Asus 90IG01U0-BU9010 AC1900 USB 3.0 and 5 GB Wireless Repeater with Ethernet Ports

I have tried many WiFi range extenders and access points without success. The problem is my house is about 3,000 sq ft over two floors, with 30cm thick steel-reinforced concrete floors and ceilings, 40cm concrete and steel external walls and internal walls of either 25cm concrete or 15cm brick. So getting good WiFi distribution is tough! My main router, an Asus RT-N66U dual band, is in the centre of the upper floor and gives excellent coverage of both bands over the entire floor. But on the ground floor I only get good coverage immediately beneath the router. So I installed two of these Asus RP-AC68U range extenders on the ground floor - one beneath the router and the other at the far end of the house. I assigned static IP addresses to both for a stable installation. Now the ground floor coverage is excellent especially in the 2.4Ghz band. 5Ghz is always more problematic, but even that is good. I also have good coverage outside where before I had no coverage at all - extending to about 30 metres from the house. One of the repeaters also has all four ethernet ports in use, for a TV, a media server, a media player and a satellite receiver. It is rock solid, working flawlessly 24/7. Asus have issued a firmware update for these devices, and it is really worth doing. Log in to the repeater and check for an update, then install. The update provides more features such as Expressway allowing you to extend a 2.4Ghz network on 5Ghz and vice versa. The signal strengths are much more powerful because the antenna array is deployed to receive and transmit one frequency rather than two. The control features are also more powerful. I have three NAS media servers on the upper floor and one on the ground floor which are now accessible everywhere, delivering multiple HD streams through the router and the extenders. There are typically 20 other devices on the entire network, with a mix of static IPs and DHCP, and the network is 100% stable. These repeaters do exactly what they’re supposed to do – and in my experience, many do not! The trick is to be very careful with their positioning - it is very critical. For good WiFi performance it is essential that you know what other networks might be interfering with yours before trying to extend it. Most 2.4Ghz routers are set to channel 11 - if your is, and so is your neighbour's on the other side of a partition wall, that may explain why you are having problems. You need to sort that out before adding the repeater. Its quite easy to login into your router and change the channel to avoid interference. Then add your repeater. You may be impressed with the improved reception! So I strongly recommend downloading WiFi network scanning software to analyse the WiFi signals in your home - there are some good free ones. If you are looking for a repeater, then you probably do have coverage problems. With scanning software you can choose the best channels to avoid interference from neighbouring routers and find the best locations for your repeaters. I will definitely buy more of these for areas at the end of the garden like the summer house and covered terraces. I have 3 important TIPS: 1. The Quick Start guide tells you to wait two minutes when you first boot up the unit (or after a reset). It really does take at least two minutes, but its tempting to think it has finished because the LEDs stop flashing. Don't be fooled - they stop for a while then start again! I thought there was a problem when I tried to configure them before they were fully booted-up. Then I realised they were trying to catch me out! 2. Asus give you the useful option of setting the SSID to be the same name as your main router's SSID. But if you have multiple repeaters be careful to keep them far apart. If they are close enough to receive each other's signal they will try to connect to each other causing real problems! 3. Download the Asus Device Discovery tool from the Asus website. This makes is easy to find your repeater on your network and to log-in to the control panel. So far I haven’t found any cons. The pros are: 1. Excellent menu-based controls using the same format as my RT-N66U router, so it’s familiar. The menus are clear and logically arranged. There is a useful interactive help system, which whilst not exceptionally detailed, is thorough enough and in good English. 2. The basic set-up using WPS is very easy and more than sufficient for most applications. To allay any concerns, the WPS set-up applies all the same settings as the router including the same password. But you can manually set the basic settings to if you wish. 3. For more complex applications the RP-AC68U gives an astonishing range of settings but the basic settings worked perfectly for me. Unlike most routers and extenders, these are also attractive! They are a smart design with the antennae hidden from view. The red LED lighting against the black case is stunning, but if you don’t want the light, Asus have provided a very neat touch-sensitive on/off switch. I have seen numerous very negative reviews of this device. I totally disagree with them! This is a very powerful device which if used correctly, AND YOU MUST follow the initial setup instructions to the letter - will prove a reliable and very flexible tool. If you already have an Asus router this is the very best choice since the chipsets are the same and are designed to operate together.

EDIT: I'm amending my review after a fair period of use and I'm amending it downwards. Why? Well the signal it puts out is, frankly, rubbish. My old TP-Link was in the same location and I could get a solid signal in the garden about 20 feet away. With this I can barely get my phone to connect and it frequently drops out. Worse, there is no way to increase the signal output. Unfortunately I cannot now return it for a refund so I am going to have to try and flog it for whatever I can get on eBay and buy something else. I find it enormously frustrating that manufacturers don't consider that lots of houses are made from substantial materials like stone because they're older than a few years and make products that only work in modern houses with paper thin walls. In short, if you have a modern house this will probably be OK, but if you have and older house look elsewhere because this is a hundred and forty quids worth of utter shite. Firstly I'm going to address two criticisms from another reviewer: 1) "The firmware is cobbled together". No it isn't. The admin interface is the same as used on their routers but so what? No one moans at MS because all office apps use roughly the same layout and functions, it's called re-use and is not a bad thing at all. It is true that in one or two places there are references to features which do not exist on the AP by default but this is small beer and unlikely to cause anyone any problems (albeit it's a little untidy). Firmware is something else entirely which you as a user do not ever see or really know about except when there's an update available and even then it's a black box. However, there may be problems with the actual firmware which I will discuss later. 2) "...distinct lack of processor power...": This is a totally unsubstantiated claim based on absolutely no evidence. In fact the processor is not under-powered at all. It has a dual-core ARM cpu, likely a 1.4GHz unit as Asus use a lot of these, and it never gets any really heavy load at boot up or in use. I suspect the reviewer was making the assumption based on the relatively long boot time, but I believe this is more to do with establishing the link, aggregating the channels and filtering out interference to get a stable connection. Personally I never turn it off so this isn't an issue anyway. Whilst the reviewer is right about changing the mode to an extent, it isn't really that time consuming - if you want to change the mode it might take you a couple of minutes, but really, who changes the mode on a whim? 95% of consumers will want a repeater or media bridge and the other five percent might want the ability to add a 5GHz network. Once set up almost no one is going to change that except maybe once in a blue moon. It's not really a valid complaint. The headline speeds claimed for any device by any manufacturer always come with a list of caveats which include being used with another device with the right chipset (not necessarily the same manufacturer but it generally helps), in ideal conditions with nothing in between the two units and preferably no more than a metre apart. Indeed, I have an Asus DSL-AC68U router for my VDSL service and when I tested them next to one another I did indeed almost manage the 1900Mbps link that is claimed (although note that the 'link speed' is never the actual throughput speed you will experience). Once I had moved it to the intended location I was getting about 50+Mbps on the 2.4GHz and when it could get the 5GHz signal (which is patchy thanks to the 5GHz inability to penetrate the multiple thick walls I have between the two), it would connect at anywhere between 10 and 70Mbps. In practice this does not matter for most users as even if they have a 76Mbps+ internet connection the chances of them ever actually using all that bandwidth in one go are zero and the vast majority of consumers don't actually need that much bandwidth anyway. Obviously your mileage will vary based the layout of your property, the materials between the base unit and the repeater and of course what you use the connection for. For the best possible performance you would want to use the Access Point mode which requires a cabled ethernet connection between your router and the repeater, but that isn't always possible. With how it is in my property I can easily watch HD streams as well as carrying out other activities and having other devices connected to it to. I have one of the gigabit ports feeding a gigbit switch with a printer, playstation, laptop and desktop connected to that plus wireless devices and no problems at all. One thing I have noticed about the firmware is that I don't think the developers were very careful about which 2.4GHz channels they worked with. The DSL-AC68U allows you to use channels 1-13 in the UK which is very useful since most routers only work up to channel 11 so you can use 13 and avoid interference. My old TP-Link access point was quite happy to work on channel 13 too so I didn't even think about it when plugging in the RP-AC68U. As a result I spent an infuriating 2 hours trying all combos of automatic and manual setup (I even resorted to WPS which I hate because you have no clue what it's doing and sharing) but I could not get the 2.4GHz channel to connect and with a patchy 5GHz signal I was dead in the water. At this point I tried contacting Asus tech support. All I can say is: Don't. I went through their phone menu system to get to the right people and each time because the right person was busy, I got the wrong person. I couldn't have them call back (landline was due to be tied up by volunteer work by my wife) and so they weren't very helpful (even when I could understand them - UK number bot definitely not UK based staff). In desperation I tried using the 'media bridge' mode and suddenly the 2.4GHz band connected just fine. As a result I looked at my router settings and realised I was using channel 13. I changed to channel 11, then set up the RP-AC68U as a repeater again and it connected to the 2.4GHz band correctly. Clearly the unit can see channel 13 but for whatever reason it refuses to use it in repeater mode which I suspect is a firmware bug and I have reported it to Asus. However, all that said it is unlikely to be an issue for most people as they are not network techs or expert level users who might be using unusual channels. And from that perspective the RP-AC68U is an excellent unit. It is easy to set up and use and so far it has not dropped the connection, slowed down or been in any way unstable (unlike my old TP-Link which every so often would drop all connections and need a re-boot, especially after handling a large amount of data). It looks good too and the ability to turn off the red lighting is nice too as is the presence of 5 gigabit ports. I've docked a star because of the channel 13 problems and also because Asus support leaves something to be desired, but I think a firmware fix would sort the channel 13 problem and most people would hopefully never need the support line so it shouldn't be too big a problem (although Asus could improve it a bit). But beyond that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the unit because it works so well despite those caveats.

Online support for this unit is very minimal as it seems this device is no longer in production or supported by Asus. Easy enough to setup and get working and when it does work it is really good - depending on how you set it up will depend on your speed you will get - its unlikely you will get your maximum wifi speed unless you cable it back to your router and use it more as an access point than a repeater I had issues with it dropping connection to my router and it clashing with it for some reason and holding onto devices so that they would not drop back onto the router. Tried 3 different ways to set it up with very limited success. Though when it did work it was great - just was not reliable. Have opted to upgrade my network to WiFi6 mesh kit as my current router is around 6 years old so due an upgrade.

Excellent work. I advise everyone.

Waste of time and money

If you'd like to bring stress and heart issues to your life, where every member of the family screams DADDYYY WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE INTERNET, then go for it. Very unstable performance.

Works good as aimesh but when connected wired when I use it on wireless it keeps disconnecting for no reason

While this product is still listed on Asus's web page, they have pretty much discontinued it. The only firmware still listed on their support page is the initial version that is loaded on the unit. There was newer firmware in beta testing that they have completely removed. This stock initial firmware is INCREDIBLY buggy. The biggest issue, however, is that DFS channels don't work at all. If your AP is currently on a DFS channel or automatically switches to a DFS channel in the future, this bridge will no longer see it at all and will be dead in the water. On top of that it seems really poorly implemented. Even with networking setup properly on the bridge itself, it seems to override DHCP packets to clients behind it making itself the default router and DNS server! So it attempts to proxy things, which is just asking for trouble. The proper way to bridge WiFi and Ethernet is to use proxy ARP. Obviously Asus has no decent engineers left! On the flipside, the 'Telnet interface' that you can enable doesn't even properly work with telnet, just netcat! Shoddy all around!