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Replacing 87U - Need help

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deliverer

Occasional Visitor
I'm done with my 87U router. After a little over a year, I'm tired of the wireless dropping constantly on the 5Ghz channel and sometimes the 2.4Ghz. I'm tired of the router locking up randomly. I'm tired of Xbox lag. I'm tired of trying various versions of firmware, Asus, Merlin, DDWRT; none of them providing reliable connectivity. I'm currently running Asus firmware build 9460 with none of the advance features like QOS, AI protection, traffic analyzer, file server enabled. I'm tired of the rebooting the router nightly and it still having issues. I just want something that works with decent coverage.

What do I get next? My plan is to leave the 87U in line, but just to connect to my TWC modem. Current provisioned speed is 300/25. I have a two story house, with approximately 30 clients on the network at any given time; 20 wireless / 10 hard wired.

I'm looking at any and all options. Maybe Asus is not the answer? I like the idea of the smart connect features of the 5300/3200, but it looks like people are getting disconnects with that feature. Do I go for an 88U? Do I go with two 68U's / 88U's, one for each story? The new router(s) would run in AP mode only unless I should replace the 87U as well.

If I did go with two 68U's/88U's, both sharing the same SSID's, are the clients smart enough to connect to the least congested router? Both routers would have ethernet connectivity back to the 87U.

My goal is to have reliable wireless connectivity with good coverage and no lag with xbox one. Cost is always a factor, but I'm willing to spend money to make it right.

I'm so pissed off at Asus at this point, I question buying any of their products, but I do believe the 87U is just a flawed product.

Any advice is appreciated.
 
I've used several 68's, an 87 and I just placed an order for an 88 this weekend. My best advice is not to give up on ASUS, because they make some really solid routers. The 87 was an unfortunate blip due to a myriad of issues with the 5 Ghz chip from Quantenna. Both the 68 and the 88 have the broadcom chips and should be rock solid. In fact, I have my old 68 back in service until my 88 gets here.

As for the rest, is your home newer or older and where would you place said router? My parent's have a 68 at one corner of the house on the top floor and their entertainment center is on the opposite side of the house in the basement, through support beams, and several rooms. The signal wasn't very good, so I had to supplement it with a second access point via a powerline adapter (my dad wasn't keen on running ethernet cable). It alleviated all their issues with no problem.

You definitely can have two access points with the same name and the device will just use the strongest signal. However, if you leave the 87 in place, that will be your router and the 68's will need to be in AP mode.

That said, since you said 20 wireless devices (assuming they are all 5 Ghz) I think either the 68 or the 88 should be fine, assuming it is placed right.
 
Did you try the john9527's or hggomes forks with a full reset to factory defaults?
 
You are right, ASUS has to be shamed from this. I'm very dissapointed from this model router. Aslo this product cost 200 EUR in Europe.. I still expecting Merlin to resolve most the problems but my next router will be netgear or linksys. I can't imagine that Asus made some product that doesn't work as they promised. They have to think about some replacment for new model because the customers are not responsible for thier faults.
 
So according to experts at the forum everyone mainstream buyers Asus routers should have knowledge of several resets and other tricks..
Would not it be better if E-sus has already implemented to the routers a few buttons. Everyone has to do some kind of reset. hggomes reset, easy everyday reset, panic reset, merlin reset, asus official reset,..-)))
my asus history 68, now 87 and need upgrade same as deliverer.
configuration my home network is on my previous post.
th
 
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There is only one reset necessary for Asus routers. Extra buttons not needed. ;)

The Quantenna chipset that the RT-AC87U uses is the issue for some users of this model. Certainly not a problem for all users of this model though (just the minority being very vocal).

I'm sure Asus is ashamed of this turn of events. But they are to be commended for continuing to try to deliver a product that will work well for everyone.

As Tim often says of users that jump to become beta testers (or even alpha testers) of the latest routers; why?

Anyone who has persevered this long with an RT-AC87U while it is still giving them issues in their environment does not have Asus to blame, imo. They need to share some of that blame themselves.
 
There is only one reset necessary for Asus routers. Extra buttons not needed. ;)

The Quantenna chipset that the RT-AC87U uses is the issue for some users of this model. Certainly not a problem for all users of this model though (just the minority being very vocal).

I'm sure Asus is ashamed of this turn of events. But they are to be commended for continuing to try to deliver a product that will work well for everyone.

As Tim often says of users that jump to become beta testers (or even alpha testers) of the latest routers; why?

Anyone who has persevered this long with an RT-AC87U while it is still giving them issues in their environment does not have Asus to blame, imo. They need to share some of that blame themselves.

I don't know if I agree with the blame. I only found the forums after I started having issues. It looked like improvements were being made so I stuck with it. I'm done now. I do resets between upgrades using

mtd-erase2 nvram
 
I don't know if I agree with the blame. I only found the forums after I started having issues. It looked like improvements were being made so I stuck with it. I'm done now. I do resets between upgrades using

mtd-erase2 nvram


I try my best to 'break' any new product I am testing within the return period. If a product shows any questionable issues or behaviors, it is returned.

If I decide to keep it, knowing something was amiss, I am taking at least part of the responsibility of it working or not in my environment. Regardless of how many promises or other indicators there may be of the manufacturer 'making it right' for me sometime in the future.

The reset you are doing may be enough, but I would recommend the following.

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/no...l-and-manual-configuration.27115/#post-205573
 

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