Best Internet Speeds For Gaming (2024 Updated)

Firstly, one other review exists against this, they gave it 1 star because it didn’t have a phone socket, that is totally unfair, it isn’t the product or the sites fault that the customer doesn’t know what to look for when purchasing a product!!! It does not say anywhere that the device is a modem, so why would they expect it to be? Anyway, this is wireless router, a very very good one with lots of features, high speeds and a long range.

Wired, I get 565mbit download (probably the max my internet goes), two floors up in the attic with a USB dongle, I’m still getting 250mbit+ download. I wanted the full blown AX86U but couldn’t warrant the price, and I’m glad I chose this version as it does everything I need, I’ve a USB drive and an external hard drive attached to the USB ports, it acts as file server, upnp, ftp, samba, even a torrent client (which I tested but don’t really use).

It can also be used as a print server, or to use 3G/4G dongles. You can even set up AICloud to allow access to you data anywhere without require VPN access You can set it up as a VPN server or client.

It allows AIMesh to use other ASUS routers as a mesh network. It has adaptive QOS features including game mode. It has AIProtection that provides advanced security features, such as malicious site blocking, two way intrusion prevention, infected device blocking, and a button that assesses the current security of your device and network.

It has OpenNAT. It has parental controls that allow blocking of specific sites or site types from all or specified clients. You can also set times that the internet is available on a schedule, again per device.

To make it easier, you can also set up groups of devices for both of these features. It has a Traffic Analyser that shows you who has accessed the internet, times they accessed them and the sites they access, caught my son watching youtube at 3am when he had school the day after lol! I’m sure it has many features I haven’t listed too, I’ve only listed the ones I know and use.

It really is an impressive bit of hardware, so again, please ignore the ignorant fool that wrote the 1 star post.

Ok, so this review may sound a little confusing, because although I am having issues with my smart home devices on the 2. 4ghz band of the 86S, the wired and Wi-Fi 6 performance, at least for me, makes up for it.

This is my second go at WiFi 6. My first attempt was with a ASUS 11000 and it was awful. The router would reboot randomly, etc. But this is not a review for that. With this router, for a little over 3 weeks after installing, my smart home had no complaints.

Then this past Monday, I started having smart home devices fall off of the network. I would restart the smart home device, and it would not reconnect. I had to restart the router to resolve the problem, at least until the next time it happened.

After 2 days of troubleshooting (as luck would have it, I was on Christmas vacation), I wasn’t able to determine a root cause. I tried separating the 2. 4 & 5ghz band thinking it was some kind of handshake issue, but that didn’t work.

2. 4ghz devices still dropped off the network once a day or so. I set the router that I had replaced with this device back up as a 2. 4ghz Wi-Fi hotspot by itself, and moved all of my smart home devices back to it.

No issues since late Wednesday afternoon. Wi-Fi 6 and LAN reliability and performance are both superb, but 2. 4ghz backward compatible? I am not so sure. 802. 11ac and ax work great, but any standard before that so far hasn’t been able to maintain and stable connection.

I needed to replace my Cisco (Linksys) E3000 router because I upgraded to a 500Mbit broadband connection and the E3000 router was capping my data throughput speeds to approx 170Mbit per second maximum – meaning I was never going to be able to reach the speeds the new connection was capable of.

With this Asus RT-AX86S I have full 500Mbit per second data throughput with all the features and functionality this router offers. It really is amazing in terms of configurability and being very user-friendly to set up.

It’s quite a bit more expensive than your average home router but the difference it has made to my local network is worth every penny. If you are looking to future-proof your own home network and can afford one of these Asus RT-AX86 routers then I would seriously recommend them.

The RT-AX86S is good for speeds up to 1000Mbit per second and features a dual-core ARM CPU. For broadband connections faster than that you need to be looking at the RT-AX86U version, which is a little more expensive and features a quad-core ARM CPU and additional Gigabit LAN port, but otherwise with basically the same features and functionality as the RT-AX86S model.

This router was really easy to set up – just plugged it into my cable modem, then opened the web page for the router. It walks you through the basic settings to configure your wifi network, then you’re pretty much done if you want.

There’s also a mobile app you can use, but I’ve mainly been using the web interface from my PC. With everything including the kitchen sink wanting to get online (yep, the kitchen faucet accepts commands from Alexa or Google), my old router was running into issues with a limit on the number of concurrent devices it would allow on the wifi network.

With smart TVs, smart sockets, smart speakers, cell phones, laptops, tablets, kindles, doorbell, garage door openers, it’s surprising how quickly the number ticks up. The ASUS router page is showing I currently have 38 devices connected, and does a pretty good job of identifying them all, and gives me control to temporarily block individual devices.

The interface is fast and responsive. My old non-ASUS router also provided a mobile app, but would frequently decide it couldn’t show me any devices on the network, depending on which way the wind was blowing.

The ASUS offering has been a breath of fresh air. We’re pretty heavy internet users in our household, with two tween/teen kids who are forever streaming video from Youtube or Twitch. We also subscribe to YoutubeTV, so if there’s anyone watching TV, it’s coming through this router.

We haven’t experienced any problems with streams buffering or dropping quality. I say “pretty much done if you want”, because there’s a ton of features this router provides if you want to dive in further.

Aimed at gamers, you can quickly set it up to prioritize certain computers or mobile devices. I haven’t tried this yet, as we just haven’t needed to – our connection has been just fine – but It may be useful to those with more limited bandwidth.

There are options to set up shared access to a printer or storage via a usb connection to the router. It appears you can configure it to share files over the internet, or have the router download to the storage device without needing a computer to be running.

There are also considerable logging and traffic monitoring tools, so you can see what device is using what amount of data, and where that data is going or coming from. Wifi range is good, nothing spectacular.

It’s about the same as my old router. It gives good coverage throughout the house, but outside it’s a little patchy. Nothing unexpected, though. I have a cheap extender relaying wifi to the back yard.

I did notice I my PC subwoofer was picking up some interference from it, so I’ve had to move these devices a couple of feet further apart.

I’m using it as the main router for AiMesh in our 3900 square foot house. Awesome speed. Initial testing in the same room as the router I was getting 490mbps from my 400mbps rated internet connection, and 250mbps 50 feet away and one level down through several walls with just one router.

I had some hiccups figuring out how to setup the AiMesh system – you have to download new firmware for all older routers. It only took a little research to get it all worked out. I now have one main GS-AX3000 and two AC1750 nodes.

It would probably be better with all WiFi 6 routers like the main one, but baby steps.

I upgraded from the original Google Wifi router to this one. I was not using the mesh capabilities, and will not with this new router. But I had been looking for a router that offered me more control of my network.

This TP-Link AX1800 fits that bill and offers better security with Wifi 6 capability. The initial install went well, and I had my new network going pretty quickly. Accessing the setup pages after the network is setup is a little more finicky than I’d like.

I try to use their website address (which is supposed to be bound to my router configuration page), but it often says that I’m not connected to the TP-Link network. even though I am. I have to clear the browser cache and history, and then it will pick it up.

That and it seems that it doesn’t like Edge browser very much, but seems to work fine in Firefox. But besides those couple of software problems, the network has been fine. I haven’t noticed any speed increase, but I wasn’t expecting any.

I get the maximum that my ISP provides for the price, so I’m happy with that. The only other thing that I was hoping, with the four antennas vs the Google Wifi puck with no visible antennas, is that the microwave would no longer interfere with the signal.

No such luck there. I guess I’d have to get a less “leaky” microwave to solve that problem!.

The family has owned Netgear routers over many years upgrading them as the technology improved. Needless to say this router is the best one We have owed offering improved security, easy installation, greater coverage, wonderful app interface, and monitoring of devices connecting to it.

Netgear has upgrades for protection of individual devices with products that compete with the leading edge protection software. You can customize to the degree that you feel most comfortable, at home and away.

After installing the router, the protection that has a trial period picked up malware on two devices that the devices themselves did not detect. That confirmed my purchase, and along with my experience with Netgear, I can continue to use the internet with confidence and know that I have the best product available to safely navigate as well as protect my family’s investment at home.

Did I say I liked it, if I did I meant to say “I love my AX6 6Stream. Thanks Netgear!.

I was looking for a way to double up on my security. I was very happy with my Linksys WRT3200ACM and over 20 items on my 2. 4GHZ network for a modest amount of bulbs, outlets, displays and thermostats working with Google Home.

I was even fairly secure using a Fios GB feed to router off my internal network to a main floor router position via ethernet cable. I wanted the same 2000 square foot of coverage, easy transition for all my wifi devices, and some protection from myself.

Really!! Even though after being on Windows as long as Windows has been around, I finally got upset with untraceable crashes and moved to a Mac mini M1. Yes I wanted the wifi 6 to match my FIOS gateway but what I was really after was router based software to watch my traffic and add to what I already tried to do myself as a computer software network programmer (retired).

I am also old school with oodles of wifi networks I have set up in homes, in spite of there being an app for it, I wanted a web based login for configuring the new router. However, the built in software which had a reasonable starting configuration had something others did not have.

It has ASUS support going forward for updates as needed with no licenses or fees where others required $$$$. It was a short time later my entire house was converted. I replaced my Linksys and cabled up my two computers and printer to the new local network.

I used my laptop to see where the dynamic gateway was and then logged on to the router. I made my account non-default, named my two wifi networks to match what I had been called them and set the same wifi password.

UP came my network. I then looked to their hints about the security software, turned it on and tightened it up because some of what they allow for by default, I no longer do. I used to enable Windows Remote Desktop into my home to check business email while at my software job.

Today, my network is simpler in access needs and now thanks to the ASUS RT-AX86U AX5700 more secure. Cyber Terrorism is only going to get worse and there are enough Mac computers to justify virus and malware for this platform too.

B&H outdid themselves and my router came in little over 24 hours!.

I have own this router for a month and I found several issues with this router compared to the AC86U that I also own: (1) Random WAN disconnect: disconnect results in lost of internet connection. A manual reboot is required to resume connection to WAN.

(Note that I do not need to reboot my “modem”, but only the AX86U to get WAN connection working again) Sometimes it happen in once a week, other time it happen 2 – 3 times within 24 hours. (2) 2. 4Ghz Connection with IOT devices: some smart plugs have hard time staying connected with default settings, you will need to tweak your settings and you may (or may not) fix it.

My 2 year old AC86U do not have this problem. (3) AiMesh interface: the interface is not as good as the AC86U. It seems more like an unpolished new router. There is no Uplink/Downlink speed information like the AC86U.

(4) AiMesh if using 2. 4ghz as Wireless Back haul: Aimesh wireless back haul frequency is auto negotiation. The frequency used cannot be defined manually. If the router automatically negotiate to use 2.

4Ghz, you are almost not able to even stream on youtube as the speed become so slow (remember Aimesh: 1 node speed cut in half in an ideal world), plus I believe with stability issue with this router mentioned above), you can only use that connection to browse static webpage.

(5) Wireless back haul feature: Since you cannot manually choose which frequency to use (2. 4Ghz or 5Ghz) as wireless back haul, it does automatically choose the best (or worst) connection at negotiation.

Once the back haul connection is established, the back haul frequency will not change even when there is a better connection (move from 2. 4Ghz to 5Ghz). Chances of getting an automatic connection to 5ghz as back haul with a reboot seems to be a matter of “luck” (maybe 70% chance), If it happens to be on 2.

4ghz back haul connection, you will either need to reboot or update wireless setting (for example: turn on or off WiFi signal. Another problem related to wireless back haul is that if you were trying to update the router’s wireless setting (for example turn on/off guest Wifi), the router will renegotiate the wireless back haul connection and it can cause it to switch from 5ghz to 2.

4ghz connection. Again, once negotiation is completed, the connection will get stuck forever until you “force” another wireless settings update (so it will refresh the AiMesh connection) or reboot. The good (when it works): speed is great, plug in a USB HDD, and it max out the LAN gigabit transfer rate.

At 5ghz back haul, the AiMesh speed seems to be ok, I am able to get up-to 544mbps. However, since there are still so many advance features that do not work well, I CANNOT recommend this to anyone.

If youre playing on Xbox and have AT&T Fiber (cant speak for anything else cause this is how i was using it) DO NOT BUY! Latest firmware does not allow the basic router functions let alone DumaOS operating incredibly slow.

Ive had a Nighthawk R8600 for years now and has worked flawlessly, decided to upgrade to the XR1000. Strict NAT on my Series X no matter what i did. Tried for 10+ hours to resolve the issue and nothing would fix it.

Port forwarding, DMZ, oh and the UPnP doesnt even work, neither does NAT set to Open under WAN Settings. Kept getting Double NAT, DMZ would fix this but then it would still be Strict cause UPnP doesnt fuction.

Latest firmware wont even allow you to turn it on, downgrading to a previous firmware allows you to turn it on but it still doesnt work. I mean that literally, tap shows it on but it doesnt work, might as well still show off.

These are the basic functions of low end ISP gateways and a “Pro Gaming” router cant do it. My old router runs fine and gives me an open NAT, with only UPnP and NAT Open under WAN Settings, nothing else needed with that one to get things working correctly.

Returning this garbage for a full refund, from what i could tell in the forums is that they are aware but its been months sense the latest firmware with no dates on a fix listed. This thing was put out as a finished product and came standard with DumaOS 3.

0 but it appears its still in beta as you will see developers for this software can only trouble shoot with people online, forcing you to take hugely inconvenient steps just to get basic functions working.

I didnt volunteer to pay $300+ to be a beta tester. Do your research before buying and make sure everything is worked out before purchase, this review is from September 2021. I will give it to the other functions, my wireless signal was stronger and faster than its ever been and my hardwired connections were also extremely stable and fast.

Those were the only positives that got heavily outweighed by the negatives.

Our 7 year old router was beginning to act finicky by freezing, operating at slower speeds than it was capable of, and exhibiting range issues in an upstairs bedroom. We did some online research and opted for the ASUS RT-AX86S with installation by Geek Squad as part of our Best Buy Totaltech membership.

The results have been fabulous in comparison with our old router. No range issues at all! Operates well into the middle of the cul de sac we live on, and the speeds with basic Spectrum Internet averages around 100 MHz/second Download and 10 MHz/second Upload.

The ASUS App Is easy to use and great for monitoring activity and the 15-20 devices that are connected at any given time. It can also be optimized for gaming or other types of Internet activity if desired.

Highly recommend this model or others in the ASUS family. Also recommend the Geek Squad support.

Fantastic product. actually bought this router as a member of the AiMesh and a RT-AX86U as the primary router. These products are in my opinion the best home router for those interested in making specific tweaks more in depth configurations.

I’m not using the TrendMicro features as I have no interest in sending all my data to a 3rd party. Even without those features enabled this device exceeds performance from Netgear and Linksys equipment that I have owned over the years.

Signal is rock solid and the devices handles 42 connected wireless devices in my home without issue. I finally had enough with Netgear RAX120 and RAX200 routers. I’ve been thinking about making the switch to Asus for my home needs and I do not regret the decision.

I have a better WIFI network for half the price of the competitors.

I am a competitive gamer. So naturally I want to be performing at my best consistently. I have the fastest internet package and upgraded to the best modem/router my internet provider offered. Although their equipment was their top of the line gear, I rarely had back to back matches with a good connection.

I tried upgrading and replacing everything I could to help me with secure a reliable connection. Once I hooked up my nighthawk XR500 with Duma’s geo-filter, I realized this was the missing link I was looking for.

My gameplay drastically improved because I had a reliable, stable connection with low ping, zero packet loss, and no lag spikes. The software to customize my connection specifications was easy to use and very user friendly.

I wish I had upgraded my modem and router years ago. I have already recommended this product to my friends and 10/10 would recommend this product to anyone wanting a competitive edge in online multi-player games.

This is a must buy.

Nowhere on the listing did the item mention it may be refurbished, however i received a refurbished model. At first i didn’t mind it, because most of the time refurbished is fine. So i set up the router and all, pretty simple setup, and the Wireless connection was working perfectly.

HOWEVER, for whatever reason, the Wired connection to my desktop computer was very unreliable, with speeds as low as 30 mbps?? And if that wasn’t enough, the wired connection would drop every time i visited a site, or downloaded a program, or even ran an internet speedtest; then forcing me to wait like 20-30 seconds for the connection to come back.

I messed with Duma OS settings for a while to no avail, so i gave Netgear support a call (please don’t call netgear support it has to be one of the worst ive ever tried to contact. ) First guy i called: I tell him my issue, he says alright and to wait a minute; sure i say.

And 10 minutes later he hangs up on me. Alright. maybe its just one bad egg. and i call again. Second guy seems way more willing to help and i explain my issue. however. it seems that went in one ear and out the other, because i had to repeat my issue for him multiple times, also explaining that yes, im already logged into DumaOS so whatever might need to be done on there can be done quickly without a hassle or him needing to explain how to access it.

“Ok well what you are going to want to do is type in your address bar, routerlogin. net”. Sigh. Fine. So 30 minutes pass, he hasnt even attempted to help me, after asking for the router serial number, saying he got it, then asking for it again 5 minutes later? Even though i said i can repeat it if he didnt catch something?? Anyway, this entire call which wasted nearly an hour of my time ended with him not even attempting to give me a solution, and then trying to sell me a $110 dollar internet security package that he claims will fix my problem (even though my other router does not have this problem at all).

I tell him i am not comfortable spending that at this time and will call back if i decide to buy it, but this guy is relentless and will not take no for an answer, so after 10 minutes of him trying to convince me, i just hung up.

TL;DR Whoever owned this before me must have had a similar issue as i had (i assume), sent it in to whoever he got it from, they didnt fix the issue correctly, it was resold for $150 dollars, i got it, didnt work, netgear support is awful and just tried to squeeze more money from me, and im going to avoid buying another router from walmart in the future.

Great router. I had an Apple AirPort Extreme that seemed to be working fine so I thought there was no need to upgrade. 2020 hit and my kids ended up doing school from home while I worked from home. While I had never experienced any issues, the kids were having connection issues during Zoom meetings with their classes.

I have 1 gigabit internet speed through Comcast/Xfinity and had never seen much more than 550mbps over Wi-fi but figured it was a limitation of the devices I was using. Between seeing the low (for the plan) speeds and the kids having Zoom issues, I decided to get a Wi-fi 6 compatible router.

I did a bunch of research and this was one of the highest rated ones and I had my friend, a Sr. Network Engineer, look over the specs and he was impressed by it and now wants to get one. I bought it and set it up.

Setup was very easy and intuitive so the router was up and running in just minutes. The ASUS app is user friendly as well. While most devices on my network aren’t Wi-fi 6 compatible, my iPad and iPhone both are.

I was able to get up to 892mbps with this new router on my phone and up to 901mpbs on my iPad Pro, both of course over Wi-fi. My kids also both have not had a single issue with Zoom meeting connections after the upgrade.

This router was money well spent, especially with a smart home full of devices connected, me working from home, and my kids both on Chrome books doing school from home. If you are considering this router, I hope you find this review helpful.

I would absolutely buy this router if I had it to do again. It has been running flawlessly for a few months now and has been putting our gigabit service to good use. Oh, and range. The router is located in the middle of our home and we have a detached garage which gets a nice strong signal and a detached shed maybe 100 feet from the router through a few walls and across the yard that has a Wi-fi camera mounted to it which receives a good signal and allows for streaming from the camera so I find the range to be very good.

I bought 2 of these routers. The first one was purchased last year to address shortcomings in coverage for my 2 story home with large distances from the router. I originally paired it with a N66U ASUS router to extend my networks range.

However a lightning storm killed the old router and as a result I have now purchased a second one of these. They now act as a DUO with one as an ASUS Ai Mesh Node to the second. I have strong signal strength throughout the house wirelessly now and the router function as a mesh with both 1 GB Ethernet backbone and over 5GHz backhaul channel if the hard line uplink fails.

Connection quality is seamless throughout the 4000 sqft house with the range extending all the way down by the pool deck. All our devices migrate seamlessly between the mesh nodes as expected without a drop in speed or quality.

I have Mediacom, my speed very based on their service, not my equipment. But I have stead 500 to 800 MB down throughout the day over the Dual Band network of the 2GHz/5GHz management by the routers. Streaming anywhere in the house or working from home of wired or wireless is very efficient now.

Highly recommend these routers. The UI is very robust and easy to navigate whether you are a novice or an experienced network planner. My last ASUS Router lasted for more than a decade and only had to be swapped out due to aging radio tech and an unfortunate power surge.

ASUS makes products that last.

I waited until a month of ownership had passed to fully acquaint myself with this router before writing this review, and gathering an opinion on it/it’s features/quirks. Normally I’d lay out my reviews in the “pros/cons manner, but this is a router, and realistically that’s difficult to do.

Navigating the router – at first – was difficult as I’ve used Netgear exclusively ever since the Linksys WRT54G was “outdated” due to their ease of use and acceptability of open source firmware. I was a bit deterred to know that this router didn’t have open source capabilities, or any developers for such, but decided ultimately based off reviews to give it a chance anyway, and I’m quite glad I did.

I’ve not tested the USB throughput, however, if it’s performance is anything similar to what I’ve experienced on my network thus far I’ve got no doubt that it’ll reach it’s specified transfer rates. I’ve had ZERO issues with this router, and find the ease of doing some things (such as blocking internet access for my security cameras) is INSANELY easy (literally the click of a button vs Netgear’s multiple page/menu/submenu navigation then restarting the router every single time within ANOTHER MENU.

) Assigning static LAN IP’s is equally as easy, and I quite enjoy the fact that I can DISABLE automatic throughput prioritization for the “gaming” port on the wired LAN. The ability to set up temporary networks is really cool too, not a GUEST network – a temporary one, as in it vanishes in a set amount of time.

That’s pretty legit if a friend’s kids want to come over and use the internet, but I want to make sure that they don’t have it automatically the next day should I forget to disable the guest account, etc.

Being able to see CPU CORE usage – not just overall – memory usage, logging of multiple different aspects all SEPARATELY DDOS protection built in as well as ICMP requests, etc. are all very nice things to have.

The RGB is. basic, but it’s not like this is Corsair, afterall, naturally it’s going to be a lot less “fun” than it could be, but it’s not bad. It COULD be better, but that would come at the cost of RAM/CPU usage – so consider that.

The ease of use of this router is bar-none the BEST I’ve ever had in a managed atmosphere for networking devices, and I went to school for this. so there’s that. The CPU usage spikes pretty heavily on my 400Mbps/40Mbps network when I max out traffic during packet sniffing/loss tests/speed tests/large downloads, so it definitely HAS the potential for buffer overflow but I’ve yet to run into any, and have 5 LAN tablets, 3 Smart TV’s, 2 4k Blu-Ray streamers, 5 Bluetooth Audio Systems, a Switch, 4 Desktop PC’s, a Server, a HTPC, a fire stick, a laptop, and two smart phones all running through this router as well as 10 cameras, and I’ve had NO issues whatsoever without even enabling QOS or other “management” features.

Again – bar-none this is the BEST router I’ve ever owned. Period. I haven’t tested whether the RGB affects RAM/CPU usage or temps enough to care, but I’ve got mine mounted on an aluminum ‘shelf’ with perforations for airflow, and have had absolutely no hiccups whatsoever.

Build quality is good, decently heavy, but you can tell that the way they designed it was with airflow in mind. At numerous angles you can see through this router, and that’s a good thing!.

I have two GT-AX11000 routers in an AIMesh configuration with a CAT6 backhaul. The wired backhaul keeps 100% of the wireless bandwidth available for wireless devices. The mesh network fills in a couple of weird dead spots that I had (happened with other routers too) and also allows for hard-wired connections for my entertainment center downstairs and in my office upstairs.

I have a 600Mbps Comcast connection that regularly gets between 8-900Mbps. My wireless devices are getting right at the same speeds as the wired desktops. My home is a 2500 square foot two-story on a third acre lot and I have solid 5GHz WiFi 6 coverage in every corner of my house and yard.

I was amazed at how many devices we have on or network when I counted them up. (which is easy to do in the router’s interface) Between TVs, phones, pads, laptops, Roku/Fire sticks, multiple Alexas, Ring devices, Apple watch, DVD/BlueRay – You get the idea.

they really add up! We will often have streaming on multiple devices, browsing and gaming all at the same time and these routers handle it without a glitch. TBH – I know that the setup I have is overkill and I could have built out a solid network for a lot cheaper but it happened in stages and just grew into what it is.

I really wrestled with buying the second AX11000 when I knew that other, less expensive, Asus routers would have worked just fine. Now that it’s done however – I couldn’t be happier with the performance and feel good about having a network which will last well in to the future.

I’ve owned this router for 3+ weeks. It replaced another Asus RT-AC68R router. So far the wireless performance has been much better than the AC router in both range/speeds for both Wi-fi 6 clients and Wi-fi 5.

I had some headaches with TVs and other internet enabled appliances not working with this router on initial setup. After a couple of days of troubleshooting, I determined that setting secure management frames as “required” Vs “optional” was the root cause.

Many internet devices (not PCs, phones, tablets) only connect when secure management frames are optional. I might have been able to replicate my old router configuration on this one through Asus backup/restore feature – but I wanted to take the opportunity to get it configured right Vs importing legacy settings.

The NAS drive option works well and is generally 2-3x faster than my old router. I hooked up two drives to the USB ports and you get the consolidated/aggregate folder view from both drives when you connect via UPnP or SMB clients.

Another quirk is that I had to set up a separate ID to access files via SMB – the router login ID/password did not work as they did on my older router. I got this Asus router in order to be able to use the AI Mesh feature in conjunction with my old router.

I haven’t had to use AI Mesh given the improved range on this router. Common to Asus routers: I like the automatic firmware upgrade feature and the fact that I can schedule periodic reboots for the best performance.

I read many reviews before purchasing this router and its performance has lived up to the billing.

I’ve been cautiously surveying the landscape for a decent but overpriced wifi router than can handle two internet connections. This fits the bill. Mostly. 2. 5g wifi coverage for all my smart home devices works perfectly with full bars nearly everywhere.

5 g not as much, while not terrible was hoping for just a little tiny bit more. The Dual Wan features are helpful but often troublesome for my specific setup; one internet connection has more bandwidth available, but higher latency, while the other is opposite.

So the majority of my devices need to be on one connection and one or two can be on the other (gaming). Setting it to ‘Fallback’ seems like a great idea! But detection for a poorly performing internet connection doesn’t trigger with the default settings.

Its not superclear on how to get it to ‘work’ in my use case. Setting it to ‘Load Balance’ isn’t recommended (if your internet connections aren’t the same speed), the workaround, does work, but requires you to manually enter a route one (either primary or secondary internet) selecting the IP address per each device.

This means you’ll have to navigate (slowly) to another screen to manually set your ip address for the said device. All the while your router will reboot itself each time, making you wait and relogin.

If you’ve got smart home devices you can expect to repeat this process at least a dozen times. Prepare to set aside a few hours to make this work and don’t expect your internet connection to function while you’re doing so.

I guess, if Asus is listening, please let us simply define a ‘catch all’ option to let, for example, all of the 5g connections to go to the main internet and the 2. 5g connections to secondary, or at least permit wildcard IP address selectors.

On the recent failure of an older Asus Router that had been an access point, I was able to install this ASUS RT-AX86U connected to my 950Gbs fibre as the primary router and mesh link via ethernet to a slightly older DSL-AC68U on the other side of the house.

Costly, but I think the performance suggests it is a worthwhile investment Magic transformation of our web access. No longer do I have 2. 5 and 5GHz downstairs and upstairs wifi locations. I have one name for the whole wifi system, and the mesh system resolves the best wifi router and GHz to connect at.

It took longer to unbox the pieces than to connect everything. Figuring the few settings for fibre access required finding the relevant ISP page – not so easy, though there were only 4 things to do. I now regularly connect the desktop via ethernet to the world at speeds greater than 850Mbps, and the wifi within the living room (RT-AX86U is under the floor) reaches speeds of 500Mbps! Worth the expense for the internet access management tools, plus the mesh simplicity.

Accessing the router for setups was a matter of some complexity – to get the right address in the web browser – not immediately obvious. The sheer customisability of the web interface (and the equivalent management system on my phone) is impressive and daunting.

Impressive because the aspects like management of child devices by time of day and adult / not nature of the web locations is very easy. Daunting because there is so much that I think, if I only knew more I oul make this even faster.

Only serious downside? It has encouraged me to finally spend money on an NAS, because accessing my files securely from anywhere is no longer a tedious process.

This is the third router I’ve purchased trying to maintain reasonably fast signal within all corners of our approx. 2500-2750 sq. ft home, with a reliable connection for over 25 regular clients on the network, and upwards of 10 or more guest devices during peak family visits.

Also needed something that would extend to our detached garage, approx. 40′ from the router, with exterior walls in the line of sight between the router and inside the garage. In the house on the same floor, speeds are reaching 400-500 mbps, upper and lower floors are seeing 100-200 mbps, and the garage is achieving 25-75 mpbs depending on the location in the garage, plenty to stream YouTube video on the TV.

User Interface for setup and management of the router has a number of advanced tweaking functionality, but includes a basic mode for unfamiliar users, making it super easy to setup and manage for anyone.

Bonus, AX model router supports TP-Link Mesh networking, whereas the upgrade model the AX50 and 55 don’t currently support it. Just something to consider, as the mesh setup may not be on your list of needs.

Will update the review on stability and longer term performance.

Short review – This is a “mid range” wifi 6 (ax) router that will work and exceed most people’s expectations for its price. Details – This is a wifi 6 router, which means it supports the new wifi convention ax, the previous ones were known as ac, n, g which have now been renames as wifi 5, 4, 3.

This means that newer devices that are wifi 6 compatible will really benefit from the new tech which will clear up any congestion on your home network. But if you are using older devices that only have an ac wifi card in your device, do not worry, ALL wifi 6 routers are rated for backwards compatibility.

With Wifi 6 , it also comes with MU-MIMO technology, which in laymans terms means you will be getting much better stable connections between all your devices. The 1800 in the ax1800 stands for up to 574mbps on 2.

4ghz channel and 1201 mbps on 5 ghz channel. Frankly I am not sure what the difference between the Archer AX20 vs AX21, since both are listed as Archer AX1800. This might just be something to differentiate between retailers.

As far as I can tell on their website the specs are the same across the board. Ethernet ports are rated for gigabit, so thats going to be plenty for most of residential users. The USB port is unfortunately only 2.

0, but can still hook up your hdd for a network storage solution. I have this placed in a central location in the house, coming from from a dual band ac600 (300/300) router, I am getting amazing speeds, but importently I am getting 5-4 bars in all 7 rooms in the house, 4 on the same level as the router, with 2-3 walls in between, and the 3 rooms in the basement.

I am slowly getting more wifi 6 devices, such as my smartphones, laptop (you can easily upgrade wifi cards in your laptops), ps5 and I am getting amazing wifi speeds. I pay for the 1000 mbps internet service, and at best I was getting around 450 on the 5ghz channel about 10 feet away, with one wall.

Now on the TP Link AX20, I am now getting 800-900 on the 5hz channel about 10 feet away with one wall.

For an affordable dual band router, this was a great upgrade. We’re consistently getting download and upload speeds that are twice as fast as our 5-year-old tri-band Netgear router, and even with one less antenna, the issues with devices with being dropped from the network or connectivity crawling to a snails pace because the network gets overwhelmed have virtually disappeared.

Now, we are two people living in a 2-bedroom apartment with gig internet via fiber in a well-connected urban area. We both work from home and have had several meetings with six people using the home’s connection all at once, and the router has handled all that capably.

I’ve been able to have video calls while five people are working in the kitchen, no problem. However, we’ve noticed a significant drop-off in signal strength in the bedroom, so I imagine this router would be unsuitable for a larger space (honestly, it wasn’t designed for that).

But for getting into 6th-gen internet for under $130, you’d be hard-pressed to do better.