Lucky bastard. :) I wish my RT-N66U had been like that. Still, I haven’t had any problems since this latest firmware update, so I’m starting to have high hopes for it now.
We have the RT-N56U in our basement and get good reception through our whole house. It’s really a great router.
fwiw, my RT-AC66U is pretty flawless, as well (albeit not worth the premium for most people)
Huh - didn’t know there had been a firmware update. Does it do those automatically or do I need to manually update it? (I assume the latter.)
EDIT: NVM, just checked via the router software, see an update is available and it is asking if I want to update. I’ll wait until I finish some streaming stuff I want to see today (just in case… ;) )
I’ve had the RT-A66U for about 4 1/2 months, since we bought our house. It’s been great. It’s in the living room by the TV, but takes care of the 2nd floor and my basement office. It’s been so good, I never got around to running the CAT 5 to my desktop PC because the Internet is just never a problem. The 5G is a bit limited in range comparatively, so I haven’t bothered to use it much. I may have been fine for a cheaper router, but I don’t mind the premium for a device I rely upon that never gives me any headaches.
… and that’s the last we ever heard from JeffL.
I got the RT-AC66U. Stupidly expensive, but it was a situation where I needed a new router, so I thought it made sense to just go with the best and try to at least obtain some kind of future proofing (though I know how silly that concept can be with this type of technology and a new standard created every day).
The good news is that the router was definitely the problem (I wasn’t positive it was that or the cable internet itself). Installed the new router (quickly and painlessly), and suddenly my problems with intermittent connectivity are gone and my Roku suddenly pops up HD quality streaming in a couple of seconds (whereas before it was hit or miss whether it would actually work, and it would rarely be HD).
So thanks for all the advice!
Yeah, those asus routers work great. Good to hear it fixed your problem.
Thanks to everyone for the advice in this thread. I just replaced my old Linksys E2000 with an ASUS RT-N56U, and the difference in speed, responsiveness, and reliability has been shocking so far.
Is the Nighthawk R7000 still the one to get?
On a somewhat related note, what’s a good 802.11ac network card?
If you have tmobile service, get their cellspot router for free, it can be flashed to an asus RT-AC68u. Otherwise, follow the wirecutter guide.
After my experience testing the Netgear R6100, I tend to look for details on throughput with a lot of blockage. My TPLink WDR4300, which is an N-router, gave me better throughput than the R6100 once I had a wall between me and the router, an in fact there were places I couldn’t get any signal at all with the AC1200 where I had no problem with the TPLink router.
Since the Wirecutter is recommending the Netgear R6250, I found this test graph from Small Net Builder:
You can see from that diagram if you’ve got a 5ghz client (which you do if you have an 802.11ac card), throughput from the Asus RT-AC66U can be double that of the recommended Netgear R6250 if there’s enough obstacles to cut the signal significantly. The Linksys EA6300 replicates my experience with the Netgear R6100, they had a test scenario where the throughput was zero.
What your own particular “worst case” will be depends on your usage. Part of my own problem is that I have 3 stories. My router is currently in my living room, and I spend a lot of time in my finished-attic office. In fact it’s been such an issue historically that I have access points in the attic, providing alternate wifi signal. I also sometimes needed wifi out in my driveway to drive my telescope, though I haven’t done that for a while due to laziness, and signal strength was an issue there as well.
Oh, and for comparison, here’s the same graph from the Nighthawk R7000 review.
Performance when signal is poor is comparable to that of the Asus AC68u. The differences aren’t so large when the signal is not obstructed.
Has anyone here heard of this eero router that Wirecutter mentioned in their What to Look Forward to section? I’m hooked, but I need to read the giant FAQ section first.
While the eero is kind of interesting as a theoretical concept, it’s a very expensive solution. Particularly if they boost the prices to the release levels of $500 for a 3-pack.
I guess it really depends on whether you can set up multiple access points right now without using range extenders. If you’ve got wired connections to points that can cover your house with access points, access points are a lot cheaper, and just as effective. The eero is promising a much better designed range extender, one that doesn’t sacrifice bandwidth, since they’re using one radio to receive data from the source and a second to repeat it, instead of a single radio to both receive and send, which automatically cuts bandwidth in half with each jump.
No way would I gamble $300 on the pre-release prices. There’s no way to know at this point whether they’re actually going to ship a product, or whether it will meet claims. You could end up spending $300 and get nothing or crap.
For range extension at home where wifi doesn’t cut it, use moca or powerline.
Yeah, powerline + access point is a much better solution than a repeater. And much cheaper than the Eero.
If Moca’s possible, definitely go for than over powerline, it doesn’t have the same interference issues (being shielded).
(Ofcom in the UK have realised that some kit screws over digital radio (oh, and GCHQ are not happy either), so are suggesting prosecutions!)
Erotic router?