Small Review of the Asus RT-AC68U Router

[Redtiger]

So... after I RMA my 1st Asus RT-AC68U router because it was faulty out of the box (Topic Here: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/128600-bad-experiance-with-asus-products-anyone/)

I decided to make a small overview/walk through of the 2nd, this time functional Router

 

I'm a n00b so, pls accept my upfront apologies

 

For pictures and included accessories see: http://www.asus.com/uk/Networking/RTAC68U/#gallery

 

 

After setting up the cables etc. i was ready to have some fun so I've fired up my computer and hit the user interface (192.168.1.1)... Well, i was ready to have some fun but the Asus AC68U not..

Loading the UI took literately over 30 Minutes, I was at the point where i thought I have my 2nd brand new, out of the box faulty router... I didn't receive any time outs so I decided to let the router do it's thing.

 

After taking a shower, the router was almost ready to interact with me Maybe because I was smelling better

 

First bug i encountered was the language selection, i've selected EN, the interface change into EN but after pressing the NEXT button, it jumped back to Romanian (Auto detection)

 

 

The UI is kinda forcing you to follow their 3 steps (Verifying and detecting the network type (WAN)), setting up the ISP account (PPPoE) and then other configuration of the router.

The only way to go around this is to select the "Back to the main page button" which probably because of a bug will lead you to step one So if you're already a few minutes into setting it up, better not touch that button unless you want to start all over again..

The Wizard will search automatic for the authentication method your ISP is using, not giving you the option to select it manually, this wouldn't be a problem if it would be faster, but auto-detecting it self took over 10 minutes.

After auto detection failed, it show me the option to set it manually which is........ c'on Asus, why not the other way around ?!?!

 

From here on, things run a bit faster, took in the settings like a charm and i could move farther to authentication  

 

Loading the UI move even faster so I've reached the last step, setting up the 2.4&5g SSID's

 

 

Before finishing the Wizard, the router checked and installed the latest firmware, updating went surprising fast and improved the UI loading times.

 

When i thought I finally finished, my IPS detected (As unknown) and blocked the MAC address of the router. After calling them they disconnected the client (router) from the server and registered the mac.

At this point the router went crazy and I couldn't connect it back to the ISP, it was connecting then jumping me to the wizard and from there back to main screen, after going back and forth for about 5 minutes i decided to reset the router to factory default and go over the setup once again.. At least this time i had better firmware to work with

 

I left the WiFi Range at it's default, I can say the "Ai Radar" (Directional Signal Focuse) is working as advertise. I'm getting 4 to 5 Signal lines where ever im sitting within my home.

I did a lot of tests in the past month (Since i got my fiber connection) and i can say the AC68U improved the dw speed with about 100mbps reaching dw speeds of cca 800mbps, test run at peak time (20:00) compare to my old TP-Link WR1043ND (Bad comparison, I know) which reach a maximum of 680mbps (Peak time)

 

Speed tests over wifi (2.4), same server, around the same hour showed dw speeds of 100mbps average, while on 5g I've managed to reach an avrage of cca 400mbps:

 

 

 

Of course the tests do not show the full potential of the Router because of so many factors (Including but not limited to: 8 devices connected to it while running the test from which 2 active computers); peak time; traffic flow of the partner server etc.)

 

 

 

Overall:

Pros: Nice aesthetics, Good performance; a lot of futures (Build in VPN, USB 3.0 etc.), power switches (Router; WiFi; lighting (Although the lighting colour is a dark blue, barely visible in a low lighted room)).

Cons: Pricing; Slow UI; some bugs here and there but i'm sure they will be addressed with future firmware updates.

 

Was it worth 200 Euro = 275$ (High Prices in EU, i know...), probably not. But hell, if it makes me happy

 

 

[Vitalius]

I own this router. Mine had the latest Firmware update already installed, so I saw none of the bugs you mentioned.

It is a good router. The only thing I don't like about it is that I can't assign a name to a static IP I've set (You only see MAC address and IP you set it to) and that every single page, if you change the settings, has to be applied which means a 30 second to 1 minute wait as it "Processes" this. Which I find reallllly dumb. 

Other than that, it's an amazing router. Kinda pricey, but it works as advertised.

[Redtiger]

I own this router. Mine had the latest Firmware update already installed, so I saw none of the bugs you mentioned.

It is a good router. The only thing I don't like about it is that I can't assign a name to a static IP I've set (You only see MAC address and IP you set it to) and that every single page, if you change the settings, has to be applied which means a 30 second to 1 minute wait as it "Processes" this. Which I find reallllly dumb. 

Other than that, it's an amazing router. Kinda pricey, but it works as advertised.

haha, your perfectly right, and if you use Mac filtering you have to set the same mac addresses on both 2.4 & 5g, no option to add them for both at once. Also i've notice copy / paste doesn't work (e.g. i have all macs in a excel sheet, couldn't paste them in.. had to manually write them). But as you said, after completing the set up part it works awesome !

[Vitalius]

haha, your perfectly right, and if you use Mac filtering you have to set the same mac addresses on both 2.4 & 5g, no option to add them for both at once. Also i've notice copy / paste doesn't work (e.g. i have all macs in a excel sheet, couldn't paste them in.. had to manually write them). But as you said, after completing the set up part it works awesome !

Huh?

If the computers are already connected to the router, there's a drop down list for setting Static IPs for me. That makes it a loooot easier. Sometimes (not all the time, and it's random) it has the host name beside the MAC address, but not always. Which is nice from time to time.

It has a lot of "this could be better" things.

[Redtiger]

Huh?

If the computers are already connected to the router, there's a drop down list for setting Static IPs for me. That makes it a loooot easier. Sometimes (not all the time, and it's random) it has the host name beside the MAC address, but not always. Which is nice from time to time.

It has a lot of "this could be better" things.

Yeap, but I had like 8 devices connected and it showed only the PC's + the NAS name, i wanted to filter only 4 of them

[alepodj]

Sir that speed its AWESOME!!! Holy Shit Balls man i had to stop reading when i saw that to catch my breath,,, Sad will never get this in Canada

[Redtiger]

Sir that speed its AWESOME!!! Holy Shit Balls man i had to stop reading when i saw that to catch my breath,,, Sad will never get this in Canada

Never is a strong word One thing i can be proud of my country, we are 2nd place world wide when it comes to internet speed.

[oldaccount117]

That internet speed   can you even use that much for just home use looks like overkill unless your backing up your whole hdd online my 50/25 does fine

[Redtiger]

That internet speed   can you even use that much for just home use looks like overkill unless your backing up your whole hdd online my 50/25 does fine

i've set up a own-cloud machine. 

Even so maybe it's overkill, but it costs like 15e/month (About 20$) so i said fuck it My ISP has the best peering in Romania, so i use own cloud like drop box.

I'm working from multiple machines / multiple locations and saving a lot of files on it.