AC replacement RT-N66U

[tranceaddict84]

Hello folks. I'm thinking about replacing my 4 year old Asus RT-N66U with an AC device. My N66U has been very good so I would like to stick with Asus.

I wire up everything I can so I don't have a huge number of wireless devices, and nothing that really needs massive throughput. In the house there are a couple of Android devices, the newest being a Nexus 6P, and a couple of iOS devices, the newest being an iPhone 6. I also have a Windows laptop from late 2013 with an Intel 2x2 N WiFi chip which currently tops out around 150mbps, so I plug it into my router with a USB 3.0 to GbE adapter when I want to do large file transfers. As both the laptop and my Nexus 6P consistently max out at 150mbps down and up on SpeedTest I figure this is hitting the limit of my router, so there is potentially much more speed to be had going to AC; definitely on my phone and judging by the 'Does An AC Router Improve N Device Performance?' article likely on the laptop, too.

- I thought about the AC66U, which would be sufficient for my current needs and is basically the AC version of what I have, but I don't like the idea of paying SGD $259 (USD $190) for a 2.5 year old product.
- The 'how to buy 2015' article claims AC1900 (in my case meaning the AC68U) is the sweet spot for price/performance and the 4x4 MU-MIMO stuff is [was] not really production ready, but this article is a year old.
- The SNB RT-AC68U review surmises that it is not significantly faster or worth the upgrade from the RT-AC66U.
- It looks as though the first generation AC2400 4x4 MU-MIMO devices (RT-AC87U) are far too buggy and should be skipped.
- I've read the MU-MIMO vs. XStream article and subsequent reviews and it does sound like MU-MIMO is the better bet and uses technological improvements rather than brute force (ADD MORE RADIOS!!) to deliver the (theoretical) throughput improvements, favouring the RT-AC88U over the similarly priced RT-AC3200.
- AC5300 is massively pointless.

So I'm leaning towards the RT-AC88U, particularly because it has 8 Ethernet ports and seems the most future-proof device. I have no qualms about spending US $300 on a router if it's rock solid and likely to last 3-4 years, as my RT-N66U has done.

My current setup and devices:
ISP fibre modem/router 1gbps GPON WAN, 4x GbE with eth0 connecting to RT-N66U eth0, leaving me a total of 6 usable Ethernet ports in my front room, which are used as follows:
- NAS
- TV
- NVIDIA Shield Android TV/console thing
- Sonos PlayBar
- To Linksys 5-port GbE dumb switch in spare room via CAT6 cable run around the skirting boards, for desktop PC & Mac
- Spare (sometimes used for laptop with USB adapter)

Future possibilities I am considering:
Work with my ISP to set their GPON device to bridge mode and put my (static) public IP on the WAN port of my own device (the main reason I don't do this now with my N66U is I would be left with too few ports and need to buy another switch).
Set one of the GBE ports as WAN and provision an additional ISP for resiliency (all apartments here have two fibre points and you can get 200mbps fibre ala cart for S$29/month).
Use link aggregation to get 2gbps in from WAN (2gbps service is offered by my ISP for a while already but it's fairly niche and may be largely overlooked as ISPs start to jump on the 10gbps (super-pointless) bandwagon).

Other considerations:
I have no legacy 2.4GHz-only clients and my current 5GHz network easily covers my whole apartment without dead spots, so 2.4GHz range and throughput is of no concern to me.
Third party firmware support, preferably Tomato or DDWRT is a must. I forward the management port of my RT-N66U so I can access it from the WAN and use it as a wake-on-lan GUI for my desktops.
I have a Synology NAS so subpar USB 3.0 storage performance noted in the RT-AC88U review is not a concern.
The laptop is likely up for replacement either late this year or early next, and proper working MU-MIMO may be a reality by then.

Current Singapore prices (in SGD, multiply by 0.75 for USD) for reference:
RT-N66U $199
RT-AC66U $259
RT-AC68U $329
RT-AC88U $429
RT-AC3200 $409
RT-AC5300 $469

I'm almost ready to pull the trigger on the RT-AC88U but I'd like to get some thoughts from you folks on this, particularly if there's anything I have overlooked or anything on the near-term horizon (next few months) that is worth holding out for.

Cheers!

 

[L&LD]

I am in total agreement with you about your situation. The RT-AC88U is the router that holds the most promise for the least amount of money for your area's availability.

For $40, I might be considering the RT-AC5300 though, even if it seems pointless to you right now. If I had the chance, I would at least be testing both ($40 extra over 3 or 4 years is nothing to be concerned about).

The other option is the (base) hardware equivalent RT-AC3100, if it's available in your area (and depending on price). After all, an 8 or 12 port GbE switch is also very inexpensive too.

MU-MIMO is promised on all these routers, but until and if it is delivered in suitable working form, I would not be betting anything on that.

I still haven't heard of anything newer from Asus, and with the ISP speeds you have, the RT-N66U is holding you back significantly.

If you're ready to buy now, it doesn't seem there is anything to hold you back.

 

[tranceaddict84]

Thank you for the reply. Sorry it took me a while to respond - been travelling for work. I picked up the AC88U yesterday - I figured the extra 4 LAN ports would be more useful than an additional 4x4 radio.

Overall very impressed. Laptop speed has received a modest bump up to ~200mbps but more usefully it's now stable at 200mbps even at the furthest extent of my flat. Nexus 6P now hits 400mbps in all rooms and I think that's a limitation of the SpeedTest Android app more than the router. Would be interested to get hold of a 3x3 Macbook Pro to test with.

Sounds like DD-WRT is still very buggy so I'll stick with Merlin firmware for now.

 

[pete y testing]

Sounds like DD-WRT is still very buggy so I'll stick with Merlin firmware for now.

reality is why would you need dd wrt these days the 88u7 can do just about everything the dd wrt firmware can do , i see 3rd party fw getting less relevent by the day ( excluding merlins of course ) as most have not improved or added features for quite a long time and the qos on the stock / merlin fw is very good these days

 

[Nullity]

reality is why would you need dd wrt these days the 88u7 can do just about everything the dd wrt firmware can do , i see 3rd party fw getting less relevent by the day ( excluding merlins of course ) as most have not improved or added features for quite a long time and the qos on the stock / merlin fw is very good these days

Mostly true, but even the most modern AsusWRT builds do not have CoDel (which requires an old Linux kernel). CoDel massively simplifies QoS, almost to the point that prioritizing important traffic becomes wholly unneeded, which makes QoS configuration properly easy.

AsusWRT has the underlying capabilities for great QoS (HFSC, ESFQ, and some other modern scheduling algorithms), but the GUI is lacking.


DD-WRT and tomato both have CoDel.

 

[tranceaddict84]

Actually inclined to agree with you both now. My previous experience of AsusWRT was almost four years ago when I bought my RT-N66U, and back then it was sorely lacking. I stuck Tomato on it and never looked back. Now after setting up the RT-AC88U (several times, as my ISP insisted I factory reset and flash back to stock firmware to troubleshoot a WAN configuration issue that turned out to be their side) it's apparent just how far it's come.

The main thing I was concerned about lacking was a WoL GUI with the option to save/persist MAC addresses for offline devices, which I see it now has. You don't really need QoS when you have gigabit WAN

 

[Nullity]

...
The main thing I was concerned about lacking was a WoL GUI with the option to save/persist MAC addresses for offline devices, which I see it now has. You don't really need QoS when you have gigabit WAN