Recommendation between these 2 Asus routers

[blarf]

Hi,

I'm growing tired of the issues I've been having with my Netgear R7900P I purchased from Costco. Not being able to have a proper VPN solution is frustrating. Makes me miss my old Asus with Merlin Firmware...
Anyways, Which one would you recommend between the GT-AC5300 and The AC86U?

Thanks

Blarf

 

[avtella]

Go with 86U.

 

[microchip]

+1 for the 86U

 

[blarf]

after reading a little bit more on both, it seems that the 86U would be the right choice for me

 

[Goofie Newfie]

So I've been reading as well, other than price, and faster cpu...why 86u? I need maximum signal distance for quite a few clients.

 

[CaptainSTX]

So I've been reading as well, other than price, and faster cpu...why 86u? I need maximum signal distance for quite a few clients.

For a VPN to maximize throughput you need the 86U because the AES-NI support this router's CPU has.

With the processor not being maxed out with VPN encryption it will be better able to handle multiple clients.

As for handling multiple clients at longer distances there is only so much any router can do. Your best solution might be to repurpose your old router as an AP which would allow you to get the AP nearer your clients and if you smartly divided the traffic between your router and your AP they would divide the processing load of WiFi. There is a limit to how many WiFi connections any radio can handle since it is shared media. With two dual band routers you could divide the traffic between four radios.

 

[Goofie Newfie]

Yeah I don't care for VPN at all. Also have a dedicated HP 1gig 24 port switch so I'm good there. So need strong wireless, 2.4/5. I've considered repurposing my 87u as a extender but I'm not sure if it's going to be useable. I flattened it last night, set everything up from scratch again vs restoring...hoping it fixes it. I'm still curious to see how the ax routers do too.