Skip to main content

New ASUS RT-AX88U router

 I have been using Asus routers for many years, and have been pretty happy with them. The web interface is superb, and the firmware upgrades are timely and easy to apply, and over the last couple of years have introduced newer features that kept my old router relevant and functional. 

After many years of service, my older router finally gave way, and started dropping Wifi connections randomly, especially when under heavy load. The connection drop happens whenever the kids have a Zoom meeting, or my wife and I are on work calls. Turning the laptop/iPad Wifi off and on again did not help, and we usually had to reboot the router to be able to connect again.

Out of curiosity I looked at the CPU/memory stats of the router under heavy load, and could not see any issues. Even when all of us were in video calls, the CPU/memory did not rise about 50%. I could not see anything abnormal in the logs either.

Online I saw that a lot of people had similar problems after upgrading to the latest router firmware, but could not pinpoint if what I had was a firmware issue, or an older router issue.

I decided it might be time to get a new router, and enjoy the newer hardware and protocol support. I wanted to see if I could still use my older router as a mesh router for non-essential devices, so I stuck with Asus. Despite the Wifi connection issues, I have had good experiences with their routers over the years, and I really liked their interface. 

I narrowed my choices to the RT-AX88U, and their ROG high-end routers. I could not justify the high price of the latter, and the online reviews were not very good, so I went with the RT-AX88U instead.

The setup was very seamless, and I kept the older network information. I was surprised that most of the Wifi devices connected automatically to the new router, without complaining that the router hardware has changed. For the laptops, and iPads the expected behavior occurred, and I had to re-enter the network information to get them to connect.

It has been about a couple of weeks now with the new router, and so far we had no issues, even under very heavy usage. The router does not break a sweat, and the speed tests for all the wireless modes (a/g/n/ax) show significant improvements over the previous router. Perhaps it is good to upgrade the routers every couple of years to make use of hardware and protocol improvements.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kindle Paperwhite

I have always been allergic to buying specialized electronic devices that do only one thing, such as the Kindle, the iPod, and fitness trackers. Why buy these when technology evolves so fast that a multi-purpose device such as the phone or a smart watch can eventually do the same thing, but with the convenience of updates that fix bugs and add functionality? So, I was shocked when this weekend I made an impulse buy and got the newest Kindle Paperwhite—a special purpose device for reading eBooks. I was walking past the Amazon store in the mall and saw that the newest Kindle Paperwhites were marked down by $40 for the holidays. The device looked good in the display, so I went in to look at it closely. The Paperwhite is small and light, with a 6” screen that is backlit and waterproof.   The text was crisp and readable, and in the ambient light, it felt like I am reading a printed book. I was sold and bought it on the spot. At home I have struggled to put it down. The bo...
2 comments
Read more

A paper a day keeps the doctor away: NoDB

In most database systems, the user defines the shape of the data that is stored and queried using concepts such as entities and relations. The database system takes care of translating that shape into physical storage, and managing its lifecycle. Most of the systems store data in the form of tuples, either in row format, or broken down into columns and stored in columnar format. The system also stores metadata associated with the data, that helps with speedy retrieval and processing. Defining the shape of the data a priori, and transforming it from the raw or ingestion format to the storage format is a cost that database systems incur to make queries faster. What if we can have fast queries without incurring that initial cost? In the paper " NoDB: Efficient Query Execution on Raw Data Files ", the authors examine that question, and advocate a system (NoDB) that answers it. The authors start with the motivation for such a system. With the recent explosion of data...
Post a Comment
Read more

A paper a day keeps the doctor away: MillWheel: Fault-Tolerant Stream Processing at Internet Scale

The recent data explosion, and the increase in appetite for fast results spurred a lot of interest in low-latency data processing systems. One such system is MillWheel, presented in the paper " MillWheel: Fault-Tolerant Stream Processing at Internet Scale ", which is widely used at Google. In MillWheel, the users specify a directed computation graph that describe what they would like to do, and write application code that runs on each individual node in the graph. The system takes care of managing the flow of data within the graph, persisting the state of the computation, and handling any failures that occur, relieving the users from that burden. MillWheel exposes an API for record processing, that handles each record in an idempotent fashion, with an exactly once delivery semantics. The system checkpoints progress with a fine granularity, removing the need to buffer data between external senders. The authors describe the system using the Zeitgeist produ...
Post a Comment
Read more