ASUS WiFi Gaming Router (RT-AC5300) – Tri-Band Gigabit Wireless Internet Router, Gaming & Streaming, AiMesh Compatible, Included Lifetime Internet Security, Adaptive QoS, Parental Control, MU-MIMO

Best wi-fi router investment I made so far
Have been using this RT-AC5300 baby since March 2016 (almost 5 years now). Zero issues so far, and it’s as fast as it was on day one. EASILY covers a 1600sqft floor – I get strong 5Ghz signal approx 50ft outside of the house, the 2.4G even further away. I later bought a RT-AC68U unit and using them 2 in mesh config so i don’t have to pull wires through the house, with the 2nd 5Ghz channel as the backhaul. I’m using the 68U as a “bridge” + switch for my server hardware in a remote corner of the house where my “work office” is.One of the best purchase I’ve ever made.I’ve switched friends away from Netgear over to this, too (Netgear USED to be very good , lately they’ve been crappy on quality with their brand-new routers, APs and switches breaking after 1 month – had multiple friends take them back to store, refund, and swap with an ASUS – and no more problems).There are other high-performance wi-fi routers just now catching up with ASUS. I’m curious what the future will hold – but for now I’m staying with this. TP-Link is starting to close the gap with their network Wi-Fi routers, though (see their quad-core Archer AX11000 Wi-Fi router model), but until they fix ALL their problems, not in my sight yet. There are other vendors offering more features (see Ubiquity, etc), but I’m not interested yet – for now latency and ultimate stability are key for me. ASUS has consistently provided quality hardware in my experience (at least the ones I’ve used along the years – routers, motherboards, graphics).TIPS:- never leave WiFi channels on “Auto”. Most vendors use the same “auto” channels – chances are, your neighbor’s WiFi router broadcasts over the same “auto” channel. This leads to collisions. Your WiFi router will then decrease strength of signal to reduce those collisions. And you now have weak signal, get disconnected and don’t know why. (Now you know!). Get yourself a free wifi scan app on your smart phone, scan the area, see which channels are vacant, and manually set your WiFi to those. Make a habit to re-scan once every few months or so.- never leave the names of your SSID to factory default. If your neighbors’ WiFi has the same names, they will keep trying to connect to your WiFi every few seconds (because the wifi client devices always try to find the best signal)… even if they don’t have your password! (those will be connect-failed password – disconnect… and a few seconds later, repeat). This dings the performance and cache of your WiFi router. If your neighbor’s house is farther apart, you probably won’t notice.. But if houses are nearby, or you live in an apartment, you will definitely notice it.- create a separate guest WiFi network for appliances on the 2.4Ghz band, and keep SEPARATE and UNIQUE passwords for each of the bands. Why: home appliances on WiFi (particularly baby cameras, smart power plugs, smart lights made off-shore) only work on the 2.4Ghz and use VERY POOR SECURITY. These “smart” appliances will force you to use WEAK passwords that are easy to break (for example, “babymama” or “banana3”). This is because they (off-shore manufacturers) have to cut costs as much as possible to stay in business (and this is unfortunate, but it’s reality) – so they will compromise on security at your detriment. You will not want a camera that only allows poor security to have access to the rest of your Wi-Fi network. Keep the baby cameras, smart plugs and smart lights on this guest 2.4Ghz network, and everything else on your actual private network. Side-effect is that you will need to move your phone to this guest 2.4Ghz network when you set up your “smart appliances” the first time, but then you can move your phone back to your regular 2.4G or 5G network – it’s much safer that way.- for your 5Ghz bands and for your non-appliance-designated band, use a complex password (for example, “I’mThe1Queen@MyHouse!” – these are far, far more difficult to break.- disable “WPS” (WiFi Protected Setup) – this “convenient” feature present in most residential WiFi Routers (ALL manufacturers, unfortunately!) allows you to connect something to your WiFi without using a password, by pushing a button on the WiFi router every time you want to add a new device. This was created for “easy” people, but it’s nowhere near as “protected” as it claims to be. The way it works: when you push the WPS button, your WiFi router advertises a “join” code to everyone. Whoever hears it and responds to it first, gets allowed to join and is added. It could be you… or it could be someone else – so, lucky you! To disable it, go to the router’s web page, on left side menu go to “Wireless”, then on the right side go to “WPS” tab, and turn it off.- The WiFi router comes with USB3.0 port on it. Disable your USB3 and take it down to USB2.0 speed. (You’re gong to say “whaaat?”). This is because USB3.0 uses a 5Ghz frequency – and this interferes with your 5Ghz WiFi bands. This problem exists across ALL manufacturers, not just ASUS. I haven’t yet seen any of them to fix it. Go to the router’s web page, click “Administration” on the left side, then on the right side click the “System” tab, find the “USB Setting” section, then change the “USB Mode” to USB 2.0.

After having issues with seriously slow internet in certain parts of my home, mainly the PS5 in the basement, I was tired of hearing my teenager complain about lagging and slow internet. So I thought I’d do some research and start by replacing my old cheap Router with thisASUS 5300. Wow! I’m not technically savvy and didn’t realize what a HUGE difference a quality Router could make. Installation and setup was a breeze. App is awesome and straightforward. Best, best purchase I ever made. My teen hasn’t complained about lagging ONE Time since purchasing this router over a year ago! Highly recommend!UPDATE: So I purchased this router approximately in January 2021. It’s now November 2023, so almost 2 years later, and this router is STILL going strong. I’ve yet to have ANY issues, besides the powered lights no longer working, but doesn’t affect its performance. Still probably the best purchase for internet I’ve ever made. Still working as good as the day I set it up. My next router purchase, whenever I need one, will definitely be another ASUS. Fingers crossed I get many more years out of this one first 😉

Trataré de hacer mi review lo mas corta y especifica posible…De Noviembre 2018 a Mayo 2019 pase por 4 routers antes que este, y hasta hoy este ha funcionado a la perfección, pero he aprendido en base a los otros 4, la historia a continuación…1. Noviembre 2018: Compré el Asus RT-AC88U, funcionó 1 día, hubo un corte de luz como de 5 minutos y cuando volvió el router ya no funcionaba.2.- Enero 2019: Mismo Asus RT-AC88U, funciono bien 1 mes en amabas redes las 2.4 y la 5GHz, al mes dejo de funcionar la 5GHz pero como seguia funcionando la 2.4 me lo quede como hasta Abril donde comencé a presentar problemas de que mis dispositivos batallaban para conectarse a esta red y tenía que estar reseteando el router o apagarlo y volver a encender.3.- Abril 2019: TP-LINK Archer C3200, funciono bien pero su rango de señal era igual al del modem/router proporcionado por mi proveedora del servicio de internet (Megacable) y rendimiento menor al de los Asus que ya estaba acostumbrado.4.- Abril 2019: LinkSyS AC3200 (WRT32XB): Rango de señal muy débil y velocidad en la transmisión de datos menor al de los Asus del cual ya estaba acostumbrado5.- Mayo 2019: ASUS RT-AC5300: Hasta hoy el router mas caro que he comprado y en base a lo que me había pasado con los anteriores tenía que prevenir…Lo bueno:- La transmisión de datos es rapidísima no importa si estoy viendo stories en instagram, videos en youtube, peliculas en netflix todo lo carga en menos de 1 segundo.- Tengo 3 redes disponibles para balancear la carga de todos los dispositivos conectados- Su espectro de red es amplio aunque todo depende del lugar donde este, en mi situación y para que tengan un poco mas de perspectiva el router da servicio a 3 casas todas construidas en concreto y con multiples divisiones de concreto, el router se encuentra ubicado en una segunda planta de la casa 3, en el supuesto de que la casa 1 es la de la izquierda, la 2 es la de en medio y la 3 es la de la derecha, cada una aprox tiene 5 metros de frente por algunos 30 metros de fondo y a todas nos alcanza a dar servicio, el espectro podría ser mayor pero por tantos muros la señal comienza a debilitarse.- Aprox tenemos 3 smart tv, 4 computadoras, y 5 celulares conectados a la red y aun asi todo este funcionando a la vez no he notado alguna disminución en la transmisión aunque todo esta separado en redes para su mejor funcionamiento, osea algunos aparatos estan en la red 2.4 otros en la 5G1 y los demas en la 5G2.RECOMENDACIÓN en base a la experiencia…Después de los acontencimientos que me pasó con los otros routers, lo que aconsejo para que protejas tu router y mas que nada tu inversión por que es una lana, es que ademas del router compres un No break para que en caso de que se vaya la luz o algo puedas apagar el router sin arriesgar a que se dañe ya que la bateria del no break dependiendo lo que tengas conectado te dará desde 5 a 30 minutos mas de energía, y por lo mismo de que es un router y esta trabajando 24/7 se calienta mucho también esto puede hacer que se descomponga porque maneja componente electrónicos tan pequeños que expuestos a gran cantidad de calor pueden descomponerse entonces para esto compra también una de estas base con ventilador como para una laptop y déjasela conectada permanentemente al router para evitar el exceso de calor, así que para que estés protegido si necesitaras adicional al precio del router una inversión mas de aprox 2 mil pesos pero créeme vale completamente la pena.

Completely Satisfied Customer. Installing it was a child’s play. Gives excellent speed in the entire house. Would recommend strongly. I use it with MTNL fibre optic connection. Am able to watch videos without any issues,