Netgear R8500 vs. Asus AC86U

[SickBeast]

Which do you guys think is the better router overall? The Netgear appears to have much more raw bandwidth, but the Asus has a faster CPU. So VPN and USB storage will be faster on the Asus, but the Netgear will have better wifi.

I currently own both of these routers. Which one of them do you think I should keep? Which one would I get more money for on the used market?

TIA for any insight.

 

[sdifox]

Doesn't that depend on your usage?

 

[SickBeast]

Doesn't that depend on your usage?

Probably. I rarely use the USB disk function and I don't use the VPN function, although I am considering it.

We have a *ton* of wifi devices in my house. So I'm kind of thinking the R8500 might be better for us. Plus it looks like I could get a lot more money selling the AC86U on the used market as it is much more popular and in high demand right now.

I will say that after using both routers for a bit now, the AC86U is the better router overall, primarily due to one feature. It combines the 2.4ghz and 5ghz bands into a single wireless network and it automatically chooses the right one for you. I notice this is extremely helpful in the fringe coverage areas of my house where I don't get a good 5ghz signal. With the R8500 I need to manually select the 2.4ghz network whereas with the AC86U there is no user intervention required. I really like that.

I am also worried that the R8500 is going to die eventually due to the bootloop issue that is widespread on it.

 

[sdifox]

What ia the status of KRACK mitigation for both?

 

[SickBeast]

What ia the status of KRACK mitigation for both?

Neither router is affected by Krack with the current firmware.

 

[sdifox]

I would keep the asus but ymmv

 

[razel]

Asus. It will be supported regularly with firmware updates for awhile since it's part of AiMesh.

 

[SickBeast]

Well guys I will tell you that my son says the Netgear is better. He was having some dropouts with the Asus AC86U. I'm also finding that the Netgear is an absolute beast. I'm getting a 650mbps connection on my iPhone X with it. I have never seen a device get such a high result. And I'm getting close to 500mbps in the far reaches of my house. I can get good money for the Asus AC86U selling it used right now. You guys telling me to keep the Asus is probably why it has such high resale value. It's in demand. I think I prefer the raw bandwidth and coverage of the Netgear R8500 and I'm leaning toward keeping it so long as it's stable for the next couple of weeks or so.

 

[Makaveli]

You never mentioned what firmware you were running on the asus one.

If stock have you tried Merlin's firmware on it?