3000 RT-AX58U

[redpaw.rider]

Hey everyone,

I went to Best Buy where I spent a while looking through the AX / two AC etc - this place has taught me to kind of ignore that -

I had to pick up a wireless router today unexpectedly and didn’t have time to order one that would be my ideal device. The selection was mostly netgear and linksys but wanted an Asus and got the AX3000 RT-AX58U - the label on the box states hw version A1 fw version v3.0.0.4.384-8601


I went to Best Buy where I spent a while looking through the AX / two AC etc - this place has taught me to kind of ignore that -

There were two ASUS models available, the one in the title of this post and another more expensive model I can’t recall the specifics of.

I searched here, googled merlin and dd-wrt but didn’t find anything other than here where the posts at least mentioned the AX58U but seemed to be about bugs or issues.

is this model of Asus able to be flashed? Is it considered a “good” Wi-Fi compared to what I think is the next step up and is there reason to exchange for the next one up?

as always thanks!

 

[Tech9]

AX58U is an entry level AX router, supported by Asuswrt-Merlin. No other custom firmware options are available. How good it will be for you depends on what area you need to cover and now many wireless devices you have. Most folks on this forum will recommend AX86U model, but it's more expensive.

 

[redpaw.rider]

Thanks @Tech9 - I don’t need a large coverage area - this is being used to provide a separate access point behind a netgate -

if I can ask - the money isn’t really a problem in exchanging It as I think the AX86U was the other Asus they had - what features or capabilities does it have not present or better than the AX58U?

I don’t game but will make use of vpn clients - I realize this is odd since the netgate is capable and does manage a vpn connection but it’s a site to site and not openvpn - this will just have everything ran through an openvpn connection.

I’d rather get the better of the two if there’s any benefit other than range.

 

[Tech9]

I don’t game but will make use of vpn clients

AX86U has a CPU with AES support and is much faster with VPN compared to AX58U. About 3-4 times faster. If you run it as AP though, you can't use any of the router functions. It's a waste of a good router. I don't know what model Netgate appliance you have. AX86U hardware may be slower or faster.

 

[redpaw.rider]

@Tech9 thanks - so it’s not the AX86U they have it’s an AX5400 RT-AX82U. Would this have the same AES support?

 

[Tech9]

Would this have the same AES support?

No. Both are the same router with different marketing. The "gaming" version AX82U is more expensive. The same hardware with the same FCC certification, some features are software locked on AX58U.