i was not lying about heating issue. My own observation with my OWN ac68u is temps of 80 and slightly more, after extended usage. i leave my router on 24/7
And i notice internet and performance issues, and worse case, disconnections. And this always happens once temps hit 80 ish +
if you check the internet, a bunch of people also noted some issue with temp for some of these units. To the point where people had to tinker with their router to get the cooling sorted out. thats why i stopped recommending this model ages ago because of this.
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/rt-ac68u-...eratures.17418/https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeNetworking/com...er_getting_hot/the thing with asus is, last time they were last on security to the point they got into trouble with the FTC
https://arstechnica.com/information-technol...outer-security/but things have come a long way. RT merlin especially has helped improve on the asus router firmware on the side. this is why whenever using asus router i would use his firmware.
pfsense if you have sufficient specs, you can also enable pfsnort, suricata and all the other security features, if you want next level. but it takes it takes a bit more knowledge to setup.
asus router with rt merlin firmware is easiest to setup especially with Unifi, there is a pulldown setting for unifi ISP in settings too (something you won't get with pfsense which you have to do everything manually).
I haven't check the latest benchmark, but you may be right about the AX56U. Shouldn't be getting old models anyways, because rt merlin will eventually stop developing firmware for older models, so best get a newer model that he will support for quite a while.
but that said, if i were to get my next router, i rather look into a pfsense solution. but i realize it's not for everybody if they aren't willing to put in the time to configure it

Asus router does have AIsecurity, but from a privacy standpoint is it safe?

But if you want to tinker there is some sort of work around.
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/384-6-now...ro.48202/page-3https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-50315544i understand i don't notice internet and performance but i always getting full speed