Bought an ASUS RT-AC5300 Router

I bought an ASUS RT-AC5300 router today and will be updating this thread with my experiences with it.

First good sign is, last year I bought the ASUS RT-AC3200 router for the sole fact that it has a feature called Smart Connect which when activated, you no longer see 3 bands, 2.4GHz, 5GHz 1, and 5 GHz 2 and sit puzzled thinking "hmmm, which band is best to connect to?" as Smart Connect combines all the 3 bands into 1 SSID and as more devices connect, it assigns them to the least congested band. Sounds great on paper right? that thing never worked properly. My devices were getting randomly disconnected all the time. I tried upgrading to diff. firmwares including Merlin's builds but finally gave up and returned it. It was simply not usable.

First good sign with this router is that Smart Connect actually works now. I haven't been disconnected in the past 2 hours that I have been using the router.

I also turned on the Firewall and added a few ad sites and the Microsoft Telemetry addresses to have them blocked and it didn't affect the router's performance like it did with my RT-AC68U thanks to its 1.4 GHz Dual Core processor.

Additionally, it has an extra security layer called AiProtection which is like a built in Anti-Virus from Trend Micro. On my previous RT-AC68U and RT-AC88U, enabling AiProtection caused a bit of a performance hit. With this router you don't feel a thing, it silently works in the background with no negative impact on performance.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask

@downloads @Ethrem

Speed Test Results (exactly the same as my RT-AC68U):

 

The AC5300 routers are gimmicky unless you have lot of people connecting to them.. Not surprised by your result tbh.. My AC2350 router is pretty good and I'll be keeping it for a while

 

After 48 hours of using it with AiProtection enabled and Smart Connect, I am happy to report that I haven't experienced any disconnections! Finally, ASUS makes a router with features that actually work unlike my previous AC3200 which used to disconnect left and right when Smart Connect/AiProtection were enabled

 

Don't be so happy yet. My router used to work for a week or so and then something would give up. I'm guessing there was a firewall-related memory leak or NAT table overflow, either way it had to be rebooted.

This was fixed with a firmware update, but my point is you'll need at least a month - if not more - to be able to say with any certainty that it is stable.

 

Right, let's see, I hope I didn't speak to soon.

I was in Computer Plaza 2 days ago wanting to buy the Netgear R8000 but then this router caught my eye, and as much as I want to avoid ASUS products from previous bad experience, its 3 year warranty and local support here is what made me give it a try. I hope I don't regret it.

 

I have the Netgear version of your router but more for the reason TomJGX suggested. I have 16 devices on my network and my old Linksys E4200 couldn't handle all of them at once.

The extra band and smart connect actually do work well. I live in an apartment building and according to inSSIDer, the low band is on channel 8 straddling my neighbors and the 2 high ones are splitting my iPhone's and iPads between them. I'm happy with it.

Our routers may be different vendors but are internally based on the same platform so I would suspect you'll be happy too.

Bobby

 

how? so Negear makes the same router but with a diff. name/packaging? What's the model?

 

It's the Netgear R8500...

http://www.cnet.com/uk/products/netgear-r8500-nighthawk-x8-ac5300-smart-wifi-router/

 

ohh ok, that's not available here in Dubai, they only had the R8000

 

My router blocked SUMo download (software updater):

 

The whole smart connect concept is Gimmicky. When in good proximity to the router it is always suggested to use the 5Ghz Bands since they offer the most throughput. If you use the same password on all the the supported bands, then your device will automatically jump the next best SSID/band available if the 5Ghz falls off or out of range. Having the router do it for you is just asking for complications.
This is why i love DDWRT. it is a no BS firmware with actual control. Merlini is a good alternative if you are looking for something with a familiar interface.

Also its not really worth it using the in built malware/site blocking functions, NOD32 already does everything for me, you can use whatever you prefer and it will be better. And there are a lot of better tools that offer more control and less frustration than the inbuilt router "blocking" shenanigans.

Dont get me wrong, this is one of the best routers out there, but try and avoid using the additional "fluff" functions bundled in, will save you a lot of headaches and will save a lot of resources on the router itself.

I have been using this for the past 3 years : http://www.amazon.com/RT-AC66U-Dual-Band-Wireless-AC1750-Gigabit-Router/dp/B008ABOJKS
Not even a single hickup so far. I have all my personal devices over static IP's and have QoS setup for DHCP based wifi devices.
A controlled setup goes a long way in preventing issues.

 

@Phoenix

How does it actually work? Is it "in the cloud" sort of antivirus or is it physically running one the router? What about the virus definitions (if it's the latter)?
If it's the former I would be rather terrified that all of my traffic and files downloaded are reported somewhere. It's like VPN in reverse.

 

It is all in the cloud.

I did try a few tests on that eicar website or whatever it's called in the past. All threats were blocked before they could even be downloaded, they were sample viruses.

very interesting thread about it:

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