Upgrading To The ASUS RT-AC88U Wireless Router

This past week my main router I've been using for the past three years failed on me (the ASUS RT-AC66U) so I quickly set out to replace this router with a superior model that can better suit my needs today. The router I ended up going for was the expensive ASUS RT-AC88U, but so far it's working out very well.

The ASUS AC88U costs nearly $300 USD, but was the best model I could find short of buying a more expensive enterprise router. A high-end router is warranted since generally I have at least 20~30 802.11 n/ac devices (a mix of computers, Nest devices, Chromecasts, Fire TV, security cameras, and mobile devices) connected to the router at a time and upwards of 70 systems wired up to this network with running benchmarks on over 60 Linux systems daily.

Before anyone asks why I just don't build my own router system and setup pfSense, Smoothwall, or other Linux distribution designed for such network needs with so many systems, there are a few reasons. It comes down to time with it being quicker and easier getting something off the shelf and the price would be about comparable. While the network performance would likely be superior if using high-end components, I am not concerned as much about that since with my Phoronix Test Suite and Phoromatic development, I want a less than ideal, somewhat congested network to ensure these PTS client systems and Phoromatic Server are being stressed well during development to ensure the code works great for customers. A network that occasionally drops to its knees, a router that needs to reboot once in a while, etc, are just more real-world tests for making sure all of these automated benchmarking systems behave appropriately and are able to respond adequately, but still a router that is reliable and will suit all of my other network needs.

Anyhow, in my router hunt this past week it came down largely between the ASUS RT-AC88U vs. D-Link AC3200 Ultra Tri-Band vs. NETGEAR Nighthawk X6. I ended up settling for the AC88U due to the great success of the AC66U over the past three years, this model having come out just recently as the successor to the popular AC87U, and looked like it would suit my needs. The AC88U has eight Gigabit ports, 802.11ac WiFi with a dual-band rate of 3167 Mbps (5GHz rates up to 2167 Mbps, 2.4GHz up to 1000 Mbps), a 4x4 antenna design, USB 3.0 connectivity to the router, and is powered by a 1.4GHz Broadcom dual-core processor with 512MB of RAM.

This router also has "WTFast" and other online gaming optimization features. That doesn't matter to me, but they do advertise Linux support!

In having been using the ASUS RT-AC88U router for a few days now, I've been very happy with its performance. The 2.4GHz and 5GHz wireless range is clearly superior to that of the AC66U and now have a strong signal everywhere in my house, the router has kept up when being connected to all the Gigabit switches connected to the 60+ benchmarking systems and all of my wireless devices, and overall is working out well so far. The web interface for the AC88U is just like the AC66U and other modern ASUS routers.

While networking isn't one of my areas with as much interest or enthusiasm as other areas of Linux performance, I just wanted to relay my initial experience with the ASUS RT-AC88U. Of course, the main gripe with this router is the price at . If anyone has any questions about the AC88U for Linux usage, etc, feel free to post away in our forums.