Review on 📶 ASUS RT-AC68P: High-performance AC1900 Dual-Band Gigabit Wireless Router by Quinton Wonsley

I consider this my best investment yet. Until recently I was using the Cisco WRT310N router bought in 2011 - then of course modern. My "master" COX account entitles me to 50 Mbps in and 5 out, and I've consistently gotten around 20 Mbps over wired ethernet and 5-10 Mbps on wireless devices. I thought it was normal speed. During one of my recent calls to a Cox customer service rep who was complaining about internet lag, she advised me to buy a new router as the slowdown was definitely on my side. After some research I decided to replace my router with an Asus AC68P (PS I got a rebuilt block from the egg for about half the price of a new block) This thing really screams - I immediately noticed a 5x speed increase! With my WLAN devices (Wireless AC) I now constantly reduce the speed to 60 Mbit/s (screenshot speed test attached). The user interface is very polished and the initial setup is completely hassle-free. The Android app is also very convenient and fun. I can access my router from over 100 feet away with no noticeable slowdown (I tried the "Eco Mode" option available in the app and had to turn it off soon after as performance took a big hit). The "Guest" SSID feature is a nice touch that allows me to easily share my internet with visitors. I also connected an external 1TB USB drive to it and it works great as a NAS. Asus even offers a USB application that manages torrents on an external drive (the "Download Wizard"). Oh yeah. They have thought of everything Update 04.07.2017 ----------------------- After about a month of continuous use I discovered a few quirks that I would like to have to point out: 1. The Android app is unreliable - it says a certain setting is active, but it may not actually be set. The online web interface is more reliable.2. Pretty much every setting causes a reboot/refresh. and so disconnect and reconnect. Even so, you may need to force restart for some settings to take effect.3. Parental controls require *satisfied* work. Time windows can only be controlled by the hour (from 00:00 to 24:00 in 1-hour increments). In comparison, my previous Cisco router had a reliable interface for flexible timing. Also, pressing the Turn Internet Off button for a specific device resets the parent time grid. You will have to set the time slots again when you turn the internet back on! 4. If you want to target a specific device (by parental control or deactivation), don't forget to assign it a fixed IP address. Otherwise it just won't work.5. "Streaming" videos via the online cloud interface (AICloud) requires the VLC player plugin, which does not work with the latest versions of Chrome/Firefox. That leaves you with uploading videos (audio streaming, on the other hand, is great. The interface is very well thought out and it automatically plays songs in sequence)6. I found that turning on "Trend Micro" protection slows down the router significantly. I have it off.7. The guest network SSID management options are just not worth the hassle. It's best to leave it enabled and set a passphrase that's hard to guess.