ASUS AC5300 Wi-Fi Tri-band Gigabit Wireless Router with 4x4 MU-MIMO, 4 x LAN Ports, AiProtection Network Security and WTFast Game Accelerator, AiMesh Whole Home Wi-Fi System Compatible (RT-AC5300)

Pros: Worked great as a router. Has great range, speed and it HAD a lot of very useful features within the GUI.

Cons: After a year and a half my purchase, a firmware update made it a condition of agreeing to a new privacy policy from their third party software/firmware provider in which you have to allow them to share your information, internet usage and such. If you don't agree to this condition, the features you had been using up to that point and for which you paid when you purchased this product are disabled. You can not longer use the features you paid for unless you agree to this intrusion into your privacy. In my book that is blackmail and theft. NICE GOING ASUS! You are now on my brand blacklist. Never again!

Pros: Range, Speed, Configurability, Cool Looking, etc...

Cons: I cannot believe that I can going to say this, but none as of yet. I work in the networking field, but some might find all of the possible settings to be a little overwhelming. For those of you, leave the defaults initially and read the manual to understand what they do. :)

Overall Review: I had an Amped RTA15 that I used in a NYC apartment. And it worked fine. However, I moved from a 1 bedroom apartment to a 6000 sq ft house. As expected, the Amped router was not providing anywhere near the range that I needed. For example, the house (built in 1935) has 3 floors and a basement. I placed the router centrally on the second floor in a home office. With the Amped router, I could achieve 110mbs/second in the office and that is what I pay for. Once I ventured away from the office, the signal when to hell. I could only get internet in one bedroom and in half of the living room below the office on the 1st floor. Everywhere else was a dead-zone. So, I looked at getting an Access Point, but I figured that I should start with a new router first and then add an AP or 2 if needed. After doing a ton of research on the Netgear Nighthawk X8, the new D-Link AC5300 (which is STILL not out) and the ASUS AC5300...I obviously chose the ASUS once it released. After getting it up and running (within 30 mins), I started to walk around my house and run speed tests. After running multiple tests in each room (including the basement), the lowest download rate that I was seeing was 85mb/sec. And these test were used with a 2013 Mac Book Pro that has an N card and not an AC card (I still need to buy some of those). Translation....I do not need a single AP in my house. One other thing that I like about this router is that it supports 802.3ad (Dynamic) Link Aggregation. This allows me to use the 2 ethernet ports on my Synology NAS Filer and have them aggregated to 1 IP address on my network for increased speeds (2x). I am not sure how much benefit I will get from this, but I do use my NAS filer for streaming movies, PC Backups and I mirror all photos to the Cloud (I have a ton of photos and they are all in RAW format).<br><br>And yes, it is cool looking IMO. Large, but cool.<br><br>I hope this helps a few of you, but if you are willing to depart with $400 you will not be disappointed. Best of luck. ---UPDATE--- Now that I have had this router for 6 months, I still love this thing. I hear others complain, but it has been GREAT for me. The only thing that is sometimes annoying is that I have a 2TB USB 3.0 drive attached to it. I can always access it from any computer, but every blue moon, I cannot stream the content to a TV and it says there is no playable media. If I rename the USB drive name in the ASUS Router's UI, this fixes it (the other option is to delete the drive and re add it). Not a huge burden since it has only happened a few times and the fix takes seconds to complete. Other than that, this is just...plain and simply...a GREAT router. Like I said before..."you will not be disappointed."

Pros: Awesome while it worked

Cons: Purchased this router November 2015. 1st one died in May 2016, after a lengthy RMA process (about 3 weeks) and no advanced exchange program I received a new one. The new one started to reboot/restore factory settings all on its own starting December 3rd. I would restore previous configurations and it constantly restores factory settings. Gonna try to contact ASUS support but I am pretty sure they are gonna tell me its out of warranty now.

Pros: Fast and Easy Setup Works right out of the box Fast speeds even on the 2.4ghz channel

Cons: Since I replaced the Netgear Nighthawk X8, None!!

Overall Review: I have owned several ASUS routers previously and each of them have been solid performers. The Asus AC5300 was not available so I purchased a Netgear Nighthawk X8 to try out. I had to return the router twice and the router got faster speeds on the 2.4ghz channel than either of its 5ghz channels. The ASUS ac5300 worked right out of the box. setup was easy and the speeds are amazing!

Pros: Very easy to set up! Works basically out of the box Updates go really well with it. Having multiple channels is really nice (especially for legacy devices that don't support newer standards) I have only had to reset it once since I got it (literally over a year ago at this point).

Cons: I wish the friction that maintains the antenna angle was slightly greater. As it stands sometimes the antennas will topple over if you tap them.

Overall Review: It isn't a cheap piece of equipment, but then sometimes that can be a really nice thing.

Pros: - Went from 14mb down to 77mb down average speed on my comcast connection. I did not realize how slow my old dlink DIR655 was. - Had a few connectivity problems and the router handled it and was able to reconnect, before I would get dropped - The configuration UI is AMAZING. I am really impressed with it. There is a security features, game speed feature, etc that walks you thru a lot of settings. Nothing was hard to configure at all and looks pretty on top of it. I was able to enable my passthru for remote desktop in a few seconds. - Every time you change a setting, it saves it in real time WITHOUT reboot and enabled it. No router I have ever had does this. - When I connected it to the network the first time after hitting the reset button, it just went right to the router page, was kinda magical how ez it was. I did not have to look up anything on how to configure or enable. - The Quality of Service feature is really nice, I can prioritize game traffic or a specific pc or so many other options. - Have not had to reboot, first router I have had that I have not had to reboot for extended period of time. - The USB drive/printer direct connect is pretty cool, don't have a use for it yet but I like how it "just works" and may use it for the household storage drive. - Everything connects to this thing much faster, remote desktop, wifi, etc. I set wifi speed to auto rather than using the 3 different networks, everything seems to like it and I have noticed the switching on my device from 5g to 2g when I went outside across the street and it was pretty fast. I get about 50% more range on wifi now which coverage the entire 3ksqft house and the entire yard (15k lot).

Cons: - I tried the WTFast for League of Legends, it did not do any speed improvement. My ping was the same as all my friends. I heard they moved the servers to central US and I'm on west coast. Asked on my friends who live right near me on same internet. I just turned it off and will not use. Not a big deal. - WTFast subscription expires after like 15 days according to the UI. Should get a free limited one at this price or if you can not sure how. I'm not using it anyway but if I wanted to, would be nice. - Really expensive for a router.

Overall Review: - The reliability and speed alone for me were worth it. - I can't believe how fast I had my entire house of devices, cameras, wired, etc running. Was about 1 hour total from start to finish because of the UI, speed of connections, and general awesomeness. The longest part was I had to read the instructions and find that I had to hit the "reset" button to configure the WAN.

Pros: Upgraded from a SUPER old N300 router from way back in the day. Wasnt even using the wireless on it, since it doesnt meet todays standards. Wireless on it was never that good either back when it was the best. Constant disconnects and router auto-rebooting itself out of nowhere. Pretty sure it was a firmware issue that could never get solved completely. And man, I'm glad I held out as long as I did to finally upgrade my router. Skipped MANY generations and I dont even know if they need to make a faster router than this. This router Set up super easily. All 3 bands connect and hold connection without a hitch. With ASUS's newest wireless adapter for PC, i've never lost a connection due to wireless problems, cuz there are no wireless problems. It's very stable and hasnt had a hiccup yet, even when online gaming and downloading files simultaneously. With multiple bands, I also don't have to connect everything to the same band. PC has exclusive use of one 5ghz band, cell phone and ps4 use the other 5ghz band, 3DS and PS3 uses the 2.4ghz band. Its awesome. It's also pretty nice to look at.

Cons: The built in WTFast software is still only in beta, and nothing I play is added to its list. Have to keep using my Windows client until they update it further. Was one reason I chose this one, but its not that big of a deal if its not of use to me yet.

Overall Review: Think those who have constant disconnects and get get right with it got a lemon, or operator error. I'm glad I waited so long to finall

Pros: Easy to setup, great for gaming, fast speeds

Cons: Wish antennas were longer, expensive for average user

Overall Review: I have owned this router since Jan 2016 and my 1st one quit working in June and I called customer service and they took care of me quickly with no problem. My computer is at the opposite end of a 2500 sq. ft house and with my previous wireless adapter an internal ac1900 adapter my connection speed was 866 Mbps and now I upgraded to the Asus ac88 with the external antenna base which takes advantage of the 4x4 Mimo and my connection speed now has increased to an average between 1.3 to 1.5 Gbps which is better than my laptop connected to it hard wired. It does make a difference what type of wireless adapter that you use especially if your using a USB adapter with built-in antenna. I would recommend this router to anyone especially for gaming and it also works great for game stream from my Pc to my shield tv plus all the phones, tablets and smart tvs don't slow it down. If your an average internet user then a ac68u or ac3100 are good less expensive options which I previously owned and had great service from.