Netgear R7000 or ASUS RT-AC68U

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Kookoo

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#217881 16-Jul-2017 21:30

Help!

What should I go for between Netgear R7000 AC1900 and ASUS RT-AC68U AC1900, based on the following order of priorities

Spark UFB compatible
Reliability
Parental Controls
GUI
Network Security
Signal strength/coverage
Speed
Price
Aesthetics

Hello, Ground!

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#1823490 16-Jul-2017 21:44

Hi

Just bought the Asus unit about a week ago on spark vdsl. So can’t answer #1.

But parental controls good, though only do hourly blocks. I have a large house and signal coverage is very good.

Traffic management and QoS I am beginning to appreciate.

Very happy with it so far

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Batman

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#1823494 16-Jul-2017 21:52

Based on your priorities - Asus

Batman

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#1823495 16-Jul-2017 21:54

Oops sorry I thought speed was high on the list. Sorry speed and signal strength is the only thing I know about these 2 routers, Asus being faster and probably better signal strength. SOrry.

They are both compatible with Spark UFB.

They are probably both as reliable.

I'm gonna stop there ...

Kookoo

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#1823503 16-Jul-2017 22:01

mrdodge: Hi

Just bought the Asus unit about a week ago on spark vdsl. So can’t answer #1.

But parental controls good, though only do hourly blocks. I have a large house and signal coverage is very good.

Traffic management and QoS I am beginning to appreciate.

Very happy with it so far

Is that the same ASUS unit? The AC68U supposedly comes with embedded TrendMicro, but its product page is gone, which makes me wonder if it's rubbish...

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Batman

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#1823504 16-Jul-2017 22:06

I would not use the "embedded Trend micro".

There is no embedded trend micro.

You are allowing the router to route your browsing to trend micro to be checked for safety.

Depending on how you feel, you may or may not want Trend Micro to know your family's browsing history intimately.

Kookoo

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#1823510 16-Jul-2017 22:21

Batman:

I would not use the "embedded Trend micro".

There is no embedded trend micro.

You are allowing the router to route your browsing to trend micro to be checked for safety.

Depending on how you feel, you may or may not want Trend Micro to know your family's browsing history intimately.

Are you sure? I was under the impression the engine is embedded in the firmware, just the database gets refreshed by Trend Micro?

If ASUS are routing traffic (or at least headers) through Trend Micro servers without letting customers know, I'd expect them to be in a whole lot of trouble.

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openmedia

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#1823511 16-Jul-2017 22:28

I've got the R7000 and I'm running Advance Tomato on it and its pretty damn good.

Personally I don't rate the "official" firmwares from the manufacturers and I'd rather run a known Open Source Firmware.

Generally known online as OpenMedia, now working for Red Hat APAC as a Technology Evangelist and Portfolio Architect. Still playing with MythTV and digital media on the side.

Kookoo

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#1823525 16-Jul-2017 22:49

openmedia:

I've got the R7000 and I'm running Advance Tomato on it and its pretty damn good.

Personally I don't rate the "official" firmwares from the manufacturers and I'd rather run a known Open Source Firmware.

True, I haven't thought of that. If I was to flash it with Advance Tomato (which I'm not sure I want to do), why bother paying more for the more advanced features that ASUS seems to offer.

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michaelmurfy

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#1823533 16-Jul-2017 23:39

Well I am going to deviate from your two options to recommend a third - it is a touch more pricey, looks more shiny and can be placed in the centre of a room. Offers very good WiFi, simple to setup, secure and offers very good parental control including timed WiFi access (turn off WiFi to specific devices at bedtime) and many other neat things. You will love it. And if we're going by the pricing of the R7000 it isn't much more really.

And that router is the Ubiquiti Amplifi. It is available from a few places including PB Tech. You could either go for the full kit (with the 2 extenders) or just the base router and add onto it at a later date. The base router by itself will offer pretty good coverage around your home and comes in cheaper than your two options. If you grab the full kit you'll get full strength, fast WiFi across your whole house (and I mean this - it has impressed me).

I've been sent one from Ubiquiti to try out and so far it is an awesome router - I am yet to write a review (since I've only had it a few days) however I think it'll be perfect for you.

Michael Murphy | https://murfy.nz
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Batman

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#1823534 16-Jul-2017 23:42

Kookoo:

Batman:

I would not use the "embedded Trend micro".

There is no embedded trend micro.

You are allowing the router to route your browsing to trend micro to be checked for safety.

Depending on how you feel, you may or may not want Trend Micro to know your family's browsing history intimately.

Are you sure? I was under the impression the engine is embedded in the firmware, just the database gets refreshed by Trend Micro?

If ASUS are routing traffic (or at least headers) through Trend Micro servers without letting customers know, I'd expect them to be in a whole lot of trouble.

I don't know if the engine is embedded in the firmware, but seeing that bad stuff mutate by the minute, it will be outdated by the time the router reaches your house don't you think?

If you care then go on and read these.

http://www.techworld.com/security/asus-rt-ac68u-router-its-fast-but-it-also-secure-3620280/3/

https://www.asus.com/support/faq/1012070/

mrdodge

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#1823563 17-Jul-2017 07:04

I am not using the trend micro component, but it was fairly easy to find out what it was doing. I might test it out, but there are some strong concerns about performance and privacy.

allio

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#1823585 17-Jul-2017 08:53

Batman:

Oops sorry I thought speed was high on the list. Sorry speed and signal strength is the only thing I know about these 2 routers, Asus being faster and probably better signal strength. SOrry.

They are both compatible with Spark UFB.

They are probably both as reliable.

I'm gonna stop there ...

The hardware of the R7000 and the RT-AC68U is for all intents and purposes exactly the same. Same CPU, same wireless (earlier versions of AC68U had an 800MHz CPU vs the R7000's 1GHz, but current versions are 1GHz). They're compatible with the same third party software (you can even run a version of the stock ASUS firmware on the Netgear if you want - you can't run Netgear software on the ASUS, but nobody would want to). The routing performance and signal strength is, on paper, exactly the same. In practice I think the R7000 is slightly faster according to smallnetbuilder, but nothing that would be noticeable in the real world.

The actual differences between them are:

1) Stock software - ASUS is better than Netgear. If you don't want to flash a third party firmware, this is an advantage for the ASUS.

2) Physical configuration - which one you think looks better, preference between horizontal and vertical alignment (Netgear lies flat, ASUS stands up).

3) Price - IMO most important. Get whichever is cheaper.

kotuku4

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#1823606 17-Jul-2017 09:07

I have the R7000 on spark for about 9 months, overall it is very good. The parental controls I don't bother with, the old linksys router and software was much better to manage parental controls.

I have and Edgerouter and Unifi that I did not get up and running, and should sell.

The Ubiquiti Amplifi system looks interesting, what to the extenders plug into? A standard power socket?

michaelmurfy

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#1823610 17-Jul-2017 09:11

kotuku4:

The Ubiquiti Amplifi system looks interesting, what to the extenders plug into? A standard power socket?

Just into a standard power socket - the antenna's are attached by magnets so can be moved around. The base unit has a small wall power adapter with USB-C at the end (however it needs this adapter as it uses both 5v and 12v). If you're after a simple, reliable solution that "just works" then Amplifi is for you.

Batman

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#1823615 17-Jul-2017 09:20

allio:
Batman:

Oops sorry I thought speed was high on the list. Sorry speed and signal strength is the only thing I know about these 2 routers, Asus being faster and probably better signal strength. SOrry.

They are both compatible with Spark UFB.

They are probably both as reliable.

I'm gonna stop there ...

The hardware of the R7000 and the RT-AC68U is for all intents and purposes exactly the same. Same CPU, same wireless (earlier versions of AC68U had an 800MHz CPU vs the R7000's 1GHz, but current versions are 1GHz). They're compatible with the same third party software (you can even run a version of the stock ASUS firmware on the Netgear if you want - you can't run Netgear software on the ASUS, but nobody would want to). The routing performance and signal strength is, on paper, exactly the same. In practice I think the R7000 is slightly faster according to smallnetbuilder, but nothing that would be noticeable in the real world.

The actual differences between them are:

1) Stock software - ASUS is better than Netgear. If you don't want to flash a third party firmware, this is an advantage for the ASUS.

2) Physical configuration - which one you think looks better, preference between horizontal and vertical alignment (Netgear lies flat, ASUS stands up).

3) Price - IMO most important. Get whichever is cheaper.

Cnet had a very detailed comparison test of the original ones. The Asus came out better in all areas other than NAS function. Didn't realise they have newer versions.

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