Main differences between GT-AC5300 and BRT-AC828

[abagu]

I am about to buy a SOHO type router and have shortlisted : BRT-AC828 and GT-AC5300.

Based on experience, can anyone help with understanding the main differences between those two models and their value?

I'm somewhat tempted to the "business" one, just for future proofing but not sure if I would be loosing/gaining compared to GT-AC5300.

Software options and maximum control of all aspects of the traffic are most important to me

I understand both devices have 8 eth and support ethernet port aggregation of max 4 ports?

Just looking through specs now
https://www.asus.com/Gaming-Networking/ROG-Rapture-GT-AC5300/specifications/
https://www.asus.com/us/Business-Networking/BRT-AC828/specifications/
BRT seems to be older and with lower specs anddoes not have anything super special to justify the premium .. or am I missing something?

What is the difference between SmartQoS and AdaptiveQS ? Does the ROG Raptor support
- WMM
- User definable rules for IP/MAC/Port
- Upload and download bandwidth management
- ACK/SYN/FIN/RST/ICMP with highest priority
and static link aggregation ?

 

[FTC]

Hi, they are two very different animals.

The GT has only one WAN port, but it is a 3-band router. It has a faster processor and more memory.

The BRT has 2 WAN ports, but is only dual band. It has also a M2 SATA slot for storage so you can hopefully share fast storage without interference risks.

None of these routers has Merlin support as of today, and I am not really sure on which one has the most stable firmware, but in this forum there has been much more activity around the GT than around the BRT.

 

[RMerlin]

Considering Asus release maybe one or two firmware update a year for the BRT-AC828, it's hard to recommend it for business use. Security updates are taking longer for this model than from even their regular enthusiast models.

I wouldn't recommend the GT-AC5300 for a business network. Far too many features that have nothing to do with business use (that device targets gamers), for the same amount of money you could go with prosummer devices from Mikrotik, Ubiquity, OpenMesh, etc...

 

[FTC]

Hi, I tend to agree with Merlin in the above post, specially when talking about running the GT in a business environment.

Regarding the BRT firmware update frequency, there have been 6 updates in the last 12 months, but not counting the 'facebook wifi' special ones there have been really only like 4 'generation' of firmwares in the last year... not too bad but effectively lower frequency than other 'mainstream' routers. I guess it is all depending on the maturity and stability of these firmwares.... so reading a bit about users opinions would be a must in this case.

 

[abagu]

Thank you for comments.

I was wondering if there any BRT users here and have any feedback about it?

BTW, I found this nice page : https://wikidevi.com/wiki/List_of_Merlin_firmware_supported_devices ...
Special thanks to RMerlin for mentionining other producers - especially mirkotik that I have never heard about - and it got me (re)thinking my architecture and drawn to reading the RouterOS and all their documentation ... so different from what ASUS shares (other providers even less) .. https://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Main_Page .. Fascinating! The question is if and for how long will mikrotik stay in the market .. diverging from the main subject of course.

 

[umarmung]

Mikrotik is older than Netgear and a leader in the WISP market. There are still people and companies who run their original RouterBoard hardware (probably with the latest software too) to this day.

In terms of functionality and what you say you want, Mikrotik can do it all and, like Merlin stated, can almost certainly do it far cheaper or with more advanced hardware than you need.

However, Mikrotik devices are much harder to configure and even harder to get direct support than Asus for non-networking users. They are designed for professionals, especially those rolling out CPE equipment installations.

They are probably not appropriate for you unless you are searching for dedicated devices like wireless router + managed access points in which case Ubiquiti Unifi APs have better WiFi performance and more featureful solutions anyway, including QoS.

As for BRT, the Qualcomm wireless hardware in that router looks much more attractive than the GT-AC5300 and, if the Netgear R7800 and Synology RT2600ac consumer routers are anything to go by, should perform better.

Usually, if you can afford this type of standalone device for SOHO or business use, then you should be prepared to create a testlab to match it for your needs, then return it if it does not work.

 

[abagu]

Mikrotik is older than Netgear and a leader in the WISP market. [..]

They are probably not appropriate for you [...]

Yes. Exactly. What I gathered from reading. It is the question of balance, how much effort and learning can I devote (and risk messing things up by myself or an admin), versus power/flexibility available and trust the manufacturers firmware and software. Mikrotik looks to me like a "stick to the knitting" company (just an impression). But seeing their products available is fascinating ... and tempting.

I really appreciate all your advices umarmung, FTC and RMerlin. Thanks!

 

[RMerlin]

Another possibility is going down the DIY route, with something like a Qotom PC and a software suite like pfsense/IPFire/SophosXG/etc... It might provide you with something less scary to manage than Mikrotik/Ubiquity. Nice thing is you can even actually try out these software options inside a virtual machine to evaluate them first.

Personally, for most of my customers who just need basic NAT + VPN, I stick to the RT-AC66U_B1. Frequently updated by Asus, very reasonably priced. Just make sure to disable some of the less secure features like AiCloud. Your average 5-25 employees business typically won't need advanced ACL or IPS/IDS.

 

[abagu]

Thank you. I bought RT-AC66U B1 to start with and now am exploring all of its options (security main concern). Once I'm confident with what is possible and what needs arise I will extend the network architecture in the future or change to other routers. This seems to fit the bill for now.