I want to replace my wrt3200acm router with one that has SIMULTANEOUS support for To get a sense of the signal strength these routers can generate, we use an Ekahau Sidekick Wi-Fi diagnostic device and Ekahau’s Survey mobile app to generate heat maps that show the router’s 2.4GHz and 5GHz signal strength throughout our test home. You can even use the TP-Link as an access point (meaning if you turn off its Wi-Fi it'll work as a switch.) So make sure to back up your old one when it’s working well. In either case, there’s little or no privacy concern, the DDNS host generally only has the information of your WAN IP and not much else. And it didn’t need one. But, still, when I say it’s the best Wi-Fi 6 router to date, I mean it. What makes the RT-AX86U special is the presence of the new 2.5 Gbps port that can work either as a LAN (default) or a WAN. I also plan to add 2.5GBase-T PCIe Network Card to my I7-8700K PC. My router is on top of the cabinate at 7 ft height. Keep an eye on your inbox! Sign up for What's New Now to get our top stories delivered to your inbox every morning. I am in 2 bedroom apartment and currently have all antennas straight pointing upwards. June2019 350E.PlumeriaDrive 202-12006-01 SanJose,CA95134,USA. Thanks for this review Dang. To start, I plugged the router into my modem and connected my desktop PC to one of the LAN ports. I've had 3 NG routers over the years but all had short lifespans so I want to try Asus based on your reviews. Netgear Nighthawk AX8 Review With Wi-Fi 6, the Netgear Nighthawk AX8 gives us a glimpse of the future of Wi-Fi David Ludlow Contact via Twitter | October 9, 2019 8:10 am BST How to Free Up Space on Your iPhone or iPad, How to Save Money on Your Cell Phone Bill, How to Find Free Tools to Optimize Your Small Business, How to Get Started With Project Management, Read Linksys Dual-Band Mesh Wi-Fi 6 Router (MR9600) Review, Read Netgear Nighthawk AX12 12-Stream Wi-Fi 6 Router (RAX120) Review, Read Netgear Nighthawk AX8 8-Stream Wi-Fi 6 Router (RAX80) Review, Read D-Link EXO Mesh AX1500 Wi-Fi 6 Router (DIR-X1560) Review, Read TP-Link Archer AX11000 Next-Gen Tri-Band Gaming Router Review, The Best Amazon Prime Day 2020 Router and Networking Deals, How to Set Up and Optimize Your Wireless Router for the Best Wi-Fi Performance, Verizon Launches Powerful New 5G Home Router, Treatlife Smart Wi-Fi Color LED Bulb Review, BodyGuardz Portable 5-in-1 Emergency Hub Review, Number of Wired LAN Ports (Excluding WAN Port). ft. with reliable, fast WiFi for up … And via a regular 1 Gbps connection, it averaged around 110 MB/s for both, about the max speed of Gigabit. First, it doesn’t include the Asus ROG signature lighting or fancy theme decoration. With the 2.5 Gbps port, the RT-AX86U has no excuse in network attached storage (NAS) performance when hosting a portable drive. The RT-AX86U can be managed using the same Asus Router mobile app as the ZenWiFi AX XT8 that we reviewed back in June. I have Ethernet to each router. I like the Asus RT-AX86U (thanks to your review). You can get to the interface by pointing a browser on a connected computer to the router’s default IP address, which is 192.168.50.1 or router.asus.com. It’s super flexible in prioritizing the Internet since it does so based on the type of traffic rather than connected clients. I'd basically have 4 units staggered throughout the house. On the map, the white circle represents the location of the router and the colors represent signal strength. Did you test NAS speeds over WiFi? Asus’s Adaptive QoS is one of my favorites in the Quality of Service. This feature, available in most Asus routers, is great to host a. Also towards the bottom are ten LED activity indicators for power, both radio bands, four LAN ports, 2.5 Gbps and 1 Gbps WAN, as well as WPS. Thank you. 1) Android USB tethering (LG stylo4 on Verizon) for ISP backup :), Asus RT-AX86U: The RT-AC86U’s worthy upgrade, Asus RT-AX86U: All those familiar features you’ve been enjoying, The time-saving universal setting restoration, The robust full web interface with a standard setup process, The Flexible Adaptive QoS and helpful Traffic Analyzer, Asus RT-AX86U: An interesting set of gaming features, Asus RT-AX82U Gaming Router Review: A Fancy Little Wi-Fi 6 Performer, The Right Way to Do an Internet or Wi-Fi Speed Test, RT-AX86U vs. RT-AX82U: The Hard Choice Between Asus's Gaming Duo, Netgear's Orbi LBR20 4G LTE Advanced Wi-Fi Router now Shipping, Wi-Fi Router USB Port Explained: How to Turn One into a NAS Server, Wi-Fi 6 Explained in Layman’s Terms: Speed, Range, and More, File System and Partition Explained: Take Control of Your Storage, Steps to Secure Synology NAS Against Ransomware, How to Turn your USB-enabled Wi-Fi Router into a Time Capsule, Home Wi-Fi Explained: (Almost) Everything You Need to Know, Asus RT-AX88U vs. RT-AC88U: The Same Router of Two Wi-Fi Standards, Best Wi-Fi 6 Mesh Systems of 2020: The Real-Deal Collection, Best Wi-Fi 5 Routers: You Should Be Using One of These, Multi-Gigabit Wi-Fi 6 Routers: Getting Yourself Ahead of the Speed Curve, Asus RT-AX88U vs. Netgear RAX120: It’s More Like Multi-Gig vs. Gigabit, Asus RT-AX82U AX5400 Dual-Band Wi-Fi 6 Gaming Router, ASUS RT-AX86U AX5700 Dual Band Wi-Fi 6 Gaming Router, ASUS RT-AX89X AX6000 Dual Band WiFi 6 Router, ASUS ZenWiFi AX Whole-Home Tri-Band Mesh WiFi 6 System (XT8), TP-Link Archer AX10 AX1500 Wi-Fi 6 Router, Netgear Nighthawk AX6 6-Stream WiFi 6 Router (RAX50), Netgear Orbi Whole Home Tri-Band Mesh Wi-Fi 6 System (RBK752), SK hynix Gold P31 PCIe NVMe Gen 3 M.2 SSD, Samsung 970 EVO Plus NVMe solid-state drive, ASUS ZenWiFi AC CT8 Whole-Home Tri-Band Mesh System, ASUS RT-AX86U AX5700 Dual-Band Wi-Fi 6 Gaming Router, 2 x USB-A USB 3.0 ports (storage, modem, printer), 1.8 GHz quad-core processor, 256MB Flash, 1GB RAM, Yes (AiProtection powered by Trend Micro), With antennas: 9.52 x 3.93 x 12.79 inc. (242 x 100 x 325 mm) / Withtout: 9.52 x 3.93 x 6.45 inc. (242 x 100 x 164 mm), Fast performance, excellent range, reliable, Tons of helpful networking features and settings, Multi-gig, WAN/LAN Link Aggregation support, Excellent NAS performance and features when hosting a storage device, Combine the LAN1 and LAN2 ports into an aggregated 2 Gbps LAN connections. And that’s really something. I bought my current Asus RT-AC88U because of your review on CNET. The Netgear Nighthawk AX8 WiFi Router is packed with features and has the range to cover very large homes. AiProtection includes a Parental Control feature and an online protection engine called Network Protection powered by Trend Micro. While the RT-AX88U didn’t have much to qualify as a must-upgrade — it’s basically like the older cousin plus the support for Wi-Fi 6 — the RT-AX86U now is an entirely new beast that will tempt you. I currently have an Archer C7 in the middle of the basement and an TM-AC1900 set up as an access point, but have a few weak spots in the house. The number you see over Wi-Fi is quite normal, though. I was able to get it up running in less than 15 minutes, including upgrading it to the latest firmware. And, note that using the backup file of another router can also carry over erroneous settings. You can assign bandwidth thresholds and configure application-specific bandwidth prioritization using the Adaptive QoS settings, or use the Game settings dashboard to access the Gear Accelerator utility which allows you to assign bandwidth priority to specific devices. Via a 2.5 Gbps wired connection, the router delivered the sustained speeds of some 150 MB/s and 140 MB/s for reading and writing, respectively. When hosting a storage device, the router has all the features you can imagine — from data sharing (locally and over the Internet) to backup (including the support for Time Machine), to a personal cloud. So, at a current price of $250, it’s a steal. On the other hand, if you keep using Adaptive QoS, which has a gaming section of its own, chances are you can keep everything to co-exist peacefully, though not all applications will work at their best. Also, it doesn’t have every game-related feature found in the tri-band cousin. The RT-AX86U delivered very good throughput on our 2.4GHz close proximity (same room) performance tests. This configuration works great for those having a 2 Gbps Internet connection via a modem with WAN Link Aggregation. The point here is that the router’s game-related features might not necessarily be all good in all cases. Thanks so much for your help! Do you think buying two RT-AX86U routers makes sense? Disclaimer: Netgear has not paid me to write this review or asked me to endorse this product (AX 8). This router features very good range and is fast enough to handle any video streaming or gaming task you can throw at it. In this case, they can opt for the mobile app. That said, the rest of the unit is slick. That was the case in my trial.). NETGEAR Nighthawk 6-Stream AX4300 WiFi 6 Router Medium to large home WiFi coverage up to 2,500 sq. Our expert industry analysis and practical solutions help you make better buying decisions and get more from technology. Also does positioning antennas at different angle help? Now the question: Will the AX86U meet or exceed the range of the R7000P in my 2800sf two story house? All with wired backhaul. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Join us as we test and see what it's all about. The Parental Control feature could use some improvement, though. The Asus RT-AX86U was a very fast installation. Some devices in my living room would refuse to connect to the satellite which was sitting 6 feet away and would insist on connecting to the main router which was 40 feet away, it drove me crazy trying to figure out why it was doing this but the AX5700 … For the next five years, he was responsible for buying and configuring IBM PC, XT and AT desktops for many of New York's financial institutions. NETGEAR Nighthawk X6 Review The NETGEAR Nighthawk X6 AC3200 Tri-Band Wi-Fi Router is a unique router that provides the speed, security and features you should expect from a … It won’t topple easily. At a close range, my 4×4 test client got the sustained speed of some 870 Mbps. Overall coverage and stability is the priority. The RT-AX86U reminds me of the RT-AX88U that came out last year. On our 5GHz close proximity test, the RT-AX86U garnered an impressive score of 831Mbps, which was identical to the AX11000’s score and 49Mbps faster than the RT-AX88U. But now I'm second-guessing. The specs of the XD4 are not as good as the RT-AX86U, but I'm not sure that matters in my situation. And that’s big, considering Asus routers are known to be buggy at launch. And that was exactly what I got in my testing. Greetings Dong, I'm not sure about #1. Update: It’s confirmed that the RT-AX86U will get its own Merlin firmware, which is now still in beta. You may unsubscribe from the router works well, too 'd be lower,... Testing of this router over IP, might suffer, Check out our 6. My testing in beta hardcore gamer, the Asus router another router can also use the 2.5 Gbps port the. Mind the next time you upgrade Wi-Fi router Review 2.5Gbe hits mainstream with... Next time you upgrade common functions and settings, which is now still averaged 1080. Slowest of the RT-AX88U that came out last year is great to host printers select... Labs-Based, independent reviews of the latest products and services of sight of with. 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