Features:

  • Dual-band (2. 4 + 5 GHz) AC2900 wireless router with the latest 802. 11AC MU-MIMO technology for data transfer speeds up to 2900 Mbps
  • 1. 8GHz 32bit dual-core processor optimizes network traffic and connectivity speeds from the USB 3. 1 Gen1 and 4x Gigabit LAN ports
  • Designed for lag-free online gaming and flawless 4K UHD streaming with WTFast game Accelerator and adaptive QoS; Product Segment: AC2900 ultimate AC performance: 750+2167 Mbps
  • A protection powered by Trend Micro provides built-in 24/7 protection from external attacks and threats, neutralizing them before they reach your network or connected devices
  • Manage your network with the ASUS router app – setup your network, manage usage and parental controls, even get instant notifications about important network-based events. Connected devices must be 802. 11 ac-compatible for best results. Ac input: 110v240v(5060hz)
Great, inexpensive, high performance router

I thought I had reviewed this router some time ago, but apparently I forgot to do it. I bought one in December 2017 and one in March, 2018. Both are being used and are set up in my two-story, 3100 sq-ft house, in router+AP mode to provide high strength 5 GHz coverage for the entire house. I'm not using AiMesh mode and haven't tried it. These have been great routers for my needs. Fast, inexpensive, reliable. I started with just one RT-AC86U that replaced my RT-AC3100 that had replaced my RT-AC68U, and I found that, overall, RT-AC86U provided better range and speed for both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands than either of those two routers for multiple types of devices (Mac laptop, Android phone, iPad). I did a fairly extensive set of tests that can be found on the SNB forums. I was able to connect in the far bedrooms on the 2.4 GHz band with just a single router and had no problem doing typical internet surfing, but while the connection strength and speed was better than the two previous routers, it still wasn't what I wanted. After doing a fair bit of reading, I realized that no single router would provide the 5 GHz coverage that I wanted in the far bedrooms, so I bought a second RT-AC86U, and set it up in AP mode at a location suitable to provide good signal strength in the far bedrooms. Running in main+AP mode requires a dedicated ethernet connection between the two routers. Running this cable is easy for some, but not others. AiMesh is an option for those who don't have the option of running an ethernet cable. For the main AC86U, I have both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz radios enabled, and the satellite AC86U has only the 5 GHz radio enabled. I did this because the 2.4 GHz band on the main AC86U does sufficiently cover the entire house. This dual router setup has been 100% reliable since the day I set it up. My router settings are fairly simple. No attached storage because I have a dedicated NAS. I have several ports on my "server" computer forwarded. The VPN server on the router is enabled, and I use it routinely without issue. Most of the other bells and whistles are disabled. I'm not using traffic monitoring, nor am I using AiProtection. No gamers on my network. I have a typical range of devices connecting - several computers, several phones, security cameras, NAS, printer. All work without issue. WiFi speeds with a strong signal are as good as can be expected. My MacBookPro with 3x3 5 GHz consistently has a 1300 mbps link speed in the vicinity of either router, and transfers to/from my server computer from this laptop go at 70 MB/s. LAN speeds over ethernet are quite fast. If I set up jumbo frames, I can saturate the 1GB/s ethernet between my server computer and NAS in both read and write mode. Its a bit slower with a standard MTU. I will say that obtaining good hand-off between the two AC86Us as people move from location to location in the house took a bit of tuning. I had to enable the Roaming Assistant option on the main AC86U to kick devices off it when the 5 GHz signal strength falls below -66 dBm. Something like this has to be done because most devices don't readily disconnect from one access point until signal strength is in the pits, even when there is another high strength access point in the vicinity. To summarize again, this is a great, inexpensive, high performance router in my experience.

Great RT-AC86U product once it has the latest firmware... super fast.

Well, I am very pleasantly surprised by this product. I highly recommend it as it is not only very quick and responsive but easy to set up. My only advice is to first set it up as a router and not in the Aimesh network before you decide to join it so that you can update any firmware and ensure that it works on your network. I did not do that and had some issues but it was easily fixed by resetting the router and logging in on its own network by itself and then downloading the latest firmware. Then I was able to integrate it into my Aimesh network with another Asus AC3100 router Update: I’m even more impressed with being able to quickly turn off the LED lights in my office to avoid distractactions from where it is placed. I joined it into my AiMesh network in my home with an RT-AC3100 router that’s pretty nice. I debated on its AX6000 bigger brother, but I get only 600 MPS in my network and this handles it well. Also, the RT-AC86U is definitely my main AiMesh router between the 2. The RT-AC3100 is great, too, but the RT-AC86U is faster and more responsive. I like this combination. If or when I have to replace the RT-AC3100, I will definitely get another RT-AC86U. I think this would be an outstanding router to just alone as a pair of routers. By the way, I love that I have a strong signal all over my house in the front and back of the router and even in the back corner where one of our bathrooms is. One last thing, I have them connected via Ethernet, so I get to use both of my bands. I think this is great if you don’t buy the big massive ROG AC5300 one. I did consider that one, too, and may if I get in a situation where I cannot hardwire then.

Excellent router and easy to configure.

I bought this after a thunderstorm took out several electronics, including my ASUS router witch was connected to a surge protector. I saw many bad reviews but bought it anyways. There will always be bad reviews on stuff on Amazon. I was able to get back online within 2-3 minutes after logging in to the routers administrative web interface. It was too easy if you ask me. On 5G wifi I get 435 Mbps download speed which is insane. I am on a 400 Mbps cable connection. I have not had any issues with the 2.4 wifi dropping nor the 5G. Some people reported that this router getss too hot and drops wifi connections. I did read up on that and people are installing a $15 dual usb powered fans to cool down the router to fix that. I bought the extra warrany for a few bux that Amazon offered for cheap insurance. Now I just need to get a surge protector that has coax and ethernet protection. *** 1 week update, no issues to report. *** *** 9 week update, still no issues to report!***

Purchased as replacement for Apple AirPort Time Capsule

I just purchased and set up the Asus RT-AC86U router to replace my five year old fifth generation Apple AirPort Time Capsule. I did a lot of online research, including considering the highly rated Netgear Orbi mesh system. I ultimately decided not to get the Orbi because I needed to replace the Time Capsule's Time Machine backup capability and its support for USB network storage drives. The Orbi has one USB port, but it does not support USB drives. The RT-AC86U has one 3.0 and one 2.0 USB port and they both support USB drives. With excellent, easily accessible phone help from Asus I was able to set up the 3.0 port with a 1TB Samsung T5, currently very well priced at Amazon, and enable it as a Time Machine backup drive. I was also able to set up the 2.0 port as a shared network drive with a 240GB SanDisk Extreme Pro SSD that I was previously using with the AirPort Time Capsule. The 3.0 port supports backups from three Mac computers and the 2.0 port provides a shared network drive that is easily mountable on the desktops of each computer. Overall, the Asus router was very easy to set up, although it was not as simple as the Apple Airport Utility setup I am am used to. However, the RT-AC86U seems to provide better coverage of our house than the Time Capsule - I previously used an Ethernet-wired AirPort Express to reach our distant bedroom, but I no longer need it with the new Asus router.

Great router

As a Network Security Engineer, this router has lived up to its expectations so far. My house is 2500 sq ft, and from one end of the house to the other I get 65-75% signal strength and was able to put my downstairs repeater in retirement. I've wired my house with ethernet cables, but when I tested the wifi strength on them they had a much stronger signal than my N-speed router had, and youtube videos loaded quicky. I decided not enable the AiProtection doohickey because I have a separate device for that, so I can't speak on that feature. My only gripe was that the router GUI login didn't work for me on port 8443, so I changed the AiCloud web access port to 1234 (any port between 1024-65535 is fine), and set the router GUI to port 443 and then it worked fine. Top 5 best practices: Disable any USB App's "Media Services and Servers" you don't use, enable the firewall, set a good admin password, disable UPNP, set the login to use HTTPS (see above).

Amazing, lightening speed

Amazing, lightening speed. We have multiple clients attached, our labtop can finally work as it was designed. We have a larger home, and this ASUS AC2900 is allowing me to download at 60 + megs per second, on the other side of the house upstairs, about 30 + feet way. Set up was easy peezy. Just plug in your modem, then your computer, and the darn thing almost sets up its self, change your user name and password for the admin page, select a user name & password for your WIFI, & boom, your online. Just like that. If you want to start tweaking and tinkering with the user interface, you can, but we didn't.. Look we like this darn thing so much, we are buying another one ok. & the money we are saving from the return of the rental modem from comcast ( which everyone hates ), we are upgrading our speed to 500K.! Oh Yeah. Now we purchased the Asus CM-16 Modem.( https://www.amazon.com/Download-Certified-Spectrum-connectivity-CM-16/dp/B01M6WJWQY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1530346780&sr=8-1&keywords=asus+cm-16), and damn, no problems. No calling comcast, no calling anyone. Guys, it took us 5 mins and my family was back online with WIFI and all with higher speed. Spend the money, upgrade! So far so good. Thank you Asus!

Very versatile, powerful, quick router

Had the black knight ASUS router before this. Was one of the best routers i have ever owned. There are soooo many features that I have enjoyed about these routers over the other brands that i have used over the years. I listed what I think are the best qualities of this router and prior experiences with past ASUS routers. - For the tenure that have owned ASUS routers, they get constant updates. At least 1 every other month. The prior one I owned continued to get them until I decided to upgrade it 9 years later. - They get superb bandwidth. And very rarely have dips in bandwidth.Again, even for as long as I owned the last one. - They use a solid version of DD-WRT. This is why it is able to frequently get updates as it is opensource. Thus hence, the exploits on routers are fixed via the community. - Extra features to help enhance your experience - Ai protection to help you protect your network from browsing and DDoS threats. Working in the tech field for over 25 years and using everything from linksys to netgear. And these are by far the most stable and most reliable routers I have used. I have found that these are also the most secure. Especially toward the end of life. Because, they continue to get firmware updates to fix the security flaws even after the router is end of life.

Works perfectly! Not cheap, but you get what you pay for

I decided I wanted more control over my router settings than I had with Linksys, not to mention Linksys hasn't updated their firmware for the router I had in well over a year (which is still being sold). The AC2900 has been working perfectly for me since I bought it a week ago. First thing I did was update the firmware and then do a hard reset. Now for the performance...My house is almost 3,000 square feet and this Asus covers every foot of it like a champ. It was always a struggle getting a signal in my garage to the point I had added an access point at the other end of my house, but not with the RT-AC86U. Also thus far ZERO signal drops running over 25 wireless devices and I was able to disconnect the access point I was previously using. The only minor ding I could give to the router is that for the clients (devices connected to it) it only shows active ones. You can in a round about way see historical ones, but can't rename them or change the icon unless it is currently connected. Again minor thing, but the other aspects of the router I really like like the logs it keeps and seeing when a hack attempt was made. Before I forget, even though my provider has IPV6, for some reason I had to manually set it up on this router, versus my aging Linksys that auto configured it. If you run across this issue, do a google search for Asus router, IPV6 settings along with the name of the internet provider. For me all I had to do was use the pull down to native and then when I restarted the router everything was configured (and actually using IPV6). Also when you are reading the reviews, be sure to look at the fine print as Amazon lumps several Asus models into one set of reviews. I think the AC3100 seems to have some issues like poor 2.4 ghz performance. I have not noticed any 2.4 issues with my AC2900 and I do watch it closely, as some wifi devices like the Ring doorbell use 2.4. And finally the price is steep for a 2900 router, but it seems like you get what you pay for.

extended my range like 5x over from an RN56U

ABSOLUTELY worth the money, extended my range like 5x over from an RN56U. I currently have 350mbps service, from 300ft away (same elevation no obstacles) I pull 296mbps ON WIFI! that's just INCREDIBLE. my biggest complaint is that my phone wants to connect from a block away lol! The security features built in to this router are worth the money alone.

Initial Impressions - Postitive!

We upgraded from a Netgear R6300v2 to the ASUS RT-AC86U Dual Band Wireless Router AC2900 about 10 days ago so this review is still ongoing. Initial Impressions: The Asus RT-AC86U is able to handle multiple wireless clients much more efficiently. I work from home several days a week and bandwith was strangely an issue with a 50MB connection from my ISP. The Netgear R6300v2 had trouble handling something as simple as playing Amazon Music on my desktop computer while talking on the phone via my employers VPN using a work laptop. The phone call quality would suffer (drop outs, stuttering, etc...) With the new Asus router we are able to stream Amazon Music on my desktop and Netflix (1080P) / Amazon Video / Hulu on a Roku Streaming Stick+ with no impact to the phone quality over the VPN. The location of the router did not change and the location of the desktop / Roku Streaming Stick+ and work laptop did not change. Wireless Devices: 1 Desktop (Netgear Wireless AC 1900 USB 3.0) 1 TV (Roku Streaming Stick+) and Dish Hopper 3 2 Laptops 2 Mobile Phones 2 Tablets None of the devices have suffered any dropouts at this time. I have the latest firmware installed and the Dual Band Smart Connect enabled. Ai Protection Enabled, QoS Enabled with VoIP and Instant Messaging setup as the highest priority with Video and Audio Streaming in second. Range: The wireless range of the previous router was pretty decent. I haven't run any speed tests between the two but I can confirm wireless signal went from 3 bars to 5 bars at the far end of our 2,400 sqft house. The router is not in an ideal location (almost against the wall on the opposite end of the house in the basement) so I figured the simple addition of directional antenee on the router would solve that issue. If I experience any odd issues in the next few weeks I'll update the review. So far I am extremely happy with the new router.

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