Nothing to do with thunder..was watching smart tv at noon (not raining, sunny weather) when suddenly wifi connection dropped. Checked the router & only LAN 4 LED lights up (very dim). All my devices are powered through Belkin surge protection by the way.

Swapped with original asus power supply unit still no improvement. Both power supply unit are working fine as fan connected to router USB port can still run.

RIP. 

So Asus official taobao sent a replacement unit back to me. Now just waiting for it to arrive. Will sell it off since I already have a replacement router.

Some timeline for benefit of others.

11/11 bought router during sale. Flashed merlin, installed cooling fans since 1st day. Router positioned on high cabinet with very minimal dust area. (unlike a poster here who thinks everyone puts their router in a sawmill factory  )

13/4 router just died during daytime. No lightning whatsoever, it was a sunny day. No LAN connected except unifi modem.

contacted taobao agent in LYN who bought the router for me to contact Asus China.

23/4 sent router back to China using Poslaju Air Parcel (RM62 + RM15 insurance). Declared parcel as modem. Took 17 days to arrive, quite late since this is the cheapest postage.

10/5 router arrived at Asus China facility.

13/5 Asus China sent new replacement unit to taobao agent warehouse without further question. Problem statement already explained during first communication. Then have to fork out RM44 postage from warehouse to Malaysia.

So total spent for this RMA was RM121.

FYI. RT-AC86U local unit is selling at RM899 at Lazada now. Today only!

You could try changing some of the wireless options in the 'Wireless - Professional' tab e.g. disable  WMM APSD. I don't have an AC86U, my main router is an AC66U but I expect the options are similar. Usually it's a case of changing one of the options and trying for a while.

There's a lot of good information at  https://www.snbforums.com/forums/asus-wireless.37/

RT-AC86U is selling at rm790 at shopee asus official store now!

Here is the link shared from previous page
https://shopee.com.my/-Ready-Stock-ASUS-RT-...4761.1359873119

yes this one, theres 7% discount coupon to apply to make  it below rm800. i think this should be local set?

Is Asus RT-AC86U still good to buy ? So many negative comments especially overheating. I kinda phobia with Asus brand, had bad experiences with their product before and went through RMA few times.

Was there a good 11.11 deal for this or nothing special ? Didn't really check

Last week I was helped my father to buy a china set RT-AC86U for his home. After I received the router, I was immediately test that router and try out the aimesh for my home before I pass that router to him.

My first time to enjoy aimesh, took me around 1 hour to do research on how to switch the new router to aimesh node. So after I successfully switch that new router to aimesh node. I just need to take this router and put to near my main router, then login to my main router to add the new router into aimesh group. 

I was tried it and feel not bad. So now, I am deciding to buy one more again for my house. The one China set which bought from shopee already passed to my father so I cant use aimesh anymore.

So now I go to taobao again to find the even cheaper RT-AC86U. The US version was just selling CNY660 (around RM395), with upgrade to RT-AC88U antenna and free 2 fans. This router do not ship to Malaysia, so I choose to deliver to third party forwarder warehouse. https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z09....&_u=53jnm3n313f





I will come back later after I receive this router and give some feedback about this router. Should be not a big deal because I just need this router as aimesh node only.

Not so sure, I just buy one for aimesh purpose only. Not sure whether got region locked. But I look at the users review there, all of the China users were able to use this US version to connect into their internet too. Doesn't seems like got region locked too.

Finally I was received the US version RT-AC86U.

So here is my short review about the US-version RT-AC86U. The most importantly, you may eager to know that will this router works in Malaysia too? Then answer is, YES!

I'm not so sure since Asus which version of firmware updates, Asus was removed the region settings in the Wireless > Professional. Last time when I bought my China set RT-AC86U from China, this router was able to set to Asia, US, Europe and Australia. Unfortunately, probably Asus new firmware updates were removed the "region" option from wireless settings. Both of my main router and this US-router does not found this setting anymore.

My purpose to buy this router is just for aimesh. However, since my curiosity to ask myself whether this router (US version) works for TM Unifi too?

I can find out Unifi and Maxis under the IPTV option in this router (don't have TIME)


The US version got multilanguages.


US version get connected and working fine on TM Unifi


This router comes with the Chinese Koolshare Merlin 384.13_1. I can easily flash back to Asus official firmware. Everything working fine and internet get connected to the internet.


Speedtest on Wifi, not bad.


I also can flash to any third party custom firmware, either merlin or the Chinese Koolshare.