Excellent router and now priced below $370.
Thanks to 3 camels for the alert.
Enjoy!
CamelCamelCamel.
Am i the only one here still using an adsl 2 router for nbn ?
What's adsl?
Question related to the gaming side, does this actually improve ping / performance in online games? Can anyone shed some light on whether this does anything worthwhile on the gaming side of things? I play games such as Rust, CSGO, Dota 2 and BF1 on Starlink. Currently just using the router that comes with the dish.
depends on your nbn speed (50/20 or 100/20 or 1000/50) lower speeds would not have much impact for speed (although you may experience improved ping). for wired connections i believe this is unlikely to improve performance (please correct if wrong). This would likely have a much stronger wifi signal though so if you are playing wirelessly it would help and offer support for gigabit internet down the line as weaker routers often do not get the full speeds due to hardware limitations
EDIT: did not read starlink in your comment unsure how much of above will apply.
It's unlikely to help.
The vast majority of your latency is between your house and the remote server, which might not even be in Australia.
Inside the house, your latency is likely less than ten milliseconds, there is no guarantee that a new router using very similar tech will improve this noticeably.
It's helped me reduce buffer bloat by using cake QOS. My old ac68u didn't support cake QOS.
I'm on 50/20 NBN hfc, when my partner is watching a netflix..etc (streaming service) I get ping spikes while gaming due to netflix..etc burst buffers data every 15secs or so.
I've installed merlin on my ax86u Pro and enabled cake QOS which has fixed out the buffer bloat.
If you're on a 100mbit NBN plan you probably wont suffer bufferbloat.
It was $329 on 4th March I purchased it at that time.
You are correct.
Silly question but what do they stand for? I know AC is WiFi 5 and AX is WiFi 6 but not sure about S and U.
Apparently S means simplified. The RT-AX86S is a cut down spec variant of the RT-AX86U. Asus S variants are not very common.
RT = router and U = USB port.
@syousef: Yep the differences are in the CPU, RAM, 2.5Gb LAN port and USB ports. The Wi-Fi on the ASUS RT-AX86S and ASUS RT-AX86U is the same.
ASUS RT-AX86S
Dual-Core CPU @ 1.8GHz.
512MB RAM.
2.5Gb WAN/LAN = removed.
1x USB 3.2 Gen 1x1 + 1x USB 2.0.
ASUS RT-AX86U
Quad-Core CPU @ 1.8GHz.
1GB RAM.
2.5Gb WAN/LAN.
2x USB 3.2 Gen 1x1.
@Twix: Thanks. I wasn't going to buy it anyway because I'm too cheap* but if I was this would have saved me.
*I have repurposed Telstra Modems as fast WIFI routers and am still running a WRT54GL for DNS.
I have a much older AC wireless router, and it works fine, except that the slow cpu speed severely cripples my OpenVPN speed. I wonder if it would make more sense to spend this $369 on a firewall device via which I can run the VPN much faster plus the benefits of pfsense or OPNsense
I can't comment for this router but I have gt ax 6000 and stream 4k us Netflix to my tv with no buffering or issues at all , the other VPN speed will be dependent on their server too
Something seems to have upset the already meagre coverage of our 2.4gzh network through the house.
Can anyone tell me if upgrading to a router like this would help? (Currently have an old AC d-link cylinder looking thing).
Or is this overkill and would a cheaper router such as the ASUS RT-AX55(currently $139 on amazon) help just the same?
We just stream and work from home and don’t generally have issues otherwise..
Why are you on 2.4 and not 5ghz?
The coverage will be much better with this than a garbage router like the one you get from an ISP
Things like baby monitor, old Apple TV, robo vac and a few other devices all operate on 2.4ghz.
Not ideal and if the signal keeps deteriorating they will either become obsolete or operate as ‘dumb’ devices. If I can improve the signal and get them to keep going for a few more year it’ll save me a lot in the short term.
If I can spend $139 for the same result then even better
You probably can, wifi 6 isn't useful for you, and the CPU and RAM isn't needed if you only have a handful of devices
@greatlamp: Many IoT devices run on 2.4ghz, and always will due to the range, but that doesn't mean he doesn't also have 5ghz devices.
@xmail: The $139 router will also have 5ghz coverage. Wifi 6 is a different standard. I would expect the only wifi 6 device most people own is their mobile phone.
@greatlamp: My main point is that you can't claim 'wifi 6 isn't useful for you' just because they have a 2.4ghz baby monitor.
I don't think there'd be any improvement in signal strength between this and a cheaper AX55. BTW the longer 2.4gHz wavelength will always do a better job of penetrating through to adjacent rooms/floors than the 5gHz (or 6gHz in wifi 7)
One router is usually good for a 2 bedroom apartment, for a house depending on size you might want to invest in aimesh like this yes and a cheaper one , but again without knowing the size you speak off it's hard to recommend
There are lots of questions on this thread around "Is this is a good buy for me?". Whether this router is going to suit your needs really depends on alot more than just cost (shocks OzB community!). You need to consider factors, such as your NBN service, physical factors about your home (and where you need Wifi coverage), the number & type of device connections, and whether you need advanced technical features (such as VPN's, custom firmware etc). Generally in networking, to get better speed/stability, you need to upgrade your "weakest link", which for alot of folk will be their NBN speed, or overcome wifi range issues.
Bought this router and it outperformed my asus gt ax11000 router. It shouldnt have but it did
How so?
I have the GT-AX11000 and thinking about 'upgrading'.
PS:
GT-AX11000 vs AX86U
https://versus.com/en/asus-rog-rapture-gt-ax11000-vs-asus-rt…
I have the old RT-AC86U and RT-AC68U, I'm using AiMesh.
If I buy this as main router can I still use AiMesh using existing old routers and what happens with Wifi 6? only to the devices connected to the main router and AC for the two Aimesh nodes? how does it work?
I'm only on 100/20 NBN I don't think Wifi 6 would benefit?
I was in the same situation as you and found that wifi 6 to wifi 5 handover is not all that smooth so I fell back to disable AX and stayed on AC which worked fine. I upgraded from AC68U to a cheap second hand AX56U and finally settled on a GT-AX6000 (for not much more than the AX86U in price) and paired with a bargain AX53U pickup plus the AX56U gave me wifi 6 everywhere but to be honest the overall throughput wasn't any difference between 5 and 6 in the suburbs with little wifi contention from other networks. I would stick with wifi 5 only or wifi 6 everywhere not a mix of them.
Keep in mind the non-pro AX86U is superseded by the AX86U pro and GT-AX6000 both having the same chipset (which is a huge die-shrink from AX86U so runs much cooler) with firmware between them in lockstep. If you're looking for this purchase to last you as long as your AC68U has lasted you I'd spend a bit more and get the PRO or AX6000 if I were you.
Thanks for your input think I will just stay with Wifi 5. I don't see the point if I fall back to AC rather than Wifi 6 plus not all my devices can use Wifi 6 anyway
AC68U certainly last the longest and still running since 2015
What modem do you have your router hooked up to?
I have a DSL-AC68U that was running my NBN50 but the modem failed to connect so I'm thinking of getting another modem to bridge and use the asus as a router only.
@montorola: I use the freebie Telstra one from old Telstra NBN Smart Modem Gen 2 DJA0231, when i had them for a year on NBN
NBN <> DJA0231 <> Asus RT-AC86U <> Aimesh <> RT-AC68U
Works pretty well as the Telstra one has 4G fallback. You can easily find one on eBay or Facebook marketplace second hand i suppose
@neonlight: Ah the good old Telstra Technicolor or Arcadian smart gateway 2
These are great. They must have spent a lot of time designing these for the NBN because when I had an AX56U it wouldn't do full gigabit but guess what the trusty old Technicolor would do it so I had it sitting in front of the AX56U for a while and the overall ping speed and throughput was much better
Hoping for an ebay deal, had some ebay gc to use up
Is this router overkill for an apartment setting?
Really great router! I bought mine back in 2020 at the black friday sales for $356 and it hasn't skipped a beat. I'm running it in mesh mode with a AC68U. Trying hard to resist the urge to buy another
Been using pfsense and old netgear nighthawk r8500 for wireless, ia this one will be better?
Asus routers are generally more stable IMHO. Nothing wrong with other brands but for my experience it's Asus or nothing for gaming, VR, streaming.
Happy to be corrected
Probably not any better. pfsense will be vastly more capable as a firewall, but only if you're using it well beyond a 'normal' home setup.
So all the Netgear is being used for is an access point. Which probably functions about as well as the Asus would.
So it's probably just a sidegrade. If it were me, I would not spend the money to do this.
Good price. Got it in Aug last year for $400 to replace my AC86U, which is now connected to it via wired (powerline ethernet) backhaul AiMesh - a very solid simple setup for consistent internet coverage throughout the house for smart devices.
Moving to a new place and needed a router, this just saved me, thanks OP.
Now any deal for the AX56U so that I can aimesh it for the entire home coverage.
Is port mirroring an option on this router - or does it require merlin? thx
got the router, thank OP. Also got ASUS DSL-AX82U to pair it up with on my FTTN VDSL setup.
Great deal
VPN "Client" function
Compatible with ASUSWRT-Merlin firmware
Compatible with the AI MESH system
i got a TPG provided TP-Link VR1600v modem router…. is this good enough as a modem and just get this router? i dont realy want to spend anymore money on a new modem if not necessary
What service type HFC, FTTC, FTTN, FTTP?
If anything other than FTTN there's a network connection device so you can skip the VR1600v altogether
Its FTTN sadly, so the ASUS RT-AX86U can actually be a modem router then for other connection types… interesting
FTTN you need the VR1600V then which is OK in bridge mode
Thanks op! Grabbed one. So glad I didn’t get it last week.
Wow Amazon is quick. Ordered this morning and just got delivered now.
Is there a downside in having a standard run of the mill ISP modem but top tier router?
Honestly speaking how does this compare to the GT-AX6000 and can it do a guest network with a different DNS to the main network?
Gt is 2 years newer and slightly better with more gaming oriented options , when on sale at $400 it's def a better buy
these are great, have a few of them in mesh, multiple story coverage.
Showing $493 now unfortunately
LOL @ $493, good joke Amazon.
Wifi 5 is fast enough - but I've found wifi 6 to have a more robust signal when i started using my Asus 56U.
BTW how does this compare to the cheaper 56U?
Is this worth an extra $125 over the AX58U?
missed it :(
Available again @patzorz
This time with cashback from Asus too (if you already own a router)
Bought it, not sure whether I need it.. using orbi rbr50 and satellite… Is it going to be an upgrade?
For those that bought the RT-AX86U on 27th March, do you know if you're eligible to participate in this Asus cashback promotion:
I would guess that it is not eligible because of the following on the page
Event time：2023/04/01~2023/05/31
However I'm sure it won't stop ozbargainers trying :)
Wordings are not clear to me.
1) If you look at the claim form, you only need to submit proof (serial number/invoice) for one purchase. I assume this is the 2nd purchase during the promotional period.
2) The T&C has the word “before” for the 1st purchase and the words “within promotion period” for the 2nd purchase.
So you plan on buying one of the eligible products during the promotion period (1/4-31/5) and claim cashback on both ?
@HardQuiz: I do plan to buy a 2nd router as AP at some stage (not in a rush). Maybe if I do buy during the promotion period, and if I do get the cashback, I’ll take it as a bonus. I’m just not clear on the qualifying criteria.
What is clear though, is the cashback is only on the 2nd purchase. The condition is that you must have had made the 1st purchase. Just that I’m not clear if the 1st purchase must be made during promotion period.
I think it’s back in stock by 5th of April 2023 with the same price $369. Grabbed one :)
Cheers, was bummed I missed this just by a day. Got one with Macquarie gift cards (3% off) at $358.50 (topped up $19 with cash).
I added to cart when I read your post at $369.
Then randomly duplicated another tab and it says $443.
Went back and checked out anyway. Hopefully they honor it.
Then you would benefit from something like this, they are much better then ISP modems and give you more control over your network , you can limit what each device does
I have 3 TVs so you need a good router or two to stream 4k and play games