AC68u/87u? Trying to decide

[Grothmog]

Hello,my first post but i'm really puzzled over choosing one of these two.

Right now i'm upgrading my internet to 100Mb/s fiber from 4G/LTE wireless so i don't have any prior router.
Flat is small two rooms and corridor but separated by thick walls.

In my laptop i have intel 7260AC card and in second one N. I use internet mostly for gaming (two laptops simultaneously), sometimes connect mobile phones and smart TV will be in future (around 3-5 devices total).

I don't care about MU-MIMO feature as i won't be having any compatible devices anytime soon.

First i considered olso N66u but I have decided to go with one of these routers because i really like idea of asus airprotect feature and would like to take advantage of AC card.

I'm also planning on adding home NAS, downloading content via router from time to time.

Price difference between ac68u and ac87u isn't very high but i have read of many stability issues on ac87u so i wonder if it's worth to pay more for stronger internals as ac68u (at least from comments i read) seems to work flawlessly,

Or maybe should i choose other router then mentioned ones? If yes please explain why.

 

[RMerlin]

There is currently very little incentive in getting the RT-AC87U. Go with the RT-AC68U. The extra 200 Mhz of the RT-AC87U's CPU will make no difference for your use.

 

[thymeless]

I've had both, both failed on me. When they work, they work well and the 68U would be good for your application. But the quality of these devices in my small sample size has left me cold.

My 68U has failed on me again, a week after coming back from RMA. When I sent the 68 in for RMA, it had ceased to pass packets on the wired interface. I could log into the configuration via wifi, but there was nothing to be done. The config had worked fine for 7 months then failed in the hardware.

While the 68U was out on RMA, I decided to try the 87U so I had AC wifi while the other unit was out and then I'd have a backup unit when the 68 came back.

But no. The first 87 never would connect to the modem or from any wired interface. I could run the setup via wifi, but it never completed because it couldn't connect to the modem. I tried all the boot order tricks recommnended in the setup, but nothing. Second one went through configuration just fine. Crashed hard the first night. Reset, reconfigured, and ran 6 days. Crashed. Reset, reconfigured, ran 7 days, and then wouldn't connect on the wired interfaces again.

It's certainly odd that I keep getting wired failures and made me wonder about what I might have been doing wrong. My setup is an Actiontec modem> Routher> Switch. But even connected directly to the routers, I can't access them, 192.168.1.1 will not resolve. Bypass the router, and everything works, but with crappy wifi from the actiontec and no real network control. So I don't know. Everything I can figure out points to the routers being poor.

Anyway, the 68U came back from RMA at the end of that 87U period so I went back to using the 68U. On day 3 it started disconnecting for about 5 minute periods on the latest firmware, both wired and wifi. I flashed asuswrt-merlin to see if that might help. Maybe a little. I could at least see that the CPU ran at 90C. I put a fan on it and lowered it to 60C and it seemed to run better until today 2 days later.

Again, the wired interface has failed. I flashed ASUS firmware back onto the router via the wifi but that was no help. I could RMA it again, but now at 8 months on, I'm just frustrated with ASUS. I have no faith they'll do any better repair or testing than the last time. The reviews of the similar Linksys and Netgear products seem to be about as bad in stability and long term quality.

So yes, the ASUS products will do the job, provided they operate. You're just rolling the dice as to quality of any of these AC routers it seems, no matter the vendor.

And yes, I'm whining.

 

[zekesdad]

RT-68U. Especially with these latest firmwares, this thing has been rock solid.

 

[RMerlin]

My 68U has failed on me again, a week after coming back from RMA. When I sent the 68 in for RMA, it had ceased to pass packets on the wired interface. I could log into the configuration via wifi, but there was nothing to be done. The config had worked fine for 7 months then failed in the hardware.

Make sure you are using a quality power bar with your router, and that you don't have anything else connected with it that might cause frequent power spikes (such as a laser printer).

It's indeed unusual for so many similar hardware failures, I would start looking at your environment. It's not uncommon for Ethernet ports to get blown by a static discharge, for example.

 

[Trip]

Piggy-backing the failure thing, quality surge protector(s) are a must (Tripp-Lite Iso-Bars are the bomb!).

For the router, 68U, no-brainer. Run that at the fiber modem location; preferably also the location of your main laptop, for wiring it directly in. Since you have thick walls, see if you can somehow snake some Cat6 creatively to the other room, then do another access point there, of whatever level of power you need -- RT-N12, N66U, AC68U, etc. If any of the Asus stuff acts up, assuming latest stock FW, try RMerlin and/or flash Tomato and you should be set. If cable can't be run, do powerline or MoCa, and if all else fails, wifi repeating as a last resort.

Adaptive QoS on the 68U should be turned on to help combat bufferbloat and/or contention that could stifle your gaming, VoIP, etc. if/when your WAN link gets saturated.

 

[sfx2000]

Make sure you are using a quality power bar with your router, and that you don't have anything else connected with it that might cause frequent power spikes (such as a laser printer).

It's indeed unusual for so many similar hardware failures, I would start looking at your environment. It's not uncommon for Ethernet ports to get blown by a static discharge, for example.

I agree - something is very odd there - not sure if Asus ships a new AC adapter with RMA's, but if not, this would be suspect...

ethernet is pretty resilient against spikes from static - that why we have the magnetic coupling on the ports.

Check the environment on the mains power - if you have high current draw appliances (e.g. white goods), this might cause some spikes up/down, but something very odd is going on there.

 

[Grothmog]

Thanks for all replies, I decided i would go for reliability and bought ac68u yesterday

 

[whsbuss]

Thanks for all replies, I decided i would go for reliability and bought ac68u yesterday

Good move. Load Merlin's latest for totally rock solid performance.