Need advice....RT-AC68U or RT-AC87U

Vinod Gautam · Mar 30, 2015

First of all I beg pardon for my poor English and am a layman to networking devices.

6 months back I purchased RT-AC68U from Amazon.com. It worked fine for 3 months. Another day I tried to access ADMIN GUI page but it was always showing 'please change your port number'. I made all efforts to access the ADMIN setting page but could not succeed. After several exchange of communication it was returned back. I would like to mention here that I was using it in UAE (however, it was purchased from USA). Now I am again considering to buy Asus router. I have heard many negative reviews about RT-AC87U that it doesn't support all devices and signal drops at 5 GHz. I have 2 external HDD also to connect with router. Does AC87U supports apple devices?

L&LD · Mar 30, 2015

For many people and for most use cases, those issues have been fixed.

As for whether the router supports apple devices, I think the question is; does apple support non-apple devices (by default; not usually). But again, many have made their apple stuff to work.

RogerSC · Mar 30, 2015

Personally, I have no reason to spend the extra money for an RT-AC87U over the RT-AC68U/P. Someday, maybe, when there are clients around that will be able to take advantage of the extra capability. And if I have the means to buy those clients *smile*, no doubt they'll be priced higher as well, since that's the way this stuff works. Right at the moment, I don't need the extra bandwidth that those new clients would supply anyways, wireless-1900AC is plenty for me.

I've been thoroughly enjoying the RT-AC68P for a few months now, although I haven't been using it all the time since I have a couple of other very capable routers that I also play with. But the RT-AC68P has been very reliable for me, no problems with it, a mature product. RMerlin's firmware and John's fork of RMerlin's firmware have both been working well. And works fine with our Apple mobile clients, a couple of iPhones and a couple of iPads here (2 iPhone 6's, an iPad 3, and an iPad Air 2), no problems there.

So, I'd have to say, for the moment I have zero motivation to buy an RT-AC87U. And would not recommend that anyone else buy it for the same reasons that I'm not interested *smile*.

sm00thpapa · Mar 30, 2015

RogerSC said:
Personally, I have no reason to spend the extra money for an RT-AC87U over the RT-AC68U/P. Someday, maybe, when there are clients around that will be able to take advantage of the extra capability. And if I have the means to buy those clients *smile*, no doubt they'll be priced higher as well, since that's the way this stuff works. Right at the moment, I don't need the extra bandwidth that those new clients would supply anyways, wireless-1900AC is plenty for me.

I've been thoroughly enjoying the RT-AC68P for a few months now, although I haven't been using it all the time since I have a couple of other very capable routers that I also play with. But the RT-AC68P has been very reliable for me, no problems with it, a mature product. RMerlin's firmware and John's fork of RMerlin's firmware have both been working well. And works fine with our Apple mobile clients, a couple of iPhones and a couple of iPads here (2 iPhone 6's, an iPad 3, and an iPad Air 2), no problems there.

So, I'd have to say, for the moment I have zero motivation to buy an RT-AC87U. And would not recommend that anyone else buy it for the same reasons that I'm not interested *smile*.

Very well said Roger. I 2nd your comment. AC1900 is sufficient for anyone right now. The AC87U is overkill in my eyes. Just my opinion.

sfx2000 · Mar 30, 2015

I think you'll be happier with the 68U...

sfx

Vinod Gautam · Mar 31, 2015

Is there any technical issue of purchasing the router from USA and use in Europe/Asian continent? Means any specific configuration is required.

sm00thpapa · Mar 31, 2015

Vinod Gautam said:
Is there any technical issue of purchasing the router from USA and use in Europe/Asian continent? Means any specific configuration is required.

I bought a USA Belkin router and got sent over to South Korea and it worked with the South Korean ISP. I don't think routers are country specific.

sfx2000 · Mar 31, 2015

sm00thpapa said:
I bought a USA Belkin router and got sent over to South Korea and it worked with the South Korean ISP. I don't think routers are country specific.

Minor differences, but a US router should work in most other countries, but the channel selections might be off a bit (some countries prohibit certain channels and add others).

Better to source locally, IMHO...

Vinod Gautam · Apr 1, 2015

There is an offer on RT-AC 87U for Dirham 799 (equivalent to US $ 215), is it worthy to buy it?

sm00thpapa · Apr 1, 2015

Worthy? That's for you to decide. That price is probably the lowest you're gonna see at this time.

stevech · Apr 1, 2015

I'd say any router for home/SOHO over US$125 is for the super-geek/experimenter.
Others will differ.

L&LD · Apr 1, 2015

stevech said:
I'd say any router for home/SOHO over US$125 is for the super-geek/experimenter.
Others will differ.

And I'll counter that with if you do spend more for a router that does what you need today and it remains your main router for three or four years or more, the cost is a non issue. No need to be an experimenter / super-geek, buying the best performance when you need to buy and the cash is available is the more economical route in the long run.

The saying buy cheap and pay twice comes to mind.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/buy_cheap,_buy_twice

sfx2000 · Apr 2, 2015

stevech said:
I'd say any router for home/SOHO over US$125 is for the super-geek/experimenter.
Others will differ.

I tend to agree with you... maybe 25 dollars on the upside, but anything more than that... in the $150plus range, only four recommendations at present, which most folks will take exception to, perhaps.. and many of them can be found in the 150 price range depending on location and market channel..

WRT1900ac by Linksys - 4 radios can't be wrong, and this is a range plus...
RT-68U series by Asus - multiple SKU's, but generally good, good 3rd party Firmware Support
R7000 by Netgear - early firmware was troublesome, but now generally well sorted..
Airport Extreme AC - lot of people dismiss it, but it's generally fast, and very stable, but premium priced, but good deals in the Apple Refurb Store...

sfx

Vinod Gautam · Apr 3, 2015

sfx2000 said:
I tend to agree with you... maybe 25 dollars on the upside, but anything more than that... in the $150plus range, only four recommendations at present, which most folks will take exception to, perhaps.. and many of them can be found in the 150 price range depending on location and market channel..

WRT1900ac by Linksys - 4 radios can't be wrong, and this is a range plus...

RT-68U series by Asus - multiple SKU's, but generally good, good 3rd party Firmware Support

R7000 by Netgear - early firmware was troublesome, but now generally well sorted..

Airport Extreme AC - lot of people dismiss it, but it's generally fast, and very stable, but premium priced, but good deals in the Apple Refurb Store...

sfx

None of the above is available in the range of 150$. Min. price of these routers is 179 or more.

sfx2000 · Apr 3, 2015

Vinod Gautam said:
None of the above is available in the range of 150$. Min. price of these routers is 179 or more.

Different markets/channels - but I'll agree, MSRP on these are still in the $179 range, but I've seen them on sale and/or in manufacturer's refurb stores in the $150 range...

Vinod Gautam · Apr 3, 2015

How durable refurbished items are?

RMerlin · Apr 3, 2015

Vinod Gautam said:
How durable refurbished items are?

It's a toss-up, and quality/reliability might vary between manufacturers, as they might not all share the same QA thoroughness. Some people buy mostly refurbs, others (including myself) prefer to avoid them, just to be safe.

sfx2000 · Apr 3, 2015

RMerlin said:
It's a toss-up, and quality/reliability might vary between manufacturers, as they might not all share the same QA thoroughness. Some people buy mostly refurbs, others (including myself) prefer to avoid them, just to be safe.

I've found that Apple, Linksys and Cisco, when ordering refurbs directly from their online stores, tend to be the same as what's on the shelf, with Apple, you get the same warranty support as "new"... my guess is that most of the refurb inventory is "open-box" returns...

Thread starter	Title	Forum	Replies	Date
M	Need some advice for new router location in parents house	General Wireless Discussion	6	Feb 10, 2024
O	Solved Need help in network design to connect my pellet stove to local network	General Wireless Discussion	7	Jan 27, 2024
	Inconsistent Internet Speeds - Need Help Troubleshooting	General Wireless Discussion	2	Dec 17, 2023
D	Buffalo router vulnerability - need clarification	General Wireless Discussion	11	Sep 20, 2023
C	Home / small biz wireless network advice	General Wireless Discussion	12	Apr 1, 2024
K	Setup advice	General Wireless Discussion	10	Oct 18, 2023
F	Advice needed - significant decrease in speed with mesh network	General Wireless Discussion	2	Sep 4, 2023

Need advice....RT-AC68U or RT-AC87U

New Around Here

Part of the Furniture

Part of the Furniture

Very Senior Member

Part of the Furniture

New Around Here

Very Senior Member

Part of the Furniture

New Around Here

Very Senior Member

Part of the Furniture

Part of the Furniture

Part of the Furniture

New Around Here

Part of the Furniture

New Around Here

Asuswrt-Merlin dev

Part of the Furniture

Similar threads

Similar threads

Sign Up For SNBForums Daily Digest