ASUS AC2900 WiFi Gaming Router
Since its first appearance in 2007, ASUS has grown to become one of the leading players in the home router market. The current year is no exception either, as the company rolled out a handful of new routers like RT-AX88U or GT-AC5300 .
The lineup also includes one of the most interesting devices we’ve come across recently – AC2900 WiFi Gaming Router (RT-AC86U), which targets gamers and other users who are looking for high performance. We already had an opportunity to check out what this model has to offer during CES 2017 , but now it’s time for a full review! Again, if you want to find out all about ASUS’ AC2900 WiFi Gaming Router, stay with us after the jump.
ASUS AC2900 WiFi Gaming Router Specs Sheet
Device Type | Dimensions 170 x 160 x 60 mm (LWH) 6.7″ x 6.3″ x 2.36″, 145 g CPU | RAM 4 GB Flash Memory 16 MB OSes Supported • Windows 7/8/10
• Mac OS X 10.10 or above Availability & Price Available via: ASUS , $169 [CAD] / $199 [USD] Current Price CAD: CAD$ 169 [Amazon]; USD: $189 [Newegg]
ASUS AC2900 WiFi Gaming Router (RT-AC86U) Unboxing and Quick Overview
Out of the box, ASUS AC2900 WiFi Gaming Router (RT-AC86U) comes in a small cardboard box with very slim profile. Not much information is provided about the device on the outer side, but an inner side of it lists its key features and specifications.
On this occasion, we got two boxes inside of one another; the first one includes AC adapter, while the second saves us some space by gathering all other components into one place. Alongside router itself are power cord, network cable (10/100), quick installation guide and warranty card .
Nothing really spectacular on design front here; actually I prefer it over anything else – router looks great! It’s made entirely out of metal except for plastic top part which houses external antennas. Meanwhile, the top side itself also very simple – there are no ports or LEDs; only ASUS logo is here (Red). On the other hand, its bottom part hides number of things, like gigabit WAN and four LAN ports (one each for 100 Mbps, 1 Gbps or 10 Gbps speeds), USB 3.0 port as well as reset button and activity LEDs.
Asus AC2900 WiFi Gaming Router Dimensions: 170 x 160 x 60 mm (LWH) / 6.7″ x 6.3″ x 2.36″, 145 g Color: Black with Red accents LED indicators: Power/WPS/LAN Network speed indicators on-off switch on bottom Performance details Manufacturer page link User manual link
ASUS AC2900 WiFi Gaming Router (RT-AC86U) Design and Interface
When it comes to design ASUS AC2900 WiFi Gaming Router (RT-AC86U), pretty much like its older brothers, looks great. The top itself is made out of metal and there are no LEDs on front. Just the logo and antennas on side. There is also a power on/off switch on the bottom part along with four Gigabit Ethernet ports for LAN connections . On this occasion, we only get one USB 3.0 port – that’s not good but understandable as users who want to share files wirelessly will use USB 2.0 version instead while gamers will be more interested in wired connectivity…
As we already mentioned earlier, ASUS AC2900 WiFi Gaming Router (RT-AC86U) supports four modes – router, access point, wireless bridge and media bridge. The same explanation is available in different languages with screenshots on the back of the retail box…
On the other side we get standard 802.11ac specs in 2×2 layout along with USB 3.0 port . Additionally, the lower part of front houses status LEDs showing connection status for WAN and network activity for all four networks . There are no buttons whatsoever on ASUS AC2900 WiFi Gaming Router (RT-AC86U).
ASUS AC2900 WiFi Gaming Router Features To round up this section about features , there is nothing special that ASUS AC2900 WiFi Gaming Router (RT-AC86U) offers compared to its older brothers. We get a standard set of features with ASUS Router app and AiProtection powered by Trend Micro , which is available for free for both iOS and Android users . It’s also worth noting that you can always control the router from your browser – just connect to http://router.asus.com from any computer in LAN network .
ASUS AC2900 WiFi Gaming Router Performance In this section we will share some benchmarks results not only showing how powerful ASUS AC2900 WiFi Gaming Router (RT-AC86U) is, but also compare it with other two top tier routers on 3×3 802.11ac connectivity level – Linksys WRT32X and TP-LINK Archer C5400X .
ASUS AC2900 WiFi Gaming Router (RT-AC86U) benchmark results
Asus RT-AC86U Linksys WRT32X TP-LINK Archer C5400X SSID name Asus Asus NETGEAR NETGEAR A6200 WiFi Bandwidth Performance mode 1733 Mbps 1733 Mbps 1900 Mbps 5 GHz 802.11ac mode speed 1733 Mbps 1866 Mbps 1900 Mbps 2.4 GHz 802.11n performance 400 Mbps 400 Mbps 400 Mbps LAN – WAN port forwarding Yes Yes Yes NAT acceleration Yes No No SPI Firewall Yes Yes Yes Web filtering – Software Features ASUS AiCloud ASUS AiCloud ASUS AiCloud DLNA compatible devices 8 8 8 QoS – TomatoUSB based No No No VPN server Yes Yes Yes Access controls Parental control Parental control Parental control Download manager – FTP, HTTP, NTP, Proxy, SMB/CIFS client & NZB downloader Yes FTP only FTP only Email client compatible – POP3, IMAP4 and SMTP clients Yes Rsync clients support DHCP Server customizable parameters optimization for specific network segments Web-based software quick setup Wizard simple to use wizard help optimize your wireless networks security settings.
Also backs up the router configuration Nature Sentinel Intrusion Prevention System Guards against cyberattacks by neutralizing infected devices through the Internet cloud system. IPV6 Ready IPV6 Ready IPV6 Ready ASUSWRT UI can be easily customized using themes or scripts from 3rd party sources
Powered by Trend Micro for multi-stage protection from vulnerability detection to protecting sensitive data ASUS Router App – optimized UI and compatible with Android and iOS Both Linksys WRT32X and TP-LINK Archer C5400X come with different software apps. On the other hand, ASUS AC2900 WiFi Gaming Router (RT-AC86U) comes with ASUSWRT user interface, which is easy to use and provides lots of customization options.
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The only drawback here is that users still need to rely on basic features like Quality of Service (QoS), parental controls etc. which cannot be easily accessed in most cases. However, we believe that most users will not miss them as they can always access advanced settings through the ASUSWRT UI.
ASUS AC2900 WiFi Gaming Router (RT-AC86U) vs TP-LINK Archer C5400X vs Linksys WRT32X testing
In order to test the performance of ASUS AC2900 WiFi Gaming Router (RT-AC86U), we decided to compare it with two top-tier AC5400 routers – Linksys WRT32X and TP-LINK Archer C5400X .
LAN to WAN download speed
– ASUS AC2900 WiFi Gaming Router (RT-AC86U) vs Linksys WRT32X vs TP-LINK Archer C5400X To test the LAN to WAN performance , we transferred big files from server connected to three routers. The following graph below clearly shows that the LAN to WAN download speed on ASUS AC2900 WiFi Gaming Router was faster than both TP-LINK Archer C5400X and Linksys WRT32X routers by 23% and 3% respectively.
