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Top Customer Reviews
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USB 3.0 easily jams this router's Wi-Fi
By
Big Daddy
on
December 16, 2014
Size: AC1750
Style: 600MHZ CPU
Verified Purchase
Purchased this router in January 2014 and have had no issues. Firmware is still at 3.0.0.4.374, hardware version is A1. I purchased this router after I bricked a Cisco router from a bad firmware update. I'm writing this review (actually more of a potential solution) because I noticed a little over 10% of the reviews are 1 star (which is "normal" percentage of any product) and after scanning through the 1 stars the common theme is intermittent wi-fi drops and "weird" router behavior when using the USB 3.0 port. Something to be aware of is that USB 3.0 ports, cables, and devices transmit on the 2.4 GHz - 2.5 GHz range. From the Intel White Paper:
"As previously shown in Figure 2-2, the noise from USB 3.0 data spectrum can be high
(in the 2.4-2.5 GHz range). This noise can radiate from the USB 3.0 connector on a
PC platform, the USB 3.0 connector on the peripheral device or the USB 3.0 cable. If
the antenna of a wireless device operating in this band is placed close to any of the
above USB 3.0 radiation channels, it can pick up the broadband noise. The broadband
noise emitted from a USB 3.0 device can affect the SNR and limit the sensitivity of any
wireless receiver whose antenna is physically located close to the USB 3.0 device. This
may result in a drop in throughput on the wireless link."
I experienced this when I built a new computer and placed the router on top of the tower on my desk and plugged my Patriot USB 3.0 thumb drive in the USB 3.0 port on top of the tower which is about 8 inches from the router antenna. My desktop is Ethernet, so was not affected. Laptop1 was using 5.0 GHz band and was not affected. Laptop2 was using 2.4 GHz band and could not connect wirelessly. Took an hour to figure this out (only variable that changed was distance of thumb drive to antenna). My old computer's USB 3.0 port was at the bottom back of the tower and farther away. So basically, USB 3.0 acts as a router wi-fi jammer if located too close and it's easy to mistake this common issue as a router intermittent wi-fi drop issue.
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Quadrupled my speed 😀
By
Reading&Writing
on
January 2, 2017
Size: AC1900
Style: Router
Verified Purchase
Quadrupled my speed at home. There are 4 important points I'd like to make:
1) All these years I paid for a 50mbps speed from my cable company. I had an older Netgear from 2009 which has served me well all these years (and still works) but I decided it was time to upgrade. Typically I was getting only 12-17mbps through my wi-fi (for example, to my iPhone6). After getting this Nighthawk Router, I now get 57mbps on the same iPhone. All of my devices are much faster now... PS4, iPhones, iPads, Epson Printer, Baby Monitor, Tablets, Roku 3 box, Roku Streaming Stick, etc...
2) Cables .... Please note, one other thing I did in addition to getting this router is that I also bought all new cat6 cables (from Amazon Basics), and that has helped the router to connect well to the cable modem. From the router itself, I have a few wired items (Roku 3 box, PS4, my PC). And note that I tested the Roku 3 box, PS4, and PC wirelessly as well. In all conditions, wired with Cat6 cables and/or wi-fi, this Nighthawk router has delivered the speeds I was missing for years.
3) Interface.... Also, I like the interface for setting up and using the router. I like that you get two options of 2.4ghz or 5ghz connection. One thing to keep in mind is that some older devices can only use 2.4g so it is that old device itself that limits the connection speed (not your wi-fi necessarily). Newer devices are 5g capable and can maximize the speed capability.
4) Security... I also like the "Access Control" feature so that you have to permit a device to connect to your wi-fi. For example, when I got a new iPad this Christmas, I logged into my wi-fi network and put in the proper password, but it wouldn't connect to the internet. Then I went to the Netgear interface on my PC and it displayed that the iPad had been blocked (because Access Control is turned on). So then I simply hit a check box to "allow" the iPad onto my home network, and then it connected.
Finally, I am not a tech person, I just try to read up on things to the best of my ability. I hope my review helps some of you.
5 STARS
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Awesome hardware, but be sure to set it up properly!
By
Nicolas Siemsen
on
September 23, 2013
Color: Black
Verified Purchase
The Asus RT-N66U is absolutely an impressive piece of hardware. Seriously powerful, feature packed, aesthetically pleasing, and at an approachable price point for the hobbyist. I think you'll find that this holds true by reading all the great reviews here.
There are definitely two weak points to be aware of, however.
The first - the firmware that it ships with is in pretty rough shape.
After unboxing and plugging in my router I went through the setup wizard to change the SSID, change the router password, and set up WPA2 key. This went fine. After that, I went in to the router settings and made one small change, saved it, and was disconnected from the router as part of the change. It should have reconnected shortly after, but instead my browser presented me the page that comes up when a web address cannot be reached. I tried for a while but the router was suddenly inaccessible on the default IP address. Basically, from what I could tell, the change I made however benign had buggered up the router. I ended up resorting to a reset - accomplished by holding the reset button for 5-10 seconds with the router turned on.
So lesson #1 here is to immediately install the newest firmware available at the Asus website THE MOMENT you unbox your and plug in your router. The firmware update went smoothly after I got the router reset to factory setup and working again, and now it's been working flawlessly for a month.
OK, second weak point - the router, as far as I'm concerned, comes from the factory improperly configured. That is, the default settings in the router hamper its full and proper operation.
What I mean by this is that after installing the router I was getting less than ideal performance out of it. While it was working well enough to give me good download and upload speeds (25mb/sec down, 15mb/sec up) from my cable connection, internal network speeds and coverage were below expectations. For example, paired with a matching dual band NetGear USB wireless adapter on my office computer, Windows wireless client was showing network speed fluctuating between 78Mbps and 216Mbps with it usually in the middle somewhere around 120Mbps. Better than the approx 50Mbps speeds I would see with my 802.11g router and adapter previously but not what I'd expected. In addition, the signal strength was rather poor in the back room. As another example, I was getting a consistent 144Mbps from my XPS M1530 laptop, with an older single band 2.4Ghz draft-N internal card, in the living room right near the router. Also less than my hopes had been for this router.
So I did some more thorough review of the wireless settings and found two big issues that needed to be change to get this router working as it should be.
The first was that the wireless control channel setting for both the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz bands is set to "Auto" be default. Ideally, this would mean that the router would dynamically select the best channel based on local interference in that band. In the real world, though, this Auto mode on most routers doesn't work that well and this is no different. I performed a wireless network scan with my Android phone using a free app, and found that my router was camped out on Channel 6. As some may know, this is the default channel for most consumer routers and most home users never change away from it. Sure enough, there were three other wireless networks that I could detect around neighborhood that were on channel 6 as well. To remedy this, I took the 2.4Ghz band off of Auto and set the channel to 1. For those making this change themselves, be sure to scan using something like WiEye on your phone or inSSIDer on your computer. Assuming that most of the other routers in your area will be using channel 6, you will need to move yours to the far ends of the channel list, choosing either 1 or 11. This because the signal from the routers set to channel 6 do not stay there perfectly, instead they overlap substantially. A router on channel 8, for example, will have a pretty good overlap with those on channel 6 and will still see interference. The only way to avoid this is moving all the way to 1 or 11. I left the 5Ghz channel selection on Auto for now, as the 5Ghz band is much less interference prone currently, and in fact I don't believe there are any other 5Ghz networks in range in my neighborhood currently so it's a non-issue there.
The second major problem I found with the router's default setting was also in the router settings. The RT-N66U has the option to change the bandwidth for a given band. By default, I found that both the 2.4 and 5Ghz bands were set to a signal bandwidth of 20Hz. The reason this is a major issue is that at 20Hz, there is simply not enough throughput on the given band to allow for this router to hit its full speed potential. So I went ahead and set the router to use 40Hz bandwidth for each band.
With those two changes, my network performance and signal strength increased dramatically with real world results to prove it. Now, that dual-band network adapter in my office shows pegged at a solid 450Mbps (x2 for the dual bands for a theoretical 900Mbps hence the N900 designation on the router). Now that's what I'd been expecting all along! As for the laptop in the other room, on single band 2.4Ghz it is now hitting a rock solid 300Mbps which is the max for that older draft-N card. This extra speed has even helped me attain the max internet speeds I can expect from my cable plan, I'm now seeing 30+Mbps download speeds and 20+Mbps uploads.
Now that it is properly configured, I have set it up to do all sorts of other fun stuff. I set up the VPN, with encryption, and can now connect to that with my Android phone and tablet when traveling which is a great feature for secure and private browsing when at airports, hotels, etc. I set up a separate "guest" SSID that is segregated from my internal network for my phones and to connect to since they are the only devices that regularly leave the security of the internal network. There are still 5 more guest SSID's I can set up. Additionally, I connected a USB hard drive to it and it's running as a local share folder as well as a DLNA and iTunes server. It's doing all this with a desktop computer, two laptop computers, three Android phones, an Android tablet, a chromecast and a PS3 all connected to it and it's not even breaking a sweat.
So that's a lot of info, but I hope you can see that in the end with some know-how and research on the internet (like reading this review) this router can be just about the best thing you can do for your home or small business network at this price point. I would not hesitate to recommend it with the above provisos in mind.
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The best prosumer router now available, but overkill for less active networks.
By
M. Malone
on
February 9, 2016
Size: AC2400
Style: Router
Verified Purchase
I normally don’t write long reviews, but thought due to our interesting networking environment, this review may be helpful for others contemplating this Asus AC88U router in more complex situations.
The short summary is that this router has been very capable and refined out of the box (contrary to what some professional reviewers have claimed as “beta” with some Asus routers and users), with only the slightest of “glitches” that should be remedied as the firmware matures. It was a sufficient enough improvement in a very busy mixed network to replace our old workhorse AC68U. For those with the most active networks, the AC88U is probably the current SOTA and should squeeze every last ounce of performance from it.
We have what is best described as a mixed-protocol, mixed-device, high-activity, network. Much of it is wired gigabit ethernet, but with a heavy supporting load of wireless 2.4 and 5 ghz clients, from legacy G to the latest AC Wi-Fi devices. Our broader network has three laser printers/MFPs (including color models), a Mac running OS X server with outboard RAID stack serving 10+TB of local data, three other Mac clients, three PC laptops, two PC workstations, a LAG-ethernet connected NAS unit for all local backups, six Squeezeboxes (wired and wireless) served by LMS locally, five Apple TVs, two network-managed cable boxes, several other smart TVs, Android tablets and streaming clients (Amazon Fire and Roku), two networked BD players, no less than seven iOS devices running both N and AC Wi-Fi, two gaming consoles, a fully populated Cisco 24-port managed switch with multiple LAG connections, and about 2,500 total feet of gigabit ethernet cable to manage. And a fairly active 2.4 ghz guest network on top of all of it for the regular in-law and neighbor visitors and all their devices. The longest Wi-Fi run is about 65 ft through 5-6 walls and across four levels (I do not believe in local repeaters or APs for security reasons). We run our 175/12 ISP WAN pretty much at its limit, with monthly activity typically in the 300-400+ GB range. At any given time, there are never less than 26-28 active clients on our network. Most activity is multiple-client, higher bitrate HD video and audio streaming, and regular larger data transfers, including multiple TimeMachine, local and off-site server backup routines. With all local data, HD video and audio traffic, Internet and cloud video streaming and data transfers, several RDC clients running, and continuous off-site server backups, our network is typically managing and moving hundreds of GB daily across many streams simultaneously. This is a heavy load for any router.
We were among the first buyers of the AC68U as a result. It has been a stable device since day one, with incremental improvements as Asus has refined its firmware. To date, our old AC68U still does a capable job. It is good-looking, petite, and draws no attention to itself. It just does the job. Consequently, I would continue to recommend this now classic AC router for any but the most intense network environments. Where the 68U can now falter for us is on longer and fringe wireless AC and other 5ghz connections during heavier network activity, where speeds and latency can start to fall off. As a result, we started shifting some devices to the 2.4 ghz band to relieve the AC68U. Under peak network activity, some ethernet transfers would also experience a slight drop off (from 100-105 MB/s to perhaps 75-80).
Enter the AC88U. It has several features that helped wring some additional capacity and headroom out of our busy network. The LAG feature is a legitimate IEEE 802.3ad setup, and allows a 2GB pipeline from our server to both Wi-Fi and Ethernet clients. Previously, a LAG connection was confined to Ethernet-side only. The AC88U’s more robust 5 ghz hardware delivers stronger and more stable fringe connections than the 68U, and with more headroom. We can move all our clients back over to 5 ghz with no speed drop off. The AC88U can support multiple HD video streams on all of them simultaneously without any compromises. Fringe 5 ghz devices previously connecting to the 68U at 125-150 mb are now rock solid at 350-400+ mb. Older 5 ghz clients such as the Intel 6300 AGN series are now holding stable connections at or just under 300 Mbps across much longer distances.
Updating the 88U to the latest firmware was an easy affair, taking under 3 minutes. Migration from the 68U to the 88U was fairly painless, with a settings save and upload between them transferring about 80% of our router settings over to the new router. However, some settings need to be manually re-entered, and all settings should be double-checked. I imagine similar later model Asus routers will have a similar experience.
Based on our testing, the AC88U’s more robust processing and transmitting power has improved all network transfer speeds over the 68U by approximately 10-15%, including for WAN traffic. This may not prove significant over a smaller network and/or with smaller data transfers, but for larger volume data transfers and heavy users with lots of clients, it adds up to a faster, more responsive network experience. As with all these matters, YMMV, and I suspect the 68U to be the the full equal of the 88U in less hectic environments. But the biggest gains for us with the 88U were seen with wireless clients, and in the 5 ghz band, particularly over distance.
The 88U is not without its flaws. It is a large and somewhat garish-looking device (we're older and best described as "mature", but I'm sure anyone under 30 will love it), and requires more real estate and electricity than the trim and classy looking 68U did. Its firmware, while surprisingly polished so early, is not yet mature. Most notably, we occasionally experience some very brief page load delays under Safari (2-3 sec), and very infrequently a slight delay when first connecting to our NAS - but once connected, it flies. I would characterize these more as “glitches” than full blown bugs, and expect that they will resolve over the next couple of firmware revisions. However, the entire Apple ecosystem in our house runs flawlessly under it, with all that implies (Airplay, Airdrop, Home Sharing, TimeMachine, FaceTime, etc), and the PCs, Apples and Androids all get along together nicely. The 88U is also eye-watering expensive, and you are paying to be on the bleeding-edge with it. MU-MIMO is an infant technology, and like most consumers, we are not yet using it. Perhaps later. I’m not a lamp-watcher, but the single LED to indicate all switch activity may bother some.
However, the bottom line is the AC88U is probably the strongest, most powerful home/prosumer router currently available. But its advantages over a more mainstream AC router such as the 68U are likely only going to make economic sense in busier, more complex networking environments. I consider it the top choice in any mixed environment, where ethernet is significantly deployed. The only possible current upgrade over the 88U is the tri-band AC5300, which can support even more 5 ghz clients than we have, and makes more sense in a Wi-Fi dominant environment. But for up to 12-15 5 ghz clients, the 88U is its equal. We expect the 88U to be with us for the next 3-5 years before our technology overtakes it, much as the 68U was. Again, for most homes, the difference between the 68U and 88U is not going to justify the price difference. Unless your 68U is starting to strain or stumble, there is little to be gained with the 88U.
I won’t go into all the other features of the AC88U which are common to all Asus routers, such as AiProtection, etc., except to say they are all work well on the AC88U. Having used many router brands over many years, we continue to prefer Asus for its combination of solid, reliable hardware and relatively useful and stable native firmware, and have not found the need for 3rd-party firmware solutions as with some other brands. The Asus Router App needs some work however, and is currently best avoided.
For a little less money, the AC3100 is just about the same router as the 88U, with 4 less ethernet jacks. However, we appreciate the extra ethernet jacks on the 88U to relieve our big switch from supporting server room devices such as printers and our RAID stack.
Should the operation of the 88U change in future, we’ll update our review accordingly. But after about a week with the 88U, we are confident enough to sadly say goodbye to our trusty 68U (which is still worth about $95 on trade-in).
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Almost....
By
dpidduck
on
December 5, 2014
Verified Purchase
I almost love this router. There's a very noticeable increase in network "speed." I have multiple high definition IP cameras, Apple TV, PS4, MBP, TV, network printer, VoIP adaptor, iPhone, iPad, and a server all sharing this router. I definitely wouldn't recommend it for someone that's looking for a "plug and play" type router; if you're lucky, the setup utility will get you through a basic setup, but that didn't happen in my case. Here's my story:
So, old ASUS router dies (apparently) after 3 years. I was so happy with it that I stayed with ASUS. Fired up the Amazon app on my iPhone 6 Plus and ordered this router with 1 day shipping (I NEED my internet!). Well, in the one day it took for this router to arrive, the old router came back to life! Anyway, I excitedly unpacked my new toy and started to set it up. The setup utility automatically launches when one connects to the router wirelessly; however, in my case the utility failed and I was left to configure everything manually (which I prefer anyway). Within about 10 minutes I had everything setup, configured, and running beautifully...except for that nagging exclamation point informing me that the latest firmware was available.
So, I click the button to upgrade and the upgrade fails; I'm told that the router can't reach the server, and I should try back after I reconnect to the internet (I never lost my connection). Anyway, being somewhat technically inclined, I go to the ASUS support site and download the latest firmware (the existing firmware was very out of date). After upgrading, everything was running beautifully again....except for one thing: the 5ghz channel was gone. I spent an hour checking every setting before searching the FAQ without success. Then I decided to make the dreaded call.
Like many other tech companies, ASUS evidently has chosen to outsource their customer service (the Philippines). Well, I'm on hold for about 25 minutes. Then it takes me about 15 minutes to explain the problem. After running through the basics, we get to the firmware issue. He asks what version I have. I tell him I have the latest version, and give him the number. "Why don't you have the latest version?" he asks. I do, I reply. Then he gives me an Url to download the "latest" firmware. Well, it was the latest...for an entirely different router. Strangely enough, it did not work.
So then I'm told I'll have to return the router. I explained that I'd had this one expedited because I NEED MY INTERNET. lol. I was told that it would take a while for a replacement and given a case number. And the entire time he's telling me I need to return the router, I'm asking him if I can't just roll the firmware back to the original version. Finally I basically had to rudely cut him off. "Yes, you can try that." he said. "but I doubt it'll work because you broke it when you did the upgrade. The file was probably corrupt."
So I downloaded what I thought was the shipped firmware. Bam, everything worked again. So the tech asked if he'd fixed everything and whether I had anymore questions. I'm like, really? Anyway, after getting off the phone with him, I started downloading and installing newer versions of firmware, and every time everything worked beautifully, until the very last version.
The moral of the story: if you upgrade your firmware to the latest version and you lose the 5ghz band, install a previous version!
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Asus Rt-AC3200 vs. Netgear X6 vs. D-Link AC3200 ***updated 4/14***
By
D. Stines
on
February 10, 2015
Size: AC3200
Style: Router
Verified Purchase
I have tried all 3 of these routers. I have had more time to play with the Netgear X6 and Asus Rt-AC3200. My internet is through Comcast. I get about 127 Mbps down and 12 up. So far I find they are all pretty much ok. I feel like if you drop $300 on a router it should be amazing. I know you will find people that cry and say expect bugs for new technology and I should be hung for saying this. Yes I do expect some but for flag ship routers I expect them to be squashed very quickly. So far they all have been coming out slow. And by the way I am coming from an old Netgear R6300.
RANGE
So far range is not that impressive of any of the three. I expected more. I do get a signal in all of my house and outside but I did previously. The signal in the garage is pretty weak which is only 30-40 feet from the router. I would have to say Asus had the weakest not by much and the D-link and X6 are about the same.
DESIGN
I know this is personal preference but I prefer the Asus, followed by the D-link and then the X6. The D-link does seem like the nicest quality. If it were black it would probably win in my book, I keep it in my living room and it is bright red. The X6 seems like cheap plastic and the antennas are very cheap looking.
SMART CONNECT
So far the smart connect works the best with the D-Link. It hasn't dropped connections on me so far. I just don't understand why at times it puts some of my AC devices on the 2.4 Ghz band. I find with the Asus that is its biggest flaw. The smart connect is terrible and drops constanty. I got really tired of my 6 year old bringing me his tablet multiple times a day telling me “The internet is broken again”. It disconnected after some devices went to sleep and after about 10 seconds being awake they would reconnect (wifi is set to never turn off even during sleep). The Dlink and Asus have one SSID for the 3 bands. The X6 has two SSID's. One for 2.4 Ghz and one for 5 Ghz.
SPEED
Besides usage I tested the speed using speedtest.net. I do find the D-Link to be on the slower side. It is hit and miss. I might get half my download speed. Other times I get all of it. I always get full speed with the Asus and X6. But besides using the speed test I have no problems with any of them being slow. Unless you use QOS...
QOS
This is important to me because I have about 12 devices hooked up at the same time. Sometimes more sometimes less. Tablets, phones, Chromecasts, a Nexus Player, Tv, Xbox. You name it. The QOS winner hands down is Asus. You can assign priorities to each device and it works well. The X6 has a couple boxes to check to enable QOS. D-links is terrible. I have tried it. It cut my download speeds down 40 Mbps on every device. Even the one assigned as the highest priority.
UI
Each one has their own user interface. D-link definitely has the worst one. There is not much to customize or change. It is by far pretty much worthless. The Asus and Netgear are both pretty good. I personally like the way the Asus one is set up better and hands down their QOS setup. I also like Netgear and Asus traffic meters better. Asus has the best one of these also. You can see by device % of what data was used for on each device. Handy.
Overall I have to say they are all very good routers. Amazing $300 routers? Hell no. If Asus would get off their butts and fix the dropping connection problem I would own this hands down. But its not worth a $300 gamble. As of right now I'm still torn between the D-Link and the X6 being the best. I will attach a couple photos of a D-link and X6. There is an upside down Blu-ray for size reference.
**Updated 4/14***
So I have been using the Asus router since the review because I really liked the one SSID and the interface it has. Well on 4/12 the updated they firmware for the fourth time and finally got it right! No disconnects! When I turn my tablets on they are actually connected! I highly recommend this router right now. Thank you Asus! Fourth times a charm!
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![ASUS AC1750 Wireless Dual Band (5GHz + 2.4GHz) Gigabit Wi-Fi Router [RT-AC66U] 802.11ac 1750 Mbps Speed, 4x Gigabit LAN Ports, 256MB, AiProtection, AiCloud File Sharing, AiRadar Signal Optimization](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41KWJcCkZcL._SL500_AA130_.jpg)
![ASUS AC1750 Wireless Dual Band (5GHz + 2.4GHz) Gigabit Wi-Fi Router [RT-AC66U] 802.11ac 1750 Mbps Speed, 4x Gigabit LAN Ports, 256MB, AiProtection, AiCloud File Sharing, AiRadar Signal Optimization]({"https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51MubxWfpQL._SX466_.jpg":[466,466],"https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51MubxWfpQL._SY355_.jpg":[355,355],"https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51MubxWfpQL._SX522_.jpg":[522,522],"https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51MubxWfpQL._SX425_.jpg":[425,425],"https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51MubxWfpQL._SY450_.jpg":[450,450]})
