ASUS AC2600 WiFi Router (Blue Cave) (Open Box)
$41.53
$50.39
18% off
Reference Price
Condition: New; Open Box
Color: White
Fit: AC
Size: Blue Cave
Top positive review
196 people found this helpful
ASUS BLUE CAVE is AWESOME!
By Jamie K. on Reviewed in the United States on April 3, 2018
Pros: +Consistent data processing and movement in the network +Takes up HALF the space of most normal routers and no more falling antennas!! +Great Aesthetics +Awesome ASUS GUI +Easy setup for the beginner +Advanced settings for pros +Much more powerful signal than the ASUS AC2400 +Cool and adjustable LED lighting For those of you that have issues with routers dying, I suggest you buy a laptop cooling pad and place the router on one of those. Heat buildup due to lack of airflow is the number one enemy of electronics. I purchased this Router from another place, but I wanted to spread my great experience about this router to everyone else because it has no reviews. ASUS you should really do more with the NEWEGGSPERT program and work on your customer service RMA process for customers. My AC2400 was about 2.5 years old and there have been a lot of advances with routers since then. I was having lots of issues with that router being able to give me consistent and high data flows on my network and I had a feeling it was either starting to fail or it was a limitation of the chips in the router. So, I took a chance and bought this router and it really is a great bargain!! You are getting a 3-core Intel processor that seems to really be able to handle the workloads. The 3rd core is supposed to be dedicated to VoIP use. Please note that The ASUS ROG 5400 Has a 4-core Intel, but all other ASUS routers use the Broadcom chips. This is Intel’s attempt to get into the market, and from what I can see they have done a really good job. ASUS routers hands down have THE BEST GUI and ease of use over ANY other router I have ever used. As a Neweggspert I have tested a lot of routers! The mouse over help is a good quick reference, but many of the people who put poor reviews simply do not know what they are doing. Immediately upon changing over to this router, I notice a 15dbm gain in power! Which equates to over 10x the signal strength. Remember though we are talking a wireless signal that is prone to interference and we are in the milliwatt range. Real world performance for this router placed in a central location in my basement game me great coverage throughout my 1500 square foot house. Currently, this router does NOT include ASUS AiMesh networking, but it will be included in a future update. During network saturation testing, I was able to fully use my 65 Gb/s from the internet (2xUHD Netflix) and MAX out my plex server to every device I own plus another 3 local computer streams. It handled everything perfectly, with zero issues. My plex server can put out about 7 converted streams and I only saturated the 5ghz wireless about 50%. That is AWESOME! I was able to set my Plex server to High quality instead of speed and now my wireless video is as good as my wired video, I was never able to do that on my ASUS 2400. Video load times were minimal and kept under 5 seconds, even ff worked perfectly!!Computer to computer and internet downloads were able to max out with rock solid consistency. Cons: Cons -Power dongle is a 90 Deg angle on router connection and can turn off the power if you move the router. -Currently does not support ASUS AI Mesh networking -No manual included in the box, just quick setup -ASUS and the whole computer industry need to seriously work on customer service in this internet age, especially RMA service. You should all look at Motorola, their service system is EXEMPLARY! That is really about all there is for the cons. Other Thoughts: ASUS GREAT job on this router, it looks great and works even better and it is at the right price! We need more of these types of routers! I hate all the routers with more than 4 antennas and really the ONLY advantage to antennas is to be able to move them around for a bit more precise control of directing the signal, but that is the ONLY benefit to them, there is very little to GAIN by having them!! This router is perfect for the normal sized home, and once AI Mesh is incorporated into it then it will be the perfect base station for the extenders. For the price, it is really a great deal, most other routers are more expensive and have terrible GUI’s, plus many other brands of routers will disable your network with a loss of internet! ASUS keeps on cruising! UPDATE on AI MESH: FINALLY ASUS got off their behinds and released the promised AI mesh update for the Blue Cave, after I sent them an inquiry about it. I still have not used the Alexa or IFTTT functions yet, as I have been far too busy to set all that up on my smart devices, but once I do I will do a second update. A little background first, I am starting a home business and I needed good internet to my garages, Honestly I was considering a Ubiquity setup, but for now it was cost prohibitive. I decided to get a second Blue Cave since the AI mesh came out for it. I decided to completely redo my network backbone with Cat6 shielded cables. This is the most important part if you live in RF saturated spaces like Apartments or near a lot of RF like Cell phone towers, or even power stations. I think many of the reviewers truly do not understand how wireless works, and expect miracles all the time. I did have some early bios problems with the Blue cave with dropping wifi, but it was ASUS wide bios because I had it with other routers as well. Those issue seem to have been completely cleared up for me. I do have one complaint to ASUS about their Blue Cave set up. You need a bypass link to go straight to the firmware flash, whether it be USB or internet. Because your initial router setup is a big pain in the behind to get through, please fix. As I said I ran a brand new Cat6 shielded backbone which brings me to this point, ASUS you need to start using shielded connectors in the back of your routers! because we are so saturated with RF in some areas that some people with have to use shielded cables. This is what actually makes the Cable companies transmission superior to most others. Which brings me to this. My initial review was for one Blue Cave. Now I can tell you about the best way to have SUPERIOR performance. 1) An ac2600 should be enough for the average consumer, and remember this the 2600 is just for the wireless. I highly recommend that you get a couple of 1GB switches and use those and hardwire any PC's and HD and UHD televisions to your 1GB connections to the Blue Cave. Especially, if you want the best looking picture or if you do a lot of online gaming. Wireless is fine for you tablets and phones obviously, just keep you wireless for those kinds of devices. 2) Update your second devices Firmware while having it plugged into computer only. 3) Hard-wire the back-bone from router to router I recommend to do it with Cat6 for the future, that way you do not lose valuable bandwidth for the router to talk to one another. You will do this by connecting the second Asus AI mesh router to the internet connection. I have 2 Blue caves, and even though they don't have quite the range I would like them to have they are about what you expect from a home router. And surely better than having 8 antenni flopping and falling all over the place. I have only had one issue during the early bios of the WiFi dropping occasionally, but that issue is gone. Asus has done a number of security updates and because of their excellent trend micro included I can see all probes and attacks that have been thwarted. This is the primary reason I chose to stick with ASUS is the superb firmware and GUI. It is can be overwhelming to a beginner at times, but you will be thankful for it, if you have used other routers as I have. ASUS was not targeted for many of the recent security attacks. I do know there has been a lot of probing going on to find vulnerabilities. Having the Trend micro really helps! Sorry I got side tracked, AI mesh performance is really good, the routers now put your phones and tablets in the 2.4ghz band and higher bandwidth items in the 5ghz. I can now travel from one end of my property to the other, (1/4 a city block) and have full coverage. Since, all of my building have Steel siding it limits my range quite a bit. The only issue you need to understand with handing off is that it will be transparent most of the time. I however use Skype and Wechat a ton and you will get a small time (usually no more than 10 second) where it will have an "unstable connection" but it will regain the connection but will not drop the call, most of the time. But for everything else other than live voice or video chat, you should not notice any transition. Overall, I am very happy with ASUS hardware, it is very reliable compared to other brands. I do think ASUS needs to step back as a company and look at their Software division and their Customer service division and improve them a lot more, especially if they want to stay on top of the market. Many other brands are catching up to them. You really need to provide the best customer service if you want to be number one, in the future. BTW almost all the computer and the home network companies customer service stinks. They all cna improve dramatically. Feel free to ask me any questions and please rate up this review.
Top critical review
1 people found this helpful
unreliable.... both wifi and overall
By Seul on Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2023
Worst signal strength in the 2.4 band of the last 4 routers I've had. Definite dead spots in the house that weren't there with last 2 (... or the one i replaced this with!). Where it connect (when conneted...) this band is speed expected. The 5Ghz band is obviously limited by walls etc, but even in areas very close to base, never really achieves close to speed that router specs state. Bigger issue: It drops wifi devices, sometimes several times per day and even in areas where i does have good strength. Even 15' away with line of sight to the device! I've updated firmware, fiddled with settings, reset it to factory, etc. Just an unreliable router. Sure, I could try warranty ... and it'd be a bit hassle to send it in and get some refurb unit that was someone's nightmare. Hmmm. If a new one is flaky, how long will a refurb that has demonstrated itself to have issues last? Hmmmm. The admin interface is marginal. The interface is pretty and the basics are up front, but not good for power-user. I never could get it to reliably share a SSD plugged into router USB port. Connected, yes, reliable, no. (I'm an ex-hardware tech, I run Linux machines, have set up RAID servers for fun at home ... this should not have been hard) The parental controls they brag about are bare-bones. And then it kept refreshing devices on the network, including wired devices, so it's hard to do admin. And i mean like every 30 sec to minute or two. Those devices don't seem to drop ... the admin interface just goes blank, then brings them back ... (but if I ping them real quick, while the admin interface doesn't show them, they are still there). I used to preferentially buy Asus ... but several Asus devices have let me down in the last 3-4 years. Not quite like this, though - not this bad, not this soon. This router came at a premium cost when I bought it, partly for that Asus name. That turns out to have been a waste. It was so unreliable, so frustrating, I just replaced it with a TPLink that cost considerably less (... tired of spending money only to spend again in 6-12mo on tech/electronics these days, so went a little cheaper!). To my surprise I now have better speed and better reach! Importantly, though, replacing this router with a slightly cheaper one returned reliable wifi to my house. No more daily drops. I used to love Asus ... sadly this device has been the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. This router was just that bad/frustrating.
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ASUS BLUE CAVE is AWESOME!
By Jamie K. - Reviewed in the United States on April 3, 2018
Verified Amazon Purchase
Pros: +Consistent data processing and movement in the network +Takes up HALF the space of most normal routers and no more falling antennas!! +Great Aesthetics +Awesome ASUS GUI +Easy setup for the beginner +Advanced settings for pros +Much more powerful signal than the ASUS AC2400 +Cool and adjustable LED lighting For those of you that have issues with routers dying, I suggest you buy a laptop cooling pad and place the router on one of those. Heat buildup due to lack of airflow is the number one enemy of electronics. I purchased this Router from another place, but I wanted to spread my great experience about this router to everyone else because it has no reviews. ASUS you should really do more with the NEWEGGSPERT program and work on your customer service RMA process for customers. My AC2400 was about 2.5 years old and there have been a lot of advances with routers since then. I was having lots of issues with that router being able to give me consistent and high data flows on my network and I had a feeling it was either starting to fail or it was a limitation of the chips in the router. So, I took a chance and bought this router and it really is a great bargain!! You are getting a 3-core Intel processor that seems to really be able to handle the workloads. The 3rd core is supposed to be dedicated to VoIP use. Please note that The ASUS ROG 5400 Has a 4-core Intel, but all other ASUS routers use the Broadcom chips. This is Intel’s attempt to get into the market, and from what I can see they have done a really good job. ASUS routers hands down have THE BEST GUI and ease of use over ANY other router I have ever used. As a Neweggspert I have tested a lot of routers! The mouse over help is a good quick reference, but many of the people who put poor reviews simply do not know what they are doing. Immediately upon changing over to this router, I notice a 15dbm gain in power! Which equates to over 10x the signal strength. Remember though we are talking a wireless signal that is prone to interference and we are in the milliwatt range. Real world performance for this router placed in a central location in my basement game me great coverage throughout my 1500 square foot house. Currently, this router does NOT include ASUS AiMesh networking, but it will be included in a future update. During network saturation testing, I was able to fully use my 65 Gb/s from the internet (2xUHD Netflix) and MAX out my plex server to every device I own plus another 3 local computer streams. It handled everything perfectly, with zero issues. My plex server can put out about 7 converted streams and I only saturated the 5ghz wireless about 50%. That is AWESOME! I was able to set my Plex server to High quality instead of speed and now my wireless video is as good as my wired video, I was never able to do that on my ASUS 2400. Video load times were minimal and kept under 5 seconds, even ff worked perfectly!!Computer to computer and internet downloads were able to max out with rock solid consistency. Cons: Cons -Power dongle is a 90 Deg angle on router connection and can turn off the power if you move the router. -Currently does not support ASUS AI Mesh networking -No manual included in the box, just quick setup -ASUS and the whole computer industry need to seriously work on customer service in this internet age, especially RMA service. You should all look at Motorola, their service system is EXEMPLARY! That is really about all there is for the cons. Other Thoughts: ASUS GREAT job on this router, it looks great and works even better and it is at the right price! We need more of these types of routers! I hate all the routers with more than 4 antennas and really the ONLY advantage to antennas is to be able to move them around for a bit more precise control of directing the signal, but that is the ONLY benefit to them, there is very little to GAIN by having them!! This router is perfect for the normal sized home, and once AI Mesh is incorporated into it then it will be the perfect base station for the extenders. For the price, it is really a great deal, most other routers are more expensive and have terrible GUI’s, plus many other brands of routers will disable your network with a loss of internet! ASUS keeps on cruising! UPDATE on AI MESH: FINALLY ASUS got off their behinds and released the promised AI mesh update for the Blue Cave, after I sent them an inquiry about it. I still have not used the Alexa or IFTTT functions yet, as I have been far too busy to set all that up on my smart devices, but once I do I will do a second update. A little background first, I am starting a home business and I needed good internet to my garages, Honestly I was considering a Ubiquity setup, but for now it was cost prohibitive. I decided to get a second Blue Cave since the AI mesh came out for it. I decided to completely redo my network backbone with Cat6 shielded cables. This is the most important part if you live in RF saturated spaces like Apartments or near a lot of RF like Cell phone towers, or even power stations. I think many of the reviewers truly do not understand how wireless works, and expect miracles all the time. I did have some early bios problems with the Blue cave with dropping wifi, but it was ASUS wide bios because I had it with other routers as well. Those issue seem to have been completely cleared up for me. I do have one complaint to ASUS about their Blue Cave set up. You need a bypass link to go straight to the firmware flash, whether it be USB or internet. Because your initial router setup is a big pain in the behind to get through, please fix. As I said I ran a brand new Cat6 shielded backbone which brings me to this point, ASUS you need to start using shielded connectors in the back of your routers! because we are so saturated with RF in some areas that some people with have to use shielded cables. This is what actually makes the Cable companies transmission superior to most others. Which brings me to this. My initial review was for one Blue Cave. Now I can tell you about the best way to have SUPERIOR performance. 1) An ac2600 should be enough for the average consumer, and remember this the 2600 is just for the wireless. I highly recommend that you get a couple of 1GB switches and use those and hardwire any PC's and HD and UHD televisions to your 1GB connections to the Blue Cave. Especially, if you want the best looking picture or if you do a lot of online gaming. Wireless is fine for you tablets and phones obviously, just keep you wireless for those kinds of devices. 2) Update your second devices Firmware while having it plugged into computer only. 3) Hard-wire the back-bone from router to router I recommend to do it with Cat6 for the future, that way you do not lose valuable bandwidth for the router to talk to one another. You will do this by connecting the second Asus AI mesh router to the internet connection. I have 2 Blue caves, and even though they don't have quite the range I would like them to have they are about what you expect from a home router. And surely better than having 8 antenni flopping and falling all over the place. I have only had one issue during the early bios of the WiFi dropping occasionally, but that issue is gone. Asus has done a number of security updates and because of their excellent trend micro included I can see all probes and attacks that have been thwarted. This is the primary reason I chose to stick with ASUS is the superb firmware and GUI. It is can be overwhelming to a beginner at times, but you will be thankful for it, if you have used other routers as I have. ASUS was not targeted for many of the recent security attacks. I do know there has been a lot of probing going on to find vulnerabilities. Having the Trend micro really helps! Sorry I got side tracked, AI mesh performance is really good, the routers now put your phones and tablets in the 2.4ghz band and higher bandwidth items in the 5ghz. I can now travel from one end of my property to the other, (1/4 a city block) and have full coverage. Since, all of my building have Steel siding it limits my range quite a bit. The only issue you need to understand with handing off is that it will be transparent most of the time. I however use Skype and Wechat a ton and you will get a small time (usually no more than 10 second) where it will have an "unstable connection" but it will regain the connection but will not drop the call, most of the time. But for everything else other than live voice or video chat, you should not notice any transition. Overall, I am very happy with ASUS hardware, it is very reliable compared to other brands. I do think ASUS needs to step back as a company and look at their Software division and their Customer service division and improve them a lot more, especially if they want to stay on top of the market. Many other brands are catching up to them. You really need to provide the best customer service if you want to be number one, in the future. BTW almost all the computer and the home network companies customer service stinks. They all cna improve dramatically. Feel free to ask me any questions and please rate up this review.
Easy Setup and lightning Fast. 892Mbps Wireless connection!
By Technologist - Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2019
Verified Amazon Purchase
I bought this used from Amazon just yesterday. I used this as a wired node to extend my ASUS Tri band router. I was shockingly surprised that my 2015 Macbook Pro went from 400-450Mbps (Absolute max wireless speeds I've seen) to 892Mbps "wireless" to the blue cave. It looks like my Tri band ASUS uses my second 5Ghz channel as quote: "5 GHz-2 is now used as dedicated WiFi backhaul under AiMesh mode." The second image of 757Mbps is my Tri band Asus direct wirelessly connected to my Blue Cave and my 2015 Macbook Pro "wirelessly" connecting to the Blue Cave. The two routers were only 15 feet away but the signal was going throught a wall. If you want the fastest speeds direct wire your routers together and/or make sure your main router is a Tri band. Note: I have have a COX 1Gbps Gigablast connection. As for setup. Initial setup took 5-6 minutes. In total. I Plugged in the Cave Blue, Within 2 minutes it was booted up and I searched for new AiMesh Nodes. Agreed and in 3 more minutes it was completely setup and firmware upgraded. What bothered me is that you get locked out of any ability to check log into the Blue cave and mess with it's Router admin pages. I was not happy with that because I wasn't sure it was secured down and I never ever had the chance to check out the admin page or features. Factory Resets can be tricky if you manually it with the reset button on the unit. After the Factory reset it took me over 60 minutes trying to gain access and get into the admin page as a stand alone router. Probably my fault as when you factory reset you can reset in several modes if you don't follow the reset instructions properly. Make sure you see blue led flashes on reset, not purple or red. You can end up in firmware Recovery mode or a looping boot mode if you time the reset wrong. Also once I reset it, and set it up as a AiMesh Node with my Tri band Asus Router everything appeared to work but Wifi wasn't really broadcasting on the Blue Cave node at all even with the admin page saying it was working properly. It's hard to know this as you will have TWO separate SSID's with the same name per band and most operating systems won't show you both of them. To see them download the free app NetSpot at netspotapp dot . com and make sure each band has TWO separate SSID's with the same exact SSID name. To fix this, from your main routers admin page. Just Remove your BLUE_CAVE again and "Click the MINUS sign, let it factory reset and reconnect it and it will all configure properly the second time with both bands transmitting correctly. Overall this thing with AiMesh Node is mind blazingly fast directly wired to my main router or wirelessly. I can now stream 16 HD 1080p Security Camera's "simultaneously" and 4K TV and game all at blazing speeds with no ping increase at all. 5 Stars all the way. If you already have a high ASUS end router and use this as a AiMesh Node. Your main router will take over control and you'll only have one tiny page to admin for the Blue Cave. Everything will be managed on your main router and so will firmware upgrades. Essentially it makes it much simpler and it saves so much time as you don't need to manage two routers. It's all done for you. Note if your hardware can handle it. Do NOT get AC1750 or AC1900. There is a huge difference between AC1750, AC1900 and AC2600. My 450Mbps wireless is now running 892mbps. 4×4 MIMO at 80Mhz is way faster then 2×2 MIMO and 3×3 MIMO.
When selecting AiMesh nodes, get identical nodes or at least in the same family
By Rocketman - Reviewed in the United States on May 14, 2022
Verified Amazon Purchase
I recently set up an AiMesh network using these routers: ASUS AX5400 WiFi 6 Gaming Router (RT-AX82U) ASUS AC2600 WiFi Router (Blue Cave) ASUS AX1800 WiFi 6 Router (RT-AX55) The RT-AX82U serves as the main router which I bought for gaming purposes. The other two are mesh nodes I bought a couple weeks later. My previous network was based on an Apple 802.11ac router with two nodes. Hands down the ASUS user interface is orders of magnitude better, not to mention just plain more capable. Setup was very quick. I love opening my closet and looking at the router going through its "breathe" animation. For the other two mesh nodes my experience was very un-Apple-like. The RT-AX55 router was found by the main router very quickly and was integrated within minutes. A subsequent firmware upgrade for it was no problem. My problems started when connecting the Blue Cave router: the main router could not find it. The failure message said to upgrade the firmware. How do you do that? Well, you need to make it the main router temporarily. This entailed turning off/on the cable modem (do not skip this as I had to learn the hard way), wiping clean the Blue Cave (hold down the WPS button when you turn it on as the reset button isn't really a reset button), getting a temporary network up (use your computer to connect to url 192.168.50.1), downloading the latest firmware version to your computer, and manually uploading it (failed once before upload succeeded). After that, reconnect the main router, wipe clean the Blue Cave again, and then attempt to add the AiMesh node. This time the node was found! But unfortunately this failed four times before finally wiping clean and placing the Blue Cave on top of the main router. This all took about 3 hours. Was it worth it? Not really, I just wanted the Blue Cave on a living room shelf so aesthetics mattered a little to me. Why was it so hard? I think the Blue Cave is comparably much older and only uses 802.11ac. The firmware upgrade was time consuming but necessary.
Great Router for the price..
By russell - Reviewed in the United States on February 18, 2025
Verified Amazon Purchase
I’ve had this Router for 3 years and has been going strong. I’ve always had fiber 1gig plan and when hard wired it puts in work and will hit the 900 mark easily. WiFi is good and the range isn’t too bad. I have it mounted high and going through several walls it will reach about 80 feet but starts to lose signal some. I have more people moving in and now at WiFi 6 I finally need to upgrade, but I want to say if you need a good cheap investment this router is worth it!!!
unreliable.... both wifi and overall
By Seul - Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2023
Verified Amazon Purchase
Worst signal strength in the 2.4 band of the last 4 routers I've had. Definite dead spots in the house that weren't there with last 2 (... or the one i replaced this with!). Where it connect (when conneted...) this band is speed expected. The 5Ghz band is obviously limited by walls etc, but even in areas very close to base, never really achieves close to speed that router specs state. Bigger issue: It drops wifi devices, sometimes several times per day and even in areas where i does have good strength. Even 15' away with line of sight to the device! I've updated firmware, fiddled with settings, reset it to factory, etc. Just an unreliable router. Sure, I could try warranty ... and it'd be a bit hassle to send it in and get some refurb unit that was someone's nightmare. Hmmm. If a new one is flaky, how long will a refurb that has demonstrated itself to have issues last? Hmmmm. The admin interface is marginal. The interface is pretty and the basics are up front, but not good for power-user. I never could get it to reliably share a SSD plugged into router USB port. Connected, yes, reliable, no. (I'm an ex-hardware tech, I run Linux machines, have set up RAID servers for fun at home ... this should not have been hard) The parental controls they brag about are bare-bones. And then it kept refreshing devices on the network, including wired devices, so it's hard to do admin. And i mean like every 30 sec to minute or two. Those devices don't seem to drop ... the admin interface just goes blank, then brings them back ... (but if I ping them real quick, while the admin interface doesn't show them, they are still there). I used to preferentially buy Asus ... but several Asus devices have let me down in the last 3-4 years. Not quite like this, though - not this bad, not this soon. This router came at a premium cost when I bought it, partly for that Asus name. That turns out to have been a waste. It was so unreliable, so frustrating, I just replaced it with a TPLink that cost considerably less (... tired of spending money only to spend again in 6-12mo on tech/electronics these days, so went a little cheaper!). To my surprise I now have better speed and better reach! Importantly, though, replacing this router with a slightly cheaper one returned reliable wifi to my house. No more daily drops. I used to love Asus ... sadly this device has been the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. This router was just that bad/frustrating.
Asus - RT-AC65 .... Great WiFi Router
By LaserDoc - Reviewed in the United States on February 12, 2022
Verified Amazon Purchase
This is a review of the Asus RT-AC65 WiFi router, which I recently purchased from Amazon. Overall this is an impressive router, with decent WiFi signal strength and excellent connection speeds! I was previously using an “Askey Wave2” WiFi router, provided by Spectrum Internet. It worked OK some of the time, but it would randomly lose the internet connection to my OBi202 unit, that I use for VOIP phone calls. After much experimenting, I determined that the VOIP disconnection issues were being caused by the Askey router. After doing some online research, I learned that other users were also experiencing issues with VOIP phone calls using this Spectrum router, so I decided it was time go shopping for a replacement WiFi router. The first new router I tried was a TP-Link AX1800 router, but it failed in less than a month, so I returned it to Amazon for a refund. My second purchase was this Asus RT-AC65 router. The configuration of the Asus router was super simple – I didn’t even need to consult the manual to configure the router! Also I like the router’s built-in configuration menu system – it is intuitive and easy on the eyes. Once I connected the Asus router to the Spectrum cable modem and rebooted the modem and the router, both my desktop computers connected right away, and so did the Obihai VOIP unit. Phone calls were clear and problem free, when using the VOIP phone, connected to the internet via WiFi. When I did the “OOKLA” speed test with my desktop PC, I initially noticed that the download speed was roughly half what I was expecting, based on previous experience with the Spectrum WiFi router connection. However, after re-positioning the Asus router ( I raised it up by just 11 inches ), the signal strength and download speeds nearly doubled! I am now getting stable WiFi download speeds which are equivalent to the speeds I get when the PC is connected by ethernet cable to the router (about 230 Mbps down and 11 Mbps upload). After using this router for a month, I am very satisfied with both its speed and its stable WiFi connection …. definitely recommended!
Fairly weak range extender in my testing
By WaltR - Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2022
Verified Amazon Purchase
I'm a long time TP-Link router fan so, when my old C3200 appeared to be dying, I bought an Archer AX3200 as a replacement. I only needed a reliable router that would cover my 2700 sq/ft two story house and an outbuilding that's 15' away from the guest suite. Since I already had a OneMesh compatible router that I was using in an outbuilding using WDS Bridging and thought I could "mesh" them togeter. Nope. OneMesh only works with TP-Link WiFi extender, so I was out of luck. WDS didnt work as well with the AX3200 as it had with the C3200, so it was time to look for different options. In my research on my OneMesh fail. I found complaints in TP-Link forums, where people repeatedly stated they needed to follow ASUS' lead with AiMesh. I've been wanting to give ASUS a try, but have been shy based on reported reliability issues. I decided to try this router with and a RP-AC1900 range extender for the outbuilding. I was quite impressed with the features, plethora of bells and whistles, and the performance was in line with the AX3200 as a standalone router in my testing. I was hopeful that that this combination would give me a solid seamless network. AiMesh turned out to not be as simple as advertised and instructions for setting up the AC1900 led down a path for using it as a repeater, so I had to revert to factory and start over. I'll speak more on this subject in my review of the AC1900. Another strange requirement was to have the extender within a few meters of the router to set up. I ignored this initially and after another factory reset I started over with them side by side. Once I did get AiMesh working it proved all but seamless, but Unfortunately, the router would only connect via 2.4ghz with the AC1900 once it was moved to the outbuilding and throughput was worse than my old $50 TP-link over WDS. Speed tests with my phone in the outbuilding were averaging 8-15 Mb/s. I repositioned it a few times and couldn't get much better. I suspect this is because the AC1900 is 802.11AC, not AX. This really wasn't going to work, and buying a second ASUS AX router with AiMess was a bit of a budget buster at well over $200, so I looked for other options and started a return for the pair. In my searches, the Reyee E-5 Wi-fi 6 router kept popping up. Never heard of them, but the specs looked really good, especially for the price. They only claim 2000 sq ft coverage (conservative for a change), but it had the best throughput at distance of the three routers I tried. Better yet, I could get it and a Reyee E3 Wi-fi 6 router for the outbuilding $180. Set up was a dream. Setting up Reyee Mesh was a one button operation. The Reyee app for Android at least is as good any I've used. When I put the E3 in the outbuilding it connected to the master over 5GHz and throughput in the outbuilding was 10 times that of the ASUS setup with my phone and Speedtest.net.
Looks Good, works Great. Brief review from an IT Pro.
By DJ - Reviewed in the United States on September 17, 2018
Verified Amazon Purchase
Probably the second or third prettiest router I've ever seen. It's not a work of art, but it looks good and has a nice glowing light that you CAN adjust the brightness of, if you desire. (that's important) There are some routers out there that truly look beautiful, and I wouldn't call this beautiful, but it fits in well with our very clean, sleek, modern decor. More importantly, it works in every way that matters. I am an IT consultant working on networks constantly, and this router has all the bells and whistles I wanted in my home network. The range is good, the wireless speed is amazing, and the reliability has been solid so far. It's smaller than you imagine it is from the photos, and I think that's a good thing! Recommended buy, if you're looking for a good-looking router. AS AN IT PROFESSIONAL, HERE'S A MORE GEEKY AND DEEP REVIEW: I love the deep customization options available on the router's HTTP page (which is partially accessible via phone app or website remotely or locally via IP address). Of course, I disabled the remote access abilities in general for security, but it seems like a great feature for most home users. The customization covers whitelists, DMZ, network logging, Firewall, IPS, Proxy, OpenVPN, and Connected USB devices, among many others. I played with the OpenVPN options and loved it. Easy to set up (though documentation is pretty bad on that part). Unfortunately, Netflix complains about VPNs so that is a no-go for the moment. There are 4 gigabit ports and the speeds on those, as well as the speeds over the 5GHz network are incredibly fast. I get my full 100Mbit FiOS connection over Wireless to my 802.11ac devices. The signal strength of the 5GHz radio across the house in my bedroom through 4 walls and other furniture is about -70dBm. My previous router would drop to -90 or even disappear under those conditions. -70 is perfectly usable, though the throughput will attenuate some of course. ASUS seems to be releasing updates on schedule and have recently added AIMesh and other services to the router, so that's a great sign! I haven't run into any downside yet. I will come back and update this review if problems arise, but so far, I'm happy. If you're on the fence with this one, just go ahead and grab it. It isn't the most powerful router available, but it's top-notch and it's about time routers started looking like a reasonable fixture in a modern home!
past end of support life
By JO - Reviewed in the United States on April 12, 2025
Verified Amazon Purchase
Bought two of these in December to expand the WIFI coverage in my house. When I unboxed them I noticed that the build date was rather old. I connected them with my existing ASUS RT-AX3000 router using AiMesh. I'm having issue with the one connecting with the other on on the other end of the house instead of the central main router. Reseaching it I found that the solution was not supported on the firmware version on the BlueCave and that the routers are end of support life and the required firmware is not avvailable for them. I'm disapointed the the Amazon ASUS store is selling routers that are no longer supported.
Configure manually and use an ethernet connection and this is fine
By Matthew Miller - Reviewed in the United States on June 14, 2020
Verified Amazon Purchase
Summary: the "AiMesh" mode is dumb and is only going to work well if you've liteerally hundreds of feet away from your main router, even indoors. For this case, it might be fine. But if you're looking to boost signal to a floor which doesn't get good coverage but is still near the main router, it's actually going to make things worse. Luckily, you can configure the access point manually, but it's not obvious and the instructions don't say how. The basic problem is that the automatic AiMesh node mode uses the same wifi channel as the main router. It seems to use that for the backhaul, too (connection between the routers) if you're using wifi for that. This is ridiculous and basically defeats the purpose. If you're trying to build a network with more than one extender, forget about it. You're really going to want to have ethernet between your main router and the second (or third) access points. if you don't have that, it's a less-difficult DIY project than you might thing in most homes — or get an electrician to pull the cables for you. Totally worth it. Anyway, once you have that, the trick is that to configure the new access point, you'll need to first make sure it isn't an AiMesh node and is reset to factory defaults. The sparse documentation doesn't cover configuring the router in access point mode, but that's really what you want for good performance. So, instructions follow here: There will be an open wifi network called something like ASUS-RP10 (or similar -- I forget the exact name). You can also configure by connecting via an ethernet cable -- but make sure to plug into one of the yellow downlink ports, not the blue port that goes back to your main router. Once you've done that, you can access a web interface at http://192.168.50.1 (note 50 and no https) and then answer the basic questions to choose access point mode. Once you've done that, you get to a simple wifi configuration menu, where you can choose the channels to not conflict. I have a setup with two of these and a main Asus RT-AC88U. The main router is on the second floor, and the two RP-AC1900 access points are on the first and third floors. The first floor one is by the TV, and so I can plug the Tivo and TV directly into the RP-AC19000 as an ethernet switch for faster streaming, and likewise for my office on the top floor. I have 2.4Ghz on only on the main router and disabled that (look in "Professional" settings) on the RPs. The main router is on 5Ghz channel 44, and the other two on 149 and 165, with their channel bandwidth set to 40 instead of the default 20/40/80. That means the peak speed isn't as high, but there's less conflict with other devices. I also enabled the Roaming Assistant setting to disconnect clients with less than -60dBm signal strength -- this helps migration when you move from floor to floor, or if you device grabs the wrong one first. So with all of this setup, I'm pretty happy. However, this really could have been done (and probably more easily) with a $70 access point — and probably many $50 APs would do just as good a job, especially if you don't need the ethernet hub feature. Bottom line: if you happen to be using this to connect multiple buildings on a farm or something, and have ethernet between them already, the AiMesh functionality is probably great. Other than that, your best bet is manual configuration, and you'll need intermediate/beginner-level networking savvy to really do it. I'm really happy with my RT-AC88U main router, and I got to a setup which is working great, but if I'd do this again I'd research better and get something else for the extenders.
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