A pretty good router with a great UI, well at least in my experience of enjoying a AsusWRT Merlin firmware.
Blurb....
802.11ac tri-band Wi-Fi router boosts speeds up to 3200Mbps for low-latency online gaming, smooth 4K UHD video playback and extremely fast file-sharing.
Tri-Band Smart Connect automatically selects the fastest of the three available frequency bands for each device, based on the device's speed, signal strength and how busy each band is.
High performance antennas with AiRadar universal beamforming for unrivaled Wi-Fi range
AiProtection with Trend MicroTM for triple-strength network security, plus robust Parental Controls and privacy protection
USB 3.0 port for 10X-faster data transfers than USB 2.0; also includes one USB 2.0 port
Intuitive ASUS Router App lets you control your network anywhere, without needing to boot up a PC
Top comments
vardx
22 Feb 173#2
Thumnail looks like an enemy from space invaders.
Latest comments (42)
FlexR
3 Mar 17#42
This or ASUS RT-AC88U AC3100 £219 (just dropped from £280)? Ik it's been under £200 before but yeah.
bowdown2thegame
22 Feb 17#21
Does anyone know is this better than the Linksys 1900acs which is £127.99 on Amazon?
alexey175 to bowdown2thegame
28 Feb 17#41
i had this model send it back,poor wifi range is only 10 metres, from currys , crap. :disappointed:
coventgamer
23 Feb 17#34
can I use it as a jewish candle holder ?
Mentos to coventgamer
28 Feb 17#40
Only has 6 candle holders, so no. Unless you want to risk the wrath of Jehovah :confused:
Parallax
24 Feb 171#39
I don't have it in front of me I'm afraid. It's basically the 16 port version of the FVX538, but I can't for the life of me find the model number online. It only supports 2 x 100MBps for the WAN but that's enough for me, and the WAN load balancing I would call brute force rather than elegant. But it suffices, and the price was right.
I don't use most of the LAN ports on it because it feeds into a proper layer 3 managed switch I also got super cheap on eBay, thence into a patch panel, etc.
tek-monkey
23 Feb 17#38
What model did you get out of interest? Probably going the pfsense route but still interested.
CBJ137
23 Feb 17#37
doesn't support MU-MIMO, AC87U does
VimesUK
23 Feb 171#36
For me having an ECI modem meant that once G.INP was enabled my latency went high and the speeds dropped by almost a third. That was how it remained regardless of how many visits from OR or phone calls to Plusnet were made.
When I then changed over to the bought Huawei modem, which had its firmware updated to cope with the G.INP implementation, everything returned to normal.
I am not sure how much the issue was influenced by the need for like for like, in hardware terms, but for me the differences found were very noticeable.
Mine is unlocked, I unlocked it, but I have never needed it to be.
W1zz
23 Feb 17#35
It looks as though my cabinet is an ECI does that mean I have to use an ECI modem or will a Huawei modem still work?
Also, does the modem have to be unlocked? Cos if I had to go down the ECI modem route, these look a bit more tricky to unlock.
ta
Parallax
22 Feb 171#33
Another option is to use something like a Netgear Prosafe router/switch. I got a second hand one with hardware encryption,16 LAN ports and dual WAN which allegedly will do 200Mbps of encrypted data - it was about £75 on eBay including shipping from Ireland.
Then you can just put your DSL modem on one of the WAN ports, and do the wireless piece separately, maybe through a mesh system...
PointDex
22 Feb 17#32
Thanks but is there a way to just use a better router? I've got lots of devices I really want to avoid another permanently connected plug in the house lol
j1mgg
22 Feb 171#31
thanks for this info, checked and it looks like the cabinet for my postcode is a hauwei, so guessing I should get the huawei modem off of ebay.
Although this router may just a be little higher than I was looking to pay, missed out on the RT ac68u for under a £100, is this really worth the extra money?
tjc2005
22 Feb 17#30
Whats so good about the Merlin firmware? I'm still using the stock firmware on mine and on my ac68u. Asus do update it regularly.
bearcat
22 Feb 17#29
Thank you. I've place my order and I can't wait to attach it to my Virgin Media Superhub 3, which I use in modem mode :-)
craigyc
22 Feb 17#28
This or the AC87U?!
xenept
22 Feb 17#27
Thanks. Have ordered.
nefe
22 Feb 17#26
Is this better than the apple wireless time capsule?
VimesUK
22 Feb 171#25
From what i remember, going back a while though, the ECI modem from OR can't be unlocked. When i had it, depends on what you are connecting to at the other end at your exchange, the connection was erratic. The Huawei modern was much better and very stable, this is what I bought from eBay.
The good thing, imo, about using the OR modem is that it is set and forget and absolutely reluable and stable.
Then you can choose your own router, imo something with an Asus UI or OpenWRT firmware.
AAIG2
22 Feb 171#24
I'm in a similar position to you; I'm using the HH6 and its a really poor device. I just picked up a BT Openreach Huawei Echolife HG612 Modem off ebay for a few quid will connect this to my phone socket and WAN port of the ASUS wifi router and have this manage all my traffic. I picked up Huawei as opposed ECI as the local BT fibre cab i'm connected to is setup with Huawei. You can find out what you local cab is using the following site:
Any advice on what to look for when replacing the HH6 ?
I used to have Virgin with the Superhub running as modem only with RT AC-68U (Merlin Firmware). But since I switched to BT, I've reluctantly stuck with the HH6 (no modem only mode).
Seen plenty of Openreach modems on ebay, but not sure which model to get or rather avoid. Some are listed as unlocked, but can't this be done to any Openreach modem. Would rather not pay extra for something that I can do myself.
ta
tek-monkey
22 Feb 17#22
Did think about pfsense, I have enough space for a VM on my T20 and have a spare NIC I could use. Just annoying that the meraki will do 85Mbps site to site but won't act as a client for any VPN services I can get.
Glacc
22 Feb 17#20
Pretty sure the SuperHub is mandatory as a modem on Virgin Media. You would just need to put it in modem mode, and hook up a regular router like the RT AC-68U to it for better WiFi.
daskapital
22 Feb 171#19
Put the superhub in modem only mode (from the admin web interface) and then connect the LAN port on the superhub to any router.
I'm also using this Asus router. It's fantastic. Been using it almost 2 years now very pleased. Also using merlin fw.
PointDex
22 Feb 17#18
Can u recommend me a good router modem to replace my superhub I'm sick of wifi disconnections!!
martinto8
22 Feb 17#17
Better than a Netgear R7000? Just for clarification I have Nord VPN and wondering if this Asus router can be configured to use it?
Ingramfv
22 Feb 17#16
So far...so good.
mldaw
22 Feb 17#15
I use the Merlin firmware, although I have found that Asus are implementing a lot of features into the stock that were first available only on Merlin.
tek-monkey
22 Feb 17#13
How much throughput could this give you using a VPN? My current router only manages 15Mbps, and the meraki one while powerful enough can't connect to many types.
VimesUK to tek-monkey
22 Feb 17#14
My dual core 1ghz Netgear R7000 struggles with my VPN configuration. So I shape the traffic to share with the WAN and the VPN, to ease the load.
All consumer based routers are going to be the same.
You really need to build a x86 box with a CPU which supports AES instructions for encryption and decryption and run pfsense as your router and VPN.
As noted I just share the traffic so that dumb boxes use the WAN, other device the VPN and my desktop PC a VPN client for fast downloads.
eightace
22 Feb 171#12
Fantastic device. With Merlin firmware I can't believe you could do better.
brookheather
22 Feb 171#11
Including an inbuilt VDSL modem requires much more testing to ensure compatibility with the various DSLAM equipment across the world. There is a new ASUS DSL-AC88U with G.Fast compatbility which has just been announced though this doesn't have twin 5GHz bands.
mldaw
22 Feb 171#9
Fantastic router; I purchased it last year for £179.99. I think I may purchase another to use as an wired access point.
VimesUK to mldaw
22 Feb 17#10
Curious as to whether you use the official firmware or the Merlin one....?
javey93
22 Feb 17#8
It begs the question; for that price, why is it NOT a router with an inbuilt modem? Is there a technical reason?
VimesUK
22 Feb 171#7
Sounds good.
I bought a second hand Huawei EchoLife HG612 as a modem to replace BT's own, as that one worked so much better than the supplied ECI type.
AAIG2
22 Feb 17#6
Yes you are correct; i have purchased the openreach modem from ebay to address that.
AAIG2
22 Feb 17#4
Heat added. Purchased to replace multiple devices (including BT HH6). Let's hope this works.
brookheather to AAIG2
22 Feb 17#5
It's a router not a modem/router so won't replace the HH6 unless you buy a seperate ADSL or VDSL modem.
I suppose it is something to do with how MIMO wireless best works...?
Still I find that we are best served with my router central to the house downstairs and then an Ethernet wired Action Point upstairs to maintain maximum wireless strength over our house.
![Fresh Breakfast Meat Box (Using code) @ Campbells Meat [Haggis / Lorne Sausage / Bacon / Black Pudding & More]](/images/topics/208684_1.jpg)
![[Xbox One] Q. u. b. e: Director's Cut on Deals with Gold](/images/topics/208716_1.jpg)
Opening post
Blurb....
802.11ac tri-band Wi-Fi router boosts speeds up to 3200Mbps for low-latency online gaming, smooth 4K UHD video playback and extremely fast file-sharing.
Tri-Band Smart Connect automatically selects the fastest of the three available frequency bands for each device, based on the device's speed, signal strength and how busy each band is.
High performance antennas with AiRadar universal beamforming for unrivaled Wi-Fi range
AiProtection with Trend MicroTM for triple-strength network security, plus robust Parental Controls and privacy protection
USB 3.0 port for 10X-faster data transfers than USB 2.0; also includes one USB 2.0 port
Intuitive ASUS Router App lets you control your network anywhere, without needing to boot up a PC
Top comments
Latest comments (42)
I don't use most of the LAN ports on it because it feeds into a proper layer 3 managed switch I also got super cheap on eBay, thence into a patch panel, etc.
When I then changed over to the bought Huawei modem, which had its firmware updated to cope with the G.INP implementation, everything returned to normal.
I am not sure how much the issue was influenced by the need for like for like, in hardware terms, but for me the differences found were very noticeable.
Mine is unlocked, I unlocked it, but I have never needed it to be.
Also, does the modem have to be unlocked? Cos if I had to go down the ECI modem route, these look a bit more tricky to unlock.
ta
Then you can just put your DSL modem on one of the WAN ports, and do the wireless piece separately, maybe through a mesh system...
Although this router may just a be little higher than I was looking to pay, missed out on the RT ac68u for under a £100, is this really worth the extra money?
The good thing, imo, about using the OR modem is that it is set and forget and absolutely reluable and stable.
Then you can choose your own router, imo something with an Asus UI or OpenWRT firmware.
http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/cabinet-lookup.htm#fttc_cab_info
Hope this helps.
I used to have Virgin with the Superhub running as modem only with RT AC-68U (Merlin Firmware). But since I switched to BT, I've reluctantly stuck with the HH6 (no modem only mode).
Seen plenty of Openreach modems on ebay, but not sure which model to get or rather avoid. Some are listed as unlocked, but can't this be done to any Openreach modem. Would rather not pay extra for something that I can do myself.
ta
I'm also using this Asus router. It's fantastic. Been using it almost 2 years now very pleased. Also using merlin fw.
All consumer based routers are going to be the same.
You really need to build a x86 box with a CPU which supports AES instructions for encryption and decryption and run pfsense as your router and VPN.
As noted I just share the traffic so that dumb boxes use the WAN, other device the VPN and my desktop PC a VPN client for fast downloads.
I bought a second hand Huawei EchoLife HG612 as a modem to replace BT's own, as that one worked so much better than the supplied ECI type.
I suppose it is something to do with how MIMO wireless best works...?
Still I find that we are best served with my router central to the house downstairs and then an Ethernet wired Action Point upstairs to maintain maximum wireless strength over our house.
....they agree :smiley: