ASUS AC3100 WiFi Router (RT-AC3100) - Dual Band Wireless Internet Router, Trend Micro Lifetime AiProtection, AiMesh Compatible, Parental Control, MU-MIMO

This router is one of the best routers that I have ever used. I came from an Asus RT-N56U router which worked great for a number of years in my apartment and then into my house. when I moved into the house, the coverage did not cover my entire house so I bought a second one for the other side which helped. After a while of inconsistent speeds I decided to switch routers. I decided to go with this router, the RT-AC88U.For starters, this router has excellent range. We have about a 2,500 sq.ft. house with a normal sized front and back yard. After initially setting the router up, I decided to go to every room of the house as well around the outside with my phone and see when the bars started to drop off. I can stand on every inch of my property including the basement and have just about a full signal strength with this router. I can still receive signal at my neighbors house (typical suburbia style houses). I was able to download music off of my hard drives on to my phones from the street out front of the house. I am impressed with the signal strength and the constancy that this thing has.File transfer speeds and connection speeds are no longer a problem now that I have this router. I have not experienced a slow day or any inconsistent connectivity speeds. We stream music, movies, TV shows, play games online, download music and movies, and use a VPN to work from home. There are 2 people in our house that both use the internet constantly and this router does not flinch. I no longer have to worry about slowing down the network when downloading things or streaming the game while someone is working from home. I am impressed by the consistent speed that this has over my previous routers that I have used.We have a 300Mbps download speed with a 20Mbps upload speed and we constantly get those speeds even during what would be considered peak usage hours in our area. We also had to update our modem as well but that is not a part of this review.The features on this router are similar to the features of the RT-N56U when logging into it. I feel that the GUI is easier to use and it feels smoother than in previous models (it could just be me). I am using a different DNS than what my ISP provides and limit my network to only use a certain IP range within a subnet and this router allows you to do that easily. I have not gone through every little thing on the router because it has been working so well but I do plan on going through and trying different options out in the coming months and plan on updating later on.The router does run a little warm to the touch but it is understandable with how powerful this thing is. In total, we have 3 smart TVs, 4 laptops, 3 cell phones. 2 desktops, 3 game consoles, 2 Amazon Echos, 1 Nest thermostat, 1 Roku, and 1 NAS all connected to this one router either wirelessly or wired (through an unmanaged switch on some) and this has outperformed any load that is put on it so far. This may be a bit overkill for some homes but is easily one of the best routers around if there are multiple people in the household that utilize a lot of bandwidth during a time when many people are trying to use the network. I certainly hope this router lasts quite a few years as I am totally happy with it and would recommend it if you are interested in tinkering with your network and/or have a normally heavy use on your network. So far, this is an excellent router and I hope to have an updated review a few months from now after more use and stress has been put on it.

I've had my previous router for a little over 3 years which was a rt-ac68u. It was still working perfectly no problems just needed more power to run some vpns, plus there are more streaming devices being used on the network. I bought the ac88u from a warehouse deals with a practically brand new description. Everything came in the box as if new, every piece was in a bag except the antennas since they come inserted in slits on a piece of cardboard.I was using Merlin's firmware on the ac68u so that was one of the first things I did to update the router to it's most current firmware. I'm am using a fork of Merlin's firmware which gives me a couple of unlocked features including the extra settings for vpn. Once I installed the updated firmware I did a factory reset, followed by a Nvram reset. This helps make sure only default values from current firmware are being used.I was kind of paranoid of this router based on the reviews on hardware failures and the 5g network not working or disappearing altogether. Once I had roughly the same setting as my ac68u and setup the vpn service I ran test on the network and range. My ISP Spectrum provides 300/20 service, so testing LAN speeds gave me 330/22 which is perfect.Now the WiFi is where I had to put in the most work in figuring out what was going wrong. First my 2.4 network would only max out at around 50-60/20 Mbps on my iPhone while being associated at a 144mbps. My ac68u was getting close to 80/20 Mbps on its 2.4 network. Testing the 5g network gave me roughly the same results as on the LAN 320/22 Mbps. I was disappointed at the 2.4 network speed results but decided to do some more research as to try to improve overall throughput on the 2.4 network. Their are many options to take into consideration like channel and the widths but for me channel 1 and on 20mhz gave the best results. Now their are other options to change which are located in the professional tab. Eventually after toggling on and off different settings based on opinions/facts on forums I got to an improvement in speed and range. Now on my 2.4 network I was maxing out at over 100 Mbps on my iPhone 6s Plus. I have pictured both the 2.4g and 5g network Speed test results.After having everything setup to my liking and not needing to reboot router, is when the 5g network started doing it's disappearing act. Shrugged it off the first time but was thinking already i was having those 5g network problem I was reading in most of the reviews. It happen a second time and now I was getting worried i would have to return router. The 5g network kept disappearing about every 3-4 days and I would have to either reboot router or toggle the 5g network on/off to have it show up.I noticed on the wireless log page that the 5g network had a higher noise interference than normal. I did research to find out more information on what was causing this and what to do. Eventually I came to a page that explains the 5g network and it's available channels that don't overlap each other. But I also found out that certain channels mainly the higher channels are shared by certain radars and emergency services. There are 3 bands, the first one being domestic (home routers), bands 2-3 are for certain radars and emergency services. It's said that if a router on a channel from band 2-3 would have to switch its channel to prevent interference with the radar or emergency services.The channel I was currently using fell into the 3rd band of channels, Once I switched to a channel in the first band I saw the difference. First their was less noice in the 5g network and connections were stronger. And as of right now I have 9 days up and running without the 5g network disappearing.So overall it was a lot of work but with new technology their comes a learning curve to figure out how everything works while maximizing performance . Right now I am happy with the routers overall performance and stability. I've included my professional tabs pages for both network to see my optimal settings. Gaming is great on two XBOX ones at the same time. Don't use the WTFast feature. Streaming to multiple devices , phones, fire TV, smart TV , laptop with no problems.One thing is that this router does run a little hot. My ac68u was the same and I was using a fan to keep it cool. I had to buy another 120mm fan and used the two fans under the the ac88u to help with air circulation. It dropped the CPU temp by almost 20 degrees Celsius, and the WiFi CPU's by about 10 degrees Celsius. Hopefully this will prolong the life of the router and give me at least 3 years + of performance.I will update if there are any changes or failures, but for know I'm willing to round up to 5 stars.Update October 13, 2017I found more info about 5g network disappearing on a forum. Thanks to ScottW, his suggestion of having the 5g network broadcast on 40mhz bandwidth. This has helped him keep his network up for weeks. Hope this help anyone having their 5g network disappear.