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Welcome, I went through exactly the same design choices a few years ago, especially when you have kids (parental control) and multiple Xbox’s which require OPEN NAT etc.
is one router sufficient or are you looking at a wifi mesh scenario to improve wifi coverage within your home ?
Also, how bothered are by you by using a sperate modem and router, or would you prefer an all in one option ?
and how big is the budget
In a completely sane world, madness is the only freedom (J.G.Ballard).
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Don’t require Wifi mesh as our house is fairly small with breeze block walls on the ground floor and stud partitions upstairs. The wifi on the DSL-AC88U works well for us. I had hoped this unit would be kept up to date by Asus…
and it’s interesting to read about the unit’s memory leaks.Previous to the DSL-AC88U I did have a separate modem and wifi setup (TP-Link TD-W9980 router and something else for wifi) so not adverse to splitting out the roles.
I also use an instance of PiHole as DHCP and DNS server – I presume things would be worse if the DSL-AC88U were doing these also?
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The DSL-AC88U had great potential, but in reality due to outsourcing (not from me you heard that) a commercial disaster.
Looking at the facts, some manufacturers’ produce cheap kit, which is great value but do not update firmware’s often, others produce great hardware and poor software also with infrequent updates.
Wifi 6 (AX) is the new wifi standard, but if cost is a consideration, then wifi 5 (AC) is still very good and perfectly acceptable
Manufactures:
- ASUS (Taiwanese company)
- AVM (Fritz!box) (German company)
- Netgear (USA company)
- TP-Link (Chinese company)
others are available but I have kept the list short.
All in one Units:
- (No Wifi 6 modem / router units currently exist)
- ASUS have nothing to offer currently, they are in the process of releasing the DSL-AX82U (wifi 6), which should be a good unit once available (EOY).
- AVM Fritz!box are great all in one units, the 7580 and 7590 are stable but due to internal anntennas, wifi may not be as strong.
- TP-Link have the TP-Link Archer VR2800 which is great value and should do all you need, unsure about OPEN NAT for multiple Xbox’s.
- Netgear has the D8500, good hardware specs but lacking in features
Dedicated Routers:
ASUS RT-AC86U, which I use for kids access as I flashed this with ASUSWRT-Merlin firmware and parental controls are excellent and a cheap router .
TP-Link – TP-Link Archer AX50 is great value and good hardware, alas firmware requires time to be perfected.
Netgear Routers have poor parental controls via Mac, so not really an option.
Modem:
DrayTek 130, great unit and BT approved
Zyxel, VMG8924-B10A , another good unit
The key is to decide on a manufacturer and then work you way down from there. my option for yourself would be the DrayTek 130 modem combined with the ASUS RT-AX88U and then flash this with ASUSWRT-Merlin firmware, and you are set for the next 5 years or so.
Or wait to End of Year and see if the ASUS DSL-AX82U is any good
Below is link to a emulator which is similar to the RT-AX88U. (no wifi 6)
In a completely sane world, madness is the only freedom (J.G.Ballard).
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I pondered this question back when ASUS stopped updating the firmware for the DSL-AC88U, alas I feel the wifi chips are slightly older on the RT-AC88U (BCM4366) compared to the BCM4366e used in the DSL-AC88U and the main cpu’s are totally different, but both Broadcom so not sure in reality, but would assume it would not work.
Flash and RAM sizes are the same for both models so would be a very good exercise if you are feeling brave and would benefit many others
In a completely sane world, madness is the only freedom (J.G.Ballard).
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Cant work, totally different hardware, you’ll end with a brick.
It is not similar to an RT-AC68U with added DSL part to be a DSL-AC68U.
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Sourced a used RT-AC88U.
In a completely sane world, madness is the only freedom (J.G.Ballard).
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Now using Draytek > RT-AC88U (with latest Merlin FW). I’m impressed with the features on the router but the family have complained about the wifi not being as good (previously used DSL-AC88U). Been a few drops… we’ll see how it goes in the coming days. Router was factory reset.
On the plus side my Zen Internet FTTC line went from 67mbps to 76mbps
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Now using Draytek > RT-AC88U (with latest Merlin FW). I’m impressed with the features on the router but the family have complained about the wifi not being as good (previously used DSL-AC88U). Been a few drops… we’ll see how it goes in the coming days. Router was factory reset. On the plus side my Zen Internet FTTC line went from 67mbps to 76mbps
Hopefully just the Draytek modem settling in – if it is only wifi that is dropping, there are a few tweaks we can try ;-)
In a completely sane world, madness is the only freedom (J.G.Ballard).
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and it’s interesting to read about the unit’s memory leaks.
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