$1.75 more expensive than 2 months ago. but still heavily discounted for someone needing a new router.
no USB which for me is a negative, everything else positiove.
CamelCamelCamel.
Isnt the AX53U 'better' than the AX55?
Sorry mate, I haven’t looked into them or compared specs.
Both aren’t supported by Merlin so I’m not that interested.
merlin?
Why would you post then….
ASUS RT-AX53U AX1800 Dual Band WiFi 6 (802.11ax) Router On Sale Deal Price: $107.40
With USB
funny enough I'd only buy if it had atleast 4 LAN and 1 USB.
What's the use of USB?
I'm maybe one of the few that use a USB printer on the router. Turns my old brother printer into a wireless printer.
I keep the printer and router in the garage and my PC in the study (wired).
@HFB: How do you find the printer goes in the garage and what type of printer do you have (laser / inkjet)? I've been considering doing the same but somewhat fear it will get gunked up out there.
@Gravity: It's a Brother laser, been in the garage around 5 years without drama, I don't bother to cover it I rmember dusting it sometime not sure when that was.
I would avoid this and get the AX56U which supports the custom firmware https://www.asuswrt-merlin.net/
(in fact, I returned my 55 to get the 56 instead)
what benefits does it offer?
just more control and additional features via firmware, some of the flashing isn't so straight forward for some routers though so beware
So many benefits. Advanced traffic monitoring and bandwidth management, ad blocking, advanced VPN, parental controls, the list goes on. I've been running Merlin on an old Netgear Nighthawk R7000 for about 5 years now. Full linux shell with package management via ENTWARE running off attached USB stick. It acts as a data store for my IP cameras. The other USB port is connected to my UPS and runs NUT so I can monitor the status of the UPS via WinNUT on my PC. Dual WAN with auto failover/failback. It really is the ultimate router firmware.
From your link i saw this AC2200 router with built in Bluetooth speaker for $50. Looks ok.
Deal of the day: ASUS LYRA VOICE All-In-One Smart Voice Router – AC2200 Tri-Band Mesh WiFi Router, Bluetooth speaker, AiMesh support and Amazon Alexa Built-in, AiProtection Pro network security, Two 8W Stereo Speakers https://amzn.asia/d/8EY2hmu
This deserves a deal posted
back to $300+ damn
Best Modem/Router combo out at the moment? Asking for a mate that is looking to get a new one :)
Far better off bridging a seperate modem and running a quality Router.
Finding a decent modem that isn't coupled with an expensive WiFi router you won't be using doesn't seem to easy these days.. that's exactly what I wanted to do and I couldn't find anything at the time.
Any recommendations?
Figure out if you're in the FTTN upgrade program and updoot yourself to a FTTP connection. Then you won't need to look for VDSL modem when upgrading equipment…
Or on the other end of the spectrum of insanity, routers with SFP ports and plug in a SFP VDSL modem.
I've used and purchased many Telstra Modems with great results for next to nothing while on FTTN.
I changed my AussieBB supplied Netcom NF18ACV modem/router into bridge mode and got an Asus rt-ax56u router. Happy with it. Supports wifi 6 and Merlin, if you're into that. I mainly like the parental controls that it comes with so that I can kick the kids devices off the internet whenever I want.
I have ASUS 68U, should I upgrade to this one?
no.
Thanks
Amazon reviews saying at least 2 died short time after purchase which is worrying.
All the more reason to not buy the overseas models people often post here.
Can happen with any device these days, but as scuderia says, buying from a bricks and mortar store, for this reason, is often a good idea.
Might get one to use for AIMesh/
Spent some time browsing through Oculus Quest subreddits and it seems this router gets recommended a lot as a dedicated Airlink device - which I'll be using it for.
Just some more wallet pain thanks to OzB! I'm glad the missus isn't curious about where our money goes XD
Is it worth updating from an ASUS RT-AC87U? I'm not too worried about lack of USB or Ethernet ports.
no
I thought I was the only one still using an AC87U :)
I'm running the latest Merlin release, I think it's from like 2020 or something but still hasn't skipped a beat.
I'm thinking of upgrading but I can't justify it just yet.
Modem bros 🍻
Mines still kicking along fine enough I guess. The range on the 5GHz band sucks though.
Mine had a bit of a brain fart a few days ago and the 5GHz completely disabled itself, no matter how many reboots I did it wouldn't come back. I ended up having to factory reset it, thankfully it works now. It also gave me an excuse to unplug it and wipe about 4 years of dust off it. Mine came from Amazon.com, shipped from the US. Still using the same crappy international adapter that hisses at you if you move the cable.
The 5GHz range is great on mine, I wonder if your antennas are dodgy?
@bonezAU: Well, we have a cat who uses the device as her heated bed/lounge suite, so the antennas are perpetually in sub-optimal positions.
@bonezAU: Hah, no, I don't need to dust mine at least. 5G works well as long as no walls are in the way. The range on 3G is great through walls and up to a pretty damn good distance.
been using this model for 6 months now in a small 2 bedroom apartment, no issue other than a few time where the connection dropped but I suspected that was due to a separate modem rather than this.
Does the wifi 6 connectivity offer any additional benefits over wifi 5?
it's mostly just faster maximum download/upload speed and better protocols, download speed which our ISP can't even provide for most part so it won't make a huge difference since most people will not have access to such internet speed anyways. With that said, no reason to buy wifi 5 over wifi 6 nowadays.
The RT-AX53U is $107.40
https://amzn.asia/d/bThghLs
Similar to few weeks ago
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/product/asus-rt-ax53u