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Advice on AC5300 router

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kng

Regular Contributor
Hi,

Currently I have an Asus ac66u router, which I bought it in 2012 or 2013. It is currently running original firmware, I was usually happy with its stability, not with its speed. However, since lately began to hang quite often, sometimes it blocked 3 consecutive days, I decided to replace it.

So, I am looking for a performant and reliable router. Related to the number of devices, I have:
- 4 laptops
- 2 smartphones
- 1 tablet
- 1 NAS
- 2 Apple TV devices
- 1 PS3

The routers I have in mind are either Asus ac5300 (I am used to asus firmware, I find it quite nice), Netgear X8. Looking forward for your opinions.
 
Hi,

Currently I have an Asus ac66u router, which I bought it in 2012 or 2013. It is currently running original firmware, I was usually happy with its stability, not with its speed. However, since lately began to hang quite often, sometimes it blocked 3 consecutive days, I decided to replace it.

So, I am looking for a performant and reliable router. Related to the number of devices, I have:
- 4 laptops
- 2 smartphones
- 1 tablet
- 1 NAS
- 2 Apple TV devices
- 1 PS3

The routers I have in mind are either Asus ac5300 (I am used to asus firmware, I find it quite nice), Netgear X8. Looking forward for your opinions.

Don't forget it has to be Apple friendly. Some routers are not very friendly with Apple products.
 
Don't forget it has to be Apple friendly.

Apple friendly; the process of giving your Apple devices to friends you don't like. :)
 
I didn't had the smallest problem with my Apple devices until now, and I have about 7 Apple devices:
- 2 Macbook Pros, early 2015 model
- 2 iPhones
- 1 tablet
- 2 Apple TVs (one is wired and another one is connected through wireless).

I have a mixt of wireless and wired devices, I am using many virtual machines so the number of clients is bigger than the number of physical devices. All the wired devices are connected with CAT6 cables.

From another topic, I understood that ac5300 is recommended if you have only wireless devices, which is not the case. Should I take a look to Asus ac88u instead of ac5300?

P.S. I have a request to a moderator if possible, I would like to change the topic with "Advice on a new AC router". I'm not sure if I take Netgear into consideration, so now I have on my shortlist AC88u, AC5300u from Asus.
 
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That is a plus for me. AC66u has also 4 ports and currently I need more than 4. If I will buy another router with 4 ports, I will use a Cisco (which I already have) switch to solve this issue. I just reminded that I forgot 2 devices connected to my current router:

- a webcam: I'm using cable for this and not wifi.
- a network printer

I plan to add a blu ray player with streaming option in the future, I plan to connect that on wire also.

Even if my AC66u is quite old, when I copy something from my PC to the NAS (over wire) I usually get over 100 MB transfer speed. However, if I'm doing a backup of my Macbook (over wireless) to the NAS, the maximum speed is about 20MB... quite small I would say. And if I'm doing some other heavy transfers (copying data around 50-60 GB) over the network (usually wireless) the router freezes.

L.E. The laptop is in the same room with the router when I'm doing the backup.
 
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I plan to connect that on wire also.
then get a bigger switch if needed , there is no benefit in getting the 88u over a bigger switch

Even if my AC66u is quite old, when I copy something from my PC to the NAS (over wire) I usually get over 100 MB transfer speed
which you should if everything is giga ethernet and it wont be any faster no matter what you get atm

However, if I'm doing a backup of my Macbook (over wireless) to the NAS, the maximum speed is about 20MB... quite small I would say.

if you are connected to 5 gig your macbook wifi will be the bottleneck as even the 66u has 1300M on its 5 gig

And if I'm doing some other heavy transfers (copying data around 50-60 GB) over the network (usually wireless) the router freezes.

that may be reason to upgrade , however i would make sure its not something else causing it first , eg like a bad ethernet adapter or wireless adapter etc

The laptop is in the same room with the router when I'm doing the backup.

again what band is the laptop connected to , plus those mac backups are lnown to be slow
 
if you are connected to 5 gig your macbook wifi will be the bottleneck as even the 66u has 1300M on its 5 gig

His MacBook Pro's are the 2015 editions, which are 802.11ac 3*3:3, e.g. in 11ac speak, 5GHz AC1300, so not a bottleneck... rather faster than most...
 
Don't forget it has to be Apple friendly. Some routers are not very friendly with Apple products.

Asus isn't very hospitable to Macs/iDevices for some odd reason compared to other Router/AP vendors... not sure why, except that the common workaround for Asus don't work anymore after Asus closed up the Wireless driver configs...
 
His MacBook Pro's are the 2015 editions, which are 802.11ac 3*3:3, e.g. in 11ac speak, 5GHz AC1300, so not a bottleneck... rather faster than most...

but if he buys anything above 1300M on 5 gig he will see no added benefit eg rt-ac3100 or rt-ac88u etc wont give him any extra speed that what i was referring to over wifi
 
but if he buys anything above 1300M on 5 gig he will see no added benefit eg rt-ac3100 or rt-ac88u etc wont give him any extra speed that what i was referring to over wifi

Outside of any Asus Quirks related to Apple - the 4*4:4 Router/AP's have things to offer to any client... which is what the RT-AC3100/RT-AC88U/RT-AC5300 have to offer...

Most AC clients are 1*1:1 or 2*2:2 in any event... and they all benefit - it's the magic of MIMO... turns space into time and codes...
 
Outside of any Asus Quirks related to Apple - the 4*4:4 Router/AP's have things to offer to any client... which is what the Software Version 2.50a.dc17 have to offer...
huh lol and what are these things it offers that relate to what the OP is talking about

his transfers wont be faster as the adapter is 1300M , if he gets any of those routers his adapter will still sync an no more that 1300M which it currently does with the 66u anyway

mimo wont make any single client any faster than nor will mu-mimo

although there are other benefits to buying a new router wifi speed should not change much with any 1300M 5 gig AC transmission or above at the same distance and the same client adapter
 
huh lol and what are these things it offers that relate to what the OP is talking about

his transfers wont be faster as the adapter is 1300M , if he gets any of those routers his adapter will still sync an no more that 1300M which it currently does with the 66u anyway

mimo wont make any single client any faster than nor will mu-mimo

although there are other benefits to buying a new router wifi speed should not change much with any 1300M 5 gig AC transmission or above at the same distance and the same client adapter


The RT-AC66U (based on similar if not same base hardware as the now aging RT-N66U) is easily outclassed by the latest current routers from Asus.

You are testing them yourself, actually (in sig). I would suggest you test the RT-AC66U for yourself to see how low end it is compared to newer models. ;)
 
Pete - do not mis-quote me...

which is what the Software Version 2.50a.dc17 have to offer...

Not what I said, by any means...

I respect your insight and contribution...
 
You are testing them yourself, actually (in sig). I would suggest you test the RT-AC66U for yourself to see how low end it is compared to newer models

thats right an if the adapter is connected at max sync eg 1300M you will get just about the same throughput to any of these because its synced @1300M and the throughput will be the same or there abouts

unless there is an issue with the OP's 66u or he is using it at a distance where the max sync cant be connected at and if so he would get benefit out of moving up to a newer router as the coverage is better and thus more chance the adapter will sync better or max out
 
Hi,

I bought last week an Asus AC5300, I've been able to do some tests. So, first impressions:

- the signal on the AC5300 model is much more stable and bigger than before. On AC66u I was obtaining about 200 Mbps on an internet speed test, and even that had big fluctuations, the speed was not constant. With the AC5300 I have now 500Mbps in the same tests (the maximum speed which my ISP allows), the speed is constant, does not vary any more. My guess was that if I have only 200Mbps speed on the internet test, then for sure the speed on my local network would be also limited on wireless. This was the main reason for upgrading the switch. The speed on AC66u has fluctuations no matter what firmware I was using: the original one or Merlin's firmware.
- as Pete said, indeed the speed on my Macs is 1300 Mbps, while being in the same room.
- the signal coverage on 2.4 GHz is much better with AC5300 vs AC66u. I have an apartment of 100 square meters, the router is in one corner of the apartment, I have signal in the opposite corner now. This did not happened before.
- the signal coverage on 5 GHz is about the same, for sure it's not better. I have no signal on the 5GHz band in the opposite corner of the apartment. I was expecting to see some real improvement on this.

I was taking into considerations AC88u model, that had a bigger throughput than ac5300u (1406 Mbps on ac88 vs 1360 on ac5300u). I've read that some of AC88u owners had issues with first products, so I decided to go with ac5300u. I hope it was the right decision :)

I'm attaching two screen captures, one taken with ac66u and one taken with ac5300u.
Screen Shot 2016-04-27 at 11.32.07.png


Screen Shot 2016-04-29 at 00.06.14.png
 
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the signal on the AC5300 model is much more stable and bigger than before. On AC66u I was obtaining about 200 Mbps on an internet speed test, and even that had big fluctuations, the speed was not constant. With the AC5300 I have now 500Mbps in the same tests (the maximum speed which my ISP allows), the speed is constant, does not vary any more.

i would prob suggest this would be a fault or issue with your 66u as in theory if both are connecting at 1300M the 66u should have no issue with the wan to lan as its tests show 836M wan to lan

however its good to see the 5300 is more stable

the signal coverage on 2.4 GHz is much better with AC5300 vs AC66u

that was prob expected as the 2.4 gig on the 66u was never great

- the signal coverage on 5 GHz is about the same, for sure it's not better. I have no signal on the 5GHz band in the opposite corner of the apartment. I was expecting to see some real improvement on this.

so 2 things are coming play here , first is the transmission power is about the same so the same penetration is expected , the second is the environmental conditions within your apartment and construction materials used as 5 gig is 5 gig the physics of it dont change , if the construction and or materials used block the signal with the higher frequency of the 5 gig it will do for any 5 gig transmission

there is no magic bullet when it comes to wifi if the environmental conditions are working against you and is why for quite some time now i have and many here have moved away from single transmissions and the expectation that 1 devices will cure all , instead multiple access points connected via ethernet is a far better option

for the price of the 5300 you could have purchased 2 x rt-ac68u and used one as your main router and the other in ap mode in another part of the apartment and had some ethernet run between the two areas for connectivity or perhaps a ceiling mounted ap towards the black spot area again connected back to the main router via ethernet

so at least for now you have better download speeds , you may just want to consider a second ap for that black spot area , you may even be able to use the 66u as an ap just to get coverage

the lesson here is dont believe the big numbers , as regulations when it comes to transmission power and physics when it comes to wireless prorogation through materials v frequency dont change , what does change is how all these companies try and sell it in suggesting it can and does change those conditions

because this is a thread on the 5300 lets look at the claims it ,makes

https://www.asus.com/au/Networking/RT-AC5300/

1 . 4x4 antenna design with AiRadar universal beamforming for unbeatable wireless signal coverage --- im yet to see any proof of this

2 .
stage_3_img_6.png


the above although it looks like its related to coverage is only throughput.

3.

Unbeatable Wi-Fi Coverage
With a four-transmit, four-receive (4T4R) antenna design, both Wi-Fi range and signal stability improve dramatically. AiRadar beamforming further focuses the Wi-Fi signal on your devices, making your Wi-Fi faster, clearer and stronger.

stage_2_prod_2.png
stage_2_prod_1.png

Other Routers
without AiRadar beamforming

v

RT-AC5300
with AiRadar beamforming

so we have had beamforming since the days of wireless N , yes it may have improved since wireless N but pretty much all wireless AC would not compare like this when it comes to the difference in beamforming

so as you can see the advertising is designed to make it look the best it can and comparisons are against much older technology , im not just bagging asus here as all manufactures use advertising this way and its designed to suck in the unaware or those easily startled by shinny things

there is certainly nothing wrong with the ac5300 and or ac88u and in fact i really like the 88u for its extra features and sheer grunt when it comes to its router performance but is it magically far superior to my older wireless ac router when it comes to wireless the answer is no

pete
 
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The wireless range of my AC5300 is much better and stronger than the Linksys EA9200 I had previously. The Linksys extender I had would drop the connection with the EA9200 often and since RT-AC5300, no more drops in connection. My ASUS is situated in my study room on the second floor all the way in a corner of the room far from any wireless device on the first floor and my laptops and iPads still connect directly to it without the need of the extender.
 

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