![ASUS Whole Home Dual-Band AiMesh Router (AC1900) for Mesh Wifi System (Up to 1900 Mbps) - AiProtection Network Security by Trend Micro, Adaptive QoS & Parental Control (RT-AC68U)]({"https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51kSBsyL5XL._SY355_.jpg":[355,355],"https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51kSBsyL5XL._SX425_.jpg":[425,425],"https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51kSBsyL5XL._SX569_.jpg":[569,569],"https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51kSBsyL5XL._SX466_.jpg":[466,466],"https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51kSBsyL5XL._SY450_.jpg":[450,450],"https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51kSBsyL5XL._SX679_.jpg":[679,679],"https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51kSBsyL5XL._SX522_.jpg":[522,522]})
Wow. Goodbye Netgear. Hello ASUS RT-AC68U AC1900 router! In fairness to Netgear, the netgear r6300 I have had for years has been a stable product (with the right settings, however) and it was paired with a Arris SB6141 Cable modem, but lightning took both of them away. I went for the combo C7000 Netgear latest and greatest I wanted to like it but it lagged and had 20 second drops of connectivity. Unstable. Unacceptable new product with bugs was my experience and a lot of others had the same experience too. Reviews for Asus were surprisingly good and never had owned an ASUS router before but the reviews were so over the top I had to find out. So I ordered my new Arris SB6141 Cable modem (because it was rock solid for me before) and the RT-AC68U.
First impressions... wow nice build quality. Very impressive. Real removable antenna just like a real AP pro class. It just felt good and looked great. All the machining and connections looked above grade from any other manufacturers in the consumer space I have seen. A real "PRO-SUMER" product.
My background is I.T. and I am in this space so to impress me was not an easy feat. Our use case for this router is:
NO cable... all streaming house... using Two Roku, 6 laptops, one of them dedicated for streaming Xfinity TV-GO stations, a Wii game console, Grace Digital Mondo Internet Radio player, HP laserjet on wifi, oven on wifi, garage doors on wifi, heated tile floor thermostat on wifi (for the weather), and 6 smart phones (2 iphones, 4 android). Plus a "lab" in my office using wifi devices (Wifi scanners, etc) for job related activities. We often could be streaming roku channels (ESPN, FoxGo, etc) at the same time as Fox news on another tv, with Roku netflix upstairs as well, plus any of the household (or all) could be streaming online youtube, amazon video prime or facetime with friends.
So you can see its a heavy usage situation. My router right now has 21 devices connected at one time from the list mentioned above. Back to the review...
On powering up and connecting to this Asus the setup was so easy it was amazing with the wizard. I was online in seconds.
The interface was amazing... Wow. The feature set was so in depth and so well done that this was like router Eden. Graphics, Data, Stats galore. Instant salivation for anyone with an appreciation and knowledge on 802.11. They should have code named this router the ASUS PAVLOV.
All that is great but if it doesnt work, or drops its just a piece of pretty junk. Guess what. Its got it where it counts too.
Signal strength around the house is stronger than ever. Speeds on all clients are crazy fast. Stability on 2.4 *AND* 5ghz is what it should be. I mean wow. where has this router been all my life?? The router has a cpu graph for the dual core cpus in the interface and its barely breathing handling the traffic- even with all the bells and whistles turned on collecting traffic, stats and web history from clients! Oh and did I mention this is all with QoS turned off!! Why limit bandwidth if you dont need to? QoS seems to be used best for small pipes or compensating for poor routers that cant handle a load, in my expeience. My network is rock solid. I will update this if something changes, of course, but from my experience you just know when you know, you know? And for this router... I know!
In closing, watching the real-time bandwidth utilization graphic in the interface I can see the ebb a flow of downstream data (as well as upstream). Mine was pulsating in bursts from 6 to 28Mbps as the demands of multiple HD streaming clients was requested. Dual core CPU never clicked over single digits combined. I have Xfinity Blast! and speed tests were 75-80 down and 10-12 Up over 5g wifi -- just for reference. plenty of headroom.,Netflix Roku App's Network test reported that my Downstream capability to their servers was 17.35 Mbps. Nice.
So to sum up. I think this is the best router ever on many levels, Build quality, stability, feature set, and pairs very nicely with a Arris SB6141 DOCSIS 3.0 cable modem, which to me is a proven solid product that I have used easily for over a decade (back when it was made under Motorola). I even used a 6121 4 channel version prior to this 6141 8 channel down / 4 up coming out about 10 years ago (I think).
6141=great modem.
Asus RT68=Awesome Stable Router
EDIT UPDATE on 7/30/2018:
This has been a solid router for me since I wrote this review. I am up to 27-33 clients around the house generally between adding technology finding its way in the house (now 5 rokus!) and supporting transient devices for my job, or friends/family. Still remains to be great. I do update the firmware when it comes up and have not had problems with any version.
Also, I mentioned I used QoS off... I have since changed gears on that. I now have QoS on and set to MEDIA/VIDEO as the priority due to all the video we stream here... It has been rock solid and definitely performs better with QoS set ON. Video plays at Highest resolutions and glitch free all around the house.
Newest feature of this router in the firmware is AIMESH. This feature intrigued me because the far reaches of our bonus room has poor signal.... the roku in there doesnt seem to like the weak signal... I bought another one of these routers and added it as a MESH NODE. This allows seamless roaming around the house and load balancing of clients between the two routers. The only problem I had was the firmware's didnt match so it wouldnt mesh. I downloaded the latest and updated both to the latest firmware and then had no problems meshing the second router as a node. Very easy. I placed it at the end of the house downstairs, and now have good signal in the bonus room. I continue to love this router!! AiMESH rocks!
Update 12/27/18:
Still kicking strong. AIMESGH is great!! There have been several firmware updates and the router keeps getting better. I have not had any real issues with any of the firmware updates so I am grateful for that and kudos to ASUS for apparently knowing what they are doing and testing things sufficiently! I will say I have had to reboot this router less than 5 times since I have owned it due to some kind of internet issue. I dont know if it was caused by comcast, or just a glitch... but I did reboot it and the issue resolved on each of those occasions. Thats pretty darn stable. I might give it "five nines" of uptime considering I just never touch it except for those few times.
Since my original review, Comcast/Xfinity has upped the bandwidth so I am getting about 175 meg down now...same 10/12 meg upload... Everything runs great... and stable.
I have half a dozen clients on one side of the house on the mesh node 1 and the other half on the other "host" router... its nice. I have also been adding more devices since my last update ... RING doorbell, a SONOS Connect, two Google Home Minis, and four Amazon Echo DOT are added to the network (these are cool devices and love how you can use as intercoms by the way) .... also, I have four Ring floodlight cameras sitting in boxes I got for Christmas which I will be installing when the weather is nice which should be pushing me towards about 50 clients in the house (not all on at a time, mind you) but could be I suppose! Great router.
| Screen Size | 8.7 inches |
|---|---|
| Wireless Type | 802.11ac |
| Number of USB 2.0 Ports | 1 |
| Number of USB 3.0 Ports | 1 |
