Which ASUS (RT-AC68) or NETGEAR Nighthawk (R7000)

I am looking to upgrade my router in hopes of finding one that is ready for new speeds in the coming couple years, and that does not continually drop the signal. I have often found myself rebooting the modem and router when my signal gets lost, which seems to be happening with greater regularity.

I currently own the D-Link Wireless N+300 Mbps Extreme-N Gigabit Router (DIR-655), and have not been too happy with it.

Anyone have experience with either of the two below, or another new model that you have found robust with range and no connectivity (rare) issues?
1. ASUS (RT-AC68) Wireless-AC1900 Dual-Band Gigabit Router or
2. NETGEAR Nighthawk AC1900 Dual Band WiFi Gigabit (R7000)

 

Coincidently I have already answered this question here.

Definitely R7000.

 

Downloads, do you see something on the horizon (2014, or next year) worth waiting for?

 

Not really. I used to recommend that people stay away from spending a lot of money on 802.11ac as it appeared. I was right in that too - first generation is always damn expensive and not particularly good.

Now we're talking about second gen routers and these are actually properly good. The only things you can hope for in 2014 is prices going down (that may not happen though) and three stream internal Wi-Fi cards (CAN YOU HEAR ME INTEL?! )

 

Mind that ac only helps in lan range. Also, it hardly make a difference if only Internet is concerned. (for most at least)

 

Have you heard good things about the R7000 connectivity and maintaining signal. I don't want to be in the same situation where I find myself restarting the router/modem every 2 days. I would expect this after power outages or maybe infrequent surges, but not with such regularity.

Also, if I hear you correctly, your saying the R7000 was a good choice for the average consumer looking for speed and reliability?

Obviously there are no absolutes with this sort of question, so I am only looking for your expertise/opinion with wireless connectivity .

 

Netgear in general is way better than Asus in terms of firmware quality. While I have to give it to Asus that they are still not there.
As for rebooting routers- it shouldn't happen to often but unfortunately every device needs to be rebooted once in a while. Even if it doesn't require it because it still works memory leaks, overflowing NAT tables or even driver issues (which are completely independent from the router manufacturers) will force you to reboot.

In general though- good routers with a lot of RAM and proper firmware are less likely to lock up.