I bought this router based on the recommendation of this site. Happily, the 2.4GHz signal and transfer rates are among the best I’ve seen and I can definitely see the beamforming working a treat! Unfortunately the 5GHz performance doesn’t pan out for my home and will not get past two load bearing walls. From my Synology NAS on 5GHz, I can transfer a 30GB file at Max of 22MB/s. Past the first load bearing wall that goes down to 11MB/s and past the 2nd load bearing wall the signal is kaput. In fact it is the hoped for 5GHz performance past the 2nd wall that I bought it for, but it unfortunately doesn’t deliver, and I have to go on using 2/4GHz band. Sigh…
I’m sorry to hear that you have issues with the 5 GHz wireless network. If you not satisfied with it, don’t hesitate to return it. 😐
Does the 2.4 GHz wireless signal get to the location furthest from the router?
Alex
9 years ago
Hi! Yes it does, and works even better with some Taiwanese 9Dbi high gain antennas. Got an extra -10dbm signal strengh, and beamforming still works.
The most impressive thing is it can go past two load bearing walls and an extra marble bathroom wall, and the download speed is still at 6.8MB/s, just 1MB/s off peak.
The thing is, based on your N18U report I’d be getting similar 2.4GHz performance at 1/3 the price!
TomE
9 years ago
WOW!!! Thanks very much for all the comparison tests among the three routers. I ended up deciding on the 68U bc I don’t have equipment to take advantage of the 87U. Also, considered the Linksys, but decided on the 68U bc of better reception bc I have reception problems in my house. This report was very helpful in coming to this decision.
richard
9 years ago
Are there any issues with USB 3.0 and wifi connectivity?
Raj, you really ought to try and do a bit more work before asking for help. For example, it is not clear whether the router loses its connection (e.g., modem or ISP issue), or is it the one client (e.g., a device such as a laptop) to lose its connection with the router, or something else. If you had thought about the issue a bit more, you might have even by now found your own answers.
Nico
9 years ago
i have the RT-AC87u two months now, and it works fantastic. I use the asuswrt-Merlin firmware on it. I combined it with a Engenius ECB600 AP for further away connections, and i have now the most performant wifi coverage, i ever had. On my router is a usb3 HD, used as storage for ipcam’s footage.
Earl
9 years ago
Replacing my 7 year old router with this, and went from 2meg ave speed to 16megs which is what my IP wan is set. Very nice GUI, very straight forward set ups. I have set a few port forwarding openings and works perfect. I dialed back the radios power out to 50%- Plenty of range. Dont like the floppy antennas. Cant seem to get them tight. Overall I would recommend this router.
Razvan
9 years ago
The WAN>LAN speeds are totally wrong.
My RT-AC68U reaches 930 Mbps with ease.
Most likely, the writer never actually tested the device, but got the numbers from other websites.
Frank
9 years ago
My new RT-AC87U keeps dropping the 2.4GHz connection. The 5GHz is stable. I don’t know whats wrong. It’s not just one device which loses it’s connection but several.
Update the firmware to latest? My 2.4 connection is rock solid.
Frank
9 years ago
Okay, the router said it was using the latest version but on the site there was a newer version. I installed this. Lets see if it works more stable.
Frex
9 years ago
Can anyone explain if this AC87 router can be configured with Dual Gateway (one direct ISP and one VPN). That way you can tell a device what internet to connect to.
This test is basically worthless since you were testing using an Internet website for speed, and not locally. SpeedTest.net introduces a zillion variables that have nothing to do with the WiFi and as such not apples to apples. There could have been latency at the test host, on your internet connection, different host, etc, etc. The fact that you didn’t know better than to do that surprises me, that is a total waste of time and all of the data is worthless, so this review has no value in terms of the performance measurements.
In the future to test performance of a local device you must measure locally. That means put a 5 GB file on one device and measure the transfer time (speed) to the other. There are other, better ways, to measure so you can rule out funkiness with a protocol, disk writing or something, but just measuring a simple local network file transfer is 1,000X better than what you did for coming up with an accurate transfer speed.
The SpeedTest.net test is there to show you the speeds that you can reach with your Internet (NOT LAN) connection, if you would have a 1 Gbps Internet connection available. What’s the maximum speed on the Internet?
We consider this test valid and useful.
Hard Coder
8 years ago
Just like Alex, I bought this router based on the recommendation of this site but very quickly I got into a figure out that Asus made crappy things. This is what happened :
Opened the box, saw the thing « Incredeble Starts here ». Said to myself, wow, this stuff really worth the least penny that I paid. Installed it and got into the admin page. Configured it with all my basic settings. And got it to work. A while later, after seeing the annoying Gif icon indicating the new Firmware availability on the admin page I updated to the firmware; obviously the thing not to do. Since then the admin page is not displaying correctly.
I then contacted the Asus support. They asked me to send them back the Router and told me that the router had a particular defect. After several weeks Asus sent me a brand new one. After receiving it I did the same thing. And guess what, the same thing happened again. I did it purpousely since I wanted to check if we could rely on their software update especially when my guarentee period is stil valid. I’ll have to renew the return back procedure and have to look forward Asus’s conclusion about the incident. But one thing is clear for me, I’ll buy no more Asus products in the futur.
Exactly the same problem, GUI is not correctly loaded after update. I try to downgrade with the first firmware on asus website, but the problem is the same.
I will not buy asus product again too…
Nic
8 years ago
I just purchased a RT-AC68U and my wireless devices regularly lose connection to the router. I have multiple devices (iPad, Android phone, PC laptop) and they all drop out at the same time. The only way to get them to reconnect is to switch off / on the router, sometimes multiple times a day. Very annoying. I am running the latest firmware. Any suggestions ?
Great job, thanks!
I bought this router based on the recommendation of this site. Happily, the 2.4GHz signal and transfer rates are among the best I’ve seen and I can definitely see the beamforming working a treat! Unfortunately the 5GHz performance doesn’t pan out for my home and will not get past two load bearing walls. From my Synology NAS on 5GHz, I can transfer a 30GB file at Max of 22MB/s. Past the first load bearing wall that goes down to 11MB/s and past the 2nd load bearing wall the signal is kaput. In fact it is the hoped for 5GHz performance past the 2nd wall that I bought it for, but it unfortunately doesn’t deliver, and I have to go on using 2/4GHz band. Sigh…
I’m sorry to hear that you have issues with the 5 GHz wireless network. If you not satisfied with it, don’t hesitate to return it. 😐
Does the 2.4 GHz wireless signal get to the location furthest from the router?
Hi! Yes it does, and works even better with some Taiwanese 9Dbi high gain antennas. Got an extra -10dbm signal strengh, and beamforming still works.
The most impressive thing is it can go past two load bearing walls and an extra marble bathroom wall, and the download speed is still at 6.8MB/s, just 1MB/s off peak.
The thing is, based on your N18U report I’d be getting similar 2.4GHz performance at 1/3 the price!
WOW!!! Thanks very much for all the comparison tests among the three routers. I ended up deciding on the 68U bc I don’t have equipment to take advantage of the 87U. Also, considered the Linksys, but decided on the 68U bc of better reception bc I have reception problems in my house. This report was very helpful in coming to this decision.
Are there any issues with USB 3.0 and wifi connectivity?
Edit: Reason I ask is because I want to connect an external harddrive to the router and treat is as a time machine/capsule backup for the macbook.
I have RT-AC68U and this router drops connection very frequently. Is there is a setting needs to be done or this is defective router? Please Help
Raj, you really ought to try and do a bit more work before asking for help. For example, it is not clear whether the router loses its connection (e.g., modem or ISP issue), or is it the one client (e.g., a device such as a laptop) to lose its connection with the router, or something else. If you had thought about the issue a bit more, you might have even by now found your own answers.
i have the RT-AC87u two months now, and it works fantastic. I use the asuswrt-Merlin firmware on it. I combined it with a Engenius ECB600 AP for further away connections, and i have now the most performant wifi coverage, i ever had. On my router is a usb3 HD, used as storage for ipcam’s footage.
Replacing my 7 year old router with this, and went from 2meg ave speed to 16megs which is what my IP wan is set. Very nice GUI, very straight forward set ups. I have set a few port forwarding openings and works perfect. I dialed back the radios power out to 50%- Plenty of range. Dont like the floppy antennas. Cant seem to get them tight. Overall I would recommend this router.
The WAN>LAN speeds are totally wrong.
My RT-AC68U reaches 930 Mbps with ease.
Most likely, the writer never actually tested the device, but got the numbers from other websites.
My new RT-AC87U keeps dropping the 2.4GHz connection. The 5GHz is stable. I don’t know whats wrong. It’s not just one device which loses it’s connection but several.
Update the firmware to latest? My 2.4 connection is rock solid.
Okay, the router said it was using the latest version but on the site there was a newer version. I installed this. Lets see if it works more stable.
Can anyone explain if this AC87 router can be configured with Dual Gateway (one direct ISP and one VPN). That way you can tell a device what internet to connect to.
Yes it can do that, but only with DDWRT.
This test is basically worthless since you were testing using an Internet website for speed, and not locally. SpeedTest.net introduces a zillion variables that have nothing to do with the WiFi and as such not apples to apples. There could have been latency at the test host, on your internet connection, different host, etc, etc. The fact that you didn’t know better than to do that surprises me, that is a total waste of time and all of the data is worthless, so this review has no value in terms of the performance measurements.
In the future to test performance of a local device you must measure locally. That means put a 5 GB file on one device and measure the transfer time (speed) to the other. There are other, better ways, to measure so you can rule out funkiness with a protocol, disk writing or something, but just measuring a simple local network file transfer is 1,000X better than what you did for coming up with an accurate transfer speed.
The SpeedTest.net test is there to show you the speeds that you can reach with your Internet (NOT LAN) connection, if you would have a 1 Gbps Internet connection available. What’s the maximum speed on the Internet?
We consider this test valid and useful.
Just like Alex, I bought this router based on the recommendation of this site but very quickly I got into a figure out that Asus made crappy things. This is what happened :
Opened the box, saw the thing « Incredeble Starts here ». Said to myself, wow, this stuff really worth the least penny that I paid. Installed it and got into the admin page. Configured it with all my basic settings. And got it to work. A while later, after seeing the annoying Gif icon indicating the new Firmware availability on the admin page I updated to the firmware; obviously the thing not to do. Since then the admin page is not displaying correctly.
http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2015/35/1440702086-rt-ac87u.png
I then contacted the Asus support. They asked me to send them back the Router and told me that the router had a particular defect. After several weeks Asus sent me a brand new one. After receiving it I did the same thing. And guess what, the same thing happened again. I did it purpousely since I wanted to check if we could rely on their software update especially when my guarentee period is stil valid. I’ll have to renew the return back procedure and have to look forward Asus’s conclusion about the incident. But one thing is clear for me, I’ll buy no more Asus products in the futur.
Exactly the same problem, GUI is not correctly loaded after update. I try to downgrade with the first firmware on asus website, but the problem is the same.
I will not buy asus product again too…
I just purchased a RT-AC68U and my wireless devices regularly lose connection to the router. I have multiple devices (iPad, Android phone, PC laptop) and they all drop out at the same time. The only way to get them to reconnect is to switch off / on the router, sometimes multiple times a day. Very annoying. I am running the latest firmware. Any suggestions ?