Bought a ASUS RT-AC66U by mistake

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Darren

Occasional Visitor

• Mar 6, 2015

• #1

Hi,

So I bought a second hand RT-AC66U thinking it was a RT-AC68U. Daft I know.

Can't decide whether to hold onto it or sell it on and get the ASUS RT-AC68U.

Looks like the AC68U improvements are:

Higher 2.4GHz speed
USB3
Dual Core

My internet connection is 62/19Mbps, do some local wireless file transfers, don't need USB3 and will mainly be using the 5GHz band.

Apart from the better port locations on the AC68U I'm not sure if I'd benefit from it.

What would you do?

Thanks,
Darren

 

L&LD

Part of the Furniture

• Mar 6, 2015

• #2

Without a doubt, I would return it.

 

microchip

Very Senior Member

• Mar 6, 2015

• #3

Return it. There are far more modern routers around these days.

 

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Darren

Occasional Visitor

• Mar 6, 2015

• #4

I'll sell it then, thanks.

 

sfx2000

Part of the Furniture

• Mar 10, 2015

• #5

Darren said:

I'll sell it then, thanks.

Click to expand...

Depends on how much your paid for it - it's a pretty decent router, and most of the bugs have been worked out.

 

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Darren

Occasional Visitor

• Mar 11, 2015

• #6

Got it second hand so didn't pay full price, have been testing it out and the coverage isn't very good at the bottom of the garden. Thinking of keping it and using it as a wireless extender.

For the main router looking at either RT-AC68U or the RT-AC87U for not much more.

Is there any reason to wait for new products releases at the moment?

 

L&LD

Part of the Furniture

• Mar 11, 2015

• #7

If you can still return it, compare it while you can to an RT-AC68U that is also refundable.

No reason to wait today. For basic routing and WiFi, the RT-AC68U and the RT-AC87U are the product lines to consider for the most performance, reliability and stability. Depending on your specific use of the network, of course.

Didn't pay full price is not descriptive enough.

The RT-AC68U is worth up to $100 more than the RT-AC66U form what I have seen from my customers networks taking performance and a three or four year outlook into consideration.

While I haven't yet seen an RT-AC87U in action myself, from the reports here, it is also worth considering if your current feature demands are more casual, but you want the best range, throughput and routing performance you can buy now and expect to upgrade the router again in 5 years or more.

 

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Darren

Occasional Visitor

• Mar 11, 2015

• #8

The RT-AC3200 is shipping in some parts of the world, should I not wait for that to become available in the UK? This is a long term investment so I agree getting the best available is wise.

 

L&LD

Part of the Furniture

• Mar 11, 2015

• #9

The RT-AC3200 is also the model with the most bugs right now. If you enjoy troubleshooting and have the patience for it to become stable (eventually), wait for it.

The other two routers are better choices, imo. The RT-AC87U being the one that I would be willing to put up with a few remaining issues for if I was buying a router for myself today. Mostly because of the superior hardware and future potential (MU-MIMO being one feature that will be great to have in the future, if they ever enable it, of course).

 

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Darren

Occasional Visitor

• Mar 11, 2015

• #10

Ok I think I've made up my mind, again! I'll wait for the RT-AC87U to be discounted and get that. If I still need more signal at the bottom of the garden I'll keep the AC66U and use it as a repeater, otherwise I'll sell it on.

Thank you all for your help.

 

L&LD

Part of the Furniture

• Mar 12, 2015

• #11

Current routers can be used to extend the signal, but try to not set it up as a repeater for high throughput clients (it will bog down the whole network, a lot).

 

D

Darren

Occasional Visitor

• Mar 12, 2015

• #12

I know wireless bandwidth is shared, is that why? Access through the repeater would just be for remote desktop access to another PC in the house that's connected via ethernet.

Just reading a few reviews and this one had some supprising results, the RT-AC68U beat the newer models by quite a bit on wireless throughput, is it a rubbish review or maybe down to early firmware, or...?
http://www.cnet.com/uk/products/asus-rt-ac3200-tri-band-wireless-gigabit-router/2/