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Tue, Apr 23, 2024
Parent Category: Networking
Category: ASUS

ASUS RT-AC88U (HW Ver: A2) Dual-Band AC3100

MIMO 4x4 + NitroQAM : 2.4GHz~1000Mbps / 5GHz~2167Mbps
Broadcom BCM4709C0 2Cores CPU @1.4GHz, 128/512MB Flash/RAM size surprised
First : 8 LANports / Link Aggregation (LANport1+2 ~2Gbps) / Built-in WTFast Gaming Accelerator cool

Unboxing & initial review :

Thanks and appreciate ASUS Malaysia which they passed both the AC88U & AC5300 devices to me around December'2015 tongue-out
I was busy with my work, also wanted to wait for a more stable FW, thus caused the delay in my review ...
Anyway, here you go my review as follows smile

Product Photo

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Product information & reference:

Size comparison with RT-AC87U

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This is a nice looking router with some really interesting & exciting features, design outlook more refined with more attention to detail design (eg, the lining & curve, holes opening, red color mixture at the right spot) compare to the previous RT-AC87U. 

I remembered during my last meeting with ASUS around March'2015, I did mention how I wish to see retail home router comes with more LANports, best with Link Aggregation feature (LAG) for higher LAN throughput. I was informed that ASUS might be coming out with something ....

Now, ASUS finally did that ! kiss
Apart from those "geng" hardware spec, the AC88U now comes with 8 LANports which is capable of binding both LANport1+2 LAG to hit around 2Gbps LAN throughput mark. In addition, being serious about making really good router for online gaming, this device also has built-in WTFast Gaming accelerator feature (current beta available for some PC games only).

Setup my UniFi-Home, power-up the device:

As usual, everything work out of the box nicely, tested the following :

  • PPPoE @Vlan.500
  • IPTV (LANport4) @Vlan.600
  • IPv6 (Native PPP)
  • DDNS (I use No-IP.com)
  • LAG on LANport1+2 (tested on HP N54L with XPEnology~DSM5.2 see YouTube video above)
  • WTFast (manage to create & login WTFast account in the device, however I play XboxOne so far seem no XboxOne games support ...)
  • USB3 & Download Manager app (tested by formating a USB thumbdrive with ext4)
  • SSH (able to run/install some ipkg. Can google and try Entware on it)

I didn't want to setup any QoS, just let the NAT run auto with CTF enabled.  XboxOne online gaming (Rainbow Six Siege & Division) runs slightly better ping and response, feel not so lag.
(Anyway, connect and playing most online gaming in Malaysia is really suffering due to our ISPs terrible routing issue yell)

Next, wireless performance testings as follows ...

Wireless test - Laptops/PC/Mobile devices

 

Wireless test - Media Bridge 

..