My spouse won a new Asus ASUS RT-AC87U in a bingo parlor.

[red_pope]

After the big news of winning this router from my wife and surprise to all.

It definitely put a satire and sarcastic smile on us,
Why?
Because of a few factors. Allow us to explain:

1- Once we open the box and saw the size and weight of this device! a few Question came about? Where and how will be position? All ready our TPLINK c-8 has its dedicated spot and place in our property. Sarcastic this router need its own space station and launching pad been build. Lucky for us we are real handy with power tools for wood. Finding the spot inside our house is the magic answer.

2-Recently we just bought a TPlink C-8 and did upgrade our home-network with a better switch , everything is working perfectly for us.
Then, we spouses started asking our selves:
What is Next?,
Sell it?,
or Give it away?,
We already own one!

We voted and debated this matter among ourselves, for 3 hours, we voted with a few compromises to try out this router first, before making any harsh and nutty speedy decision.

3- If we are able to interconnect using the internet, our Surveillance system to our router to access remotely and be able to monitor the DVR, with our phones, then we are talking using technology in our advantage. I have an Idea but not fully accomplished.

1- Current equipment in the property
a- ISP provided Pro link ADSL wired router.
b-A tp-link C-8 WIFI and router.
C- a switch

Any suggestions?
Thank You and enjoy our future reviews.

PS. We are still reading the manual on this new router.

 

[red_pope]

Well, finally we decided to keep the router. Currently, the firmware was updated to latest one by ASUS.

We read the manual and in our opinion is not for faint heart folks.
We decided to use it only as a Access point only for know.

Yes, I trench out from the house, with my old John Deer digger, a trench about six inches wide, about a distance approximately 150 feet. The LAN cable (cat-6) is buried 2 feet under ground inside a electrical 1/2 INCH PVC, all together with telephone cable, and Video rg6 cable. I kept it away, about 3 feet from the already trench and buried electrical cable.

The hardest was getting the Permit from the municipality, Because I had to wait on line for my number to be called up for 45 minutes. That only cost me 12 dollars.

Once, I reach the Barn House, I end up terminating the LAN cable into a 12 port, rg-45 patch panel design for wall mount. The telephone cable was terminated into a 25 Pair M-block. The video cable was tipped with a weatherproof rg-6 connector. Overall the job was done in 5 hours.

Now, anyone inside that barn house could browse the internet, watch cable TV, and ring the phone .

Guest What? I bought a second hand, 3 piece sofa couch with a nice wood square table, three chairs and a TV entertainment center.

The next day, did move my old TV into the barn. My wife thinks that the barn is going to be my second retirement home. I told her, unless I get cold at night. I will be crawling into your bed. So be ready for the old man!

My son came over the weekend, and did enjoy the quietness of the barn, while he was doing some paperwork, research, and studies. He bought a nice electric fan for the summer.

My son told me: all we need is an electric heater. I did replied : Son, when you have some time, grab the ax and chop some wood, so that way, we will be ready to fire-up, that old wood stove in winter, Is cheaper, plus it will exercise your young muscles. He actually did! surely made our day happier and easier. Right know we have a nice pile of chopped wood for winter.

So have a nice trenching day..

PS
I realized it was a bit of work. You probably will be asking yourself, All that, only for a router ? No it was not. It was job that was in the drawing board waiting for the right timing.

 

[L&LD]

Loved reading your posts.

Are you a writer?

 

[red_pope]

L&LD

No, I'm not a writer. I'm just a regular person, who likes to read and write a lot. I did took additional college courses in reading and writing, just to improve myself.

We do enjoy working the farm, that we purchase 3 years ago. There still one more job to be done.

Personal accomplishments.

I did worked for 30 years and was able to retired with my honor and integrity unstained.

Both of us have been married for almost 40 years. We raised 2 children, for which are independent and educated. My wife just needs to finish another 2 years and she will be retired too.

My wife and I started to work full time after college. I was hired first, by USPS as an IT person. My wife later became a full time college teacher. Still we consider ourselves bless and lucky, because retiring young is near impossible in today's world.

To others, We are very young, not even close to SS retirement. That will happen about 15 years from know.

For years we lived on rental apartments and rented homes, but, since we bought this ever first HUD farm at a reasonable price, our live style have change drastically. Nothing is perfect but it is manageable.

Property work Accomplishments.

Since, we have completed the access road, perimeter fences, the electrical grid, the house and the barn repairs and the communications cables, we feel accomplished and adjusted. Last winter was a struggle, It was cold, lots of rain and lots of physical struggle. My wife and I persevered, smile with humor and did enjoy the challenges of the weather and among many other things.

Next week, will be starting to restore and renovate the tornado bunker /shelter. Making a habitable a harden place in case of a natural disaster or emergency. That project will take some planning and thinking. Specially when is getting a new 8 inch, steel reinforced pour concrete roof.

Others subjects.

Me and my wife have read so much, about routers, switches and firewalls enough to fill up, 20 American Encyclopedias mounted on the walls. Yet, we are just simple folks.

Anyhow, Thank You again.

 

[sfx2000]

Reading through this - you've done well... better than most perhaps...

Too many times do I see folks at 50 scrambling to make it from paycheck to paycheck.

 

[TonyH]

L&L
Others subjects.

Me and my wife have read so much, about routers, switches and firewalls enough to fill up, 20 American Encyclopedias mounted on the walls. Yet, we are just simple folks.

Anyhow, Thank You again.

I like this part best, LOL!. Maybe one of you should start teaching again about routers, switches and firewalls. Sounds like good life you are enjoying.

 

[red_pope]

Latest up-dates


Our tp-link c-8 router bit the dust, the power supply crash and burned. Even do the power supply was connected to a 500 watts AVR, it just stop working. The AVR survived, the on-line fuse is OK!. My wife and I, brought back the router to the merchant and sadly, they did not have none in stock. We got a "rain check" until a suitable replacement is available. We decided to wait, instead of running with the refund cash!

Since, we don't have the opportunity to be downtown often, we did look around in the store, for other type of routers they were selling, We saw some good ones, that have been already tested out in this web site. We decided to wait for our replacement router from tp-link in 3 days.

On the way home, we did stop at the farmers market place, bought some groceries and as we walk the 1.5 acres ,market, we did spotted some used Ubiquiti UniFI AP Outdoor+ 2x2 been display neatly with original boxes by another farmer from the same area, only 25 miles away from we live. That caught our attention, We have read about them. Never used them, but after 15 minutes negotiation for the price, we did purchased one for 60 dollars with a 30 day warranty from the owner. The original box had everything that comes with it. Is not AC, but for barn WIFI coverage is enough for know.

I moved the ASUS from the barn to the House and after 45 minutes was doing its job. For the Ubiquiti AP, my wife did the configuration and changes. I just did the mounting and installation. It works! No AC WIFI for this AP, but is superbly fast and has a long range. My wife found a way to reduce the range, everything is done by accessing the control software. We just got coverage only in the barn, until we get our replacement C-8.

Have a nice Ubiquiti day.

 

[W4RH34D]

What a happening, savvy bingo parlor to have something like the 87u.

 

[red_pope]

What a happening, savvy bingo parlor to have something like the 87u.

My wife is the winner not me. She won it in a raffle. Thank you anyhow.

 

[System Error Message]

You should've swapped the tp-link and asus in the first place. The asus ac87 has a much better CPU than the C8. I suggest checking the PSU on the AC87U because its been known to be bad. Feel how hot it is and look at the amp output. The stock one i heard was 30W which made it unstable and a higher amp rated replacement was much better.

When you get a tp-link replacement, check the PSU. If you have multi-meters and loggers use them to check the stability which is a good way to check if there is a bad PSU.

I have tp-link as well but its only best at simple duties so i leave it running as an AP and print server. My 5 year old wr1043nd still works fine using channel 13 for 2.4Ghz (its legal where it is) since every other wifi router nearby is ill-configured.

Im really curious about the lifespan of all this hardware because i have not yet had any electronic hardware failed on me for many years. Even 10 year old PC and hard drives still run fine and very old networking gear (linksys wireless g adsl router) still works fine despite its age. As for newer hardware its either come dead or working fine. I have the asus AC68U and AC3200 and havent had any issues with them yet despite overclocking.

I have not even had a SMART warning from any of my hard drives either and i did check with software too.

The only thing that has failed in my experience are fans.

 

[red_pope]

You should've swapped the tp-link and asus in the first place. The asus ac87 has a much better CPU than the C8. I suggest checking the PSU on the AC87U because its been known to be bad. Feel how hot it is and look at the amp output. The stock one i heard was 30W which made it unstable and a higher amp rated replacement was much better.

When you get a tp-link replacement, check the PSU. If you have multi-meters and loggers use them to check the stability which is a good way to check if there is a bad PSU.

I have tp-link as well but its only best at simple duties so i leave it running as an AP and print server. My 5 year old wr1043nd still works fine using channel 13 for 2.4Ghz (its legal where it is) since every other wifi router nearby is ill-configured.

Im really curious about the lifespan of all this hardware because i have not yet had any electronic hardware failed on me for many years. Even 10 year old PC and hard drives still run fine and very old networking gear (linksys wireless g adsl router) still works fine despite its age. As for newer hardware its either come dead or working fine. I have the asus AC68U and AC3200 and havent had any issues with them yet despite overclocking.

I have not even had a SMART warning from any of my hard drives either and i did check with software too.

The only thing that has failed in my experience are fans.

Excellent recommendations.

For a moment, I was tempted to open and test the power supply that came with my former TP-Link WiFi, but the darn product still under warranty, I cant go so deep with it. The only method was to use my multi-meter and test the AC output, that was a no brainier, and it did not show continuity, frequency or amperes on it.

The Asus always runs a bit hot, I did check the power supply, it was normal readings according to the specifications of the manufacturing sticker.

My 8 AVR at home are my first line of defense for the routers, PC'S, TV'S, basically you need AC, then connect to the AVR first. All equipment that carries any kind of power supplies are Velcro mounted away from the floor.

Currently, I have a small fan connected fanning the Asus, helping with the heat dissipation. Yet, I have to agree the ASUS is a performer. When I get the replacement, TP-LINK, it will be an AP only in the barn and treated equally.

I had my fair share of failed fans for electronic equipment in my former working life. I do share your pain! Specially on laptops.

I suspect the culprit for the outage that destroy the TP-LINK power supply, was a bad power supply from manufacturing. It is too late to prove it, is in their hands to fix it.

Thank You again.

 

[red_pope]

Flash, flash, News update

Yes, I got the replacement tp-link router. Actually it is a new router. The mac address and the serial number are different from the return one. I noticed the power supply has the same specs, and was tested in front of my eyes at the store. It is heavier and more robust from the previous one. Yes, it was shipped from TP-LINK factory to the seller with my name and invoice on it.

Actually, it came with an EXTRA and very free, AC1200 Wireless Dual Band USB Adapter Archer T4U at no cost to us. One letter appreciating and apologizing for the power supply failure. The new power supply and router warranty was extended for another year. so it is holding a 2 year warranty bumper to bumper.

I haven't installed it in the barn as an AP, the used ubiquiti still working nicely as an AP.

I'm too busy, finishing the tornado shelter flooring with floor tiles, a Coleman toilet, extra LED lighting, more shelves to store can goods, flash lights, extra batteries, one solar battery operated radio and a good first aid kit with a portable fire extinguisher and a double bunk beds for 4 people and then I will take my break finally.
Thank You and have a nice tornado shelter life!