ASUS RT-AC87U AC2400 Dual Band Gigabit WiFi Router, Aiprotection Lifetime Security by Trend Micro, Adaptive Qos, Parental Control

This is a hard review to write. I love ASUS products, I love their innovation, design and quality. The technical features on this product get 5 stars from me. It is truly the best most advanced router I have ever used (and I have had a lot of them and have spent real money on many of them). Up until today I have never needed their support and this is where they have failed. Let me be clear I am not upset that there is a defect in the product, that happens, especially with products as innovative as theirs the problem is how they respond. Here is the good and bad:1 Star items:1.) Their technical support is woefully unprepared to help with a problem that is more advanced than a cable not plugged in.2.)Their answer for the return was send it back to the store you got it instead of RMA'ing it directly (this is probably for the best since Amazon always gets 5 stars for returns)3.) I have had one fail (which is not unusual) but based on the feedback it seems there may be some quality control issues right now with AUSUS manufacturing5 star items:1.) the GUI is easy to use and has all the technical features you could want (multiple guest nets choice of blocking to main network unreal how much is in here)2.) The added security features from Trend Micro are also phenomenal. They are worth the price of the router by itself. I have been looking for these types of features for years and this is really stellar.3.) Range is great I replaced a Linksys EA6500 and this saturated my 3,600 sqft house4.) USB 3.0 connection for storage or secondary internet5.) Technically this is a geek fest for me. I could go on about the coolness factor for a while but suffice it to say this is well designed and engineered6.) If I never had to call support this is an easy 5 star product.So here is what happened (if you want the details):After 1-2 weeks router stops working (can't get to GUI at all to do anything). I do all the normal stuff, hard reset (via button on the back) power on/power off multiple times, try from several computers, change cables and then directly connect to modem and PC. Still no luck so I put my old router back in (works fine with same IP address that Asus has) and I wait for the weekend to call them.I spoke to a very nice person on the phone who had absolutely no technical knowledge whatsoever. She was unable to tell me to do open the Network center via ncpa.cpl (she said it was all one word and it was already open so this was unnecessary). She had no other way to try to figure out what my IP address was (I did an ipconfig and told her) After 40 minutes on the call she is asking me if my pc and modem are directly connected to the router (they were and I told her that in the first 5 minutes of the call). She then decided (after consulting with someone else) to tell me to restart my router. Every time she tried something new (all extremely basic non-technical solutions) she had to put me on hold to ask someone else what to do. When I asked to speak to another level of technical resource (It's not fair to her to have to speak to someone who is more technically knowledgeable that she is) I was told twice that there was nobody available and I could not even wait on hold to talk to them. They finally suggested I return it through Amazon.Here's the best part. They asked if I wanted to take a survey. I said yes. They connected me, I waited on hold I hear the automated attendant say if you wish to disconnect press star ans someone pressed star (was not me). So clearly they didn't even want my feedback.I will return it and try it again. This is technically too good of a product to not give it a second chance. I hope this one works better.Updates (newest first)------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Update 11/13/15I am changing my rating. With the firmware updates over the past year this is now a 5 star router. I don't know if their tech support got any better but now all functions and features of this router are working perfectly. I regularly use many of the features (allowing me to have media available anywhere). Any the power this generates if incredible. My daughter was next door getting good signal (we live in a 2800 sqft brick single family home). Asus, it took you a while on this but you finally got it right thank you.Update 1/21/15 - Still working, issue with Adaptive QOSStill working very well. I turned on the Adaptive QOS monitoring and I started to have some issues. After about 2-3 hours it will drop all connections. Once I turned the monitoring off this seemed to go away (for the past 3 days). For now I will simply not use the QOS (as that is likely not a key feature for me). I have let Adam know about this and will see what he says.Update 1/17/2015 -No issues still keeping itLooks like the new firware is the key. I installed 3.0.0.4.378_3885 which was released on 1/12/2015. Once installed I have had no problems with this router I have fired up some of the advanced features but not all. Assuming it keeps going I will soon have them all running. The Network protection is great, the ability to access files remotely is very well done. I already know the range is very good. Assuming nothing changes in the next few weeks I will change my review score.Update 1/15/2015 - Looking betterI emailed Adam to look for some reasonable help. He pointed me to the latest firmware that was released on 1/12. So far that is a significant improvement. I have had it on for a couple of days and not had any of the issues I had before. If the rest of Asus support was like Adam they would get 5 stars across the board even if they have a product that has bugs. I will give it another week or so and see what happens.Update 1/11/2015 - Its going backI really wanted to like this. But now the wireless is failing again. My ipads can connect but only 1 of the 4 laptops we have can connect. The terrible experience I had with their tech support the first time made this an obvious choice. I will not frustrate myself by dealing with them again. I may consider the ASUS (RT-AC68R) or I may get the netgear one. Not certain yet.Update 1/11/2015Amazon gets 6 stars for a Sunday delivery of replacement router. It appears the fundamental issue with this router is the latest firmware.**** Do not Upgrade to 3.0.0.4.378.3754 *****Most of my wireless devices could not stay connected to this version (including an ASUS laptop funny enough) and it just appears buggy.**** insure the b/g protected was off (this also prevented my Asus laptop from connecting) ****I moved it back to 3.0.0.4.376_2769 and turned off b/g protection (it appears it was on by default) and its working well. I lose a few features I would like but the important ones are still there and I am fairly confident they will get another update within a few months. I am going to run it like this for a couple weeks. If it fails I will replace it with something else.

This is a review for the AC 87U router....I am not certain why it is posted in the AC 88U router listing.As an update, here is my experience with the AC 88U.My 87U has had some glitches after one year. Dropped connections and need for WIFI reboot. Still under warranty, back to ASUS. But, I needed a router and having a backup is nice... so, I purchased the AC88U from Amazon.Word of warning. This is the first time a Warehouse deal has become a problem.The router, from the warehouse, noted as "Pristine and new in box" came without the box, without packing, without any manuals, and had a third party software installed. I found the problem when on boot up the router screen noted the firmware was wrong and that the router did not have ASUS firmware. The firmware was a third party firmware installed to try to improve the hardware. The result was a fully corrupted router that could not be returned to factory defaults. This was probably why whoever bought this router sent it back for a refund...So, beware, not all of the warehouse deals are great. I called Amazon, they took the router back and after some discussions sent me a new in box router at the same price as the warehouse deal.Now, the new AC88u installed, took about 15 minutes for the firmware to update, and all the new security options put in place.It works without a hitch. I'm not certain if range is better than the AC87u. The stats from multiple web sites note the 2g range is better, what I do note is that it appears more stable on my WIFI network and my ROKU player likes the connection. No more occasional slow boots and connections.Web sites load without a problem. I have the installed web protection software running, and no apparent delays.So, it appears to be more stable than the 87U and up and running in 15 minutes.My warning.... BEWARE the ware house deals. My router came with corrupted third party software....but Amazon made it right after some customer care discussions.The following is for the 87UI waited a week before writing this review as I had read some "horror" stories about the 5G connection problems from other reviewers. I have/had an RT66u Asus that was reliable, but getting a little flakey. One of the ports had failed and I had added more wireless devices that caused an occasional hiccup in the system.So, did the research and realized that:1.) The newer AC3200 routers have lots of issues. Not a single review seems to find them better for the home/light business user. There is clearly a problem with the new adopters finding some hardware/software concerns across the board. They can handle a heavy load of traffic, but they may not be necessary for the average user.2.) This generation router, having dual band 802.11 ac capability, is what most home/light business will need. The capacity and versatility is great and speed is awesome.3.) The difference between dual band and the new tri band is something that may not appreciated by the typical consumer at this time.So, wanting an upgrade and having a good experience with the Asus 66U, I decided to go for this router.And, there is no difference between the web and retail version. One person posted that the antennas were fixed on one variety.This is not true... so save some bucks if one is cheaper than the other.Setup was easy. Took about 10 minutes. Plugged it in, connected with a hard line to my laptop, and immediately found the software. Allowed the system to install the default options, plugged in my passwords, and up and running.Because of the 5G problems, I first went to the router setup and checked the firm ware. The system state it was up to date. But, I read that this is not always correct. So, I went to to Asus. Indeed. the firmware had been updated twice and the newer 5G stable firmware was not installed.So, a quick update, reboot, and perfect.I have been using it for one week. I have experienced no drops or problems.Range is rather subjective. I perceive better range and speed throughout my house. I typically have issue in a far room with both 5G and 2.4, but I get stable and solid connections with both on this router.So,Easy setupStable connectionsExcellent rangeThe only negative was the router software did not automatically download the new firmware or even recognize the need for the new firmware.Fix that issue and there are no problems