help deciding on between asus routers

[simpsonar77]

I'm looking at the following ASUS routers:
RT-AC3100, RT-AC88U, RT-AC87U, and RT-AC3200.

I'm leaning towards the RT-AC3100, but it is significantly more than the AC87U and only a bit less than the 88U.

I only have 2-3 AC devices in the house, and much of my equipment is hardwired. I am currently using a netgear WNDRMAC V2 with open DDWRT installed and an AT&T PACE router/gateway. I can't stand the PACE router functionality and the netgear is getting old and has always a bit flaky. Not to mention that I basically have two different networks in the house and with the PACE it is IMPOSSIBLE to fully bridge the two routers, so I want to eliminate the secondary subnet (netgear) and disable all of the routing/wifi functions in the PACE.

My biggest issue is coverage, so I need a router that can fully cover 3000 sq ft 2 story house, plus a bit outside. I mostly get that, but it's spotty at best in some locations (hence the netgear router).

I stream media internally in the house from a server, but MOST of that is done over LAN. Speed is not a massive issue.

I like that the 3100 is fully featured, but I'm not certain that I'll make use of the added speed over the 87U.

Also, the 3100 is about 1 year newer than the 87U. I don't want to be getting something that's too old, if that is even really an issue with these.

I really like the fact that the 88u has additional ethernet ports as that would allow me to remove a switch from the setup, but I don't think that's worth the added price.

Recommendations on price vs performance?

 

[kanewolf]

Paying more for a router does not guarantee coverage. To cover your house, you should have multiple WIFI sources connected via a wired network. If you already have a good wired infrastructure, add one or more WIFI access points to provide your WIFI coverage.

 

[simpsonar77]

Paying more for a router does not guarantee coverage. To cover your house, you should have multiple WIFI sources connected via a wired network. If you already have a good wired infrastructure, add one or more WIFI access points to provide your WIFI coverage.

understood. I have a few extra access points/extenders that I can do this with, but I do want to start out with a slightly better unit than what I have now.

 

[gussrtk]

I purchased a pretty nice Asus router recently. Ac1700 or something (I know it's not as good as what you got there).

But my n600 Netgear router (3 years old, half the price) has better range and doesn't drop connection as often. It's my 2nd Asus router try, and really not happy with them. Advise other brands.

 

[bill001g]

If you really want to spend the time you can look the fccid numbers up in the fcc data base and read the output reports to see if there are tiny differences in the output power. Still it is mostly a waste of time. Almost all quality brands of routers transmit very near the legal maximum which means they will get similar coverage in lab conditions.

What they get in your house is impossible to predict. You have all the complexity of how the house is built and what neighbors you have interfering with your signals. Then you have your end devices which many times do not put out the legal maximum power and are the cause of many of the coverage issues.

Do not get deceived by the big number is better marketing trap. Those number represent data encoding methods not radio power. Even worse you likely can not even use the fancy encoding. Sure the router may have 4 antenna and be able to run 4 feeds but few end devices have more than 2 antenna so those fancy extra features go unused. This is also true for the so called tri-band routers. Putting another 5g radio into the router does not increase coverage or make it go faster for a single device. The end device can only use 1 of the radios anyway.

The optimum price performance point for most people is routers that claim 1200 speed. This is using 2 antenna speed with 300m on the 2.4 and 900m using 802.11ac on the 5g. You would be better off spending your money buy a bunch of these and putting one in each room on the end of your ethernet cables than spending money on some fancy router that does little.

The asus ac56u tends to be a very cheap router that can run dd-wrt.

 

[simpsonar77]

If you really want to spend the time you can look the fccid numbers up in the fcc data base and read the output reports to see if there are tiny differences in the output power. Still it is mostly a waste of time. Almost all quality brands of routers transmit very near the legal maximum which means they will get similar coverage in lab conditions.

What they get in your house is impossible to predict. You have all the complexity of how the house is built and what neighbors you have interfering with your signals. Then you have your end devices which many times do not put out the legal maximum power and are the cause of many of the coverage issues.

Do not get deceived by the big number is better marketing trap. Those number represent data encoding methods not radio power. Even worse you likely can not even use the fancy encoding. Sure the router may have 4 antenna and be able to run 4 feeds but few end devices have more than 2 antenna so those fancy extra features go unused. This is also true for the so called tri-band routers. Putting another 5g radio into the router does not increase coverage or make it go faster for a single device. The end device can only use 1 of the radios anyway.

The optimum price performance point for most people is routers that claim 1200 speed. This is using 2 antenna speed with 300m on the 2.4 and 900m using 802.11ac on the 5g. You would be better off spending your money buy a bunch of these and putting one in each room on the end of your ethernet cables than spending money on some fancy router that does little.

The asus ac56u tends to be a very cheap router that can run dd-wrt.

yes. I agree that you currently cannot use most of the capability of this device at the moment.

One of my concerns was age of the router's hardware. Some of these models, such as the AC1900 and AC3200 are nearly 3 years old. Are there any concerns there with security? Anything else besides "future proofing" (which is never really possible, anyway)

 

[bill001g]

Asus is really good about keeping software updated they use the same image for all their modern routers so you get good patches and fixes. You can also load the asus-wrt merlin firmware as well as the normal dd-wrt on many of their routers.

 

[simpsonar77]

Asus is really good about keeping software updated they use the same image for all their modern routers so you get good patches and fixes. You can also load the asus-wrt merlin firmware as well as the normal dd-wrt on many of their routers.

thanks! I think I'll go with one of the 1900 or 2400 models then.

 

[boosted1g]

If you only have 2-3 wifi devices then a tri band router (2 5ghz radios and 1 2.4 ghz radio) is not going to bennifit you. Tri-band is only going to be worth it if you have 10 devicves on the 5ghz band and thus you can distribute that load accross the two 5 ghz radios.

No single router is going to be able to distribute wifi to a 2 story 3k ft house. You will be better off having a router and another router configured as an access point. Very very ideal to run ethernet inside wall from 1st story to second story (unless 1st story is a basement then this usually means running cable up to attic space and then back down to room in second story). If running ethernet is just not possible then av1200 powerline adapters are the next best thing.
The weak link is not the router, it is your devices. Does not matter how powerfull the router is if your device can not send a signal back.

 

[boosted1g]

Looking into the future when more devices will have MU-MIMO then the AC87 would be my suggestion.

I currently have a 68P with asusmerlin and it is hands down the best SOHO wifi router I have owned.