ASUS RT-AC86U Dual Band AC2900 Wireless Router Reviewed

That's odd. My own WD My Passport Ultra works fine here, it's what I used for my own tests. Have you disabled the USB 3.0 interference option? I believe Asus still keeps that enabled by default, because they want wireless performance to be favored over disk throughput.

 

Pretty fascinating that the 86U beat the 7800 on router ranker. When I look at the performance scores, the 7800 whoomps the 86U. I guess the poor HTTP and bufferbloat scores for the 7800 pull it below the 86U despite the much better wireless performance of the 7800?

 

I tested the new Broadcom Dynamic QoS profile on the R8500 during a recent UI test, it’s definitely better than the Qualcomm’s Streamboost now in DSL reports Speedtest in terms of bufferbloat and overall latency. Wireless wise I guess it’s expected the R7800 would do well considering it’s a 4x4 unit compared to a 3x3 unit with the 86U, not that the latter was a slouch by any means.

 

Hey I'm not seeing my Synology AC2600 router in these router comparisons anymore, like it used to be #1 at one point, has it been kicked to the curb now in favor of these newer routers?

 

It was tested using the Revision 9 Test Method.

https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-reviews/33075-synology-rt2600ac-router-reviewed

 

I have to say surprised by the results too. The R7800 comes in at #3 with better performance scores, yet price wise in the UK the RT-AC86U will retail around £199 compared with the R7800 at £159 on Amazon at this time making for myself the R7800 the better unit at this time.

 

I meant latency under load specifically upload, with VDSL2 on CenturyLink 40/5 (36/4.5 actual) upload latency can hit 390-490ms and sometimes 1000+ ms without QoS. QoS can get me between 25-40 ms.

 

It forces devices to negotiate USB 2.0 protocol. I've seen various USB devices that didn't like it, and would fail to be recognized when doing that. Another reason why I believe Asus should really default this setting to be disabled by default.

 

The problem isn't with plugging the USB3 disk to a USB2 port, the problem lies in the dirty hack Asus uses to force the downgrade to USB2. The problem is specific to Asus (no other vendor implements the same hack AFAIK).

 

Bufferbloat is also typically a combination of multiple factors. Some cablemodems are pretty bad there, regardless of the router used. Computer NICs as well, some are very aggressive in their buffering.

 

Those numbers are in line with my own tests here with the stock firmware.

 

FWIW - Bufferbloat is vastly overstated, and increased bandwidth offerings from the ISP's has helped, along with tweaks in the QoS from vendors does assist in solving that problem.

As mentioned in the thread - most of the bufferbloat issues these days are at the ISP level, not the edge where reviewed devices exist.