ASUS - AX6000 Dual Band Wi-Fi 6 Router

I purchased this to replace my "old faithful" Asus RT-N66U router. It had worked up until the day I unplugged it. I was just concerned it was EOL and not receiving any more firmware updates. I certainly can not complain as it did receive updates for about seven years! My hope for the RT-AX88U was that it would increase the WIFI coverage in my 3-level 1246 sq. ft. townhouse. The router is placed on the second level. I have one 2.4 GHz device connected on the lower floor and multiple 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz devices which connect on the upper floor. Unfortunately my coverage has not increased. My 5 GHz devices on the upper floor have a weak - 85dB connection. That's about the same I had before. My 2.4 GHz device on the ground floor connects at a stable 64db to 67db. That's slightly better than the RT-N66U. My transition was fairly simple as I was used to the web app and the phone app. The most difficult thing was turning off some of the features. I can not select WPA2/WPA3-Personal authentication. I HAVE TO select WPA2-Personal to allow all my devices to connect. My current devices are also sensitive to the channel bandwidth and control channel settings. One positive has been that transfers to/from my USB drive are faster. It would be even better (I think) if I had a USB 3.0 drive attached. One negative that I haven't been able to figure out is that my Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite randomly disconnects. The tablet could be 3 feet away from the router, or 25 feet away upstairs and it will disconnect. I NEVER had disconnect issues with "Old faithful." As long as Asus keeps pushing out updates for the forseeable future, I don't think I will be disappointed with the RT-AX88U.

It's been almost a year since I've been using this router and it's been really good as the main router. I currently have it paired with a RT-AX86U in a AiMesh set-up that is wireless. This is the best set-up I've ever had. Note, in an AiMesh set-up, you want to pair similar routers if you want to pair them wireless. Don't pair a Tri-Band with a Dual-Band unless it's wired and don't pair a 4x4 Dual-Band with a 2x2 Dual-Band unless it's wired and don't pair WiFi 6 with WiFi 5 unless it's wired. When you pair different kinds of routers in an AiMesh system wireless, you will experience drops and other issues.

I have been in the market for a new router for some time now and been very picky due to how it is pretty much the backbone of any network. I decided to go with ASUS and was so glad I did. This is what a router should be! Not only is it reliable, fast and has 8 Ethernet connectors, it has a full range of admin tools! If I am going to buy a router in the upper hundreds then I expect to have full access to everything in it. This router is a must have for anyone who wishes to upgrade their network, have wide range of admin tools and reliability. PROS - Price per features offered Easy Setup Two USB 3 Connections 8 Ethernet Ports Ability to turn off Network Activity Lights Network Map is Real Time, very detailed information displayed Able to Hide SSID Able to disable 2.4 GHz Band Able to increase or decrease broadcast rate / band / hops Able to power boost the signal Able to individually modify each antenna (Band) for signal rate/boost Able to set Guest Access in DMZ (Outside Intranet/Firewall) Able to set time limit for Guest Access, have to turn on/off manually Able to see signal strength of wireless devices Able to see transfer connection rate of wireless devices Able to see connected device details Packet Collision non-existent, very little if any multi packet rebroadcast Able to perform router trace to devices for network troubleshooting Able to provide real time monitor/status logs Able to provide firewall status Able to export router configuration settings in-case needing to restore router CONS- No Phone App No Mount / Stand for Router Placement To Use Traffic Analyzer must agree to send your network data to TrendMicro To Use Adaptive QoS must agree to send your network data to TrendMicro **However you are able to use the Traditional QoS without having to agree to send your data to TrendMicro.** Game Boost Feature is external outside network going through 3rd party *** Note *** Use Adaptive QoS / Game Boost / Traffic Analyzer at your own risk as you are agreeing to send your network information to Trend Micro / WTFast.com. Even though the disclaimer says its "anonymous" there is always risk when allowing data to go outside your network. I find it disappointing that they lock down Traffic Analyzer and Adaptive QoS if you do not agree to send TrendMicro your data. As for Game Boost that is a GPN (Virtual Private Network) into their server so it would be understandable needing to send your data outside network if planning to use Game Boost. ::Hardware:: Casing / Antennas are made very well and durable when needing to adjust. I especially love how it comes with 8 Ethernet Ports. It has a USB 3.0 in the rear along with one in the front which is very convenient. It also has two buttons for WPS setup (Quick WiFi Setup) and LED (Turn off/on LED lights). ::Setup:: Packaged nicely, very easy to install and setup. When launching it will provide you with a browser setup wizard which is nice for those who are not very tech savvy. Once setup has completed you can then go back in and start going through the advance settings. I recommend making a backup of your router configuration before going into the advance settings in-case you need to reverse any changes. ::Software:: There is so much this router does I will focus on the highlights that way this review does not become novel to read. The GUI (Graphical User Interface) of the software is not pretty and could be overwhelming at first glance hence why I mention a small learning curve earlier. Not to worry once you understand how to navigate you will be able to go through each section and modify to your hearts content. ** Network Map provides a layout of Network Traffic, Devices, and WIFI Networks. The Network Traffic is real time, with devices updating to know when one disconnects and it differentiates between the WIFI Networks 2.4GHz / 5GHz band. It provides a detailed layout of all devices connected to the router. It displays an icon to indicate if it is either a wired or wireless connection along with connection method. It provides signal strength of wireless devices, the transfer connection rate of wireless devices and able to click on the device to provide details of the connection. You are also able to edit the device name and icon picture to what you like. ** Wireless Advance Settings provides ability to rename 2.4 and 5 GHz bands. You are able to hide your SSID or disable the 2.4 band if not being used. You can select the WIFI Channel width, which for advance users know how beneficial that is. You are able to increase or decrease broadcast rate / band / hops or boost the signal. You are able to individually modify each antenna (Band) for signal rate/boost. You do have an option for a guest access set within DMZ to ensure guests will not be within your network behind your firewall. You can also set a time limit for guest acess. ** Advance Settings is where you will have the most fun for those that enjoy tweaking their networks. There is so much customization to modify for your network you will find yourself always in there playing around. If you are not very tech savvy do not worry there are some of the basics like port forwarding, Static IP Reservation, VPN Client, Access the external USB/eSATA storage items, assign specific non-rotatable ip's (strongly recommended) and DDNS/ISP settings within. ** Administration / System Logs / Network Tools is where it excels the most! Be sure to change the router name/password, update your firmware before as a first step. Afterwards you will find you have the ability to download router logs (contains very detailed information), run network tools like trace route, device monitor/status logs, firewall status, audit tools, logging tools / filter, router config file export ability (in-case you need to restore router settings) and even more advance admin tools. ASUS has always been known to provided the best admin tools and they done it again with this device. Overall I have been very impressed with this router and all of the abilities that comes with it. Even if you are only needing a router for the best gaming experience I would recommend this router. It is always better to have abilities and features available for when the time comes versus not having the option at all, being forced to upgrade.

If you like to be on the bleeding edge of technology and like to have as many features as possible, then this router is for you. I’ve personally had a lot of routers over the years and many of the consumer products have basically been reduced to simple icons with minimal control. I’ve even used software like DD-WRT on other routers just to get some additional feature administration. Well, the ASUS RT-AX88U, Wireless AX6000 Dual Band Gigabit Router already has all these features. It is 802.11ax, which not many devices have the capability to utilize yet, but it will be faster with higher throughput and less congestion. It has eight (8) gigabit LAN ports and two (2) USB 3.0 ports which can be used for hard drives or a 3G/4G USB modem. It can function as a media server, print server, cloud server, PC free download manager, an OS X time machine, or as a VPN server or client. There are so many configuration options on this device that it blurs the line between consumer and enterprise like settings for RADIUS and remote log servers. You can also setup dynamic DNS and create an SSL cert so that you can remotely access your router and AiCloud through your own custom URL at https://yourname.asuscomm.com. While at the same time, it has easier to handle options like AiProtection that is listed as “state-of-the-art, three-pronged security from Trend Micro, gives you enterprise-level security in the home” and Alexa & IFTTT integration so you can enable/disable guest network, streaming mode, game mode or pause the internet. As ASUS is commonly known for Republic of Gamers line of products, there are several features on this router directly intended to improve gaming. Features like adaptive quality of service (QoS) in One Click Game First mode, Gamers Private Network, powered by WTFast, an option in wireless settings to Optimize for Xbox and the AiProtection mentions “You can temporally turn off anti-virus on your PCs to reserve system resources for gaming.” Though I haven’t tested each of these modes out, the results can vary drastically with your internet provider. As for security protection, you can easily run the router security assessment that gives most common vulnerabilities, like weak passwords, web access and various port features. Though some features aren’t all bad, they provide tips on how the can affect you. The AiProtection provides “real-time network monitoring to detect malware, viruses and other intrusions before it reaches your PC or connected devices.” These modes also may cause some to question privacy, as “your information will be collected by Trend Micro through AiProtection, Traffic analyzer, Apps analyzer, Adaptive QoS and web history.” But, how else will they block malicious sites for your systems if they don’t know the site you are going to. More manual control can also be accomplished through parental controls so that groups of network devices can be set to time restrictions or block specific sites. I have 175/25 Mbps cable internet and noticed no difference in speeds and even tested some malicious material in which it blocked and popped up on the device a nice warning message. However, there are no options to permit specific sites that you may trust that are flagged malicious and the warning page just takes you to Trend Micro or your router settings page. There was one issue which I only happened to stumble across when I looked through the Wireless >> Professional settings. There is an option for “Bluetooth Coexistence” and at first didn’t see a need for it until I left my home and returned. Apparently the Bluetooth connection between my Samsung Gear S3 watch and Note 9 phone was getting interrupted by something. When I changed that setting to Enabled, everything returned to normal. So, just as a heads up, if you have Bluetooth devices, that might need to be a setting you enable.

The four words that describe the ASUS AX6000. This is as next-gen as it gets when it comes to every other router I have reviewed to date. Everything from features to design to being simply powerful; It is a dream using and owning. everything for me worked so far without a problem. Design (Beautiful): Ever seen a sci-fi movie with a spaceship with sleek angular design? This is what this router looks like and it's important. because sometimes you just want something nice to go along with your setup which it perfectly fit into. The Matte black feels nice and the gold give it a bit of luxury next to my PC rig. Asus has added many I/Os ports from everything you use in a modern router. 2 USB. 3.0 (one in the front and one in the back.), WAN port, 8 Gigabit LAN! (one of my favorite features), and a WPS Button. ASUS also gave clear icons under the 8 LED indicator lights. 4 Black and gold antennas ensure that everything reaches the routers radius. grill at the top with gold (?) plating inside looks great. Features (Powerful): AX6000 is certainly powerful in its own right having a 1.8 quadcore CPU which is like a mini PC itself. The router handles load between things fine making sure everything I threw at the AX6000. The backward compatibility with every router standard it supports which in itself a monumental feature to behold, but if you are buying a router you are most likely looking at the new 802.11ax. goes pass 1000+ Mbps on 2.4 GHz alone but the real glorious feature here is 5GHz reaching 4804 Mbps. There is no way from me to test this but I'm sure it does give you insane speeds but it does max out my network. The two 3.0 USB ports allow me to attach a network HDD to access anywhere I am. Windows 10, Mac, and IPv6 support is here as well. The app allows you to use your phone to change features on the fly and had no issues with the app. The ASUS interface has so many features that I can possibly go over all of them in this review due to Best buy reviews having a limit on words, but just know whatever you are most likely doing can be done here tailored to your liking. Performance (Fast): AX6000 on my network currently have 13 devices and was being used simultaneously at once maintaining the same level of speeds. Game Accelerator mode is my go-to feature as it gives double the acceleration for your games and funny enough it worked. Ping time dropped by 48% on my steam games. the feature also It allows me to put priorities on my gaming PC, PS4 Pro, and Xbox One X first giving excellent connection and blazing clear 4K streaming movies on Netflix. The setup was as easy and straight forward as it gets which hand me up and running in no time. Quick start guide is clear and everything is simple to understand. Overview (Perfect): I love it and I can't possibly rave about it enough because this is the most consistent and the best router I've used to date. AX6000 with such many I/O on LAN that makes me thrilled and happy to own. If you having a small LAN party this is perfect for that use on 4 vs 4 on certain games. I know this is an expensive router but I think with so many features your getting and the future proof technology. This is a must buy and if you plan on getting newer devices that use Wi-Fi it's perfect.

I have 1gb fiber internet and am getting over 1gb on wifi close to the router. At the farthest point away in an 1800+ sq ft house, I still get 300+mbp and can stream from all 4 corners on the 5g network. On 2.4ghz I get a steady 200+mbp. Absolutely love this router and the 8 gig ports is a huge plus! I'll be getting another Asus soon to set up a Mesh network.

The Asus - AX6000 is a very impressive wireless router, delivering high performance on the wireless network, coupled with real-time protection with the integrated Trend Micro security solution. The router is easy to setup. Within moments, your devices can be connected, protected and surfing the web, streaming, sharing content at amazing speeds all without the worry of malicious content attacking your devices. I have gigabit service from my ISP and the Asus AX6000 router optimizes my experience. Thanks to this routers strong signal strength, I can reach near gigabit speeds (it's never quite 1 Gbps from the ISP) on the internet while 2-3 rooms away from the router. Local wireless network throughput is amazing. File transfers are extremely fast. I can reach speeds of 4Gbps between endpoints on my network. This is great for streaming HD content from my media server. I have a gigabit connection from my media server to this router and my other machines connect wirelessly and it all works great. No latency issues, even when I'm far away from the router. (tested up to 900ft away from the router) The admin console is very intuitive, and easy to navigate. I like the dashboard and the health monitor of the network. This is a fantastic router and it will ensure all of your wireless network needs are satisfied. I highly recommend the Asus AX6000 router.

ASUS’ line of networking equipment is decidedly gamer-oriented. From a visual standpoint alone, virtually every router and networking adapter they sell eschews a minimalist aesthetic for sharp angles and antenna arrays that make their equipment look more like alien spacecraft than a device from the Jony Ive school of design. The ASUS AX6000 Dual Band Wi-Fi 6 Router is a recent into the premium router market that continues on this philosophy, advertising game-optimizing features front and center to complement the inclusion of the latest network features and “commercial-grade” security functions. As ambitious as it is extravagant, ASUS’ AX6000 leaps out in front to be one of the first to market with WiFi 6 functions, but in trying to gain an early lead on the future, falls short with unreliable firmware that yields issues reminiscent of routers from the past. - Setup Besides a quickstart guide, the included documentation with this router is minimal. The user guide is available on the website, but is far more limited in troubleshooting functions than I would like (this will be an issue later). Setup was straightforward once the router had a chance to fully boot. The initial configuration gets the router set up with WPA2 Personal encryption for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks by default, and updates the firmware to the latest version if available. I’m running the latest revision as of February 25, 2018, version 3.0.0.4.384_5640. Advanced configuration took a while just from the sheer number of menus and options available. If there were ever a router equivalent of the Kitchen Sink, the AX6000 is it. I couldn’t even test some of the functions as they were available but I had no use for them, such as parental controls and blocking of specific content types. This was also troublesome as it was not clear where common, important-to-some functions (e.g. Port Forwarding) were, and I would have loved to have had this information handy in a printed guide or a menu map of some kind. - Connectivity & Range The AX6000’s eight gigabit ethernet ports eliminated my need for an extra networking switch on my home network, and although I didn’t test the router’s file-sharing capabilities as I have a separate server, the option to set a basic one up through the included USB 3.0 port is very handy. Supporting both 2.4GHz and 5GHz out of the box, it was very easy to get all my modern and legacy devices connected without issue, and with excellent signal strength. The four powered antennas give this router a superb wireless range. Devices I once thought were send-limited found stronger signal strength and connection quality in the furthest corners of my home, even on dual-band connections. I was even able to hold a weak, but usable, connection to the AX6000 walking a couple houses down the street with my cell phone. Granted this was merely due to the minimal obstruction between the two devices, as the same dead spots I had with my prior router were present with this one, though the actual dead zone sizes seemed much smaller. - Speed & Latency Unfortunately no device I have supports WiFi 6 (802.11ax), so I can’t verify ASUS claims of up to 6000Mbps transfer speeds. 802.11ac was plenty fast, however, and with no advanced features enabled I was getting transfer speeds faster than most of my devices were capable of writing to their disks. I was able to hit upwards of 2000Mbps on a few instances. These speeds fell when security features were enabled as I’ll detail in “Security” below. Additionally, I noticed no change in latency between my old router and the AX6000. Ping to my usual servers was as fast as always, and it should be noted that the latency-reducing game features that ASUS advertises are a combination of QoS prioritization and a gaming VPN. More on that later. - Security & QoS The cheekily-named “AiProtection” is in fact a Trend Micro security layer that is indeed used in some businesses for enterprise security, of course in a much more vast, robust, and contract-supported capacity than what you’ll have available in a home router. Basic protection functions include a security audit, malicious site blocking, intrusion prevention, infected device protection, and parental controls. The features tax the router’s onboard processor decently, as evidenced by a noticeable drop in network speed between devices (my 70Mbps internet connection would not saturate this router by any stretch). With them turned on, expect half speed throughout. Adaptive Quality of Service (QoS) is another ASUS feature that seems to want to act like an extension of uPnP. This feature allgedly automatically prioritizes and de-prioritizes internet traffic based on an algorithm that should lower latency for devices detected to be gaming, and increase bandwidth for devices detected to be streaming video. I had this feature enabled and unfortunately saw little change, with one device streaming video, another playing a game, and a third saturating connections using BitTorrent, and the torrenting computer was still causing lag spikes on the game until I manually adjusted the QoS to de-prioritize the torrenting machine. - Gaming Functions Advertised as a gaming router that could reduce ping by as much as 30%, I had high hopes that some of the more distant servers (e.g. opposite coast) would be more playable in the games that I play. QoS is one way the router promises better latency; the other is through a VPN service called WTFast. A 3-day guest subscription to the bandwidth-unlimited paid service is included with a bandwidth-restricted lifetime subscription available for router owners. Unfortunately, the combination of QoS and WTFast fell well short of my expectations, despite having an optimized server available the biggest game play, Rocket League. I had a very steady 92ms latency with the services disabled, and with both I fell to 88ms, right on the edge of being within the margin of error. These pings were steady across several matches, but a latency reduction that minor is hardly worth the router’s asking price. Your experience may vary, of course. - Reliability Unfortunately, a week with the router revealed some issues that I found were not exclusive to my experience and put a damper on my impressions. A few devices lost connection to the router at points (seemingly random, while the devices were in active use) and they took longer than I would have expected to reconnect. I wasn’t able to pinpoint the issue but I assume the AiProtection or adaptive QoS was partly responsible. Additionally, with both adaptive QoS and AiProtection enabled, the router either experiences some sort of infinite loop or hardware problem, as all devices will suddenly and inexplicably lose connectivity. The router’s SSIDs will remain visible, but all connected devices will cease to be able to send or receive Internet or local network data, and I am unable to reach the router’s configuration page. I noticed when this occurs that the router is very warm, almost hot, to the touch leading me to wonder if the device is in fact overheating. After reading up on other user experiences, this issue appears to persist across firmware revisions spanning the last few months at minimum. I’m not sure whether the issue can be fixed with a firmware update, but regardless the only method that fixed the issue so far has been a reboot of the router. That’s right, this 2019 router features 2004’s troubleshooting repairs. I had to reboot anywhere between an hour and 24 hours of uptime throughout my testing. Disabling both Adaptive QoS and AiProtection seems to have fixed the issue, as I’ve gone over a week without any of the above connection issues. But needing to leave out hallmark functionality just to get a stable connection is very disappointing, and as a result I’m hardly any better off with this router as I am with the $79 802.11ac one I bought in 2014. - Bottom Line The ASUS AX6000 Dual Band Wi-Fi 6 Router is a very advanced router that has plenty of modern connectivity, but needs a little more time to mature from a firmware, possibly hardware perspective before it’s ready for mass adoption. It’s entirely possible that updates will resolve these issues, or perhaps the firmware can be replaced with something more capable a la DD-WRT, but unfortunately I can’t recommend early-adopting a product like this based on potential that may never be realized. The above issues would be forgivable in a less expensive router, but with an MSRP of $349, the incredibly high price relative to the rest of the router market makes this a poor value. If you really want 802.11ax or Trend Micro’s protection suite today, this may suit your needs at the expense of your pocketbook, but a cutting-edge router being reliable in only bog-standard router mode is unacceptable. Not recommended.