Router Upgrade Advice

Credo

Credo

Credo

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Joined
14 May 2003
Posts
1,116
Location
Worcestershire
My Asus RT-N56U router has started going on the blink, so I'm looking for a replacement. WiFi coverage using the N56U has been iffy in various locations about the house, so I'm hoping a newer model will improve this. I'm happy with Asus, so am looking at the Asus RT-AC68U and the Asus RT-AC87U. I'm assuming that any AC class router will bring decent improvements in both speed and WiFi range, so my main question is is the Asus RT-AC87U worth the extra over the Asus RT-AC68U? WiFi clients are all 'N' apart from my work laptop which has an 'Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 7265' WiFi adaptor. I work mostly from home so I'm hoping 5GHz AC WiFi will bring enhanced speed and range for my work machine at least.
Any opinions / alternatives are welcome, thanks for looking.
 
Is it just the wireless you're having problems with, or overall router stability?

You could always turn off the wifi on the N56U and buy a Unifi AC access point.
 
The router is stable, the 2.4GHz network is awful. I've got the latest firmware installed and have done a reset. It seems common reading on various forums. 5GHz is absolutely fine. We'd all use 5GHz apart from the poor range in our house. My work machine is quite close to the router and 5GHz is 100% fine for me.
I use a TP link extender but to be honest this just annoys everyone, if I set the SSID to the same as the Asus 2.4GHz LAN, you get dropouts and hangs when you 'hand over' between the two devices, and setting a different SSID requires you to connect manually at times.
The Unifi AC access point looks interesting, but is halfway to the cost of a new router, so I'd still probably be happy to stump up the cash for an all-new solution. Thanks for the suggestion...
 
I'd recommend the AC68 over th AC87 as the chipset in the 87 is known to have a fair amount of bugs.

The performance of my AC68 has been rock solid.
 
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I replaced an old Linksys router (N only) with the 87U just this weekend. Despite not having any AC clients at all, the range was massively improved even for N clients. Before I was getting a single "bar" on phones/tablets at the other end of the house, now it's full strength and getting circa 70Mb/s throughput.
 
AC87U runs on the hot side but with Merlin's firmware it is a great router. I had one and returned it for the 68U and whilst the 68U is great I got the 87U again as the dual core processor allows me to run Plex of it.

Don't expect any miracles though as it won't improve wireless coverage. The best way to do that is to have an access point. If you have AC clients then you will notice a good increase in transfer speed but the range on AC is limited.
 
So, two contrasting opinions on wireless performance from Vertigo1 and Twirlywoos...

What Vertigo1 reports is what I'm hoping for... :D
 
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