We have a section with the speed of the USB port. Please read it.
Thomas
6 years ago
I replaced an Airport Extreme 6 with the ASUS RT-AC86U; not really comparable. The unit did come from China (box marked in Chinese) so it did take a while. I upgraded the firmware and installed my network parameters. I am very pleased with the performance though I am not a gamer and there are seldom more than 2 laptops active wirelessly. There are no wired connections. My house is large and the remote signal strength is excellent. It arrived 1 month ago.
I bought the 86U to replace the 87U, and measured the signal strength with Ekahau heatmapper on the ground floor and in the garden, about 250 square meters. I could see no improvement over the 87U, nor did it worse.
Only file transfers from wifi to LAN were about 35% faster.
The only adavantage may become the AIMesh feature, WHEN and IF it becomes supported for the 87U and then using the both together.
I’m thinking about sending the 86U back, it is an ok router but not worth the money when upgrading from the 86U.
Other advantages are: 86U can handle many more wireless clients than 87U, due to newer, more powerful hardware. On new PCs with modern wireless network cards, you will also see a speed improvement on WiFi. Also, the security you get is better than on the 87U.
Okay, thanks for your comment.
Meanwhile, ik kept the 86U because the wifi speed is really amazing, I keep getting downloadspeeds on the Internet of about 190 Mbps to 200 Mbps, max of my ISP, where the 87U never tops the 125 Mbps. I use the 87U as an AP at the second floor now and hope for AIMesh support in future.
Also, I tested the much appraised Netgear R7800 Nighthawk, but its speeds where seldom half of those of the 86U, and its Wifi range is about 30% less
Dan
6 years ago
Hi thanks for the review.
Do you know if it has capabilities to block content on a category based rather than URL’s ?
Sorry I also commented on the ASUS 4G-AC68U review.
I worked out that the category filtering is per user/device rather than a global setting that is applied to all user/devices. Do you recommend any other devices that have the category filtering feature that contain a sim slot ?
I tried several AC86U (2900) units and agree with most of your findings, but had to return them because port forwarding never worked. Did many things (factory reset, changed config files, downgraded and upgraded firmware, etc.) ASUS tech support had no idea why this was happening and could not help. Have multiple other prior ASUS routers and they port forward fine. Had to return the two 2900 units. If this PF failure is fixed, will re-purchase the 2900.
Hey, had the same issue with two 86u’s took back the first… it really seemed glitchy, slow page refresh etc, no port forwarding worked.. got the second one, did all the standard stuff, firmware, etc, even flashed Merlen whcih has powered my N66u for years.. dropping lan, port forward sketchy at best. Read a post saying to try FW V 20648.. viola! tis stable… two weeks of screwing around, no help from asus. Cheers, P.)
But you have tested both, and your results don’t lie, when I put your results side by side, you can clearly see that for example the wireless 5GHz speed is better in the Archer C9 than in the RT-AC86U.
Based on this fact, can you think of why a 2 years old high-end router (RT-AC86U) performs worst than a much older one, 5 years old or so (Archer C9).
Your database: Reviewing The TP-LINK Archer C9 AC1900 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router VS Reviewing ASUS RT-AC86U: High-end performance and great hardware!
Our review for TP-Link Archer C9 is very old. At that point, we tested v1, which is no longer sold. In the meantime, that router has arrived at the hardware revision V5, which we did not evaluate. We would rather not comment about a router that we did not test.
Happy Asus user
4 years ago
Just making a post regarding the default region for Asian sourced routers.
You know you’ve got one of these routers when after pressing reset, Chinese characters appear in the initial setup screens. You can of course change the language back to English after setup, but it is a bit of a hassle trying to work out what to do!
I think the region default value is sometimes pushed back to “China” for these routers when you upgrade or reset, so if you are having problems with one of these routers, check the following
– Log into your router
– Press Wifi option (bottom left)
– Press Professional tab (top right)
– In the field for frequency, select 2.4 Ghz (use drop down button)
– Page down and change the region to suit your locale e.g. for me in the UK, I changed it from its default value of “China” to “Europe” and this fixed various problems like the 2.4 GHz not working and AIMesh not connecting
To get AI mesh to work, I had to use the Asian sourced router as the main router ans set its 2.4 GHz default region to “Europe” and then this enabled my other Europe sourced routers to be easily added into AIMESH
denzray
4 years ago
i got the RT-AX88U it’s a beast! even with my VPN turned on it does not slow down my Internet speed. I love it though i don’t trust the AiProtection. could be a privacy issue but i turned it on anyway
What about power consumption?
Just bought it – seems hard to get hold of this router.
It was initially launched in a small batch. We expect this to change very soon and for ASUS to increase availability.
how fast is the speed from usb 3.1 storage to wifi?
is it really around 100 MB/s read and write as asus promises?
We have a section with the speed of the USB port. Please read it.
I replaced an Airport Extreme 6 with the ASUS RT-AC86U; not really comparable. The unit did come from China (box marked in Chinese) so it did take a while. I upgraded the firmware and installed my network parameters. I am very pleased with the performance though I am not a gamer and there are seldom more than 2 laptops active wirelessly. There are no wired connections. My house is large and the remote signal strength is excellent. It arrived 1 month ago.
I’m glad that you enjoy using this router. 😉
I bought the 86U to replace the 87U, and measured the signal strength with Ekahau heatmapper on the ground floor and in the garden, about 250 square meters. I could see no improvement over the 87U, nor did it worse.
Only file transfers from wifi to LAN were about 35% faster.
The only adavantage may become the AIMesh feature, WHEN and IF it becomes supported for the 87U and then using the both together.
I’m thinking about sending the 86U back, it is an ok router but not worth the money when upgrading from the 86U.
Other advantages are: 86U can handle many more wireless clients than 87U, due to newer, more powerful hardware. On new PCs with modern wireless network cards, you will also see a speed improvement on WiFi. Also, the security you get is better than on the 87U.
Okay, thanks for your comment.
Meanwhile, ik kept the 86U because the wifi speed is really amazing, I keep getting downloadspeeds on the Internet of about 190 Mbps to 200 Mbps, max of my ISP, where the 87U never tops the 125 Mbps. I use the 87U as an AP at the second floor now and hope for AIMesh support in future.
Also, I tested the much appraised Netgear R7800 Nighthawk, but its speeds where seldom half of those of the 86U, and its Wifi range is about 30% less
Hi thanks for the review.
Do you know if it has capabilities to block content on a category based rather than URL’s ?
Yes, it does. And it works very well because it is cloud-based and maintained by Trend Micro.
Great news – thank you.
Is this under AiProtection / Parental Controls ?
Sorry I also commented on the ASUS 4G-AC68U review.
I worked out that the category filtering is per user/device rather than a global setting that is applied to all user/devices. Do you recommend any other devices that have the category filtering feature that contain a sim slot ?
I have not tested other routers that work with SIM cards.
Yes. It is there.
The router app DOES WORK outside the network if you set up the Asus DDNS service
The iOS app works well any where in the world to connect and control your router remotely. Please connect your article.
I plan on purchasing this router. The speed and security made up my mind.
I tried several AC86U (2900) units and agree with most of your findings, but had to return them because port forwarding never worked. Did many things (factory reset, changed config files, downgraded and upgraded firmware, etc.) ASUS tech support had no idea why this was happening and could not help. Have multiple other prior ASUS routers and they port forward fine. Had to return the two 2900 units. If this PF failure is fixed, will re-purchase the 2900.
Hey, had the same issue with two 86u’s took back the first… it really seemed glitchy, slow page refresh etc, no port forwarding worked.. got the second one, did all the standard stuff, firmware, etc, even flashed Merlen whcih has powered my N66u for years.. dropping lan, port forward sketchy at best. Read a post saying to try FW V 20648.. viola! tis stable… two weeks of screwing around, no help from asus. Cheers, P.)
Current Version : 3.0.0.4.384_20648-g21e3702
Thanks for sharing the solution that you have found.
Would you recommend this router over the ASUS RT-AC88U? I am having a hard time separating the 2 as most the specs seem the same
Yes. I do. This is a newer model with better hardware and better performance. Go for AC86U instead of AC88U.
Can you give me a reason for the better performance of the TP-Link Archer C9 versus the ASUS RT-AC86U?
We did not compare Archer C9 with ASUS RT-AC86U.
But you have tested both, and your results don’t lie, when I put your results side by side, you can clearly see that for example the wireless 5GHz speed is better in the Archer C9 than in the RT-AC86U.
Based on this fact, can you think of why a 2 years old high-end router (RT-AC86U) performs worst than a much older one, 5 years old or so (Archer C9).
Your database: Reviewing The TP-LINK Archer C9 AC1900 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router VS Reviewing ASUS RT-AC86U: High-end performance and great hardware!
Our review for TP-Link Archer C9 is very old. At that point, we tested v1, which is no longer sold. In the meantime, that router has arrived at the hardware revision V5, which we did not evaluate. We would rather not comment about a router that we did not test.
Just making a post regarding the default region for Asian sourced routers.
You know you’ve got one of these routers when after pressing reset, Chinese characters appear in the initial setup screens. You can of course change the language back to English after setup, but it is a bit of a hassle trying to work out what to do!
I think the region default value is sometimes pushed back to “China” for these routers when you upgrade or reset, so if you are having problems with one of these routers, check the following
– Log into your router
– Press Wifi option (bottom left)
– Press Professional tab (top right)
– In the field for frequency, select 2.4 Ghz (use drop down button)
– Page down and change the region to suit your locale e.g. for me in the UK, I changed it from its default value of “China” to “Europe” and this fixed various problems like the 2.4 GHz not working and AIMesh not connecting
To get AI mesh to work, I had to use the Asian sourced router as the main router ans set its 2.4 GHz default region to “Europe” and then this enabled my other Europe sourced routers to be easily added into AIMESH
i got the RT-AX88U it’s a beast! even with my VPN turned on it does not slow down my Internet speed. I love it though i don’t trust the AiProtection. could be a privacy issue but i turned it on anyway