ASUS RT-AC68U

A FANTASTIC ROUTER THAT’S ACTUALLY AFFORDABLE.

SO PERHAPS YOU’RE not looking to serve an entire village with your router, and just want something more modest and appropriate for a household. In contrast to the huge AC5300/AC5400 routers, that’s what the ASUS RT-AC68U o ers — an a ordable and capable broadband router suitable for medium to large households.

e three-antenna RT-AC68U is capable of 1,300Mbps, which is about as fast as any single mobile device or laptop will go (most actually top out at 433Mbps or 867Mbps), so there are no speed issues with the router unless lots of people are trying to access it at once. With our test device (which is capable of 1,300Mbps), the RT-AC68U achieved speeds a little lower than the average, but there really wasn’t a huge spread of results, so there’s no major red ag here.

And, of course, it comes with ASUSWRT, the rmware that we’ve raved about before and will continue to do so here. You’ll be hard pressed to nd another $200-ish router that does all the things that the RT-AC68U does, at least not without using third-party rmware. ASUSWRT supports pretty much everything you could ask for: parental controls, VPNs, USB storage and 3G/4G modems for internet failover, sophisticated tra c management and quality of service, remote access to stored data and more. Yet for all of it, it’s easy to understand and manage — more so for the excellent mobile apps that ASUS provides on both iOS and Android.

It’s not the prettiest device, and it doesn’t boast the latest tech, but if you’re looking for an a ordable mid- to high-range router for a medium-sized home, the RT-AC68U comes highly recommended.