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Wondering upgrading AC68u... Are AC86u disappearing from market

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rdy2

Regular Contributor
A little over two years ago I upgraded from a 66N to a RT-68u. Running Merlin. Around 20 devices, creeping up slowly with IOTs.

Since I am going to upgrade firmware and put some time fencing IOTs, it occurred to me that may be is time to upgrade the router. It appears that the RT-AC86u is the next solid, most popular choice for Merlin firmware. It has surprised me that, looking for a new one online, there are very few for sale. Is it going away? May be I should try to grab one to take me forward for the next 4-5 years.

What do you guys think?
 
What do you guys think?

If the one I use at home fails, I'll replace it with something else. Good price/performance hardware, but still work in progress software. It's available here in Canada in many stores, no shortage in supply. Looks like RT-AX88U is a better router with Asuswrt-Merlin support. Less issues reported.
 
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All comes down to needs for your environment.

Since you already know you want to get into segmentation for IoT stuff, you're likely going to needs VLAN and ACL capability. If you want to stay with Asus, you'll be scripting with Merlin, or loading DD-WRT, Tomato or OpenWRT. I would say the 86U would be the next logical choice, and if history is a good marker, they'll likely continue to manufacture the model for another couple years, and support it for another 3 to 5. Eighteen months on consumer stuff is the break-over mark in my book, so you should get plenty of ROI from an 86U, even purchased well into 2020.

Beyond that, if you think you'd like native VLAN and ACL support out-of-the-box, then you'll want to look at SMB-level gear. I know that's not a popular opinion for those who trumpet keeping things as simple, converged and cheap as possible at every turn, but it's not all that much more complex to setup, and when setup properly, your network will run more like an appliance and less like a toy.

Not sure of your preference at this point, but you should be able to handle segmentation well enough with either approach. It will take some work, though, either via tinkering on your Asus unit(s), or a bit more technical setup on the SMB stuff.
 
All comes down to needs for your environment.

Since you already know you want to get into segmentation for IoT stuff, you're likely going to needs VLAN and ACL capability. If you want to stay with Asus, you'll be scripting with Merlin, or loading DD-WRT, Tomato or OpenWRT. I would say the 86U would be the next logical choice, and if history is a good marker, they'll likely continue to manufacture the model for another couple years, and support it for another 3 to 5. Eighteen months on consumer stuff is the break-over mark in my book, so you should get plenty of ROI from an 86U, even purchased well into 2020.

Beyond that, if you think you'd like native VLAN and ACL support out-of-the-box, then you'll want to look at SMB-level gear. I know that's not a popular opinion for those who trumpet keeping things as simple, converged and cheap as possible at every turn, but it's not all that much more complex to setup, and when setup properly, your network will run more like an appliance and less like a toy.

Not sure of your preference at this point, but you should be able to handle segmentation well enough with either approach. It will take some work, though, either via tinkering on your Asus unit(s), or a bit more technical setup on the SMB stuff.

Thank you
 

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