The RT-AC68U is up for preorder!

[joltdude]

They did better than that. When you run the Quick Internet Setup, it automatically checks for the presence of a new firmware, and will offer you to update your router.

Not sure if Asus had published that original release for LiveUpdate yet however, but they did everything to ensure that they can have routers updated as soon as they are being configured by new owners.

That works great if you can get a connection. Had problems getting PPPoE to link properly using the built-in firmware... chicken and egg syndrome... Mikes right, if they put an idiot sticker on the box/manual that says download first.. For many folks the asus isnt the first router they owned.. its replacing another device..

Even when I manually connected to a USB 3g/4g hotspot (which sort of worked with the preinstalled firmware) Ran QIS.. didnt try to get a new firmware, also went to the firmware upload/download page.. Same issue..

Theres no ideal answer to this scenario.. Hate to use this.. But what if I didn't know what I was doing.... But if you put it in an obvious place with a weblink, it will give an Ah Hah moment to frustrated folks.... Even I didn't think to do it because it couldnt' establish the link..

Sort of looked in the "quick start" guide.. Didnt find it as a troubleshooting step.
Found something in the PDF however...

 

[mikeg]

That link was for Android BUT for Windows 8 64 bits :

http://www.asus.com/support/Download/11/2/RT-AC68U/36/

http://www.asus.com/support/Download/11/2/RT-AC68U/32/

 

[jlake]

That works great if you can get a connection. Had problems getting PPPoE to link properly using the built-in firmware... chicken and egg syndrome... Mikes right, if they put an idiot sticker on the box/manual that says download first.. For many folks the asus isnt the first router they owned.. its replacing another device..

Even when I manually connected to a USB 3g/4g hotspot (which sort of worked with the preinstalled firmware) Ran QIS.. didnt try to get a new firmware, also went to the firmware upload/download page.. Same issue..

Theres no ideal answer to this scenario.. Hate to use this.. But what if I didn't know what I was doing.... But if you put it in an obvious place with a weblink, it will give an Ah Hah moment to frustrated folks.... Even I didn't think to do it because it couldnt' establish the link..

Sort of looked in the "quick start" guide.. Didnt find it as a troubleshooting step.
Found something in the PDF however...

It doesn't matter. If you read reviews or forums of any gadget or electronic device, you're going to find the same people having problems with technology. Software updates for any gadget isn't new. It doesn't matter if you're talking about a router, a computer, a wireless adapter driver, smartphone, a gps, a camera or whatever. There will be those that get it and those that don't. For those that don't get it, most gadget manufacturers have a support phone number you can call for handholding.

 

[JGrana]

Best Buy Jumped the Gun?

Hmm, I was just in a Best Buy in Rochester NY. What did I see stacked on top of some RT-AC66U's (that were on sale) - about a dozen RT-AC68U's.

Interesting in that it doesn't show up on the BB website (yet).

 

[Royal2000H]

Well I have my RT-AC68U from Newegg... It was not being nice at all...
It took no time flat once I realized the factory firmware was NOT the most recent and the wireless kept shutting down... and would take almost 30 min to authenticate to Verizon... Was pulling my hair out..

Flashed it to the "Release" firmware, cleared NVRAM, PPPoe authenticated on the first try.. Still deciding on SSID's but did get a pleasant surprise.. Hooked my Clear Informark up to the USB 2 port, enabled dual wan, and it just worked... Also changed the ratio since my DSL actually is slower than the clear, but a bit more reliable uplink... Load balancing.. JUST WORKS... Trying to set aside blocks of IP for DHCP reservations and it keeps kvetching about the VLAN range.. No where have I found where the range is set for VLANs.. Have a proxy server and a few devices I want on fixed IPs, like an access point, network printer, proxy server and a few other server devices...

Yes there seems to be some wireless glitches in range and such, but overall its not a bad router, esp if you need/want connection load balancing and fallback.. This feature seems to work pretty darn well...

Really looking forward to Merlin and SSH logins to the modem =)
-J

Thanks for the info! Have you tried fallback? More specifically, I know the ac66u's had some issues with coming back from fallback (though maybe it was only in older firmwares?). Basically it would fallback to the 3g/4g if WAN1 was disconnected, but after WAN1 reconnected, it wouldn't come back to it and instead stayed on 3g/4g.

 

[tlminh]

Yea Ii was a bit disappointed with the asus-PCE ac68, linked to the 5ghz and then the following day could not connect to any of my network whether it was 2.4 or 5ghz .

Uninstall the Asus software and reinstall and still the same. Gonna return it and try the Dlink USB AC.

I purchased the R7000 Netgear AC router

I used it with a USB Asus N53 wireless adapter. At 5Ghz, I got 300Mbps per the asus utility (pretty much maxed out the wireless adapter)

I installed the PCE-ac68 just now. Install was easy, just slides into the PCI slot, restarted. Deleted the old N53 driver and installed the new driver from the disc (same version as the one online).

Per the ASUS utility, I am getting 433 Mbps .

A lot lower than the 1300Mbps I thought I'd get.

I played around with the antenna settings and I have full 5 bars (Router is next room over)

Unless someone can advise me otherwise, this does not seem to get the 1300Mbps that I thought 802.11ac would get me. Any advice?

EDIT***********
2 hours after install

i'm just sitting here doing nothing and now its hovering at 175mbps

this is without touching any settings

EDIT*******
Next hour
Well, now it wont connect. It keeps saying my password is incorrect. But all my other devices connect just fine

I had to reinstall the driver, then it still say my password was incorrect x 1. After I clicked retry, it worked. Still at 175Mbps though

It flat out refuses to connect to my 2.4Ghz as it does not recognize the password