Netgear R7000 AC1900 Router $198.40, Asus RT-AC68U $191.20 @ Futu eBay w/ Shipping

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• 

  Kiryuiki on 14/09/2016 - 11:36

  +1

  If you're looking to flash Tomato, do note that the latest revision of the AC68U (C1) is not supported. And QoS on stock/merlin is pretty broken (outside of adaptive, which doesn't give you very much control in terms of rules/priorities). DD-WRT works on AC68U C1, but it doesn't look as nice as Tomato or stock/merlin and it lacks individual device bandwidth monitoring.

  • 

    dazweeja on 14/09/2016 - 12:23

    Very good advice. Hopefully Shibby can fix the C1 issues soon:

    https://bitbucket.org/pl_shibby/tomato-arm/issues/55/bootloo…

  • 

    netsurfer on 14/09/2016 - 12:46

    I am using the merlin firmware. It is based on Asus firmware so the NAT acceleration continues to use Asus based code. Other firmware might be more flexible, but for raw performance, you probably want vendor specific NAT acceleration, rather than open source one. Merlin firmware supports C1 (not surprising since it is based on Asus firmware).

    Probably can check with Futu as there are still a few B1 available. Last time I bought one, I received a B1 (was hoping for a C1).

    • 

      wilnor on 14/09/2016 - 14:38

      bought one myself from them last week and got the C1 version.

    • 

      netsurfer on 14/09/2016 - 14:58

      RT-AC68U:

      A1 - BCM4708 at 800mhz
      A2 - BCM4708 at 800mhz (with better shielding for USB 3)
      B1 - BCM4709 at 1GHZ
      C1 - BCM4709 at 1GHZ (apparently a slightly newer revision with change of wifi chip, which requires a newer SDK, hence why most open source firmware doesn't support it yet).

      So C1 is the latest version, but if you want to maximise your choice of custom firmware, B1 is the one to get. Personally, I prefer C1. Though to be honest, I cannot really feel any real difference between A1 and C1 (but I haven't used the router to its full potential yet).

• 

  Lukian on 14/09/2016 - 11:48

  R7000 has Xwrt-Vortex

  Oh thanks! Now my R7000 might be useful.

  PS. Buy the Asus.

  • 

    Cozza38 on 14/09/2016 - 12:19

    How does Xwrt-Vortex compare to DD-WRT?

    I've had my R7000 for a couple of years now, absolutely love it. It's running a probably fairly old version of DD-WRT.

    Is it worth checking out if I'm happy with my current config?

    • 

      netsurfer on 14/09/2016 - 12:50

      It is basically the merlin based firmware (for Asus) but altered to work for R7000. The main reason for using merlin is that it retains Asus' NAT acceleration code. Netgear has its own one (which is just as good), but for DD-WRT and other open source firmware with their own base code, they cannot use the proprietary NAT acceleration (and the proprietary one is definitely faster). There are pros & cons with DD-WRT. You need to decide based on what is important to you.

      Though if merlin is the firmware you prefer, might be better to get Asus-AC68U.

• 

  rattle on 14/09/2016 - 12:31

  Got the Asus for $191.xx delivered (with the Cash Rewards cash back as well) last week during this promo.
  It arrived to country Vic in 4 days and absolutely kills the Testra box we had previously. So happy to have upgraded.
  Highly recommend grabbing at this price.

  A couple of mates have the R7000 and they rock as well. Can't go wrong with either one and at these prices too.

• 

  F-22 on 14/09/2016 - 12:52

  I'm interested in getting one of these to implement some QoS/Bandwidth guarantees, does anyone have any feedback from personal experience? What other features are people liking besides the superior WiFi and QoS?

  • 

    Kiryuiki on 14/09/2016 - 13:37

    +1

    I only have the AC68U. It has 3 modes for QoS: adaptive, traditional and bandwidth limit:

    • Adaptive is where Asus has pre-configured several different categories (Gaming, Streaming, File Transfer, General, etc) and allows you to drag and drop to change priorities for categories. The problem with this mode is that for traffic that has not been pre-configured (for example, it only lists a few Blizzard games under the Gaming category), it will automatically dump it into the General category so it's not really reliable for QoS.

    • Traditional is your standard QoS management. Specify your total up/down bandwidth and set rules and priorities based on IP/port/service. This would be perfect if it worked, but it doesn't. Completely broken, doesn't even limit total up/down bandwidth.

    • Bandwidth monitor is what it says. Specify a device (I think you can use MAC or IP), and specify a speed limit and the router will put a hard limit on that device. It works 50/50 in my experience, youtube traffic seems to ignore the limit for the most part. And of course, the more devices you try to manage with this, the less efficient it'll be as a QoS system.

    • 

      F-22 on 14/09/2016 - 13:53

      Shame to hear QoS is mostly broken, that would be the main reason to buy it for me. Thanks for the info though.

  • 

    dazweeja on 14/09/2016 - 13:42

    +1

    They have a decent ARM CPU so you can install a whole bunch of Nix packages (Entware-ng) like proxy, torrent client, etc, assuming you have installed third-party firmware. DNSMasq, VPN client and server, usually included with the custom firmware. I haven't used QoS for a while but when I was, Tomato seemed to have the best QoS implementation (but I'm not an expert in this).

• 

  codinghelloworld on 14/09/2016 - 13:59

  Sorry for this question. can someone tell me how to buy with this price? I tap on the link, input the coupon code but the price is still 248 AUD

  • 

    dazweeja on 14/09/2016 - 14:19

    That's strange. It works for me. Are you using all uppercase letters? I just click Buy It Now, enter the voucher code, click Apply, and the price is reduced.

    • 

      codinghelloworld on 14/09/2016 - 14:37

      I select Coupon (have to use Paypal payment to be able to input coupon), I login with Paypal Viet Nam, but my address is in Australia. The coupon I input is CSUN20. But the price did not change. weird.

      • 

        dazweeja on 14/09/2016 - 14:55

        Even though it says, "Log in to PayPal to use vouchers", I can still apply the voucher before I have logged into PayPal and I can see the price change.

      • 

        codinghelloworld on 14/09/2016 - 15:00

        @dazweeja:

        hmm, the voucher text box is gray out when I select credit card payment. It forces me to select Paypal and login Paypal to enable the voucher text box. :(

      • 

        codinghelloworld on 14/09/2016 - 15:55

        @haisergeant:

        that's weird, try many times, still cannot use the code CSUN20. What did I do wrong? :(

      • 

        dazweeja on 14/09/2016 - 16:23

        +1

        @haisergeant:

        Maybe try a different browser?

      • 

        codinghelloworld on 14/09/2016 - 16:57

        @dazweeja:

        Thousands of thanks to you. Try Safari and it is now 198AUD now. :)

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  timhobart on 15/09/2016 - 23:26

  about time to get new one, my RT is playing up, thx OP