market it all reasonably well, usually by paying reviewers to pimp the product hard in the form of ‘free’ sponsorship, which they turn into views.

ChrisD. · 30 May 2025 at 17:48

hominid said:
WTF happened to them

Nothing, they've not got any worse, but I guess people are starting to realise what a truly awful company they are.

psycho-cookie · 30 May 2025 at 17:57

Please excuse my ignorance, I am not very tech savvy.
I was going to start implementing "FUTO's guide to a self managed life" but I'm a bit confused, both there and through reading this thread.
So what I understand is that pfsense and Opensense, etc are sort of like software Firewalls that get installed on the modem/router (??)
But I need to have a modem/router in the first place to go with that or do I have to have setup of a modem, switch and a router (and some raspberry somewhere?)

So, let's say I no longer want to use the crappy BT hub, what should I buy in order to set up these firewalls and progress from there?

ChrisD. · 30 May 2025 at 18:50

psycho-cookie said:
let's say I no longer want to use the crappy BT hub

It depends entirely why your BT hub is 'crappy'. What doesn't it do that you want it to do?

psycho-cookie · 30 May 2025 at 22:20

ChrisD. said:
It depends entirely why your BT hub is 'crappy'. What doesn't it do that you want it to do?

It doesn't let me change DNS (making it annoying to set up a pi-hole) and also, I can't blacklist any web addresses.
plus, the connection is not very good, it struggles at times. (Though I can't confirm whether the last one is net throttling at peak times or not)

ChrisD. · 31 May 2025 at 07:23

psycho-cookie said:
It doesn't let me change DNS (making it annoying to set up a pi-hole) and also, I can't blacklist any web addresses.
plus, the connection is not very good, it struggles at times. (Though I can't confirm whether the last one is net throttling at peak times or not)

Have a look at the UniFi cloud gateway range, maybe an AP too if you don’t want a combined one.

Caged · 31 May 2025 at 14:51

If you're with BT and just want to run a pi hole then buy a BT Business Hub off eBay for very little cash, they let you change the DNS. You can possibly also disable the DHCP on the BT Home Hub and let the Pi handle that part, I can't remember if it's an option.

Disco_P · 2 Jun 2025 at 17:55

So if you've got an Asus router (maybe you got it for a good price second hand years ago), and you're happy with it cause it has caused no trouble and was a marked step up from the ISP supplied routers.

What should said person do? Said person probably doesn't want to spend £100+ replacing something that "just works"

superleeds27 · 2 Jun 2025 at 22:31

Disco_P said:
So if you've got an Asus router (maybe you got it for a good price second hand years ago), and you're happy with it cause it has caused no trouble and was a marked step up from the ISP supplied routers.

What should said person do? Said person probably doesn't want to spend £100+ replacing something that "just works"

Lock it down and pray it holds out?

Avalon · 3 Jun 2025 at 09:40

Disco_P said:
So if you've got an Asus router (maybe you got it for a good price second hand years ago), and you're happy with it cause it has caused no trouble and was a marked step up from the ISP supplied routers.

What should said person do? Said person probably doesn't want to spend £100+ replacing something that "just works"

Said person is in the fortunate position of being aware of the situation they now find themselves in. Updating to the latest firmware (and a Merlin derivative if one is available) and doing a full factory reset to remove any retained SSH keys would be the bare minimum, personally if you want to keep running it, I would be looking at a standard WRT image. Longer term, consider what it is that you need that an ISP supplied router can't do, you may be better off sticking as you are, you may find it better to sell what you have - people still buy them and buy into the ASUS hype - so the cost to change to something better is potentially not that high.

Caged · 3 Jun 2025 at 11:18

Agree with the above, if you're with a decent 'mainstream' ISP then using their router is often the best option for non-technical users or people who just want a set-and-forget option. What you lose in features you gain in the benefit of someone else being responsible for it, managing the software updates for you, and replacing it when it's EOL under the obligations of PSTI.

Disco_P · 3 Jun 2025 at 15:39

@Avalon Firmware is kept up to date normally a month or two after release to give a chance for any problems to surface before installation. Factory resetting is easy enough, setup is simple as most of the "features" are disabled. Can't do WRT as the AC86u is no longer supported by Merlin. Regarding getting something better and selling, the trooli and grain branded Zyxel EX5601 units are on ebay for less than £60 - this seems like a good deal, is it?

@Caged Current broadband contract is without a router as it was never going to be used and they wanted £16(!) for delivery of a basic technicolor unit. Coincidentally, the ISP has paused all orders whilst they source a new router supply for new customers which are wifi 6 units, details and availability "soon"

Caged · 3 Jun 2025 at 15:48

The EX5601 attract a fairly high price because people use them to run OpenWRT on and they get something with Wi-Fi 6 and two 2.5Gb interfaces on

Avalon · 3 Jun 2025 at 22:10

ASUS issued a firmware update for the AC68U earlier this year, personally I would be considering a move to WRT, but that’s just me.

GregI · 3 Jun 2025 at 22:35

Disco_P said:
Regarding getting something better and selling, the trooli and grain branded Zyxel EX5601 units are on ebay for less than £60 - this seems like a good deal, is it?

I got mine before the big hype came for them (and I believe I am part of the reason why they are popular now, no ego I swear

). I was just browsing the table of hardware on OpenWRT for MT7986 devices, saw they were going on Ebay for £40 and got one. I couldn't believe they were going so cheap so I made a thread on the forums asking why nobody else is buying it and the replies were just all "We don't know". Sure enough a couple days after I made that post everyone started to recommend them.

There's really nothing wrong with it. It's the best aio router you can buy up until the £120 mark imo.

If you want slightly cheaper you can search around for a Linksys SPNMX42 (tri band wifi 6). If you play your cards right they are about £35-£40 (mostly this price because every altnet supplies it). Not as good as the EX5601 in CPU power but a big difference in reliability and security compared to anything Asus.

Disco_P · 8 Jun 2025 at 18:16

Even though I checked and was unaffected, the latest asus security whoopsy did give me that sinking feeling in my stomach so I have been spurred into action.

I found a SPNMX57 for £25 from the highstreet second hand chain. 2x2.5gbps ports and wifi 6. I don't know that it'll work with a cityfibre ONT, but worst comes to worst, I can return it to the store I walk past on my commute.

It does look like it'll be getting OpenWRT, so I could just hang onto it as well.

ChrisD. · 8 Jun 2025 at 19:06

Disco_P said:
Even though I checked and was unaffected, the latest asus security whoopsy did give me that sinking feeling in my stomach so I have been spurred into action.

Every manufacturer will be hit by security issues, Asus aren’t alone in this department. It’s the handling of the issues, and how companies inform their customers. You shouldn’t be finding out from forums or the news.

GregI · 9 Jun 2025 at 16:33

Disco_P said:
Even though I checked and was unaffected, the latest asus security whoopsy did give me that sinking feeling in my stomach so I have been spurred into action.

I found a SPNMX57 for £25 from the highstreet second hand chain. 2x2.5gbps ports and wifi 6. I don't know that it'll work with a cityfibre ONT, but worst comes to worst, I can return it to the store I walk past on my commute.

It does look like it'll be getting OpenWRT, so I could just hang onto it as well.

Great pickup and I didn't know about the 57 variant. Kind of glad for these Linksys models. There's so many of them you get to pick them up for good prices.

It's funny even the conformity documents state they are running some modified OpenWRT: https://downloads.linksys.com/support/assets/dofc/SPNMX57_UK_DoC.pdf