ASUS RT-BE58U

[TheLostSwede]

Looks like Asus has a proper "budget" WiFi 7 router as well. Barely any tech specs so far, but it only has one 2.5 Gbps port and it's a 2x2 dual band device.
It could've been a two antenna router.

RT-BE58U｜WiFi 7｜ASUS Global

Dual band WiFi 7 router with speeds of up to 7200 Mbps. Dual 10G ports, Quad 2.5G ports and Quad Gigabit ports. Quad-core 2.6GHz CPU. Backup WAN, Subscription-free network security and comprehensive

www.asus.com

 

[sfx2000]

Looks like Asus has a proper "budget" WiFi 7 router as well. Barely any tech specs so far, but it only has one 2.5 Gbps port and it's a 2x2 dual band device.
It could've been a two antenna router.

That's neat - wonder what the retail price would be - I have a good idea of the COGS, which is likely sub $100USD, but the MSP is a different thing as we know...

If they offer this up as $129.00 USD - they would have an absolute winner on their hands, IMHO...

 

[Deleted member 77025]

$199

ASUS Wi-Fi 7 Hardware Expands to Fit All Budgets | Dong Knows Tech

ASUS Wi-Fi 7 hardware just expands to include enough options to fit all budgets. All set to be available soon.

dongknows.com

 

[L&LD]

WiFi 7 'hardware' with no 6GHz band? 2x2:2 RF?

100% $199 down the drain.

 

[TheLostSwede]

$199

ASUS Wi-Fi 7 Hardware Expands to Fit All Budgets | Dong Knows Tech

ASUS Wi-Fi 7 hardware just expands to include enough options to fit all budgets. All set to be available soon.

dongknows.com

That's pretty much what I paid for my GT-AX6000...
No way I would trade it for this POS.

 

[Tech9]

Total rip off price. I believe @jixiangyuan reported TUF-BE3600 in China is $75 and TUF-BE6500 is $120. US price $230 and $280... sure.

 

[jixiangyuan]

Total rip off price. I believe @jixiangyuan reported TUF-BE3600 in China is $75 and TUF-BE6500 is $120. US price $230 and $280... sure.

It’s because competition in China is fierce. The Xiaomi BE3600 (with Qualcomm IPQ5312, Quad core A53 at 1.1GHz) only costs 31.6 USD (after tax) as of today. So the TUF-BE3600 is actually a lot more expensive than its competitors.

There are also products from ZTE, Huawei, HC3, and TP-Link (models from TP-Link are different from those released in the west). However, I wouldn’t recommend anyone buying from them (especially Huawei), as they are all state-controlled enterprises.

 

[Tech9]

We have only greed-controlled enterprises here.

 

[jixiangyuan]

We have only greed-controlled enterprises here.

Capitalism at its finest

 

[Tech9]

Imagine the cost of hardware inside. We mostly pay for high-end marketing.

 

[jixiangyuan]

We have only greed-controlled enterprises here.

But honestly, some of the American router & IoT companies are way too greedy, Netgear for example. Their Orbi and Nighthawk are way overpriced for it's performance & design. They also want to charge you a subscription fee for the security feature...

 

[Tech9]

Because it's easy on this market. People here call interior designer for a table and four chairs. Can't figure it out themselves where to put them.

 

[jixiangyuan]

Because it's easy on this market. People here call interior designer for a table and four chairs. Can't figure it out themselves where to put them.

Alright

 

[vitasonline]

Is a modified firmware expected for BE58U ?

 

[Tech9]

Is a modified firmware expected for BE58U ?

If you are asking about Asuswrt-Merlin support - unlikely to happen any time soon.

 

[Rossmon]

Picked up for $139 on Amazon. Seemed a good price for my need to replace an older Asus 5300 in my 2 router mesh setup. No need for wifi 7. My devices all wifi 6 but future proofed.
GT-AX6000 is the main router with its 2, 2.5 ports. One goes to the 10gb fibre modem and the other goes to the old Asus rt-ac5300. The 5300 in my garage just doesn’t have the oomph to get thru 2 walls into a nearby master bedroom. Of course, no support for wifi6 either. Hoping this router will beef up connectivity from barely 2 bars to something better along with more speed. If not, can always return it. The first post in this thread said $129 would be great pricing and at $139 w/free shipping, close enough! Arrives Tuesday 1/14!

 

[Rossmon]

Picked up for $139 on Amazon. Seemed a good price for my need to replace an older Asus 5300 in my 2 router mesh setup. No need for wifi 7. My devices all wifi 6 but future proofed.
GT-AX6000 is the main router with its 2, 2.5 ports. One goes to the 10gb fibre modem and the other goes to the old Asus rt-ac5300. The 5300 in my garage just doesn’t have the oomph to get thru 2 walls into a nearby master bedroom. Of course, no support for wifi6 either. Hoping this router will beef up connectivity from barely 2 bars to something better along with more speed. If not, can always return it. The first post in this thread said $129 would be great pricing and at $139 w/free shipping, close enough! Arrives Tuesday 1/14!

I installed this router as a extension node and its boxed up for return today!
First, if looks are accurate, this looks like a router for your bathroom, so you can use your apple watch in the bathtub or shower! Its that small, crappy and dinky looking.
The job is to go thru the thin plywood on 2x4 wall of my garage about 10’ and thru the frenchdoors/wall of my wood framed home. Its mounted high right near the thin garage wall. There was no strengthening of the signal over the rt5300 and speedtest results were faster! If it couldn’t outperform my 5 or 7 year old hi end router, not worth even $79 let alone the $154 i paid including tax. So back to the drawing board for an asus with a solid 3bar connection all over my bedroom with wifi6 at a reasonable price!

 

[maxbraketorque]

On the US Amazon site, the BE58U is among the highest rated ASUS routers. Only 7% 1-star reviews and 74% 5-star reviews. I think this beats all current ASUS BE routers. Whether it makes sense to purchase is another story. Currently $98 on US Amazon. Next cheapest ASUS BE is the BE86U going for $208. BE86U definitely going to be a higher performing product, likely with a significantly longer support period.

 

[GravitationalHorse]

I got the BE58U on the 22nd at Microcenter for 99 and have been using it since then. It replaced an old TP-link router that I got used roughly 4-5 years ago. I put it in WPA3 only mode since all devices support it. There probably won't be any wifi 7 devices around here for a few years at least, so MLO has been left off therefore I can't speak on how well that works. The range is very good for me but that isn't much of a challenge considering it only has to serve a 750 sqft apartment and is located centrally. The signal is just as good across the wall in the bedroom as it is here in the living/dining rooms.

I don't use any of the added features that the router comes with except for trying out VPN Fusion. Configuring it was a little bit confusing but only because of DNS settings. I had to leave DNS in the LAN section set blank, and set a DNS in the WAN section as to not use the ISP DNS server for any devices not connected to the VPN. I'm not sure if it specifically needs to be this way, I figured it out by trial and error since the guide for Asus routers from my VPN provider is outdated and is clearly based on an older Asus interface. I wasn't sure if I was going to use this feature, but so far with a Wireshark profile it is nearly as fast as it is without the VPN (300 Mbps internet), and for the few days its been running its been very stable with no noticable huccups. There has been no DNS leakage as far as ipleak.net is concerned (after I figured out I had to set non-VPN DNS in the WAN tab instead of LAN), but it would be nice if Asus put in a kill-switch option to block traffic not coming from the VPN.

Microcenter also had the BE82U on sale for 140 but I decided against it because from what I can tell, the BE58U and BE82U are the same aside from the extra 2.5G ports and the 4x4 wifi on the latter. Same CPU and memory, same features otherwise as far as I can tell. There will rarely be a time when more than 5 devices connect over wifi and there are only 2 wired devices connected that don't need 2.5G at all, so I figured the $40 is better saved. One last thing, IPv6 actually works on this router whereas it failed to get an address on the old TP-link. Enabling it doesn't mean anything to me, but it's nice that it works. The VPN seems to handle it well too and is able to connect via IPv6 with no DNS leaks, same as with IPv4.

I'm not sure why there are multiple places to set different DNS setting (WAN tab, WAN tab with DNSSEC, and LAN tab), that doesn't really make any sense to me why they aren't all in one spot but whatever. Aside from that and the lack of a VPN kill-switch this thing is nice and hopefully lasts 5+ years.

Edit: Had the thought to test the new router by trying to use the wifi from my parking spot about 100ft away from the front of the building. The router is about 15-20 ft from the door. The old router would usually connect from where I park but not be usable. The new router seems usable from that distance and speed tested at 96Mbps. That's with the VPN running on the router side.

 

[maxbraketorque]

I guess I'll toss out the comment that the now least expensive router with Merlin support is the RT-BE58_Go.