Well, you’re not really going to see any difference if you’re still going to use devices that don’t support WiFi 6, but that will change at some point (it depends on how often you change your phone, your laptop and other WiFi-capable devices). Before we go any further, is the ASUS RT-AX58U a part of the ‘draft’ stage, therefore lacking some of the advertised key features? The RT-AX58U is not WiFi 6 Certified, but this certification is granular, so, similarly to the WAVE 1 and 2 of the 802.11ac standard, most features are implemented, but more will come afterwards (and in better forms).

If you are an early adopter of this new tech and already have some devices with an AX WiFi adapter, the ASUS RT-AC58U promises to offer the OFDMA technique which subdivides a channel for multi-user access (should not be mistaken for MU-MIMO), the support for both 160MHz bandwidth and 1024-QAM modulation and some other goodies to improve the wireless performance and the bandwidth – of course, ASUS also added the support for AiMesh, so it hasn’t given up on the dream.

UPDATE 05.06.2020: The Asus RT-AX58U and the RT-AX3000 are not identical hardware-wise and the difference can be seen on the PCB, where the latter has a couple of Skyworks front-end modules for the 2.4GHz wireless chipset (special thanks to the user jsz for pointing it out).

UPDATE 03.22.2020: The Asus RT-AX58U may have definitely has a compatibility issue with the PCE-AC88 and the PCE-AC68, so I would wait a bit until Asus releases a fix.

UPDATE 03.15.2021: Almost a year later, the problems with the 160MHz channel bandwidth still persist and I have added a few graphs to get a better idea about what to expect if you need to use the RT-AX58U at its full power. The router has been updated to the latest firmware (v3.0.0.4.386.42095) before running the throughput tests.

Design
The Asus RT-AX88U is clearly sharing the same case as the RT-AC88U (besides some color accents, they’re pretty much identical), but the Asus RT-AX58U doesn’t have the look of the good ol’RT-AC58U. Instead, it went with a completely new design, going for a more aggressive appearance, with lots of sharp angles on the top surface and with a couple of ventilation grills pointing upwards, so the entire case resembles a sports car hood. It’s not a ‘gaming router’, so there are no red accents, but only the usual matte black finish, which is very soft to the touch, and the Asus logo is now golden (upgraded from silver).

Before unboxing it, I expected the router to be large and imposing, but no, it’s actually a lot more compact than your regular routers which is interesting considering that it’s supposed to be far more powerful than the dual-band AC alternatives.
This means that at its 8.8 x 5.0 x 6.3 inches, the RT-AX58U (RT-AX3000) occupies far less space than the RT-AX88U, but, despite being smaller, it still has a larger footprint than the Asus RT-AC86U (or the RT-AC68U). Well, the latter does sit vertically, so it doesn’t require much space from your desk, but the RT-AX58U does has the advantage of being able to be mounted on the wall or the ceiling. That’s right, on the bottom of the device, there are two mounting holes, so you’re not forced to keep the router on the table and that’s very useful especially in an office.

It’s worth mentioning that if you decide to keep it on your desk, the RT-AX58U is not going to move around regardless of how many cables you connect to its rear end and that’s thanks to the four silicone feet (and its weight of 18.9 ounces). Well, since we’re still staring at the bottom of the router, it’s also worth noting the huge amount of ventilation cut-outs and you can get a peak at a large heatsink, so Asus seems to have taken very seriously the heat management of this device. That’s not all, since you can also see some vent cut-outs on the sides, as well as on the rear side, next to the top surface.

But is this enough to ensure a decent internal temperature? It’s true that the device is very compact and the internal components are quite powerful, which means that the wireless router does indeed get warm (warmer than the RT-AC86U), but, so far, there are no signs that it may overheat (it could happen after it ages a bit, but for now, everything is fine temperature-wise). One element that has taken me by surprise is the fact that the four antennas are not removable and that’s unexpected on a device at a relatively high price tag – I mean, I doubt that many of you have actually replaced the antennas of your router, but, still, you’re paying some significant amount of cash for this device, so you’re allowed to nitpick.

On the top of the Asus RT-AX58U, towards the front, there are eight LED indicators that show the status of the device (and the network): from the left, there’s the WAN LED followed by four LED, each corresponding to one LAN Ethernet port; the last three LEDs show the status of the 5GHz network, the 2.4GHz network (when the LED flashes, it means that the data is being transmitted) and the Power.

I hope the wireless router will keep this array indefinitely and not be tempted by the ‘minimalist’ move to replace it with a single LED which is completely unintuitive. Moving on to the rear side, we find a Power port (there is a Power brick inside the package), an On/Off switch, a USB 3.1 Gen 1, four Gigabit Ethernet ports (only the premium RT-AX88U has eight LAN ports), a Gigabit WAN port, a WPS buttons and a recessed Reset button (press and hold it for about 10 seconds to return the device to factory default settings).

Internal Hardware
To open the router, you need to remove the four screws from underneath the pads that cover the feet and then carefully detach the top cover (be aware that doing so could void the warranty). This way, you will be able to see the PCB which is covered by two separate large aluminum heatsinks – remove the screws to get them out of the way and you should get a view of the antenna connectors and a couple of metallic covers that can easily be removed to expose the first set of components.

First, there’s the Broadcom BCM6750KFE8G CPU (based on a 32-bit Cortex A7 core and is clocked at 1.5GHz), then, there’s the 512 MB of RAM from Nanya (1930 NT5CC256M16ER-EK), two SWAP B1923 net NS773602 10/100/1000 Base-T dual port transformer modules (for LAN) and a SWAT W1905 net NS771802 10/100/1000 Base-T single port transformer module (WAN). For the WiFi performance, the Asus RT-AX58U uses the Broadcom BCM6750 b/g/n/ax 2×2:2 chip for the 2.4GHz band and the Broadcom BCM43684 an/ac/ax 4×4:2 (with a Skyworks 85743 front-end module) for the 5GHz band.
Next, I turned the board upside down and was greeted by a very large heatsink and, after I removed it, I could see the 256 MB storage memory (Macronix MXIC a181109 MX30LF2G18AC-TI).

There have been discussions that the RT-AX58U was equipped with an Intel Lantiq GRX350 CPU (like the NETGEAR RAX40) which would cancel the possibility of it being supported by Merlin, but, since it’s now confirmed that the router is Broadcom-based, it should receive the Merlin custom firmware at some point this year.
Note: The RT-AX58U is advertised as an AX3000-class router, so, it features a maximum theoretical data transfer rate of 574 Mbps on the 2.4GHz radio band and a maximum theoretical data transfer rate of 2,402 Mbps on the 5GHz radio.

Features and Performance
Since this is my first AX router to test, let’s have a look at some of the WiFi 6 features that the Asus RT-AX58U can use. First, there’s the OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access) which is one of the most important improvements over the last WiFi generation and its role is to divide a channel into multiple smaller sub-channels that gets shared with up to 30 devices at the same time, so less bandwidth is wasted (the previous implementation gave each client its own entire channel and other devices had to wait their turn until the client transmission was completed) – it’s important to know that OFDMA works both downstream and upstream.

The MU-MIMO technology has also seen an improvement, now being able to serve eight simultaneous client devices instead of a maximum of four (on the WiFi5), but the RT-AX58U is stuck with a 2×2 MU-MIMO configuration and that’s not really that bad considering that most devices don’t support MU-MIMO and those that do rarely go above 2×2 (mostly, some high-end laptops).
You do get the 1024-QAM technology which should ensure an increase of about 25 percent in data rate over the WiFi 5, but you will see a better throughput only in close proximity to the client, when the interference is kept to a minimum and most importantly, the client devices need to be equipped with compatible WiFi adapters. That’s also the case with MU-MIMO, the 160MHz bandwidth support and the BeamForming technology (which has the role of targeting the signal at the connected clients instead of broadcasting it everywhere).

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Mark B

Mark is a graduate in Computer Science, having gathered valuable experience over the years working in IT as a programmer. Mark is also the main tech writer for MBReviews.com, covering not only his passion, the networking devices, but also other cool electronic gadgets that you may find useful for your every day life.

www.mbreviews.com

The AiMesh is an ambitious, new technology developed by Asus which allows the creation of home-based WiFi mesh systems using two or more Asus routers. Unlike the dedicated WiFi mesh systems available from most, if not all large networking manufacturers (yes, including Asus), where you usually get two or three identical devices, Asus allows you to use various compatible routers and you can, for example, use your older RT-AC68U along with either the RT-AC88U or the RT-AC86U in order to create a larger network. I know that there isn’t a standard set for the available WiFi mesh systems (they’re proprietary and won’t work together), but they all rely on the same set of properties in order to achieve their goal (including the AiMesh).

Probably the most important one is the self-optimization property, which analyses all the nodes connected to the network and, based on the signal strength, the distance between the routers, the number of connected clients, the available radios, the overcrowded channels (and more), it helps create optimized paths which ensure that the data gets to the destination as fast as possible. Furthermore, by adding more nodes, you also allow the network to create more paths for the data and cover a lot more space than you could with a single router. The last important element of a mesh system is the self-healing property, which ensures that in case a node fails, the data still reaches its destination. To do so, the network detects that a node has gone offline and it searches for the nearest and least crowded router in order to re-route the data to its destination (therefore, the user won’t experience any downtime).

ALSO CHECK OUT: TESTING AIMESH WIFI 6 WITH ASUS RT-AX58U AND RT-AX56U

But, the mesh system still has to deal with the backhaul traffic which, if not handled properly has the potential to make the whole system unusable (such as the case of the Asus Lyra which under-performs after the first node). The dual-band mesh systems left both radios for backhaul traffic and for the clients, while the tri-band systems were a bit more creative: the Velop automatically designates one of the two 5GHz radios for backhaul (it also supports Ethernet backhaul); the Eero 2nd Generation prides itself as ‘true mesh’, so it left all three radios open for both client connection and the backhaul traffic (it can also use Ethernet); the Orbi has undergone multiple architectural changes which have fundamentally changed the way it functions (it now supports daisy-chaining and Ethernet backhaul), but it still uses the dedicated 5GHz radio for backhaul (when left in wireless mode); the Zyxel Multy has the same approach as the Orbi, but uses identical units and lastly, the Lyra gives a lot more freedom to the users, so they can set which band should be assigned for the backhaul traffic (and after a few updates, it also supports Ethernet backhaul).

The AiMesh handles the backhaul traffic differently depending on the type of routers used to create the mesh network: if the system is dual-band, then the AiMesh will choose one of the two radio bands for backhaul and, in case you have the node wired, then it will automatically use the Ethernet backhaul feature (you can choose between Auto and Ethernet for the Connection Priority in the user interface). If the AiMesh is used on two or more tri-band Asus routers, then one of the two available 5GHz radios will be used for backhaul (if the Ethernet connection is not available).

So, it’s clear that the AiMesh functions quite similarly to the dedicated WiFi systems, but, while I will give Asus credit for using pre-existing devices for this new tech (it’s not an easy thing to pull off), this is still a work-in-progress software and it may prove to be a bit more unstable than some already polished systems (such as Google WiFi or Eero), so the user may need to experiment a bit before being able to have a completely stable mesh network. Don’t get me wrong, setting up the AiMesh on a couple of routers shouldn’t need more than two to three clicks, but, if you’re unlucky, you may need to either disable some features or use an older firmware for the pairing to be done (especially if you’re using mixed routers). If you don’t mind playing a bit with the settings of your router, give AiMesh a shot, otherwise, if you prefer to do a one-time setup and forget about the device, then you may still need a dedicated WiFi mesh system.
Note: The AiMesh was previously known as the AMAS project, but, just as the HiveSpot got renamed to Lyra, Asus decided to rename it as well.

UPDATE 08.28.2020: Merlin has adjusted its custom software to support for the AiMesh since last year and I did immediately try to see whether I could finally connect the two routers (the RT-AC86U and the RT-AC68U) without relying on the older firmware, but it seems that things weren’t yet fully polished and I encountered some problems (nothing that can’t be fixed in a future update). A year later and a few firmware updates have improved some stability mishaps, but I still needed to use the older firmware to pair the two Asus routers together using the AiMesh Read more about it here

UPDATE 08.24.2019: The Asus RT-AC86U was updated to the firmware version 3.0.0.4.384_81039 and the Asus RT-AC68U to the firmware version v3.0.0.4.383_45717.

UPDATE 11.14.2018: The Asus RT-AC68U and the RT-AC86U have been updated to the latest firmware version available at the time of writing (Version 3.0.0.4.384.32799) and I have retested the AiMesh system in a new location.

UPDATE 07.16.2018: Both the Asus RT-AC68U and the RT-AC86U have been updated to the latest firmware version available at the time of writing (Version 3.0.0.4.384.21140) and as a spoiler: the same problems persist.

Asus RT-AC86U and Asus RT-AC68U

Note: You can check the full review of the Asus RT-AC86U and the review of the Asus RT-AC68U (vs Netgear R7000).
In order to see how does the AiMesh behave in a home environment, I decided to use two routers, one is the newer Asus RT-AC86U which could use AiMesh out-of-the-box and the second router is the older Asus RT-AC68U which could use the mesh technology after a firmware update.

The reason I chose the latter is because this particular model was very popular some years back (it still is to a certain degree), but I suspect that a large number of people will want to upgrade their network, since I don’t doubt that a 5-year old router would start showing its age and it may have some trouble handling a larger number of devices that rely on a WiFi connection to function (this number is constantly increasing with every passing year). So, the users can either completely replace the router with a newer model (or a WiFi mesh system) or they could still keep the older device and just purchase a more powerful one to use it as the main unit, while keeping the RT-AC68U as the secondary mesh node.

The reason why I chose the Asus RT-AC86U is because it is the official successor to the RT-AC68U, so it has a lot in common with it and I also took into account the powerful hardware and the fact that it’s less-than-a-year old, so there is a high chance that it will be supported for a longer time than the RT-AC88U. I have to admit that the AiMesh is a clever way of keeping the users into the Asus environment (especially those tempted by the WiFi systems), but I do like that this is the only company (so far) fighting back at the overly simplistic and minimalist approach of the dedicated mesh WiFi systems, where the user has limited configuration options and the features are a bit lacking, as opposed to the usually more powerful traditional router (which is a lot more configurable and it has not completely removed the browser-based interface). I am not saying that one is better than the other, it’s just nice to see a healthy competition and more options for the users.

Configuration, Problems and Testing

The hardware installation is simple and it requires you to set up one router as the main node (just set it up to work as a router by following the initial configuration wizard) and install the latest firmware which gives you access to the AiMesh section. It is advisable to choose the most powerful router as the main unit that will be connected to the Internet, so I used the Asus RT-AC86U with the firmware version  3.0.0.4.384.21140 3.0.0.4.384.32799 3.0.0.4.384_81039 3.0.0.4.384.82072. After the initial set up process is concluded, you will be able to see the AiMesh icon on the Dashboard which shows the number of connected nodes: click on it to summon the AiMesh section on the right side, where you can manually search for any AiMesh node in the vicinity. On the next step, you need to take the Asus RT-AC68U, update it to the latest firmware (in this case, it’s the v3.0.0.4.383_45717 3.0.0.4.385.20633), initialize it and leave it alone. Next, run the ‘Find AiMesh node’ option on the main unit in order to detect the secondary device.

The first and the second time I tried adding the RT-AC68U to the network, things did not go that smoothly and the RT-AC86U could not detect the node no matter what I tried (some instructions required setting up the RT-AC68U as a mesh node from the user interface, but this route has proven to be unsuccessful as well – some troubleshooting guides have also suggested that disabling the Airtime Fairness and/or the BeamForming could allow the connection, but this had no effect whatsoever).

Update: I tried the same steps with both routers set to the latest firmware and unsurprisingly, once again, the RT-AC86U would not see the RT-AC68U mesh node at all, so I had to once again redo the steps that worked the last time. Specifically, I re-installed an older firmware on the mesh node, the v3.0.0.4.384.20308 and, after I reset and initialized the RT-AC68U, it got successfully detected by the RT-AC86U as a mesh node. It is important to update the RT-AC86U to the latest firmware before pairing the node, otherwise, you will have to do all these steps once again (the RT-AC68U node’s software can be updated after it has been successfully added to the mesh network). So, yes, the issue still persists even with the latest firmware update and it was present with the v3.0.0.4.384.20942 which I used when I first tested the Aimesh system, so Asus still did nothing to address this problem that continues to plague some users – at this point I’m not entirely sure they ever will.

If you visit the Dashboard section, you’ll be able to see all the AiMesh nodes and you can click on any of them to summon a small window which shows the Location of the secondary router (can be changed), its IP address, the connected clients (a very useful feature, since it let’s you know which node your clients prefer – it also helped me test the system) and you can also access the More Config section, which shows the MAC address of the node, it allows you to change the Connection Priority, it shows you the connection type and the Firmware Version.

If you haven’t encountered any pairing problems (like I did), you should update both the router and the node to their latest firmware (otherwise, just update the node) and, to do so on the secondary nodes, click on the Firmware Version and either let it automatically detect if there’s a new firmware available or manually upload the newer firmware file – this way, I was able to get the RT-AC68U to the latest firmware after I had to downgrade it for the pairing process (the node remained connected after I updated the software).
Because I chose this specific set of routers, there is a noteworthy limitation which can be addressed with future firmware updates: the RT-AC68U does not support the SmartConnect feature, so there is no band steering available for that node, which indicates that you won’t get the characteristic seamless roaming (if you use a different combination of routers, it is supported).

The Asus RT-AC68U has been through multiple firmware updates and the manufacturer seems to have improved some aspects of the device, such as the AiMesh bandwidth and extension channel sync issue and it has added more protection mechanism for OpenVPN account, but the persistent adoption problem and the lack of the SmartConnect makes me wonder if Asus doesn’t find the RT-AC68U integration within the AiMesh environment more trouble than it’s worth.
One generally unsupported feature for any type of Asus router using AiMesh is the Guest network, which works only on the main router unit and will not propagate to any additional node and, unfortunately, it seems that it may take a while until we will see this feature enabled (since it’s been almost two years and the RT-AC68U is almost 6 years old, I really doubt we’ll see any new features added to improve its behavior within the AiMesh network).

UPDATE 08.28.2020:

Since nothing has changed for the past three years since AiMesh has been released regarding my particular connection problem, the prospect that the Merlin custom firmware could change all this got me genuinely excited, but even the latest firmware version, the 384.19_0 did not solve the initial pairing problem. After I installed the new firmware on the Asus RT-AC86U, I noticed that it remembered the previous configuration (kudos to Merlin for that – you have to go from 0 with OpenWRT or DDWRT), so it would still see the RT-AC68U with its default firmware as a mesh node (as configured the first time). To see if anything has changed, I returned the RT-AC68U to its default settings and decided to re-pair it to the RT-AC86U (which now had the Merlin firmware); unfortunately, it couldn’t see the device, not even after I initialized both devices. Well, that was a bit of a let down, but maybe if I put the Merlin firmware on the RT-AC68U, it could solve some incompatibilities, right? Unfortunately, no, even if both routers had the latest Merlin firmware installed, they would still not connect. So, as a last resort, I let the Asus RT-AC86U with the custom firmware and I installed the only firmware that seems to be working on the RT-AC68U, the v3.0.0.4.384.20308. Immediately, the main router (RT-AC86U) saw the new AiMesh node and I started the pairing process and another strange thing happened: the interface would give me the ‘AiMesh was successfully added’ message, but it would not show in the user interface, the AiMesh node section would state that there are 0 devices paired. What’s strange is that the RT-AC68U seems to be configured as a mesh node, regardless of this issue. I thought for a while that it may be a hardware problem, but considering that it functions with an older firmware, it’s just the nature of the AiMesh and so far, neither ASUS, nor Merlin seems to have figured out the solution. I guess this router combo is the trickiest to get right which was the reason why I chose it in the first place.

Wireless Test

Testing the AiMesh using two such diverse routers is a little bit tricky, because, some features will work when connected directly to the main node (RT-AC86U), while some won’t since the RT-AC68U does not have them implemented (such as MU-MIMO) or has less powerful versions of them (such as the less powerful TurboQAM). That being said, I configured the RT-AC86U as the main node and I connected a powerful laptop via wire (1Gbps connection) which was set as the server and, afterwards, I added the RT-AC68U to the mesh network, but, since the RT-AC86U is really great at covering large areas, I had to put the mesh node after a couple of thick walls and at about 40 feet away from the main router in order to force the wireless client to connect to the RT-AC68U (the wireless client is a powerful desktop PC equipped with the PCE-AC88 adapter, which is a perfect match for all the features of the Asus RT-AC86U).
Note: I have tested the AiMesh WiFi system in a new, ‘more difficult’ location, so the results will differ a bit from the original test.

As a single AiMesh unit, the RT-AC86U is a very strong performer, so, while using the 5GHz radio band from the client to the server, I measured an average of 730 Mbps at 5 feet, while at 15 feet, the speed went slightly down to to 640 Mbps and at 30 feet, I measured an average of 370 Mbps. From the server to the client, I got a more uniform performance: 5 feet away from the RT-AC86U, I measured an average of 332 Mbps, while at 15 feet, the speed got a bit better to 334 Mbps and at 30 feet, I measured an average of 270 Mbps. When compared to the first location (which had less interference and I could easily keep the line of sight), the new location has more concrete walls (at 30 feet, the signal has to go through three thick concrete walls), so, as expected, there is a noticeable impact on the wireless performance at more than 15 feet.

On the next step, I added the RT-AC68U to the network and positioned the device 40 feet away from the main unit. This way, the wireless client connected to the mesh node and from the client to the server, 5 feet away from the second node, I measured an average of 143.9 Mbps, while at 15 feet, the speed went down to 139.6 Mbps and at 30 feet, I measured an average of 137.6 Mbps (in the new location, the performance seems to be slightly worse at close range, but I did see an improvement at 30 feet). Afterwards, from the server to the client, the performance seems to be better and it maintained the same stability: at 5 feet, I measured an average of 175 Mbps, while 15 feet away from the RT-AC68U, I measured around and around 167 Mbps and at 30 feet, the speed went slightly down to 164 Mbps.

When compared to the other dual-band WiFi mesh systems, the RT-AC68U and the RT-AC86U used with the AiMesh had a slightly average performance even though we are dealing with two significantly more powerful routers (than let’s say Google WiFi‘s nodes). Also, the RT-AC86U by itself can exceed the wireless performance of the dual-band AiMesh. Sure enough, the RT-AC68U is suitable for tricky areas, where one unit won’t be able to reach, but the software still needs to mature a bit more, so I will try to retest the speed performance with every new firmware update from Asus since we may see some significant improvements over the next months.

Conclusion

I did find it strange that Asus would develop and release the AiMesh when it had the tri-band Lyra system already available, but I do have to admit that the AiMesh has been a lot more efficient and I appreciate the fact that Asus decided to use pre-existing devices for this new tech. I do know that it’s not by mistake that they used the re-purpose of the RT-AC68U (with all its variants) as one of the main selling points, because otherwise, the AiMesh would have been something that users may have avoided since it is a new, relatively untested tech, but this way, Asus allows the users to keep their old devices for a bit longer, while also (very) slowly developing the AiMesh into a better technology.

Even in 2020, the AiMesh is far from perfect with some router combo, while surprisingly capable with other set of routers and while I did have some problems before making it work, if you already have an older Asus router and want to go for the next best thing, you should give AiMesh a try (it could also be the cheaper option), otherwise, you may want to research alternatives as well – the dedicated WiFi mesh systems are a lot more polished now than they were three or four years ago.

Mark B

Mark is a graduate in Computer Science, having gathered valuable experience over the years working in IT as a programmer. Mark is also the main tech writer for MBReviews.com, covering not only his passion, the networking devices, but also other cool electronic gadgets that you may find useful for your every day life.

www.mbreviews.com

Indeed, there is still a long way until the new WiFi standard becomes the norm and devices such as the Asus RT-AX58U are given the heavy burden of persuading the user that it’s worth leaving behind an already working model for unknown results, especially in the long term. Asus does update very often the Asus RT-AX58U and, when I tested the router, I saw an excellent wireless performance (especially on the 80MHz bandwidth mode), but there are also some issues that still need to be ironed out. That being said, let’s see how the older Asus RT-AC86U stands when put next to the Asus RT-AX58U (RT-AX3000), the current mid-range AX model and if it’s worth upgrading to the newer WiFi 6 standard.

Note: You can also check out the individual analysis of each mesh WiFi system here: Asus RT-AX58U and Asus RT-AC86U.



Design and Build Quality
When the Asus RT-AC86U came out, I was impressed by how compact it was considering the powerful internal hardware and that Asus has managed to maintain the same dimensions and the look of the Asus RT-AC68U (it measures 8.6 x 6.3 x 3.2 inches). But then came the Asus RT-AX58U with an even smaller case (measures 8.8 x 5.0 x 6.3 inches), but even so, it does occupy more space from the desk than the RT-AC86U and the reason for that is because the aforementioned router was built to sit vertically. So, just like the RT-AC68U, the RT-AC86U has three antennas pointing upwards and a built-in stand (that cannot be removed) to keep the device in its place, regardless of the number of cables are connected. But, unlike the plain front of the RT-AC68U, the RT-AC86U has an Y shaped front with a couple of red sections which, according to Asus, should qualify it as being a part of the gaming series (of course, there are some gaming-specific feature built into the software as well).

The Asus RT-AX58U is perhaps a bit less interesting design-wise, featuring a black matte finish and a couple of ventilation areas on the top surface, but it does proudly points four antennas upwards which, unfortunately cannot be removed (the three antennas on the RT-AC86U can be replaced). The router is built to stay horizontally, but unlike the RT-AC86U, it does have a couple of dedicated holes on the bottom for mounting it on the wall (it’s quite important when you’re in an office and every inch matters). Furthermore, the RT-AX58U is a lot more generous with the ventilation areas, entirely covering the rear, the lateral sides and a part of the rear side with fairly large cut-outs. Even so, the router does get quite warm, especially when under a heavier load. The Asus RT-AC86U did borough the shape and size of the RT-AC68U, but, while the latter would often struggle to keep the temperature at a decent level, the RT-AC86U would rarely get only a bit warm near the antennas, regardless of how many or how heavy applications you would run on it.

Both the Asus RT-AX58U and the RT-AC86U have eight LED indicators to show the status of the device and the network: a Power LED, four LAN LEDs (one for each LAN port), the Internet connection LED and two LEDs for the WiFi bands (2.4 and 5GHz), so it’s nice to see that Asus did not decide to push the single LED approach into its routers, thus keeping the far more intuitive array of LEDs. As for the buttons and ports, both routers have a similar set, but positioned very differently. The Asus RT-AC86U has populated the rear area, above the gap towards the built-in stand: there are four Ethernet LAN ports (Gigabit), a WAN port, two USB ports, one USB 2.0 and the other USB 3.0, a Reset and Power button, while on the right side of the router, you’ll be able to find a WPS button and a WiFi switch. The ports area on the rear side of the Asus RT-AX58U is less refined (lacks the ports contours and the metallic plates surrounding the LAN ports), but everything is in its place, so you’ll going to find a Power port, a Power switch a USB 3.0 port, four Ethernet LAN ports (Gigabit), a WAN port, a WPS buttons and a Reset button.

Verdict: Despite being limited by the vertical-only position, I did find the Asus RT-AC86U to be more refined than the RT-AX58U and there is just a lot more attention to details design-wise – the removable antennas are also a plus. At the same time, the Asus RT-AX58U is a lot smaller and it does have a neutral look, so it’s easier to go unnoticed in a living-room. Other than that, both routers have the same number of ports (the RT-AC86U does have an additional USB port, although I doubt many will make use of it) and neither overheats, so this round ends in a tie.



Internal Hardware
The Asus RT-AC86U is build on the Broadcom platform, so it features a dual-band BCM4906 chip clocked at 1.8GHz, 512 MB of RAM (from Micron) and 256 MB of flash memory (from Macronix). Additionally, the router uses the Broadcom BCM4365E 3×3:3 SoC (802.11a/b/g/n) for the 2.4GHz WiFi performance and the Broadcom BCM4366E 4×4:4 SoC (a/b/g/n/ac) for the 5GHz radio – it’s interesting to see that while the router does have three external antennas, it seems that it has a fourth internal antenna for improving the 5GHz quad-stream performance.

There were rumors that Asus RT-AX58U is built on the Intel platform, but, after I opened up the case, I can confirm that it’s Broadcom-based featuring a tri-band BCM6750KFE8G CPU clocked at 1.5GHz, 512 MB of RAM (from Nanya) and 256 MB of flash memory from Macronix (same as on the RT-AC86U). Furthermore, the router makes use of the Broadcom BCM43684 802.11a/n/ac/ax 4×4:2 for the 5GHz radio band and the Broadcom BCM6750 802.11b/g/n/ax 2×2:2 chip for the 2.4GHz radio band.
Note: Yes, the Asus RT-AC86U is fully supported by Merlin, while the Asus RT-AX58U is currently not, but, considering that it is using the Broadcom platform, I say it’s only a matter of time.

The Asus RT-AC86U is advertised as an AC2900-class router, which means that it does feature a maximum theoretical data transfer rate of 2,167 Mbps on the 5GHz band, while on the 3.4GHz band, it features a maximum theoretical data transfer rate of 750 Mbps. The Asus RT-AX58U is advertised as an AX3000-class router, suggesting that the maximum theoretical data transfer rate on the 5GHz band is 2,402 Mbps and on the 2.4GHz band is 574 Mbps.
Verdict: Looking at the internal hardware of each router, there are some differences for the WiFi chips and yes, the RT-AX58U has a newer CPU, but it should not perform that differently from the dual-band BCM4906, so this round goes to the Asus RT-AC86U.



Features and Performance
The WiFi 6 standard does come with some significant improvements over the last generation, offering a more efficient use of the available bandwidth by relying on OFDMA and the MU-MIMO technology (which is pushed to 8×8), there is also noticeable improvement in the wireless speed performance department due to the 1024-QAM modulation and the range is also far better. The Asus RT-AX58U is a WiFi 6 router, but it’s just part of the draft stage (it’s not WiFi 6 certified) which means that you do get some of the available features, but it also means that very soon, you will see Asus routers with a better implementation of the newer technologies and with more features available.

That being said, the Asus RT-AX58U does make use of the Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) to divide a channel into multiple smaller sub-carriers, which are then divided into groups of sub-carriers forming resource blocks that are allocated to up to 30 devices simultaneously and yes, this technology works both upstream and downstream. With older devices, which does include the Asus RT-AC86U, each client would be assigned to a sub-carrier one at a time, without taking into account any frequency-based scheduling, making it less efficient.
Next, the Asus RT-AX58U supports the 1024-QAM technology that has the role of improving the throughput capabilities of the router and I know that this technology is a highlighted feature for the WiFi 6, but Asus has been taking advantage of the NitroQAM (1024-QAM) for a while now and yes, the Asus RT-AC86U does have it implemented as well.

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Mark B

Mark is a graduate in Computer Science, having gathered valuable experience over the years working in IT as a programmer. Mark is also the main tech writer for MBReviews.com, covering not only his passion, the networking devices, but also other cool electronic gadgets that you may find useful for your every day life.

www.mbreviews.com

The concept behind the AiMesh is brilliant from both the financial point of view (for Asus), but also from the technical perspective because it’s quite obvious that it’s difficult to make so many different types of routers to work together, but the idea that you don’t have to throw away your aging router, but keep it as a perfectly functioning part of the network, that’s something that no other manufacturer has managed to accomplish. It’s true that Google has a similar feature and so does Synology, but neither have been in this game as long as Asus and neither have the same amount of available routers. Furthermore, while other manufacturers ‘indirectly’ promote e-waste (yeah, let’s replace some Sonos speakers for absolutely no reason), Asus says, hey, don’t throw your old router away, keep it as a mesh node.

It’s true that a couple of years ago, the main reason to use AiMesh was for recycling purposes, but I noticed that a lot of people decided to specifically get two Asus routers to create a mesh network. And I’m not against this idea, but when I tested the AiMesh feature with an Asus RT-AC86U and with a RT-AC68U, the two routers did connect to each other, behaved as functioning nodes, but the throughput wasn’t the best. I know that if you get two tri-band Asus routers, you will get a far better performance, but for that price, you may as well give a dedicated WiFi mesh system a chance.

When you put two different Asus routers in a mesh network, some features may not be compatible between the two of them (such as the case of the Smart Connect on the RT-AC86U which would not work on the RT-AC68U), but I saw that besides the missing support for the 160MHz channel bandwidth, the Asus RT-AX56U is equipped in a very similar manner to the RT-AX58U, which means that we may encounter fewer issues while setting them up in an AiMesh configuration.
Note: The Asus RT-AX58U had the firmware version 3.0.0.4.384_8601 installed, while the Asus RT-AX56U had the firmware version 3.0.0.4.384.8253.

The Setup Process
Before configuring the AiMesh, you need to install the two routers and there are a few steps that you need to take in order to properly set up your devices. First of all, you need to decide which router will be the main unit (the one that gets connected directly to the modem) and, as expected, the most powerful one should the role, so it’s going to be the Asus RT-AX58U.

This means that you need to go through the initial configuration wizard, where you insert the ISP name and password, set the SSIDs and passkeys, as well as the administrator account (for a more detailed process, just check the full review of the RT-AX58U) and lastly, after gaining access to the user interface (on the mobile or browser-based UI), make sure to immediately update to the latest available firmware. This is good practice with any router, but in this case it’s extremely important since Asus constantly improves the way this router works (as a stand-alone and as part of an AiMesh network).

After that’s done, just leave the router be and take the Asus RT-AX56U out of its box. If you have used this device before, you need to make sure that it’s updated to the latest firmware and just simply return it to it factory default settings: can be done from the user interface by going to Administration > Restore/Save/Upload Setting and clicking Restore (check the Initialize box beforehand) or by pressing and holding the Reset button for about 10 seconds. Wait about a minute and return to the Asus RT-AX58U’s (don’t power off the RT-AX56U!).

From the web-based interface, go to the Network Map and from the bottom left, click on AiMesh Node – this will summon a small section of the top right from which you will be able to Search for any mesh node in the vicinity. It shouldn’t take more than a few seconds for the RT-AX56U to appear, so, when it does, click on it and select Apply to add it to your new Mesh network.

It will take a couple of minutes before the node is adopted and once it does, you will see the “Successfully added” node message. When I tested the AiMesh feature with the RT-AC86U and the RT-AC68U, I always had problems pairing these two routers together and had to rely on an older firmware, so it’s nice to see that Asus has fixed this issue for its newer models (hopefully, it won’t be an occurrence in the near future). If you ever used any other mesh WiFi system, you may feel like the Asus web-based interface doesn’t focus enough on the AiMesh network and to perform a more in-depth configuration, you will need to go into the Wireless section, which may not be immediately obvious to the regular user.

But, the app gives a bit more attention to the AiMesh aspect, showing any connected nodes in the Home section in a more graphical pleasing way and if you click on any node, it will take you to a dedicated page, where you can check the Uplink Type (5GHz or 2.4GHz), the Connection quality, the firmware (you can update it on the node by going to Settings and selecting Firmware Upgrade), the number of Connected wireless devices and more.

Features
The most important feature of the AiMesh is pretty much the ability to create a mesh network since it does allow you to link various types of routers together, but does it differ that much from the dedicated mesh WiFi systems? The simple answer is no, but it depends on the mesh system itself, because not all handle the backhaul traffic in the same way. In our case, the AiMesh network is going to be dual-band (since both routers are dual-band) which means that it’s going to be up to the routers which band will be used for backhaul (and no, you can’t select it manually). In case you add a tri-band router to the network or create a full tri-band mesh network, then one band will be automatically chosen to be dedicated for the backhaul – this is very similar to how the Netgear Orbi works. The multi-hop ability is also available, but, considering that we’re dealing with a dual-band system, I would advise against it, unless, you’re willing to run a cable from node to node. And this highlights another important feature of the AiMesh which is the Ethernet backhaul.

I know that this defeats the purpose of a wireless mesh network, but, if you have a heavy network and a larger area to cover, the Ethernet backhaul will significantly free up the bandwidth for your connected clients. When it was released, one of the first routers to be able to use the AiMesh out of the box in was the RT-AC86U and, since it was an obvious replacement for the RT-AC68U (they’re very similar design-wise), I was sure (and still am) that most people will try these two devices to create a mesh network.

The problem was that some features didn’t work on the entire network, such as the Smart Connect and the Guest Network. Fortunately, the RT-AX56U and the RT-AX58U combo doesn’t have these problems and you can enable Smart Connect as a means to push the right clients to the most suitable band (from the Wireless tab, you can go to General and enable Smart Connect). Enabling this feature will create a single SSID for both bands (as well as a pre-shared key), but be aware that you may encounter some problems if the nodes are too close – if you aren’t able to push the routers further apart, you can try to lower the TX power (can be done from Wireless > Professional – scroll to the bottom of the page and adjust the bar accordingly).

One other important aspect of a mesh network is the seamless roaming from one node to the other, so, can this dual-band AiMesh network accomplish this feat? I connected a Google Pixel 2 XL to the network and started roaming around the studio after putting the two routers about 40 feet apart: the phone would disconnect and quickly reconnect to the other node and, while you may not realize it when streaming a YouTube video, I did notice the transition to the new router while I was in a video conference (the call dropped for a few seconds – this behavior is strongly linked to the type of client you’re using). How about the Guest Network on the secondary nodes? No, AiMesh still doesn’t support this feature, so that’s a minus when compared to pretty much all other WiFi mesh systems on the market.



Configuration and Wireless Testing
To test the wireless performance of a dual-band WiFi 6 AiMesh network with the Asus RT-AX58U as the main unit and the Asus RT-AX56U as the secondary node, I took one computer that got connected to the main router using an Ethernet cable (CAT 6) which will act as the server and afterwards I made sure that there is about 35 feet between the two routers. Next, I took another computer which is going to act as the wireless client and to get the best results that it can deliver, I decided to equip it with a WiFi 6 adapter, the TP-Link TX3000E AX3000 (yes, there’s an Asus WiFi 6 adapter as well, but I find it too expensive, while offering the same set of features).

I have tested each router independently and you can check the results of the Asus RT-AX56U here and the results of the Asus RT-AX58U, so I know that by themselves, both are very powerful routers, which means that the point of interest is going to be the throughput measured from the secondary AiMesh node. To be more specific, I am going to connect the wireless client to the network, while making sure that it’s always connected to the Asus RT-AX56U (the secondary mesh node) and, while keeping the main unit at 35 feet, I will go further away from the RT-AX56U and measure the throughput at 5, 15 and 30 feet.

Before that, I accessed the user interface and made sure that the Smart Connect was disabled (to be able to connect to each individual band), the 5GHz network was set to use the 80MHz channel bandwidth – the channel was set to 44 (I know that the RT-AX58U supports 160MHz channel bandwidth, but, since the RT-AX56U does not, it’s wise to keep it at 80MHz), the 2.4GHz network was set to use the 40MHz channel bandwidth (the chosen channel was 9 – the least crowded in my area), the TX power was left to the highest level, the Airtime Fairness and the Roaming Assistant has been disabled since they’re going to be of no use for this test. I have left the Multi-User MIMO, the Universal BeamForming and the 802.11ax/ac BeamForming enabled, I have set the PFDMA/802.11ax MU-MIMO to DL/UL OFDMA and the Modulation Scheme to ‘Up to MCS 11 (NitroQAM/1024-AQM)’.

That being said, I connected the wireless client device to the 5GHz network and, from the client to the server, while it was at about 5 feet from the Asus RT-AX56U (and 40 feet from the Asus RT-AX58U), I measured an average of 233 Mbps, while at 15 feet, I saw an average of 211.5 Mbps; at 30 feet (65 feet from the main mesh unit), the speed went to an average of 164 Mbps. From the server to the client, at 5 feet, I measured an average of 218 Mbps and, at 15 feet, I got around 173 Mbps; at 30 feet, the speed went down to an average of 134 Mbps.

Afterwards, I connected the client to the 2.4GHz network and, from the client to the server, at 5 feet, I saw an average of 146 Mbps, while at 30 feet, I got around 84.8 Mbps. From the server to the client, I measured an average of 206 Mbps at 5 feet and an average of 157 Mbps at 30 feet. Since you’re more likely to use these router with an AC client, I decided to switch the WiFi adapter inside the client with the Asus PCE-AC88 and conduct the same tests.

While the client was connected to the 5GHz network, from the client to the server, I measured an average of 210 Mbps at 5 feet and an average of 142.7 Mbps at 30 feet. From the server to the client, I measured around 216 Mbps and, at 30 feet, I saw an average of 141 Mbps. Lastly, I connected the client to the 2.4GHz network and from the client to the server, at 5 feet, I managed to measure an average of 144 Mbps, while at 30 feet, I saw around 86.3 Mbps. From the server to the client, at 5 feet, I measured an average of 183 Mbps and, at 30 feet, an average of 144 Mbps.

Conclusion
When I tested the AiMesh with a couple of WiFi 5 routers, the throughput was below average, but the WiFi 6 AiMesh did decently well, in a similar manner (or better) than most dedicated WiFi systems at the second node. You also get the advantage of being able to put more space between the mesh nodes and the main Asus unit will always have a great wireless performance. But I still consider that unless you’re going for a tri-band AiMesh system or make use of the Ethernet backhaul, there is no reason to purchase two Asus routers specifically to create an AiMesh network, especially cost-wise. If you have an older Asus router that stands around gaining dust and is compatible with AiMesh, then you should definitely create a mesh network since you’re not only helping with the e-waste recycling, but you also may be able to cover some areas with WiFi where even a powerful Asus router could not by itself.

Mark B

Mark is a graduate in Computer Science, having gathered valuable experience over the years working in IT as a programmer. Mark is also the main tech writer for MBReviews.com, covering not only his passion, the networking devices, but also other cool electronic gadgets that you may find useful for your every day life.

www.mbreviews.com

But, similarly to the RT-AX58U, the Asus RT-AX56U is not WiFi 6 certified and instead, it’s part of the draft stage. Even so, the router does use 1024-QAM for a better wireless connection, it takes advantage of the OFDMA tech to improve the multi-user access but there is no 160MHz channel bandwidth (the AiMesh support is still there).
The thing is that unless you have compatible clients (aka devices with WiFi 6 cards or adapters), you will not see a difference in performance, but it’s only a matter of time until this technology gets widespread (the newer phones and laptops are already equipped with WiFi 6 cards).

I have recently also tested the Asus RT-AX58U and the wireless performance was impressive (there were some notable compatibility issues), so let’s see if it’s worth considering the entry-level Asus RT-AX56U or if you should go for a more expensive option.
Note: The Asus RT-AX56U was updated to the firmware version 3.0.0.4.384.8253.

Design and Build Quality
When you release a new series of routers using a new technology and you’re ASUS, it means that the devices will stand out and indeed they do, with the higher-end devices resembling some cyber royal crowns, but I noticed that the RT-AX58U and the RT-AX56U are nowhere near as flashy. And that’s actually a good thing since I doubt the regular user will want some menacing arachnoid robot staring at them from the living room. It’s also worth noting that besides the difference in the amount of antennas and the ports on the rear side, the RT-AX56U and the RT-AX58U are pretty much the same device. Only design-wise, of course, since the internal hardware is a bit different. So, you can expect the same ultra-compact plastic case covered by a black matte finish (which is soft to the touch), but from the back, there are now only two antennas which are also non-removable and a bit more cheaply-looking than the four antennas of the RT-A58U (they’re also longer, measuring 7.24 inches).

Since it’s more compact than most other routers from the competition (it measures 8.79 x 5.09 x 1.87 inches), you do gain more space from your desk and I know that it’s not as aesthetically pleasing as most WiFi systems, but it’s still unobtrusive enough to not attract too much attention towards itself; you also get the option to mount the wireless router on the wall or ceiling using a couple of dedicated holes from the bottom of the device. It’s interesting to see that it weighs 16.0, so the router is only a bit more lighter than the RT-AX58U which means that along with the four silicone feet, it will help keep the device form moving on the desk regardless of the number of connected cables. On the top of the router, besides the logo and the LED indicators, there are a couple of stylishly positioned ventilation grills, the same as on the rear side, immediately above the ports area and on the side panels.

But that’s not all, because, as I said before, Asus pretty much recycled the case between the two models, so the bottom side is also almost entirely covered by various types of ventilation cut-outs (except for the four feet and the info label) – you can clearly see the internal hardware from the bottom of the device, but, strangely enough, there is barely any flex when you push on the case. Are all these ventilation holes enough to keep the internal temperature at a suitable level? While running some tests, the Asus RT-AX56U did get warm all around the bottom of the case (and a bit on the top), but it did not get hot or shown any signs that it may overheat.



Asus still values the intuitive nature of the multiple LED indicators, so, at the top, towards the front side, you can find four LAN LEDs, each for one LAN port, followed by the WAN LED (it will be red when there is no Internet connection and will become white as soon as it establishes a link), one LED for the 5GHz network and one for the 2.4GHz network (these two LEDs will flash when the data is sent/received) and lastly, there’s the Power LED.

Moving to the rear side of the Asus RT-AX56U, we see the two antennas connected to the left and right extremities and in between them, there’s a DC-In Power port, an On/Off switch, a RJ45 Ethernet Gigabit WAN port, four Ethernet Gigabit LAN ports, a USB 3.0 port, a USB 2.0 port (most likely for a direct printer connection since it’s an older standard), a recessed Reset button (press and hold it for about 10 seconds in order to return the router to its factory default settings) and a WPS button.



Internal Hardware
While the exterior is nearly identical to the Asus RT-AX58U, the interior is not and, after removing the four silicone feet and the four screws that were hidden underneath them (don’t do it unless you want to void your warranty, as I did), I could see the PCB which was covered by a flat metallic plate and next to it, I could identify the 256 MB of flash memory from Macronix (MXIC MX30LF2G189C-TI a185109 8E52230001).

After I removed the metallic plate, and the additional protective pieces, I could also see the quad-core Broadcom BCM6755KFEBG chipset (clocked at 1.5GHz), the 512 MB of RAM from Nanya (NT5CC256M16ER-EK), a Broadcom BCM531340KFBG switch chip, a couple of 1930 HN36201DG ICs and a swap B1901 net NS892402 10/100/1000Base-T single port transformer module.

Furthermore, for the WiFi performance, the RT-AX56U makes use of the Broadcom BCM6755 chip (2×2:2 b/g/n + ax) along with a couple of 85331-11 (237064.1 1848) highly integrated front-end modules for the 2.4GHz band and the Broadcom BCM6755 chip (2×2:2 a/n/ac/ax) along with a couple of Skyworks 85743 (557348.1 1919) highly integrated front-end modules for the 5GHz band.

Note: The Asus RT-AX56U is advertised as an AX1800-class router, which means that it features a maximum theoretical data transfer rate of 1,201 Mbps on the 5GHz radio band and a maximum theoretical data transfer rate of 574 Mbps on the 2.4GHz radio band.



Features and Performance
I doubt most of you are keen on being early adopters of any type of technology, since you’re not only going to pay a premium, but you’re also going to be treated as beta testers. Fortunately, Asus has tried its best at perfecting its early implementation of the WiFi 6 technologies, so, besides the missing 160MHz bandwidth support (which is kind of a big deal only if you have compatible clients and, since not much has changed in this regard from the old days of the Linksys WRt3200ACM, there still aren’t that many available), you do get the new OFDMA support.

The Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access works both downstream and upstream and it helps divide a channel in multiple sub-carriers that are afterwards shared by a maximum of 30 devices simultaneously, therefore making sure that the bandwidth is not wasted – before, each client got its own channel and the other devices needed to wait their turn until the transmission was done.

Furthermore, the RT-AX56U does support the NitroQAM (1024-QAM) technology which apparently can improve the data rate up to 25% when compared to the usually used 256-QAM (with most older routers), but Asus has been using it for a while implemented into it’s medium to higher tier wireless routers and the same requirement remains available now as it was before: you need compatible clients. And that’s really the current problem with the WiFi 6 technology because the expensive devices do support it to a certain extent, but anything medium or entry-level will either remain on the AC standard or even the far older 802.11n – the consumer-focused networking technology has always worked in this manner, which is why early adoption is mostly suitable for tech enthusiasts.

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Mark B

Mark is a graduate in Computer Science, having gathered valuable experience over the years working in IT as a programmer. Mark is also the main tech writer for MBReviews.com, covering not only his passion, the networking devices, but also other cool electronic gadgets that you may find useful for your every day life.

www.mbreviews.com

Furthermore, the ACRH17 is advertised as a dual-band tri-stream router, while the internal hardware suggests that it could have very well supported three bands and four streams (since it is equipped similarly to Zyxel Multy X and Netgear Orbi); nevertheless, similarly to its predecessor, the RT-ACRH17 is decently priced and promises to offer a wireless performance above its advertised class and a good network stability, so let’s have a closer look at this peculiar router from Asus and see how it performs against its competitors.
Note: Unlike the Broadcom-based AC1750 RT-AC66U B1, the RT-ACRH17 does not support AiMesh, so you won’t be able to add it to a larger mesh network.

Design
If you’re familiar with the Asus RT-ACRH13, well, the manufacturer didn’t change that much the design blueprint and the RT-ACRH17 ended up looking close to identical to its predecessor. So, the case remains rectangular, which, unlike the newer RT-AC86U, can be seated horizontally, it has also kept the signature diamond shape pattern on the top (with a narrow blue band to break the monotony of the all black finish – it still retains fingerprints) and the same four antennas point upwards, two from the back and two on the lateral sides. Unfortunately, the antennas come already attached to the body of the router, so they can neither be removed, nor upgraded.

In terms of dimensions, the RT-ACRH17 measures 8.14 x 5.85 x 1.59 inches (LWH) and, besides being slightly heavier, a small increase in width is just another small difference between the current model and its predecessor (which has a width of 1.39 inches). It’s clear that Asus mostly focuses on the mid to high end consumer router segment and I saw that the 802.11ax has greatly sparked its interest, but a small variance in the design of its ‘lesser’ models would have been welcomed (and no, this design is not as emblematic as the WRT line to keep pushing it forward on every new device).

The plastic case felt very sturdy, so when pushing on the top, there was no flex or creaks and, when turned upside down, the bottom is almost completely covered by cut-out areas to ensure a proper airflow. The same can be said about the RT-AC68U which had some problems with the heat management, so did the RT-ACRH17 perform better? It got a bit warmer than the RT-AC86U, but overall, Asus did a great job at keeping the internal temperature in check (even when the device was put under stress). Also on the bottom area, you’ll notice four feet with silicone pads that have the role to keep the router from budging and, considering that it’s relatively lightweight (it weighs 1.12 lbs), the pads kept the device in place no matter the amount of cable that were connected.

In between two of the bottom feet, there are a couple of recessed areas that allow you to mount the device on a wall (spread the antennas and you got yourself a quite ominous looking device). It’s obvious that the router doesn’t follow the latest minimalist trend that’s commonly found with the WiFi systems, but the traditional design does have its own advantages, such as the better heat management and multiple LEDs to accurately show the status of the device (there’s also the ability to upgrade the antennas, but that’s not the case here).

That being said, the RT-ACRH17 positioned the LED indicators array on the top towards the front side: from the left, there’s the Power LED (solid blue indicates that the device is ready, while slow flashes show that the router is in Rescue mode and quick flashes indicate that the WPS is processing), the 2.4G and the 5G LEDs (flashing blue indicates that data is being received/transmitted), the WAN LED (red indicates that there is no Internet connection) and four LEDs, each showing the status of its respective LAN port.
Although being almost identical to the ARCH13, Asus did move the front USB port to the back and put the two rear-positioned antennas closer to each other. The rest of the ports and buttons remained on the rear side of the router: from the left, there’s a small WPS button, the aforementioned USB 3.0 port, four Ethernet Gigabit LAN ports, one (unshielded) Gigabit WAN port, a small Reset button (press and hold it to return the device to factory default settings), the Power connector and a Power On/Off button.

Hardware
Inside the case, Asus has decided to built the router on the Qualcomm platform, so the RT-ACRH17 is equipped with a Qualcomm Atheros IPQ4019 SoC on 40nm (quad-core ARM Cortex A7 CPU clocked at 717MHz), a Qualcomm QCA8075 Ethernet Gigabit Switch chip, 128 MB MXIC L172210 MX30LF1G18AC-TI NAND Flash Memory and 256 MB of RAM (NANYA 1729 NT5CC128M16IP-DI).

The ACRH17 uses the IPQ4019 SoC (along with a Richwave RTC6649EX power amplifier) for the 2.4GHz wireless band, but, while the chip supports 4×4 MU-MIMO, here, it’s limited to 2×2 and no, it’s not being divided for an additional 2×2 5GHz band (the quad-core A7 is also not really the most powerful CPU, but, considering the price point, it’s relatively decent); for the 5G band, the router uses the Qualcomm QCA9984 4×4 MU-MIMO chipset (along with the Richwave RTC6665 power amp).

This configuration closely resembles that of the Netgear Orbi RBK50 and the Zyxel Multy X which are both tri-band systems, so it’s a bit odd that Asus decided to limit the true potential of the device in such a drastic way. I suppose the reason why the RT-ACRH17 is available only in certain regions is because Asus wasn’t sure how the audience would react to the device and wanted to keep to a minimum a possible failure?
In any case, the maximum theoretical data transfer rate on the 2.4GHz radio band is 400 MBps, while the maximum theoretical data transfer rate on the 5GHz radio band is 1,300 Mbps (adding up to the advertised 1,700 Mbps).

Features and Performance
When I had a look at the RT-ACRH13 about two years ago, I noticed that Asus has implemented a couple of 802.11ac WAVE 2 features that have now become the norm with almost all new routers – yes, even the cheaper ones) and it seems that the Asus RT-ACRH17 comes with a similar package of features, while purposely steering clear of the AiMesh technology. This is a bit of a let down since lots of Asus routers support it, even older ones, such as the RT-AC68U (I’ve tested it alongside the RT-AC86U using AiMesh) and one of its direct competitors, the RT-AC66U B1 – this means that the router can be used only as a stand-alone and you won’t be able to create a mesh network with multiple Asus ACRH17 devices (at the same time, only the powerful tri-band routers will truly be able to deliver a proper wireless performance and the reason is the backhaul traffic handling).

The router does take advantage of the AiRadar TX Beamforming, which means that it focuses and optimizes the signal towards the wireless connected clients (using its proprietary RF fine tuning), so it can extend the signal coverage and, as the manufacturer claims, it can also enhance the stability of the network. Furthermore, the router supports MU-MIMO, so multiple clients can be served at the same time, without having to compete for the bandwidth (supports the connection of up to three compatible devices).

To test the Asus RT-ACRH17, I took two computers, one is a Desktop PC equipped with the Asus PCE-AC88 WiFi card (it will act as the client) and the other is a relatively powerful laptop that will act as the server. On the first step, I connected both computers to the router using CAT6 cables and tested the LAN to LAN throughput (TCP): from the client to the server, I got an average of 897 MBps and from the server to the client, an average of 839 Mbps. Next, I tested the LAN to LAN throughput (UDP): from the client to the server I got an average of 870 Mbps and from the server to the client, an average of 473 Mbps.

Afterwards, I connected the Desktop PC to the 5GHz network and, from the client to the server, at 5 feet, I measured an average of 681 Mbps, while at 15 feet, the speed remained relatively constant at an average of 654 Mbps and, at 30 feet, the speed went down to 462 Mbps. So far, the router performs a lot better than the Netgear Orbi (despite sharing similar internal hardware), so let’s see the server to client wireless throughput: at 5 feet, I managed to measure an average of 298 Mbps and at 15 feet, I measured an average of 300 Mbps; at 30 feet, the speed remained surprisingly constant at an average of 261 Mbps.

On the next step, I switched to the 2.4GHz network and, from the client to the server, at 5 feet, I measured an average of 160 Mbps, while at 15 feet, the speed went down to 143 Mbps and, at 30 feet, I measured an average of 105 Mbps. From the server to the client, at 5 feet, the router delivered an average of 94.7 Mbps and, at 15 feet, I measured an average of 110 Mbps; at 30 feet, the speed went down to 108 Mbps.

Lastly, since the router comes with a USB 3.0 port, I decided to test its storage performance using a powerful SSD drive (Samsung T5): I wrote a 2.5GB multimedia folder at an average of 27 MBps, while the reading speed averaged at 37.9 MBps. Unfortunately, the storage performance is a bit below average and significantly lower than what the RT-AC86U could deliver.

Software
The Asus RT-ACRH17 can be configured and monitored using either the web-based interface or through the dedicated mobile app. For the initial set up process, I chose to use the application (which is the same for all the Asus routers – only the features will differ): the first thing that I had to do is connect the mobile device to one of the two available WiFi networks (I used an Android smartphone) and wait until the app detected the Asus router – at this point, you will be able to select the name of the discovered routers; next, I had to sign in with the default credentials (admin/admin), change the username and password to something secure and I immediately gained access to the full UI (the router automatically detected the network connection, which, in my case, it doesn’t happen that often with other routers, so that’s a plus).

The mobile user interface looks modern and the Home tab has a nice circular animation where it shows the Real-time traffic, the number of connected devices, the WiFi settings and the CPU/RAM monitor. From here, you can navigate to the connected devices (tap on any device to view detailed info, as well as gain the ability to block its access to the Internet, limit the bandwidth and view its connection quality), visit the Insight tab, configure the Family settings (block all devices or schedule access block for any connected devices) or click on More to summon all the available options.

Under Features, there’s the Guest Network and the Wireless settings (felt very limited – for full configuration, you need to access the web UI), the Network Diagnostic (check for possible faults in the network), DNS Setting, FTP and Samba, Parental Controls, Security Scan (scans for possible breaches in the network – it’s powered by TrendMicro), BackUp and Firmware Update, Traffic Statistics, WiFi ECO Mode (reduces the WiFi power and data rate to save on the power bill), WiFi Block List (add devices to a block list), IP Binding and Port Forwarding. Under Plugins, there’s the AiCloud, the AiPlayer, AiCam and Asus Extender, while under Third-Party, there’s only the XiaaLive app.

Switching to the web-based interface (accessible by going to the default IP address: 192.168.50.1), I was greeted by the same good ol’ dark blue and grey UI, with the main menu on the left. The Network Map is similar to the Home tab from the app, showing some status info about the device, the same as the Guest Network, which allows the creation of up to three guest networks on each band. The Traffic Manager displays a graph with the traffic under the Traffic Monitor and it allows you to enable QoS (either limit the band on all clients or individually), while the Parental Controls allows you to limit the access to the Internet on a maximum of 16 devices.

Under the Advanced Settings, you start to notice the difference between the app and the web-based interface, since you can adjust a lot more parameters on the Wireless settings (you can change the channel bandwidth, the mode, the security and a lot more by going to the Professional section – you can also configure a Wireless Bridge system under WDS), the LAN settings (IP, DHCP server, Route and Switch Control) and WAN settings (configure the Internet Connection, enable Port Trigger, Port Forwarding, DMZ, DDNS and NAT Passthrough).

Furthermore, you can configure the IPv6 connection, enable the VPN Server (PPTP or OpenVPN), configure the Firewall (includes DoS protection, ICMP Echo Request, IPv6 Firewall, URL Filter, Keyword Filter and Network Services Filter), switch between Wireless Router and Access Point Mode, view the System Log or use the Network Tools (Ping, Traceroute and Nslookup, as well as Netstat or Wake on LAN).

So, the ASUSWRT, as always, is enough to satisfy the needs of both beginners and tech-savvy users, but, what’s a bit disappointing is that RMerlin can’t create a third-party firmware for it (the ARCH17 is not built on the Broadcom platform) and it seems that neither the people from Project LEDE (OpenWRT) have given much thought on developing something for this router.

Conclusion
Asus hasn’t made significant changes to the design formula on its low-to-mid-range routers, but even if it didn’t follow the latest design trends, it didn’t stop the RT-ACRH17 to be an attractive inexpensive solution, especially because of its great wireless performance on the 5GHz band. Furthermore, the web-based user interface and the app offer a plethora of options suitable for both beginners and more experienced users. It’s clear that the router could have been more than it is (the hardware supports three bands) and if you’re not bothered by the lack of support from the third-party developers, then the Asus RT-ACRH17 is one of the best routers in its category (where it has purposely positioned itself so that barely any competitor can rise up to its performance).

Check the product here:

Mark B

Mark is a graduate in Computer Science, having gathered valuable experience over the years working in IT as a programmer. Mark is also the main tech writer for MBReviews.com, covering not only his passion, the networking devices, but also other cool electronic gadgets that you may find useful for your every day life.

www.mbreviews.com

It may come as a surprise that the Asus RT-AC86U is actually younger than the RT-AC88U by about two years and it was released as a successor to the RT-AC68U (a router which is still popular to this day) while also keeping the dual-band approach (the newer Asus routers have been almost exclusively tri-band) and being the first in line to support the AiMesh technology.

When it was released, the Asus RT-AC88U was the best the manufacturer had to offer, being able to outshine its competitors with its great wireless speed performance (it’s also the reason why the PCE AC88 exists in the first place, because there were no adapters available to reap all the benefits of this router) and, while the technology evolved really fast, the RT-AC88U remains very much relevant even two years later. That being said, the Asus RT-AC86U seems to evenly match the RT-AC88U in terms of both performance and features, so let’s see which of these devices is the better fit to replace your ageing router.

Note: You can also check the full review of the Asus RT-AC88U and the full review of the Asus RT-AC86U.

Design
While the new WiFi systems have adopted a clean, minimalist design approach, the regular, one-unit router didn’t evolve that much from it industrial look of its early days, so the manufacturers kept the same blueprint over multiple generations (the rectangular case with multiple external antennas) and only made minor adjustments with every new iteration of products.

Asus does fall in the same category for the most part, but its wireless routers line was always beyond the neutral industrial look and preferred to differentiate itself from the competition by using sharp lines and red accents of colour, thus giving their devices a more aggressive overall look. The Asus RT-AC88U is the perfect example, featuring a rectangular case (made of hard plastic) which lacks any rounded corners, preferring to go with a more angular aspect (especially on the top, where there’s a wave-like pattern) and the whole case is covered by a black soft matte finish (which is pleasant to touch and does not retain fingerprints), while the four antennas which rise from the back and the lateral sides are the ones that carry the signature red accents (inside some cut-out areas).

At first glance, the RT-AC88U may seem like the usual gaming router, but, at a closer look, you will notice some design elements (such as the branch patterned cut-outs positioned on the top and the front side) that give the router a more refined touch. The Asus RT-AC86U follows a similar design language, but, unlike the RT-AC88U which is positioned horizontally, it is closer related to the RT-AC68U, so it can only sit vertically. Furthermore, the RT-AC86U also features a rectangular case covered by a soft black matte finish and, on the front, the case slightly protrudes in an Y pattern, while towards the left and the right side, Asus has included two red pieces of plastic which rest inside two carved-in areas (as a reminder that we’re dealing with a gaming-focused router). Unlike the Asus RT-AC88U which resembles the front side of a modern sports car, the Asus RT-AC86U gains quite the ominous look with its three antennas pointed upwards.

What’s really interesting is that when it designed the RT-AC86U, Asus managed to keep the same proportions as the router that it took inspiration from (the RT-AC68U which measures 8.6 x 6.3 x 3.2 inches) and that allows the user to position the device anywhere in the room without taking much space (it has a very small footprint). Furthermore, despite its smaller size, the RT-AC86U did not overheat even under heavy load and that’s thanks to all those conveniently placed vent holes on the rear side (it does get warm though, so make sure to keep it somewhere in the open).

The Asus RT-AC88U rests at the other end of the spectrum, measuring 11.8 x 7.4 x 3.3 inches and having a much larger footprint which requires a lot more space from your desk. Fortunately, you do get the option to mount it on the wall (something that the RT-AC86U does not). Because it is larger, Asus could add more vent cut-outs all around the case, thus ensuring that the RT-AC88U is running cool and won’t overheat.
One element that both these two routers have in common is the array of LED lights which indicate the status of the system. The Asus RT-AC88U has the LED indicators positioned on top responsible for the status of the Power, the two radio bands (2.4GHz and 5GHz), the WAN port the eight Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports, the USB 3.0 port, the USB 2.0 port and the WPS.

The Asus RT-AC86U opted to put the LEDs on the front, towards the bottom and these indicators also show the status of the Power, the 2.4 and the 5GHz radios, the WAN port and the four LAN ports. I understand why the manufacturers have migrated away from the array of LED lights, in favour of a single LED (which is usually found on the WiFi systems), but I highly doubt the user will understand what happens when the LED changes its colour (during the initial set up process or any time there’s a change on the network). So, while simplicity and the minimalism are the current buzzwords in the home networking world, the array of lEDs still remains the most user-friendly solution.

On the rear side of the RT-AC88U, Asus has added a small Reset button, a WPS button, a USB 2.0 port, a WAN port, the Power port, the On/Off button and, between the two rear antennas, there are eight Ethernet Gigabit ports. On the front of the router, you can also find a USB 3.0 port hidden underneath a large plastic cover and on the right side, there’s a WPS button and a WiFi On/Off button. The Asus RT-AC86U has also positioned its ports and most of its buttons on the rear side: a small Reset button (hidden between the vent grills), a Power button, the Power port, a LED On/Off switch and four Ethernet Gigabit ports. On the left side of the router, you can also find a a large WPS button along with an equally large WiFi On/Off switch.

Verdict: Some people may think that the traditional router has become unnecessarily big with too many antennas protruding from everywhere (up to the point of actually repelling new potential customers). For those people, there’s the new series of WiFi systems. For the rest of us, we got two carefully crafted routers with a unique design combination between aggressiveness and elegance (especially the Asus RT-AC88U). So, while the Asus RT-AC86U is smaller but limited to one position only, the RT-AC88U is larger, but can be mounted on the wall, so the deciding factor is going to be the number of ports. This makes the RT-AC88U the winner of this round offering eight Ethernet LAN ports.

ALSO CHECK OUT: ASUS RT-AC88U VS NETGEAR NIGHTHAWK X4S

Hardware
The Asus RT-AC88U is built on the Broadcom platform, sporting a dual-core BCM4709C0 chipset clocked at 1.4GHz (four ports use the Realtek RTL8365MB Switch Controller, while the other four use the Broadcom BCM4709C0 built-in switch), 512 MB of RAM and 128 MB of flash storage memory. Furthermore, both the 2.4GHz and the 5GHz radio bands use the Broadcom BCM4366 4×4 chipset (the 2.4GHz radio also using of the RF Skyworks SE2623L Power Amplifier along with a 2.4GHz SPDT switch with LNA Skyworks SKY85201-11, while the 5GHz radio uses a RFMD RFPA5542 PA module along with a 5GHz SPDT switch with LNA Skyworks SKY85605-11).

The Asus RT-AC86U comes equipped with the newer dual-core Broadcom BCM4906 chipset (ARM v8 Cortex A53) clocked at 1.8Ghz (the ports use the built-in Broadcom BCM4906 switch chip), 512 MB of RAM and 256 MB of flash memory storage. Additionally, the 2.4GHz radio uses a Broadcom BCM4365E 3×3:3 SoC, while the 5GHz radio uses a Broadcom BCM4366E 4×4:4 SoC (while externally, the RT-AC86U has three antennas, it does have an additional fourth antenna as well).

The RT-AC88U is an AC3100 class router and the maximum theoretical data transfer rate is 1 Gbps using the 2.4GHz radio band and up to 2,167 Mbps using the 5GHz radio band (thanks to the NitroQAM technology). The Asus RT-AC86U is an AC2900 class router and it features a maximum theoretical data transfer rate of 750 Mbps using the 2.4GHz radio band and a maximum of 2,167 Mbps using the 5GHz radio band (also thanks to the NitroQAM technology).

Note: Both routers are compatible with Amazon Echo/Alexa.
Verdict: It’s clear that Asus didn’t cut any corners and has added some of the best hardware available to both routers, but, considering that the RT-AC86U is newer and seems to be better equipped than the RT-AC88U, it wins this round.

Features and Performance
While the Asus RT-AC86U can be considered the successor of the RT-AC68U especially from the design point of view, it does have a lot more in common with the RT-AC88U when we take into consideration all the implemented features and technologies. For example, both routers have in common the addition of the MU-MIMO technology (multi-user multiple-input and multiple-output) which ensures that multiple clients are served at the same time (the traditional SU-MIMO approach allowed only one client to be served at a time, so the connected wireless clients were forced to compete for the bandwidth).

When the RT-AC88U was launched, Asus had some trouble justifying this new tech so it released the PCE AC88 adapter which meant that the users of desktop PCs could have the best wireless performance available. Unfortunately, things haven’t changed that much over the last two years, so the MU-MIMO tech is still not really widespread and can only be found on new routers, some high-end adapters or laptops and occasionally, on some flagship smartphones (implemented as 2×2).

Another feature found on both routers is the AiRadar BeamForming, a technology that has the role of efficiently focusing the signal directly towards any wireless client connected to the network that has a compatible wireless card and not just broadcasting the signal everywhere and hope that it will reach all your clients. One feature that I noticed only on the RT-AC86U is the Range Boost which should improve the long-range wireless performance of the router and help achieve a larger WiFi coverage. Furthermore, in case you don’t want to have two separate SSIDs for your two radio bands and connect clients manually to each network, you can use the Smart Connect feature (available on both routers) which binds the two networks together and dynamically moves clients from one band to the other based on a list of preset rules (that can be changed by the users). This feature didn’t receive much development over the years from Broadcom, so sometimes it may not work as intended (the user can experience occasional disconnects and, from time to time, one band can become overcrowded).

The advent of the mesh WiFi systems has created a turning point for home owners by challenging the one-unit traditional routers and implementing a multi-unit approach which would cover a large home with WiFi leaving no corner untouched. As a consequence, the focus steered away from the regular routers and the WiFi systems got more in the centre of attention. As a reaction, Asus developed a clever tool to counteract it and allow the users that have an older Asus router to not have to purchase an entire new system, but just one additional Asus router which would pair with any existing compatible router to create a mesh WiFi system using the AiMesh technology (Asus is not really the first to develop this type of software: Google has allowed the OnHub routers to work as mesh points along with the Google WiFi system for a while now).

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Mark B

Mark is a graduate in Computer Science, having gathered valuable experience over the years working in IT as a programmer. Mark is also the main tech writer for MBReviews.com, covering not only his passion, the networking devices, but also other cool electronic gadgets that you may find useful for your every day life.

www.mbreviews.com

I wrote some time ago that the RT-AC87U was the successor of the RT-AC68U but it seems that Asus thought otherwise and almost five years later released the official successor of the popular RT-AC68U in the form of the Asus RT-AC86U which retains the same design language, but it does come with a more powerful CPU and better performing dual-band radios (the RT-AC86U is also available as RT-AC68U Extreme). But why did Asus decide to go with the AC86U, is it a step backwards from the AC87U or the newer AC88U? Not at all actually, it’s just Asus being weird with naming its routers (as usual) and the RT-AC86U not only can keep its ground against the RT-AC88U from the wireless performance point of view, it actually has proven to be the better device in some scenarios (such as while using a VPN).

Design
When the RT-AC68U first appeared, the people praised its unique appearance and even overlooked some of its minor flaws considering that it was a powerful router and a worthy contender to the then-popular Netgear Nighthawk R7000, but, afterwards, Asus slowly migrated to a different layout with its RT-AC87U and RT-AC88U (which still adopted an aggressive design, but unlike the AC68U, they would sit horizontally) and culminating with the arachnoid-looking RT-AC5300.

The Asus RT-AC86U seems to be an attempt to return to the roots, featuring a solidly built rectangular case which can only sit vertically and, while the RT-AC68U was covered by a black matte finish with a diamond pattern on top, the RT-AC86U decided to go with an all black finish (which is soft to the touch and doesn’t retain fingerprints), but Asus couldn’t help itself and added two carved-in narrow areas painted in red to enhance the fact that this is a gaming router.

Furthermore, the front side of the RT-AC86U slightly protrudes forward in an Y pattern (while the RT-AC68U was completely flat), but add to the equation the three antennas which rise from the top (they are detachable and omnidirectional) and, similarly to its predecessor, you get an ominous-looking device (which resembles a robotic ant head). That being said, the router is smaller than both the RT-AC87U and RT-AC88U (it measures 8.6 x 6.3 x 3.2 inches and weighs 1.92 lbs) and, because it only sits vertically, the footprint of the device covers less space on the desk. But, if you’re very short of space (which is usually the case in an office) and you may want to mount the router on the wall, unfortunately Asus did not add this possibility (that’s really the only inconvenience for this type of design).

Similarly to the Asus RT-AC68U, the RT-AC86U features a non-detachable stand which is almost double the thickness of the router and I was impressed by how sturdy and well-made it was (you have to seriously push the device for it to fall over).
On the bottom side of the stand, there are two large silicone bands which do a great job at keeping the device from budging even if you make use of all the ports. On the rear side, the router is divided into two areas by a central thick band (on which you can find some router info, including the default SSIDs and the MAC address), both sections being covered by lots of conveniently placed cut-outs to facilitate a proper heat management (the device relies on passive cooling). The router does get slightly warm towards the top on the rear side and warmer near the antenna connectors, but it didn’t show any signs that it may overheat even under heavy load.

Underneath these cut-outs, there’s a separate section which is home to the ports and some buttons: from the left, there’s the Power button, the Power DC-IN port, a USB 2.0 port, a USB 3.0 port, a LED On/Off switch (press and hold for a second to either turn on or off the LED lights) and four Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports (a small Reset button can also be found hidden within the vent cut-outs on the left side of the device). On the left side of the RT-AC86U, there are two relatively large button, one for initiating the WPS process and the other for turning On or Off the WiFi. An interesting design choice is the addition of a transparent piece of plastic with the Asus logo on the rear side underneath the ports section which, sure, it could add to the style of the router, but, because of its position, it will most likely go unnoticed by your guests.

On the front side of the router, you will immediately notice that there is an array of LED lights which have the role of showing the status of the router and the system: from the right, there’s the Power LED (if it’s flashing slow, then the router is in rescue mode), the 5GHz and 2.4GHz LED lights (if either LED is flashing, then data is being transmitted or received via the wireless connection), the WAN LED (if it gets red, then there is either no Internet or no physical connection) and four LEDs, each for a specific LAN port. In a sense, it’s a breath of fresh air to instantly understand how your system is doing without constantly consulting an app or the manual to see what each colour of a single LED indicator means (as in the case of most WiFi mesh systems).

It’s interesting to see that new WiFi systems have gone a completely different route from the design point of view (all have white minimalist cases, including the Asus Lyra), so perhaps the manufacturers may have wanted to create a clear demarcation line between the whole-home mesh systems (which are easy to setup and require little to no user configuration) and the traditional router (which would have been more suitable for tech-savvy users), but, while Asus is known not to shy away from designing aggressive-looking routers, it is this manufacturer that wants to blur these increasingly clearer lines with its AiMesh tech, which allows the user to create mesh systems out of older, previously, single-unit Asus routers, therefore challenging the dedicated WiFi systems relevancy on the market.

Hardware
Inside the case, Asus has equipped the RT-AC86U with a dual-core Broadcom BCM4906 chipset clocked at 1.8GHz (ARM v8 Cortex A53), which is a step up from the dual-core 1.4GHz BCM4709C0 of the RT-AC88U; the router also features 512 MB of RAM (Micron MT41K256M16TW) and 256 MB of flash memory (Macronix NAND). Furthermore, to ensure a good wireless performance, the 2.4GHz radio band uses the Broadcom BCM4365E 3×3:3 SoC (802.11a/b/g/n) and the 5GHz radio band takes advantage of the Broadcom BCM4366E 4×4:4 SoC (a/b/g/n/ac). As a side note, beside the three external antenna, the Asus RT-AC86U actually has an extra internal antenna for a better 5GHz quad-stream performance.

Note: After the aggressive attempt from Broadcom to take over Qualcomm, I have no doubt that both companies will deliver better equipped products with newer technologies in order to gain more influence in their particular market segment and, of course, my focus will be towards the WiFi mesh (Asus seems to bet on the Broadcom platform for its AiMesh technology, even if the Asus Lyra is using a Qualcomm chipset).
The router features a maximum theoretical data transfer rate of 750 Mbps on the 2.4GHz radio band and a maximum theoretical data transfer rate of 2167 Mbps using the 5GHz radio (which adds up to 2,917 Mbps and rounds to the advertised 2,900 Mbps). To get the best WiFi speeds, it is advisable to have a wireless card adapter that supports 1024-QAM (Asus calls it NitroQAM).

Features and Performance
The Asus RT-AC86U comes equipped with pretty much all the latest technologies that Asus usually adds to its high-end gaming-focused routers, such as the Smart Connect, the WTFast game accelerator or the Adaptive QoS, but it can be so much more if used along with multiple other Asus routers in order to create a mesh WiFi system. To do so, you would need to enable the AiMesh (that comes with the latest firmware updates) which adds a new set of features to the traditional single-unit router functionalities.

Among them, there’s the ability to have a network of optimized nodes (Asus routers, in our case) which work together in order to create the best routes for the data (based on the signal strength, the used channels, the number of connected clients, the least crowded band and so on). Furthermore, the network will also automatically reorganize itself and create new paths for the data in case a new node is added or removed from the network.

Another interesting aspect of the AiMesh is the handling of the backhaul traffic and in our case, if the RT-AC86U is used along with another dual-band Asus router, then the two radio will share both the backhaul and the clients, but there is also the possibility of using two (or more) compatible tri-band Asus routers with AiMesh, in which case, one 5GHz radio band can be dedicated to the backhaul traffic. In the end, the wireless performance can be kept in check by using some cables (the AiMesh supports the Ethernet backhaul). Obviously, you don’t necessarily need to use the AiMesh because the RT-AC86U is a powerful router on its own, able to cover a large area with WiFi.

One of the features that has the potential to enhance the wireless performance is the MU-MIMO technology, which was created in an effort to change the generic handling of the clients (where they have to compete for the bandwidth and each gets served at a time) and allow the ability of serving multiple clients at a time. This works well with clients that have compatible adapters, but MU-MIMO did not really get widespread and, since the adapters that support this tech are still very expensive, the regular user won’t really be able to reap the benefits of this technology (right now, besides the high-end routers and a couple of very expensive laptops, there are only some flagship smartphones which support MU-MIMO (although, in the 2×2 form)).

The AiRadar 2.0 BeamForming technology is also supported by the RT-AC86U which has the role of focusing the signal towards each connected wireless client, instead of broadcasting it everywhere and hope to reach your devices (this feature requires compatible adapters, but, thankfully, the BeamForming is a lot more widespread than MU-MIMO). Also, to improve the long-range WiFi performance and gain a better coverage, Asus has also added the RangeBoost feature (Asus claims up to 120% coverage – which is an interesting claim that will force the physicists to reinvent their entire worldview).

If you have a lot of wireless clients and don’t want to be bothered connecting each one to their own suitable radio band, then you could enable the Smart Connect feature which puts both radios under one SSID and, based on some user-defined rules (such as the RSSI, PHY rates, bandwidth utilization or VHT), it balances the clients between the 2.4 and the 5GHz radio bands. The problem is that Broadcom did not really make any spectacular advances to this feature since it first came out and there are some issues that still persist with every new Asus router, such as occasional disconnects or wrongly forcing 5GHz-capable devices on the 2.4GHz band.

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Mark B

Mark is a graduate in Computer Science, having gathered valuable experience over the years working in IT as a programmer. Mark is also the main tech writer for MBReviews.com, covering not only his passion, the networking devices, but also other cool electronic gadgets that you may find useful for your every day life.

www.mbreviews.com

Unlike its main competitors (such as the Netgear Orbi, the Linksys Velop or the latest Eero 2nd Generation), it did not seem to stick that well to the general public since the mesh system did not really rise up to the users’ expectations – although it had some time to learn from the mistakes of its competitors and perhaps, it could have been better received if it came a year before its release date.

I was actually tempted to say that with the release of the AiMesh, Asus did not seem to have that much confidence in the Lyra, but the release of the Lyra Trio and Voice systems goes against this point (the AiMesh is compatible with some Asus routers and it allows the user to recycle some older devices and making them reliable nodes to a mesh WiFi system). That being said, the Asus Lyra is really not a bad system (it’s not great either) and since it has undergone some updates, let’s have a look if some things have improved and if it can be considered a worthy competitor to the already established competitors.

Design
The first time Asus has announced its first WiFi mesh system, it came with the Hivespot codename and, while it has later changed it to the Lyra, I can see what type of concept the designers had in mind while building the device. The Asus Lyra comes with three identical units, each featuring a round case (covered with a white matte finish which does not retain fingerprints), with the top area being slightly inflated towards the middle to resemble a shallow cone.

It’s clear that the Asus Lyra has followed a similar design footprint as the other WiFi systems, also focusing towards minimalism and simplicity, but it has added a novelty element in the form of small puncture holes on the top area and from underneath them, a LED light up to give the impression of a honeycomb. So, the original point of the Asus Lyra seems to be to create an entire hive network with lots of tiny nodes (Hivespots?) positioned all around the house (I know, it’s perhaps as tacky as the TP-Link’s ‘DECOrate your home with WiFi’ approach).

Each of the three units measures 5.89 x 5.89 x 1.94 inches, so it’s larger than Samsung Connect Home, Eero Second Generation, TP-Link Deco M5 and the Google WiFi, but still smaller than the Linksys Velop and Netgear Orbi which went a completely different design route. Furthermore, because of their appearance the nodes of the Asus Lyra system can be easily placed anywhere in the house (yes, it’s even living-room friendly and, if you dislike the top RGB LED light, it can be disabled) and thanks to its smaller height, you don’t have to worry about it accidentally falling from the edge of a desk.

On the bottom of every Lyra unit, there are five silicone feet which, besides being tall enough to allow a good ventilation, they have proven to stoically keep the case from budging. Besides the five feet, the bottom of a Lyra router is covered by lots of punctured holes which indicates that Asus has taken seriously the impact of high temperatures onto the internal hardware over time, so I have not notice any attempts at overheating from any of the three Asus Lyra devices (something that neither Google Wifi, nor Eero second generation can pride themselves with).

One advantage that the Asus Lyra has over most other WiFi systems is the ability to be mounted on the wall or ceiling (using the two dedicated holes on the bottom of the device – you don’t really have to worry about covering the vent cut-outs, since the feet are tall enough to ensure a proper airflow). Besides the top LED, the light also shines from the narrow canal which surrounds the upper area and, unlike the traditional array of LED lights which shows the status of individual functions of the router, the single LED approach will indicate the status of the system via different colours in various stages: if the indicator is solid white, then the device is ready to be set up, while, if it’s flashing white, then the node is setting up using the app; if the LED is changing through various colours, then the device is booting up; the LED will be light cyan when everything is working properly and it will be red when a secondary unit has lost connection to the main router (move it closely); if the indicator is orange, then there is no Internet connection available; the LED will blink green when a Lyra node wants to be paired to the network.

I’m still unconvinced by the single LED implementation and, while I definitely understand the need to simplify the design and make everything more accessible, I don’t think any person will know what those flashing or solid colours will mean (except maybe for the ones who projected them) – sure, red is quite universally used to indicate an error, but for everything else, you either need a manual or pray for the integration with Alexa (with the latest firmware (Version 3.0.0.4.382.11464), the Lyra Home which I’m reviewing does seem to have added support for Alexa – as a side note, the new Asus Lyra Voice uses an Alexa speaker).

If you go around the device, you’ll notice that the design continuity is broken by a carved-in area, where you can find two Gigabit (10/100/1000 Mbps) RJ45 ports, from which the first is WAN/LAN, so it can be used for the connection with the modem (only one device needs to be connected to a modem, while the rest will be able to use both of the ports for LAN) and next to these ports, there’s a DC-In Power port (there is no USB port and that’s not really a minus since no other WiFi system has really taken advantage of it in a proper way). At the time of release, the Asus Lyra did not support Ethernet backhaul, but with the January update, the inter-node wired connection is now officially out of the beta stage, so you can use one LAN port to connect the Lyra nodes via wire (of course, the LAN ports can also be used to connect wired clients, if you don’t need the Ethernet backhaul feature).

Close to the ports area, also rests a Pairing button (which can be used only to pair nodes with the primary Lyra) and on the bottom side, you can find a relatively large Reset button (to perform a hardware reset, press the button until the LED flashes orange and then wait for the LED to become solid white – this indicates that the Lyra unit has been reset).

Hardware
Asus has equipped every Lyra unit with a quad-core Qualcomm IPQ4019 2×2 SoC, clocked at 717 MHz (similarly to both the Google WiFi and Eero Generation 2). There’s also a Qualcomm Atheros QCA8072 switch chip, 128 MB (Macronix NAND) internal storage and 256 MB of RAM (Nanya NT5CC128M16IP-DI). Furthermore, for the WiFi performance, the 2.4GHz radio band uses the Qualcomm IPQ4019 chipset along with a Skyworks SKY2623L power amplifier, while the first 5GHz radio also uses the Qualcomm IPQ4019 chip with an RFMD RFPA5542 power amplifier and the second 5GHz radio band uses the QCA9886 SoC along with an RFMD RFPA5542 power amplifier.

It doesn’t seem that Asus had much faith in either ZigBee or Z-Wave (it seems that other WiFi systems don’t either – such as the Google WiFi, that apparently has removed it from newer iterations, but the Samsung Connect did not shy away from implementing both), but you do get Bluetooth 4.0 which uses an Atheros AR3012 chip.
The Asus Lyra Home features a maximum theoretical data transfer of 400 Mbps using the 2.4GHz radio band and a maximum theoretical data transfer rate of 867 Mbps on each of the two available 5GHz radio bands (adds up to 2134 Mbps which are rounded to 2200 – the Asus Lyra is advertised as an AC2200-class system of routers).

Features and Performance
The WiFi systems are the natural evolution over the traditional router (+ at least an extender) in order to be able to cover a larger area in a more efficient way and to pull it off, the manufacturers were left to their own creativity. This way we got dual-band WiFi systems like the Google WiFi, Eero Second Generation, Ubiquiti AmpliFi HD or TP-Link Deco M5 which can deliver a solid performance for a small to medium sized house and there are tri-band systems such as the Linksys Velop, Eero Second Generation or the Netgear Orbi which are more suitable for larger homes with more devices to connect to the network.

But, the key element was the inter-connectivity between the units and the handling of the backhaul traffic. The large majority of the WiFi systems have implemented the mesh technology (each has added some alterations, especially in the form of the client and backhaul handling within the available radio bands), while the Netgear Orbi refused to join the group for a while, but seems to gradually give in and, while before, it only worked as a Main unit and Satellites configuration, it now supports daisy-chaining, so there is present the communication between the satellites.

The Asus Lyra is part of the tri-band WiFi mesh systems group and it does take full advantage of all the qualities of the mesh technology. The most important aspect of a mesh WiFi system is the self-optimization property, which has the role of detecting all the nodes and create a large mesh network with the best paths and with the minimum interference in order for the data to reach the destination as fast as possible. Furthermore, a mesh network will also take advantage of the self-forming property which has the role of ensuring that any new unit added to the network is immediately becoming a functioning part of the mesh network and thus new paths can be created using the added node, therefore, once again, the data will reach it destination faster than before.

In case a node fails, the network will scan for nearby units (to find the most suitable candidate by taking into account the distance between the nodes, the number of clients connected to that specific device, the signal strength and more) and attempt to create a new path for the data in order to ensure that the user doesn’t experience any downtime and that the information reaches the destination safely (which highlights another important element of a mesh network, the self-healing property).

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Mark B

Mark is a graduate in Computer Science, having gathered valuable experience over the years working in IT as a programmer. Mark is also the main tech writer for MBReviews.com, covering not only his passion, the networking devices, but also other cool electronic gadgets that you may find useful for your every day life.

www.mbreviews.com

The RT-AC55U is also a great alternative to the RT-AC53U and the RT-AC56R, especially since Asus declared that these devices have reached EOL (end of life), so, if some of you don’t want to upgrade to the AC1750 or higher routers, the AC55U should provide a similar experience to the other AC1200 devices, while being kept updated regularly. It’s worth noting that recently, Asus released an interesting Dual-Band AC1300 router called the ASUS RT-ACRH13 which, besides providing the usual performance, it also comes equipped with the MU-MIMO technology.
Note: Please be aware that there is also a different router called the 4G-AC55U and this review does not also apply to that model.

Design
The Asus RT-AC55U has the same iconic design that I got accustomed with since the old days of the RT-N66U, which later got borrowed and slightly adapted by the RT-AC68U and lastly, it influenced the dynamic case of the RT-AC87U. Similarly to the RT-N66U, the RT-AC55U has a rectangular body, with the same diamond shaped texture on top (that does not retain fingerprints) and the black band which holds the Asus logo. The RT-AC68U is slightly larger that the RT-AC55U, which measures 8.1 x 5.8 x 1.4 inches and, because of its small proportions (compared with most other routers on the market), it won’t be really difficult to find a spot for it. Furthermore, because it looks like a jewellery box, it will blend in easily with the surroundings. But, if space is important and you can’t afford to lose even an inch (usual scenario in offices), the RT-AC55U can be mounted on the wall.

The weight of the RT-AC55U (1.09 lbs) is more than enough to keep the device still even when a lot of cables are connected and thanks to the four tall feet (with rubber pads), the router won’t budge in normal conditions. The tall feet also ensure a proper airflow underneath the case, where there are lots of vent grills. It’s nice to see that Asus did not hold back on the ventilation of the case, as you can also find some vent holes on the left and right side, as well as on the rear side, on top of the ports.

On the top of the RT-AC55U, there is an array of blue LED lights (asymmetrically positioned to the right), which show the status of the WPS (if the LED is flashing quickly, the the WPS process is active), USB 3.0 and 2.0, the four LAN ports (the single LED will light up if there’s a connection to a LAN), WAN (if the light is red, it means that there is not physical connection, the connection is limited or missing or that the router is in Rescue Mode), the 2.4 and 5GHz networks (if any of the LEDs flashes, then there’s Internet activity) and the Power (if the LED flashes slowly, then the device is in Rescue Mode).

The rear side of the RT-AC55U is the place where Asus has positioned most of the ports and connections: from the left, there’s a small recessed Reset button (useful in case you need to return the device to factory default settings), a Power button, the Power DC-IN port, a USB 2.0 port (sure, it’s a downgrade from the USB 3.0, but can still be useful for connecting USB flash drives or simply charging your phone or tablet), the RJ45 10/100/1000 Gigabit BaseT WAN port, a WPS button and four RJ45 10/100/1000 Gigabit BaseT LAN ports (there are also two connectors for the removable antennas). Lastly, the RT-AC55U has a frontal USB 3.0 for attaching external HDDs (it’s good that Asus added a USB 3.0 port, but, ideally, it should have been positioned on the rear side for not creating a mess of cables).

I’ve started to really appreciate that the antennas are removable since a lot of routers (even those recently released) have fixed antennas (manufacturers seem to not consider this as something important).
Note: Inside the package, you can find the Asus RT-AC55U unit, a RJ-45 network cable, the AC adapter, the two external antennas, a Quick Start Guide and a Support CD (with the User Guide).

Hardware

Inside the case, Asus equipped the RT-AC55U with a 750 MHz Qualcomm Atheros QCA9557 SoC (MIPS 74Kc), 128 MB of flash memory (Zentel A5U1GA31ATS-BC), 128 MB of RAM (Samsung K4T1G164QG-BCF7) and a Qualcomm Atheros QCA8337N switch chip. Furthermore, the USb 3.0 uses the EtronTech EJ168A controller chip.

The 2.4GHz wireless performance is being delivered by a Qualcomm Atheros QCA9557 chipset (b/g/n) 2×2:2, along with the Richwave RTC6649E power amplifier and the 5GHz wireless performance is delivered by a Qualcomm Atheros QCA9882-BR4A chipset (a/n/ac, 2×2:2), along with the Skyworks SKY85402 amplifier.
The ASUS RT-AC55U features a maximum throughput of 300 Mbps using the 2.4GHz radio band and a maximum of 867 Mbps using the 5GHz radio band (1,167 Mbps in total, rounded to the advertised 1,300 Mbps).

Performance and Connectivity

Since the ASUS RT-AC55U is part of the entry-level family routers from Asus, you can’t really expect it to have implemented the latest technologies on the market, but, despite all these, it still comes with some nice additions that help enhancing the wireless performance. First of all, the RT-AC55U is a concurrent dual-band router, which means that you can have devices with 2.4GHz compatible adapters and devices with 5GHz compatible adapters connected at the same time to their respective networks (some low-prices router force you to choose which band will run at a time).

Furthermore, the RT-AC55U uses the Asus AiRadar feature (which includes the Beamforming technology and the Asus RF fine-tuning), that has the role of scanning and detecting all the connected devices and specifically focus the signal towards them, therefore resulting into better coverage and an increased throughput. As expected, there is no MU-MIMO technology and while it may have been considered common sense not to expect it in lower-priced router, things have actually changed recently. Sure, the older RT-AC55U does not come equipped with such tech, but Asus has made a bold move and actually added the MU-MIMO feature to the RT-ACRH13. Now, you may wonder if it will work properly with a low-cost router and, it’s true that it feels more of an experiment than anything else, but, the RT-ACRH13 can handle about 4 devices with MU-MIMO wireless compatible adapters, so it’s a step in the good direction.

Now, let’s return to the Asus RT-AC55U and see how it fares in the wireless testing. To do this, I took a laptop and a desktop computer, both with compatible wireless 802.11ac adapters and I tested the router performance at different distances, while maintaining the interferences to a minimum. So, using the 2.4GHz frequency and the 802.11n standard (obviously), I measured an average of 88 Mbps at 5 feet and I did saw a slight decrease to 73 Mbps at 15 feet. At 100 feet, while still using the 2.4 GHz frequency, I measured only 35 Mbps. Afterwards, I switched to the 5GHz frequency and while using the 802.11ac standard, I measured an average of 331 Mbps at 5 feet and an average of 246 Mbps after I increased the distance to 15 feet. Next, at 100 feet, the speed decreased to 66 Mbps.

Lastly, since the Asus RT-AC55U is equipped with a USB 3.0, I am going to test the storage performance of the router. So, using a 2.0GB folder (containing miscellaneous files, such as audio, video or texts), I measured an average read speed of 18.2 MBps and an average write speed of 10.8 MBps. Unfortunately, this is not a really good performance, so I wouldn’t rely on this router to be used as an alternative to a NAS server (you can do that with the Linksys WRT1900ACS though).

Setup

The Asus RT-AC55U features the same ASUSWRT interface and takes pride into the ’30 second setup’ process (in reality it will take a couple of minutes). In order to access the UI, you need to open a web browser and insert the default IP address (192.168.1.1 or https://router.asus.com), which will automatically launch the Quick Internet Setup (if it’s the first time you access the interface). The QIS process guides through choosing the connection type (it can be Dynamic IP, PPPoE, PPTP, L2TP or Static IP – the process can also be done automatically), it allows you to assign the SSID and the security keys for your 2.4GHz and 5GHz wireless connections. And that’s pretty much it, the basic setup is done and you can now access the interface and further configure the router.

The UI has the main options on the left, each opening a new windows on the middle. These options are divided into three sections: Quick Internet Setup, General and Advanced Settings. The General section contains the following options: the Network Map (shows the Internet status, the Security level, the number of clients, USB devices and a small right window which, by default shows the System Settings, but it also shows in-depth settings for each previously mentioned section), Guest Network (it supports up to six SSIDs, three for each of the wireless bands), the Traffic Manager (the QoS allows you to create rules for prioritizing the way your bandwidth is being handled by the applications – by default, gaming and web surfing are set at the highest priority; the Traffic Monitor shows the incoming and outgoing data packages), the Parental Controls (allows you to filter the Internet access by the client name, MAC address and to create schedules), the USB Application (Media Server, Network Place(Samba) Share/Cloud Disk, FTP Share and Miscellaneous setting) and the AiCloud (cloud service that allows you to synchronize, save, share and access your files).

The Advanced Settings includes the following sections: Wireless (General Settings, WPS, Bridge, Wireless MAC Filter, RADIUS Setting and Professional), LAN (LAN IP, DHCP Server, Route, IPTV and Switch Control), WAN (Internet Connection, Port Trigger, Virtual Server, Port Forwarding, DMZ, DDNS and NAT Passthrough), IPv6, VPN Server (VPN Server and VPN Details), Firewall (General, URL Filter, Keyword Filter and Network Services Filter), Administration (Operation Mode – Wireless router mode, Access point mode; System, Firmware Upgrade and Restore/Save/Upload Setting) and System Log (General Log, DHCP leases, Wireless Log, Port Forwarding and Routing Table).

Conclusion
Although not really a new device, the Asus RT-AC55U can still be considered relevant for a large portion of home Internet users, since it delivers what an AC1200 router should: good coverage, acceptable wireless performance, network stability, an aesthetically pleasing design and a coherent interface which most of the people can follow with ease. Of course that there are other newer and better alternatives on the market, but the RT-AC55U had time to mature and hopefully, deliver a good experience to most of its users.

Check the product here:

Mark B

Mark is a graduate in Computer Science, having gathered valuable experience over the years working in IT as a programmer. Mark is also the main tech writer for MBReviews.com, covering not only his passion, the networking devices, but also other cool electronic gadgets that you may find useful for your every day life.

www.mbreviews.com