Just bought RT-AC5300 - Need most Stable Firmware - ASUS or Merlin

[Merlyan]

Guys I am a long time user of the AC1900P with Merlin firmware.

I was able to get a hold of a brand new in the box RT-AC5300 for $199 on BF. I Plan to give this to my brother for his Wifi setup and he is a pretty simple guy that games, watches TV and uses his cellphone.

The problem is I have read nothing but negative reviews and experiences with this model and the GT version as well. Should I keep the stock firmware(I hear this unit auto updates firmware) or Update to the latest Asus firmware to fix some of it's serious problems like the WiFi 2.4 or 5ghz constantly dropping out.

The next option of course is flashing the unit to Merlin firmware. Did Merlin's firmware fix many of the stability issues with this model?

Please any help would be greatly;y appreciated. I tried using the search but mostly what came up was the GT-5300 and all it's problems, plus it doesn't support Merlin.

 

[JDB]

I run 2 AC5300’s on stock fw now as AiMesh router/nodes and have zero issues.
My previous setup had 1x of them as the main router running Merlin, also zero issues.

I would always go with Merlin as it has so many extra features/fixes over stock. But as for stability both are fine in my experience.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jerry6]

Merlin ben running it for years latest for 3200 been running non syop 4 months with not one rebioot , super stable

 

[Merlyan]

Glad to hear boys. I was a bit worried cause when I did some further research alot of people were saying it's a junk router and ASUS gave up on promised features. Or maybe many people were referring to the GT/ROG version of the router which was an epic failure.

 

[Merlyan]

Are there any Guides for the AC5300. It see,s there is a bunch of things that need to be set up correct for this router to function correctly like don't use tri band on all 3 channels, don't use certain freq etc...

ANyone that owns this router could you please list a few of the do's and do not's or link me to a basic guide.

 

[JDB]

Did you search!?
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/rt-ac5300-performance-security-guide.45710/

 

[Merlyan]

Did you search!?
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/rt-ac5300-performance-security-guide.45710/

I did but I somehow ended up in a thread about Smart connect profiles. Thank you for the link, I am coming from a AC1900P

PS: Are you kidding me, you own all those routers? 2x 5300's and a 86U.