[AC88U] - New Owner - Few questions

[Chromatic]

Hey guys,

I've browsed the forums a bit,.. great stuff.

I just upgraded an Asus RT-N16 up to what my 'gut' told me to go with which was the AC88U -- Almost just grabbed the AC3100 (which from what I can tell is basically the same thing minus extra ports and some minors) -- But spent the bit extra for the 88u.

Anyhow - I purchased it because the RT-N16 is, well, old - served me well.. but was having stability issues (even power cable was shorting.. so it was long overdue. Plus, it , prev router, wasn't able to handle the 350Mbps down Charter now provides (with a ridiculous asymmetrical 5Mbps upload) and I have AT&T Gigapower being installed (no idea when they will finish, for an eventual 1000/1000 connection.. So needed a router that would handle the 9XX/9XX speeds behind that gateway with Passthrough.

I glanced at the Hardware revision and it's an "A5" not sure where that falls in the line of this router.

This one setup well, easily -- made some very minor adjustments but nothing too far from stock at the moment to be fair.

I am noticing a 'few' things.

1) On wired performance it seems there *may* be some stability issues -- (I run 24/7/365 Server(s)) [Not pirating or any of that nonsense]) - And router stability is paramount for me. I merely updated to the latest firmware 2016/09/08 Release - 3.0.0.4.380.3941 - right when I pulled it out of the box.

So I'm curious if there are any 'general' "go to" configuration settings throughout the router for best stability with permanent uptime/use - and squeezing out every bit of speeds. -- Bluffer bloat reduction is nice, but it's tertiary on that list.

Is it a good idea to dump the Stock Firmware immediately and go with Merlin? Or has ASUS brought the AC88U's stock Firmware revisions up to par/speed/reliability by this point?

I'll end it there - If you need more information from me to answer I'll be happy to provide and I apologize if this question has been asked a million times.

Thanks,

 

[L&LD]

RMerlin fixes what passed under Asus' nose. Yes, I would upgrade in a heart beat.

I would also recommend doing a minimal and manual configuration of the router to secure it and connect to your ISP after you have flashed the firmware you want to use. And I would recommend doing so even if you decide to stay on the current firmware you have now.

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/no...l-and-manual-configuration.27115/#post-205573

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/rt-ac66u-slow-wan-to-lan.12973/page-3#post-269410

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/faq-nvram-and-factory-default-reset.22822/


Some of the information and recommendations is duplicated in the links above, but if you want to have the most stable and reliable network possible, do them in the proper order as suggested.

 

[Chromatic]

RMerlin fixes what passed under Asus' nose. Yes, I would upgrade in a heart beat.

I would also recommend doing a minimal and manual configuration of the router to secure it and connect to your ISP after you have flashed the firmware you want to use. And I would recommend doing so even if you decide to stay on the current firmware you have now.

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/no...l-and-manual-configuration.27115/#post-205573

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/rt-ac66u-slow-wan-to-lan.12973/page-3#post-269410

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/faq-nvram-and-factory-default-reset.22822/


Some of the information and recommendations is duplicated in the links above, but if you want to have the most stable and reliable network possible, do them in the proper order as suggested.

Thanks. Good tips. I did all of the recommended. Won't know about stability until I give it at least a few days of monitoring - but everything went smoothly and I did the 'extra' steps to ensure clear RAM/NVRAM, and other such reboot cycles, factory restore just to be on the safe side with everything.

I'm running the latest version (380.63_2) Of Asuswrt-Merlin on this AC88U and have everything 'off' by default -- not even monitoring traffic at this point. I will use some features in the future of course but I like to establish a baseline before complicating things with too many variables.

It is interesting my Iphone 6S is the fastest device on the network lol. In speed tests the Iphone 6S hits a regular 352Mbps while all wired connections (running Cat 5e or Cat 6) run 330-340 (No big deal obviously) but the 5Ghz on this router is outstanding.

The *real* test on WAN-LAN and LAN-NIC speeds come when they finally come back and finish the GPON FTTH (Gigapower) 1000Mbps/1000Mbps connection - I know other people have pushed the full speed which is typically 940ish (give or take) Mbps both up and down.

I suppose to leave here with another question -- What do you guys think about the "Game Boost" feature(s) ? IE: The WTFast -- apparently lifetime for one device.. which I assume is just a VPN of some sort to re-route you with a better latency for particular game (game servers). Does it actually work? For example -- I play War Thunder (Russian game) - and my ping is awful in that game -- Swings around 70-100ms so would be handy for that service/game. Rocket League is another that is latency sensitive where I run 50-60ms on East Coast servers - and have a lot of friends who are in the UK so some routing may could help there if it works?

Latency I'll get to say a speedtest 150 Miles away is ~19ms or so -- Though obviously not uncommon for a 60ms latency to a random website with a tracert. Although , again, the AT&T fiber connection will drop the latency likely sub 10ms -- often it's 1-3ms to speedtest servers so can do the math from there.. knocking off ~20ms latency to most places conservatively. But that's another topic -- Wish someone in here had some sort of 'connection' to finding out when they plan on coming BACK to a neighborhood they started a long time ago to finish their Gigapower work. Trying to find answers about just when the heck they are coming back is like finding out national secrets from the CIA/NSA/DOD with AT&T - I swear. I know they wont' tell you WHERE they are going to deploy next, but in neighborhoods they are already actively deploying in I don't see why they couldn't relay a 'general' timeline of when they expect to finish the construction. Off topic a bit there -- but hey maybe someone works for AT&T or knows someone etc. (If you guys have any Gigapower/Fiber questions I've become a bit of an expert in that department.)

Lastly,.. any other settings I can safely turn 'on' for monitoring or beneficial use without affecting reliability, etc?

Appreciate the help!