Best router on the market? current using R7800 and AC86U

[droople]

Hi there,

I'm using R7800 and AC86U for around 4 years, and thinking about changing them, the R7800 starts to lost signals.
I checked the front-page and found that R7800 still rank the 1st, and forum said it not necessary mean the best on the market.
So I'm just wondering that can recommendation, I still prefer NETGEAR and ASUS.

Regards

 

[Hawk]

Hi there,

I'm using R7800 and AC86U for around 4 years, and thinking about changing them, the R7800 starts to lost signals.
I checked the front-page and found that R7800 still rank the 1st, and forum said it not necessary mean the best on the market.
So I'm just wondering that can recommendation, I still prefer NETGEAR and ASUS.

Regards

Recommendation on main page is outdated, since it's review many things have changed including new models. Regarding current routers Ac86u is better over R7800, you can also look at rt-ax86u, rt-ax88u, rtax92u and see what you like. If undecided, you can post about it and get community opinion as well.

 

[droople]

Recommendation on main page is outdated, since it's review many things have changed including new models. Regarding current routers Ac86u is better over R7800, you can also look at rt-ax86u, rt-ax88u, rtax92u and see what you like. If undecided, you can post about it and get community opinion as well.

Hi Hawk, thank you very much. I'm surprised that AC86U is better over R7800 since they are both tested on the main page.
And it seems that no NETGEAR worth to buy after R7800?

I will do some research on rt-ax86u, rt-ax88u, rt-ax92u to see what the differences they have.

I'm looking for stable signal in a heavy interference environment.

Cheers

 

[L&LD]

Great time to promote Wi-Fi 5.

 

[L&LD]

You're welcome to continue living in the 2013 timeline that Wi-Fi 5 was made available to the world.

Recommending Wi-Fi 5 products today while ignoring the benefits Wi-Fi 6 (and the new baby Wi-Fi 6E) offers is just hiding your head in the technological sand. All 'classes' of Wi-Fi can be headaches, depending on the network environment. Older tech won't magically cure anything. And in many cases, it makes matters worse too (being a shared medium, the faster things happen the less congestion possible too).

Wi-Fi is nowhere near 'mature and stable' enough, yet. Any version of it. If it were, these boards would not exist. Wi-Fi is always in a continually evolving state where your best bet is to match the available hardware to your current client devices, network needs, network (Wi-Fi) environment, and budget.

What the latest standards do though, is give the varied devices most of us have on our networks the best chance today to use them as fully as possible with the least issues.

It has taken a long time for Wi-Fi 6 to become a viable alternative to Wi-Fi 5. But that day has long been passed.

Is Wi-Fi 6 Worth It

In 2024, I do not care what number of Wi-Fi we're on. I just hope to see the same kind of improvements then too from where we are today. If 5G is anything to strive towards, Wi-Fi is due for a re-imagining very soon, if it is to remain competitive at any level. That kind of carrot-on-a-stick is what allows me to 'know' that Wi-Fi never stands still. Even when all or the majority of your client devices are on the previous wireless 'class', the new routers still offer improvements for them too (as the articles by @thiggins have shown).

Any network, regardless of ISP paid for speeds, sees an improvement on AX class equipment today. My customers tell me so and I see it in my own network too. Whether that is worth it for you, or if you can even appreciate the benefits it offers is another story.

The best part of 'AX class equipment' is that today it is available for the same or less (with sales, etc.) than the outdated and inferior AC class 'kings' of yesterday. To those that want the best wireless possible.

Of course, that is not to say to throw out perfectly good/working equipment to get the latest and greatest. Rather, if buying network equipment today, buying old tech is less rational than it may first seem. Particularly when the amount of money spent is the same. Buying old technology is the equivalent of insurance without the need for it in the first place.

In the end, there is only one call to make. Either the new tech enhances your network, or it doesn't. But sticking with just the old tech, you will never know.

 

[avtella]

Hi Hawk, thank you very much. I'm surprised that AC86U is better over R7800 since they are both tested on the main page.
And it seems that no NETGEAR worth to buy after R7800?

I will do some research on rt-ax86u, rt-ax88u, rt-ax92u to see what the differences they have.

I'm looking for stable signal in a heavy interference environment.

Cheers

Depends, WiFi side of things the R7800 is superior performance and range wise to the AC86U and has a more mature chipset where things like MU-MIMO actually work in a desirable fashion. Aside from that it’s seems to be one of the preferred AC routers for OpenWRT as its Qualcomm based. AC86U on the other hand has AES acceleration so it has better VPN performance and additionally it has better storage performance.

Current AX models will have much better CPUs for VPN and storage performance, also more mature on the AC (WiFi-5) side of things, aside from WiFi 6. With AX expect ~10-20% gain on 5Ghz in ideal conditions as 1024 QAM is much more sensitive to noise. Bigger gain is on 2.4 GHz where it almost doubles over N. So a WiFi 6 model gives you the flexibility to take advantage of newer clients.

Overall though I agree with L&LD, it may be better to get an AX router now as some of the current models have been out long enough to get over the initial firmware bugs and reliability issues, at least most of them. With some of the previous AC models at the tail end of their support life and soon you may not get as frequent updates (ie QoS databases, minor bugs fixes, security fixes etc). Especially with work from home go with something that’s got a decent life a head of it but somewhat matured if upgrading ie get one 6 months to more preferably a year old rather than something just released like a month or two ago unless you want to be essentially paying higher prices to beta test and also face the ire of your family/work for issues .

 

[BreakingDad]

I just got an rt-ax86u, it's performing very well.

 

[ChrisF60526]

L&LD. Curious would recommend any wifi 6 router over a top-performing wifi 5 router like the AC88U?

Just curious if the play today is any wifi 6 router or high end wifi 5

 

[L&LD]

Any Wi-Fi 6 class router? No, definitely not.

Any Asus/RMerlin supported AX class router that accounts for and fully addresses the networks' and users' needs? Yes.

When the price is competitive with AC class routers there is no reason to choose the AC models anymore. Even when they're slightly more expensive and you're expecting to keep the router as long as possible too.

AX class, Wi-Fi 6 routers, must be compatible with all previous Wi-Fi classes. Being the latest usually makes them also the best for the older class client devices too (because of optimized RF designs).

At least when shopping above the bargain basement and midrange classes, I find all the above to be true. (And Asus isn't a bargain-basement brand at all, in the consumer router market).

There never was any high-end Wi-Fi 5 router in the consumer space. Except for possibly the RT-AC3100 which had an exceptional range for the many customers I installed them for.

Today's networks are not just about range though. With AiMesh (yes, I took a while to see and appreciate this next point too), the focus is more about solid coverage with remarkably high to excellent speeds throughout the home (i.e. maximizing the ISP speeds, that you're paying for, on the higher end plans).

The true high-end routers are finally coming (this summer?) with Wi-Fi 6E.

True Tri-Band, Tri-Radio, with simultaneous, concurrent, and fully independent wireless in the 2.5GHz, 5.0GHz, and 6.0GHz bands will make all current routers look as old as the 'B' class routers of 1999, in due time. When a router with sufficient resources (CPU, RAM, 12x antennae, greater than 1GbE Ports, etc.) with these attributes' surfaces along with RMerlin support, I want to be able to test it asap for myself and my customers too. I have little doubt that the 2x RT-AX86U's I have today will be sold the next day. And I have my laptop with an AXE (Intel AX210) Wi-Fi adaptor card already installed.

 

[droople]

Depends, WiFi side of things the R7800 is superior performance and range wise to the AC86U and has a more mature chipset where things like MU-MIMO actually work in a desirable fashion. Aside from that it’s seems to be one of the preferred AC routers for OpenWRT as its Qualcomm based. AC86U on the other hand has AES acceleration so it has better VPN performance and additionally it has better storage performance.

Current AX models will have much better CPUs for VPN and storage performance, also more mature on the AC (WiFi-5) side of things, aside from WiFi 6. With AX expect ~10-20% gain on 5Ghz in ideal conditions as 1024 QAM is much more sensitive to noise. Bigger gain is on 2.4 GHz where it almost doubles over N. So a WiFi 6 model gives you the flexibility to take advantage of newer clients.

Overall though I agree with L&LD, it may be better to get an AX router now as some of the current models have been out long enough to get over the initial firmware bugs and reliability issues, at least most of them. With some of the previous AC models at the tail end of their support life and soon you may not get as frequent updates (ie QoS databases, minor bugs fixes, security fixes etc). Especially with work from home go with something that’s got a decent life a head of it but somewhat matured if upgrading ie get one 6 months to more preferably a year old rather than something just released like a month or two ago unless you want to be essentially paying higher prices to beta test and also face the ire of your family/work for issues .

Thank you Avtella, I think I'll get a RT-AX88U for its 2.4Ghz