A networking guide: Buying the right ASUS wireless router for your needs

We’ve prepared a streamlined guide to help you better understand the key Wi-Fi standards, terminologies and decision factors to consider for your next router upgrade/purchase - starting with products from networking giant, ASUS.

A good home wireless network = A happy family

Picture this: You’re coming home after a long, hard day at work. All you really want to do for the rest of your evening is to make some Milo and watch the new season of Mindhunter on Netflix. You turn on your notebook, but something’s wrong. The streaming is spottier than a Dalmatian! 

You glance over at your Wi-Fi signal strength and instantly realize your home router has got to be the culprit! What follows is an hour’s adventure around the house trying to find that “sweet spot”, but to no avail. You can’t get the connection to behave, and now you’ve missed this week’s episode of Mindhunter to boot!

Well, that’s just great. Looks like it’s time to replace that router. But the gazillion product choices and the variety of Wi-Fi standards and terminology can be confusing for many. Some brands like ASUS even have their own proprietary technologies to further boost functionality and capabilities.

With that in mind, we’ve prepared a streamlined guide to help you not only better understand the key Wi-Fi standards, terminologies and decision factors to consider for your next router, but also some recommendations from ASUS to cut through their vast catalogue of options to best suits your needs

 

1) Wireless N, AC, AX or Wi-Fi 6? What do they mean?

(Image Source: Intel)

(Image Source: Intel)

When it comes to finding a new router, it’s important to check out the wireless standard it supports. Wi-Fi standards naming can go from 802.11b to 802.11ax, which can be intimidating and confusing to most consumers who won’t need to know what these letters and numbers even mean. 

Essentially, you just have to pay attention to the alphabet at the end, as they refer to whichever Wi-Fi version the router supports. Here’s a handy list of Wi-Fi versions, from old to new:-

  • 802.11b is also known as Wi-Fi 1, released in 1999 
  • 802.11a is also known as Wi-Fi 2, released in 1999 
  • 802.11g is also known as Wi-Fi 3, released in 2003 
  • 802.11n is also known as Wi-Fi 4, released in 2009 
  • 802.11ac is also known as Wi-Fi 5, released in 2014
  • 802.11ax is also known as Wi-Fi 6, and is the latest standard that leading-edge routers support and will be officially ratified later in 2019.

The main differences between all these versions are speed, range and even efficiency as the standards evolve to embrace new expectations. If you’re getting a new wireless router today, it’s best that you look for one that supports at least the Wi-Fi 5 or 6 standard (also note the new Wi-Fi logos) to future proof your purchase. While Wi-Fi 5  might seem ‘old’ as it was first released in 2014, it’s still by far the most supported standard among modern devices and networking equipment so you can’t go wrong with new Wireless 802.11ac routers too.

 

2) Understanding what affects your connectivity speed and performance

First off, we need to talk about the difference between Mbps and MB/s (or MBps). These two terms are confusingly similar but stand for very different things. Mbps stands for megabits per second, while MB/s stands for megabytes per second. One megabit is ⅛ the size of a megabyte, so if you download a 1 megabyte file over an 8Mbps connection, it would take 1 second. Gbps and GB/s (GBps) have the same key differences. 

The typical rate of data transfer in routers is measured in megabits per second (Mbps). To decide what router would best suit your internet plan, you’d have to look back at the different Wi-Fi generations and their maximum data rates. For example, Wi-Fi 1 (802.11b) had a maximum data rate of 11mbps, which is abysmal by today’s standards. Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) is already a massive upgrade from that, with a theoretical maximum data rate of around 2.5Gbps.

Having said that, those are theoretical data rates and in the real world, it is affected by several factors:-

  • The kind of devices you are using to connect to the router.
  • The wireless standards supported by those devices and their antenna configuration.
  • How far you are from the router.
  • How many physical barriers and obstacles separate you from the router.
  • The wireless encryption standards chosen and many others.

To give you an idea of how real-world performance varies, you could be getting close to 500Mbps wireless throughput between your router and your device at close ranges such as within a 5-meter radius. However, this throughput can half when you move further away (such as 10 meters) or move to another floor.

Even wireless router placement is a big deal to help improve both connectivity and performance. Here are 7 quick tips to help improve your home Wi-Fi before you embark on buying a replacement.

 

3) Is signal strength and signal range really important?

Well, the rated speed of your router really doesn’t matter if you go into your room and end up with two bars of Wi-Fi on your phone! You want to make sure that your router provides maximum coverage, so you don’t encounter difficulties while moving from place to place in your own home as described in the above example.

A typical example of how wireless products are marketed indicated their coverage capabilities. (Image Source: ASUS)

A typical example of how wireless products are marketed indicated their coverage capabilities. (Image Source: ASUS)

Looking for a router with a good signal range and strength (depending on how many square feet you need to cover) is really important for this. Some wireless routers and mesh networking products indicate a rough coverage area to give you some guidance of their capabilities. 

Good signal range will ensure that you have a higher chance of maintaining a good signal strength as you move around your home, so you won’t have to hang around the router just so that your Youtube videos load. The strength of your signal is critical too, as a stronger signal will be able to pass through walls/obstacles and maintain a stable connection. Once again, you can optimize router placement (be it old or new) to improve signal strength and range.

 

4) How can I have strong wireless coverage for the whole home?

Mesh networking systems are more flexible and effective in providing Wi-Fi coverage over a large area. (Image source: ASUS)

Mesh networking systems are more flexible and effective in providing Wi-Fi coverage over a large area. (Image source: ASUS)

Until recent times, the solution has been to use multiple routers, but administration and using multiple network IDs doesn’t offer a seamless user experience for most consumers. Wireless extenders and powerline adaptors have been around, but they are not optimal and have their own limitations.

A more ideal solution is to invest in true mesh networking systems where the networking unit (or node) can communicate with multiple other networking nodes with easy wireless daisy-chaining capability and extending Wi-Fi coverage to the entire home with just a single network ID (or also known as SSID).

Mesh networking systems are now often pitched as the easiest networking solutions for homes and brands have strived to make their products simple to use and are easy on the eyes. This also makes them an easy recommendation that solves multiple pain points.

Another example of a mesh networking setup. (Image source: Singtel)

Another example of a mesh networking setup. (Image source: Singtel)

 

5) What if I wanted both high performance and mesh functionality?

ASUS has taken the basics of mesh networking and extended it to their newer crop of traditional routers to offer the best of high throughput, connectivity, manageability and control through their AiMesh feature.

AiMesh supported routers can double as mesh networking units amongst themselves.

AiMesh supported routers can double as mesh networking units amongst themselves.

It uses either 2.4GHz or 5GHz channel for backhaul data transmission to relay data from your primary node and across other daisy-chained nodes to your client device. When using a tri-band ASUS router, it will try to use 5GHz network for backhaul communications since the 5GHz network is faster and there are two 5GHz channels instead of just one.

Tri-band mesh networking systems typically dedicate one of their 5GHz networks for backhaul communications. (Image source: ASUS)

Tri-band mesh networking systems typically dedicate one of their 5GHz networks for backhaul communications. (Image source: ASUS)

You could even free up all wireless bandwidth if you choose to run an Ethernet cable between the different nods, but that’s if you don’t mind cables running around the house or have pre-routed network cabling within the walls of your home.

For those of us who don’t mind having more control, you’ll appreciate that AiMesh allows backhaul configuration (wireless, vs. wired), and even maintain separate wireless SSIDs instead of combining it all under a single SSID. The choice is yours.

Does AiMesh work? Among AiMesh supported routers, yes and we’ve tested the setup aspects and performance for your reference.

 

6) Alright, but what are these other terms - I need help!

  • MU-MIMO (Multi-User, Multiple-Input and Multiple-Output)
An example of how MU-MIMO works. (Image source: Ruckus)

An example of how MU-MIMO works. (Image source: Ruckus)

Despite its long name, MU-MIMO is quite simply a multi-user version of wireless technology that’s been around for a while. It’s essentially an upgrade of its predecessor MIMO, and created to better support wireless environments that have multiple user connections occurring at the same time. 

But in a nutshell, MU-MIMO increases the overall wireless capacity for routers, and usually works with 802.11ac protocols and upwards.

 

  • OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access)
OFDMA chops up each channel into smaller sub-channels so that the router can transmit to multiple devices simultaneously. (Image source: Qualcomm)

OFDMA chops up each channel into smaller sub-channels so that the router can transmit to multiple devices simultaneously. (Image source: Qualcomm)

OFDMA stands for orthogonal frequency division multiple access. It’s borrowed from the world of LTE and is introduced in Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) to improve the router’s ability to support multiple clients. Essentially, it takes each Wi-Fi channel and chops it up into hundreds of small sub-channels. The aim is to increase the capacity of a single channel so that it can accommodate even more clients. With OFDMA, a single channel can theoretically support as many as 30 clients, giving Wi-Fi 6 routers a huge advantage over old routers in its ability to support more wireless clients.

 

  • DFS (Dynamic Frequency Selection)
(Image source: ASUS)

(Image source: ASUS)

DFS is arguably one of the newer terms you see being tossed around on the market, and for good reason. It’s a spectrum-sharing mechanism that enhances wireless performance by tapping into 5GHz channels, which are usually restricted for government radar operations.

Confused? Ok, here’s an analogy. Like traffic, wireless connections can slow down if there are too many within a given channel or “road”, so what DFS does is it allows “drivers” with this feature to take a detour via a less congested route, which are the restricted 5GHz channels, as long as it checks to ensure these channels are not currently required for official use.

However, in return for their higher performance, routers with DFS functionality tend to cost more than run-of-the-mill ones, since they pack specially-customised chipsets that can access these restricted “highways”, and those don’t come cheap.

 

7) Will my new router work with my existing setup? How compatible will it be?

A variety of networking solutions can work hand-in-hand without problems.

A variety of networking solutions can work hand-in-hand without problems.

By and large, as long as your router is developed to work with the corresponding type of Wi-Fi standard, there should be no issue in this department. However, given that many modern “smart” devices, like TVs and game consoles only sport Ethernet (wired) connections, you could also opt to use an old router to fill in the gaps, or as we call it, a wireless bridge. 

Fortunately, you don’t need to be a tech whiz to do that. Simply download the DD-WRT Linux-based software for your router and let it handle the heavy lifting.

In a holistic sense, some routers with specially-included perks like the aforementioned AiMesh will naturally work better with similar pieces of tech, although the best setup per se still depends on your intended purpose and some good old trial-and-error. 

That being said, don’t sweat it too much; we’ll be taking a closer look at that in the next section to help you define what's best for your needs.

Know thyself, and fear not a hundred routers

Just like one should not have to bring a rocket launcher to a knife fight, you have to be clear what your needs are. So, the main question to ask here is: what exactly do I want my wireless router to do for me?

If you’re unsure, fret not. We’ve compiled some common requirements and segmented them below for your reference. Don’t be too invested in any one category too, as more often than not they will overlap.

Essentials-class

Focus: Staying connected to the Internet anywhere in the house

Image: YouTube

Image: YouTube

Getty Images

If you’re looking at using your router for more everyday stuff, like watching videos on YouTube or just being online and connected, for the most part, a general-purpose router might be the best option here. Better yet if it’s a mesh router that can help you expand coverage needs.

Performance-class

Focus: To make full use of what you’re paying for

Image: Netflix

Image: Netflix

For the practicality-minded, it’s about getting the bang out of your buck, and that’s perfectly reasonable. After all, if you’re forking out money for quality media / entertainment / gaming content, the least you can expect is a router that offers performance of equal value. This class of users would also usually like more self-management options to configure their routers to fit their diverse usage needs, plus a lot of ports.

Smart Home

Focus: To sustain a reliable smart device ecosystem

Image: ASUS Smart Home

Image: ASUS Smart Home

Smart devices are everywhere nowadays, and sometimes you just want to make sure everything works with everything else. Homes and small offices are prime candidates for such an ecosystem, so getting a router focused on tying your hardware together is fair game.

Gaming

Focus: Fast speeds and maximum responsiveness

Image: Fortnite

Image: Fortnite

Hello, fellow gamer. Sometimes a run-of-the-mill router just won’t cut it; you want the best and the fastest model to stay on top of your game – especially one that can automatically prioritize game network traffic to keep latencies low. If you’re considering to stream your gameplay as well; that’s just another reason to snag a proper gaming-grade router.

Found your segment to align your requirements? Hit the next page as we peg specific products to address each requirements segment!

ASUS Router Recommendations Guide (ARRG)

ASUS has been our consecutive Reader’s Choice winner in our annual HardwareZone.com + HWM Tech Awards event, and their continuing breadth and scope of new products catering to every possible user further solidify why our readers picked ASUS as their networking brand of choice. However, that also means too many options for those not following every update ASUS is working on. To simplify buying recommendations, we’ve digested their catalogue to come up with an ARRG for your shopping needs!

 

Essentials-class: ASUS Lyra Trio

AiMesh capable: Yes

Price: S$199 (single pack), S$329 (twin-pack), S$459 (triple-pack)

If your core criteria is to blanket your home with Wi-Fi connectivity with zero dead zones (even in the bedroom toilet), the path of least resistance and speedy setup would be to invest in an ASUS Lyra Trio. Based on a true mesh networking topology, you can easily daisy-chain multiple Lyra Trio nodes to expand your Wi-Fi coverage as you deem fit. Complementing its ease of use is the pleasant-looking lifestyle design that looks nothing like a conventional networking product and is a perfect fit for any home. Its unusual triangular form isn't just for show as ASUS says the design minimizes interference and provides better performance for the AC1750-class dual-band system. That equates to 450Mbps on the 2.4GHz network and 1,300Mbps on the 5GHz network.

Around the back, it has dual LAN ports to facilitate any wired network connectivity needs, as well as use one of the ports for backhaul communications if you plan to link multiple nodes in your home setup and free the dual-band wireless for all client device traffic. As you can tell, the Lyra Trio is a very capable networking unit for your home networking essentials. It even keeps your network safe as it’s equipped with AiProtection that offers real-time network monitoring. It inspects incoming networking traffic and looks out for malware, viruses and other possible threats through a partnership with security firm Trend Micro. The best part? This service is free for the lifetime of your networking device and is updated automatically to help guard against new threats identified by Trend Micro.

The ASUS Lyra Trio is available for S$199 in a single pack, S$329 for a 2-pack setup, and S$459 for a 3-pack bundle. How many nodes should you get? If you're starting from scratch, we recommend getting at least a 2-pack setup at the very minimum. ASUS has more tips for mesh router placement and optimizing placement. Last but not least, it's AiMesh ready to extend whole-home wireless coverage with other AiMesh capable routers.

 

Smart Home-class: ASUS Blue Cave

AiMesh capable: Yes

Price: S$339

If there was ever a product that looked anything but like a wireless router, that would be the smart-home oriented, mesh-capable, ASUS Blue Cave. Looking somewhat like a hollowed-out white cube with a blue ring light indicator, this compact and unobtrusive unit is powered by an Intel CPU and manages to hide four antennas within. The dual-band AC2600-class MU-MIMO router has five Gigabit Ethernet ports around its back along with a USB 3.1 port for file and print sharing. It’s also equipped with a more advanced protection - AiProtection Pro - by offering more parental controls, internet activity dashboard and an intrusion prevention system, and is AiMesh ready to extend whole home wireless coverage with other AiMesh capable routers.

If there was ever a product that looked anything but like a wireless router, that would be the smart-home oriented, mesh-capable, ASUS Blue Cave. Looking somewhat like a hollowed-out white cube with a blue ring light indicator, this compact and unobtrusive unit is powered by an Intel CPU and manages to hide four antennas within. The dual-band AC2600-class MU-MIMO router has five Gigabit Ethernet ports around its back along with a USB 3.1 port for file and print sharing. It’s also equipped with a more advanced protection - AiProtection Pro - by offering more parental controls, internet activity dashboard and an intrusion prevention system, and is AiMesh ready to extend whole home wireless coverage with other AiMesh capable routers.

For smart home control and automation, the Blue Cave supports IFTTT (IF This Then That) to create customized network-based tasks that you can string together if you have other IFTTT supported devices to control. The Blue Cave is also Amazon Alexa compatible and you could control the router via Alexa-enabled devices like Amazon Echo speakers.

Simple, unassuming, easy to setup, AiMesh capable, AiProtection Pro built-in and is smart home capable, this ASUS Blue Cave is your gateway to a reliable and interesting whole-home solution. Available for S$339.

 

Smart Home-class: ASUS Lyra Voice

AiMesh capable: Yes

Price: S$399

Stepping up the Smart Home game, the ASUS Lyra voice combines a duel-stereo Bluetooth speaker system with Amazon Alexa assistant built-in, and it’s also an AC2200-class tri-band mesh router with six internal antennas all within a speaker-like form factor!

From a features perspective, this negates the need to connect to an Alexa-enabled device separately to interface with the router via voice. Also, because the Alexa assistant is built-in, you can use Lyra Voice to control a plethora of other Alexa-supported devices to do your bidding. Like the Blue Cave, the Lyra Voice also supports smart home automation routines through customized triggers via IFTTT with compatible connected home devices.

As an AiMesh capable router, you could use it in tandem with any other AiMesh supported ASUS router to easily blanket your whole home with Wi-Fi and internet connectivity. By itself, it’s capable of 2,200Mbps wireless throughput with a single 2.4GHz band and dual 5GHz bands. This configuration also makes it ideal to dedicate a 5GHz wireless band for backhaul communication needs and not needing to resort to a wired backend solution to maintain a reasonable wireless throughput. The tri-band configuration also means it can juggle much more client devices simultaneously under heavier workloads.

For a smart-looking home Wi-Fi mesh solution that doubles up as a smart speaker and control other devices, you can’t go wrong with the S$399 Lyra Voice. Just take note that it has a single WAN and a single LAN port so it’s a better fit if you plan on using wireless connectivity over wired connections.

 

Performance-class: ASUS RT-AC86U

AiMesh capable: Yes

Price: S$329

Now for those of us who cherish performance, a high level of network management and configurability and plan to connect more wired devices for the highest possible performance throughput – then welcome to the performance tier of products. The RT-AC86U might seem like an ‘entry-level’ recommendation in the performance tier, but it is anything but that. With a 1.8GHz dual-core 64-bit processor, high-performance antennas, beamforming to shape and focus Wi-Fi signals towards your devices, the RT-AC86U offers up to 2,900Mbps wireless performance throughput thanks to its dual-band quad-stream 2.4GHz & 5GHz channels packing higher data rates with supporting client devices. It’s also great for gamers with its adaptive QoS (quality of service) options to prioritize applications, thus giving your games their undivided attention by keeping latency low. Further to that is the built-in Game Accelerator which is free subscription from wtfast to take advantage of the Gamers Private Network (GPN) that automatically chooses the most efficient route to connect with popular game servers to minimize ping time and keep the firefight real in your online multiplayer realm.

Last but not least, the RT-AC86U is an AiMesh supported device to help you create a powerful and flexible whole-home Wi-Fi network while enjoying all the above capabilities. The ASUS RT-AC86U redefines ‘entry-level performance’ like nothing else. It’s available from S$329 for a single unit, and ASUS also offers dual-pack versions for slightly more savings and to enjoy AiMesh from the get-go.

ASUS Router Recommendations Guide (ARRG) - Continued

Performance-class: ASUS RT-AX88U

AiMesh capable: Yes

Price: S$599

The world’s first Wi-Fi 6 router and the first to be made available in Singapore, the ASUS RT-AX88U was a highly anticipated router for the enthusiast community as it supports over 1Gbps wireless throughput over the 2.4GHz network and 4.8Gbps on its 5GHz network for a total combined throughput of nearly 6Gbps! For example, that translates up to  600MB per second on the 5GHz channel – enough to download entire movies in mere seconds.

The world’s first Wi-Fi 6 router and the first to be made available in Singapore, the ASUS RT-AX88U was a highly anticipated router for the enthusiast community as it supports over 1Gbps wireless throughput over the 2.4GHz network and 4.8Gbps on its 5GHz network for a total combined throughput of nearly 6Gbps! For example, that translates up to  600MB per second on the 5GHz channel – enough to download entire movies in mere seconds.

With familiar router management over ASUSWRT web-based interface and or over the ASUS Router app, it offers an excellent overview of your networking sphere and features like parental control, bandwidth & traffic monitoring, cloud storage, guest networks, VPN, dynamic DNS, FTP controls, AiProtection Pro with Trend Micro and much more. Online gaming is also well-taken care via adaptive QoS and Game Accelerator functions built-in to the router.

For those concerned of connectivity options, this router packs 8 Gigabit LAN ports, dual USB 3.0 ports and yes, AiMesh to extend all of the mesh networking goodness on a high-performance router. Priced at S$599, it might sound expensive but witness its performance potential here to understand why it commands this premium.

 

Performance-class: ASUS RT-AX92U

AiMesh capable: Yes

Price: S$769

What if you wanted the best of convenience and expandability of a mesh network coupled with Wi-Fi 6 class throughput and even with game prioritization and GPN? The ASUS AiMesh AX6100 Wi-Fi system is the world’s first 802.11ax class mesh system and it’s a tri-band system at that! With an ultra-easy setup process, you can be connected to the internet through an app-based setup process in minutes. Pairing subsequent RT-AX92U nodes is as easy as placing it where requires, powering it on, search for it in the router app and follow through the instructions to complete the pairing process. The AX92U might look small, but it packs a wallop like 5 Gigabit ports with the ability to aggregate the WAN port and the last LAN port to support a combined aggregated throughput of 2Gbps via two fibre lines such as the several gamer fibre plans from Singtel, StarHub and more.

What if you wanted the best of convenience and expandability of a mesh network coupled with Wi-Fi 6 class throughput and even with game prioritization and GPN? The ASUS AiMesh AX6100 Wi-Fi system is the world’s first 802.11ax class mesh system and it’s a tri-band system at that! With an ultra-easy setup process, you can be connected to the internet through an app-based setup process in minutes. Pairing subsequent RT-AX92U nodes is as easy as placing it where requires, powering it on, search for it in the router app and follow through the instructions to complete the pairing process. The AX92U might look small, but it packs a wallop like 5 Gigabit ports with the ability to aggregate the WAN port and the last LAN port to support a combined aggregated throughput of 2Gbps via two fibre lines such as the several gamer fibre plans from Singtel, StarHub and more.

Combined with AiProtection Pro for advanced in-router security protection powered by Trend Micro through automated and regularly updated security updates, your home Wi-Fi and its connected devices are well regulated – inclusive of advanced parental controls to block traffic from undesirable sites and apps. It is available in a two-pack system for S$769 and is ideal for anyone needing every feature possible in a mesh networking system to blanket large homes comfortably.

 

Gaming-class: ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AC2900

AiMesh capable: Yes

Price: S$399 / Free (StarHub Fibre customers only)

The latest, and literally the flashiest gaming router in the market, the ROG Rapture GT-AC2900 is also the most affordable ROG class router to-date. It boasts everything a gamer needs such as game traffic prioritization through Game Boost’s adaptive QoS technology, a wtfast subscription to get on the gamers private network (GPN) for lower latency game server connectivity via optimized data routing, and even a dedicated gaming port that optimizes network traffic on the connected device over all other ports. There’s even a handy Game Radar utility to check server ping status of popular games across the globe, and a feature called Open NAT to quickly load port forwarding rules for several well-liked games to unchain yourself and just jump in the game as quickly as possible.

The latest, and literally the flashiest gaming router in the market, the ROG Rapture GT-AC2900 is also the most affordable ROG class router to-date. It boasts everything a gamer needs such as game traffic prioritization through Game Boost’s adaptive QoS technology, a wtfast subscription to get on the gamers private network (GPN) for lower latency game server connectivity via optimized data routing, and even a dedicated gaming port that optimizes network traffic on the connected device over all other ports. There’s even a handy Game Radar utility to check server ping status of popular games across the globe, and a feature called Open NAT to quickly load port forwarding rules for several well-liked games to unchain yourself and just jump in the game as quickly as possible.

It might ‘just’ be a dual-band router packing all this, but it supports pretty high data throughput with supporting client devices with transfer rates up to 750Mbps on the 2.4GHz channel and up to 2,167Mbps on its 5GHz network. Best of all, it maximizes performance through dynamic frequency selection (DFS), which allows it to use less congested channels in the airwaves that are typically reserved for government use. However, it is able to quickly fall back on to the publicly available Wi-Fi channels when the spectrum is in use. All this means, the GT-AC2900 can be much faster than routers without DFS capability.

The GT-AC2900 is also AiMesh capable, has AiProtection Pro and it comes complete with ASUS Aura Lighting to complete its looks. This router is currently exclusive to StarHub’s existing fibre customers for S$399, but it is bundled free with StarHub’s new Turbo Gamer Fibre plan.

To find out how it fared in our testing, here's our full review.

 

Gaming-class: ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AX11000

AiMesh capable: Yes

Price: S$699

If you don’t need too many wired connections and you wanted a router to really push the boundaries of technology, look no further to the ultimate gaming router in the market – the ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AX11000. This tri-band router sports dual 5GHz channels that support up to 4.8Gbps throughput each, along with a 2.4GHz channel that manages over 1Gbps wireless throughput. This makes it the GT-AX11000 the world’s first router that exceeds 10Gbps wireless transfers across all bands combined. Powered by a quad-core processors, a dedicated 2.5Gbps LAN port, DFS support to unlock restricted Wi-Fi channels, Triple Level Game Acceleration (ROG Gaming Port, Game Boost, GPN), Game Radar, 3-Step easy port forwarding (Open NAT supported), AiMesh capable, has AiProtection Pro and even Aura RGB lighting control for the ASUS logo – this router does it all and packs it all. So advanced and capable, it can even allow you to run a VPN and a standard internet connection concurrently to serve sensitive work needs of someone in the family while letting you game unrestricted over a standard internet connection. This best-of-both-worlds capability is thanks to VPN Fusion. This ‘future-proof’ octa-antenna router is yours for S$699.

If you don’t need too many wired connections and you wanted a router to really push the boundaries of technology, look no further to the ultimate gaming router in the market – the ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AX11000. This tri-band router sports dual 5GHz channels that support up to 4.8Gbps throughput each, along with a 2.4GHz channel that manages over 1Gbps wireless throughput. This makes it the GT-AX11000 the world’s first router that exceeds 10Gbps wireless transfers across all bands combined. Powered by a quad-core processors, a dedicated 2.5Gbps LAN port, DFS support to unlock restricted Wi-Fi channels, Triple Level Game Acceleration (ROG Gaming Port, Game Boost, GPN), Game Radar, 3-Step easy port forwarding (Open NAT supported), AiMesh capable, has AiProtection Pro and even Aura RGB lighting control for the ASUS logo – this router does it all and packs it all. So advanced and capable, it can even allow you to run a VPN and a standard internet connection concurrently to serve sensitive work needs of someone in the family while letting you game unrestricted over a standard internet connection. This best-of-both-worlds capability is thanks to VPN Fusion. This ‘future-proof’ octa-antenna router is yours for S$699.

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