I have a newbie question regarding the ASUS AC56U.
Background: Thinking of getting ASUS N66U, vs AC router. Will buy Phone (AC) and Laptop (AC) within the next 4 months.
Question:
1. Can I just buy the ASUS AC56U for the same $, and then just run a 5ghz N network on one band, and N/g/b on the other?
2. Are there still the interference errors with the USB3 Port on these routers and the 2.4ghz wireless band?
Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!
I have first hand experience with both of these routers, and yes - you can utilize either of them to support 5GHz n and 2.4Ghz b/g/n clients. Of the two routers you asked about, only the AC56U supports USB 3.0. I haven't experienced any noticeable interference problems with my AC56U connected to a Samsung USB 3.0 HDD.
I had the N66U for around a year, and it worked great. But then a few months ago, my mother needed a new router because she bought an iPad and was unable to connect to her ancient 802.11g router from her bedroom (her router couldn't be easily relocated).
So, being the loving son that I am, I sold her my trusty N66U and took the opportunity to upgrade myself to a new AC router (a decision I regret). Although the AC56U is a solid router, it simply doesn't have the range that my N66U did. I somewhat expected this due to the AC56U's internal antennas, but it's worse than I anticipated, and has been causing me coverage issues in a few areas where the N66U previously had no issues. The AC56U's 5 GHz coverage is pretty close to the N66U's - it's mainly the 2.4 GHz band that seems to be substantially weaker.
So, my simple advice would be to choose the N66U if range is your highest priority, or choose the AC56U if USB 3.0 and 'future proofing' are more important. I haven't tested an AC client yet, so it's possible that an AC client with full support for 802.11ac beamforming might help with coverage issues, but based on the test results for the AC56U here on SNB, I'm not expecting much more.
If you can spring for it, the new AC68U or Netgear R7000 might give you the best of both worlds (though it remains to be seen just how widespread the AC68U's reported USB 3.0 interference issues are, and whether they can be solved with a simple FW upgrade).
In the end, I decided to sell the AC56U and ordered the R7000 (only $179 on Newegg last week). I figured the extra $$ is worth it for something I probably won't replace for another 5 years. YMMV.
Good luck!
