Top positive review
2 people found this helpful
High performance router but may be too much for some households. Excellent router!
By Zac on Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2016
This router is one of the best routers that I have ever used. I came from an Asus RT-N56U router which worked great for a number of years in my apartment and then into my house. when I moved into the house, the coverage did not cover my entire house so I bought a second one for the other side which helped. After a while of inconsistent speeds I decided to switch routers. I decided to go with this router, the RT-AC88U. For starters, this router has excellent range. We have about a 2,500 sq.ft. house with a normal sized front and back yard. After initially setting the router up, I decided to go to every room of the house as well around the outside with my phone and see when the bars started to drop off. I can stand on every inch of my property including the basement and have just about a full signal strength with this router. I can still receive signal at my neighbors house (typical suburbia style houses). I was able to download music off of my hard drives on to my phones from the street out front of the house. I am impressed with the signal strength and the constancy that this thing has. File transfer speeds and connection speeds are no longer a problem now that I have this router. I have not experienced a slow day or any inconsistent connectivity speeds. We stream music, movies, TV shows, play games online, download music and movies, and use a VPN to work from home. There are 2 people in our house that both use the internet constantly and this router does not flinch. I no longer have to worry about slowing down the network when downloading things or streaming the game while someone is working from home. I am impressed by the consistent speed that this has over my previous routers that I have used. We have a 300Mbps download speed with a 20Mbps upload speed and we constantly get those speeds even during what would be considered peak usage hours in our area. We also had to update our modem as well but that is not a part of this review. The features on this router are similar to the features of the RT-N56U when logging into it. I feel that the GUI is easier to use and it feels smoother than in previous models (it could just be me). I am using a different DNS than what my ISP provides and limit my network to only use a certain IP range within a subnet and this router allows you to do that easily. I have not gone through every little thing on the router because it has been working so well but I do plan on going through and trying different options out in the coming months and plan on updating later on. The router does run a little warm to the touch but it is understandable with how powerful this thing is. In total, we have 3 smart TVs, 4 laptops, 3 cell phones. 2 desktops, 3 game consoles, 2 Amazon Echos, 1 Nest thermostat, 1 Roku, and 1 NAS all connected to this one router either wirelessly or wired (through an unmanaged switch on some) and this has outperformed any load that is put on it so far. This may be a bit overkill for some homes but is easily one of the best routers around if there are multiple people in the household that utilize a lot of bandwidth during a time when many people are trying to use the network. I certainly hope this router lasts quite a few years as I am totally happy with it and would recommend it if you are interested in tinkering with your network and/or have a normally heavy use on your network. So far, this is an excellent router and I hope to have an updated review a few months from now after more use and stress has been put on it.
Top critical review
108 people found this helpful
Really wanted to like it - issues with 5 ghz band
By josh on Reviewed in the United States on December 23, 2015
I wanted to like this router. I bought this router to replace an old Asus model, the RT-N56U, which I really cannot say enough good things about. That router has always provided a rock solid, fast connection on both 2.4 ghz and 5 ghz bands. Not a single problem with that router, EVER. Having purchased several devices that can utilize the new 802.11ac technology, I decided that it was time to upgrade my router from the RT-N56U, which only has 802.11n technology. Naturally, I went with Asus, as I had been so pleased with the RT-N56U. I really liked the web interface for the RT-N56U, and it is still here with the RT-AC88U. If you are somewhat technologically inclined and are able to follow directions in a user manual, you should be able to change/set up most things with this router no problem. The physical design of the router itself is kind of cool and pleasant enough - reminds me of a stealth bomber or something - but it is rather large in comparison to a lot of older routers. Not really a problem for most people, I'd assume, but worth noting. My problem with the device has been mentioned by other reviewers - the 5 ghz band. I can't get a good connection to the 5 ghz band unless I stand right next to the router. When I sit on my couch, a mere 6-8 feet from the router, and use the 5 ghz band, things load very slowly. The only thing between me and the router is a TV. Could this poor performance be at least partially due to the positioning of the router and the other objects in the room (TV)? Possibly, I can't say for sure. There is also the possibility that my device has some kind of defect. Again, no way to be sure without sending it in or trying a replacement. What I can say for sure is that for $300, whether it's due to the setup of my room or not, I need a device that functions much much better on the 5 ghz band. Sitting on my couch, I get anywhere from 3-5 Mbps download on the 5 ghz band using a speed test on my phone. When I get up and walk the 6-8 feet to the router and put the phone right above the router, the speed skyrockets to 27 Mbps+ (my connection generally hovers around 29 Mbps on my wired devices). If you know anything about internet speeds, you know that in this day and age 3 Mbps is pathetically slow. I absolutely cannot justify keeping a $300 router that can't provide me with fast, stable speeds on the 5 ghz band, whether it's because of the setup of my rooms, a defective device, or what-have-you. The router was updated to the latest firmware, and was also rebooted several times to no avail. The modem was also power cycled. I should note that the connection with my old router, the RT-N56U, was rock solid and very fast under the same exact conditions (same router placement, connection tested in same areas of room) on both the 2.4 ghz band and 5 ghz band. I am not sure if there is some difference in the technology between N and AC that could explain why the 5 ghz signal is so much weaker on the RT-AC88U. So there it is... my unfortunate experience with the RT-AC88U. I thought about calling Asus support, but have read many stories about how frustrating they are to deal with. For now, I will be taking the easiest route - returning the product to Amazon and going back to my RT-N56U. I will be keeping an eye on Asus product reviews and reviews of other ac routers for a future upgrade. Please don't take this review as a bash on Asus's products - as I explained, their Asus RT-N56U router has served me incredibly well - but rather, consider this information when contemplating a purchase of this specific model router. I could have had a defective model, or they could update firmware or hardware to fix the problem in the near future.
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