Are there any reasons not to buy an Asus RT-N66U ?

[spookyneo]

This device is quite old, few years old, but is having a pretty good rebate right now (120$CDN, usually around 150$). I need to replace my RT-N16 as it is slowly dying of old age. I love my RT-N16, so I figured I should stick with Asus. And Asus routers have good third parties firmwares support.

I don't do wireless a lot at home. Other than cellphones and tablets, my main rig is wired and everything else that is bandwith consumming as well. I listed all my Wi-Fi devices and none of them are using Wi-Fi AC. So I ruled out an AC router, as the AC66U is about 60$ more expensive than the N66U. And, since we use Wi-Fi on phones to browse only (no files transfer), N is fast enough for our needs. Unfortunately, only one device (the device mostly used), is dual-band. All other Wi-Fi devices are 2.4Ghz only (either g or n). I really want a dual band router however to get out of that 2.4Ghz eventually.

I live in a very crowded area and the 2.4Ghz is heavily used. Looking at my neightbours AP on some Android apps is scary. I was first looking at the Asus RT-AC56U, which I can get for the same price as the RT-N66U. However I have read pretty much everywhere that this device is having 2.4Ghz issues. Since nearly all my devices are 2.4Ghz and my 2.4Ghz band is used by neighbours, I would prefer to have a solid router on that band. This is why I thought about the RT-N66U. While it isn't AC, from what I've read, it delivers solid performances on both bands.

I don't use my router anymore as a NAS. So I don't care about USB3.0 vs 2.0. The only thing that is using USB right now on my RT-N16 is to log Tomato logs and bandwith monitoring over months.

What are your thoughts on this ? As a techy, I usually buy the newest technologies (AC), but I can't think of any benefits why I should in my case. I feel I would just throw money by the windows by buying the RT-AC66U compared to an N66U.

Oh and I am probably going to end up using Merlin's or Tomato.

Thanks all,

Neo.

 

[L&LD]

I would buy the excellent RT-AC56U over the also excellent for its time RT-N66U 7 days of the week.

Just for the forward thinking AC Class support and great hardware. The only thing being internal vs. external antennae, but for a few of my customers, this has not been an issue at all.

And, it may even be cheaper than the RT-N66U, depending on how fast you want it and how long you can wait for a sale.

I still have and use the RT-N66U myself. But with the premium Asus routers I have used via my customers, I would not buy one today.

 

[spookyneo]

I would buy the excellent RT-AC56U over the also excellent for its time RT-N66U 7 days of the week.

Just for the forward thinking AC Class support and great hardware. The only thing being internal vs. external antennae, but for a few of my customers, this has not been an issue at all.

And, it may even be cheaper than the RT-N66U, depending on how fast you want it and how long you can wait for a sale.

I still have and use the RT-N66U myself. But with the premium Asus routers I have used via my customers, I would not buy one today.

The internal antennas on the AC56U don't scare me; I live in a small appartment. It's that 2.4Ghz issue that scares me. People are complaining over Newegg and even these forums that they got very slow speed and connections drops as well on 2.4Ghz. I was going to buy the AC56U until this morning when I realized that 5 out of 6 of my Wi-Fi devices are 2.4Ghz only. This made me think again about my first choice (AC56U).