ASUS AC1700 WiFi Router (RT-ACRH17) - Dual Band Gigabit Wireless Router, 4 GB Ports, USB 3.0 Port, Gaming & Streaming, Easy Setup, Parental Control, MU-MIMO, comments, reviews

- August 2019 - So I am not sure when or how, but the issues with random discounts of android phones has gotten a lot better. It almost never happens anymore. The router did not update firmware since April so the likely cause of the improvement must be in the phones themselves (same phones still connecting daily) or in the removal of some external interference. Whatever, it is nice to have stable and reliable wifi on my phone again! UPDATE 2 - April 2019 So right after I added the update below, I started having an issue where all of the android phones in my house will randomly loose data connection (not all at the same time) to the router (they still see it as the wifi symbol is still on but the LTE symbol will also light up). This loss normally is short lived but VERY annoying as it interrupts any internet activity on the phone. Sometimes however, we have to turn the wifi on the phone off and back on to get data back. I am not sure yet if it is the phones (All Samsung Galaxy S devices 5 through 9) or the router but I do not seem to have the same issues at work on my S8 so I am thinking it may be the router. I will update when I know more or if anyone reading this knows something let me know. I have tried resetting the phones to original settings with no change. UPDATE I have been using the RT-ACRH17 for about a YEAR now and so far so good. I have only expierenced one drop out of wifi that I can attribute to the router rather than my ISP (Comcast). I have my phone connected to the 5 GHz band and it has great signal even on the second floor (router is in the basement) so signal strength is good. Haven t made any settings changes recently so don t know if Asus fixed the reboot issue but I do know that the firmware has self updated. Don t know when it happens until i go into the user interface and it has a new firmware listed. Still no dd-wrt support but otherwise a great router! First a quick summary, The good: The wifi speed and coverage is excellent. Features for the price rocks (this unit has the hardware of an AC1900 router). Now for the no so good: Setup was sub-par at best, but how often are you changing you router settings anyway? No ddwrt support (at least not yet). Only one USB port (but it is USB 3.0). So I bought this router to replace an aging Linksys unit (EA3500, I know I know). I ALMOST gave up on this router and sent it back as the setup process was HORRIBLE. EVERY change required a system reboot that took AT LEAST a minute! Change the wifi channel on the 2.4 GHz band reboot, change the SSID for the 5 GHz band reboot, etc (yes even the change you want to ask about too). I did some reading on line and found that some people found that a BIOS update fixed this and made the reboots faster, however, I updated the BIOS and still have this issue with nearly every change there does not appear to be a pattern now of what requires a reboot and what does not. I hope ASUS fixes this SOON but really I don t change my settings often so not that big of an issue. Once I got it setup, I noted that coverage area and signal strength were approximately the same as the EA3500 to maybe slightly better throughout my house. The BIG difference comes in the link speeds I am seeing. Previously I was seeing max internet speeds in the area of 30 to 50 Mbps (I have 60 Mbps internet) on the first and second floor of my house (the router is in the basement) depending on the room you are in. With the ASUS I now get 50 to 60 Mbps speeds throughout the entire house and 5 to 20 Mbps in my yard. I have connected a 2TB USB 2.0 HD to the USB port on the router and it works great as a media server although a bit slow (but this is the fault of the HD enclosure as it is only USB 2.0. In fact ALL of my streaming devices (I have 9 in the house between my wife and the kids) see the HD more readily (I have to wait for each device to 34; the server if it is asleep but not the drive connected to this router) than the dedicated media server I have connected to my NAS. I am considering purchasing a USB 3.0 enclosure and shutting down the media server entirely. Speaking of the nine streaming devices I have in my house, at any given time I can have six or eight devices streaming (Two to four laptops, two Rokus, two to four cell phones, and up to four tablets). I have had up to 16 devices connected to my network either gaming or streaming media at one time (I have two daughters and they BOTH had friends over last weekend along with my wife and I). At no time did I experience any trouble with my WiFi disconnecting although at times I did notice slow downs to around 15 to 20 Mbps. The four port switch on the rear does provide full gigabit bandwidth to all four devices connected and the modem so no concerns here. As some reviewers have noted, all of the lights for the router are are on the top front of the unit with no LEDs next to the switch ports. This is not an issue with me but may be for some. The processor at the heart of this router is a quad-core ARM Cortex A7 by Qualcomm (IPQ4019) running at 717 MHz. The specs on the Qualcomm site note that this SoC is a 2x2 MIMO chip with ASUS claiming the RT ACRH17 as 3x3. I have not tested this so do not know which is correct. But I can tell you that I have never seen the four CPU cores at over 50 even with all the streaming this past weekend! Flash is a comfortable 128 MB with 256 MB RAM so good enough for future third party BIOS (Hopefully). My biggest concern with this router is that at least so far, there is NO ddwrt support of the device. Currently, as this is a new device and ASUS is still actively supporting it, this is a minor issue as the OEM firmware has decent features. However, once this unit is no longer supported by ASUS this may become a significant issue as old router firmware is very unsecure. I will update as I use this router more but feel free to ask me questions and I will try to answer them.

Most of the consumer grade wifi routers out there have software issues in my experience. Generally they ll fire up and work ok for a period of time then the problems start. My latest round of router upgrades happened because a Netgear Nighthawk router suddenly started to drop all 2.4ghz connections in the house (all google hubs, printers, etc). The ONLY way to get them to reconnect was to reboot the router--even though the SSID was still being broadcast. Initially it would happen once a week or so, then it became a daily issue. Having experienced this sort of random failures in the past I knew it was time for a replacement. I bought a TP-Link A9 and that too worked for a few days before it also started dropping 2.4ghz connections. I thought--what are the odds two different routers would exhibit similar behavior. The only difference was with the TP-Link, the connections would come back. I started to suspect radio interference--but we have very few neighbors and they re not close. Even so, I disabled automatic channel selection and started manually selecting channels. No dice, same issue through channels 1, 6, 11. I returned the TP-Link and bought this Asus. Heaven finally smiled on me. This Asus router is rock solid stable--SO FAR. My 2.4ghz devices don t drop. My 5ghz devices don t drop. Even though the router has a scheduled reboot option where you can select what time and what days to automatically reboot (which by the way, does fix many of the lousy programming errors in the firmware for these consumer devices), the Asus just doesn t need it. Initially I just enabled a nightly reboot, but since have backed it down to weekly and may disable it all together. s as fast as any other AC1900 router I ve tested. It easily saturates my downstream upstream bandwidth. The configuration software is fine although the dark theme is obviously targeted toward gamers. I d like a nice clean, sanitary white skin but this is strictly an aesthetics issue and has nothing to do with functionality. The TPLink actually had an attractive interface. The Asus is just kitschy. I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 because the mobile app is more focused on appearance and stats than ease of configuration. It does have some cool stats capabilities though. The web interface is functional but has an odd arrangement and seems to target a certain demographic. The are knit pics on appearances though. The hardware and network software appear to be top shelf and reliable which is what I want above all else. As of this writing, the Asus delivers on that front. I would absolutely recommend based on my experience to-date.

I bought this in hopes of improving my network stability after adding a bunch of smart home devices. I was using an Apple Airport Express dual-band wireless-N router, which was dropping connections with the 20 wifi devices I now had connected. I was not expecting an increase in internet speed, because my Comcast connection had always been pretty weak. I pay for 100 Mb sec, but rarely get above 30. However, I was totally surprised and delighted that when I installed this, not only did all my devices connect to it stably, but I am actually getting 130Mb sec from Comcast! I always thought it was Comcast s fault my speeds were down, but it turns out it was my router. The setup was very easy, the only part that sucked was reconnecting all of my smart plugs, echo dots, etc.. to the new network. I ve only had it for a day so far, but I am blown away by the range, customization options and speed of this router. It is cheaper than the apple router I replaced, and far superior in every way.

I don t care if it scares away some users, engr23 (not her real name) told me, That is my review headline. And it wasn t like I could change her mind, so I listened to her review of the Wi-Fi router she described as engineer friendly. While the device arrives configured for a competent user to deploy, there is a level of fine-tuning available for technicians that engr23 found You can really screw this thing up, she said, It has that level of control, then added, which is what I want from a switch. I wouldn t correct her by saying though technically because of the port level of control, this unit is above a switch for network device classification, but I knew what she meant. Most Wi-Fi appliances by the common brand names are actually switches and for engineers and technicians who understand this small distinction in product labeling, you will appreciate this Asus Wi-Fi Router. She cabled into it, logged in, and drafted through a staggering number of configuration pages. There are at least a hundred settings, she stated confidently, that you can use - or ignore. Four pages deep, I had to admit, for many of these configuration changes, I would need to do a little homework, but I liked what I saw. For security reasons, engr23 vetoed most of my ideas for configuration utility screen shots but she was adamant about posting her illustrative graphic of the router, so of course I did. The key to keeping this device is elevating it above a flat surface so that the vents, which are only on the bottom, can freely circulate out the CPU heat. She explained, I wouldn t go so far as to label that a design flaw, just lift it up two inches. You can see in the graphic that the unit is resting on top of an obsolete 35mm camera lens as a base. It was good working with someone who was solution oriented - it was good working with engr23.

Do you need a great router but don t want to pay the price of some of the other big name routers at ? This is definitely a router that should be in the running for you. I got this router because as most of us know, the modem router combo that you get from your ISP is usually sub-par at best. They offer little to no security and they sure don t have a very good range on them. I have gigabit internet and wanted to make sure I had a good enough router that my wireless devices that can utilize a 5G band could take full advantage of my internet speed. This one perfectly fit that bill. I actually have it down in my basement on the other side of the house from where my office is because I am hard-lined in at my office and yet I still get a very good signal in my office. With the ease of use being that technically all you have to do is plug it in, connect to the supplied SSID and password, I would definitely say this is easy to use. I do of course recommend changing that SSID password to something other than what is on the supplied paperwork. Overall, I am more than happy with this purchase, it s definitely left me with a smile on my face.

Our house is a mid century modern with a huge staircase. All of our previous routers couldn t reach the other side of the house no matter where we put it. We previously had a linksys n600 and a netgear n900, neither of which would reach all the rooms in the house, regardless of orientation. This thing is definitely overkill and much more complicated than our last two, I m still trying to figure out all of the features, but it s an absolute monster when it comes to distance. It s orientated in the entry way next to the staircase. We had opted for range extenders with our old setup and quickly ditched them after getting this. It s even powerful enough to reach our detached garage on the opposite side of our property and I can use my bluetooth headset anywhere on our property. I like it quite a bit and it s exceeded my expectations I just wish it was more user friendly and ui was organized better.

This is hard to rate, it comes with a manual that perhaps I could have understood in my younger years? But it s mostly over my head anymore. When you login to the router, it s overwhelming, just admit it everybody, to much for the sake of options! And it s everywhere on every page of the seemingly endless pages of options. I miss my Linksys, that actually made sense! Not saying there is anything bad or wrong with this router as it seems to do it s job very well, but only to say it s so complicated and lacking a streamlined architecture of previous makes and models I ve used that, well, it make me feel like an idiot! out of the box this thing worked, but I could not login via the instructions. It took an Asus rep to help me resolve the issue. This thing is like an Nvidia driver, too many options but it works when you have it set right! Unlike the Nvidia driver, this thing has crap for help or descriptions. You mouse over a thing in the Nvidia driver and you see a definition of the thing and why you may or may not want to use it. This router needs a whole lot of that and it is severely lacking! Click manual at the bottom of a page, goto Asus.com, click utility at the bottom of any page and, well, goto Asus.com. Those two things do not work, at all! And I still just need a mouse over a thing to tell me all about a thing! Look, this thing works plain and simple, but it s not for the average techy individual, it s for super techy! My tablet went from 54 Mbs with my old Linksys to 250 Mbs with this, although it was 350 initially and that lasted for a day or so then dropped to 250. No amount of re-stets ever got it back. Ahh, I m at odds with this router. Good range, it routs just fine, but too damn complicated and dare I say overly so.?!

I had an older router from 2012 or so, and I was having some issues with internet phone calls dropping. I tried one of those internet speed calculator tools online, and it said my internet was fine, but not great. So I bought this thing on a cyber Monday sale or what have you. I followed the (incredibly bare) instructions, and the wireless network never showed up. It said if that happened that I should plug the ethernet directly into my computer, or some tech mumbo jumbo like that. Except I have a Mac, and no way to plug ethernet in. So I called the company. That was completely useless. He had no idea what I was talking about, and couldn t answer any of my questions. One positive came out of that: I had to flip over router, and lo and behold, there s a network name (different than the one from the instructions) and a password. So after I got it working, my internet is great. I mean, never drop an internet call great. Walk halfway to my car before the phone switches to cellular great. The guy on the smart TV hotline said re internet is quite fast great. Granted, I live in a 650 sq ft apartment. It s well on the far side from my bedroom, and the internet test thingy is nearly maxed out. I m quite happy with the router itself. My only other gripe is that I can t seem to change the password. It appeared that I had, but nope. I typed in the password I d changed it to, and didn t work. But the pre-set one works. And I m definitely not going to call tech support to figure that out.

I already had an ASUS RT-AC68P router, and have loved the performance, quality, and ease-of-use so I naturally trusted the Lyra Voice to be a viable option when seeking a mesh wifi solution. For the price, I not only received AC2200 performance wifi, but Alexa functionality, wired ports, and a decent sounding speaker to play my music through if needed. My ASUS router is upstairs and clear on the other side of the house (2200sq ft) from my gaming console and laptop I use in my basement. Due to this, 5ghz connection was worthless, and the 2ghz connection was spotty. I resorted to running an ethernet cable from my router all the way to my gaming console. That took care of my gaming, but my laptop wifi was still suffering. I ran the wired connection to the Lyra Voice, and the LAN output back to my console. The ASUS router app was already installed on my phone so I opened it and setup was a breeze as soon as the Lyra booted up. Within 5 minutes or so I had 5ghz wifi to my laptop and in every corner of my home without dropping the signal. The Alexa functionality works the same as my Tap. Even though the bass and volume is disappointing compared to the Tap and a smaller name-brand pill-style bluetooth speaker I own, I would have still bought this unit for all of it s other features for the price. For this reason, it retains a 5 star rating. A perfect match for an ASUS router or as a wifi extender.

I purchased this router to replace an older Linksys 100 MB router which no longer received firmware updates; I thought it could be a security weakness. I had another ASUS 1 GB router that I was happy with, so I purchased this AC-1700 to replace the Linksys. When I installed this router and connected it to my personal cable router, it would not obtain an IP address via DHCP. After several attempts, I assumed it was bad and requested a replacement. The replacement came and had the same issue. I grabbed my old ASUS and used that, and it had the same issue. I called Comcast to see if I needed to add the MAC to Comcast account, they said no. I took the MAC from my original Linksys and copied it to the new ASUS and everything worked. I read somewhere that you need to turn off your cable model for ten minutes in order for the DHCP to fogrget the old MAC, which may also fix the issue. My other ASUS was pretty beat up, broken antennas from a drop, so I decided to keep both AC1700s. One will be the primary and give out IPs via DHCP, and the other is configured as an Access Point that extends coverage. I also downloaded updated the firmware on both to the latest and greatest to ensure it worked as efficiently and error-free as possible. I have used my other ASUS for about three-four years and I was happy with it and what it provides, I think the ASUS line of products are very good.