Review of Wi-Fi router ASUS RT-AC86U: Fast, gaming. Review and testing of ASUS RT-AC68U wireless router Installation and configuration

After the first boom of 802.11ac wireless products, many router companies decided to come up with something unusual for their new models. For example, add a third radio chip and call the device “tri-band”, install a network switch with eight ports, expand the software capabilities. At the same time, we observed the development of the 802.11ac standard itself - the emergence of chips that support four antennas and attempts to implement MU-MIMO. At the same time, for most users who are interested in high speed wireless connections of their mobile devices and already use 802.11ac, new models usually did not offer anything really useful for this scenario. Not to mention the fact that high-end solutions are traditionally of interest mainly only to enthusiasts or those who have increased requirements for performance or hardware capabilities and have a budget to match.

Asus is one of the most prolific players in the home wireless equipment segment. Currently, in the corresponding section of the site, it offers two dozen routers, of which only one has a single-band access point and only three do not support the 802.11ac protocol.

In this article we will get acquainted with the Asus RT-AC86U - an AC2900-class wireless router with gigabit network ports, USB 3.0 port, dual-core processor and a wide range of advanced features in the firmware.

Contents of delivery

The router comes in a relatively small cardboard box with a dust jacket. To decorate the latter, predominantly dark colors are used. Matte varnish combines well with glossy varnish in photographs and some other elements.

On one end there is a diagram of the ports on the rear panel of the device, and on the opposite there is a list of technical characteristics. Everything here is quite standard and familiar. Additionally, a potential buyer can find out that the device has high performance and a special antenna design to increase the coverage area wireless network, is equipped with Trend Micro technologies to improve security, and can also be controlled from a smartphone through a special application. In Russian there are only a couple of lines of general description, but this is not a big problem.

The router is supplied with a power supply, three removable antennas, a network patch cord, a printed quick start guide in several languages, including Russian, as well as several leaflets (warranty card, VIP registration, description of the WTFast function). The power supply is small, made in a “socket” format and has parameters of 19 V 1.75 A. The cable from the power supply has Velcro, which is convenient.

The manufacturer's website has a support section with electronic documentation, firmware updates and FAQ. The warranty period for this model is three years.

Appearance

The design of the model continues the line of “vertical” models of the 66 and 68 series. The case is made of dark matte plastic. Overall dimensions excluding antennas and wire connections are about 22x9x16 cm. The case can only be installed on a horizontal surface, which is worth taking into account.

At the same time, the design of the front panel has changed: instead of the familiar “diamond” mesh, a matte surface with several ribs and a pair of red “metal-like” inserts is used here. An additional decoration is the mirrored manufacturer's logo.

At the bottom of the panel we see eight rectangular indicators. Most use a calm white color, but some can also light up red in case of problems (for example, when there is no Internet connection). The indicators for the WAN, LAN and Wi-Fi interfaces flash when there is active data exchange.

On the right side of the case there are slightly recessed buttons for connecting clients using WPS technology and quickly disabling the router’s wireless modules. There is nothing on the left side.

The body rests on a wide stand with rubber inserts. So there will be no comments on stability even when all cables are connected.

At the top there are three connectors for Wi-Fi antennas, between which ventilation grilles are visible. They continue on the back panel.

All connections and other controls are located at the rear. Here we see: a hidden reset button, a power supply input with a switch, USB ports 2.0 and USB 3.0, a WAN port and four LAN ports (all without indicators - they are on the front panel, but the client’s connection speed cannot be determined from them). In addition, there is a button to turn off all LEDs. Note the presence of a transparent insert with the company logo, which was illuminated in some previous models. The new product does not have such a function.

There are no significant comments on the design of the device. The abandonment of the already slightly boring mesh on the front panel and the use of red inserts clearly benefited the appearance. The antennas have also become a little more interesting. It’s a pity that they didn’t implement convenient latches on the connectors, like the BRT-AC828 model. Well, it’s worth reminding once again that this device Designed for table or shelf installation only. There is no standard way to hang it on the wall.

Hardware configuration

The router runs on a Broadcom BCM4906 processor. This chip has two cores with ARM v8 Cortex-A53 architecture and a frequency of 1.8 GHz. This is a fairly modern chip that supports the PCIe bus, equipped USB controllers 2.0/USB 3.0, a five-port gigabit network switch and various “accelerators” (there is also SATA, but it is not used in this model). The router's flash memory capacity is 256 MB, and its RAM capacity is 512 MB. In other devices Asus given SoC is not found.

There are two radio units on the printed circuit board - BCM4365E for the 2.4 GHz band and BCM4366E for the 5 GHz band. The first supports 802.11b/g/n standards with a maximum connection speed of up to 750 Mbit/s, which is ensured by working with three antennas and new modulation modes and requires their support on the client side. It’s probably not worth talking about the widespread use of such adapters, so with most 802.11n devices you can only get 150 Mbit/s per antenna. However, this feature may still be useful for some users. The second chip supports 802.11a/n/ac and a 4x4:4 scheme. To implement this, there is a fourth antenna for the 5 GHz band inside the router case. The BCM4366E supports a maximum connection speed of 2167 Mbps for 1024QAM modulation, without it you can expect 433 Mbps per antenna. So in total the router received the AC2900 class. It’s interesting that formally both BCM4365E and BCM4366E support both bands, but for unification it was probably easier to install similar chips. Note that the Wave2 generation and support for MU-MIMO, Beamforming and other technologies are also announced for them.

All key chips, except for flash, are located on one side of the printed circuit board and are covered with screens, on top of which a relatively small radiator is mounted. WITH reverse side The board also has a plate to improve thermal conditions, installed through special gaskets. There were no comments regarding the temperature during testing.

An additional shield is used for USB 3.0 port lines. There is a console port on the printed circuit board (remember that the firmware provides access via Telnet and SSH).

The router was tested with firmware version 3.0.0.4.382.18219.

Settings and features

The factory configuration of the router requires changing the administrator password, setting up the Internet connection and wireless network settings. These operations can be performed through the setup wizard when you first log into the device through a browser or using a mobile application. In the future, the router is configured through the familiar web interface. The design is no different from the previously reviewed models. According to the list of features, the device is close to the top solutions of this manufacturer. In particular, there are such additional functions as AiProtect, traffic analysis and control, Game Boost, AiCloud, VPN server, guest wireless networks and much more.

Considering that both the capabilities and the web interface Asus firmware We have already described it many times, for a change in this article we will try a program for a smartphone.

So, we have a router out of the box and a smartphone with installed program Asus Router, available for Android and iOS. By the way, there are a couple more programs in stores that may turn out to be useful to users of this device. After starting the program, select “I want to set up a new router.” If you have the appropriate permissions, the utility itself finds the wireless networks of the new router and offers to connect to them.

Next, you have the opportunity to configure Internet connection settings if what the router found on its own does not suit you. You can also change the names and passwords of wireless networks and the administrator name/password in the wizard. This assistant repeats the option from the web interface.

The main screen of the program displays the model and name of the router, as well as the current load on the Internet channel and several menu icons. If you touch the first item, information on the model, firmware, operating mode, addresses and other data about the router will be displayed on the screen. After touching the graph, you will be able to see more detailed information by traffic by interfaces - Internet, wired network, access points.

In addition, you can scroll through the central area to view additional data: the number of clients, names of wireless networks, processor load and RAM.

The "Devices" menu item will show you the current list of clients with connection type and IP addresses. From there you can go to the settings settings of each device, where you can view exactly its traffic, block access to the Internet, limit reception and transmission speeds, and also rename the client. Note that all operations are carried out “on the fly” without rebooting the router.

The section with the untranslated name “Insight” is a built-in help system for setting up your home network to the maximum safe mode work. In particular, it contains tips and tricks, as well as links to relevant functions.

The next interesting item is “Family”. Considering the number of gadgets, the ability to group them by user with setting a single policy for Internet access and content filtering looks useful, especially for parents.

Here you can create a network user account and include several devices in it, regardless of their type of connection to the network (via Wi-Fi or cable). As a result, you will be able to configure the allowed Internet access time, content filtering options, and also view unified statistics on network usage.

All other settings of the mobile utility are collected behind the “More” button. Here you can find access icons for 16 additional functions, links to other proprietary programs from Asus and third-party companies for working with the router. Some of the items duplicate access to the same settings that we talked about above. For example, this applies to “Speed ​​Limiter”, “Traffic Statistics”, “Parental Controls” and others.

Among the useful parameters, there are detailed settings for wireless networks, including managing guest networks and black access lists.

From the mobile application you can enable access to files via FTP or Samba, as well as enable Game Boost mode, but there are no such detailed settings as in the web interface. In addition, the program provides access to the security scanner service built into the firmware to monitor the router settings.

System functions include diagnostics network connection, monitoring the load on the processor and RAM, updating the router firmware, saving and restoring settings.

Given the growing number of wireless mobile devices, such a program may be useful for many users. It's convenient that you don't need to turn on your computer to manage wireless networks or clients. Moreover, the program fully works not only from the home network, but also via the Internet, even if the router has a gray address.

Testing

Considering the powerful hardware platform, we did not expect any problems in the main traffic routing scenario. Tests have confirmed that the router is capable of providing almost gigabit speeds in all connection modes.

In fairness, it is worth noting that PPTP and L2TP traffic is processed at the software level, and during tests in these modes, one of the processor cores is fully loaded. While IPoE and PPPoE work with a hardware accelerator and practically do not load the processor. Note that the tests are carried out with factory settings, and some of the additional functions provided in the firmware are not compatible with the hardware accelerator and disable it. But anyway, this model is one of the fastest today.

Processor resources will also be in demand when implementing a remote connection to a home or office network using VPN technology. The router has built-in PPTP and OpenVPN servers. On next schedule The results of testing a remote client scenario with eight threads (four for transmission and four for reception) are presented. The router was connected to the emulated Internet network in IPoE mode.

As we can see, if you do not use encryption, you can get very high speeds. But even with encryption, the results are very impressive - about 200 Mbit/s for both PPTP with MPPE128 and OpenVPN. Unfortunately, it was not possible to check the speed of the PPTP server under other Internet connection modes, but OpenVPN had no problems. At the same time, its performance even increased - up to 230 Mbit/s in PPTP and L2TP. Probably, disabling hardware NAT in these modes played a role here. On the other hand, why else use such a powerful processor?

The router has two radio units that provide connection at speeds of up to 750 and 2167 Mbit/s in the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands, respectively. However, you need to understand that these figures are mainly of a marketing nature - finding clients who are able to work with these speeds is very difficult (except for the option of a second same router in client mode). So our testing, which used Asus PCE-AC68 adapters with three antennas and a maximum connection speed of “only” 1300 Mbit/s, can still be considered indicative. In this test, the distance between the router and the client was about four meters in line of sight.

In the 2.4 GHz band, the devices operated with a 20 MHz channel, which is more common in urban environments. In this case, the actual maximum data exchange speed was up to 150 Mbit/s, which can be considered a good result. Note that there were a couple of dozen neighboring networks in this range on air during the tests.

However, buying a router of this level without the goal of working with 802.11ac in the 5 GHz band is at least strange. Testing even with our “not maximum” adapter showed that in single-threaded mode you can get more than 400 Mbit/s of real speed, and when working in several threads, performance exceeds 800 Mbit/s.

In the next test, we used two clients with these adapters simultaneously. The first two scenarios were the simultaneous operation of two clients when connected in the 2.4+5 and 5+5 bands; in the third, two clients in the 5 GHz band exchanged data with each other.

In the first scenario, we can say that the radio units in the router do not interfere with each other’s work, and the processor performance is sufficient to service them at high speed. The second scenario shows that the router is capable of efficiently serving several clients at the same time. Well, the third, quite expectedly, demonstrates that wireless communication operates in a common environment shared by all devices, so that between clients the speed is approximately two times lower than when working with a router.

The following test was carried out with the Zopo ZP920+ smartphone, equipped with a dual-band wireless module with one antenna and support for the 802.11ac protocol. At the same time, we installed the smartphone at three points in the apartment on different distances from the router through one and two non-permanent walls. The 2.4 GHz results are just for comparison, for the former only, as opposed to the 5 GHz connection which would clearly be preferable in this case.

The results show strong performance at speeds of around 200 Mbps in the 5 GHz band at all locations tested. So we can say that the router in question really provides good coverage and even such relatively weak clients as smartphones will feel comfortable with it not only if they are in close proximity.

The next group of tests was carried out to evaluate the speed capabilities of the router for the network storage scenario. For this we used an SSD with a USB 3.0 adapter. Note that for full-fledged work With this version of the bus, you need to change one of the options in the settings of the wireless access point to 2.4 GHz. The speed was assessed on tasks of reading and writing one large file using the SMB and FTP protocols using file systems supported by the router.

The maximum values ​​are reached for read operations and correspond to the capabilities of a gigabit network and are about 110 MB/s. Note that although recording is slower, in general the values ​​for a router are very good - for the most common NTFS at home, you can count on more than 90 MB/s.

Unfortunately, the current version of the router software does not allow you to evaluate the temperature conditions of the radio units, so the following graph shows only the values ​​for the temperature sensor of the main processor. A total of three scenarios were tested: idle, routing with L2TP, and simultaneous broadcast to two wireless clients in the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands.

In the first two scenarios, the heating level does not cause concern. But the third demonstrates more than 90 degrees. However, this value was achieved after half an hour of operation with maximum load on the radio units, which is rarely encountered in practice.

In similar modes, we also assessed the level of power consumption of the router “out of the socket”.

Power consumption in these modes does not exceed 20 W. As we can see, the power supply parameters were chosen with a significant margin, even if we use USB connection 3.0 drives.

Conclusion

The Asus RT-AC86U router is an interesting continuation of the “not overly expensive” line of devices from this manufacturer. The router case boasts an updated design, but there is no possibility of wall mounting. All ports are located on the back, and on the side there are a couple of convenient buttons for quick Wi-Fi control. The indicators on the front panel are not distractingly bright and can be turned off.

The model is based on a fast platform with a dual-core processor and large amounts of RAM. In routing tasks, this device showed speeds at the level of its gigabit ports, despite the fact that some scenarios were processed in software. I was also very impressed with the performance of the VPN server. The presence of a USB 3.0 port in this model no longer looks like an excess: the speed of data access is practically no different from mid-level network drives. A modern radio unit provides high speed and good wireless network coverage in the 5 GHz band. As for operation in 2.4 GHz, much will depend on the parameters of the clients and the state of the airwaves.

Built-in software differs little from other models top level this manufacturer. It has a full set of the most popular functions and services in this segment, as well as several additional modules. In particular, we note the security functions based on Trend Micro technologies and services for access control and customer traffic control. Acquaintance with the proprietary mobile utility can be considered quite successful. Of course, in terms of the range of available settings, it is inferior to the web interface, but for operational control and management it is noticeably more convenient.

At the time of writing this article, the device had not yet been presented on the local market, so it is not possible to correctly assess its attractiveness in terms of cost. In foreign online stores, the Asus RT-AC86U costs about $200, and for the same amount you can buy Asus devices of a formally higher level in terms of wireless connections. According to the manufacturer, the model should have become available on the local market from December this year at a recommended cost of 11 thousand rubles. In this case, you need to look at the actual requirements: are three bands important to you or a processor with a good power reserve? Or maybe it’s worth spending half as much and buying something simpler, like the RT-AC66U? In any case, Asus RT-AC86U must find its buyer.

Network equipment is not a frequent guest on the pages of our website. This is understandable, because the number of fps in games does not increase from it, but CPU It does not accelerate with its help. But the Internet has become such an integral part of our lives, whether visiting social networks, watching streaming videos, launching online games, sending results after a benchmark session to HWBot.org, which is impossible to do without it. Moreover, the fleet of smart home appliances has long been no longer limited to just PCs; it is now accompanied by laptops, tablets, smartphones and smart TV receivers, and even household assistants. And all this can happen in one family! Now try to connect all this together so that each device can easily access the Internet and not interfere with the other, and so that your neighbors do not interfere with you, given the growing popularity wireless technologies. Ultimately, we come to the conclusion that we need a router that meets modern requirements, and even with an original design, since keeping a dull and unremarkable box at home is no longer comme il faut. And so, the ASUS RT-AC88U router that came to us for testing has all the necessary characteristics.

Model
Network standards	IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, IPv4, IPv6
WAN connection type	Automatic IP, Static IP, PPPoE(MPPE supported), PPTP, L2TP
Operating frequency	2.4 GHz / 5 GHz
Data transfer rate, Mbit/s	802.11a: 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48, 54 802.11b: 1, 2, 5.5, 11 802.11g: 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48, 54 802.11n: up to 600 802.11ac: up to 1734 1024QAM (2.4Hz): up to 1000 1024QAM (5Hz): up to 2167
Antennas	4, external
MIMO technology	2.4 GHz 4x4, 5 GHz 4x4
Operating modes	Router, Access Point, Bridge
CPU	1.4 GHz, dual core
Memory	128 MB EPROM, 512 MB RAM
Encryption	64/128-bit WEP, WPA2-PSK, WPA-PSK, WPA-Enterprise, WPA2-Enterprise, WPS support
Interfaces	RJ45 for Gigabits BaseT for WAN x 1, RJ45 for Gigabits BaseT for LAN x 8, USB 2.0 x 1, USB 3.0 x 1
Buttons	WPS Button, Reset Button, Power Button, Wireless on/off Button, LED on/off Button
Dimensions, cm	30 x 18.8 x 8.4 cm (WxDxH)
Cost, $	298,99

This winter, ASUS introduced new models of dual-band routers on the domestic market that support the IEEE 802.11ac standard, among which the new product in question occupies not the last place. Devices with operating frequencies of 2.4/5 GHz are not new for a long time; they allow you to avoid interference from nearby routers, but the bandwidth of the same IEEE 802.11n is limited to 600 MB/s, which, for example, will not be enough for streaming 4K video . Therefore, all hopes are for the new standard, which in theory is capable of transmitting data at an order of magnitude higher speed.

Packaging and accessories

The ASUS RT-AC88U router comes in such a huge box that not every top-end video card can boast such packaging dimensions. Its dimensions are impressive - 40x26x14 cm.

The front side is designed in a classic style for ASUS network equipment. Here we see an image of the product, icons indicating its key features, and the like. The reverse already provides more information; it shows the back panel of the router with a description of all the sockets, as well as a table comparing the coverage of key devices in the model range.

The RT-AC88U itself is placed in a separate compartment and actually occupies most of the area of ​​the box. Under it there is a compartment in which you can find the power supply and network cable, documentation and four antennas.

It would be nice to see a couple more patch cords, but on the other hand, such equipment is standard and is unlikely to be expanded even if the device costs more.

Appearance

The updated design is pleasing to the eye. The development of the style set by the previous model - RT-AC87U - only suits the new device. The decorative “notched” styling has been completely eliminated, and the surface of the router is now made of charcoal gray matte plastic. There is a truth and a minus, fingerprints collect on it very well, but getting rid of them is not so easy. In general, it is noticeable that the designers were inspired by the stealth theme, and perhaps also by the appearance of Lamborghini cars.

The good news is that the bottom of the router actually consists entirely of bars and there are no “dead” zones. This means that, at a minimum, the air flow will be quite intense. Behind the rubber plugs there are holes for mounting on vertical surfaces.

On the left side of the front edge there is a plastic cover, behind which the USB 3.0 port is hidden. It’s a little unclear why the creators brought a high-speed port here, while leaving a slower one at the rear. The capabilities of the router make it possible to turn it into cloud storage, but a flash drive sticking out in front is unlikely to please the user, and it may well be damaged by careless movement.

The developers used the right side of the front panel to locate buttons for turning off the LED indication and wireless modules.

The back face already has a classic layout. Here are the reset and WPS activation buttons, a USB 2.0 port, antenna connectors, eight LAN ports, a WAN port, a power socket and a device on/off button.

The side edges are unremarkable. They are perforated and there are a couple more connectors for antennas, made in the same style as the router and decorated with red inserts.

Separately, I would like to dwell on the operation of the LED indication of the router in question, which is now not as intrusive as, for example, the RT-AC66U model, in which very bright blue diodes literally illuminate the entire ceiling with their joyful blinking at night. The hero of today's review not only has the ability to turn off the display with one button, but also the diodes are absolutely invisible in the dark. By the way, they have a neutral white color, and in case of problems with a certain function, the corresponding diode will light red.

In general, the appearance of the router deserves all sorts of praise, just expect that its dimensions are very large and it will not be so easy to place it on a table near a PC.

Internal organization

ASUS RT-AC88U is equipped with the most powerful SoC on the market - a dual-core Broadcom BCM47094 based on ARM Cortex A9 architecture, operating at frequencies up to 1.4 GHz. 128 MB of NAND flash memory, soldered by one ESMT F59L1G81LA-25T module, is used to store the firmware, and 512 MB of DDR3 RAM is stored in two ESMT M15F2G16128A-BDB chips. Two Broadcom BCM4366 radio units provide speeds of up to 2167 Mbps in the 5 GHz band and up to 1000 Mbps in the 2.4 GHz band. The router contains four Skyworks SKY2623L/Skyworks SKY85405 power amplifiers and NXP BGU7224/Macom MAAL-011078 LNA amplifiers for the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands, respectively. It should be noted that the Broadcom BCM47094 platform supports 5 gigabit ports, so the first four ports and the WAN are connected through it. LAN ports five through eight are implemented using a Realtek RTL8365MB gigabit switch.

Most of the filling is hidden under solid metal plates, the removal of which can damage the device. I am glad that aluminum radiators with fairly advanced fins are installed on metal plates through thermal pads, which could have a larger area. Further operation of the device showed that the cooling system copes with the tasks assigned to it, even despite the powerful components.

The speeds declared by the manufacturer are achievable thanks to NitroQAM modulation implemented by Broadcom (aka 1024-QAM). Naturally, to achieve such speeds, customers must also support this technology. Also, 4x4 MU-MIMO technology should help when working with multiple clients, allowing the router to simultaneously support several devices without processing their requests one by one. True, again, don’t be fooled by the 4x4 numbers - the router, therefore, has the ability to work with two devices, moreover, supporting MU-MIMO.

Web interface and mobile application

When connecting to a router with a wire and trying to access any page, the user will be directed to the start page of the router’s web interface with the address 192.168.1.1. The router immediately offers to change the standard login and password to enter the interface, which will be very useful for inexperienced users. After this, we select the device operating mode (router, repeater, access point or bridge), the connection type and enter (if required by the provider) the appropriate settings. Next comes the quick setup of names and access to wireless networks in the 2.4 GHz/5 GHz bands. The last thing the user will be greeted with is a proposal to update the firmware, after which the router will download it, install it and be ready for use.

I think that most of the settings and the general appearance of the web interface will not come as a surprise to users familiar with the company’s routers - this is still the same ASUSWRT, albeit with the widest range of functions characteristic of a top-end device. The controls that are available on any tab are a quick transition to the settings of each of the wireless networks, a transition to checking the latest firmware, a choice of language, rebooting the device, a link to mobile applications, an icon that allows you to disable the WAN, as well as icons showing the activity of guest networks and the presence of connected USB devices.

The “Network Map” tab allows you to see all active clients of the router, both wired and wireless connections, their activity time, MAC addresses. Also here the user can evaluate the load on the two cores and RAM of the device.

By switching to the “Guest Network” tab, we get access to an overview and settings of guest networks in two ranges. There is access restriction on the intranet and filtering by MAC addresses.

Corporate analysis network security and parental controls are grouped under the Ai Protection tab. It must be recognized that while for rare experienced users the network security assessment service will be more informative, for most others it can be very useful. Moreover, the analysis carried out not only gives a conclusion, but also on the spot allows you to move on to a specific setting that needs to be adjusted. Parental control can be enabled and configured for specific device, making a binding by its unique MAC address and limiting access to certain categories of content.

Traffic prioritization settings are located on the “Adaptive QoS” tab. As elsewhere in the ASUS RT-AC88U, there are enough settings and capabilities here. You can limit certain clients, you can set priorities for groups of applications, and view web browsing history by client.

The Game Boost tab can only be called functional. From it you can switch to paid online service WTFast GPN, which allows you to reduce response time in online games. The real benefit of such a service remains questionable. You can immediately enable QoS prioritization and proceed to the network security analysis described above.

It’s easy to guess the purpose of the Traffic Analyzer tab - monitoring network traffic separately over wired and wireless connections, building graphs in real time.

The “USB application” section combines the settings of various services, the operation of which is implemented using devices connected via USB ports. There is no point in describing each separately, so we will limit ourselves to a general list: creating a network storage with access to it both via various protocols (FTP, DLNA) and organizing cloud access using a mobile application; print server; setting up a backup Internet channel with via USB 2G/3G modem; setting up automatic synchronization with another AiCloud cloud storage. I think every user will find extremely useful functions; in the screenshots above you can see in detail the full range of settings.

In the “Wireless Network” settings, the user can see settings for two bands separately. Here is the network configuration - name, password access, channel width, etc. Also in this section, you can filter access to wireless networks by MAC addresses, enable WPS, operate Wi-Fi in repeater mode for another network, as well as fine-tune the operation of transmitters.

Detailed external connection settings are available to the user in the “Internet” tab. Here you can find standard settings for most routers for the WAN connection itself, switching and port forwarding. Setting up “dual WAN” deserves special attention. The Broadcom BCM47094 platform allows you to connect an additional incoming channel from your provider to the router, which can be useful for office use. Please note that the physical connection is available through the first four LAN ports implemented using the SoC. In addition, dynamic DNS settings are available in the section. Users registered on the corresponding portal will have access to Domain name type “user.ASUScomm.com” for organizing convenient access to the internal network via the Internet.

The IPv6 and VPN sections do not need any special introduction. Here you can configure the IP address of the new format, create a VPN server, and connect internal clients that do not have this ability to external VPN servers.

Additional filtering options for client visits are available on the Firewall tab.

The settings of the ASUS RT-AC88U itself are placed in the “Administration” section. Managing access to the router, updating firmware, creating backup copies and restoring settings from them, as well as the form feedback- you couldn't wish for more.

Logging of network activity, as well as access to the classic services ping, traceroute, WakeOnLan are implemented in the “System Log” and “ Network utilities».

Separately, I would like to mention the presence of a mobile application for managing the router for both Apple devices and those running on the Android system. With its help, you can wirelessly configure the router out of the box, and then monitor the activity of clients, adjust the channel width for each of them, deny access to the Internet, and also make changes to the global settings of the router.

Summarizing the above, the router’s web interface has maintained a certain balance between the intuitiveness necessary for inexperienced users and the widest range of settings and functions that are of interest to enthusiasts and people with special requests for its capabilities.

Performance testing

The ASUS RT-AC88U dual-band router is a high-end device aimed at home and SOHO use. During testing, I tried to take into account real scenarios of its use and compare its capabilities with the ASUS RT-AC66U router. The following devices were used for comparative testing.

Personal Computer:

• CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K (3.5 GHz, 6 MB);
• motherboard: B150i Pro Gaming/Wi-Fi/Aura (Intel B150);
• RAM: HyperX Savage HX424C12SBK2 (2x8 GB, DDR4-2133, 15-15-15-36-1T);
• video card: ASUS STRIX-GTX980-DC2OC-4GD5 (GeForce GTX 980@1518/8010 MHz);
• drive: Plextor PX-128M5Pro (128 GB);
• power supply: Seasonic SS-1000XP Active PFC F3 (1000 W).

Mobile devices:

• ASUS ZenFone 2 (ZE551ML);
• LG Google Nexus 5;
• laptop HP Pavilion 15-n028sr (F2U11ea).

Testing was carried out in a two-room apartment of a so-called “panel” residential building with two options for placing devices:

• in the first case, the router and clients were in close proximity to each other, on the same desktop, the approximate distance was 0.5 m;
• in the second case, the router was in the first room, and the devices in the second, with a bathroom located between them, and the direct passage of the signal was prevented by two load-bearing reinforced concrete walls, the approximate distance being 15 m.

Test scenarios:

• copying files located in a shared folder with open access on PC:

1. video file size 400MB;
2. a set of documents.doc, .docx, .pdf, as well as archives.zip, .rar, with a total size of 400MB;
3. a set of photographs.nef,jpg, total size 400MB;

• downloading a 1.4 GB video file from a popular file hosting service located in the UAIX zone separately on each device and simultaneously starting the download on two devices.

Testing at a frequency of 5 GHz was carried out purely in ac mode, and at 2.4 GHz, naturally, in the IEEE 802.11n standard, as in the most common conditions for using such devices.

There is nothing unexpected in the results; the old ASUS RT-AC66U and Google Nexus 5 lag behind their young colleagues in all respects.

The result with a strong signal is repeated for the document copying scenario.

Copying a small amount of photos from a desktop computer again does not bring surprises.

Downloading one episode of a famous fantasy television series from a file hosting service shows the real capabilities of routers in general and the ac profile with a gigabit Internet connection. Also for comparison, download results with a wired connection to a PC (gigabit port) and laptop (100 megabit port) were added.

As the placement conditions became more complicated, I had to get rid of the Google Nexus 5 and laptop results. Their receivers are too weak and do not produce consistent results. For example, the Speedtest service for Nexus 5 in the 2.4 GHz band produced download/upload results from 0.09/0.01 Mbps to 3.14/3.47 Mbps.

As you can see, the results deteriorated several times in comparison with close placement of the router and client, but still remained within reasonable limits. But it’s worth noting that an outdated router model copes with a 2.4 GHz network in some places even better than a new one. Although this can be attributed to a whole bunch of factors affecting the signal with such placement.

Connection speed was also tested through the Speedtest service (a proprietary application was used for mobile devices).

As you can see, the IEEE 802.11ac standard allows you to make the most of the capabilities of modern solutions.

Overview of working in a small office environment

Taking into account the positioning of the router, its hardware, as well as a wide range of capabilities, functions and optimizations, it was decided to conduct long-term testing in a small office with an area of ​​approximately 200 sq.m. The premises are located in a small two-story office building in the city center, which means the airwaves are busy. The number of constantly connected clients ranges from 15 to 25, only a few of which have access to the 5 GHz band and, accordingly, to the Wi-Fi ac standard. Carrying out measurements in several stages, taking into account the number of clients, as well as compiling the results would take too much time, so I will limit myself to a general analysis of the device’s operation and impressions.

The office has a standard single-band TP-Link router TL-WR1045ND, which under the load described above has to be rebooted almost every day. Load distribution is not effective and one or two clients watching online videos actually deprive others of the ability to browse even simple pages. In addition, when creating a network game in Counter-Strike 1.6, clients experience an abrupt increase and drop in ping from 25-40 ms to 250-290 ms.

The hero of today’s review has not been rebooted even once since its setup during the entire period of its work, which is two weeks, the stability of Internet browsing has significantly increased, and ping drops have disappeared during games on the local network. It should be noted that the router spent part of the day in direct sunlight, but this did not affect its operation - the cooling and the fairly spacious layout of the circuit elements on the board did their job. Of course, comparing a top-end device with a mid-level router is not entirely correct, however, this is a completely realistic scenario, which, I think, is found everywhere.

conclusions

The IEEE 802.11ac standard, which has finally gained popularity, implies the presence of devices that can work with it, and the gradual penetration of gigabit Internet access among ordinary users directly calls for a transition to new technologies. The ASUS RT-AC88U router certainly deserves all praise. Its high-performance filling will allow you to digest any load without spoiling your sensations. It is suitable for both home and office use, and the capabilities implemented in the firmware will allow an experienced user to actually make a small server out of it, while a “teapot” will be able to set up the device in five minutes using mobile phone. The only downside is that it takes a long time to load the device - up to a minute and a half - but who cares if, after setting it up, the owner can easily forget about it for several years. And of course, don’t forget that the pleasure of using an excellent and powerful router costs money.

34959

Mention of products 1

Hello, dear readers of my blog!

Today I’m reviewing perhaps the most productive dual-band router from the Taiwanese company ASUS - the RT-AC87U model (if you don’t take into account the tri-band 6-antenna monster RT-AC3200), which is not yet very common in Russia, but has everything on board the necessary capabilities to meet the needs of a large house or apartment for high-speed Internet and wireless exchange of multimedia content. The hardware base of the router is Broadcom BCM4709 and Quantenna QSR1000 chipsets with a clock frequency of 1 GHz, which ensure processing of all calculations with virtually no load on the processors of connected devices. Data transfer speeds in 2.4 and 5 GHz modes reach 600 and 1734 Mbit/s, respectively.

The Taiwanese company ASUS does not need any special introduction, being a very old player in the Russian market, however, I will still say that the company is known for its own production of high-quality motherboards and sound cards, video cards, monitors, routers, smartphones, tablets, laptops and various gaming peripherals . ASUS products have always been famous for their reliability, as well as increased warranty period provided for it. Another big advantage of the purchase is adequate technical support, where the user can contact with any technical questions that arise.

With a large range of products, ASUS pays attention not only to budget segment, but also top-end, designed for wealthy and advanced users, so in its portfolio you can find both very inexpensive routers (RT-N10U and RT-N14U) and more advanced models (RT-N65U and RT-AC68U). Before this test sample, I used a simple router from another company at home, operating only in the 2.4 GHz band, not having gigabit ports and providing very modest network speed characteristics. Considering the increasing congestion of the 2.4 GHz band and the increasing number of clients operating in the 5 GHz band, it is becoming increasingly important to purchase a router that meets the increasing demands of the user and has some reserve for the future.

SPECIFICATIONS

Network standards: IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.11n, IEEE 802.11ac, IPv4, IPv6;

Product Segment: AC2400 ultimate AC performance: 600+1734 Mbps;

Data transfer rate:

802.11a: 6,9,12,18,24,36,48,54 Mbps;

802.11b: 1, 2, 5.5, 11 Mbps;

802.11g: 6,9,12,18,24,36,48,54 Mbps;

802.11n: up to 450 Mbps;

802.11n TurboQAM: up to 600 Mbps;

802.11ac: up to 1734 Mbps;

Antenna: external antennas, 4 pcs.;

Operating frequency: 2.4 GHz / 5 GHz;

Encryption: 64-bit WEP, 128-bit WEP, WPA2-PSK, WPA-PSK, WPA-Enterprise, WPA2-Enterprise, WPS support;

Firewall and access control:

Firewall: SPI intrusion detection, DoS attack protection;

Access control: parental control, network filter service, URL filter, port filter;

Control: UPnP, IGMP v1/v2/v3, DNS Proxy, DHCP, NTP Client, DDNS, Port Trigger, System Event Log;

VPN support: IPSec Pass-Through, PPTP Pass-Through, L2TP Pass-Through, PPTP server, OpenVPN server, PPTP client, L2TP client, OpenVPN client;

WAN connection type:

Internet connection type: Automatic IP, Static IP, PPPoE (MPPE supported), PPTP, L2TP;

Support: Dual Link, WAN Bridge, Multicast Proxy, Multicast Rate Setting;

Utilities:

．Download master:

Support BT, NZB, HTTP, ED2K;

Supports encryption, DHT, PEX and magnet link;

Control of loading and output bandwidth;

Download schedule;

．Media server:

Images: JPEG;

Sound: mp3, wma, wav, pcm, mp4, lpcm, ogg;

Video: asf, avi, divx, mpeg, mpg, ts, vob, wmv, mkv, mov;

User-defined IP/MAC/Port rules with download and upload bandwidth control;

ACK/SYN/FIN/RST/ICMP with the highest priority;

．guest network: 2.4 GHz x 3 + 5 GHz x 3 (total up to 6);

．Print server: multi-function printer support (Windows only), LPR protocol support;

．file server: Samba and FTP server with account management;

．PPTP VPN server;

．network map;

．traffic monitor;

Special abilities: 3G/4G data sharing, AiCloud, Download Master, AiDisK, Multiple SSIDs, iTunes server, Time Machine;

Operating modes: wireless router, access point, media bridge.

Ports:

4 x RJ45 for 10/100/1000/Gigabits BaseT for wired network, 1 x RJ45 for 10/100/1000/Gigabits BaseT for WAN (broadband);

Buttons:

WPS, Reset (reset), Power (turn on/off the power), Wireless on/off (turn on/off the Wi-Fi wireless connection), LED on/off (turn on/off the indication LEDs);

LED indicators:

PWR x 1, Wi-Fi x 2, LAN x 4, WAN x 1, WPS x 1;

Power supply:

AC input voltage: 110V~240V (50~60Hz);

Output voltage direct current: 19 V with a maximum current of 2.37 A;

Operating system support:

Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows 2000, Windows ME, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Mac OS X 10.1, Mac OS X 10.4, Mac OS X 10.5, Mac OS X 10.6, Mac OS X 10.7, Mac OS X 10.8, Mac OS X, Linux Kernel (Ubuntu support only), Linux;

Dimensions: 289.5 x 167.6 x 47.5 mm (WxDxH);

Weight: 747

PECULIARITIES

Now I propose to use the visual material posted on the official website and take a little look inside the device. Printed circuit board The router looks like this: the main processor with a RAM chip is located on the right, in the middle is a chipset that provides operation in the 5 GHz band with four radio modules and another RAM chip, and on the left is a chipset for a frequency of 2.4 GHz with three radios -modules. The edges/squares around the chipsets act as landing pads for cooling radiators, and, probably, additionally shield the crystals, reducing the level of interference.

The router uses three independent aluminum heat sinks for basic signal processing parts, which the manufacturer says helps ensure the device remains stable under heavy load. Radiators, by the way, do a good job of cooling all heating elements, transferring heat from the microcircuits to the air inside the case, so it is imperative to ensure convection air flow from below, without closing the side ventilation holes.

With the ability to simultaneously operate in two frequency bands (2.4 and 5 GHz) with speeds of 600 Mbps (802.11n standard with Broadcom TurboQAM technology) and 1734 Mbps (802.11ac standard), respectively, ASUS RT-AC87U provides overall speed wireless data transmission at 2334 Mbit/s. To provide such throughput, the manufacturer has provided the ability to aggregate two ports (LAN1 and LAN2).

Router ASUS RT-AC87U equipped with one WAN port and four Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports, one of which can be used as a second WAN port (LAN2, LAN2 or LAN4), and also supports hardware accelerated address translation (NAT). Thanks to hardware address translation acceleration technology, it provides switching speeds between external and local network segments (WAN-to-LAN) several times higher than conventional equipment with software implementation of NAT. Its WAN-to-LAN translation speed is 2 to 5 times higher than that of routers with software NAT implementation.

By configuring one of the LAN ports to be used as a WAN port, you can organize two connections to the Internet and distribute Internet traffic between them, or set one of the connections as a backup. You can also choose a compatible 3G/4G USB adapter as a second Internet connection.

ASUS RT-AC87U with support for multi-user MU-MIMO (multi user-MIMO) technology works at full speed with several simultaneously connected clients compatible with this technology. This technology compares favorably with traditional single-user MIMO (SU-MIMO) technology, in which individual devices often have to wait in line to transmit data. This technology also means that as new MU-MIMO-enabled devices are added to the network, the router's performance actually increases, so all clients are able to access the Internet at maximum speed.

The USB ports on the router are also not quite ordinary in terms of load capacity. USB 2.0 port provides power current external devices up to 1500 mA instead of the usual 500, and USB 3.0 boasts a current of 1750 mA instead of the standard 900.

Due to the use of ASUS Green Network technology in the router, energy savings of up to 70% are ensured in circuits working with a cable network, but in the end the power consumption of the router is still much higher than that of its slower and less sophisticated counterparts.

Router ASUS RT-AC87U, like other ASUS network equipment, has passed rigorous tests for compatibility with various equipment. It works flawlessly with a variety of wireless adapters, media players, drives, printers and other wireless devices, and is also guaranteed to support the latest generations of Microsoft Xbox and Sony PlayStation 4 game consoles.

PACKAGE

Router ASUS RT-AC87U comes in a colored cardboard box, similar in design to the design of the boxes of all modern routers and wireless adapters manufactured by ASUS, but the color scheme for each device is different. The box is unusually voluminous and massive. The front side shows the router itself, as well as pictograms emphasizing the functional sophistication of the device.

At the back, the router's ports are shown in more detail and its real usefulness for the user is shown, including reliable wireless network coverage over a large area and protection from hackers. The client recommended by ASUS for such a high-speed router is the EA-AC87 access point.

On the sides of the box the same pictograms are again shown as on the front side, and at the same time specifications. There is also a sticker with the model name, firmware and hardware version numbers, serial number, MAC address and PIN code. The router is made in China.

The long side edges are also not deprived of information. Although almost all of it is presented on English language, the majority of users will probably understand what treasure they are holding in their hands.

It is here that a small amount of information is given in Russian, I will not be too lazy to provide it.

It's time to take a look inside the packaging, which, admittedly, has an excellent design. Having taken the router out of the box, the user immediately sees the inscription in English: THE IMPOSSIBLE STARTS HERE.

If you pull out the black cardboard with the inscription, then under it there are 4 antennas, and even lower - the power supply, documentation and support CD.

EQUIPMENT

The RT-AC87U router package includes:

1 x RT-AC87U Wireless-AC2400 dual-band gigabit router,

4 x external antennas,

1 x RJ-45 gigabit cable,

1 x power adapter

1 x Quick Start Guide,

1 x Support CD (contains user manual and utility).

The power adapter, or power supply (as you like) is powered by an AC mains voltage from 100 to 240 V and has a constant output voltage of 19 V with a current of up to 2.37 A. Our router has very decent power consumption compared to simple devices that consume several times less. But this is understandable, the internal hardware stuffing obliges.

APPEARANCE

Visually RT-AC87U differs from the previous RT-AC68U model and returns to the flatter and more angular profile of the AC66U. At the same time, new angles and lines have been added to its design, which look harmonious and, at the same time, give aggressive notes. Undoubtedly, the design of the router case is inspired by the line of ASUS laptops of the advanced RoG (Republic of Gamers) series. Now the router looks either like an airplane made using Stealth technology, or like the hood of a car of the future.

From above, the router looks more classic, but the additional edges and beveled corners still add freshness to the design. It is worth adding that the case is made of matte black plastic, on which fingerprints are practically invisible. The extruded ASUS lettering is finished in shiny silver paint.

Closer to the front of the device there are symbols showing the purpose of the LEDs located on the front panel of the router. From left to right there are: a power indicator, indicators for the operation of 5 and 2.4 GHz radio modules, four indicators for LAN ports, a WAN indicator (in case of connection problems it lights up red) and an indicator for the WPS function.

ASUS RT-AC87U It really looks more like a small laptop, and the large slots on the sides of the case, designed for air convection, attract attention.

Let's look at the bottom of the router. There is also a decent number of ventilation holes here. To prevent the router from slipping on some smooth surfaces, rubber pads are glued to the bottom, and in order to place the router on the wall, there are two mounting holes for screw heads. According to the manufacturer, the case is compatible with VESA wall mounting.

There is also a sticker on the bottom of the case indicating serial number, MAC address and PIN code. The default IP address (192.168.1.1), the address of the web management interface, the SSID names of the two wireless networks, the default administrator name and password to access the router (will need to be changed during setup) are also indicated here.

On the front side of the case, sloping down, in addition to the LED indicators, there are two buttons on the left: turning off the LED indicators and turning off the radio modules. If someone is bothered by the generally not very intrusive glow of the LEDs, then they can be turned off by holding down the corresponding button for a few seconds. If you don't need to broadcast in Wi-Fi networks, then also hold the second button for a couple of seconds. It should be noted that if the process of turning off wireless broadcasting is in progress and at this moment you press the button to turn off the indication, then nothing will happen, the indication will also light up. To then turn on the indicators and the Wi-Fi network, you will need to press and hold the corresponding button again.

On the right front there is a plug on a special flexible leash (so it doesn’t get lost), shaped like the buttons on the left, it blocks access to the USB 3.0 port. It’s not clear why this port needed to be closed with a plug? Perhaps this was done for aesthetic reasons, after the developers clearly determined that this port must be in the front. The port connector, as expected in version 3.0, is blue.

Rear view of the router. Here is the bulk of the switching elements and connectors, including four coaxial connectors for connecting antennas.

Let's look at them in turn from left to right. Antenna connector, USB 2.0 port (you can connect a printer, storage device or 3G modem), WPS wizard launch button, gigabit WAN port and another antenna connector.

To the right are four gigabit LAN ports, the first and second of which (Teaming port) can be used for link aggregation, thereby almost doubling the throughput of a gigabit network.

Another connector for the antenna, a recessed small red button to reset the router, a power on/off button, a socket for the power adapter and the last, 4th coaxial connector for the antenna.

Like this ASUS RT-AC87U looks with connected antennas - monolithic, stylish and powerful. A small note: if the antenna does not screw onto the socket, it means that you have not clearly oriented it along the axis, do not apply excessive force, the antennas should be screwed with light force, and at the end tighten the connector more tightly.

The antennas can be oriented any way you like, which in some cases can improve the RF signal strength for customers. To be honest, I did not notice much difference from changing the orientation of these antennas, not having special instruments for measuring field strength.

The router with power on looks something like this. The red WAN indicator is on because there is no cable connected to it at the time of shooting.

WEB INTERFACE AND SETUP

As with all modern ASUS routers, ASUS RT-AC87U ASUSWRT firmware is used. The router is accessed through the web interface; after turning it on for the first time, its address is 192.168.1.1, which you need to type in the address bar of your web browser. To determine the IP address you can use special utility from ASUS Discovery.exe, which must be downloaded from the official website. Later, for convenience, I changed the IP address to another one in order to save the settings of devices on my network that already have fixed addresses.

So, turn it on and go to the router. We are greeted by a wizard for setting up an Internet connection. In the version of the firmware that I originally had, the translation into Russian was approximately 95 percent complete, so there were pieces of English text.

The manufacturer is constantly working to improve the firmware and over time there will be no untranslated places in the web interface left at all.

Next, I completed the connection setup by selecting my ISP connection, PPPOE, and entering a username and password. The setup of a wired Internet connection is completed, you can proceed to a further tour of the router interface and setting up its parameters. Perhaps I will skip something to reduce the volume of the review, but the user can find out everything in more detail and reliably from the user manual. ASUS RT-AC87U in Russian and look in my album.

When logging into the router address, you need to enter the login and password of a user who has administrative rights, by default it is admin/admin, they, of course, need to be changed, at least the password to a much more complex one. After entering the password correctly, the main interface window opens, where the network map is presented.

The router itself found more than new version firmware and suggested updating it. The update process takes about 3 minutes and during this time the router cannot be disconnected from the power source.

The wireless adapter on the computer showed two frequency ranges for the router, of which the one that operates at 5 GHz turned out to be the very first in my immediate environment! Yes, this range is not yet very developed among our population.

I check the performance of the router along the shortest path, that is, to the provider that provides me with 50 Megabit Internet access. Ping - 1 ms! Excellent, the access speed is also as advertised.

In the wireless network settings, separately for the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands, we set the encryption type to WPA2-Personal and the network access key password. Click the Apply icon.

Here, in the System tab, you can see the load on the router’s main processor and the status of its DDR3 memory, of which it has only 256 MB. If it had more memory, it would be... a completely different router.

If you click on the circle with the image of the globe, a tab will open on the right, which shows the IP address received on the WAN interface, addresses DNS servers provider and gateway. Here you can disconnect from the Internet, for example, in order to receive a new dynamic address from your provider.

If we click on the Wireless Router link at the top of the page, we are immediately taken to the Administration tab, which can also be accessed by clicking the corresponding link on the left side of the screen. Here you can choose which of the three modes the router will operate in.

For example, wireless router mode (default):

In this mode, ASUS RT-AC87U connects to the Internet via PPPoE, DHCP, PPTP, L2TP or static IP and provides wireless and local networking. In this mode, NAT, Firewall and DHCP are enabled by default. UPnP and Dynamic DNS are supported for corporate and home users.

Access Point (AP) Mode:

In access point (AP) mode, the RT-AC87U connects to another router using an Ethernet cable to increase the wireless network coverage area. In this mode, the firewall, IP sharing and NAT functions are disabled by default.

Media Bridge mode:

Media Bridge mode provides high-speed connections for multiple devices simultaneously. To install the Media Bridge mode, you must have two RT-AC87U routers, one of which is configured as a Media Bridge, and the second as a router. In media bridge mode wireless devices connect only to the P-AP, and client devices need to be connected to the media bridge using a network cable.

Well, since we went to the Administration tab, let’s look at the System settings, where you can change the administrator login and password, set the time zone and NTP server to synchronize clocks, add clients and limit access to the router from outside. A very useful tab, like many others, and in order for the changes you make to take effect, do not forget to click the Apply icon.

Everything is already clear with the firmware update, so I move on to the next tab, Manage Settings. Here you can restore factory settings, save user settings to a file and restore them if necessary from this file. In a newer version of the firmware, along with saving, an additional option named Transfer ASUS DDNS name appeared, when I turned it on, I constantly lost my DDNS registration.

After you register and register your product on the ASUS website, you will have access to free 7 GB ASUS WebStorage cloud disk space where you can upload files. Not very much, but thanks for that too.

After clicking on the Clients circle on the right, a window opens listing the clients connected to your network, indicating their name and MAC address. You can view either all clients at once, or filter them by connection type - wired and wireless. On the right is a blue icon of the connection through which the client this moment connected to the network, and on the left in the gray square there is a schematic image of the client.

If you click on the gray square, an additional window will open in which the client can specify the necessary pattern to facilitate his associative perception.

The circle with the inscription USB 3.0 becomes active only if a drive is connected to the corresponding port. I started experimenting with a high-speed flash drive Silicon Power Marvel M70 with a capacity of 64 GB and finished with a 4 TB hard drive. Formatted as a file NTFS system The flash drive was recognized normally and displayed in the Information window. Here you can safely remove the drive, and at the same time proceed to setting up the media server and AiDisk. Enabling the USB 3.0 Noise Reduction option may improve quality wireless communication router with clients, but I did not enable this option, since the connection within the apartment was already very stable.

On the right side of the screen you can see the Disk Utilities subtab. In it, you can manually check the file system of the connected hard drive for errors, and also set a schedule for automatically scanning the disk.

You can see the list of file systems supported by ASUS routers, and specifically about ASUS RT-AC87U we can say that it supports disks with a total number of partitions up to 8: FAT32 - up to 2 TB, EXT2, EXT3 and EXT4 - up to 4 TB, NTFS - up to 4 TB, FAT16 – up to 2 GB, also supports the HFS+ file system. Maximum supported file size in file systems: FAT32 – 4 GB, EXT2, EXT3 and NTFS – 8 GB, FAT16 – 2 GB. The file size of 8 GB looks far-fetched, since I was able to upload an 11 GB video file to the connected drive using the router.

Well, the flash drives connected to the router are visible, external drive A Seagate 2 TB with additional power also detected and read files perfectly, but it contains some movies larger than 20-40 GB. Even a small external drive without additional power, the Seagate Backup Plus Fast 4 TB, was seen and working, and yet the two drives in it are combined into a RAID!

To set up additional access to a drive or hard drive from a network or the Internet, you need to create a new user and give him read and write rights to the necessary network folders (the administrator already has full rights). So, for example, access to folders is configured using the Samba protocol, used by many media players. First, of course, you need to enable access.

Access to an FTP server, which can also be very useful for sharing content over the Internet, is configured in a similar way.

There is also a small setup wizard to make the process easier.

In this wizard, you set a name for DDNS registration, that is, constant access to your folders from the Internet, even with a dynamic address issued by your provider. The only time this doesn't work is when you receive a "grey" address of its internal network from the provider. If DDNS registration is successful, your address will look like this: xxxxxxxx.asuscomm.com, where xxxxxxxx will be replaced by the characters you selected.

After this, we receive a message that the setup was successful and we can use this bonus from ASUS with the address ftp://xxxxxxxx.asuscomm.com.

The AiDisk setup wizard finally produces the final addresses for using FTP, and the registered DDNS appears in the network map. If your address is displayed in yellow exclamation point, it means you have a “gray” internal IP address from your provider, or after saving the configuration file, the DDNS setting was lost and you need to do it again.

After setting up an FTP server and DDNS, I was easily able to connect to my home drive directly from work using the FileZilla client and quickly transfer some files to a connected flash drive. The connection and file transfer speed was very high, covering almost the entire bandwidth provided by the home provider.

The Guest Network tab allows you to create up to three guest networks in each of the two bands (2.4 and 5 GHz), although cutting the bandwidth of the guest network channel, unfortunately, is not provided in the settings.

When you create a guest network, you specify its SSID name, authentication method, network validity period, and whether or not clients are allowed to access your internal intranet. You can add a filter MAC addresses, allowing only trusted clients to access the guest network.

The AiProtection tab is a proprietary feature of ASUS routers, which allows you to make the Internet more secure and warn about attempts to hack the network. The technology operates based on technical solutions from Trend Micro. The tab has two sub-items - Network Protection and Parental Control.

In Network Protection, you can scan your router settings for compliance with security requirements, enable blocking of malicious sites (the database is constantly updated), intrusion prevention, and enable blocking of infected devices on the network. Agree, very required functions in a premium product.

There is an option to enable alerts, where you indicate your address Email, where administrative alerts about infected devices or security violations will be sent (only Google account is supported).

We do a security check; unsatisfactorily configured items are highlighted in red.

Right in the same window we enable all the necessary protection.

We rescan and make sure that now the security of our network fully satisfies the security requirements, although, of course, ideal option There will also be a renaming of the administrator.

Enabling the Parental Control option may make it difficult for young idiots to stay vigil around the clock on social networks and on those sites that they are not yet old enough to access. Even downloading files can be prohibited, although it is very convenient that all these options can be configured independently for each client on the network.

Even the work schedule is set in the settings and now your child will not sit at night with his smartphone under the covers and will go to do his homework on time, rather than hang around on Skype. I can imagine how the parents reading this review are itching their hands with joy...

Tab Adaptive QoS service - bandwidth monitoring. There is a bandwidth monitor with an option for additional application analysis.

It should be noted that if Additional application analysis is enabled, the operation of the router’s web interface will slow down significantly, since its processor will be busy with additional work, but it will be possible to see which application or process is consuming traffic.

You can configure the QoS service by setting the channel bandwidth.

Priorities for different types of traffic and on different ports can be assigned manually or automatically using an adaptive method

The Web History tab shows clients' web surfing history.

The Traffic Monitoring tab allows you to see firsthand the passing traffic in real time, or statistics for the past 24 hours and daily. This is a useful thing when using a tariff with paid traffic.

Traffic is shown via WAN, LAN and Wi-Fi interfaces.

USB application tab. Several are hiding here useful applications, some of which I already covered when setting up an FTP server in AiDisk. Also here is File/Media Server, Print Server (connect any printer with a USB interface to the router and print to it from any network client), 3G/4G for use as a modem wireless 3G/4G USB adapter (The list of compatible adapters is very extensive) or Android phone, the Time Machine utility for backing up files (will be understandable to users of Apple technology) and the beloved Download Master (downloading files).

To start using this or that application, you need to install it or activate it. Download Master and the Print Server utility are automatically downloaded and installed from the Internet. After installation, a window appears with information about the successful completion of the process, and, very nicely, with links to textbooks and video lessons. This user-friendly attitude is found in many pages of the ASUSWRT web interface. I will also note that for each newly connected drive, the Download Master utility will need to be installed again, since it creates service files and folders on the disk. If the drive was removed from the router and then connected again, this is no longer necessary, unless, of course, you formatted it.

Now, if you click the link to Download Master, an additional window will open in the browser with the address http://192.168.1.1:8081/downloadmaster/task.asp, where you will again need to enter your username and password, then the file download control panel will appear. Now you can download files using the Bit Torrent, NZB and aMule protocols without using computer resources.

I mainly use torrents, so I immediately did not fail to take advantage of this opportunity. Specify the torrent file to download.

A list of files to download is displayed, from which you can select only the ones you need.

That's it, the downloading process is going on, and much more fun and more evenly than on the WD My Cloud EX4 network drive, which has a similar function. ASUS RT-AC87U uses almost the entire bandwidth of the download channel, while in the WD My Cloud EX4, due to the overload of the single-core processor, the file download speed always varied within a wide range.

On the right side of the loading screen you can see Additional Information and statistics on torrents.

The ASUS RT-AC87U has a dual-core processor, so it downloads faster than a NAS, but the processor load is still quite high, as is memory usage, so you shouldn’t use the router to download and distribute hundreds of torrents, which often happens on computers. As a convenient tool, this feature is quite suitable, but nothing more.

The print server supports two methods: ASUS EZ and LPR, I did not have to install it due to the physical absence of a printer.

AiCloud 2.0 tab. This application allows you to access your data from anywhere there is an Internet connection. AiCloud provides access to your home network and cloud storage using the AiCloud application on an iOS or Android device, of course DDNS must be configured or your provider must provide you with a fixed external IP address.

Login at https://xxxxxx.asuscomm.com, where xxxxxx is the address of your registered DDNS, or use a fixed IP address, without using the ASUS website. In this window you can perform operations with files located on the connected computer. USB port storage...

... and even launch video viewing of files using the downloaded free player VLC.

The Smart Sync subtab allows you to synchronize the necessary data with cloud storage.

There are several options for setting up synchronization, as well as providers providing cloud storage services.

At the end of the process, a long access code for the folder is created, which can be sent by mail.

As you can see, a synchronization task has been created in the panel.

In order to cut off hackers guessing your password, we will enable brute force protection. I tried unsuccessfully to enter the password three times in 2 minutes and this “shop” is closed, only the router administrator can turn it on again.

There is also the Logs tab, where you can see who accessed the disk and from what IP address.

The wireless network settings tab is, in principle, intuitive. Here, for each range, you can set the network name, its key, assign a channel and its width. The b/g Protection option is enabled to ensure the router is compatible with very old wireless devices.

Enabling access for wireless clients via WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup) provides an easy and secure way to create a wireless network. You can set up WPS using PIN code or WPS button. Personally, I have not yet taken advantage of this opportunity.

The WDS (bridge) sub-tab allows the ASUS RT-AC87U to connect to another access point. WDS can also operate in repeater mode. But in this mode, devices connected to the access point will only have access to half the speed of the wireless access point.

The Wireless MAC Address Filter allows you to control packets from devices with a specific MAC address on a wireless LAN. When you enable the filter, you can accept or reject packets from devices with a specified MAC address.

The RADIUS Settings subtab allows you to configure Extra options to authorize wireless clients via the RADIUS server. This is required when you select "WPA-Enterprise/ WPA2-Enterprise/ Radius with 802.1x" for the "Authentication Method" option in the "Wireless Network - General" menu. For home users this is a useless option, but advanced network administrators in enterprises will be pleased.

Well, the last sub-tab in the wireless network settings is Professional. Professional wireless setup allows you to configure advanced wireless network settings. However, it is recommended to use the default values. There are many more options in the 2.4 GHz band settings than in the 5 GHz band.

Tab The local network with several sub-tabs. The range of IP addresses of the network and its mask are set, a DHCP server for automatic distribution of addresses with a list of manually assigned addresses excluded (up to 64).

There is also a subtab called Routes, which allows you to add routing rules to the RT-AC87U. This is useful when connecting multiple routers other than the RT-AC87U to share a single Internet connection.

The next IPTV tab, I won’t hide it, caused me concerns about my setup with the Rostelecom provider. In my simple router, I had to specify the number of the LAN port where the cable for the IPTV set-top box was connected and the connection type Most, but here I didn’t see such a setting, so to begin with I just selected the port and left everything else as default. Surprisingly, my concern was in vain and IPTV set-top box It worked immediately as soon as I configured the port.

The Switch Control subtab contains only two options - enabling Jumbo Frame (in theory, it can sometimes speed up the network) and NAT acceleration. We leave everything as default.

The Internet tab allows you to thoroughly configure the settings that were previously configured in the Internet Connection Wizard.

Here you can enable dual WAN mode. It provides secondary WAN resiliency for backup access, or load balancing to optimize bandwidth, maximize speed, improve response time, and avoid congestion for both WAN ports. You can specify as the second WAN port Ethernet port LAN and USB 3G/4G adapter. Simply a great option!

Subtab Port switch. Switchable port allows you to temporarily open ports for connections from the Internet when network devices require unrestricted Internet access. There are two methods for opening incoming ports: port forwarding and port switching. Port forwarding opens certain ports at all times and devices must use static IP addresses. Port switching opens an incoming port only when a network device requests access to the switched port. Unlike port forwarding, port switching does not require a static IP address for network devices. Port switching allows multiple devices to share one open port, and port forwarding allows only one client to access an open port. Perhaps somewhat incomprehensible to ordinary users, but advanced system administrators will undoubtedly appreciate it.

The Port Forwarding subtab allows remote computers to connect to a specific computer on the local network. To function properly, some P2P applications (such as BitTorrent) may also require port forwarding to be configured. If you want to specify a port range for port forwarding for network clients, enter the service name, port range (for example, 10200:10300), IP address, and leave the local port field blank. When the firewall is disabled on your network and you set port 80 to be used by a web server on the local network, this web server will conflict with the RT-AC87U web interface. If you have assigned ports 20:21 to your FTP server on the local network, this FTP server will conflict with FTP server RT-AC87U.

A virtual DMZ allows one computer to be exposed to the Internet so that all incoming packets are forwarded to installed computer. This feature is useful when working with some applications that use undefined incoming ports.

We have, in fact, already configured the DDNS subtab.

NAT Passthrough sub-tab, you need to enable NAT Passthrough in it to allow packets (VPN) to pass through the router to network clients.

The IPv6 tab allows you to enable the use of this type of addressing in the network. Not in great demand yet, but with the gradual introduction of smart things connected to world wide web, this will be relevant someday.

A very useful tab is VPN, which allows you to set up a VPN connection to your home network from the outside, after which you can take advantage of working on a remote desktop and open network folders. The VPN server types you can use are PPTP and OpenVPN.

In the case of OpenVPN, ASUS RT-AC87U will automatically generate an .ovpn file with an authorization key certificate. You can distribute this .ovpn file with username and password to all users who need to connect to the OpenVPN server.

VPN subtab. VPN clients often use a connection to a VPN server to access private resources that are isolated from public networks. Some devices like set-top boxes, Smart TVs and Blu-ray players do not have VPN-supporting software. ASUSWRT VPN provides VPN functionality to access all devices on your home network without having to build VPN support into each device.

Of course, having set up the VPN, I definitely wanted to test it in action. The connection was successful and I received the address 192.168.10.2 from the address range that was in the settings.

And I’ve already connected to the router’s web interface directly from my workplace.

It was even possible to connect a network folder on a flash drive connected to the router.

The same folders, but on a 2 TB hard drive, they are visible as if they were on a working local network.

Copying a file from a home drive connected to the router via VPN, the speed is almost the maximum according to my tariff, 50 Mbit/s. Then I went to the remote desktop, which had been prudently left enabled home computer and worked great on it, without any use of the TeamViewer program. As you can see, VPN is a great thing!

The Firewall tab is very important to ensure the security of your network. You definitely need to enable it, but protection against DoS attacks is usually disabled, although you can also enable it. By default, the option to ping the router from an external network is also disabled.

There is also a URL filter based on keywords in the address and a keyword filter. There are, however, limitations: compressed web pages, such as Baidu, and https requests, such as Gmail, cannot be filtered.

There are two more sub-tabs, Network Services Filter and Firewall for IPv6, where you can even schedule a schedule to enable filters!

The Syslog tab can be very useful in identifying possible problems, as well as when contacting ASUS technical support. By the way, I contacted ASUS technical support, from where they sent me a link to download more in Russian. new firmware, not yet posted on the site. It’s not in vain that ASUS gets its money.

I looked at the Administration tab almost at the very beginning, so I’ll go straight to the Network Utilities tab. To be honest, I didn’t see anything particularly interesting here (ping, netstat commands), well, maybe only except for the ability to turn on the desired sleeping device over the network.

TESTING

While testing the ASUS RT-AC87U router, I did not identify any very strong flaws that could not be corrected in future firmware. Sometimes the TV player is not visible DLNA server, working in the router, appears for a split second and disappears, and at the same time the disk connected via USB 3.0 can be freely accessed via Samba from another media player. Once again the download process in Download Master shut down, then, after dancing with a tambourine, it started working again. I contacted technical support and they sent me a link to the new firmware version. VPN and FTP function perfectly, and the speed of file transfer over Wi-Fi is very pleasing.

The ASUS RT-AC87U does cover some decent territory. The Wi-Fi of my old router was no longer visible on the smartphone, unless you left the entrance, and the ASUS RT-AC87U breaks through on the street on both sides of the house about 20 meters to the left and right of the entrance, while it stands in the geometric center of the apartment.

Regarding speed: to work with such a powerful router, the manufacturer recommends using Wi-Fi point access ASUS EA-AC87. I couldn’t find such an adapter, but I still had to get an ASUS PCE-AC68 PCI-E adapter for testing, which I installed in the computer. This adapter has three remote antennas, which I placed above the system unit.

The bulk of the tests took place at a direct distance from the router ASUS RT-AC87U to the antennas of the ASUS PCE-AC68 adapter is about 5-6 meters, while in the path of the Wi-Fi signal there was one brick and one plaster wall. At a frequency of 5 GHz, the adapter established a connection with the router at a speed of 877 – 702 Mbit/s; the speed during data transfer was often at the level of 702 Mbit/s.

First, I’ll measure the speed of the Internet between me and the provider in our city. I have a 50 Mbit tariff, although it is theoretically possible to connect to a 100 Mbit Internet. At the beginning of the test, the access speed increases to 95-97 Mbit for about a couple of seconds, but then the provider’s shaper smoothly reduces it to the required value.

Internet access speed via cable (1 Gbit LAN):

Internet access speed via Wi-Fi connection in the 5 GHz range:

As you can see, the access speed is almost the same, only the ping time has increased slightly. Even on cable, there is a greater variation in ping time, depending on the IP address received from the provider.

The speed of data exchange between the router and a hard drive or flash drive connected to a USB 3.0 port is, of course, far from what is provided by computers with powerful hardware, but it is still better than its competitors.

The average reading speed from a high-speed SP flash drive via a USB 3.0 port was about 38 MB/s, with data transmitted via Wi-Fi in the 5 GHz range (at a distance of 5 meters, through two walls).

The average reading speed from a Seagate external hard drive via a USB 3.0 port at a distance of 5 meters, through two walls, was about 41 MB/s, and writing to it was 32 MB/s. The connection speed between the adapter and the router during testing was from 702 to 877 Mbit/s

The average reading speed from a Seagate external hard drive via a USB 3.0 port at a distance of 3 m within line of sight was about 45 MB/s, and writing to it was 35.5 MB/s. The connection speed between the adapter and the router was from 877 to 1300 Mbit/s, most often remaining at 1053 Mbit/s, which did not affect the transfer speed in any way due to the not very high exchange rate via USB 3.0. I specifically included in the screenshots the readings from the ASUS PCE-AC68 adapter utility and Windows Explorer.

Using a 1 Gbit cable connection, the router's USB 3.0 interface ASUS RT-AC87U, oddly enough, it works faster, achieving the following indicators: when reading - 57 MB/s,

and when writing - 48.5 MB/s.

The speed of reading and writing data in the 5 GHz band over Wi-Fi from a WD My Cloud network drive connected to the router via cable was a more impressive 63 MB/s (at a distance of 5 meters, through two walls).

For comparison, the read speed of a WD My Cloud drive through a router over a gigabit cable is 78 MB/s,

and recording to it is 81 MB/s!

After forcing the ASUS PCE-AC68 adapter to switch to the 2.4 GHz band, the connection speed with the router was 197 Mbit/s, and the file transfer speed was a not-so-dismal 14.5 MB/s, which is even one and a half times faster than the speed of a 100 Mbit wired network (at a distance of 5 meters, through two walls).

The resulting table, where I summarized the results.

Well, ASUS would not be an ASUS company if it had not released mobile applications for operating system Android for use with ASUS RT-AC87U. These are, first of all, ASUS AiCloud, AiPlayer and Download Master Client. This is, for example, what the interface of the ASUS AiCloud program looks like, with which you can easily navigate through the shared folders of network devices.

Network devices that are currently active are highlighted in bluish color.

By going to the shared folder, you can watch photos and movies, as well as listen to music.

By the way, on smartphones and tablets running Android, the router’s web interface opens very quickly and without any errors.

Well, that’s probably all I wanted to say about the hero of my review, it’s time to sum it up.

RESULT

Router RT-AC87U ASUS turned out simply excellent, both in its stylish appearance and in its range of consumer qualities. Despite the powerful hardware, its body on top does not heat up very much, which indicates a well-thought-out heat dissipation system. The high performance it demonstrates on a Wi-Fi network makes it a clear leader in the productivity solutions market. By installing such a router in a multi-room apartment or cottage, you will forget about slow Internet and stuttering movie playback for several years. Potentially, the RT-AC87U can provide consumers with a channel bandwidth of more than one hundred megabits of Internet, distributing it to several consumers and, at the same time, pumping ultra-high-definition video from a network storage device. Additional "bonuses" double internet with redundancy, support for 3G/4G USB adapters, cloud synchronization, support for DLNA, FTP and VPN servers, advanced network security capabilities, advanced parental controls and filtering of unwanted content force users to take a closer look at this miracle of technical thought and design.

Truly, INCREDIBLE STARTS HERE, as the manufacturer wrote inside the box. Eh, if it weren’t for the price... Buyers would have already swept them off the shelves!

I also liked the responsiveness technical support ASUS and the fact that the manufacturer is constantly working to improve the firmware. Let's not forget the three-year warranty on the product.

Pros:

Excellent performance indicators;

Excellent set of consumer features;

Possibility of using dual Internet connection;

Stylish appearance with the possibility of vertical placement;

Large Wi-Fi coverage area;

Not very strong heating of the case;

Convenient interface for configuration;

Adequate technical support;

Manufacturer's warranty 3 years.

Minuses:

It is not possible to set the Internet channel width for the guest network;

Very expensive price.

Gaming devices are becoming increasingly popular. When it comes to hardware, gaming can be read as “productive.” But, indeed, we can see high-performance gaming PCs, laptops and even Wi-Fi routers. We are reviewing the ASUS RT-AC86U gaming Wi-Fi router and we will get acquainted with all its features in this review.

Characteristics

Show all characteristics

Network standards	IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.11n, IEEE 802.11ac, IPv4, IPv6
Product category	AC2900 ultimate AC performance: 750+2167 Mbps
Wi-Fi network coverage area	Very big houses
Data transfer rate	802.11a: 6,9,12,18,24,36,48,54 Mbps 802.11b: 1, 2, 5.5, 11 Mbps 802.11g: 6,9,12,18,24,36,48,54 Mbps 802.11n: up to 450 Mbps 802.11ac: up to 1734 Mbps 1024QAM (2.4GHz) : up to 750 Mbps 1024QAM (5GHz): up to 2167 Mbps
Antennas	External antenna x 3 Internal 3dBi antenna x 1 for Wi-Fi
Transmission/reception	MIMO technology 2.4 GHz 3 x 3 5 GHz 4 x 4
Processor	1.8 GHz dual-core processor
RAM	256 MB Flash 512 MB RAM
Wi-Fi Technology	Beamforming: standard-based and universal 1024-QAM high data rate 20/40/80 MHz bandwidth
Operating frequency	2.4 GHz / 5 GHz
Encryption	64-bit WEP, 128-bit WEP, WPA2-PSK, WPA-PSK, WPA-Enterprise, WPA2-Enterprise, WPS support
Firewall and Access Control	Access control：Parental control, Network service filter, URL filter, Port filter
Administration	UPnP, IGMP v1/v2/v3, DNS Proxy, DHCP, NTP Client, DDNS, Port Trigger, Port Forwarding, DMZ, System Event Log
VPN Support	IPSec Pass-Through PPTP Pass-Through L2TP Pass-Through PPTP server OpenVPN server PPTP client L2TP client OpenVPN client
WAN Connection Type	Internet connection type: Automatic IP, Static IP, PPPoE(MPPE supported), PPTP, L2TP
Utilities	Router setup wizard; Firmware restoration; Device discovery; printer setup utility
Connectors	RJ45 for Gigabit BaseT for WAN x 1, RJ45 for 10/100/1000/Gigabit BaseT for LAN x 4 USB 2.0 x 1 USB 3.0 x 1
Peculiarities	MU-MIMO Traffic Analyzer Adaptive QoS WTFast Gamers Private Network AiProtection Parental Control Guest Network: 2.4 GHz x 3.5 GHz x 3 MacOS Backup Enhanced media server (AiPlayer app compatible) – Image: Jpeg – Audio: mp3, wma, wav, pcm, mp4, lpcm, ogg – Video: asf, avi, divx, mpeg, mpg, ts, vob, wmv, mkv, mov AiCloud personal cloud service 3G/4G data sharing Printer Server – Multifunctional printer support (Windows only) – LPR protocol support Download Master – Support bt, nzb, http, ed2k – Support encryption, DHT, PEX and magnet link – Upload and download bandwidth control – Download scheduling AiDisk file server – Samba and FTP server with account management IPTV support Roaming Assist
Button	WPS, Reset, Power, Wireless on/off Button, LED on/off Button
Led indicator	Power x 1 WiFi x 2 Internet x 1 WPS x 1 LAN x 4
Power supply	Input: 110V~240V(50~60Hz) Output: 19 V, up to 1.75 A
OS support	Windows 7 Windows 8 Windows® 10 Mac OS X 10.6 Mac OS X 10.7 Mac OS X 10.8 Linux
Dimensions	220 x 160 x 83.3 ~ mm (L x W x H) (no frame)
	872 g
Operating modes	Wireless router Wireless access point Network bridge

Packaging and accessories

Despite the gaming positioning, there is nothing gaming in the design of the ASUS RT-AC86U packaging; it is made of cardboard, on its front side the router is depicted in a reduced scale, as well as its name and main features. The characteristics of the device are written on one of the sides, and the main marketing features are described on the reverse side.

The package includes:

• user guide;
• warranty card;
• three removable antennas;
• patch cord 1 meter long;
• power unit.

Appearance and controls

ASUS RT-AC86U has one advantage that you don’t notice right away - it’s “vertical” layout. With this type of case, the router takes up less space on your desktop, if, of course, you place it on your desktop. The main material of the case is matte black plastic, and it looks like a “game” one, with only two small red inserts on the front panel. There are also eight LED indicators here.

On the reverse side there is perforation for passive cooling internal components, four LAN ports, one WAN port, one USB 2.0, one USB 3.0, power connector, power key, Reset key and LED indicators on/off key. On the left side of the case there are two more keys: enable/disable Wi-Fi and WPS.
There are three connectors on top for connecting antennas. The antennas themselves are included in the kit; they are easily screwed on and can rotate 360° and deviate from the vertical axis by an angle of up to 90°.

At the bottom of the case there are two large rubber inserts so that the router does not ride on the table or scratch the furniture.

Installation and configuration

Moving on to setting up the ASUS RT-AC86U, it’s worth noting that we are greeted by a familiar and understandable interface, and the initial setup looks as clear as possible. We are asked to select the type of connection and enter the necessary data issued by the provider.

As for the control interface, it immediately greets general information: availability of Internet connection, number of connected clients and the ability to quickly make changes to the access point parameters.

A separate menu is dedicated to setting up guest Wi-Fi access points, and this router can create a guest network of both 2.4 and 5 GHz
ASUS RT-AC86U offers extensive network security capabilities. So, if necessary, you can check the level of protection of the access point, as well as set up blocking for various sites and set up parental controls.

It also offers a convenient interface for distributing priorities between devices and activating an adaptive priority distribution system.

A traffic analyzer is available in which you can view statistics on the use of the access point both by individual devices and overall.

And of course, one of the options that will clearly be useful to gamers is Game Boost. When you purchase an ASUS RT-AC86U router, you receive a lifetime free subscription to WTFast for one device. Let us remind you that the WTFast service helps you find the optimal route to game servers and allows you to reduce network delays.

A number of convenient applications are provided separately with the ability to: organize public access via the Internet to the drive, creating a media server, print server, creating Time Machine backups, and downloading files without a computer.

Separately, we can note the possibility of creating a home “cloud”.
The router interface also includes a lot of settings network connections, as well as their diagnostics and monitoring.
For the most “mobile” buyers, there is an application for Android and IOS that allows you to make all the settings from your smartphone.

Testing

The router is based on a powerful dual-core Broadcom BCM4906 processor, the core frequency of which reaches 1.8 GHz. The router's memory capacity is 256 MB, and its RAM capacity is 512 MB. The router itself can operate in two bands 2.4 and 5 GHz and the maximum throughput over wireless connections can reach a total of 2900 Mbit/s.

We started testing by testing the Internet connection using the PPPoE protocol, in this case the bandwidth is limited by tariff plan limited to 100 Mbit/s.

With the next test, we checked the speed of the Wi-Fi connection in the apartment in two bands and three modes:

1. the device is located at a distance of five meters in line of sight;
2. the device is located at a distance of ten meters, signal transmission is blocked by one wall and a wooden door;
3. the device is located at a distance of 15 meters, signal transmission is blocked by a wall and a metal door.

conclusions

ASUS RT-AC86U, no matter how strange it may sound, is a router for enthusiasts who are willing to pay for impressive data transfer speeds via Wi-Fi and additional software that makes it easier to interact with the router and expands its functionality. But I’ll personally note that for such speeds, by and large, the infrastructure in many regions of Russia is not ready and, most likely, the potential of this router will rest on your home Internet. On the other hand, ASUS RT-AC86U provides a good speed reserve for years to come.

Based on the results of testing, ASUS RT-AC86U receives an award - Excellent hardware!

In contact with

Asus is known to a wide audience of buyers. Four years ago, the ASUS RT AC68U router went on sale. An overview of this particular model will be presented in this article. The router is a gigabit router. It works with all modern standards. It has a USB port version 3.0. In addition to this equipment, this device has many interesting characteristics. At the time of release, this model was considered one of the best on the market.

Packing box

The router comes in a thick cardboard box. It displays all the latest technological innovations. The front panel shows a photograph of the device. The company logo is printed in large letters in the upper left corner. Below it, the manufacturer presented the range that the router supports - 802.11ac. There is information on how this standard is implemented that is printed on the back of the box. Comparative characteristics carried out between AC1900, AC750, AC1200, AC1750. The differences between these technologies are speed. It varies in both the 802.11ac and 802.11n ranges.

In addition to this information, the manufacturer also presents support for other technologies, such as Turbo QAM. It allows you to increase data exchange without loss of speed. There is also a description of all the ports on the back of the box.

Equipment

It's time to look inside the shipping box. There, of course, is the ASUS RT AC68U router itself. All necessary documentation is attached to it. It's about about the warranty card, certificate, instructions. The latter is printed on a large number of sheets, since the information is provided in different languages. In addition, the router comes with a special disk. It contains the installation program.

This device has three removable antennas, which are separately packaged in a box. According to most users, this is a significant advantage, since such models are most often equipped with non-removable elements. And for some, this design is inconvenient. If you need to increase Wi-Fi power, you can replace the antenna with a more powerful one.

Naturally, this router runs on mains power, so the manufacturer provides a power supply in the kit. He looks pretty solid. There are no complaints about the assembly. At the output, the power supply produces 1.75A/19 V. Some users have noticed that this is quite a lot, since other router models use lower voltage. This decision was made for a reason by the manufacturer. High voltage necessary for the device to fulfill the declared characteristics. The box also contains a patch cord. It is equipped with four pairs.

Appearance

It's time to look at what the ASUS RT AC68U router looks like. There are no special “chips” in the design of the case. The manufacturer focused on the characteristics, leaving the design minimalistic and laconic. The router is positioned vertically. A special stand is provided for this. The latter is not removable. It is not possible to install the router horizontally. The designers simply did not foresee this.

The front panel of the device looks quite interesting. It is made of embossed dark plastic. This design is stylish but discreet. On the right side at the top there is a shiny company logo. It indicates that this device is not a counterfeit. At the bottom of the front panel there are light indicators. There are 10 of them in total. Detailed description read below for indicators.

For convenience, the manufacturer has placed two buttons on the side. The first allows you to enable/disable Wi-Fi. The second is used to access wireless network settings. This technology is called WPS.

The rear panel of ASUS RT AC68U is also occupied functional elements. It has yellow hybrid ports. There are 4 of them in total. They are used to connect the router to a PC or laptop using a patch cord. There is also an input for an Internet cable. It is marked with the inscription WAN and is made in blue. This makes it impossible to confuse the ports. In addition to these connectors, there is a button to turn the device on/off on the rear panel. Next to it there is a small key recessed into the case, which is designed to quickly reset the router settings. Of course, there is also a port into which the power supply plug is inserted. Next to it are USB connectors for connecting a flash drive. A significant advantage of this model is the ability to turn off the indicator lights. To do this, the manufacturer placed a special button on the case. The designers did not forget about cooling. The device has grilled ventilation holes that allow the electronics to not overheat.

Description of indicators

As mentioned above, the developers added 10 light indicators to the front panel of the device. Let's look at what they mean. Numbering is indicated from left to right.

• 4…1 - indicators for connecting devices to the router via a patch cord.
• 5 - indicates Internet access.
• 6 - USB 3.0.
• 7 - USB 2.0.
• 8 - displays the operation of the 2.4 GHz wireless network.
• 9 - Wi-Fi frequency 5 GHz.
• 10 - power indicator.

First connection

After purchasing an ASUS RT AC68U router, you need to properly connect it to your computer. To do this, use the patch cord provided in the kit. The plug on one side is inserted into the port located on the back of the router. The second part of the cable must be connected to system unit PC.

Next, you need to open a browser on your computer. The router interface window will automatically appear on the desktop. The manufacturer made sure that the user did not specifically enter the device address. However, if suddenly the router interface does not open, you can dial the code - 192.168.1.1. Since the router settings can be protected from unauthorized access, the manufacturer installs protection. To go to the menu you will need to enter your username and password. The default word is admin.

Interface

First ASUS setup RT AC68U will not be a problem for an advanced user. The interface is typical of many other devices from this manufacturer. The only thing that can be added to the menu is new settings items. All of them are located on the left side of the working window.

When you connect the router for the first time, you will need to make changes to the settings. You need to start with the Internet settings. There you are asked to enter the protocol used by the provider. If required, indicate the login and password specified in the agreement. Next you need to go to Wi-Fi settings. ASUS RT AC68U has a security point. It can be protected home network from unauthorized users. also in Wi-Fi settings indicates the number of clients who can simultaneously use the wireless Internet.

For those who connect the router for the first time, the developers have provided quick setup. It offers the following items: wireless Wi-Fi network and setting an encryption code.

A significant advantage is the presence of the “Guest Network” tab in the settings of the ASUS RT AC68U router. You can create multiple accounts in it. This is necessary in order not to change the password after each guest visit.

There is a “Parental Control” tab in the router menu. Using it, you can restrict children's access to certain resources. In the “USB applications” item, you can choose to install several proprietary programs provided by Asus.

Cloud service AiCloud and AiRadar technology

The menu provides the ability to manage the AiCloud cloud service. It is useful for those who store large amounts of information. Using this service, files can be accessed from anywhere in the world.

The use of AiRadar technology allowed developers to increase the coverage area of ​​the wireless network. The user can select the priority direction in which the wireless network signal will be distributed. This will allow you to work with large volumes of data without losing speed.

Advantages of innovative developments

The indisputable advantage of the ASUS RT AC68U router is the ability to work with the new 802.11ac standard. Users also noted the location of the ports as a convenience. Thanks to the fact that they are on back cover, connecting wires to the device is not a problem. They are assembled at the back, so they do not stick out in all directions, as in other devices.

Anyone who purchased this router was able to evaluate its technical equipment. Functionality is the main advantage of ASUS RT AC68U. However, if the device does not fit into overall design, the buyer is unlikely to like it. The manufacturer did not forget about aesthetics. Stylish design will suit any modern interior. Now the router can be placed even in the bedroom. Thanks to the fact that there is a button to turn off the indicator backlight, nothing will interfere with your rest.

Speaking of technological developments, it is imperative to pay attention to the 3T3R three-way technology. It is provided by three antennas. During operation, the device practically does not heat up. Naturally, this affects the stability of the signal. And the long power cable provided in the package allows you to place the router in any place convenient for the owner.

Performance and performance characteristics

The manufacturer does not hesitate to advertise its ASUS RT AC68U router. He focuses on dual core processor, wireless chip BROADCOM. All this indicates a powerful hardware “stuffing”. The performance of the device is maintained by the RAM. The manufacturer claims that the transmitted wireless connection speed will reach 1900 megabits per second. Such results can be achieved by operating in the 5 GHz frequency range. If you switch to 2.4 GHz, the speed mode will be 1300 Mbit/s on the ac standard and 600 Mbit/s on the n standard.

These characteristics describe the operation of the Wi-Fi network. And the hybrid ports located on the router body provide a stable Internet signal for wired devices. Thanks to the fact that the manufacturer installed a USB 3.0 port, it became possible to significantly increase the speed of the file server. To do this, you will need to update the firmware (how to do this will be described below). You can connect modems that work with the 3G/4G network, flash drives and hard drives to this port.

Positive reviews

Users are actively discussing the capabilities of the ASUS RT AC68U router. Reviews are both positive and negative. Let's first look at what owners consider benefits.

• Stylish original case design.
• Powerful technical characteristics.
• Ability to operate in the 5 GHz band.
• High speed wireless network signal.
• Clear firmware interface. You can configure the router both superficially (a setup wizard is offered for beginners) and make deep changes (recommended for experienced users).

Let's talk about the shortcomings

Like any other device, ASUS RT AC68U (Merlin) has disadvantages. Users in their comments note the poor performance of the connection controller hard drive. Wi-Fi speeds sometimes slow down. Most likely, the reason for this is flawed software. Some users say that you can deal with this problem by changing the firmware. This router also experiences problems when working with 4G modems.

Firmware update

Most users often have a question: “How to update the firmware on ASUS RT AC68U?” Before telling the algorithm of actions, it is necessary to warn that such independent manipulations can lead to the removal of the device from the warranty. If this doesn't scare you, then let's get started.

• Login to the router interface (how to do this is described above).
• On a PC via a browser, go to the official website and download the firmware file.
• Unpack it and place it on your desktop.

After completing these simple preparatory steps, you can proceed directly to the update.

• In the router interface, on the left side, find the “Administration” item.
• In the window that opens, the tabs “Operating mode”, “System”, “Firmware update”, “Manage settings” will appear at the top.
• In order to install a new file with firmware, you need to go to “Firmware Update”.
• A table will appear on the screen with information about the product identifier, the current firmware version and a free line with the ability to add a new firmware file.
• In this line you will need to click on “Browse”. Select the desired file from the drop-down list.
• Confirm the action by clicking on “Submit”.

All you have to do is wait until the installation is completed, reboot the device (if this did not happen automatically) and that’s it - the firmware is updated!