ASUS AC1900 Wi-Fi Dual-band 3×3 Gigabit Wireless Router

Pros: Product came nicely packaged with everything you need to get started. The product its self looks pretty good compared to other on the market and alot better then some of ASUS’s other router designs which can only be described is that they look like alien spaceships and not the desired look that consumers want, this on the other hand looks great and fits in to a modern computing environment. Comes with ethernet cable. Has USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 ports allowing you to hook up flash drive and external USB hard drives to convert them into NAS. Compatible with the DD-WRT custom firmware, you can get rid of the lackluster stock firmware. Has a WPS button, which is common and comes with almost every wireless router these days. LED ON/OFF button is great so you don’t have a ton of blinking lights on all the time. Fairly easy to setup and use. Supports guest networks so you don’t have to hand out your wi-fi password to people. Overall the router works great, been using it for a few weeks now and haven’t has any major problems. Cons: Cannot lay it flat and is not wall mountable. ASUS software is not exactly well designed but at least its optional. The router GUI also suffers from the same problem but that you are forced to use. Overall range is not as large as I hoped for, will have to add a repeater. Overall Review: It’s a good router, but slightly pricier then most people would pay, this is aimed at the more experienced power consumer than the average consumer. It does have a ton of great features to the people who want it though.

Pros: The router seems to be well made out of quality plastic. The buttons are properly labeled and I can also appreciate a button for disabling all of the LEDs on the unit. To that end, however, the LEDs on my unit weren’t very bright (like most other routers I’ve recently reviewed). Connectivity is relatively conveniently laid out on the back of the unit. The web UI for the router (after the firmware update) was easy to get to and setup. Setting up things like wireless SSIDs and security can be easily accomplished by any novice in my opinion. Setting up a USB NAS share with this device proved to be relatively easy to understand and do without any trouble. From what I’ve seen, your performance will wildly vary based on device and disk format. I found that transfer speeds were acceptable, but not “amazing.” Average speeds over a USB 3.0 flash drive and a USB 2.0 external hard drive both came out to about 15MB/s both reading and writing. WAN and WLAN speeds are what I’d expect at this price point and claimed hardware. See my Other Thoughts section for details on what I’m seeing over Google Fiber. Cons: You cannot mount this router and it doesn’t have a removable stand. So vertical it is. While that may not bother some, others may not appreciate this limitation (myself included). I just don’t find it very convenient. Flashing the firmware on this unit was an absolute nightmare. Accessing the site through the router’s OS failed multiple times at first. When it finally did connect, it took nearly 45 minutes to pull the update down (I’m on a 1Gbps fiber connection so there’s really no excuse for this). After the firmware was downloaded, you’re presented with a screen stating that it will take three minutes to update. Nearly five hours later, the router dropped this loading page and rebooted. Honestly, I’ve no idea what it was doing all that time, but it wouldn’t let me in until it was finished (clearly pointing out that it would be available once it completed. I could excuse this if the firmware loaded on the unit from ASUS was any good. The firmware that came installed on my device wasn’t really operational. There are a lot of performance issues and dropped packets during inspection by it’s “smart” system. Once I was finally able to get the unit upgraded, it’s quite good. Major issues abounded with setting up a USB file share as well using this old firmware. That being said, the newer firmware works as intended (see other thoughts for version) and most of my review is based on post upgrade. I’m slightly annoyed that we’re still using chunky wall warts for power supplies in this day and age. Really takes up a lot of space on my power strips. Overall Review: If you’re on an older version than 3.0.0.4.380 I would highly recommend downloading the most recent update, but only if you have issues. The firmware update process took my example almost all night to load with constant reboots and resets. On the 5GHz band, I’m averaging about 370mbps when running speed tests and downloading files from FTP sites that have higher bandwidth. Windows negotiates the connection at about 800 mpbs so that’s pretty on point with ASUS’ claims (obviously you mileage may vary based on device). Performance drops are easily noticeable at around 50 feet through two drywall walls. So, don’t expect miracles, but it’s pretty on point with the other APs in my home with similar specs. On the 2.4GHz band, don’t expect anything more than about 65 mbps as this is about as good as it can accomplish. However, signal strength remains at “full” throughout my entire house without a lot of noise. All about priorities there as it’s obviously a lot more stable over distance. If you have older devices that are only able to use 2.4 then you’re in luck as it performs as expected. My laptop auto-negotiated at 144mbps which is about standard wireless N 2.4 speeds.

Pros: ASUS RT-AC68U Wireless-AC1900 Dual Band Gigabit Router IEEE 802.11ac, IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n AiProtection with Trend Micro for Complete Network Security +ASUS quality router and Firmware +EZ Setup and use +Great GUI +Phone AP Setup and control +Dual AC +Trend Micro Built in and free! I have been a fan of ASUS routers for many years now, as they were some of the first to have a functional mouse driven GUI. To this day all of my ASUS routers still work and have proven themselves to me over the long haul. I have used MANY brands of routers, but NONE of them have the continuous updates to firmware like ASUS. Their software has been getting better and better over the years, now they have added an Apple and Android AP to quickly control your routers basic functions and monitoring. If you haven’t tried an ASUS router before, do not hesitate..you will love it! I set this particular router up as a Wireless-AC1900 access point. Connecting it to another DSL router. I chose to do this for the ease of setup, and I didn’t have to reprogram all the PPOE information into it. The purpose of this wireless setup was 2 fold. To isolate 2 gaming computers on the 5 GHZ band and run the rest of the wireless on the 2.4 GHZ band. The two both that game on the 5 GHZ band well they are teenagers and as such need to have tighter controls. Both wireless computers were able to reach their full AC speeds of 956 Mb/S with their cards and experience < than 1ms of lag..EXCELLENT! Using the full bandwidth available. Streaming of video was perfect and while gaming there was no discernible difference between being wired and running wireless, That is what impressed me the most oh how this technology has blossomed! Here is the beauty of this setup, if the boys do get grounded, then all mom has to do is get on her router AP, while at work, and disable the 5ghz band! Viola instant grounding. While everyone else can still use their devices! Of course, Asus routers also have a programmable time schedule based on a mac address basis, allowing you the power to make sure your kids are not up all hours of the night on their phones! (at least wirelessly) The Trend Micro malware and virus protections are very welcome at the router firewall level, something that you really MUST have in today's times. Especially with all the dangerous non-Microsoft based viruses. This router has a security check that informs you of weak links in your setup, follow it and you will be more secure. Honestly, this router is so robust, there is no way I can write the review on every function, and if I did you would be put to sleep. Trust me when I tell you it will handle just about every setup you will use in the house. But where it excels is when used in a network of other Asus routers. There are 4 ways you can setup this router, Standard full router, Wireless AP, Wireless Media Bridge, and Wireless repeater. Cons: -This router pretty much is obsolete -Much faster routers out there -It should be in the sub $100 range normal price -stands up tall Honestly, the average home can easily saturate this router when everyone is using many devices all at once. I feel this is really the minimum that a router should offer for speeds today.(-1 egg here) Asus should kill any products that are lower, if they haven't. Other than that, there are really no cons that I can find to owning an Asus router. Just make sure you have cables connected correctly for their use. Also put them in a well-ventilated area, to make sure they stay cool. They are basically a small computer now and stay busy 24/7 Overall Review: Here is something important to know. When connecting to another router as I did, make sure the Ethernet connection between the two of them connect to the BLUE Ethernet/internet port. Here is another tidbit, I recently had to return a motherboard to Asus for warranty work and believe it or not, Asus seems to have made a major effort in their RMA process and attitude. Also not this is the ONLY item I have ever had to return to them. I have owned many Asus products and their engineering (software and hardware) is superior to most other brands. What impressed me most about ASUS is the firmware updates, even my “Old” Asus RT_66U 450Mb/s x2 router received updates that allow the use of the AP and many of the benefits that the newer routers have. That is really wonderful they still support a product that is EOL. Thank you Asus for listening to your customers! I am sure the huge number of complaints about customer service started to hit the bottom line, but they do look at reviews here and do try to help customers, and that is important in my eyes.