Review: ASUS RT-AC68U Router Shares Two Networks Simultaneously – Even from a 4G Modem

In the last few weeks, I received from ASUS and I've been testing one of your most complete options in the router world. O RT-AC68U It has been available in the Brazilian market for some time, but it is still one of the best-selling models in the country, with excellent support for two networks (more on it front).

On the other hand, the suggested price of $ 1,800 may scare consumers looking for such equipment and are accustomed to the traditional price range of $ 200-400. And, is it worth the higher investment in equipment that, in theory, does the same thing?

ASUS RT-AC68U Router

We'll find out next.

Design

At first glance, the AC68U does not look ugly. It's relatively larger than ordinary routers, but its vertical design leaves nothing to be desired, with much of the front surface being taken up by a textured panel that reflects the light in a very elegant way. The status lights that are multiple shine at the right spot, without impairing visibility but at the same time without blurring the views. At the back, the Ethernet inputs are illuminated, making it much easier for the night owters who need to wire some equipment.

ASUS RT-AC68U Router

The three antennas on the top are threadable and, although they take up a good vertical space, are essential to the router's satisfactory operation and should always be connected when it is powered on. You can move them in all directions, which makes life easier for those who don't have much space.

An interesting addition here is the LED On / Off button, which simply turns on or off all router lights without interrupting their operation. It may seem unhelpful, but it breaks quite a bit and saves a little energy when the idea is to hide it in a furniture where these lights will not be harnessed anyway. Incidentally, speaking of hiding the router in a mobile, if that is your intention, you will not encounter problems: the slim design of the AC68U allows it to fit (almost) anywhere.

Initial Setup

The AC68U instruction manual explains very well the simple process of setting up the equipment or at least how it should be: connect the device to the modem, power supply and turn it on; use any Wi-Fi enabled device (computer, tablet, smartphone) to connect to the router's newly created network; and once connected, access the device settings through any browser to get everything working.

ASUS Router Initial Configuration

In practice, unfortunately, things do not flow that easily. When turning on the router, I came across a password network and none of those mentioned in the instruction manual worked. With that, I had to appeal to the brute force to set it up: after searching hard, I found an Ethernet cable at the bottom of a drawer (the AC68U box comes with one of these, but it was already being used to connect the router to modem, of course) and connected the device to my MacBook Pro. Then I was able to access the router's MAC address and configure it.

From there, it's compliments. The AC68U automatically detected my connection type, performing the entire setup process basically on its own; My only intervention was to choose the passwords of the configured networks I say networks, in the plural, because one of the features of the AC68U is Dual-WAN transmission, that is, in two bands (2.4GHz and 5GHz), which are set separately or together, depending on at will, each with its name, password and specific settings.

You can set up two networks over the same line, use one of the LAN ports as a secondary WAN (if you have two broadband plans at home, you don't have to have two routers anymore) or use one of the USB ports to connect a 3G modem. / 4G and route it more about it ahead.

Operation

Here are some clarifications: I live in a big, old, thick-walled apartment, the nightmare of any router. Until the arrival of the AC68U, I always used the equipment provided by the internet company itself, ie a modem router of the most basic. That meant a bad signal, sometimes nonexistent, in some rooms farther from the house.

The equipment tested here, on the other hand, boasts of being “the fastest router in the world”, with speeds comparable to cable speeds! This is all because of the combination of a Broadcom BCM4709 Wi-Fi chipset, a processor dual core 800MHz ARM Cortex A9 with 256MB of memory, which transmits data at a combined maximum bandwidth speed of 1,900Mbps, with 1,300Mbps for the 802.11ac (the most modern) network and 600Mbps for 802.11n.

But the numbers and specifications are of little interest, but the experience, right? At this point, I can say that exchanging a basic router modem for the AC68U was figuratively equivalent to putting glasses on a mope for the first time. Things simply flow to another level: Netflix did not fall off 4K at any time, FileZilla was able to get things done faster and even Mario Kart 8's online mode on Wii U noticeable for delays and miscommunication was played perfectly , without lags or falls.

The router's fire test, however, was relative to range. In my 15Mbps “broadband”, getting a reasonable speed on the side of the equipment is easy, but moving to rooms farther from the house proves a supplement. So that's exactly what I did: I tested the speeds received by an iPhone 5c on both networks (AC68U's and Vivo's basic modem router), on the balcony of the suite, the furthest distance from where, in general, the internet almost never enough. Result: where my old router always scored as low as 0.88Mbps, the AC68U reached an impressive 14.56Mbps. In other words, the pet overtook the various brick walls like wind. Incredible!

Resources

This is another point where the AC68U shines: the amount of features presented by the simply crushing equipment. My favorite of these lies in the rear USB ports of the device (one of them 3.0): besides the possibility of connecting printers and external hard drives for network access which worked perfectly and without the minimum of configuration, the best part is the possibility of sticking a 3G / 4G USB modem and l use the device to route this connection without even turning off your main internet.

The router settings screen has another number of features. There you can view and edit all devices connected to the network (s) as well as block access from specific devices, limit speed and establish file sharing via a connected USB device. There is also the Parental Control feature, which allows the user to select certain devices on their child's tablet, for example and to set access times, outside which the device is unable to connect. It would be interesting here to also see a block to certain sites not only based on time, but an interesting possibility anyway.

Moving to the hardware side, the four Gigabit Ethernet ports on the back of the AC68U allow the establishment of a very high-speed network for wired computers. USB ports, when populated by a storage device such as an external HDD, can best be used with AiDisk, an ASUS little program that allows sharing /streaming files through an FTP interface that worked perfectly in my tests including iOS and Android.

Finally

The AC68U, as you say, the fastest router in the world? I don't know, I haven't tested every router in the world to prove it. But I can say with absolute certainty that one of the fastest, at least, and much more than that: its unrivaled competition capabilities put it on a completely different level in terms of overall qualities.

ASUS RT-AC68U Router

Of course, with this, two questions can be raised. The first, of course, is the price: ASUS suggests the value of $ 1,800 for the AC68U far, far above most equipment in the segment in compensation, cheaper than the $ 2,100 that Apple charges for AirPort Extreme. The consequent second question would be whether ordinary, domestic users need so much resources and speed. So is it worth it?

The answer is not so simple, but in general terms, if you, the basic user, are just looking for a way to route your internet connection in a not too big apartment, I can say that not a router of $ 300-500 will give very similar results.

On the other hand, if you have the conditions, live in a large apartment or house, work at home (like me), subscribe to two broadband services and / or if you're a resource enthusiast to take advantage of the myriad of AC68U, The ASUS router is one of the best purchases you can make in the best-of-breed segment.