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Pros:+Consistent data processing and movement in the network+Takes up HALF the space of most normal routers and no more falling antennas!!+Great Aesthetics+Awesome ASUS GUI+Easy setup for the beginner+Advanced settings for pros+Much more powerful signal than the ASUS AC2400+Cool and adjustable LED lightingFor those of you that have issues with routers dying, I suggest you buy a laptop cooling pad and place the router on one of those. Heat buildup due to lack of airflow is the number one enemy of electronics. I purchased this Router from another place, but I wanted to spread my great experience about this router to everyone else because it has no reviews. ASUS you should really do more with the NEWEGGSPERT program and work on your customer service RMA process for customers.My AC2400 was about 2.5 years old and there have been a lot of advances with routers since then. I was having lots of issues with that router being able to give me consistent and high data flows on my network and I had a feeling it was either starting to fail or it was a limitation of the chips in the router.So, I took a chance and bought this router and it really is a great bargain!! You are getting a 3-core Intel processor that seems to really be able to handle the workloads. The 3rd core is supposed to be dedicated to VoIP use. Please note that The ASUS ROG 5400 Has a 4-core Intel, but all other ASUS routers use the Broadcom chips. This is Intel’s attempt to get into the market, and from what I can see they have done a really good job.ASUS routers hands down have THE BEST GUI and ease of use over ANY other router I have ever used. As a Neweggspert I have tested a lot of routers! The mouse over help is a good quick reference, but many of the people who put poor reviews simply do not know what they are doing. Immediately upon changing over to this router, I notice a 15dbm gain in power! Which equates to over 10x the signal strength. Remember though we are talking a wireless signal that is prone to interference and we are in the milliwatt range. Real world performance for this router placed in a central location in my basement game me great coverage throughout my 1500 square foot house. Currently, this router does NOT include ASUS AiMesh networking, but it will be included in a future update.During network saturation testing, I was able to fully use my 65 Gb/s from the internet (2xUHD Netflix) and MAX out my plex server to every device I own plus another 3 local computer streams. It handled everything perfectly, with zero issues. My plex server can put out about 7 converted streams and I only saturated the 5ghz wireless about 50%.That is AWESOME! I was able to set my Plex server to High quality instead of speed and now my wireless video is as good as my wired video, I was never able to do that on my ASUS 2400. Video load times were minimal and kept under 5 seconds, even ff worked perfectly!!Computer to computer and internet downloads were able to max out with rock solid consistency.Cons:Cons-Power dongle is a 90 Deg angle on router connection and can turn off the power if you move the router.-Currently does not support ASUS AI Mesh networking-No manual included in the box, just quick setup-ASUS and the whole computer industry need to seriously work on customer service in this internet age, especially RMA service. You should all look at Motorola, their service system is EXEMPLARY!That is really about all there is for the cons.Other Thoughts:ASUS GREAT job on this router, it looks great and works even better and it is at the right price! We need more of these types of routers! I hate all the routers with more than 4 antennas and really the ONLY advantage to antennas is to be able to move them around for a bit more precise control of directing the signal, but that is the ONLY benefit to them, there is very little to GAIN by having them!!This router is perfect for the normal sized home, and once AI Mesh is incorporated into it then it will be the perfect base station for the extenders. For the price, it is really a great deal, most other routers are more expensive and have terrible GUI’s, plus many other brands of routers will disable your network with a loss of internet! ASUS keeps on cruising!UPDATE on AI MESH:FINALLY ASUS got off their behinds and released the promised AI mesh update for the Blue Cave, after I sent them an inquiry about it. I still have not used the Alexa or IFTTT functions yet, as I have been far too busy to set all that up on my smart devices, but once I do I will do a second update.A little background first, I am starting a home business and I needed good internet to my garages, Honestly I was considering a Ubiquity setup, but for now it was cost prohibitive. I decided to get a second Blue Cave since the AI mesh came out for it. I decided to completely redo my network backbone with Cat6 shielded cables. This is the most important part if you live in RF saturated spaces like Apartments or near a lot of RF like Cell phone towers, or even power stations. I think many of the reviewers truly do not understand how wireless works, and expect miracles all the time.I did have some early bios problems with the Blue cave with dropping wifi, but it was ASUS wide bios because I had it with other routers as well. Those issue seem to have been completely cleared up for me. I do have one complaint to ASUS about their Blue Cave set up. You need a bypass link to go straight to the firmware flash, whether it be USB or internet. Because your initial router setup is a big pain in the behind to get through, please fix.As I said I ran a brand new Cat6 shielded backbone which brings me to this point, ASUS you need to start using shielded connectors in the back of your routers! because we are so saturated with RF in some areas that some people with have to use shielded cables. This is what actually makes the Cable companies transmission superior to most others. Which brings me to this. My initial review was for one Blue Cave. Now I can tell you about the best way to have SUPERIOR performance.1) An ac2600 should be enough for the average consumer, and remember this the 2600 is just for the wireless. I highly recommend that you get a couple of 1GB switches and use those and hardwire any PC's and HD and UHD televisions to your 1GB connections to the Blue Cave. Especially, if you want the best looking picture or if you do a lot of online gaming. Wireless is fine for you tablets and phones obviously, just keep you wireless for those kinds of devices.2) Update your second devices Firmware while having it plugged into computer only.3) Hard-wire the back-bone from router to router I recommend to do it with Cat6 for the future, that way you do not lose valuable bandwidth for the router to talk to one another. You will do this by connecting the second Asus AI mesh router to the internet connection.I have 2 Blue caves, and even though they don't have quite the range I would like them to have they are about what you expect from a home router. And surely better than having 8 antenni flopping and falling all over the place. I have only had one issue during the early bios of the WiFi dropping occasionally, but that issue is gone. Asus has done a number of security updates and because of their excellent trend micro included I can see all probes and attacks that have been thwarted. This is the primary reason I chose to stick with ASUS is the superb firmware and GUI. It is can be overwhelming to a beginner at times, but you will be thankful for it, if you have used other routers as I have. ASUS was not targeted for many of the recent security attacks. I do know there has been a lot of probing going on to find vulnerabilities. Having the Trend micro really helps!Sorry I got side tracked, AI mesh performance is really good, the routers now put your phones and tablets in the 2.4ghz band and higher bandwidth items in the 5ghz. I can now travel from one end of my property to the other, (1/4 a city block) and have full coverage. Since, all of my building have Steel siding it limits my range quite a bit. The only issue you need to understand with handing off is that it will be transparent most of the time. I however use Skype and Wechat a ton and you will get a small time (usually no more than 10 second) where it will have an "unstable connection" but it will regain the connection but will not drop the call, most of the time. But for everything else other than live voice or video chat, you should not notice any transition.Overall, I am very happy with ASUS hardware, it is very reliable compared to other brands. I do think ASUS needs to step back as a company and look at their Software division and their Customer service division and improve them a lot more, especially if they want to stay on top of the market. Many other brands are catching up to them. You really need to provide the best customer service if you want to be number one, in the future. BTW almost all the computer and the home network companies customer service stinks. They all cna improve dramatically.Feel free to ask me any questions and please rate up this review.10/11/13 UPDATE : Received router on 10/8 and review was written with 1st day experiences, I ranked it a 5 star purchase at the time. I'll leave that review intact as a basis of the overall experience but will add a brief update first and my score is going to go down based off of that. since first day, I have started to notice diminished performance that gets alleviated with reboots, obviously not ideal though. Others are reporting degrading signal strength over time on the 5ghz band too. It feels like a fw update could fix it but it's a lot to pay for a hope and a prayer. This sent me to test out the r7000 so today I tried out the netgear r7000 to compare/contrast. tested via ipad4 and iphone 5s at distances of ~40 feet, ~65 feet, and ~85 feet all on the 5ghz band. In general, the ac68u was 10-20 mbps faster then the r7000 on downstream, at times a few mbps faster on the uploads. at the furthest distance, the ac68u was upwards of 30mbps better although i'll note, the iphone 5s connection at that distance was fairly sporadic for both routers. At times could get decent speeds, at times couldn't get connected so I went to the 2.4 band on the 5s and on average kept a decent connection but not great and the ac68u frankly had a pronounced speed advantage on the 2.4 band here. Not all roses hence why I have dinged the router a star though. On average, the r7000 was noticeably more consistent with its speeds at each distance while the ac68u had wilder fluctuations in either direction. 20mbps better on one reading, 40 worse on another. In my rankings, I tried to show what they got on the high end of results but the ac68u definitely had moments well below as well. It was easier to assess what the r7000 was going to give me, it typically differed in results by 3-5 mbps. At this point I'm torn, not sure what to do. On one hand, the ac68u is giving me better speeds at longer distances, something anyone would want. On the other hand, the signal may be degrading over time and the speeds are not as consistent as the r7000(frankly, these issues may be related). With the netgear, it seemed more reliable and while the speeds are not as high as the ac68u, its still more then good enuf and close enuf to the ac68u. But conversely, it doesn't give me the range I wanted that had me upgrading in the first place. I may sit on this for a few days and pray a asus fw is coming within that time. Either way, I've dropped 1 star and not 2 mainly because while its not the hero I once thought it was, at its diminished moments, its still better then what I got out of the rt-n66u, the router that the following review will tell you, was my previous champ over the ac66u.10/08/13 well, in the short time I've been using the ac68u router today, I am noticing a further eradication of dead spots I had with the n66u and ac66u. at the spots I was pushing the limits of connectivity before, the signal is significantly stronger with the new one.The n66u when it came out definitely addressed many issues I would have with Linksys and netgear routers so I been loyal to them since then. I have a unique setup to where in a very elongated rectangular house, the router sits at one extreme end, that plus coupled it's a brick house has always brought challenges in getting to the other side. I tried upgrading to the ac66u looking for any miniscule improvement I could get but to be honest, after trying 3 different ac66u's, my n66u beat them all in range. In googling a bit, you could see others saying same thing, the r66u actually went farther then the newer version built on relatively the same hardware.Having this router out of the box beat my n66u is frankly impressive for me so I will see how it goes over the next few days. I've seen the conflicting reviews on which is better, this or the new netgear badboy r7000 and frankly I think it may just even more confirm how hard it is to review a router as everyone has different conditions and two top routers like these will act differently for each. For me, I'm seeing what that cnet review said frankly so far. If it continues as the router is left on for some time, don't think i'll bark up the r7000 tree. the 2.4ghz is considerably longer and more powerful with higher throughput at the limits. The 5ghz hasn't necessarily increased in reach(I always got good reach with it though)as like before, it doesn't reach the last room in the house, but when testing at the same limits as the r66u before, the throughput is considerably greater at that distance.I've had to couple with the asus repeater to finish the trip to the end of the house in the past and with this one I may do so as well. In some quick testing the ipads could actually maintain the 5ghz band at the far end without the repeater with speedtest netting 50-70 mbps(160-200 mbps native connection but speedtest ios app seldom reports over 80-100 on the app even if right next to the router). But when I went to the iphone 5s, it could see it, sometimes slowly do something with it but by in large it was useless, had to go to the 2.4 band on the phone to get workable connection. with the repeater connected(which is about 70% of the house away from the router, everything was fine and measuring the speed of the repeater signal, it was higher then I've noticed before in previous configurations/routers again, showing the ac68u is delivering higher throughput at extended distances when compared to before. In my brief time with it, especially when coupled with the repeater, I am just getting a 30-50mbps bump in throughput throughout the house. Fantastic preliminary results so far but again will temper it with the test of time but even with that said, out of box, a ac66u didn't beat my year old at the time n66u.As for a few of the reviewers so far here on amazon....Not super scientific, more real world type testing and definitely not a test over time so can't comment to the reviewer showing degraded 5ghz signal over time but for the reviewer who wrote a review based on reviews elsewhere without actually owning one, I can't comment enough just how irresponsible and pointless your review was. It really should be removed. I can't imagine there are many scenarios where a review can be valid for an item a person currently doesn't own but I know one thing, your scenario was definitely not one of those. These routers are beginning to cost a lot of money and I know for people like me, we research tirelessly trying to make the best decision we can to make the most informed choice. Not only do reviews like yours not add a single thing to the legitimate conversation at hand, you frankly harm it by spewing nonsense. Maybe in fact the r7000 will be the king here, so be it but don't ding a item you don't own.10/9/13 so I did some back and forth testing on various game and tablet devices between the n66u and ac68u in the furthest room of the house, a place with very spotty coverage on n66u. used speedtest app on android and ios devices, ran a few times per typen66u 2.4ghz first, 5ghz second in mbpsipad 4 8 down 6 up, 17 down 5 upnexus 7 2013 12 down 4 up, 12 down 2 upNVidia shield no connectioniphone 5s 2 down .13 up, nothing3ds doesn't connectvita doesn't connectac68u again, 2.4ghz first, then 5ghzipad 4 25 down 13 up, 57 down 8 upnexus 7 2013 26 down 18 up, 57 down 18 upshield no connection, minor connection on 5ghziphone 5s 8 down 6 up, 3 down 2 up3ds connects and streamsvita connects and streams albeit slowlythis was the furthest trouble room, anywhere closer, as I mentioned earlier, seeing about a 20-50mbps bump. 5ghz continues to excel at distance with the asus line, something I never saw previously with Linksys and netgear although that may have changed by now. 2.4 is improved as well. at that furthest distance, connection can still be finicky with the ac68u although not nearly as much. it's not so much the distance added which is minor, its the throughput at those distances that's impressive. While shield at that distance struggles, with the repeater on it's obviously fine but more so, steam streaming works like a charm anywhere in the house. Anyone with a NVidia shield probably knows, any normal amount of distance from the router and the steam streaming doesn't work much at all. At this point, no matter where I go in the house, its working like a charm. Finally, a day in, not seeing any 5ghz degradation that I can notice.This review applies to the ASUS RT-68u AC1900 router.We've had three of these. Great interface and features. Easy to set up.The first one died after a year. We used to turn it off every night because it gets rather warm. We then left it on 24/7 and downloaded the latest firmware. That's when it started playing up, dropping the internet, and overheating.Amazon replaced this one for us - three year warranty.The second one worked great for two weeks on the latest firmware and then started dropping the internet connection.Amazon replaced it for us.The third one worked great for about an hour on the latest firmware then started overheating and dropping the internet and serving out of range ip addresses.This was sent back for a refund.My partner works in IT and suspects there is a problem with the latest firmware updates.We swapped out with a BT hub6 we had lying around and it worked just fine.Just for info we were using a MT992 modem on the BT Ultrafast system.We subsequently tries a Netgear R7000p which failed after 24 hours.Currently we have the ASUS 86U and although we don't use the advanced features it is running faultlessly as I write, cool to touch and on the latest firmware.Great service from Amazon.Bought this to replace my Virgin Hub 3 and it has improved my internet no end!Does it extend the distance of your wifi? Yes but not by as much as you would hope it would.Does it improve the signal? Yes but again don't expect miraclesDoes it improve internet speeds? Yes but again don't expect miraclesDoes it fix a lot of the issues Virgin Media users experience, like ports being locked and certain devices not being able to connect etc? Oh yes! Ring! doorbell now works a treat!I was using the Virgin Hub for the last four years mainly due to laziness, I couldn't be bothered to change it and it worked for what I need it for.I found however that certain rooms in my house struggled to get internet and certain devices struggled to connect or stay connected.My laziness was suddenly called into question however when I purchased a Ring! doorbell! Whilst this worked on my hub, it was patchy at best and a lot of the features just wouldn't work! I did some investigation and found a lot of other people were complaining about the Hub for the same reason!I decided to bite the bullet and get a new router, and I plumped for this due to it's sleak design (it's in my front room cabinet so has to at least look good!) and due to it's excellent features (the ability to create a NAS drive by connecting an external hard drive to it was especially good seeing as my NAS box just died!).Setup was far easier then I expected! I remember back when setting these up was a massive pain! took so much configuration just to get them to work, but not this! plugged in connected it to the modem, configured the wifi and boom I was away!Signal improved all over the house and it now covers every room! signal strength at worst is one off top all over the house and I haven't had a single drop out and the doorbell now works perfectly. All in all a very happy customer!Bought this as my virgin media hub2 didn’t give the WiFi coverage I required. I set my hub2 into modem mode and plugged in the ASUS router. Set is fairly straight forward, plus you download an app for Android and iOS to control your router setting and view stats. I’m on a 200mb package, I can now achieve download speeds of 220mb via 5g wifi anywhere in the house. Even at the bottom of the garden I’m hitting 142mb and the router is at the opposite side of the house. No more black spots, no more power line adaptors. Just super internet .I have an old RT-AC69U and thought it worth using a second one to provide a WiFi link for the TV and media. I spent all weekend getting them to work and the useless one covering the TV keeps dropping out. Its only 6-8 feet from the old RT-AC69U set up as a node using Ethernet. Frustratingly the old one not set up as a AiMesh node provided a better WiFi signal to rooms above. I have no idea if other routers would work better using AiMesh but I don’t see why. Avoid it as a system at all costs.As a allow up I have now taken the new router out as it so adversely effected connections the old one provided as to be useless. It wouldn’t connect by Wi-Fi even though my wife’s laptop is further away and with more walls in the way and get a very good connection to the old 68. I got it working with a old Solwise homeplug setup, but its speed was poor. There was no way of making connection with the better 68 as the mesh system locked anything onto the strongest signet even if that was a very slow network speed. Asus support were as useless as there AiMesh system so I took it out. Her laptop has good speed, the media just about mange’s with the Homeplug set up. That her laptop gets good speed shows how good a wireless router the RT-AC68U is and how useless the Asus AiMesh is.I have two sons who spend (as do many of their age) far too much time on their game systems (PS4s). The BT router's parental controls are basically very poor (once set they apply to the entire home network and not just their Playstations). I therefore wanted a router where I could be more specific about which devices were limited, and this router had a lot of good reviews.I firstly set it up as a secondary router. I got this set up OK and everything was fine until I tried to apply the parental controls, however I then discovered that the router wasn't 'seeing' the PS4s, even when the boys were in full gaming mode with their internet friends. Since it couldn't see them, I couldn't apply parental controls to them. I did notice though, that the primary router could see the devices so thought about making the ASUS the primary router.I therefore bit the bullet, reset the router and set up and configured it as the primary router (this required purchasing a separate VDSL modem). I spent much of a day going around the house configuring all the devices (TV boxes, PCs, phones, tablets ...) and again all seemed well. Then the boys started playing with their mates, and they immediately started complaining that their sessions were being dropped, or were lagging badly. I was prepared to start looking at detailed settings to improve their service, but then discovered that the router still had no trace of their devices so was still unable to configure parental controls to limit their usage. I therefore spent several more hours taking the router out and putting the BT router back, which of course meant reconfiguring all the devices I'd spent the day configuring for the ASUS router. I was so unimpressed with the day's work, or rather the fact that I hadn't achieved anything, I decided to return it.The reason I've given it three stars is that the return process was so painless. I'd never returned anything to Amazon before so was expecting it to be a cumbersome experience, however it was far simpler than expected (wrap it up well and take it to a local drop off point with no charge), and as far as I can make out Amazon had refunded my money very soon after I'd taken the parcel to my local drop off point. So 1 star for the router but 5 stars for the ease of use of Amazon's returns system.
