Rt-n66u, rt-ac56u, rt-ac66u, rt-ac68u

[DavidinSA]

Which is more stable?
I have an old WRT54GS that i want to replace.
Have been an ASUS fan for a long time and have followed and respected this board for many years I am very concerned about purchasing any of these due to the stability issues that appear to be present.

I currently have wired access points to every room in the house and all devices except the phones.
Would like to be able to go into backyard and use wifi. Willing to purchase a range extender, etc to get that if needed.
Want to share a printer and files among the different clients.
Will be purchasing a Synology NAS in the next 6 months.
I am willing to upgrade routers in a year or so if needed.

Just want at least a N standard router for now that is stable with some modern home capabilities.
I am even willing to consider a Linksys or Netgear router.

Any thoughts?

 

[chrisinsocalif]

If you get a new router, use the wrt54gs as a repeater using DD-wrt to extend your network to your backyard.

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[Asmodian]

I have had the best wifi performance and stability with the RT-AC68U vs my previous RT-AC66U and RT-N53. Range is the biggest difference, wifi is now usable in places where it used to not be.

I did have some trouble with the early firmwares but Asus seems to have sorted my issues out at least. Long term stability is still a question in my mind, I haven't had the 68U for long enough to have it up for months without rebooting.

A caveat: I am only using fairly new and common wireless devices (Ipad air, Ipad 3, Samsung GS4, and a 2013 ivy bridge Dell laptop (intel wifi). No issues reported by others either. I also turned off hardware acceleration as I don't need it for my 50d/10u Mbps connection (Comcast won't give me any better at any price ) and there seems to be something wrong with it at the moment (the NAT issues at least).

 

[RogerSC]

I'd recommend the RT-N66U. RMerlin's "SDK5" firmware for it is very stable for me, and it covers my house on both 2.4GHz. and 5GHz wireless bands. I find it very capable and robust for both wired and wireless-n use, and a solid piece of hardware. Really love mine, and have gotten a lot of use out of. Have not been able to brick it, ever *smile*.

I also have the RT-N56U, and cannot recommend that if you anticipate using 5GHz. for streaming media or video. I would definitely recommend the RT-N66U over it.

If you get into the Asus wireless-ac routers (rt-ac56u, rt-ac66u, rt-ac68u), you'll be paying to have wireless-ac, which is not what you've said that you are looking for at the moment.

You can also use the router ranker here on smallnetbuilder to compare these routers for yourself.

 

[DavidinSA]

Thank you for the replies.
With my background in R&D, I normally can see a fairly clear best chance item to purchase. Just doesn't seem that way with the current market of routers right now.
All seem to have about the same percent of issues, just different ones.
I may just have to take a SWAG and purchase one or more to try out for awhile.
Thanks
David

 

[canuckle]

I've seen WAG but not SWAG, what's the S?


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[DaveMishSr]

I have never used the AC56U so I cannot comment on its performance and/or stability. However, of the other three the AC68U has given me the best performance now that firmware version 374.339 has been released. My TrendNET TEW-680 HD Media Bridges are connecting at twice the rate that they did before. Now that could be due to tweaking with my settings and I think that switching the preamble from "long" to "short" has helped tremendously given the high amount of traffic on my network. Overall I am thrilled with the performance of the AC68U now that 374.339 is out. I am now running Merlin's Atium Bead and it has been very stable.

 

[RMerlin]

I used an RT-AC56U as my main router since May and until last weekend (when I swapped with the RT-AC68U to do stability tests on it). It always worked great for me, and had no trouble go get through 4 walls of my appartment to reach my Nexus 7 tablet.

The AC68U is getting more stable these days. I saw an increase on the 5 GHz range but a very small decrease on the 2.4 GHz band. I didn't tinker with its settings however, as it was still strong enough to cover everything here.

 

[DavidinSA]

Canuckle- "S" stands for "scientific". I spent 17 years of my life in research for multiple clients including NASA and various government agencies. It is used to differentiate from a true wild a__ guess. One in which was based off of as much information one could gather in the specified time.

Well my old reliable is becoming unreliable. Have had to reboot almost every other day now for the past week.
Time to order a new router.
I will let everyone know what I choose and update on what happens.
Thank you all.
David

 

[canuckle]

Canuckle- "S" stands for "scientific". I spent 17 years of my life in research for multiple clients including NASA and various government agencies. It is used to differentiate from a true wild a__ guess. One in which was based off of as much information one could gather in the specified time.

Well my old reliable is becoming unreliable. Have had to reboot almost every other day now for the past week.
Time to order a new router.
I will let everyone know what I choose and update on what happens.
Thank you all.
David

Lol gotcha !


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[DavidinSA]

Canuckle - LOL !

 

[DavidinSA]

update on purchase

Okay, I initially purchased the AC68R but then chickened out and returned it and purchased the N66R.
So far so good. Setup went well. Using firmware version 979.
I also purchased a Synology DS412+ and have initially loaded with two 4TB drives.
All are playing well with each other so far.
Range on the N66R seems acceptable. About the same as my old linksys g standard. Signal strength seems to be about the same throughout the house and yard. Signal strength seems to fluctuate more than i would expect but I admit some ignorance on what is normal for noncommercial units.
Have only setup the LAN and I am currently educating myself on VPN before I take that plunge.
Not sure if I can use both the ASUS VPN and the Synology VPN. If so that would work great for me so that i could setup the kids to use the ASUS with an SSD for their homework, etc then my wife and I could use the Synology.
Thanks for all your help and support.
David