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Thread: Asus RT-AC68U or Netgear Nighthawk N7000?

  1. #1
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    Default Asus RT-AC68U or Netgear Nighthawk N7000?

    Anyone have experience with either of these? I'm going to pick one up soon and get on the AC train.

    Smallnetbuilders says the Netgear is better, CNET says the Asus is better. I trust Smallnetbuilders more though.

    http://reviews.cnet.com/hubs/netgear...5828277-2.html

    http://reviews.cnet.com/routers/asus...-35828165.html

    http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wirel...-asus-rt-ac68u

    These guys say the Asus is a hair better:

    http://bestwirelessroutersnow.com/as...ac1900-review/


    http://bestwirelessroutersnow.com/ne...-r7000-review/


    Nighthawk is $190 and sale ends today, I might pick on up. Asus is $229 all day long.

    PC Mag had the Nighthawk set a LAN speed record, however they didn't have the Asus 68U to test.

    I am only concerned about absolute maximum range & speed. Both seem to do very well.

    The boost from 450 to 600 Mbps over 2.4Ghz seems like a marketing ploy, since you need 2 routers or brand-specfic WiFi receivers to get that. Not a big deal though.

    I have Asus now (current router is the RT-N66U), wouldn't mind trying out a new brand for fun, even though I love the Asus. What do you guys think? Any major reasons to pick one over the other? Cost/size are not concerns.
    Last edited by Mitsu3000gt; 10-24-2013 at 02:23 PM.

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    Never liked Netgear much but I've loved my Asus for the last 2 years.

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    Netgear products were great at one point. They have gone into the crapper though. Customer support and warranty are terrible with the new netgear changes especially. I went through 5 WNDR3700's in the span of 2 months, constantly defective.

    Stick with the Asus.

    I'll be trading in my netgear for an asus soon as well.

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    Depending on your needs, look into the Ubiquity Unifi AP AC. Little bit more expensive then the Asus, but a lot more enterprise class options. All depends on your needs though.
    Signature..... I ate it!!

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    I wouldn't have bought a netgear product previously, but this particular one is getting phenomenal write ups. The SmallNetBuilder's review as well is the one I trust the most, and he chose the Netgear. It uses more powerful internals as well, but that never tells the whole story.

    I have also read people claiming the AC66/68 U routers antenna performance degrading over time, but that seems like it would be something that would affect all routers.

    There's also a $40 price difference, which I don't really care about, but it does cover 2 year IPR + $20.

    Decisions, decisions.

    I'm only in a 1000sq ft condo, however the building being concrete, the glass window on my computer room/den, and the 50 other people with routers in the building seem to degrade my performance quite a bit even 20-30 ft away. That's why I want the most powerful possible router haha. And AC.

    I'm leaning toward the Netgear, mostly due to the SNB review and because I kind of want to try something new. I wish there were more reviews out though.
    Last edited by Mitsu3000gt; 10-24-2013 at 04:41 PM.

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    Buy both and take the one you don't like back!

    Anyway, I'm interested in your feedback on whichever you chose...
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    I've used boatloads of the AC66U and am switching to the AC68U now. AAA+ router for home use, I have lots of them running fully automated homes with 30+ IP devices and except for one, they've all been rock solid. I have two AC66U at home, one routing (no wifi) in my rack and the other as my WAP (centrally located) for my home.

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    Yeah ideally I would buy both, run speedtest in every room of my place on a variety of devices, and keep whichever was higher. That is a little more effort than I'd like, and I don't like buying things knowing I will return one haha.

    Quite honestly I think I would be thrilled with either router, both of them are clearly at the top of the heap.

    I'm usually only doing one thing at once, and I live alone, so traffic isn't really a concern for me. I just want the fastest possible WiFi and LAN at a semi reasonable price. My building seems especially bad for interference and other things routers don't like.

    I think I'm going to get the Netgear just to be different, and because SNB showed it performing the best (by far the most through review I've seen). I'm getting 2 year IPR so Netgear's customer support is not a concern.

    That Asus sure does look goo too though....haha. Who knows, maybe I'll change my mind at the checkout.

    Whatever I buy, I will test it against my RT-N66U and report back.

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    Speedtest isn't an an accurate method of wireless performance. If you want to see how wireless performance is then transfer a larger file across the network and see how the throughput is.

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    don't know anything about the netgear, but there is pretty good custom firmware for the asus if thats your thing. asuswrt-merlin and dd-wrt.

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    I've never been much for the custom firmwares, although they might be better. Tomato and Merlin were the two I knew of.

    I'll try transfer a large file as well.

    My 5Ghz speeds from the RT-N66U are pretty good (50-80 Mbps). 2.4 speeds seem to be more in the 20-30 range. No slouch.

    By far the slowest speeds are on my phone, which I assume can't keep up to a laptop for WiFi speeds.

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    I vote Asus. Has the better GUI, more features, and even a dedicated fan club cranking out modified firmwares. Merlin has a good reputation from the AC66, although it doesn't look like he supports the AC68 yet:

    http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/forumdisplay.php?f=42

    Another reason to choose the Asus would be because of their PCI-E adapter which works with the router to provide the beam forming functionality. I believe their USB sticks also provide beam forming, but the PCI-E version gets you the x3 antenna configuration that Netgear doesn't have.

    http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX48051

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    Originally posted by ryanallan
    I vote Asus. Has the better GUI, more features, and even a dedicated fan club cranking out modified firmwares. Merlin has a good reputation from the AC66, although it doesn't look like he supports the AC68 yet:
    merlin has a beta out for the 68u on his site for downloads. i like his premise, its basically stock firmware with bug fixes and the odd freature added in that you think should of been there in the first place.

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    I have no use for custom firmware anymore but I decided to check out Merlin anyway.

    LED control - put your Dark Knight in Stealth Mode by turning off all LEDs
    I might just download it for this alone.

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    I picked up the NetGear to try out, it was reviewed better than the Asus and I also kind of wanted to try a new brand (I upgrade every year or so anyway haha). I also still have 7 days to return this one to Memex and swap it for the Asus, if I change my mind.

    Another thing is it sits flat, where the Asus has to be stood up, and in the only place I can reasonably put my router, it would be a huge eyesore right beside my monitor standing up. I hadn't even considered that before, but that might be a deal breaker even if I decide I'd rather have the Asus.

    So far I'm liking it a lot. It's HUGE but at least it looks cool haha. I am an Asus fanboy too, so I haven't ruled out the exchange.

    GUI is as good as the Asus RT-N66U. Both are very good, polished, and extremely easy to find everything I wanted to change.

    My 5GHz speeds are double at the maximum distance I can go from my router on my Zenbook.

    2.4 GHz speeds on my Nexus 4 are double.

    Only possible complaint is I can't seem to find anything to put it in "N only mode", and the Asus has that. It's also possible I just haven't found it yet haha. It does, however, have a feature that detects the wireless type AND Ghz rating, and uses the best one - so maybe it doesn't need N only mode.

    EDIT: Nevermind, I got file transfers working:

    Tried to move a 2GB File:

    ASUS RT-N66U Beside Router 2.4 GHZ: 6-7 MB/s
    Netgear Beside Router 2.4 GHz: 7 MB/s


    ASUS RT-N66U Farthest point 2.4 GHZ: 1.8 MB/s
    Netgear Farthest Point 2.4 GHz: 5 MB/s

    I could not get the RT-N66U to connect to my Zenbook to test 5GHz, but the Netgear did 10-14 MB/s on the file transfer right beside the router, and held 7-8 MB/s at the furthest possible point.

    My internet connection is 100Mbps.

    Mostly what I'm noticing is next-to-router wireless performance, where I don't care about it, is nearly identical to the RT-N66U but range is improved noticeably in my particular environment (concrete, glass, lots of walls, and 50 other routers in close proximity).
    Last edited by Mitsu3000gt; 10-24-2013 at 10:03 PM.

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    Try to use a channel that is least congested with high signal strength networks around u

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    If anyone wants to pick up an Asus RT-AC68U in the next 6 days and do some real world testing VS the Netgear, let me know, I would be happy to do that.

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    Originally posted by Mitsu3000gt
    If anyone wants to pick up an Asus RT-AC68U in the next 6 days and do some real world testing VS the Netgear, let me know, I would be happy to do that.
    I forgot to mention this tool if you don't use it already to take a look at the wireless around you:
    http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider/

    It will scan the area and show you what is setup on what channel and so forth.

    By default you will probably see a HUGE congestion on channel 6 which is a very common channel. I run mine on channel 10 or 11 and its on the furthest end with as little congestion as possible.

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    Originally posted by firebane


    I forgot to mention this tool if you don't use it already to take a look at the wireless around you:
    http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider/

    It will scan the area and show you what is setup on what channel and so forth.

    By default you will probably see a HUGE congestion on channel 6 which is a very common channel. I run mine on channel 10 or 11 and its on the furthest end with as little congestion as possible.
    I have a Wifi analyzer app on my phone, but that looks better - thanks!

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    Lmao I posted the information (use least congested channel) but forgot the app (inssider)
    It will scan both 2.4ghz and 5ghz if ur adapter is capable of both
    U want to use the channel that has the least amount of strong networks around u
    For 2.4ghz 1/6/11 are the common ones to pick from the others overlap
    For 5ghz I don't remember the numbers they are much higher but google will tell u

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