This is going to be more of a technical review.. I'm an IT Director for my company so I deal with this type of equipment all the time. I picked up this device for my house and I was looking for a few features. I wanted Gigabit ports,fast WiFi, and not a massive device. I also didn't want to spend a lot of money. So I landed on this device.
I tested the Gigabit ports and 1 port wasn't Gigabit. Port 2 only worked at 100.
Ports 1, 3, and 4 are Gigabit ports and had a transfer rate of about 933 MBits/sec (Same as Cisco 3750G switch)
Port 2 was doing about 95 MBits/sec
I tested the WiFi next. I disabled the 2.5G for a few reason. 1. I don't need it and 2 for Security. I setup the device using WPA2 using the 5G only. I personally like the 5G best as the signal covers my house well and it's the fastest..
The fastest speed I got was 295 MBits/Sec
I would normally see about 200-250 MBits/Sec
At 50 feet I was seeing about 110 MBits/Sec (Many walls away)
I have no had any issues with this device. I stream all my TV services over the internet and this device steams them smoothly. The setup was pretty simple and some of the features are nice. I gave this device 4 stars because one of the parts didn't work at the Gigabit speeds. I'm not sure if this was just an issue on my device or if all devices have this problem. I'm not going to waste my time sending it back for this small issue.
I attached a few pictures.
Picture 1 is the fastest WiFi I saw on the device
Picture 2 is the Gigabit port test
Purchased the RT-ACRH13 to replace a TP-Link N router that was constantly dropping wifi requiring a reboot. In the few weeks I've had it operating it's needed absolutely zero attention from me, minus setup. Speeds and signal strength are outstanding through out the house. GUI is useful and intuitive on both web access and via mobile device. The mobile app is actually more detailed on traffic than the web access GUI.
After battling with a few routers over the years, and almost always having to flash DD-WRT, this router is the only one that I've not felt the need and seems to have all the useful capabilities needed built-in.
I knew I was gambling by purchasing a brand new device that just hit the market (November 1st I believe) with no real life reviews, but through heavy downloading, video streaming, multiple gaming devices running at once, and general use, the ACRH13 has handled it with ease. Currently I have 19 devices throughout my house ( I know o_O) and have had zero connectivity issues for two weeks.
Although it's still in the honeymoon phase, this is where my review currently sits, and will be updated if needed.
So far, flawless Asus. Good job.
This review is for the Asus RT-ACRH13 MU MIMO AC1300 router. I noticed that different model reviews are mixed together ranging from 802.11N to 802.11AC routers, hence qualifying this.
1) This is the 24h review with first impressions. I will try to update after 7 days, 1 month.
Set up - the firmware is a little buggy. After configuring the SSIDs and PWDS for the 2.4 and 5GHz WiFi sometimes it still remembers the original factory SSID. Upon restart it happened that the WiFi didn't come on, but a power cycle fixed that. The Guest Network setup is little confusing. 3 guest networks can be configured, but a guest network profile cannot be edited, only enabled, and then deleted.
Performance - so far the performance is very impressive. I have a wired Fire TV and a NAS station and a MagicJack adapter. All working good. The Fire TV is much speedier than before loading home screen, accessing apps, etc. I live in 2 story wood frame house. WiFi is very strong at any spot of the house. I use 2 x smart phones (iPhone and Android) and 2 x Samsung tablets. I also have 2 x laptops connected (Samsung and Surface 4 Pro), both working without issues. Beam forming works very well too. As you move away from the router, using WiFi Analyzer, I see the signal strength drops on 5GHz. Once you stop, within a second the signal strength jumps to 45-50dBm which is a very strong signal. So far I had no dropped connections, or hitches. I also have a WiFi connected security camera, and it works flawlessly. So performance after 24h is very good! This is not a free review device, I paid full price. Watch this space.
**1 week update** No issues whatsoever. No loss of configuration or dropped connection. Running fairly cool too. I live in a gated community with a number of wifi APs around. Performance is strong and reliable. Tried a Netgear wifi range extender with the router, not because I need it, but out of curiosity. Set up the extender to connect to the router on 2.4GHz and extend on 5GHz (fast lane technology). No degradation of speed on the extended network compared to the router's speed. So far so good!!!!!
**1 month update. Still very happy with the unit. No change in any of the previously described good features.
** 3 months update. performance is still strong. My initial issues with the configuration were due to me doing that with my tablet. Accessing the router setup with my laptop worked flawless.
I purchased this to replace an older TP-Link wireless N Router. Please leave a comment if you have any questions and I can help and/or take more photos.
As you can see in my photo my wifi connection on my 300Mbps service that downloads wired at 350Mbps was only running at just about 47Mbps.
After switching this router in my wifi download speed jumped 600% from 47Mbps to 282Mbps.
The install was really straightforward with no hiccups. I did end up having to reboot both the modem and the switch connected to this as well as a couple of the devices connected before they would get network addresses.
For the price, performance and feature set on this router I'm very surprised it didn't cost double.
One tip I have is to make sure if you're replacing old equipment double check the cables and make sure you're using cat5e or preferably cat6 cables. Otherwise you might not be getting the speed out of this that you would hope to get.
This type of router takes up a lot of real estate on your desk if you spread the antennas out in different directions so consider the mounting spot when buying a multi antenna router.
I'm very happy with my purchase and would purchase this again and/or as a gift.
I replaced our nine year old Linksys Wrt54gs router with the Asus acrh13 dual band router. It was fast and easy to connect. The wi-fi signal increased to cover our 3,600 square foot house entirely( The router is in the basement). The speed and capabilities are terrific for the price. The apps for Android and Apple allow for convenient management of the network from mobile devices. We have 22 devices and it handles traffic very well.
Feature Product
- Dual-band AC1300 with the latest 2x2 MU-MIMO technology for combined speeds of up to 1267 Mbps
- Four external 5dBi antennas for improved Wi-Fi range and multi-device performance.Connected devices must be 802.11ac-compatible for best results
- Monitor and manage your network with ease from your mobile device using the intuitive ASUS Router App
- Effortless router setup with the ASUSWRT web-based interface,Super-Fast Wi-Fi - Dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi with concurrent speeds up to 867Mbps (5GHz) and 400Mbps (2.4GHz)
- Integrated USB 3.0 port allows you to share external drives/flash drives with your network. OS Support- Windows 10, 8, 8.1, 7, Mac OS X 10.1, 10.4, 10.5, 10.6, 10.7, 10.8. Operation mode-Wireless router mode, Access point mode
- Encryption: 64-bit WEP, 128-bit WEP, WPA2-PSK, WPA-PSK, WPA-Enterprise , WPS support
Description
Upgrade to AC Wi-Fi for your bandwidth-hungry devices with the Dual-Band ASUS RT-ACRH13. Phones and tablets are free to roam throughout the home thanks to four external antennas that enhance coverage and stability. Easy, intuitive setup and network management are at your fingertips with ASUSWRT and the ASUS router app. Actual data throughput and Wi-Fi coverage will vary from network conditions and environmental factors, including the volume of network traffic, building material and construction, and network overhead, result in lower actual data throughput and wireless coverage.
Is this as good as the RT-AC68U? No.
Is it better than pretty much anything else? Yes.
Is it half the price of the competing LinkSys? YES.
This thing punches through walls like nothing else. You'd have to be living in a Faraday cage for this not to work. It also runs ASUS's OS which is nice. It cannot run DD_WRT or Merlin, so you don't get the advanced features like VPN, but the hardware is capable. And there's at least one aftermarket OS that will run, although I haven't checked it out yet.
Worked great for the application I needed, and it was like $75. Easy choice. ASUS rocks.
We have 2 issues in our home with wireless. First, its a rather long house and our internet connection is at one end making it difficult to get a signal at the other end. Second, we have gigabit Ethernet and our existing router while claiming to support these high speeds falls significantly short. Since our home supports multiple IP leases, I plugged this router into a separate port on the model and did side by side test.
First, the MIMO aspect of this router enabled a usable signal at the far end of the house. Now we don't have to use repeaters to extend the range. Second, the buffering on this box is much better than the older router because connections are much quicker with latency being smaller and throughput is much smoother and not nearly as choppy for those high res videos.
I fully recommend this router if you need a new or replacement. I have not fully gone through all the features yet, but the GUI seems to support a wide range of features ranging from firewall support, port routing, game box support, DMZ, QOS management and parental control. I'll definitely buy one of these again if required.
This router has drastically improved my home WiFi experience. Finally I am able to utilize 100% of my available bandwidth provided by my ISP.
My only disappointments were finding out that some features shown on Asus's ASUSWRT details page do not appear to be available on this router. Missing features that I was looking forward to using include "Traffic Analyser - Statistics", "Adaptive QoS > Bandwidth Monitor", and "Adaptive QoS > Web History".
I've checked and it appears that the router has the latest available firmware "3.0.0.4.380_6516" installed. If anyone knows how to find/enable the above features, I'd greatly appreciate it!
Really like this router, having purchased it on sale here for about $50 earlier in 2017. Had it for months now in-use as my main household wifi router. (I didn't want to review it just after buying/installing, since that really doesn't tell the story). Bottom line, it's performed flawlessly and without any hitch over the months I've had it. Was easy to install and set up. The ASUS firmware menus are pretty easy to go thru and make your settings selections.
No problems with the router dropping connections on either the 2.4 or 5 GHz bands. Get very good speeds relative to my fiber internet connection, and I use the 5 GHz band for my main AV wifi streaming, since no one else around my home is using 5 GHz right now. But even with the 2.4 GHz band (where there are a lot of nearby and competing wifi routers), the ASUS model seems to do just fine and provides good connections throughout our one-story home.
Unlike some other wifi routers I've had in the past (hello D-Link...), the ASUS router's USB jack works just fine for plugging in a portable USB drive to serve an an informal NAS drive for my home to store music and video files for playback via Windows networking. Likewise, the ASUS firmware includes options for running either a VPN server or VPN client via the router (client being where you simply enter your own VPN service's user ID, password and server address, and boom, the ASUS router is automatically connecting to your VPN service. Another nice feature of that is that it allows you to store multiple VPN server address (location) profiles that can be changed/switched between with just a mouse click in firmware. With my old DLink router, anytime I wanted to change VPN servers within the router, I had to entirely erase the current server setting and re-enter the new one manually.
Last, another nice feature with the ASUS router is it gives you the ability to set up guest user profiles/SSIDs, with separate passwords, on the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands. Meaning if company or guests come over, and you want to give them access to your wifi, you can do so via the guest SSID and password without having to handout/share your own private household wifi password. And again, all easily set up and controlled within the ASUS firmware with just a few mouse clicks of settings.
Anytime a router just works without hassle, and you never have to think about it or fiddle with it, you know it's been a good purchase.
Lets start with the pros,
1) For a ~70$ item this router is amazing, the wifi range is around 100 feet but i dont need more since it keeps a 3bar strength at the other end of the home.
2) The QOS in the admin settings that comes with the router is amazing and you can set a desired speed of every device that is connected to your wifi (32max)
3) Have not had a need to restar the router once since it came in and the signal strength has not worsened
-cons.
1) Honestly there are no negatives about this router its great for the price and its easy to set up, plus it has extra goodies for people that want to play around with the connection speeds and what gets the most wifi usage when.
Nice Blog Post thanks for sharing it.
ReplyDeleteD link router login
dlink support contact number
D-link Technical Support