RT-N66U Time to update router? Advice/Feedback

[Xruptor]

Hi I'm in the same boat as OP.

ive kind of narrowed it down the Asus ac86u or the Netgear R7800 X4S , the latter is much cheaper here in the UK presently which is swaying me to that.

Just still unsure as the Asus has always had great firmware support on here, but Im quite happy to go stock firmware on either for my simple requirements.

Can anyone advise on which I should get, like the OP, I currently have an N66U.

Thank's

I ended up picking the RT-AC86U. It had solid performance and is the next step upgrade for the RT-AC68U. I'm probably going to be picking it up sometime next week. A friend of mine was also in my same boat and asked me about my research. I told him about the RT-AC86U and he ended up picking it up. It's rock solid and hasn't failed him yet. He put the latest AsusWRT-Merlin on it which is apparently running the latest 382 code from asus and he's quite happy. So it gives me even more incentive to pick it up

 

[telUK]

I ended up picking the RT-AC86U. It had solid performance and is the next step upgrade for the RT-AC68U. I'm probably going to be picking it up sometime next week. A friend of mine was also in my same boat and asked me about my research. I told him about the RT-AC86U and he ended up picking it up. It's rock solid and hasn't failed him yet. He put the latest AsusWRT-Merlin on it which is apparently running the latest 382 code from asus and he's quite happy. So it gives me even more incentive to pick it up

Thanks, think I might go for it then.

 

[Klueless]

I wound up going with the RT-AC1900P. Christmas price was too good to pass up.

Well my installation was a non-event. Plugged my laptop into my new router into my new modem and powered up. Router asked me a couple questions and suddenly everything was up, running and working.

Didn't notice any drastic performance improvements. Internet speed tests were slightly better (but I forgot to write down the numbers). I'm getting 70 Mbps from my 60 Mbps service.

WiFi analyzer showed some modest improvements in a couple of areas.

What I didn't do was measure performance during high WiFi utilization. Oh well, I'll just assume it's better : -)

 

[scjr]

I wound up going with the RT-AC1900P. Christmas price was too good to pass up.

Well my installation was a non-event. Plugged my laptop into my new router into my new modem and powered up. Router asked me a couple questions and suddenly everything was up, running and working.

Didn't notice any drastic performance improvements. Internet speed tests were slightly better (but I forgot to write down the numbers). I'm getting 70 Mbps from my 60 Mbps service.

WiFi analyzer showed some modest improvements in a couple of areas.

What I didn't do was measure performance during high WiFi utilization. Oh well, I'll just assume it's better : -)

Same here. $90 out the door, after recycling old router that was just laying around.

I’ve noticed better ping times and according to GRC DNS Benchmark tool, the way this router handles DNS is far superior than prior router. Range much better too. Love the GUI as well.

Only issues I’ve had are with Apple products, that seem to interfere with changing 5ghz channels, but think I have that figured that out. It’s a great router.

Edit: By the way, thanks for the speedofme test site. Cool.

 

[Klueless]

Good to hear from you. I was so excited I forgot to run before and after ping times.

I’ve noticed better ping times and according to GRC DNS Benchmark tool

I've been using Google's "namebench" but I'm thinking I might be liking yours better. Thx for the tip.

 

[Xruptor]

I wound up going with the RT-AC1900P. Christmas price was too good to pass up.

Well my installation was a non-event. Plugged my laptop into my new router into my new modem and powered up. Router asked me a couple questions and suddenly everything was up, running and working.

Didn't notice any drastic performance improvements. Internet speed tests were slightly better (but I forgot to write down the numbers). I'm getting 70 Mbps from my 60 Mbps service.

WiFi analyzer showed some modest improvements in a couple of areas.

What I didn't do was measure performance during high WiFi utilization. Oh well, I'll just assume it's better : -)

Glad you picked up a new router. Hope all goes with with yours. That was going to be my backup one in case I didn't get the RT-AC86U. It should have been an improvement over the RT-N66U. Are you using QOS? Stock firmware or using a third party? Let us know how things turn out for you with it after awhile.

Same here. $90 out the door, after recycling old router that was just laying around.

I’ve noticed better ping times and according to GRC DNS Benchmark tool, the way this router handles DNS is far superior than prior router. Range much better too. Love the GUI as well.

Only issues I’ve had are with Apple products, that seem to interfere with changing 5ghz channels, but think I have that figured that out. It’s a great router.

Edit: By the way, thanks for the speedofme test site. Cool.

From everything I've read and responses I've gotten, the RT-AC1900P is a great router and a nice replacement for the RT-N66U. Not to mention a step up from the RT-AC68U. I think that router was a good buy. Let us know how things turn out for you with it after awhile.

Once I get my RT-AC86U, which will probably be this Saturday. I'll let you folks know the differences I've noticed in speed and whatnot.

 

[Klueless]

Glad you picked up a new router. Hope all goes with with yours. It should have been an improvement over the RT-N66U. Are you using QOS? Stock firmware or using a third party? Let us know how things turn out for you with it after awhile.

Despite Acrylic showing only modest improvements I notice the far areas are now choosing 5 GHz over 2.4 and running fine.

Client connects are now instant. They were about 15 to 30 seconds with my N66Us, not a big deal but an interesting metric.

I used to run QoS, "had" to with (s)low speed DSL. Now, with broadband at 60 Mbps, there doesn't seem to be a need ... yet.

I'm going to play with stock for awhile, try some of the new features first. Then I'll flash over to Merlin for real-time traffic by device. My plan is to move my TVs off of cable and onto WiFi to save some money. So, I want to be able to monitor impact and make sure I'm making the right mistake.

 

[doczenith1]

For those of you who might use the router as an openvpn client the 86U is the way to go. It's smokin' fast. Download speeds are around 220 Mbps compared to 45 on the 68U and 74 on the 3100. I would suspect similar speeds to the 3100 for the 1900P as it has the same processor.

 

[Klueless]

Let us know how things turn out for you with it after awhile.

I decided to play with hanging a File Share off of my new AC1900P, something I never got around to trying with my old N66U. Six hours and six beers (ok, I paced myself) later I was up and running.

It wasn't Asus. It was me (I don't call myself "Klueless" for nothing). That and a couple of Windows 10 issues.

• I mounted two drives; a 128GB USB 3 flash drive and a 64GB USB 2 flash.
• Setting up media server didn't really do much for me since I know nothing about moving media around (from drive to drive) in media player.
• Once I got Samba up I had the File Share I was really after.
• When I moved some files up to the File Share remote images and video automatically showed up in my local media player.
  • Image icons looked good, video icons were blobs but they did work.
  • From my PC, clicking on the remote media player brought up the Asus login screen. Right clicking brought up the media player.
• When I rebooted the Asus I lost my File Share. I waited. Nothing. Instead of fiddling with everything I went outside for a beer and cigar. When I got back everything was working.

My laptop is 30' from my router. It connects at N (yes, it's an old laptop) over 5 GHz. The router is in a horrible location, on the floor behind the TV. Anyway I moved 1GB folders from my PC to the Asus File Share.

• PC to USB3: 225 seconds, burst 189 Mbps, average 39 Mbps.
• PC to USB2: 364 seconds, burst 109 Mbps, average 24 Mbps.
• USB3 to USB2: 606 seconds, burst 98 Mbps, average 15 Mbps.
  • I wasn't sure if the Asus traffic monitor would show traffic from itself to itself. It did. I was surprised to see it showed as 5 GHz traffic.
  • I was also surprised going from Asus disk to Asus disk was slower than going from PC over Wifi to the Asus disk.
  • But now that I think about it, it makes sense. The PC has to read from the remote disk before it can write to the remote disk. 225 seconds plus 364 seconds comes real close to the 606 seconds I got with disk to disk.

Can't wait to load Merlin and see if it fixes the reboot problem.

 

[Klueless]

Can't wait to load Merlin and see if it fixes the reboot problem.

Media and File Share continued to be intermittent under Asus Stock. USB flash drives were hot to the touch when I removed them. Flashed Merlin. So far so good. Solid. Shares even come back up after a reboot.

 

[Xruptor]

Just wanted to update and say that I got the RT-AC86U and it's awesome! I loaded Merlin on it and it hasn't failed me yet. The WIFI reception is much better than what I was getting on my RT-N66U. On top of that I don't really have to load QOS anymore as it seems to be handling the traffic just fine. So I'm getting the full speed of my internet which is roughly around 100-120Mbps. The router has been rock solid and its doing a better job than my RT-N66U. CPU Load is also much better. I'm able to walk all the way across the house and the WIFI speeds for both 2Ghz and 5Ghz is stronger and faster than it was on my RT-N66U. I'm very happy with the purchase.

 

[Klueless]

Just wanted to update and say that I got the RT-AC86U and it's awesome! I loaded Merlin on it and it hasn't failed me yet. The WIFI reception is much better than what I was getting on my RT-N66U. On top of that I don't really have to load QOS anymore as it seems to be handling the traffic just fine. So I'm getting the full speed of my internet which is roughly around 100-120Mbps. The router has been rock solid and its doing a better job than my RT-N66U. CPU Load is also much better. I'm able to walk all the way across the house and the WIFI speeds for both 2Ghz and 5Ghz is stronger and faster than it was on my RT-N66U. I'm very happy with the purchase.

Very happy to hear everything is working out Great!

For $100 I'm very happy with the AC1900P. Would have got something like yours but money is money. Haven't needed to turn on QoS yet. That could change as I move more TVs off of cable boxes and onto WiFi. File Share continues to be stable under Merlin.

 

[Krab19]

Hey Guys! I figured I might as well piggyback on this thread since I am in a very similar situation.

It is time for me to upgrade my RT-N66U as well and I figured boxing day/week would be a good time to go looking for an upgrade. I have been looking at these two which bestbuy has on sale:

Asus RT-AC1900P - $140 CAD
Linksys EA8300-CA - $170 CAD

Being familiar with Asus I initially wanted to go with the AC1900P, but the EA8300 looks like a good deal. Now after reading the reviews from this site, as well as this thread, I am contemplating jumping for the RT-AC86U ($270 CAD at bestbuy) as it seems to be one solid router.

Any thoughts or opinions on this would be greatly appreciated!

 

[scjr]

Hey Guys! I figured I might as well piggyback on this thread since I am in a very similar situation.

It is time for me to upgrade my RT-N66U as well and I figured boxing day/week would be a good time to go looking for an upgrade. I have been looking at these two which bestbuy has on sale:

Asus RT-AC1900P - $140 CAD
Linksys EA8300-CA - $170 CAD

Being familiar with Asus I initially wanted to go with the AC1900P, but the EA8300 looks like a good deal. Now after reading the reviews from this site, as well as this thread, I am contemplating jumping for the RT-AC86U ($270 CAD at bestbuy) as it seems to be one solid router.

Any thoughts or opinions on this would be greatly appreciated!

I have the RT-AC1900P and couldn’t be more pleased. Rock solid performance. I haven’t experienced any drops. Range is great and works great with my Arris SB6183 modem.

I initially had some buyer’s remorse, when I saw the Netgear x4s on a sale for a great price. I’m so glad I stuck with Asus. Firmware support is excellent, plus you have Merlin improving on the Asus releases with his fine firmware.

 

[Krab19]

I have the RT-AC1900P and couldn’t be more pleased. Rock solid performance. I haven’t experienced any drops. Range is great and works great with my Arris SB6183 modem.

I initially had some buyer’s remorse, when I saw the Netgear x4s on a sale for a great price. I’m so glad I stuck with Asus. Firmware support is excellent, plus you have Merlin improving on the Asus releases with his fine firmware.

Thanks for the quick reply!

Did you have the RT-N66U before the RT-AC1900P? If so, did you find that the RT-AC1900P had an increase in range over the RT-N66U?

 

[scjr]

Thanks for the quick reply!

Did you have the RT-N66U before the RT-AC1900P? If so, did you find that the RT-AC1900P had an increase in range over the RT-N66U?

Unfortunately, I didn’t have the N66U.

I can go a long way outside my condo, on 5ghz band and the range is unreal. Going threw 2 walls from the middle of our kitchen area to other end of bedroom and no problems. Current uptime is 11 days, since I rebooted it to install the new modem. Real pleased with it’s performance and dependability thus far.

 

[Krab19]

Unfortunately, I didn’t have the N66U.

I can go a long way outside my condo, on 5ghz band and the range is unreal. Going threw 2 walls from the middle of our kitchen area to other end of bedroom and no problems. Current uptime is 11 days, since I rebooted it to install the new modem. Real pleased with it’s performance and dependability thus far.

Great to hear! Thanks for your input, I will go out and get it today!

 

[scjr]

Great to hear! Thanks for your input, I will go out and get it today!

Awesome! Let us know how it goes.

 

[Krab19]

Awesome! Let us know how it goes.

There was a small change in my plans. Luckily I was gifted a bestbuy gift card on Wednesday afternoon for $80 so I decided to jump and get the RT-AC86U instead. I set it up yesterday morning, took only a couple minutes to setup, and it has been working like a charm!

Thanks again!

 

[scjr]

There was a small change in my plans. Luckily I was gifted a bestbuy gift card on Wednesday afternoon for $80 so I decided to jump and get the RT-AC86U instead. I set it up yesterday morning, took only a couple minutes to setup, and it has been working like a charm!

Thanks again!

That’s great. Enjoy it!