After years of buying garbage residential routers (all of which died after ~6-9 months), I finally wised up and got a "good" router. At the time I decided on the Asus AC68U. That was five years ago. A couple years in, the 5Ghz antenna died, but I frankly didn't care, because I don't need bleeding fast speeds, I just need reliable connectivity, so I fell back on the 2.4Ghz antenna. At some point, I installed Asuswrt-Merlin to automate some things, and I need those things to keep working, one of them being a PPTP VPN connection (yes, I know... I'm using PPTP for a reason, though).
Anyway, I have two hardline devices (TV and work laptop) and a dozen or so WiFi devices (laptops, tablets, phones, etc). I do casual gaming on one of the WiFi-connected laptops. Over the last few months, I've been having occasional issues with stuttering or severe latency issues, forcing me to restart the router. Then, more recently, even my hardline devices showed issues with connectivity or latency. So, I think it may be time to get a replacement.
My first inclination was to just buy another AC68U, since this one lasted five years (minus the 5GHz antenna going out), but it looks like that model is getting old and I'm concerned it will be harder to find a new (not refurbished) one, or that Asuswrt-Merlin will stop supporting it (as it is listed in the "older platform" list of their supported devices). So, I looked around for other options. My main criteria is that it absolutely must support Asuswrt-Merlin and that it must be reliable and long-lasting. I'm not looking to spend 300 bucks for this and I don't care if there are faster options. I mainly want something that I won't have to be restarting 9 months from now (or even five years from now).
TL;DR... I need a router that runs reliably, lasts a long time, supports Asuswrt-Merlin, can be easily acquired new, and is in the mid-100's price range.
Here are the options I'm currently looking at:
1) Get another AC68U (see concerns above)
2) Get an AC86U. My main concern here is if it runs hot. It's a "gaming" router, and I read some concerns about overheating. Yes, it'll be faster than an AC68, but if the trade-off is having to buy an elaborate system of pulleys and fans to keep it cool, then no thank you.
3) Get an AX-3000. This came up as a good option, but Asuswrt-Merlin's website says it only supports "V1" of this model, and looking at online retailers, they don't specify which "V" they're selling, so I don't know that I'm getting the right version.
4) Get an AX68U. This one has the advantage of being "Wifi 6" (whatever the hell that means), but there have been some negative comments on this forum about this one.
Do any of these come across as a clear winner, or is there another model I should be looking at? Any help would be appreciated.
Anyway, I have two hardline devices (TV and work laptop) and a dozen or so WiFi devices (laptops, tablets, phones, etc). I do casual gaming on one of the WiFi-connected laptops. Over the last few months, I've been having occasional issues with stuttering or severe latency issues, forcing me to restart the router. Then, more recently, even my hardline devices showed issues with connectivity or latency. So, I think it may be time to get a replacement.
My first inclination was to just buy another AC68U, since this one lasted five years (minus the 5GHz antenna going out), but it looks like that model is getting old and I'm concerned it will be harder to find a new (not refurbished) one, or that Asuswrt-Merlin will stop supporting it (as it is listed in the "older platform" list of their supported devices). So, I looked around for other options. My main criteria is that it absolutely must support Asuswrt-Merlin and that it must be reliable and long-lasting. I'm not looking to spend 300 bucks for this and I don't care if there are faster options. I mainly want something that I won't have to be restarting 9 months from now (or even five years from now).
TL;DR... I need a router that runs reliably, lasts a long time, supports Asuswrt-Merlin, can be easily acquired new, and is in the mid-100's price range.
Here are the options I'm currently looking at:
1) Get another AC68U (see concerns above)
2) Get an AC86U. My main concern here is if it runs hot. It's a "gaming" router, and I read some concerns about overheating. Yes, it'll be faster than an AC68, but if the trade-off is having to buy an elaborate system of pulleys and fans to keep it cool, then no thank you.
3) Get an AX-3000. This came up as a good option, but Asuswrt-Merlin's website says it only supports "V1" of this model, and looking at online retailers, they don't specify which "V" they're selling, so I don't know that I'm getting the right version.
4) Get an AX68U. This one has the advantage of being "Wifi 6" (whatever the hell that means), but there have been some negative comments on this forum about this one.
Do any of these come across as a clear winner, or is there another model I should be looking at? Any help would be appreciated.
