Recommendation for Asus RT-N66U replacement

netbrad

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 26, 2005
Messages
151
So with all the stay at home stuff going on and a fiber connection I wanted to see about upgrading my 5 year old Asus RT-N66U router. I don't need bleeding edge and I don't want to spend a huge amount of money. I was looking at the AC-86U but didn't know if that was still viable. I have two smart TVs, 2 phones, a tablet, a Chromebook and a laptop that connect wirelessly and a desktop using a gigabit ethernet connection. I'd need a good router for PC gaming as well. Any suggestions?
 
What's the budget? How big a living space?

Right off the top of my head, for wireless I'd suggest a Ubiquiti AC-Pro if you're primarily 2.4GHz/lots of walls or an AC-nanoHD if you can pull off 5GHz (I have a nanoHD, and get good throughput on the 5GHz band through a few walls in my 1942 house). That's a lot of stuff you have for wireless and could really benefit from a good dedicated system.

Pair with it a Ubiquiti EdgeRouter-X (or ER-4 which is more $$) for wired and routing duties.

Cost-wise, this is a little bit more expensive than the AC86U and requires a bit more configuration to get running, but is a semi-professional system more likely to hold up if there's a family using all of this at once.

Or, if you really just want an all-in-one consumer setup, the Asus AC2900/RTAC86U (same thing) would probably work just fine.
 
Go unifi. Keep your current router as a router only and grab a unifi AP. Depending on where you can mount it grab the flex HD or nano HD AP. Then replace it later with a unifi next gen USG and switch with Poe power as funds become available. Once you get things all dialed in stability is top notch, performance is good and it can handle alot of wifi clients.
 
There is nothing wrong with the ASUS routers. They're still one of the best consumer grade routers out there. The one you picked is fine, and it supports the ASUSwrt-Merlin firmware.
 
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