I placed a bid on an Asus RT-AC3200. Got it for $33. Anyone with experience with this Wifi router?

I placed a bid on an Asus RT-AC3200. Got it for $33 usd. This is an ok price here in Norway. Not much you get for that price. Anyone with experience with this wifi router? I know it's not the newest out there but I can still use the ethernet if really needed. Thanks

 

I don't own it but I had it’s Netgear equivalent the R8000. Both use the same Broadcom CPU & WiFi chipset. Pretty close to the Netgear R7000 or Asus AC86U performance wise. Only difference is the extra 5Ghz band on the R8000 and RT-AC3200.

They’re decent units, pretty much Wave 1 (first gen) AC chipsets. Just note that certain features when enabled will cause CTF (Cut Through Forwarding) to be disabled, meaning your WAN aka Internet side speed would drop to like 300-450 Mbps max. CTF basically bypasses the CPU accelerating transfer rates. Certain functions like QoS and Traffic Monitoring will disable CTF. At one time even PPPoE authentication caused CTF to be disabled, but if I recall later Broadcom firmware allows CTF with PPPoE.


TLDR: Yes it’s not the latest and greatest but still a good unit and at that price it’s a steal so it’s an excellent buy.

Since you seem to have gigabit ISP speeds make sure not to use traffic monitoring and QoS as CTF will get disabled and internet speeds will drop to less than half. If your Internet speed is less than 300-400 Mbps then don’t worry about enabling those features plus QoS isn’t really needed at those speeds unless your upload speeds are very low. LAN side transfers aren’t affected by CTF.

 

That model and other Asus models have had a lot of security issues, so I'd update the router firmware and look around for current as yet unpatched problems, I know some makes have stopped updating their older devices, here's Asus's Global how to update which mentions the 3200, from November 2019:

https://www.asus.com/Networking/RTAC3200/HelpDesk_BIOS/
https://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/1008000/

Look for ASUS RT-AC3200 and AsusWRT:
https://www.cvedetails.com/vulnerability-list/vendor_id-3447/Asus.html

Wifi 6 is growing another band this year (?) 6ghz (6e) and that's something to be on the look out for.

I know my Wifi AC devices can't get full gigabit internet throughput, which is a bit frustrating, so that's also a consideration with your gigabit connection.

 

@Papusan
Another resource to consider is your provider's hardware. Here the provided router / wifi is free with the service, at least when we signed up. You might consider asking them for a Wifi 6 supporting router, if it didn't already come with it?

What were you using for your router when you got the gigabit service? Your own router / modem, or the provider?

 

Thanks for the info both of you. It seems Asus is one of the manufacturers who support their products with firmware long time after the release. Thats good. And the price is good.

+rep.

Any meanings about Asuswrt-Merlin custom firmware for Asus routers? I thought more about the security and features/performance.

Its a Home Central from the Internet provider. Gigabit and wifi. But the Wifi part isn't fully stable. I have asked for a replacement. But from what I can see... Not the best product out there. I will bridge the Home central and use Wifi from the Asus and Gigabit + tv from the Home Central. The problem is the Wifi part. The ethernet is good. But I think my unit have some problems or Monday product. Tested on +5 different machines + same amount phones.

 

Yeah Merlin is good use it. And yes Asus is probably the best one in the consumer space when it comes to updating even older products. If you want anything better security wise your either looking at third party firmware like DD-WRT & OpenWRT or more professional gear or the likes of pFsense which for most end users may not be worth the effort. ISP provided devices are probably the worst support and features wise honestly at least from my experience in the states.

I think your golden with a decent router at that price, hard to beat the value. Unless you have a specific need or use case to have full gigabit hitting a single WiFi client no need to worry about spending an arm and a leg for an AX router, especially since the current ones don’t even properly support all AX features and SNBs testing showed a weird performance dip in 5Ghz band in AX mode with the Broadcom AC routers. If you really want to blow money on AX wait it out or get a Qualcomm based router like upcoming Asus AX89X which uses the same Qualcomm CPU/WiFi chipset as the Netgear RAX120.

 

Yup, my point was that Wifi 6e 6ghz is coming soon (?), and to be on the lookout for it - so you don't waste $ on Wifi 6.

@Papusan

If your provider gets enough complaints they will be forced to change up their premises equipment - hopefully - at least that's worked here before - takes a while though.

Maybe they have firmware updates to roll out for that hardware your device doesn't have yet?

If there is a community forum somewhere with focus on that providers hardware maybe they've come up with work-around's - tuning of your device hardware properties to match the router - and / or admin page access to the router to tune for compatibility?

Worst comes to worst go to the OEM that provides the hardware to your internet service provider and see what they've got for updates or solutions.

Good luck

 

This! They have got what they need. Now it's up to the persons higher up. Can't do much more.

Got new firmware 4 or 5 days ago. Not much have changed. The ethernet speed is amazing. The Wifi part not so good.

The offer small Wifi access point boxes. But I won't pay for this. 1 for free and get 3 for $7.5 a month. Not bad but I prefer own solution.

And Yeah, I have access to adm acount and settings. But the problem is the wifi part of the Home Central.

 

Got it today. The D-link was with also. But no need for it.


Tested the Wifi.

The desktop.


The laptop.

 

Are those all Wifi results? That's not too bad.

 

Yeah, Wifi. +940 with cable ethernet. You need probably better WiFi router to get better results. But $33 dollars for this Asus is a better deal than spend +$300 on newest. If I need max speed I can just use the cable.