ASUS RT-AC66U B1 AC1750 Dual-Band Wi-Fi Router

Pros: – Great Range. – Good UI. – USB 3.0 (for external HDD) and USB 2.0 (for most likely a printer). – 10/100/1000 – Configurable as a basic or advanced router, it has the settings for someone that needs something to work out of the box or a power user that wants to configure every little possible setting. – Antenna’s are replaceable (If you put a bigger Antenna you WILL get better range). Cons: – No mounting holes or bracket (I guess a bracket was included in older revisions but not the most current one). Overall Review: – I replaced an old Apple 1st Gen Time Capsule with this router. The Time Capsule is probably one of the best routers that I have ever owned but it was aging, heavy and ran hot so I made a switch. – I also wanted something 5ghz, the Time Capsule did support 5ghz but it was either a early version of it or just didn’t work very well. – I have a small 1 level cottage with about 1200 sqft to cover inside and a wrap around porch outside to cover. The router is placed in the far southeast corner of the house. This unit (RT-AC66U) has no issues reaching anywhere in the house and runs both 2.4ghz and 5ghz flawlessly. I will lose maybe 1 bar in opposite corner or in the basement. Outside works pretty much the same as I go further away. – Just to note, I have this sitting on a lateral file in the corner. My Desktop, a C70 mid-tower made of aluminum sits about 2 feet away directly in the line of sight of the router. I feel the reason I start to loose bars on the other side of the house is because of this. I would like to mount the router on the wall so that it can be above the tower, but I have to make a custom mounting solution.

Pros: Wonderful performance with Asus stock firmware, and Merlin and dd-wrt opensouce firmware. A vast performance improvement over my RT-N66u’s. For this reason I have bought 2 of these to replace my RT-N66u’s. The Legendary Asus Rescue mode makes it possible to try different firmware without fear of bricking the router. Cons: Does not currently run My favorites, tomato toastman, shibby or their successor freshtomato. The naming of the router model is very confusing. Model Name: ASUS RT-AC66U B1 Hardware Version: HW B2. Apparently HW B1 would run tomato shibby and toastman firmware for the Asus RT-AC68u, but the HW B2 is trickier by far. Slow to boot compared with my old venerable RT-N66u, but this is forgivable given the wonderful performance. Overall Review: Here is how I got the opensource firmware to run. NB In all cases one must flash for the RT-AC68u !!!!!!!! (not 66u) (1) Merlin: I used RT-AC68U_384.6_0 dated 2018-07-25. (2) dd-wrt: I used asus_rt-ac68u-firmware.trx 2018-08-22 25,27 MB The 5GHZ led did not light, but the 5GHZ itself was working after the 2GHZ light came on.

Pros: -Really fast, with good range. -Easy to use menu (once you figure out how to get logged into it) -The phone app is handy too. Cons: -Can’t reliably access it with 192.168.1.1 in your web browser. You have to use the “router.asus.com/etc…” address. (which isn’t really a problem once you figure it out… But it definitely slowed me down on first setup). Overall Review: Hasn’t had any hick-ups so far, so if it keeps running like this, I would recommend it.

Overall Review: This does an amazing job as a mesh extension from my more-advanced main ASUS router. I was impressed at how easy it was to set up. My home was built in 1900, with thick plaster walls and multiple halls, doors, rooms for wifi signals to have to go through. This router picks up the main WiFi signal about 2/3 of the way through the house, and extends a strong signal out across the carport into my detached office. I’m very happy with it.