![]() We didn’t use the Trend Micro-supplied AIProtection feature, which claims to keep your network safe from malicious sites, nor any of the other Trend Micro features, like Traffic Analyzer, Apps Analyzer, Game Boost or web history. The RT-AX86U also lacks VLAN support, which lets you keep less-secure IoT devices (for example) isolated from the rest of your network, but this feature isn’t common on consumer routers. The latter only turns on a simplified version of the former, but we had to turn to Google to figure that out. You can, for example, enable Adaptive QoS to prioritize your gaming devices, or enable a specific “Gear Accelerator” for gaming. Some of the RT-AX86U’s features are confusing to use, or at least poorly described in the documentation. It also has two other features that should help keep it in service for many years, even if you end up needing a more complex network setup: It can be used as a wired access point attached to your main router, and it supports Asus’s AiMesh technology, which lets you build a mesh Wi-Fi network out of supported Asus routers and extenders. One of the router’s Gigabit LAN ports is a “gaming port,” and the RT-AX86U can prioritize traffic from whatever device is plugged into it.Įven if you don’t have gigabit-plus service now, the 2.5-Gigabit WAN/LAN port helps futureproof the RT-AX86U. The RT-AX86U even supports link aggregation, which lets you combine the connections of two LAN and two WAN ports into one of each, in case you need the extra speed or redundancy. It can be used as either a WAN port (to connect to your modem or network box) or LAN port (to connect to your Ethernet devices). ![]() While most people will never need that much speed, it’s a critical addition for those lucky enough to already have access to gigabit-plus internet plans or desktop computers with 2.5Gbps ports. We were thrilled to see Asus throw in an extra 2.5Gbps Ethernet port alongside the typical Gigabit WAN and four Gigabit LAN ports. ![]() The RT-AX86U also supports highly robust WPA3 encryption and DFS channels - which can help avoid interference from your neighbors’ 5GHz networks. It also has two USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports (read: USB 3.0) for connecting external storage that you can then access using any device within your home network. The RT-AX86U has almost all the features a router at this price should have: guest networking on 2.4GHz and 5GHz schedule-based parental controls for websites and applications quality-of-service rules (QoS) a built-in traffic analyzing tool for games and apps and an OpenVPN server so you can safely connect to your home network from outside. It also prompts you to download the latest version of the router’s firmware, which is an important security feature. Its browser-based configuration portal prompts you to pick an SSID and password for your Wi-Fi network, and asks whether to use the same SSID for both networks. You can leave its three antennas pointed straight up or tilt them slightly either way, the RT-AX86U’s design saves a lot of space and the vertical orientation makes it even easier to reach the router’s rear ports. ![]() Unlike most of the Wi-Fi 6 routers we tested, which eat up shelf space with their large rectangular designs, the RT-AX86U can stand vertically. (2.4GHz is still useful for older devices, and many Wi-Fi smart home devices use 2.4GHz exclusively.) Devices that need lots of bandwidth, like computers, phones and streaming boxes, should use 5GHz whenever possible. The RT-AX86U’s performance on the 2.4GHz network was occasionally slow, but that band can be cluttered with interference from neighboring Wi-Fi networks. It gave the lowest game latency, the fastest file transfer time, the highest average download and upload speed on the wireless benchmark and the best speeds and lowest lag on our Cloudflare internet tests. When we moved the routers to a two-story townhouse and slammed them with a workload that mimics the needs of a bandwidth-hungry home - a 4K Ultra HD Netflix stream, a 4K HDR Apple TV+ stream, a 16.6GB wireless file transfer, a bandwidth test between two WiFi 6 smartphones and a World of Warcraft session all at the same time - the RT-AX86U won without question. And it was 11% faster than the TP-Link Archer AX6000 at close range. In our long-range testing at a 2,000-square-foot house, the RT-AX86U beat the combined average of its competition by 47%–138% on the 5GHz band. Other notable features: OpenVPN server, guest networks, scheduling.Ethernet ports: 1GbE WAN, 2.5GbE WAN or LAN, 4 GbE LAN.Your CNN account Log in to your CNN account
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