ASUS - RT-AC68U

I still have an OG WRT54G in the attic in a box.  Also the AC 1900 TMobile Personal Hotspot, reflashed to what it is, a rebranded RT-AC68U, it's working flawlessly as a wifi mesh node. 

I use a pair of ASUS RT-AC68P's in AiMesh mode. Sure, not the newest but they still get firmware updates and at least for me, 'just work'. Setup was generally simple and I've yet to see performance issues (\~60 devices) or hear complaints from family members.

RT-AC68U works really well. I haven't needed to upgrade to AX, yet.

I haven't upgraded my network to anything exciting yet as I live in a small apartment and am waiting until we move. That and my wife is sensitive to noise (and we both WFH) so everything needs to be passively cooled/silent so no grabbing a pile of cheap 1U anything and going ham. Future will most likely be Ubiquiti 2.5 or 10gb depending on price/timing. Currently my home lab is a bunch of gear hooked up to two HPE 1820 fanless 48port switches. One for proxmox cluster traffic, one for network access. Outside of that, every other segment (her desk, her gaming setup, my gaming setup, etc) are all Netgear GS series silent switches. The "core" pair are smart and support LAG (of which the lab, and my main NAS are pairs). Router is a Asus AC68U that works like a champ. Four netgear switches hang off it. The Lab/NAS hang off one of the core switches. Wifi is handled by the router which is on top of an AV cabinet in the center of our apartment. Wifi is only used for phones and IoT devices. Anything remotely compute, from a work laptop, home desktop, Xbox, playstation, NAS, is all wired ethernet. Why did I chose the above? \- Cost \- Silence \- Size The router was well liked when I bought it 10-15 ago :)

I have a very similar network at my place. Old 68U is a media bridge to the basement and the 86U is the main router for the house. Now you have me thinking :) [https://www.asus.com/event/network/eol-product/](https://www.asus.com/event/network/eol-product/) Both are listed. :/ # End-of-life product list When a product is end-of-life, it means: * It is no longer manufactured * Its certification will not be renewed * Its firmware, utility, website, DM, QSG and manual will not be updated * It may be replaced by a new product with updated hardware and similar functions

I have a couple of Asus Routers (RT-AC68U, RT-AC86U) but both are no longer supported with firmware updates from Asus or Merlin and was interested in a more current router OS for use in 2025. I am using the RT-AC86U running Adguard Home behind my ISP's modem/router but prefer using my own router without the ISP's equipment.

I used an ASUS router when I had Spectrum. My old ASUS RT-AC68U, which I purchased in 2014, and which is running at my old house down the street, *is still getting firmware updates*.

Get the Wi-Fi gen that supports most of your devices. At home, about 90% of our devices are Wi-Fi 5. We've been using the RT-AC68U (identical to AC-1900) for about 8 years now without any issues. Can still get good Wi-Fi between 3-4 walls. However, be aware of recent "backdoors" warnings with Asus routers.

Quick counterpoint: I have (literally) thrown away at least three "$80 TP-Link" routers over the years. Meanwhile, I am still connected right now (Gbit fiber) using the ASUS RT-AC68U I got on sale more than a decade ago. \+1 the Newegg price is ridiculous. Find a sale, or used ones go for less than half that price. There are also some ASUS advantages like Merlin-WRT firmware – it adds features like DNS Director. But you can get those on most ASUS routers. Merlin and the ASUS nerds hang out on SNB Forums, you'll find many opinions there.

1. My self hosting journey started off with some spare gaming PC parts I had kicking around that I was trying to find a use for. Now here I am with my media server that keeps my wife happy which means she likes my hobby ahah. Also Adguard for no ads on my home network - yay!! It's become a hobby now to just see what I can do with it and it's pretty fun stuff. I see why people find it so addicting. 2. The winning unit or units from this giveaway would help big time with networking bottlenecks. I'm rocking an old Asus AC68 router that definitely needs to be retired but the funds aren't there. Either that or the KVM would be awesome for being able to jump on while I'm away and need to take a look at something. On more than one occasion I've wanted to check something out because Plex or something wasn't working properly or the server wasn't available. 3. Honestly I find out about most stuff just from browsing this sub. Someone will mention something in the comments and then it sends me down the rabbit hole. Like in the home theater sub I just found out HDMI over Ethernet is a thing and I kinda want one to hook up a gaming PC to my TV in another room although it's completely unnecessary....but *now I can*. 4. If not networking gear as a prize - mass storage!!! Haha, I'm in Canada, drives are pricey, and I'm getting close to critical mass lol. If chosen to win, I would love the Flint 3 and the Comet. Y'all rock for doing this!

I am still rocking 3 ac-68u but with FreshTomato.

Hello! I'm moving into a new house and have a fresh slate to redesign my home network. Hoping to get some advice here from all you experts and enthusiasts :) The new house is 4 floors (including the basement and the smaller top level). I'll be getting a 1.5GB fibre connection from Bell (I'm in Canada near Toronto). There are three adults working from home pretty regularly, with media/entertainment/software jobs that require a fair bit of wifi throughput. Some of those connections can be wired. I have a few routers that are still working well, an ASUS RT-AX58U and an ASUS RT-AC68U. I also have 4 2.5g MoCa GoCoax adapters to use with the built-in coaxial cable (the house is not wired for ethernet). Bell will be providing a Home Hub 4000 as well, which my gut says to avoid using. My current plan is to, * Disable wifi on the Home Hub and connect it to my AC68U in the basement (which works fine, but only has 5ghz wifi) * Place the AX58U Router on the main floor to serve kitchen/living room area, hook up to basement with a MoCa 2.5g connection. * Buy another ASUS Router, probably an ASUS RT-AX5400, and hook it up on the 2nd floor with a MoCa 2.5g connection to the AC68U to be the most central router for the TV area and home offices on that floor * Set these routers up with ASUS's AI Mesh to hopefully manage themselves well in the space * I also plan to use the AI Protection Parental Controls for my kid's devices so we can block some websites, schedule the connection for them, etc. Admittedly I still have some research to do on parental controls for internet access, but we still have some time as they aren't really browsing anything yet. My concerns are, * Is the ASUS AI Mesh going to be good enough? Will our devices know which AP to connect to as we move around the house? * I'm probably not going to be getting the full 1.5Gb out of my connection, since the main router is merely gigabit. I don't really care too too much about that. * Is the Bell Home Hub 4000 going to fight me on this setup? Probably. I realize I could just buy an Eero mesh system or something, but I'd love to save some money by using existing hardware and buying one new <$200 router. Feedback/Suggestions/Ideas are welcome! Thanks.

I wanted to upgrade to an AX router (I was running an old Asus RT-AC68U with the Merlin firmware previously and it was starting to be unstable and needed frequent reboots) I wanted a router that had 2.5Gbe LAN ports to link my Unraid and Plex machines (because Plex can quickly saturate a Gigabit connection when it scans your library and generate thumbnails, etc.) And I wanted more control over the wireless devices on my network, because I wanted to isolate all my shady Chinese IoT devices (lights, cameras, plugs, etc.) from my main network. I decided to give it a try because the router had great reviews, and OpenWRT allowed me to do all that, and as a bonus it also supported AdGuard Home (that I already as my DNS forwarder, as a docker container running on my Unraid server), and also supported WireGuard as a client and server, natively.

I still have a Asus AC-68U/AC 1900 I used for like 6 years. I use all Ubiquiti stuff now but I keep it for a backup. If I was looking for a consumer wireless router I'd go for a newer Asus. I had a tplink on that was just a cheap temporary one that I used when we moved and my Asus accidently got buried in the storage unit and it worked good but the tplink one my father in law bought is garbage so I dont know about those.

If that Asus is the RT-AC68U then it's at least meshable if you buy a newer Asus router to use as your main router. That's one of the things that I like about using AiMesh. You can get a better router, and still put your old one to work somewhere else in the house. My current RT-AX68U Pro replaced by RT-AC86U, and that replaced an RT-AC66U. All three are currently meshed, so the garage and driveway get a good signal, as well as the rest of the house.

If the cabins are only 100ft away I’d just run ethernet cables to each and put in a access point and be done. I guess you could use conduit but I’d grab a pick, dig the line 5” below, and be done with it. I’ve had Ethernet cables outside above the ground along the outside of my house and it’s been fine for 5 years. If it fails I’ll replace. Cable is cheap. Get some ASUS 68 routers off eBay for like $30 and configure them easily in access point mode to make them your wifi points. If the 2 ASUS routers and the cable cost more than $100 total you did something wrong. Connect the two cable runs to the router in one of the cabins - done https://www.ebay.com/itm/256402485694?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&mkscid=101&itemid=256402485694&targetid=2299003535955&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9198132&poi=&campaignid=21214315381&mkgroupid=161363866036&rlsatarget=pla-2299003535955&abcId=9407526&merchantid=5308216589&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAD_QDh9CB0kWC3rC6m31g23C9uRF8&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIx4KYksrSjAMV8EX_AR29FwU3EAQYAiABEgIvK_D_BwE

If the cabins are only 100ft away I’d just run ethernet cables to each and put in a access point and be done. I guess you could use conduit but I’d grab a pick, dig the line 5” below, and be done with it. I’ve had Ethernet cables outside above the ground along the outside of my house and it’s been fine for 5 years. If it fails I’ll replace. Cable is cheap. Get some ASUS 68 routers off eBay for like $30 and configure them easily in access point mode to make them your wifi points. If the 2 ASUS routers and the cable cost more than $100 total you did something wrong. Connect the two cable runs to the router in one of the cabins - done https://www.ebay.com/itm/256402485694?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&mkscid=101&itemid=256402485694&targetid=2299003535955&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9198132&poi=&campaignid=21214315381&mkgroupid=161363866036&rlsatarget=pla-2299003535955&abcId=9407526&merchantid=5308216589&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAD_QDh9CB0kWC3rC6m31g23C9uRF8&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIx4KYksrSjAMV8EX_AR29FwU3EAQYAiABEgIvK_D_BwE

1. I started selfhosting because I was in grad school at the time and wanted a way to play around with services/containers/etc without needed to pay for AWS EC2 or having to leave my laptop on. I had an old gaming PC that my roommate gave me with decent specs so I had a good starting point. With Proxmox installed, this gave me a streamlined way to spin up VMs and LXCs on demand. I don't host anything public facing (currently use Tailscale but would be interested in Headscale solution in the future) so this setup worked perfectly for me. The project I'm most proud of is a self hosted Spark cluster that I deployed on Proxmox that I was able to share with project team members. These days, I host Pi-Hole, STFPGo, and a Tailscale exit node, as well as ad hoc VMs for self-learning. 2. I'm still using a router (TM-AC1900 converted to RT-AC68U with Merlin) that I bought heavily discounted years ago. While it has served its purpose, its I/O is starting to become lacking, and 2.5 G ethernet and ac/ax/be would be greatly welcomed. 3. r/homelab, r/selfhosted, r/minilab, Jeff Geerling, TechHut 4. At the moment, I don't have a dedicated NAS, I just use a RAID setup with the gaming PC, but a low-power NAS would be something I'd like to see.

I love my Asus routers. They are better than TP Link. However if someone isn't going to use the extra features, there is no reason to pay for them. I know several TP Links I've installed for people still going strong after 5+ years. It wouldn't surprise me if Asus has an average longevity longer than TP Link, but at the same time, most people will be upgrading/replacing them by that time. Asus is not immune, the RT-AC86U was notorious for getting too hot, cracking the BGA solder, and dying an early death. They've had other duds too. I still have an RT-AC1900 in service going on about 9 years now. Its just the RT-AC68U with a bit faster processor. That model is infamous, probably one of the most reliable and longest lasting routers ever made, rivaling the old WRT-54G. I use Merlin firmware also, but again, many don't need 3rd party firmware support. Some TP Links can actually run Tomato or one of the other WRT variants but only a few of them. For my needs, an Asus running Merlin is a bare minimum so I can configure VLANs, custom firewall rules, DNS/DHCP modifications that can't be done in the GUI, etc. But most do not have those requirements, and these days, those that do may be better served by Ubiquiti, TP Link Omada, or PFSense/Opnsense. All 3 are economical options with a lot of flexibility that doesn't require 3rd party firmware, scripting, etc. I'm considering moving back in that direction myself.

Edit: to clarify. I posted what I've used in the past, not what I want to use next. The first two were recycled. I added an image of what I've used over the years (Linksys WRT54G, Westell 7501, Asus AC-1900). I feel like the 3 primary routers I've used have been great and reliable. I think I got lucky. I'm looking for a moderate upgrade, even though I don't really need it. My current Asus is pushing 10 years and I'd like to retire it and keep it as a backup. My wishlist: ~$75 (I can wait for a sale), super reliable and automatic, dependable, WiFi6 or 7 just to keep up, would work well with older WiFi tech. A mesh system is not required, but my parents have a 2story house so it might help. I've got the ability for wired back-haul. Honestly a single point would be fine for us i think I want this for my family, my parents, and my grandparents. None of us are power users. All 3 of us have the same AC-1900 router, which makes management super easy for me. In-fact, besides powering off and on occasionally, they've been very reliable for the non-tech-saavy. Just looking for something to continue that tradition. Last year, I bought an ASUS AX3000 WiFi 6 Router, but I returned it. I used it for ~3 weeks, but it was super unreliable compared to my current Asus AC-1900. I never figured out why. I thought it would be an upgrade, but it seemed slower and had tons of connection issues. I have some older tech that was the primary connection problem, but even newer ~4 year old tech was having trouble. Maybe i screwed up the configuration, but it was also more complicated than my current Asus. Hoping to avoid that again. Need something the other family members can handle without any input, like we currently have. Thank you!

I moved from a Asus AIO running Merlin firmware that was very good, to a mini PC running IPFire, I like it even more. It has a deeper feature set, and the firewall rules make more sense to me. Lots of configurable features and plenty of add ons too.

TP-Link are great too, unfortunately their latest routers require you to have a subscription for in depth features that are free with other brands. A while back I had an ASUS modem, they support 3rd party software like Asuswrt-Merlin (even when the router is EOL). Not sure if their latest models still support that.

Avoid tp-link and any other CCP networking equipment. Don't intentionally put stuff with backdoors in them just to save a few bucks. Unifi is great but it's expensive and you really should use it wired. If you're just looking for plug and play mesh Asus has good offerings. Their AI mesh system works well

I've had zero problems with M1 for many years. Only went down once, and that was for scheduled maintenance in the middle of the night. Also, it's not just your internet plan that could be the cause of any issues. If your router isn't good enough, or is in a terrible position, or is overheating, or the bomb shelter is between your laptop and the router, you are gonna have issues no matter what plan you have. I have a standard 1Gbps plan but an Asus gaming router with ethernet cables going to the 3 heaviest users in the home – PS5, living TV and bedroom TV. I also set up a second router using Asus AImesh to provide wifi signal to one of the further corners of the house.

I've been using AiMesh since the beginning, and it was rocky at first, but now I'm currently quite happy with it. One solid main router and two APs outside. What unifi did you get to replace your setup and do you think it was worth the cost?

Asus AiMesh - Yea TP-Link Deco - Yes TP-Link Easy Mesh - Not sure

ASUS aimesh is the best option besides true ap based systems.

I've been using Asus Aimesh for years. 3 nodes and seamless switching when walking around. There does seem to be a client limit at about 75-80 wifi devices whiche forced me to move iot devices to a separate wifi network. Asus is great to start with but unifi likely my next system

I use Asus routers in my Ai mesh network and it gives me complete control over everything and I've loved it. I use that coupled with family link from Google and I feel like I've done my job as a parent blocking as much bullshit as I can for my kids.  But don't worry, their friends who's parents don't care about a single thing they consume will come along and ruin your hard work. Or your kids will be kids and find loop holes, which they always do. But you still tried. 

Asus AiMesh can be configured without an app and uses local credentials for management.

For gaming use cable, for wifi coverage of this size, you can do well with asus aimesh, you can pick two routers of your choice, cheaper than ismesh system and many settings available.

I went from DD-WRT for years to ASUS AiMesh and have been on Unifi equipment for a good four years now. I never have any issues with roaming (3600+ home) and I can fine tune whenever necessary (rare). I love the Unifi and don't plan on moving away any time soon. If you want peace of mind, I definitely also recommend Unifi.

As has been said, plug in everything you can. For a basic option, the Asus routers with AiMesh are a pretty simple solution. Start with one on the second floor centrally located and see if you need more. Use inSSIDer to see how your signal strength is as what kind of interference you have and set settings accordingly. If you’re not reaching all corners, add another compatible Asus and put them on floors 1 and 3 (both wired connection to WAN jack)

ASUS AIMESH Stable and cheap.