I bought a Netgear XR500 last november for the very impressive looking DumaOS... to find a buggy, completely not fleshed out (event he VPN function advertised wasn’t implemented until a late December firmware update), insanely unstable (crashed at least once a week every week, i had to resort to using my 4yr old Netgear R7000 that was perfectly reliable) router with the company that makes DumaOS having an incredibly apathetic, “we’ll fix it when we fix it” and “No ETA’s on fixes, we make updates, Netgear releases them. Ask them” tone on all forums, i gave up on hoping it would be fleshed out at any point soon. So i got rid of it for the AX88u and flashed Merlin on it.
I was looking for a traffic analyzing, enterprise-functionality router with the XR500 with every nerd knob possible (like Tomato firmware offers), and got a dumbed down buggy experience with barely even basic configuration options. The AC88u was the exact opposite. From a conditional VPN to IPS/traffic analysis/web logging/firewal/features you normally need to outfit a network with separate dedicated devices for, this handles it all with absurd speed and responsiveness in the interface. Everything i thought might be a gimmick (like trendmicro’s ‘aiprotection’) is the real deal and you could not ask for more to secure a home network unless you did go with those dedicated devices. It’s super stable (i changed core router settings that have to restart services in AsusWRT, while transferring 150GB worth of data from a client to an SSD connected to it to test network/USB speeds, and downloading a giant BFV patch on my gaming PC while on a work skype call and never even got a blip of cut-out or noise on my call. The web interface locked up because i made one kinda dumb change while doing this but the call never did!), inSANELY fast across the board (from using it as an OpenVPN client to enabling all the COU-taxing security features to topping out its resources by reading and writing to a USB-connected SSD), i can’t even convey how great this is.
I wanted to see my clients’ connection rates, which interfaces they were connected to, and very importantly their life bandwidth and traffic- and within a couple clicks i can do this as if i’m navigating a Cisco ASA firewall. Just function after function, it’s all available, and it all works.
I also got this for increased theoretical AC speeds and eventual AX speeds, along with wanting the fastest chipset available (my R7000 nighthawk was extremely modular, but its dual-core 1ghz CPU definitely struggled to pass VPN traffic at full bandwidth. My XR500 bricked itself after about 5 minutes of use whenever i even tried to configure the VPN. The AX88U has zero issues with that speed or stability there). So far i haven’t been able to bottleneck the CPU with anything yet without the ethernet Gb bandwidth limitation topping out first. Maybe when AX clients come into play and i set up an aggregated 2Gb link the router could start chugging in some cases, but i have no idea and really doubt it would cause a sweat at this point.
Lordy, even gaming-wise i’ve been casually checking my ping in Battlefield V and Anthem, i’m getting response times i’ve never seen anywhere i’ve lived with any hardware i’ve had before (7-12ms pings, better than 95% of everyone on any server i’m put in).
I even use this to manually reserve IP addresses for my non-configurable IoT devices so I know where everything is on the network. The XR500 would wipe its memory every few days, destroying the work i did there. This is super stable, leases every IP to every device i tell it on-call and never has an issue. It’s just too freaking good. My R7000 was the king of the mid 20-teens. The AX88u is the successor.
In summary this thing is an utter beast. If you’re looking to go with a ‘gaming’ router, i was looking between this and the GT-AX11000 when i decided to get rid of the XR500. I chose this because they have the same horsepower, same specs, and the gimmicky 3rd band of 5Ghz the 11000 has id just that... a gimmick unless you have 300 devices in your home. I run about 50 clients in an apartment with plenty of neighbor networks and never have a problem with congestion or needing more bandwidth, especially for gaming, that this extra band ‘gives’ you. Also, the main reason i chose this is because the gaming ROG firmware on thr GT-AX11000 actually IS gimmicky. Read reviews on the GT-AC5300 and you’ll see a lack of Asus updates, constant bugs, broken features (recently an update actually stopped that 3rd 5ghz band from even broadcasting), and poorly implemented gaming functions unique to the router that just don’t work most of the time. I have a friend that runs an AiMesh with an AC88u and GT-AC5300 since Christmas and it has given nothing but issues. The worst part is, NO 3rd party firmware support with the ROG firmware. So if Asus doesn’t fix a bug, you’re out of luck. The AX88u is supported by Merlin which is the snappiest, slickest firmware out there for Asus routers. That’s the key, the firmware- and the AX88u has the one you want with no big compromises to the AX11000.
Last thing, AX11000 has the 2.5GbE port. Neat, but with the 8x 1GbE ports on the AX88u you have plenty of available ports to run link aggregation on, say, a separate switch with 2.5/5/10GbE support in the future for a 2Gb pipe into any of the direct router clients, while you can put any insanely fast clients on the switch directly later when those speeds start being adopted. It’s all a win-win with this router and any future scenarios you can think of.
10/10 best router of 2019, true Netgear Nighthawk R7000 successor.
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This Item  ASUS AX6000 Dual Band WiFi 6 Gaming Router, 8 Ports, Lifetime Security, Adaptive QoS |  |  |  |  |  | |
| Price | $234.95 | -25% $89.99 List: $119.99 | -20% $199.99 List: $249.99 | $129.00 | -13% $349.99 List: $399.99 | $199.99 |
| Delivery | Get it Apr 24 - 26 | Get it as soon as Thursday, Apr 25 | Get it as soon as Thursday, Apr 25 | — | Get it as soon as Thursday, Apr 25 | Get it as soon as Thursday, Apr 25 |
| Customer Ratings | ||||||
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| Easy to install | ||||||
| Value for money | ||||||
| Sold By | CellularStream | Amazon.com | Amazon.com | Xtrasaver Inc | Amazon.com | Amazon.com |
| connectivity tech | USB, Wired, Wireless, Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi, Ethernet | Wi-Fi, Ethernet, USB | Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi, Ethernet, USB | — |
| number of ports | 4 | 5 | 6 | — | 6 | 5 |
| data transfer rate | 6000 megabits per second | 3000 megabits per second | 5700 megabits per second | 2700 megabits per second | 11000 megabits per second | 5400 megabits per second |
| wireless standard | 802 11 A, 802 11 B, 802 11 N, 802 11 AC, 802 11 AX | 802 11 AX, 802 11 AC, 802 11 G, 802 11 G, 802 11 A | 802 11 AX, 802 11 AC, 802 11 N, 802 11 G, 802 11 A | 802 11 AX | 802 11 AX, 802 11 AC, 802 11 N, 802 11 G, 802 11 A | 802 11 AX, 802 11 AC, 802 11 N, 802 11 G, 802 11 B |
| frequency band class | dual band | dual band | dual band | dual band | tri band | tri band |
| lan port bandwidth | 8 gb | Gigabit | 2.5 Gigabit | 10/100 megabits per second | 2.5 Gigabit | 10/100/1000 Mbps |
From the manufacturer
The Next Era of Home WiFi - 802.11ax
Experience up to gigabit speed Wi-Fi with the RT-AX88U, designed for the next generation of devices and the demands of complex & dense wireless environments.
NextGen AX WiFi is backward compatible with 802.11ac/n/g/b/a WiFi devices and supports current WiFi devices.
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Built for Multi-device Households
With a revolutionary combination of OFDMA and MU-MIMO technology, 802.11ax technology provides up to 4X greater network capacity and efficiency in traffic-dense environments.
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Better Battery Life for Your Devices
Target Wake Time allows RT-AX88U to schedule designated intervals for devices to transmit data. This allows them to sleep when there is no need to wait for a router signal.
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WiFi that Goes Farther
With the 802.11ax WiFi featuring OFDMA technology, RT-AX88U provides increased WiFi signal range and coverage by dividing each channel into smaller sub-channels.
Warp-speed WiFi
RT-AX88U is a 4x4 dual-band Wi-Fi router that provides 160MHz bandwidth and 1024-QAM. With a total networking speed of about 6000Mbps-1148Mbps on the 2.4GHz band and 4804Mbps on the 5GHz band.
Give your Online Gaming a Double Boost
RT-AX88U's Adaptive QoS prioritizes game packets for smoother online play. It also has built-in wtfast to seek out and secure the shortest possible path between your gaming device and the game server, minimizing game ping and lag.
Commercial-grade Security for your Home Network
RT-AX88U has AiProtection Pro, powered by Trend Micro with automatic, regularly updated security signatures to protect your devices and personal data from internet threats. This strong security offers advanced parental controls.
8 LAN Ports
Eight Gigabit LAN ports make RT-AX88U the ideal solution if you have multiple wired devices, such as NAS systems, PCs and switches. And, if you ever want to host a LAN party at home, RT-AX88U makes it possible.
Powerful Whole-home Wi-Fi System.
ASUS AiMesh is an innovative router feature that fixes these problems: it creates a whole-home Wi-Fi network using multiple ASUS routers. AiMesh is powerful, flexible and you can use a mix of ASUS router model! AiMesh gives you time-saving central control, and seamless roaming capability.
ASUS Routers
 ASUS RT-AX88U |  GT-AX11000 |  RT-AX89X |  RT-AX92U |  RT-AX86U |  RT-AX82U |  RT-AX56U | |
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Customer Reviews
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3,986
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3,616
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468
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9,766
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3,606
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3,077
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1,301
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Price
| $234.95 | $400.21 | $329.00 | — | $299.00 | $149.99 | $85.90 |
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WiFi Speed
| 6000 Mbps | 11000 Mbps | 6000 Mbps | 6100 Mbps | 5700 Mbps | 5400 Mbps | 1800 Mbps |
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WiFi Coverage
| Very large homes | Very large homes | Very large homes | Very large homes | Very large homes | Very large homes | Large homes |
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ASUS AiMesh Compatible
| ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
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Ai Protection
| ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
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WiFi 6 Speeds
| ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
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WORTH IT? ASUS AX6000 WiFi 6 Gaming Router (RT-AX88U)
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Asus AX6000 RT-AX88U - Is it the BEST WiFi 6 Router in 2021?
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✅ Eric's Family Reviews ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
Reviews with images
We shall see on dropped 5G.
I initially purchased a refurbished ASUS RT AX86U PRO. It seemed to be just fine until the 5G band would drop every few hours on the PC about 20 feet away straight up from the router on the second floor). My older WIFI 5 RT AC86U never dropped the 5G channel in years. The RT AX88U PRO was the alternative if the issue was endemic to the RT AX86U PRO design. The AX86U PRO looks the same as the AC86U but it isn't. I decided to try another router design, the RT AX88U PRO.On the RT86U PRO I tried all the usual fixes for 5G, 80 MHz bandwidth, fixed channels, no DFS and all the other tricks. No change to the device location or distances. I left the 2.4 GHz band on WPA-2 security for older devices. Both channels are IPV6 domain names. 2.4GHz seemed fine but I paid for WPA-3 and 5G to eventually be 160 MHz and 1G+ Internet someday. I use 400 Mbps now so no need to use the 160 MHz bandwidth. 40-80 MHz @ 5 GHz is fine."On the 5 GHz band, set the channel width to 40 MHz and see if that improves reliability. Keep in mind that 80 MHz and 160 MHz channel widths may carry the promise of extra speed, but will also interfere with, and receive interference from, many more sources than 40 MHz.""Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS) is a spectrum-sharing mechanism that allows multiple Wireless Local Area Networks to coexist with radar systems. It automatically selects a frequency that does not interfere with certain radar systems while operating in the 5 GHz band."So far, after a firmware update, the RT AX88U PRO seems to be better. But I haven't been on the PC to be sure. The build of the 88U PRO is well ahead of the RT86U PRO. Some stuff is weird on the AX88U PRO, the Ethernet ports are upside down so the release tab is underneath and hard to press. The power supply wart is overkill with a thick power cord to the wart, and a cord from that to the router. A bunch of junk that seems unnecessary. The plug is right angle and is pulled by the power cord where a straight-in plug would be better. But this is picky stuff. Design departments don't seem to communicate.It is bigger, and I'm not a fan of this form factor but... I hate no 5G worse. It isn't bad looking but you sure see the thing taking up desk space. The AC86U and AX86U PRO vertical form factor seems far superior for me. I'd like to see this form factor used more everywhere.Right now I'm not sure what to think about this AX88U PRO's router 5G stability. The prior AX86 PRO CAT6 router was awful, and the old WIFI-5 AC86U router was never even given a thought. As long as WIFI6 / CAT6 router have out, I'm sort of surprised that this is a problem today. Don't expect smooth sailing. The RT AX88U PRO looks better built than the previous routers I've owned but looks aren't everything. The lesser AC86U WIFI5 router (it's EOL right now) was 100% stable.
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Alain Mijangos
Resuelve mis problemas
Reviewed in Mexico on January 3, 2024Style: WiFi 6E | AXE7800Verified Purchase
Salvador Monroy
Totalmente recomendable
Reviewed in Mexico on March 1, 2023Style: WiFi 6 | AX6000Verified Purchase
Salvador Monroy
Reviewed in Mexico on March 1, 2023
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Amazon Customer
Good product
Reviewed in India on November 4, 2019Style: WiFi 6 | AX6000Verified Purchase
Plitz
A very good Wifi 6E router
Reviewed in Singapore on October 5, 2023Style: WiFi 6E | AXE7800Verified Purchase
Plitz
Reviewed in Singapore on October 5, 2023
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Julio Vidal
Una de las mejores inversiones que he hecho.
Reviewed in Mexico on January 18, 2023Style: WiFi 6 | AX6000Verified Purchase
