ASUS DSL-AC68U

THE BEST FIRMWARE AROUND, AND SOLID HARDWARE AS WELL.

A FEW YEARS ago, ASUS decided to switch its router rmware over to a customised version of OpenWRT, the open source rmware. at decision continues to pay dividends: ASUSWRT remains the best consumer rmware around by a considerable margin. It supports features rarely seen at this price, yet still retains a user friendliness that some other vendors might do well to emulate.

Notably, it supports VPN connections natively, allowing you to route all your internet tra c through a VPN service or create your own VPN that you can dial into remotely. Its tra c management and QoS features are simply better than the rest, with per-user monitoring or usage and a simple drag-and-drop quality of service setup. It supports the use of 3G/4G USB modems as a failover or primary internet access tool, lets you access connected storage devices remotely through the AiCloud service and has genuine user-level parental controls and access restrictions. It’s pretty much all you could ask for.

e mobile app available for the router is great as well. It provides not just an easy setup from your mobile, but real-time information on usage, connected devices and even lets you con gure advanced features like parental controls and QoS without having to dive into the web console.

All this is coupled with some pretty great hardware. e ASUS DSL-AC86U is one of the older products here, and is no longer on the cutting edge, but there’s enough horsepower here for most homes. Its performance was good in our tests, and it’s a router you really can’t go wrong with.