bought an ASUS AC-87U Router, do I still need an AV?

How can you resist?

 

That is impressive. I didn't realize it did deep-packet inspection as well. That page lays out the Trend features nicely in a way that's easy to understand.

 

AC87 is only $229 after rebate, with free McAfee (5 Devices)..

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=9567072&CatId=373

 

That's a lot of router for a lot of money:

http://www.amazon.com/RT-AC3200-Tri...qid=1422585454&sr=8-1&keywords=asuS RT-AC3200

Do all wifi adapters that conform to 802.11AC take full advantage of the throughput of the AC3200?

 

holy crap! and I thought I just bought the latest router then they release this! this is insane

 

Newegg has it for $299 on sale.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833320218

AC3200 router has been in the pipe for months. I saw it announced back in June so I knew it was coming.

 

Hehe! Monster time! I wonder when they make the first 10 gigabit wired router for us..

/E

 

Does the AC87U have this Smart connect which automatically selects the best network (2.4 or 5 GHz) as per this....

"Our Tri-Band Smart Connect technology automatically assigns each device to either the 2.4 GHz band or one of the two 5 GHz bands, according to the device's speed, its signal strength, and how busy each band is. This means you never have to decide which band to use, as RT-AC3200 does it all for you. This means you get better range and faster, more reliable connections — all the time!"

 

I do not believe the 87U has this technology.

 

You are right.....

reply from Merlin on Twitter:

"No, this is specific to the Broadcom XStream hardware platform used by the RT-AC3200 (which has two 5 GHz + one 2.4 GHz radios)"

 

Just ordered an ASUS RT-AC3200 from Amazon for $299 USD and will sell my ASUS RT-AC87U just to have that Smart Connect technology, seems great as I always wonder which would be better to connect to 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz. and 5 GHz. sometimes takes time to connect when I reboot my computer but 2.4 GHz connects instantly. so hopefully now I don't have to worry about which is better

 

How much are asking for it?

 

$199 USD it's only 1 month old with a 3 year warranty but I live in Dubai so I don't think I can sell it to anyone except locally since shipping would cost about $100 USD internationally.

 

So presumably all of the client devices have to be dual band to take advantage of this, yes?

 

nope, that means if a client can connect to the 2.4GHz or 5GHz and is wondering which would offer him the better connectivity, the router will choose the best band for them according to the network congestion, signal strength, etc.

which is exactly what I want, my laptop has a Dual Band WLAN card in it but I always keep wondering, what if the 2.4GHz gave me better connection? what if this, what if that. this way, I set it and forget it

 

Any wireless device connecting to this would need dual-band to be able to see and connect to the 5 GHz bands. This device appears to have two 5 GHz bands and one 2.4 GHz band. Also, any wireless device would need to support 3x3 TX/RX MIMO at least to take full advantage of the functionality and throughput. So a cheap tablet or cheap laptop would not utilize this device to it's fullest.

 

WBD... That is a great point to put out... that you cannot fully utilize the capabilities of the product without having the applicable devices on the consumer end.

 

Yeah I agree kind of a waste of money. Considering good AC adapters cost $80+

 

There's this USB dual band AC600 adapter for $30 US that would be a solution for laptops and desktops, but I don't know how good it is.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ..._band_USB_wifi_adapter-_-33-114-130-_-Product

 

The reason I pay an arm and a leg for ASUS routers is because of their well known low ping rates. They are awesome for gamers where any lag might cause them loss in a game. I don't play, but I chose it because I feel that connecting to any site while browsing happens a fraction of a second faster due to the low ping rates.... look at my ping here:

 

Not good. I own one and the thought put is crap.

 

Brocke is 100% right.. Any good AC adapter with good throughput is going to cost you. I've tried several and found them pretty lackluster. The primary wireless user in the home is my son, and he has a newer MSI GT70 Dragon gamer laptop that does utilize AC, and it's very very speedy. Otherwise, most stuff in the home is actually 2.4Ghz. Even my IP67 military grade cameras utilize normal N@2.4..

But Mortal is right, ASUS has legendary pings on their products. This is my ping an hour away from here, through a Untangle Gateway. I can drop this ping by 50% if I put my ASUS on the gateway. I'm tempted to buy a second ASUS and put that on the gateway, drop the Untangle back to Bridge Mode, and use another ASUS as a WAP.

 

smoking ping and download rate man!!

On my previous AC-68U the ping was 6 ms, on the AC87U it's 5 MS, that's a whooping 1 ms faster

 

Interesting; I thought ping response had to do with distance and over all network latency, so I'm curious how a particular router could make that much difference.

 

Latency on the appliance as well. The processing power of the RT-AC87 is so fast it doesn't increase latency by anything significant while providing deep packet inspection. Untangle actually offers more latency but also it's Layer-7, and running through a half dozen or more different inspections. ASUS is pretty well known to drop ping times. Working with Fortinet, Fortigates are very dependant on gateway ping, and a sustained higher ping can result in a considerably degraded connection. For example a 100-200ms ping spike can result in a 500-900ms spike on the other side of the UTM, so ping becomes even more crucial the more inspection you do.

I could take the Untangle off and have a 4-5ms ping, but also I would lose layer 7, and 6-9 different inspections/filters.