RT-N66U - Upgrade to RT-AC68U

[JamesK]

Hi,

I've had my RT-N66U for about 18 months and have been pretty pleased with it. The range in my 3 storey town house is excellent for the most part, with the router at the back of the middle floor. At the top, front of the house the signal can be a bit poor.

As I'm due to get an AC equipped laptop soon I'm considering getting the RT-AC68U.

Would it be worthwhile upgrade to get? Will there be an increase in signal strength for my existing wireless-N devices, which are iPhones and iPads.

Is the well documented issue of the wireless signal degrading over time resolved now with the latest firmware? Or is it still something Asus are working on?

Any thoughts/comments would be appreciated.

Many Thanks...

 

[L&LD]

The signal is superior on the RT-AC68U even for N clients (but iPhones and iPads don't count; they're limited by Apple software configuration settings).

The signal degrading over time seems to be a luck of the draw: hopefully you won't experience it.

The latest RMerlin firmware has solved many issues as has the official Asus releases.

If the AC equipped laptop will be the most used device; then I would say the AC class router upgrade will be worth it.

Don't forget; you can still use your RT-N66U as an AP too.


The only other option right now is to wait for the Wave 2 AC2300 RT-AC87U that might be available before July 2014.

That is the only competition the Asus RT-AC68U (with RMerlin firmware) has vs. any other device available, or known about, now.

 

[KGB7]

You will benefit from range and bandwidth.

Wifi degradation has not been solved. No one knows at this time if its hardware issue, or Broadcom driver issue. So if you get AC68, you have 50/50 of wifi degradation after about a month.

 

[L&LD]

KGB7,

Surely not everyone with an RT-AC68U has that problem? I'm sure I've read a few responses on the forums here where the performance has remained excellent.

 

[KGB7]

KGB7,

Surely not everyone with an RT-AC68U has that problem? I'm sure I've read a few responses on the forums here where the performance has remained excellent.

Its the luck of the draw.

 

[RMerlin]

Its the luck of the draw.

Probably heavily influenced by the clients people are using. My Centrino cards (first the 6230, and now this 7260) never had any throughput degradation over time on any of the Asus router I used as my mains in the past 2 years (N66, AC66, AC56 and now AC68).

 

[KGB7]

Probably heavily influenced by the clients people are using. My Centrino cards (first the 6230, and now this 7260) never had any throughput degradation over time on any of the Asus router I used as my mains in the past 2 years (N66, AC66, AC56 and now AC68).

And i dont miss while peeing standing up....LOL

 

[KGB7]

Here is an example between two routers. Observe Signal Level and Signal Quality between two routers. I connected to each router one at a time from same laptop, from same location and both routers are 15 feet apart.
The settings on both routers are exactly the same. Same exact firmware from Kong. Both routers are connected to each other via 5Ghz band and no devices connect to either router on 5Ghz band.


Fist pic shows 1st router that is having issues on 2.4Ghz. And second pic shows 2nd router that has no issues at this moment on 2.4Ghz band.

 

[L&LD]

Sounds like your testing is flawed? Care to outline your procedure?

 

[RMerlin]

Here is an example between two routers. Observe Signal Level and Signal Quality between two routers. I connected to each router one at a time from same laptop, from same location and both routers are 15 feet apart.
The settings on both routers are exactly the same. Same exact firmware from Kong. Both routers are connected to each other via 5Ghz band and no devices connect to either router on 5Ghz band.


Fist pic shows 1st router that is having issues on 2.4Ghz. And second pic shows 2nd router that has no issues at this moment on 2.4Ghz band.

This shows how well you are receiving the client's signal. If you want to test the router's signal, it has to be measured at the client's end.

 

[KGB7]

Is today a smart butt day?