dlandiss
Very Senior Member
Wow. I saw a price drop on the AC86 and jumped on it. It replaces an AC68U as the gateway router in a 3 story brick house built in 1902 (think: big rooms, thick walls).
The top download speed is still limited by my ISP, of course (Spectrum, paying for 200Mbps, getting 230). But the speeds available at different corners of the house are vastly improved. Same locations measured for both routers, 4 tests on 5GHz at each location.
The range of download speeds at location A was 5.0 to 74Mbps with the AC68, 124 to 168Mbps with the AC86.
The range of download speeds at location B was 0.6 to 27Mbps with the AC68, 43 to 115Mbps with the AC86.
The range of download speeds at location C was 4.5 to 22Mbps with the AC68, 32 to 100Mbps with the AC86.
Long live the AC86!
The top download speed is still limited by my ISP, of course (Spectrum, paying for 200Mbps, getting 230). But the speeds available at different corners of the house are vastly improved. Same locations measured for both routers, 4 tests on 5GHz at each location.
The range of download speeds at location A was 5.0 to 74Mbps with the AC68, 124 to 168Mbps with the AC86.
The range of download speeds at location B was 0.6 to 27Mbps with the AC68, 43 to 115Mbps with the AC86.
The range of download speeds at location C was 4.5 to 22Mbps with the AC68, 32 to 100Mbps with the AC86.
Long live the AC86!