Good link

The second number varies across a large pool. Ping, speedtest, bufferbloats seemed normal. Noticed the usual attacks that is blocked by the router.

The history behind where electronics equipment, with proper cooling, is left on 24X7 is each time the equipment is powered on or off there is some stress on the components. For networking gear its safe to say they are designed for 24X7 (unless its a poor design).

The other point is to invest on a good power strip. The generic ones if you open up tend to be of questionable wiring and cheap build quality, raising the risk of electrical shorts etc when run over prolonged periods. At the minimum, get one with build in surge protection (surge is where the gear gets fried) and good build quality.

Unstable routers usually caused by,
1. Overheating. Stacking router onto the modem etc. The reboot is a tell.
2. Early signs that the wifi chip is failing. SSID is seen but cannot connect.

The other point, as you would protect the home theatre gear, is invest in a good power strip with surge protector. Unstable power is bad for electronics.

If its Unifi, the led lights will flash usually. Reboot clears the issue pointing to probably the router.

That is around the price people in most countries pay for the AC86U (after bundle discount)

@ASUSmy
Confirms the inflated price (also known as Malaysia ASUS tax) buying a local set at MSRP

Except AiMesh is full of bugs, unstable and to mention in simple terms no better than some vendor specific implementation of WDS (without the half bandwidth wireless backhaul penalty). ASUS is trying to sell something that is still not quite there yet

The high end ASUS routers firmware still have connected client display issues, bugs fixed a few version back appearing again, etc. Only feature that is good is AiProtection. Otherwise the RM500 ASUS AC1300 router recommended by many on this forum is the better value. That is where ASUS is good at.

another review
ASUS Blue Cave AC2600 Dual-Band Wireless Router Reviewed

His problem is likely just ASUS firmware needing reboot every few days, if on the recent versions. Would be nice if people asking specific issues post the firmware version, as firmware do come out with defects or bugs depending on the version.

Seems fine. International speedtest, bufferbloats, ping all pretty much optimal numbers. IPV6 and web sites load fine.

Had not seen other IP range in a while now. It performs as good as the previous "excellent" IP ranges with Unifi since the early adopters days.

It seems that Unifi is stable these days, unlike in the past certain IP address tends to be better. Speedtest is not as accurate, dslreports with bufferbloat tests seem to be ahead so far.

And tests should run on 5GHz (forget 2.4GHz as its so congested, can sustain only 3 wifi networks before interference, 2 networks if using wide channels) as its probably interference free and can sustain higher wifi speeds. Been on 5GHz wifi for almost a decade now and experiences will tell you 5GHz is the only option to max out your bandwidth.

This post has been edited by XPS: Apr 21 2018, 07:50 PM

Nice wifi speeds. Your router seems to be well configured.

Is that WS880 running the original firmware or converted to AC68U?

If its a modified AC68U then try not to update the firmware, be it ASUS or Merlin, as ASUS is getting sticky with its hardware verfication to prevent non ASUS devices from running its stuff.

Merlin has extra stuff like scripts, ad blocker but no mesh support. A lot more stable than ASUS standard firmware. If you do not need the extra features easier to stay with ASUS firmware for local support.

No. ASUS is aware of Merlin and providing the source codes for the modifications. Some code are closed meaning Merlin use them without the ability to make changes.

You can also set a single SSID and let the client decide 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz although in practice you want separate SSID to steer clients towards 5 GHz

The "original" D-Link DIR615 from the early Unifi days is heaps better than the C1200. Ok qualify a bit here. With the wifi turned off and separate high end APs bridged to it. DIR-615 suffers from weak wifi (given its 2009 design and technology then) and only 2.4GHz band only and this is where the APs come in. The second reason is the compact case will heat up if the wifi chip is under heavy loads. Otherwise it runs for months without a reboot. C1200 is pale in comparison.

The amount of issues reported here on the C1200 and endless reboots points to issues around this router.

On the AC87U be aware that it is the only ASUS router with a separate firmware for the 5GHz radio. Think its wifi radio chips are from different vendors. ASUS is reported having no plans for firmware updates to say AiMesh other than security fixes for the AC87U.

AC87U is not going to get new features update as its unique design makes it a challenge. Therefore not recommended.

AC86U > AC87U > AC68U

AC86U is probably the best ASUS has now. The GT-AC5300 is supposed to be better specs however if you do not need tri-band the AC86U is a clear winner. GT-AC5300 is not Merlin supported.

Strong magnets?

Did you mention that you are using the AC87U?

If so losing AiProtection is a big deal. Plus the above routers are in a different tier hardware specs snd features