ASUS USB-AC56 Spot Review

[sfx2000]

Quick first look at this USB AC1200 adapter

1) It's a 2-stream 802.11n/802.11ac device with USB3.0 support
2) External Di-Pole antenna - about 3dB gain in 2.4Ghz, about 9dB gain in 5Ghz
3) Internal Antenna vs. External Antenna - there is a switch, so one doesn't need the sabre when you don't need it
4) Either HW or perhaps drivers - supports UNI-3 and UNi1/2 but doesn't support the DFS channels in 5Ghz (Channels 100 thru 140)
5) Chipset - Realtek 8812

Performance:

USB 2 and USB 3 - no difference using ASUS X200CA ultrabook running Win 8.1 (4GB RAM, 320GB Spinning Disk, IvyBridge Celeron 1007U Processor), also tested home-built AMD Athlon X2 2.4Ghz on Asus M2NPV-VM with Win7-64bit) - Windows results consistent across platforms

Access Point - Apple Airport Extreme 6th Gen (on loan, comments to follow there), Apple Time Capsule 4th Gen (had to change AP's as APeX doesn't select radio mode, ran 2.4Ghz tests, and all consistent) - distance from AP - 2 meters in free space

2.4Ghz - some traffic on channel 1, best channel as close by we have wide channel 802.11n traffic on channels 1+5 and channels 6+10), 802.11b on channel 6, and 802.11n-only narrow on channel 8 - testing on channel 1 with +20dB delta against adjacent networks on this channel

5 Ghz - all testing done on Channel 149, clear channel for A, N, and AC

Note: this is a first look, and not an extended objective test - target is Mac Mini Server 2010 running 10.8, OS X Server 2.2, with Speedtest Mini hosted on GigE.

801.11n-2.4Ghz - 166mbit/sec upload, 169mbit/sec download (20MHz channel)
802.11n-5Ghz - 190mbit/sec upload, 178mbit/sec download (40MHz channel)
802.11ac-5Ghz - 212mbit/sec upload, 185mbit/sec download (80 MHz channel)

Point of Reference - MacBook Pro 2012 Core i7 non-Retina - 3 Stream 802.11n (BCM4331 chipset)

802.11n-5Ghz - 310mbit/sec upload, 233mbit/sec download (40MHz channel)
1000BaseT-CAT6 - 575mbit/sec upload, 505mbit/sec download

Alt Point of Reference:

802.11n-2.4Ghz - 51mbit/sec upload, 48mbit/sec download - 20Mhz channel, single stream

Other:

OOB - includes solid base with USB 3.0 cable - approx 1 meter long - no clip for screen mounting on laptop lid - even without the external antenna, this is a fairly large device for USB - end to end, it's the same length as an iPhone 4 is tall. Plastic covers are untethered and will soon be lost...

Linux support - ASUS provides source to build drivers, but most kernels do not have "built-in" support - not a surprise here - kudos for ASUS to provide the source

Summary: This is a dual-band 2-stream adapter that offers good performance in 802.11n - even without the external dipole, it's a bit hot on the transmit side, and has a very good receiver, perhaps too good as it can pick up traffic well beyond the local WLAN. There are good things with a high-gain receiver for certain purposes however, and once Linux is sorted, this could very well be the next wardriver card of choice.

802.11ac network performance is a bit of a disappointment with current drivers, and I don't expect significant improvement here, but being 802.11ac, it should live nicely in an 802.11ac environment.

I'll update as I continue to tinker with this card, and get some better test data, e.g. iPerf for TCP/UDP and different traffic patterns, along with Linux results.

sfx

 

[RMerlin]

Your 802.11ac performance does seem oddly low. I'm getting better performance than that out of an USB-AC53 (I don't remember the exact speed, it's been a while since I've used it).

Same with the Centrino 7260 I'm currently using in my laptop.

 

[thiggins]

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-reviews/32271-ac1200-usb-wireless-adapter-roundup

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-adapter-bridge-charts/view

 

[RMerlin]

I dug out my AC53U and did a few tests with the RT-AC68U. My speed were only a bit higher than yours (they were about what Tim was getting), hovering around 200-220 Mbps (tested using Lanbench with 4 concurrent streams, which might not be as accurate as iperf or ixChartiot).

Interesting note: my Centrino 7260 was hitting 240-260 Mbps from the same location.

 

[cygol]

i need connect with my asus-usb ac56 wlan to 165 channel of university AP,
but it could not connect to this channel ,
it can scan and see this AP (in 165 channel) but it cant connect to it
there is any way for solve this job
thanks

 

[RogerSC]

i need connect with my asus-usb ac56 wlan to 165 channel of university AP,
but it could not connect to this channel ,
it can scan and see this AP (in 165 channel) but it cant connect to it
there is any way for solve this job
thanks

One thing, what OS do are you using? If you have Windows 8/8.1, do you have the latest driver for this from the Asus download site? That's one thing that could cause connection problems.

The other thing is to be sure that you have the correct password for the WiFi network you're connecting to...

Other than the above, it should work. I have one here, and have not had any connection problems with it since updating the driver to Asus' latest. I use the Windows 7 connection managment facility with it, not the utility that comes with the USB-AC56 download, though. The only Asus piece I'm using is the driver.

 

[cygol]

One thing, what OS do are you using? If you have Windows 8/8.1, do you have the latest driver for this from the Asus download site? That's one thing that could cause connection problems.

The other thing is to be sure that you have the correct password for the WiFi network you're connecting to...

Other than the above, it should work. I have one here, and have not had any connection problems with it since updating the driver to Asus' latest. I use the Windows 7 connection managment facility with it, not the utility that comes with the USB-AC56 download, though. The only Asus piece I'm using is the driver.

thank you much of your reply
i have the windows 7 pro and a windows xp sp3 on a virtual machine (windows xp mode)
i could connect to this AP on a Powerstastion Radio from home with a same password (WPA 2)
but when i want to connect to this ap from university by my laptop and asus-usb 56ac i get this error:
"please check that you enter the password is correct"
and i have to say this AP doesn't have MAC filtering .
i am using this driver version for asus-usb 56 ac:
UT_USB_AC56_2087
i think it is last driver.
do you connect to this channel (165 channel) by this usb wireless?
what version of driver you use ?
may you give me your dongle version driver link here?

 

[RogerSC]

thank you much of your reply
i have the windows 7 pro and a windows xp sp3 on a virtual machine (windows xp mode)
i could connect to this AP on a Powerstastion Radio from home with a same password (WPA 2)
but when i want to connect to this ap from university by my laptop and asus-usb 56ac i get this error:
"please check that you enter the password is correct"
and i have to say this AP doesn't have MAC filtering .
i am using this driver version for asus-usb 56 ac:
UT_USB_AC56_2087
i think it is last driver.
do you connect to this channel (165 channel) by this usb wireless?
what version of driver you use ?
may you give me your dongle version driver link here?

Yes, when I go into the Device Manager, this is the information about the driver for the USB-AC56:

Driver Date: 1/3/2014
Driver Version: 1026.6.1217.2013

and the version shown in "Programs and Features" for the Asus WLAN Card Utilities and Driver in the Control Panel is:

2.0.8.7

which looks like the version that you have.

No, I haven't specifically used channel 165, I usually use channel 161 on my home R7000 wireless-ac router. What channels are available to connect to depend on how the wireless that you're connecting to is configured, in terms of which extension channels are in use (if you're connecting to a wireless-ac router). If channel 165 is the channel that you need to connect to, that should be fine.

Does the University AP have wireless in the 2.4GHz. band that you could try connecting to? At least that would be a sanity test for your configuration if you could connect to that.