After 7 years on the
Asus RT-AC66U
router, I decided that it was time to upgrade to the latest and greatest
Asus RT-AX88U. I
want to improve 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz coverage, have faster overall speeds, and
better protection against hackers, Trojans, and viruses.
The RT-AX88U supports Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax), with advertised combined maximum wireless rates of about 6 Gbps across its two bands, rather than a 6 Gbps connection to one device. I was also looking forward to using all 8 LAN ports, as the 4 LAN ports on my AC66U were fully occupied.
Although I could get almost everything working, I could not get the Asus RT-AX88U to detect and recognize my Synology NAS DS1815+ plugged into any LAN ports. Though the Router panel showed the 1 Gbps LAN port as connected, the RT-AX88U would not recognize it. I checked cables and tried multiple LAN ports and firmware versions. No progress!
When I switched back to my older RT-AC66U router, the Synology NAS was immediately identified. Despite trying multiple settings on RT-AX88U, I could not get it to work with my Synology NAS. It's too bad, as I started to like the RT-AX88U router.
Advantages
Disadvantages
The RT-AX88U supports Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax), with advertised combined maximum wireless rates of about 6 Gbps across its two bands, rather than a 6 Gbps connection to one device. I was also looking forward to using all 8 LAN ports, as the 4 LAN ports on my AC66U were fully occupied.
Although I could get almost everything working, I could not get the Asus RT-AX88U to detect and recognize my Synology NAS DS1815+ plugged into any LAN ports. Though the Router panel showed the 1 Gbps LAN port as connected, the RT-AX88U would not recognize it. I checked cables and tried multiple LAN ports and firmware versions. No progress!
When I switched back to my older RT-AC66U router, the Synology NAS was immediately identified. Despite trying multiple settings on RT-AX88U, I could not get it to work with my Synology NAS. It's too bad, as I started to like the RT-AX88U router.
Advantages
- On the iPhone 11, I did notice more responsive loading of web pages
- Numerous AI protection features for detecting viruses, Trojans, vulnerabilities
- Support for all the latest WiFi standards, including WiFI 6
- 8 LAN ports
- Supposed max of 6 Gbps
Disadvantages
- The AX88U does not recognize my Synology NAS DS1815+ plugged into any of the LAN ports (using either the latest Asus Firmware or the Merlin version)
- The Router is much larger than the RT-AC66U
- Overall, WiFi coverage did not appear superior to the RT-AC66U
Because I could not resolve the connectivity issue with the Synology NAS, I
decided to return the Router to Amazon
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