WRT1900AC or ASUS RT-AC68U

[ilukeberry]

Hi

I need advice which router to buy to replace Linksys(Cisco) EA3500 which is piece of junk.

I bought ASUS USB-AC56 Dual-Band 802.11ac Wi-Fi adapter for my PC which i mainly use for gaming. Currently i use that with EA3500 on 2.4GHz band. There are two inner walls between router and computer and i get full bars. Everything works fine it's just that when playing Battlefield 4 i get really bad lag spikes.

Options are:
ASUS RT-AC68U
or
Linksys WRT1900AC

 

[tyvar1]

I am currently using Asus RT Ac68u with the latest version of merlin firmware and everything is running smoothly! I strongly recommend you to buy it! And I also heard that linkys had problems with custom firmwares ;(

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[ilukeberry]

Yeah i'm leaning towards AC68U + Merlin FW combo.

I know all jazz about WRT1900AC being based on Marvell and not Broadcom. So no opensource drivers yet for WiFi chip.

But if stock FW on WRT1900AC is working fine thats also good option.

I don't need VPN/NAS functionality.

 

[Hawk]

I have three asus rt-ac68u with Rmerlin firmware. 1 router and 2 access point configuration.

Like "tyvar1" said with modified with custom firmware device is stable.

I would recommend Asus Rt-ac68u as well.

 

[RogerSC]

Yeah i'm leaning towards AC68U + Merlin FW combo.

I know all jazz about WRT1900AC being based on Marvell and not Broadcom. So no opensource drivers yet for WiFi chip.

But if stock FW on WRT1900AC is working fine thats also good option.

I don't need VPN/NAS functionality.

I agree...while I can't speak to the Asus RT-AC68U, the WRT1900AC has been working here for some time. I haven't had it up steadily, but have used it for days at a time *smile*. It has been stable, and is performing well. And while I wish for more features and monitoring capability in the firmware, stable operation and good performance is a big plus for me. There will be full open source firmware coming, Linksys has made that a big part of their marketing for this router, so they pretty much have to give the open source firmware guys what they need. It's only a question of when.

Also, for routers that are this expensive, make sure that you can take back whatever you bought in case you find that it doesn't fulfill your needs.

 

[ilukeberry]

I think i'm gonna pull a trigger on WRT1900AC. I'm going to buy it tomorrow.
What i need is stable operation i'm not so much into features.
I'll just run it on stock firmware until something useful comes from OpenWRT.
I hope WRT1900AC will speak nicely with ASUS USB-AC56 on 5GHz band.

 

[sfx2000]

Hi

I need advice which router to buy to replace Linksys(Cisco) EA3500 which is piece of junk.

I bought ASUS USB-AC56 Dual-Band 802.11ac Wi-Fi adapter for my PC which i mainly use for gaming. Currently i use that with EA3500 on 2.4GHz band. There are two inner walls between router and computer and i get full bars. Everything works fine it's just that when playing Battlefield 4 i get really bad lag spikes.

Options are:
ASUS RT-AC68U
or
Linksys WRT1900AC

Different router probably won't help much - as a temporary measure, can you string some ethernet over and give that a try..

the EA3500 isn't that bad, actually...

You may want to investigate something other that WiFi - HomePlug might be an option to consider.

sfx

 

[ilukeberry]

EA3500 is junk...

Sometimes it stops broadcasting N network. My MacBook Pro can't find it.. like it's not even there. I must reboot router to get it working again.
I've also used some Linksys USB WiFi adapter on my PC and it was really bad... i got like two bars... since i changed to ASUS USB-AC56 i get now full bars.

Anyway i'll buy WRT1900AC and see how it will perform. It can't be worse than EA3500

 

[ilukeberry]

Got WRT1900AC.. works like charm...

I get really good connection... approx. 3 times better than EA3500... 2.4 & 5Ghz. i've updated FW and it's rock solid so far.

 

[tzhang4284]

Got WRT1900AC.. works like charm...

I get really good connection... approx. 3 times better than EA3500... 2.4 & 5Ghz. i've updated FW and it's rock solid so far.

I went the opposite direction actually - after buying both the WRT1900AC and AC68U - I decided to keep the AC68U and run the RMerlin firmware on it.

I thought about it in the following manner:
1. Reliability: This is probably the biggest gamble I'm taking despite being the most important issue. The WRT1900AC worked fine for 3 days without any issue. Been running the AC-68U with the rmerlin firmware and it seems to run fine overall. I get strong 802.11ac connections on a macbook air and htc one on both devices but a weaker 802.11n connection on the Nexus 10 despite being one room over from the router (sitting in a closet) - could be a Nexus 10 issue. I still feel the WRT1900AC might be more stable but might just be a perception issue on my part.

2. Router Performance: Most of the benchmarks on the web show that the AC68U is at least comparable if not better than the WRT1900AC on the compatibility front. Anecdotally, using my webpass connection - I get anywhere from 200mbps to 550mbps download and upload speeds from both routers to my PC so they seem pretty comparable. I'm in the process of moving so haven't added in multiple devices and etc... yet.

3. Features: Focusing on what's important to me, AC68U has time machine support while the WRT1900AC has much faster usb transfer speeds. It seems like if I really needed high performance storage, I would just buy a dedicated NAS rather than rely on the USB3.0 port on my router. Time Machine as a convenient backup solution is much more important to me, especially since most of my life is stored in the cloud anyways between amazon prime, spotify, dropbox, onedrive, xfinity and etc.

4. Chipset: I'm skeptical the Marvell chipset will be embraced by the community even if Linksys is fully cooperative in releasing code. The market share for the broadcom chipset is significantly higher and likely will continue to receive greater attention from the community unless something happens. Based on past precedent, I'm also really skeptical that Linksys will add any new meaningful features so any additions will have to come from the community which makes this an issue.

5. Value: Given the above, I think it's hard to justify the $50 or more price premium on the WRT1900AC over the AC68U. The only way it would change is if the AC68U is still unstable which doesn't seem to be the case with the RMerlin firmware or even the latest stock.

 

[stevech]

I think i'm gonna pull a trigger on WRT1900AC. I'm going to buy it tomorrow.
What i need is stable operation i'm not so much into features.

Then don't buy a bleeding edge, expensive WiFi router. Stay back a year or two in product maturity.
Why, if you want stable operation, would you choose a product that's pushing the state of the art?

 

[NightOwl326]

What he said...

 

[jlake]

Ditto.....

When you buy bleeding edge, you are the guinea pig. Wait at least 6 months after a router's release date.

 

[stevech]

Ditto.....

When you buy bleeding edge, you are the guinea pig. Wait at least 6 months after a router's release date.

for big changes, like 11ac, wait a year or more.

 

[Deleted member 28741]

- I decided to keep the AC68U

3. Features: Focusing on what's important to me, AC68U has time machine support

5. The only way it would change is if the AC68U is still unstable which doesn't seem to be the case with the RMerlin firmware or even the latest stock.

I wanted AC68 Time Machine functionality as well - even though I have a NAS Raid. Its always good to have a second backup.

The latest stock firmware seems stable and I haven't had one problem with it since I switched it on.

 

[ilukeberry]

Then don't buy a bleeding edge, expensive WiFi router. Stay back a year or two in product maturity.
Why, if you want stable operation, would you choose a product that's pushing the state of the art?

Well it happens that WRT1900AC is running great with stock FW + i get 3 times better signal than with 1 year old EA3500.

 

[ilukeberry]

Ditto.....

When you buy bleeding edge, you are the guinea pig. Wait at least 6 months after a router's release date.

Then buy v.2 version of product with lower hardware spec's because manufacturers wants to cut down production costs and milk more money from sales? Like it happened with almost every Linksys product in the past.