ASUS RT-AC66U 802.11ac Wireless-AC1750 Router Review

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ASUS RT-AC66U 802.11ac Wireless-AC1750 Router Review

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ASUS RT-AC66U 802.11ac Wireless-AC1750 Router Review

Today we look at the ASUS flagship 802.11ac Dual-Band Wireless-AC1750 Gigabit Router. This router is built on around a Broadcom processor and, like other wireless-AC devices, is designed for gigabit Wi-Fi speeds. If this router looks familiar, it should since it has the same exact shape and dimensions of ASUS’s successful wireless-n dual-band router. Read on to see how this ASUS AC1750 router does against our suit of 802.11ac routers and if the step-up to wireless-ac is worth the cost.

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The ASUS RT-AC66U Dual-Band 802.11ac router was pretty incredible to work with. Setting aside the conversation centering on Wi-Fi speed for a moment, the GUI is feature-packed with almost everything anyone – newbies to power users – would want in an interface. With respect to the wireless speeds, like all 802.11ac routers we have tested over the past several months, the AC66U showed us incredible speeds over our ‘typical’ wireless-N...

Article Title: ASUS RT-AC66U 802.11ac Wireless-AC1750 Router Review
Article URL: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/2207/1/
Pricing At Time of Print: $182.77 shipped
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Re: ASUS RT-AC66U 802.11ac Wireless-AC1750 Router Review

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Did you test out the range of this router? I didn't see it mentioned in the review. I've been able to test a few AC routers out from different companies via Newegg's Eggxpert program and they all have range issues while using Wireless AC and/or using the 5Ghz bandwidth, Wireless N on 2.4 Ghz gives a very noticeable increase in range (but slower speeds obviously).
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Re: ASUS RT-AC66U 802.11ac Wireless-AC1750 Router Review

Post by Digital Puppy »

Thunder350 wrote:Did you test out the range of this router? I didn't see it mentioned in the review. I've been able to test a few AC routers out from different companies via Newegg's Eggxpert program and they all have range issues while using Wireless AC and/or using the 5Ghz bandwidth, Wireless N on 2.4 Ghz gives a very noticeable increase in range (but slower speeds obviously).
We didn't test the range for this router. The "issues" you point out are really dependent of your setup (distance, security, environment, etc.) Yes, in general we have found in the past that the 5GHz range is shorter than the 2.4GHz..this has been known since the "old" days of WiFi-n though so no news there.

For speed (and that's a major part of why someone would want an 802.11ac router), you want to use 5G, for range you want to use 2.4G...obviously, there are trade-offs to using either if you have a noisy environment or want to work at distances (or through walls).

For our router tests, we wanted to give the reader 'real-world' results and highlight the (close to) maximum throughput you can get.

Thanks for your comment!
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Re: ASUS RT-AC66U 802.11ac Wireless-AC1750 Router Review

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Thanks for the reply. Yea I've found that 5Ghz drops the range quite a bit, and when using Wireless AC over 5Ghz it drops even further to where I can barely use it a few rooms over, making wireless AC mostly useless if you're not near the router (20-25 feet at best). When using Wireless N on 2.4 Ghz the range is about doubled but of course you lose AC speeds. Hopefully a company can release a AC router that's able to push the range further without sacrificing the speed. :)
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Re: ASUS RT-AC66U 802.11ac Wireless-AC1750 Router Review

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I have this router and haven't had an issue. All though I have really measured the distance on the 5Ghz. Maybe I'll give it a test.
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Re: ASUS RT-AC66U 802.11ac Wireless-AC1750 Router Review

Post by Digital Puppy »

Thunder350 wrote:Thanks for the reply. Yea I've found that 5Ghz drops the range quite a bit, and when using Wireless AC over 5Ghz it drops even further to where I can barely use it a few rooms over, making wireless AC mostly useless if you're not near the router (20-25 feet at best). When using Wireless N on 2.4 Ghz the range is about doubled but of course you lose AC speeds. Hopefully a company can release a AC router that's able to push the range further without sacrificing the speed. :)
Hmm...I'm really thinking you need to use a program like inSSIDer to take a good look at what is happening around you w.r.t. wireless traffic.

After your initial post, I went out and did an informal test of the 5GHz AC distance with my phone and honestly, I got plenty of coverage...way more than 25-feet. I was in my backyard messing around, but I still had coverage ... it was about 30-40% of the signal strength compared to being in my office right next to the router, but I still had enough to do what I needed to do.

I'd be very interested in finding out how much traffic you have on your router channel.
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Re: ASUS RT-AC66U 802.11ac Wireless-AC1750 Router Review

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Digital Puppy wrote:I'd be very interested in finding out how much traffic you have on your router channel.
I thought about this as well at first. However I use a app called Wifi Analyzer on my smartphone. There are about 15 different routers in my area on the 2.4 Ghz bandwidth spread out fairly evenly on different channels. However there are 0 on 5Ghz. (Not including mine). The particular router I had was an Edimax AC1200, other people who reviewed the router have been having issues with the range from this product as well. Other AC routers didn't fare too well for me either. Funny enough, my budget wireless N router could give a signal to my front sidewalk! With the $150+ AC routers I could barely go to the front door. :shock:
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Re: ASUS RT-AC66U 802.11ac Wireless-AC1750 Router Review

Post by Digital Puppy »

Thunder350 wrote:
Digital Puppy wrote:I'd be very interested in finding out how much traffic you have on your router channel.
I thought about this as well at first. However I use a app called Wifi Analyzer on my smartphone. There are about 15 different routers in my area on the 2.4 Ghz bandwidth spread out fairly evenly on different channels. However there are 0 on 5Ghz. (Not including mine). The particular router I had was an Edimax AC1200, other people who reviewed the router have been having issues with the range from this product as well. Other AC routers didn't fare too well for me either. Funny enough, my budget wireless N router could give a signal to my front sidewalk! With the $150+ AC routers I could barely go to the front door. :shock:
I don't know anything about this router at all. It seems as if this router is based on a Broadcom 47xx chip so that should be enough processing, so maybe it's the antenna design. Not sure what else to say except that I haven't experienced the limitations that you have seen.

We haven't reviewed all the AC routers out there, but the ones that we have, looked good for whole-house coverage.
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