Advice on a Router brand with frequest Firmware updates

[Logi]

I have the Asus RT-AC5300 and I am very disappointed of not having Firmware updates for the last 6-7 months, I would like to switch to a different brand that will put more emphasis on keeping their existing products up to date with new functionality and security fixes via Firmware updates, what would be your recommendation? Netgear, TP-Link, Linksys? I am seriously thinking on the Netgear Orbi line, thoughts? Thanks

 

[Logi]

I have the Asus RT-AC5300 and I am very disappointed of not having Firmware updates for the last 6-7 months, I would like to switch to a different brand that will put more emphasis on keeping their existing products up to date with new functionality and security fixes via Firmware updates, what would be your recommendation? Netgear, TP-Link, Linksys? I am seriously thinking on the Netgear Orbi line, thoughts? Thanks

 

[mreg376]

Netgear and Synology are good with firmware updates. Of course, the question is not how many firmware updates are released, but whether they're necessary.

 

[JDB]

Just run Merlin’s firmware which is updated regularly for security and stability whilst staying as close as possible to the stock Asus firmware.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Pierino]

Not tp-link nor linksys. I have found that asus usually releases firmware more frequently than others and supports their unit's the longest.

The rt-n66u and the wndr4500v1 were both released in 2011. The rt-n66u got a firmware in November. The wndr4500v1 was EOL years ago and is on v3 now. Totally different chipset.

 

[psychopomp1]

Personally I've found Asus routers to be the most buggy - good example being the Asus RT-AC87U, GT-AC5300 and here in the UK, the DSL-AC68U. The latter has a notorious reputation for messing up people's FTTC (vdsl2) sync rates on BT/Openreach based lines in the UK.

Of course no router is immune from bugs, but IMHO Linksys & Netgear routers seem to be the least buggy so I would recommend one of these.

 

[Razor512]

Agreed, Netgear and Synology have been good with firmware updates.

TP-link is one of the fastest to drop firmware updates, especially when they decide to come out with a V2 of a router. They are good with releasing stable routers and getting everything stable before stopping support, but it also means that you may not get security updates.
For example, the tp-link AD7200 has not had an update for over a year.


As for Netgear, their track record has shown them to release updates for many years after the product is released. e.g., the R7000 got an update on December 18, 2017. The R7800 got an update on December 13 2017.

Many of their 802.11n based routers such as the WNR3500l are also still being supported. though it is important to know that Netgear also likes to drop support for older versions of a router, e.g., the WNR3500L V1 has not had an update in a little over a year, while the WNR3500L V2 had an update on December 8, 2017.

 

[RMerlin]

I would like to switch to a different brand that will put more emphasis on keeping their existing products up to date with new functionality and security fixes via Firmware updates

Asus are actually ahead of every other competitors in that area. You just picked the wrong model for that kind of support - stick with the more mainstream models for more frequent updates. Tri-band models have always received less frequent updates than others. Their more mainstream models tend to get FW updates every 1-2 months.