****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
I purchased this router after going from BT to Vodafone. BT's provider router was not great but it was getting the job done. However, after switching to Vodafone (which was 30% cheaper on a monthly basis for the same speed as BT), I ended with performance issues which could only be attributed to the new router.My issues were: 1) slow response time from a number of externally accessible services on my NAS (for some reason, the Vodafone router needed to "think" long and hard before allowing traffic and implementing inbound firewall rules); and 2) inability to play hi-res audio files from my NAS without issues. For 2, I have an audio streamer (Node 2i) and so the audio files need to go from the NAS to the router, and then from the router to the Node 2i. The Vodafone router proved completely unable to send and receive heavy files at the same time and when playing hi-res files I ended up with huge lags, constant stops to buffer etc.I decided to take a leap of faith and purchased the Asus AC86U router as a replacement. I have it hooked to a cheap BT Huawei HG612 modem, since the Vodafone router can't be used as modem only and I did not want double NAT. I am now fully satisfied with the router and have it using the Merlin firmware.It is packed with more cool features than you can imagine. For instance you can hook to it an Android phone, which you can use as backup connection if your main ISP goes down. It also supports Asus Aimesh, though if you’re going to do that with this router, you best do it via a wired connection as it is not tri-band (though you’re always better off doing things wired, your house does not always allow it). There are also a lot of custom scripts you can setup to do all sort of interesting things. I haven’t tested that though and will just list + and - below based on what I am using.(+) Performance is fast with the router able to sustain continuous concurrent upoad & download (heavy torrenting not an issue).(+) The router is really stable (on Merlin 386_2_4). While I have it on a schedule to restart on a weekly basis, I tried before that to leave it run for weeks on end and it never had any issue. Only thing is that RAM usage slowly & gradually crept up (as you’d expect from normal usage over time) but that never led to issues or instability.(+) The VPN features are great. You can setup on it a VPN Server (allowing you to log into your local connection and access your home network while on the move) and multiple VPN Clients. For VPN Clients, you can then route the traffic of different devices via different VPN connections. In my case, I plan to use it when friends and family from my home country visits (as soon as COVID allows), connecting them to a VPN in the motherland so they can stream local content and bypass geofencing.(+) Allows you to easily setup guest network(s), for when you want to share your connection without exposing your internal devices. You can setup many, on 2.4Ghz and/or 5Ghz, decide how long the guest network will be up, limit the bandwidth used by it etc.(+) The mobile app to manage the router (iOS) is pretty good.(+) Some of the built-in reporting like traffic analyzer is interesting, allowing you to see which device is using most of the bandwidth.(+) Adaptive QoS is also a nice feature, allowing to prioritize traffic and preventing one member of the family from sucking away all bandwidth (e.g. if some of your users are streaming 4k videos on Youtube).(neutral) I don’t find WIFI performance particularly impressive. It’s not bad but no better than what I had before either.(-) The UI of the router is a little dated and applying some of the settings result in some wait time (0 to 100% progress bar).(-) A lot of the advanced features require you to agree to share your data with MicroTrends which will be a red flag for anyone concerned about data privacy.(-) Still around privacy, there is a Web History feature that I find questionable, as it lists all sites visited. It’s easy enough to leave it deactivated but… It means the administrator of the router can invade everyone’s privacy. There are some pretty bad people out there, and not everyone would know how to protect themselves from prying eyes. I wish a feature like that was just not there in the first place.(-) It is a downright ugly beast. Tuck it away in a place where you don’t see it, if your space allows it.Overall it’s my first Asus router having had some Netgear, Linksys or ISP provided routers (which are notoriously bad), and it’s easily the best one I’ve had. It’s incredibly versatile and packed full of features. It will be overkill many. My biggest issue with it is probably around some of the privacy concerns, which you can mitigate (don’t accept to share your data with MicroTrends, but you’ll lose some features), but other than this, it is excellent.
