NICs and access points
Network Storages
Power Line Communications
IP-cameras
For a very long time ASUS Company has sent wireless routers and access points for testing to our network laboratory, absolutely ignoring wireless network adapters with PCIE and USB interfaces. Finally, it's time to fix this gap and to provide our readers with the review of ASUS USB-AC68 Wi-Fi adapter with the USB 3.0 interface. This model allows connecting to the existing wireless networks at speeds up to 600 Mbps in the range of 2.4 GHz and to 1300 Mbps in the range of 5 GHz, so ASUS USB-AC68 card possesses AC1900 wireless formula. Let's consider model in more detail!
ASUS USB-AC68 Wi-Fi adapter comes in black plastic case with red insertions and two external antennae. External antennae can rotate and be fixed in one out of three positions.
On the front side (if such a device could in principle have the front side) a blue LED is placed, which can be used to visually determine whether the wireless network connection exists. The appearance of the test model for some reason caused resistant association with a little black birdie with red wings who is sitting down on some dark object.
Overall dimensions of the device are 115х30х18 mm with weight of only 44 grams. Leaping ahead, it is worth noting that there are four antennae in USB-AC68 model: two external and two internal, allowing the device to operate in 3x4 MIMO (3T4R) mode, ie three antennae on transmission and four on data receipt can dynamically be involved.
A significant part of the model case is a ventilation grate for improved cooling of chips as fast wireless adapters typically consume a lot of energy and can heat up considerably.
Together with the Wi-Fi adapter comes a CD with drivers, a warranty book and a brief instruction for connection of the device. It should also be noted that in a set there is an USB-extender with a cradle, allowing more convenient placing of the adapter on the desktop or other horizontal surface. The cradle is not magnetic, but with a weighting compound, its bottom side is rubber and allows sticking to smooth objects. Cable length of about one meter what, in our opinion, will be enough for most users.
Now let's have a look at the insides of ASUS USB-AC68 case. The electronic stuffing of the device is single textolite card which has all essential elements located on both of its sides. Unfortunately, all chips are hidden under protective screens and aren't accessible for review. On a card there are two slots for connection of external antennae, and also two internal nondetachable antennae are located. ASUS USB-AC68 Wi-Fi adapter is based on Realtek RTL8814AU chip.
That is where we bring the review of the hardware platform of the device to a conclusion and pass directly on to testing.
Before getting down to performance tests we would like to get our reader familiar with the key specifications of the test stand we used. As the load generator we used JPerf utility version 2.0.2. The tests were carried out with one, five and fifteen simultaneous TCP connections in case of placing the wireless router and tested equipment in close proximity to each other (from one to three meters).
Motherboard
ASUS Maximus VIII Extreme
Intel Core i7 6700K 4 GHz
Intel Core i7 720QM 1.6 GHz
DDR4-2133 Samsung 64 Gbytes
DDR3 PC3-10700 SEC 16 Gbytes
ASUS RT-AC88U
Atheros AR8131
Windows 7 x64 SP1 Rus
Windows 7 x64 SP1 Rus&
ASUS USB-AC68 Wi-Fi adapter has USB 3.0 interface therefore we made its connection to the appropriate interface of our test computer. Functioning of a wireless network was provided by ASUS RT-AC88U wireless router, which we already have . Performance measurement was made for both wireless ranges: 2.4 and 5 GHz. Results of measurements are given on the diagram below.
Unfortunately, not all notebooks and desktop computers have USB 3.0 port therefore we decided to find out what speeds will be available to users who will connect ASUS USB-AC68 model to USB 2.0 port.
As seen from the diagram above, the interface of Wi-Fi adapter connection& has practically no impact on speed of data transmission in the range of 2.4 GHz. For connections in the range of 5 GHz the version of the USB interface begins to play the significant role, however this influence will be noticeable only in a situation when wireless devices in principle are able to reach such speeds (fast wireless router or access point, good signal, absence of noises and so on).
We didn't keep away from operation of ASUS USB-AC68 in AD HOC mode for the range of 2.4 GHz. The received speeds turned out to be noticeably below what was shown by the Wi-Fi adapter in Wi-Fi client mode, however generally it is caused by restrictions of an operating system. ASUS PCE-AC88 model was used as a wireless client. The diagrams below contain comparison of speed of data transmission in the direction of USB-&Wi-Fi while operation of the adapter in ad hoc and wireless client modes. As always, measurement of speeds was performed for one, five and fifteen simultaneous TCP connections. It is also worth noting that maximum speed of connection of the wireless client to ad hoc network didn't exceed 300 Mbps.
Naturally, we couldn't help but clarify how ASUS USB-AC68 Wi-Fi adapter heats up in the course of operation. For temperature measurement we used our lab's ADA TempPro-2200 pyrometer. The highest temperature of heat-sinking screen inside the case that we managed to measure has been 47 &C while temperature in the room was equal to 27 &C.
In principle, we were satisfied with new ASUS USB-AC68
with the USB 3.0 interface allowing the user to increase significantly performance of PCs and notebooks by operation in a wireless network. USB-AC68 model supports all modern wireless protocols IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac and is perfect even for those users who have high requirements for devices design. The used wireless formula allows making the best use of majority of the modern routers (up to 600 Mbps in the range of 2.4 GHz and up to 1300 Mbps for connections at frequencies of 5 GHz). External rotatable antennae together with AiRadar technology will allow not only to increase data-transfer speed, but also to expand coverage.
The strength areas of ASUS USB-AC68 Wi-Fi Adapter are presented below:
high traffic transmission speeds in both wirel
support of USB 3.0;
existence of a USB-e
a possibility of operatio
existence of externa
simple installation.
Unfortunately, we cannot help but mention its drawback:
lack of original utility for device control.
As of when this article was being written, the average price for ASUS USB-AC68 Wi-Fi adapter& in Moscow online shops was 4800 roubles. We hope for the considerable reduction of price in the nearest future after the device is available for sale in more shops.
As of this writing, the best price for ASUS USB-AC68 in German-speaking Europe countries, according to website , was about 70 euro.
Fairly recently the review of the flagship device & ASUS
wireless router has appeared on our pages. Presence of eight LAN ports was an outstanding feature of the model. Such a number of wired interfaces may be required in the presence of a wide range of the devices having wire connection: desktop computers, network storages and MFPs, videoplayers and so on. However only geeks and computer enthusiasts usually have so much equipment. Often even four standard wired ports can be far too many to normal users. Today our network laboratory got the model with two LAN and one WAN interface for testing. ASUS RT-AC53 & truly a budget router.
So, let's get started!
ASUS RT-AC53 wireless router comes in black plastic case with the following dimensions: 320х190х35 mm (not including antennae) with weight of only 285 grams. For its working the device needs an external power adaptor (included in the box) with the following parameters: 12 V and 1 A.
The upper panel, consisting of two parts, is opaque. It has a vendor name and key parameters of a product together with LEDs indicating status of wired and wireless interfaces of the device and power supply.
The side panels do not have anything remarkable on them apart from a ventilation grate located on them.
On the bottom panel of the router there are a sticker with brief information about the device, four rubber legs, two technological holes for mounting the device on the wall and, of course, a ventilation grate.
Three non-detachable rotatable antennae, three Gigabit Ethernet interfaces (one WAN and two LAN), power socket with ON/OFF button, WPS and sunken Reset buttons are located on the rare panel.
Now let's have a look at the insides of the case. The electronic stuffing of ASUS RT-AC53 wireless router is one green textolite card which has all essential elements located on one of its sides. The only exception is the flash-memory module
25Q64CSIG with the capacity of 8 Mbytes.
Functions of Gigabit Ethernet wired switch are performed by
chip. The system is powered by
CPU that operates at 580 MHz frequency. We have already met such a CPU in ASUS
models earlier.
DDR2 with the size of 64 Mbytes performs functions of the RAM. Support of 2.4 GHz wireless range (2T2R) is built in the CPU whereas for the range of 5 GHz the separate MediaTek MT7610EN wireless chip is used.
That is where we bring the review of the hardware platform of the router to a conclusion and pass on to examining capabilities of its software component.
After the first switching on ASUS RT-AC53 wireless router a user need to perform the initial setup of the device. The initial setup is extremely simple & it is required only to specify the main settings of Internet connection, to set admin password, to select an operation mode.
Firmware upgrade is traditional for all ASUS wireless routers and does not require any specific proficiency from the user. One need to use Firmware Upgrade tab, Administration menu item and select the file with the new firmware version to carry out firmware upgrade. It is also worth noting that upgrade can be made also in a semi-automatic mode what, naturally, requires Internet connection.
The whole process requires about three minutes (not considering time necessary for downloading a file with a new firmware from Internet).
Here, in our opinion, it is appropriate to mention the utilities delivered together with the router because usually need for them arises in the course of initial setup of the device. So, complete with ASUS RT-AC53 there are three utilities: Device Discovery, Firmware Restoration and ASUS Printer Setup. To admit, we do not really understand how the vendor assumes to use ASUS Printer Setup utility as RT-AC53 model has no USB ports.
With Device Discovery utility the user can detect ASUS RT-AC53 wireless router in his local network.
In case of a problem during the firmware upgrade process, RT-AC53 may change to the rescue mode during which the Power indicator starts slowly flashing. Unfortunately, the tested wireless router has no web-server built-in in the bootloader, therefore it is possible to recover a firmware by means of the Firmware Restoration utility or manually, by downloading the firmware to the device via TFTP.
It should also be noted that while in the rescue mode, RT-AC53 is not responding to ICMP echo requests (ping).
C:\&ping 192.168.1.1Pinging 192.168.1.1 with 32 bytes of data:Request timed out.Request timed out.Request timed out.Request timed out.Ping statistics for 192.168.1.1:&&& Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),
However, TFTP recovery is also not so simple. At first, we tried to send a file with the new firmware to the router, but unsuccessfully.
C:\&tftp -i 192.168.1.1 put c:\RT-AC53_3.0.0.4_380_aa5.trxTimeout occurred&Connect request failed
Then we ran Wireshark and began to analyze the traffic between the test PC and the router. It was found that RT-AC53 periodically sends ARP-request to the address 192.168.1.75.
We have changed the address on the test PC to 192.168.1.75/24, and then the firmware file transfer has occurred successfully. A few seconds after RT-AC53 has received the file, it rebooted using the new firmware.
C:\&tftp -i 192.168.1.1 put c:\RT-AC53_3.0.0.4_380_aa5.trxTransfer successful: 7475296 bytes in 2 second(s), 3737648 bytes/s
That&s where we proceed to completion the brief review of firmware upgrade and initial setup and pass on to reviewing web-interface capabilities of the device.
The web interface of ASUS RT-AC53 wireless router can be accessed by means of any modern browser. Device web interface is made in the traditional gray and black colors and is available in thirteen languages.
We will not review all capabilities of the model, but only turn our attention to the most interesting of them.
RT-AC53 model, as well as all remaining modern wireless ASUS devices, supports creation up to three guest networks in each frequency band. The appropriate setup is available in the Guest Network menu item.
The settings which are responsible for Quality of Service support are collected in the Traffic Manager menu item. Here the user can manually limit data transmission speed for certain hosts, or use traditional QoS. Also by means of this menu item it is possible to receive the diagram of wired and wireless interfaces utilization.
If it is necessary to restrict time of wide area network usage, refer to Parental Controls menu item.
Wireless Network settings collected in Wireless menu item tabs are traditional for the majority of ASUS wireless routers, so we will not review them in detail.
Switch Control tab in LAN menu item has drew our attention. Except of switch-on/switch-off option of NAT acceleration, there is a possibility of limitation the speed of a certain (usually undesirable) traffic here.
ASUS RT-AC53 can use static and dynamic IP addresses for connection to providers, and also the following tunnels: PPTP, L2TP and PPPoE. The appropriate settings are available on Internet Connection tab WAN menu item. Perhaps, the couple of words should be told here about Extend the TTL value and Spoof LAN TTL value options. Both options are intended for simplification of the user operation on networks of operators, limiting subscribers by the number of the connected devices. Spoof LAN TTL value option allows to send packets to the Internet with the fixed TTL field in IP packet header whereas Expand TTL Value option influences traffic in the opposite direction, allowing not to discard those packets which TTL shall be set to zero when passing through a router.
Unfortunately, the Dual WAN function isn't supported by RT-AC53 model.
IPv6 settings are collected in the same-named menu item.
ASUS RT-AC53 wireless router has built-in VPN client and server. Unlike in flagship models, support of the OpenVPN is absent here.
Traffic filtering is made by means of tabs in Firewall menu item.
The choice of an operation mode of the device is made by means of Operation mode tab Administration menu item.
That is where we bring a brief review of the main capabilities of the device web-interface to a conclusion and pass on to examining of its command line.
Control of access to command line of the device is made by means of System tab Administration menu item. It is worth noting that access is supported by means of Telnet and SSH protocols.
In order to access the command line one must use the same log-on information as for the connection to the router web interface. Firmware of the model under review is built on Linux 2.6.36 OS using Busy Box 1.17.4.
RT-AC53 login: adminPassword:admin@RT-AC53:/tmp/home/root# cd /admin@RT-AC53:/# uname -aLinux RT-AC53 2.6.36 #1 Fri Sep 23 12:05:55 CST 2016 mips GNU/Linuxadmin@RT-AC53:/# busyboxBusyBox v1.17.4 ( 12:02:33 CST) multi-call binary.Copyright (C)
Erik Andersen, Rob Landley, Denys Vlasenkoand others. Licensed under GPLv2.See source distribution for full notice.Usage: busybox [function] [arguments]...&& or: function [arguments]...&&&&&&& BusyBox is a multi-call binary that combines many common Unix&&&&&&& utilities into a single executable.& Most people will create a&&&&&&& link to busybox for each function they wish to use and BusyBox&&&&&&& will act like whatever it was invoked as.Currently defined functions:&&&&&&& [, [[, arp, ash, awk, cat, chmod, chown, chpasswd, cmp, cp, crond, cut, date, dd, df,&&&&&&& dirname, dmesg, echo, egrep, env, ether-wake, expr, fgrep, find, free, grep, gunzip,&&&&&&& ifconfig, insmod, ionice, kill, killall, klogd, ln, logger, login, ls, lsmod, md5sum,&&&&&&& mdev, mkdir, mknod, modprobe, more, mount, mv, netstat, nice, nohup, nslookup, pidof,&&&&&&& ping, ping6, printf, ps, pwd, readlink, renice, rm, rmdir, rmmod, route, sed, sh, sleep,&&&&&&& sort, strings, sync, syslogd, tar, telnetd, test, top, touch, tr, traceroute, traceroute6,&&&&&&& udhcpc, umount, uname, uptime, usleep, vconfig, vi, watch, wc, which, zcat, zcip
Let's see what processes are currently running using ps command. By using top utility one can obtain information on the current activity of the launched processes. The output of specified utilities is located in a .
Contents of /bin, /sbin, /usr/bin and /usr/sbin catalogs, as well as the output of sysinfo utility, are located in a . For example, /sbin catalog features tcpcheck utility that lets the administrator find out whether a TCP port is open in a certain host.
admin@RT-AC53:/# tcpcheckusage:& tcpcheck &timeout& &host:port& [host:port]admin@RT-AC53:/# tcpcheck 10 192.168.1.1:23192.168.1.1:23 is aliveadmin@RT-AC53:/# tcpcheck 10 192.168.1.2:23192.168.1.2:23 failed
Now let's turn to /proc catalogue to view its contents and find out the system uptime, its average utilization, information on the CPU installed, and the amount of RAM. Actually, system uptime and average system utilization can also be learnt using uptime command.
admin@RT-AC53:/# cd /procadmin@RT-AC53:/proc# ls1&&&&&&&&&&&&& 193&&&&&&&&&&& 267&&&&&&&&&&& bus&&&&&&&&&&& kpagecount&&&& stat10&&&&&&&&&&&& 194&&&&&&&&&&& 3&&&&&&&&&&&&& cmdline&&&&&&& kpageflags&&&& sys11&&&&&&&&&&&& 196&&&&&&&&&&& 30&&&&&&&&&&&& cpuinfo&&&&&&& loadavg&&&&&&& sysrq-trigger115&&&&&&&&&&& 2&&&&&&&&&&&&& 301&&&&&&&&&&& crypto&&&&&&&& locks&&&&&&&&& sysvipc116&&&&&&&&&&& 20&&&&&&&&&&&& 306&&&&&&&&&&& devices&&&&&&& meminfo&&&&&&& timer_list12&&&&&&&&&&&& 201&&&&&&&&&&& 4&&&&&&&&&&&&& diskstats&&&&& misc&&&&&&&&&& tty13&&&&&&&&&&&& 204&&&&&&&&&&& 41&&&&&&&&&&&& driver&&&&&&&& modules&&&&&&& uptime135&&&&&&&&&&& 208&&&&&&&&&&& 430&&&&&&&&&&& execdomains&&& mounts&&&&&&&& version136&&&&&&&&&&& 21&&&&&&&&&&&& 5&&&&&&&&&&&&& filesystems&&& mt7620&&&&&&&& vmallocinfo164&&&&&&&&&&& 212&&&&&&&&&&& 6&&&&&&&&&&&&& fs&&&&&&&&&&&& mtd&&&&&&&&&&& vmstat17&&&&&&&&&&&& 22&&&&&&&&&&&& 7&&&&&&&&&&&&& interrupts&&&& net&&&&&&&&&&& zoneinfo172&&&&&&&&&&& 226&&&&&&&&&&& 76&&&&&&&&&&&& iomem&&&&&&&&& nvram175&&&&&&&&&&& 23&&&&&&&&&&&& 8&&&&&&&&&&&&& ioports&&&&&&& pagetypeinfo18&&&&&&&&&&&& 261&&&&&&&&&&& 82&&&&&&&&&&&& irq&&&&&&&&&&& partitions180&&&&&&&&&&& 263&&&&&&&&&&& 9&&&&&&&&&&&&& kcore&&&&&&&&& self19&&&&&&&&&&&& 265&&&&&&&&&&& buddyinfo&&&&& kmsg&&&&&&&&&& softirqsadmin@RT-AC53:/proc# cat uptime3.66admin@RT-AC53:/proc# cat loadavg0.07 0.07 0.02 1/47 432admin@RT-AC53:/proc# cat cpuinfosystem type&&&&&&&&&&&& : MT7620processor&&&&&&&&&&&&&& : 0cpu model&&&&&&&&&&&&&& : MIPS 24Kc V5.0BogoMIPS&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& : 386.04wait instruction&&&&&&& : yesmicrosecond timers&&&&& : yestlb_entries&&&&&&&&&&&& : 32extra interrupt vector& : yeshardware watchpoint&&&& : yes, count: 4, address/irw mask: [0x8, 0x0ff8, 0x0ff8]ASEs implemented&&&&&&& : mips16 dspshadow register sets&&& : 1core&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& : 0VCED exceptions&&&&&&&& : not availableVCEI exceptions&&&&&&&& : not availableadmin@RT-AC53:/proc# uptime&03:29:19 up 29 min, load average: 0.05, 0.06, 0.02
We can't help but mention nvram utility that allows changing certain important device operation parameters.
admin@RT-AC53:/# nvramusage: nvram [get name] [set name=value] [unset name] [show] [save file] [restore file] [fb_save file]admin@RT-AC53:/# nvram show | grep adminsize: 20283 bytes (41157 left)http_username=adminadmin@RT-AC53:/# nvram show | grep passwordsize: 20283 bytes (41157 left)http_passwd=passwordadmin@RT-AC53:/#
So, for example, by means of nvram utility it is possible to disable STP for RT-AC53 LAN ports.
admin@RT-AC53:/# nvram show | grep stpsize: 20283 bytes (41157 left)lan_stp=1lan1_stp=1admin@RT-AC53:/# nvram set lan_stp=0admin@RT-AC53:/# nvram commitadmin@RT-AC53:/# nvram show | grep stpsize: 20283 bytes (41157 left)lan_stp=0lan1_stp=1admin@RT-AC53:/#
That's where we proceed to completion of the review of the command line interface capabilities and pass directly on to testing the device.
The first testing procedure we traditionally begin our testing section with is estimating the booting time of the router, which is a time interval starting with the moment when the power is on until the first echo reply is received through ICMP. ASUS RT-AC53 wireless router boots in 42 seconds. We believe that this result is decent.
The second traditional test was a security scanning procedure, which has been carried out from the LAN using Positive Technologies XSpider 7.8 utility. On the whole, there were nine open ports discovered. The most interesting data are presented below.
Before getting down to performance tests we would like to get our reader familiar with the key specifications of the test stand we used.
Motherboard
ASUS Maximus VIII Extreme
Intel Core i7 6700K 4 GHz
Intel Core i7 720QM 1.6 GHz
DDR4-2133 Samsung 64 Gbytes
DDR3 PC3-10700 SEC 16 Gbytes
Intel PRO/1000 PTASUS PCE-AC88
Atheros AR8131ASUS RT-AC88U
Windows 7 x64 SP1 Rus
Windows 7 x64 SP1 Rus
We decided to start measuring of device performance from discovering throughput on performing NAT/PAT with hardware acceleration (default setting). The tests were carried out with one, five and fifteen simultaneous TCP connections. Results of measurements are given on the diagram below.
It can be seen from results of this test that routing is made at the wire speeds, the device CPU at the same time remains underutilized. The only thing we want to mention, the limitation by operation in a full duplex: total speed of data transmission in both directions didn't exceed 1 Gbps that, in our judgment, is connected to internal wiring of the device.
We decided to disable hardware acceleration and repeat the previous measurements. Device performance in this case is restricted to performance of its CPU.
In case of a classical routing without NAT the hardware acceleration isn't used therefore the speeds received as a result of the test are similar to what we received in the previous one.
On the territory of ex-Soviet bloc countries tunnels (VPN) still remain one of popular methods of connection to providers. We decided to test the wireless router throughput using two types of such tunnels: PPTP and L2TP. ASUS RT-AC53 supports both encrypted (MPPE128), and unencrypted PPTP tunnels.
We decided to continue wired tests by performance measurement of ASUS RT-AC53 model by operation with upcoming version of IP & IPv6.
Processing of IPv6 packets is made by the CPU therefore restriction of speeds is caused by the performance of the CPU, in other words the transmission of IPv6-traffic with a speed about 200 Mbps leads to 100% utilization of the CPU.
ASUS RT-AC53 wireless router has the ability to support quality of service of the transferred traffic. So, for example, it is possible to setup limit of the maximum bandwidth available to a certain device. We decided to find out how real transmission speed corresponds to configured values. On the diagram below three curves are given: blue corresponds to the configured values, green & to the traffic transferred from the user to the Internet, and red & in the opposite direction.
For speeds up to 150 Mbps the received values correspond quite well to configured, but since this speed increases the available to the user bandwidth stops, again due to the performance of the CPU, - for support of QoS the CPU is used. All devices for which the restriction of speed rule while QoS is switched on isn't configured receive a throughput about 175 Mbps. It is worth noting that we don't count the found limits as a problem as QoS mechanisms usage usually is required in case of relatively low access rates to the global network, and the majority of providers in Russia doesn&t offer rates with a speed over 100 Mbps.
QoS support mechanisms are not the single means allowing to limit the data transmission speed. It is about the settings located in Switch Control tab LAN menu item. However, here it is worth speaking more about the protective mechanisms allowing to stabilize network functioning in cases when, for example, the NIC of one of the PC failed and sends a large number of defective frames. We couldn't help but test operation of this mechanism on the example of Unknown Unicast frames restriction. Measurements were done for the speeds up to 700 Mbps & the restriction mechanism perfectly coped with the traffic generated by our test PC. It seems that such Storm Control in RT-AC53 model is implemented in hardware. Here, however, it is necessary to tell about the fly in the ointment which we found in the course of testing. If restrictions configured rather high, then the traffic which receiver is unknown will lead to 100% loading of the CPU at a speed about 500 Mbps therefore we extremely don't recommend to change values by default.
Finally, it's time for the wireless tests. Measurements were taken in case of layout of the router and the client in close proximity from each other, distance between them was from one to three meters. At first we found out what speeds will be available to the users in 2.4 GHz frequency range.
The next test was measurement of the wireless throughput in 5 GHz frequency range. The range of 5 GHz continues to remain less utilized in comparison with the range of 2.4 GHz therefore we as always recommend to users to draw the closest attention to it.
In conclusion of this section we decided to find out to what maximum temperature the device case heats up during intensive use. We measured the temperature of the device case using our lab's ADA TempPro-2200 pyrometer. The highest temperature that we managed to measure has been: the top panel & 37 &C, the bottom panel & 41 &C. During measurements temperature in the room was equal to 25&С.
That's where we draw the testing chapter to a close and move on to summing it all up.
We were satisfied with the tested ASUS RT-AC53 wireless router. This model belongs to the low-end class: you shouldn't expect the record speeds or the maximum set of features from it. However to most of home users the functionality of RT-AC53 will be more than enough. For connection to the Internet of one desktop computer, the top box and several notebooks with smartphones, it isn't required to buy the network monster, - normal inexpensive wireless router will be just enough. ASUS RT-AC53 model is an example of such a solution & nothing extra, just everything you need.
The strength areas of ASUS RT-AC53 wireless router are presented below:
high traffic transmission speeds in both wirel
support of up to three guest networks in each wire
high speeds of IPv6
possibility of time constraint on use of the Internet (parental monitoring);
a built-in PPTP
possibility of undesirable traffic restriction in LAN;
reasonable price.
Unfortunately, we cannot help but mention some of its drawbacks:
the web-interface is not c
only two LAN ports.
As of when this article was being written, the average price for ASUS RT-AC53 wireless router in Moscow online shops was 3700 roubles.
As of this writing, the best price for ASUS RT-AC53 in German-speaking Europe countries, according to website , was about 50 euro.
Today ASUS RT-AC5300 wireless router appeared in our test lab. At first we were slightly afraid to approach such a monster. RT-AC5300 model looks like the inverted crab, the strong similarity is caused by the shape and layout of antennae. But the declared characteristics were so promising that curiosity overrode. The wireless formula AC5300 means that the maximum theoretical data transmission speeds in the wireless segment equal to 5.3 Gbps will be available to users & absolutely incredible value. ASUS RT-AC5300 wireless router incorporated the best from the two predecessors: three sets of the frequency channels (in both wireless ranges) and NitroQAM/1024-QAM. We have already seen these characteristics separately in the
models, however RT-AC5300 supports both specified capabilities at the same time.
Let's consider the device in more detail.
ASUS RT-AC5300 wireless router comes in a black plastic case with a red horizontal stripe. The shape of the case can be roughly described as a parallelepiped with beveled edges. The device has eight external detachable antennae located on all four side panels. To work properly the device needs an external power adaptor (comes in the box) with the following characteristics: 19V and 3.42A. It should be noted that 65 Watts is rather big power for home network equipment without PoE function (measurements show that 7 Watts are consumed while booting, and 15-18 Watts are consumed during normal operation of the router with no USB-connected devices). Also dimensions of the device in any way don't allow to call it of home kind & 245х245х65 mm (without antennae) with weight 1,36 kg. Such a considerable weight is caused by existence of a large number of heat sinks inside the case, but first things first. One more remark which we would like to make is connected to device power supply unit. The voltage and the connector of the external power supply unit of RT-AC5300 router match with the same for ASUS notebooks, i.e. the user can replace the router adapter with notebook power supply unit. The converse is incorrect as notebooks for the power supply usually require adapters of greater power.
Almost the entire upper surface of the device is occupied by a ventilation grate with a logo of the vendor.
On the bottom of the case there are four triangle rubber legs, a ventilation grate and a sticker with brief information about the device.
Antennae are placed on all four side panels of the case (by two on each).
Six LEDs indicating status of the entire device as a whole, as well as the status of its wired and wireless interfaces, are located on the front panel.
On one of the side panels there are a USB 2.0 port and three buttons responsible for switching on/off the wireless module, switching on the WPS mode, and also switching on/off LEDs on the front panel. On the other side panel only antennae slots are placed.
The rear side has five Gigabit Ethernet ports (4 LAN and 1 WAN), a USB 3.0 port, a power socket with ON/OFF button, as well as sunken Reset button.
Now let's have a look at the insides of ASUS RT-AC5300 wireless router.
The electronic stuffing of the device is one textolite card which has all essential elements located on both of its sides. The best part of the card is covered with heat sinks and protective screens also placed on both of its sides. The only chip accessible for review is a 128 Mbyte
flash memory module. ASUS RT-AC5300 wireless router has a
BCM4709C0 CPU with two cores operating at a frequency of 1.4 GHz and Nanya NT5CC256M16CP-DI RAM with the size of 512 Mbytes. It is worth noting that the hardware stuffing of the model under review is very similar to that in ASUS
wireless router. Support of a wireless network is performed by Broadcom BCM4366 chip with the following antennae configuration: 4х4 for the range of 2.4 GHz and 4х4 for the range of 5 GHz.
That is where we bring the brief review of the router hardware to a conclusion and pass on to examining capabilities of its software component.
Firmware upgrade is carried out in Firmware Upgrade tab, Administration menu item. Firmware upgrade may be performed both in a manual and semi-automatic mode. It is worth noting that during the automatic search of the new versions beta versions of a firmware also can be considered.
The whole firmware upgrade process takes about eight minutes and does not require any specific proficiency from the user.
In case of a failure during the firmware upgrade process, the router may change to the rescue mode, slowly flashing power indicator will show this. Indirect indicator of such a mode will be TTL equal 100 in ICMP echo replies. In the normal mode of the router TTL equal 64. One can restore the device firmware in traditional way (by using ASUS Firmware Restoration utility) or manually (without the named utility).
For manual restoration one of the two following methods can be used: using a web-server embedded into the bootloader, or with the help of TFTP. The restoration process by using a web-server built-in in the bootloader is very easy: specify the file with the firmware and press Upload.
The restoration process with the help of TFTP is not the least bit harder.
C:\&tftp -i 192.168.1.1 put c:\RT-AC.0.4_380_f5.trxTransfer successful:
bytes in 138 second(s), 308387 bytes/s
The router needs to be rebooted after the restoration is completed.
Our story about the firmware for ASUS RT-AC5300 would not be complete if we did not mention availability of an alternative firmware version by . Transition to the alternative version is similar to the traditional update. To return to the original firmware one needs to go to Firmware Upgrade tab, Administration menu item.
That is where we bring review of the firmware upgrade and restoration processes of ASUS RT-AC5300 wireless router to a conclusion and pass on to examining its capabilities.
The web interface of ASUS RT-AC5300 wireless router is very similar on that in
model, and the majority of functions is standard for
firmware therefore we will not consider explicitly all capabilities of the device, but only turn our attention to the most interesting features. The web interface of the device is available in 18 languages.
Network Map menu item features information about the list of connected wired and wireless clients, USB-devices, settings of each of the three radios, as well as information about the CPU and RAM usage.
ASUS RT-AC5300 has three radios therefore administrator can create guest networks for each of them independently (three for every module).
It is also worth noting that all other wireless settings are available for each of wireless modules independently, unless Smart Connect technology is used, which lets automatically distribute the clients between radios. Smart Connect technology can be utilized for all radios of the router, or just for those which use& 5 GHz range. In our opinion, it is a very useful tool for those who want to have full control over the wireless network.
We must admit that we are a little bit surprised by placement of a page for Smart Connect rules settings in Network Tools menu item. Also fly in the ointment will be existence of a space limitation on operation of modulation of NitroQAM/1024-QAM or, more precisely, very strict requirements of modulation to quality of the received signal which can be satisfied only in the relative proximity to the router.
ASUS RT-AC5300 wireless router has possibility of bundling LAN interfaces in LAG. The corresponding setting is available in Switch Control tab, LAN menu item.
All leading-edge ASUS routers support dual WAN feature. The corresponding settings are available in Dual WAN tab in WAN menu item.
IPv6 fans should definitely refer to the same-named menu item & firmware developers have added support of a new type of connection to providers.
Features of VPN menu item are traditional for ASUSWRT firmware: administrators can configure built-in VPN server/client with its help. Connections via PPTP and OpenVPN for the embedded server, and PPTP, L2TP and OpenVPN for the client are supported.
The wireless router under testing allows filtering not only for IPv4 traffic, but also for IPv6 data. The corresponding setting is available in IPv6 Firewall tab, Firewall menu item.
ASUS RT-AC5300 can operate not only as a wireless router, but also as an access point and Media Bridge. Operation mode can be chosen using Operation mode tab, Administration menu item.
The main system settings are collected in the System tab in the same-named menu item. It is worth mention about the presence of &Enable Reboot Scheduler& option that enables users to reboot the device according to the schedule, of course, in case of time synchronization with the NTP server.
ASUS network equipment users can send the vendor their wishes and suggestions related to the devices of the vendor using Feedback tab in Administration menu item.
By means of Network Tools menu tabs the administrator can perform a number of diagnostic actions, set up Smart-Connect, and also turn on the computer remotely using WoL technology A nice addition to this function is automatic saving of MAC addresses of the devices connected to the local network segment.
That is where we bring a brief review of the device web-interface to a conclusion and pass on to examining its command line.
Switching the access to the command line on and off is performed using System tab, Administration menu item.
ASUS RT-AC5300 wireless router allows carrying out connections not only with the use of the insecure telnet protocol, but also by means of SSH. In order to access the command line one must use the same credentials as for the connection to the router web-interface. Firmware of the model under review is built on Linux 2.6.36.4 OS with BusyBox 1.17.4.
RT-AC5300 login: adminPassword:ASUSWRT RT-AC.0.4 Tue Aug& 2 09:26:35 UTC 2016admin@RT-AC5300:/tmp/home/root# cd /admin@RT-AC5300:/# uname -aLinux RT-AC.36.4brcmarm #1 SMP PREEMPT Tue Aug 2 17:35:28 CST 2016 armv7l GNU/Linuxadmin@RT-AC5300:/# busyboxBusyBox v1.17.4 ( 17:26:33 CST) multi-call binary.Copyright (C)
Erik Andersen, Rob Landley, Denys Vlasenkoand others. Licensed under GPLv2.See source distribution for full notice.Usage: busybox [function] [arguments]...&or: function [arguments]...&BusyBox is a multi-call binary that combines many common Unix&utilities into a single executable.& Most people will create a&link to busybox for each function they wish to use and BusyBox&will act like whatever it was invoked as.Currently defined functions:&[, [[, arp, ash, awk, basename, blkid, cat, chmod, chown, chpasswd, clear, cmp, cp, crond,&cut, date, dd, df, dirname, dmesg, du, e2fsck, echo, egrep, env, ether-wake, expr, fdisk,&fgrep, find, flock, free, fsck.ext2, fsck.ext3, fsck.minix, fsync, grep, gunzip, gzip,&head, ifconfig, insmod, ionice, kill, killall, klogd, less, ln, logger, login, ls, lsmod,&lsusb, md5sum, mdev, mkdir, mke2fs, mkfs.ext2, mkfs.ext3, mknod, mkswap, modprobe, more,&mount, mv, netstat, nice, nohup, nslookup, pidof, ping, ping6, printf, ps, pwd, readlink,&renice, rm, rmdir, rmmod, route, sed, setconsole, sh, sleep, sort, strings, swapoff,&swapon, sync, syslogd, tail, tar, telnetd, test, top, touch, tr, traceroute, traceroute6,&true, tune2fs, udhcpc, umount, uname, unzip, uptime, usleep, vconfig, vi, watch, wc,&which, zcat, zcipadmin@RT-AC5300:/#
Let's see what processes are currently running using ps command. By using top utility one can obtain information on the current activity of the launched processes. The output of specified utilities is located in a .
Contents of /bin, /sbin, /usr/bin and /usr/sbin catalogs, as well as the output of sysinfo utility, are located in a . For example, /sbin catalog features tcpcheck utility that lets the administrator find out whether a TCP port is open in a certain host.
admin@RT-AC5300:/# tcpcheckusage:& tcpcheck &timeout& &host:port& [host:port]admin@RT-AC5300:/# tcpcheck 10 192.168.1.1:23192.168.1.1:23 is aliveadmin@RT-AC5300:/# tcpcheck 10 192.168.1.2:23192.168.1.2:23 failed
Now let's turn to /proc catalogue to view its contents and find out the system uptime, its average utilisation, information on the CPU installed, and the amount of RAM. Actually, system uptime and average system utilisation can also be learnt using uptime command.
admin@RT-AC5300:/# cd /procadmin@RT-AC5300:/proc# ls1&&&&&&&&&&&&& 4&&&&&&&&&&&&& 553&&&&&&&&&&& 735&&&&&&&&&&& execdomains&&& partitions10&&&&&&&&&&&& 432&&&&&&&&&&& 555&&&&&&&&&&& 736&&&&&&&&&&& filesystems&&& scsi11&&&&&&&&&&&& 434&&&&&&&&&&& 556&&&&&&&&&&& 737&&&&&&&&&&& fs&&&&&&&&&&&& self118&&&&&&&&&&& 439&&&&&&&&&&& 558&&&&&&&&&&& 8&&&&&&&&&&&&& interrupts&&&& slabinfo165&&&&&&&&&&& 443&&&&&&&&&&& 559&&&&&&&&&&& 9&&&&&&&&&&&&& iomem&&&&&&&&& softirqs173&&&&&&&&&&& 445&&&&&&&&&&& 56&&&&&&&&&&&& bcm947xx&&&&&& ioports&&&&&&& stat1989&&&&&&&&&& 5&&&&&&&&&&&&& 563&&&&&&&&&&& bcm_chipinfo&& irq&&&&&&&&&&& swaps2&&&&&&&&&&&&& 508&&&&&&&&&&& 565&&&&&&&&&&& brcmnand&&&&&& kallsyms&&&&&& sys2103&&&&&&&&&& 517&&&&&&&&&&& 573&&&&&&&&&&& buddyinfo&&&&& key-users&&&&& sysrq-trigger250&&&&&&&&&&& 523&&&&&&&&&&& 576&&&&&&&&&&& bus&&&&&&&&&&& kmsg&&&&&&&&&& sysvipc255&&&&&&&&&&& 525&&&&&&&&&&& 577&&&&&&&&&&& cmdline&&&&&&& loadavg&&&&&&& timer_list260&&&&&&&&&&& 53&&&&&&&&&&&& 578&&&&&&&&&&& cpu&&&&&&&&&&& locks&&&&&&&&& tty265&&&&&&&&&&& 540&&&&&&&&&&& 587&&&&&&&&&&& cpuinfo&&&&&&& meminfo&&&&&&& uptime290&&&&&&&&&&& 542&&&&&&&&&&& 595&&&&&&&&&&& crypto&&&&&&&& misc&&&&&&&&&& version293&&&&&&&&&&& 543&&&&&&&&&&& 6&&&&&&&&&&&&& devices&&&&&&& modules&&&&&&& vmallocinfo295&&&&&&&&&&& 546&&&&&&&&&&& 614&&&&&&&&&&& diskstats&&&&& mounts&&&&&&&& vmstat3&&&&&&&&&&&&& 55&&&&&&&&&&&& 7&&&&&&&&&&&&& dmu&&&&&&&&&&& mtd&&&&&&&&&&& zoneinfo380&&&&&&&&&&& 551&&&&&&&&&&& 733&&&&&&&&&&& driver&&&&&&&& net389&&&&&&&&&&& 552&&&&&&&&&&& 734&&&&&&&&&&& emf&&&&&&&&&&& pagetypeinfoadmin@RT-AC5300:/proc# cat uptime08.70admin@RT-AC5300:/proc# cat loadavg0.00 0.01 0.05 1/62 2109admin@RT-AC5300:/proc# cat cpuinfoProcessor&&&&&& : ARMv7 Processor rev 0 (v7l)processor&&&&&& : 0BogoMIPS&&&&&&& : 2798.38processor&&&&&& : 1BogoMIPS&&&&&&& : 2798.38Features&&&&&&& : swp half thumb fastmult edspCPU implementer : 0x41CPU architecture: 7CPU variant&&&& : 0x3CPU part&&&&&&& : 0xc09CPU revision&&& : 0Hardware&&&&&&& : Northstar PrototypeRevision&&&&&&& : 0000Serial&&&&&&&&& : 0000admin@RT-AC5300:/proc# uptime&08:31:08 up& 5:31, load average: 0.00, 0.01, 0.04admin@RT-AC5300:/proc#
We can't help but mention nvram utility that allows changing certain important device operation parameters.
admin@RT-AC5300:/proc# nvramusage: nvram [get name] [set name=value] [unset name] [show] [commit] [save] [restore] [erase][fb_save file] ...admin@RT-AC5300:/proc# nvram show | grep adminhttp_username=adminacc_list=admin&passwordacc_webdavproxy=admin&1size: 69244 bytes (61828 left)admin@RT-AC5300:/proc#
So, for example, by means of nvram utility it is possible to disable STP for RT-AC5300 LAN ports.
admin@RT-AC5300:/proc# nvram show | grep stplan_stp=1size: 69244 bytes (61828 left)lan1_stp=1admin@RT-AC5300:/proc# nvram set lan_stp=0admin@RT-AC5300:/proc# nvram commitadmin@RT-AC5300:/proc# nvram show | grep stplan_stp=0size: 69244 bytes (61828 left)lan1_stp=1admin@RT-AC5300:/proc# reboot
On top of that the user can obtain information from the thermosensors, installed next to the CPU and wireless modules using the command line.
admin@RT-AC5300:/# cat /proc/dmu/temperatureCPU temperature : 56 Cadmin@RT-AC5300:/# wl -i eth1 phy_tempsense48 (0x30)admin@RT-AC5300:/# wl -i eth2 phy_tempsense61 (0x3d)
That's where we proceed to completion of the review of the command line interface capabilities and pass directly on to testing the device.
The first testing procedure we usually begin our testing section with is estimating the booting time of the router, which is a time interval starting with the moment when the power is on until the first echo reply is received through ICMP. ASUS RT-5300 wireless router boots in 84 seconds. We believe that this result is normal.
The second no less than standard test was a security scanning procedure, which has been carried out using security scanner. On the whole, there were 16 open ports discovered. The most interesting data are presented below. Naturally, we reported about the found and suspected vulnerabilities to the vendor. Technical experts of the vendor notified us that the found vulnerabilities (and even some other) are already closed in current versions of firmware. XSpider utility detects suspected vulnerability using software version number, reported by the system in a banner, no other checks are executed at the same.
Before getting down to the performance tests we would like to get our readers familiar with the key specifications of the test stand we used.
Motherboard
ASUS Maximus VIII Extreme
Intel Core i7 6700K 4 GHz
Intel Core i7 720QM 1.6 GHz
DDR4-2133 Samsung 64 Gbytes
DDR3 PC3-10700 SEC 16 Gbytes
Intel PRO/1000 PTASUS PCE-AC68
Atheros AR8131ASUS RT-AC88U
Windows 7 x64 SP1 Rus
Windows 7 x64 SP1 Rus
The first test we done was throughput measurement in wired segment between LAN and WAN upon execution of NAT/PAT. In order to generate traffic we used JPerf utility, 2.0.2 version. The tests were carried out with 1, 5, and 15 concurrent TCP connections.
By default, all modern ASUS routers use a hardware acceleration of NAT translations, so in the diagram above transmission speeds are close to the wire speeds. We decided to find out what transmission speeds will be available to users in case of disabled hardware acceleration.
Device performance in this case is restricted to performance of its CPU: one of two cores was 100% utilized. It is also worth noting that in case of disabled NAT/PAT, i.e. when RT-AC5300 executes routing without translation, the received speeds will be comparable with those in the diagram above which is connected to the fact that during normal routing the hardware acceleration isn't used.
On the territory of ex-Soviet bloc countries tunnels still remain one of popular methods of connection to providers. We couldn't help but test the Internet connection speed using PPTP. The router's performance using PPTP tunnel without encryption is presented on the diagram below. We need to admit that we were pleased with the received speeds during this test. We also managed to set up the encrypted VPN (PPTP with MPPE), however no data were transferred through it.
ASUS RT-AC5300 wireless router can operate as VPN server and client. We decided to find out what speeds will be available to users on the basis of OpenVPN tunnels with the default settings.
It should be noted that these constraints are due not to the performance of the router itself, but due to OpenVPN client drivers, limiting the throughput of the virtual NIC installed in the user's computer.
Another wired test was QoS mechanism check. We limited the speeds for the inbound and outbound traffic and measured with the help of JPerf utility, version 2.0.2, with ten concurrent TCP streams. As can be seen from the diagram below, this mechanism is effective only for relatively small speeds up to 100 Mbps which will be more than enough for most of the users exploiting slow WAN connections.
We decided to present the performance of QoS mechanism for small transmission speeds on a separate diagram.
Apart from the support of IPv4, ASUS RT-AC5300 wireless router also supports operation with the next generation protocol - IPv6. The device performance while using the new version of the protocol is presented below.
Now it's time to measure the wireless segment throughput of ASUS RT-AC5300. ASUS PCE-AC68 NIC was used as a wireless client. Unfortunately, ASUS PCE-AC68 is unable to utilize completely all the possibilities of ASUS RT-AC5300 wireless router in any of the wireless ranges. It should be noted that ASUS has already released an appropriate wireless NIC - , we expect it appearance in our test laboratory in the nearest future.
Also we decided to find out what speeds will be available to users when using ASUS RT-AC5300 in Media Bridge mode. For carrying out this test we used ASUS
model as a wireless router.
The model under testing is fitted with USB 2.0 and USB 3.0, which can be used not only for connection of a multifunctional device, but also for external drives with the appropriate interface. We connected 256 GByte Transcend TS256GESD400K SSD and measure access speeds to the user data stored on the SSD. Intel NASPT utility, version 1.7.1, was used for testing. Before measurement we have reduced the RAM volume available to OS to amount that is required by the utility vendor. Such reduction of RAM volume is necessary for mitigating of the local cache.
In conclusion, it should be noted that ASUS RT-AC5300 wireless router has the ability to bundle LAN1 and LAN2 wired interfaces. Unfortunately, we could not get this option to work with Cisco access level switches. We have already discovered this issue in ASUS
model review.
We decided to measure the temperature of the device case during our performance tests using our lab's ADA TempPro-2200 pyrometer. The highest temperature that we managed to measure has been 41&С while average temperature in the room was equal to 23&С.
That's where we draw the testing chapter to a close and move on to summing it all up.
Overall, we were satisfied with ASUS RT-AC5300 wireless router. The tested model has demonstrated extremely high speeds in the wired and wireless segments. The wireless formula AC5300 will provide && &high access speed to network resources to all wireless clients. Obviously, such a high speed is possible to be utilized only by means of at least three clients who are connected to different radios and in close area to the device (for NitroQAM/1024-QAM modulation). Distribution of clients between wireless networks can be executed either in a manual mode or automatically with use of the Smart-Connect mechanism. ASUS RT-AC5300 wireless router has another useful feature - MU-MIMO technology support. In the near future, after the appearance of wireless clients with MU-MIMO support, ASUS RT-AC5300 will be able to manage the transmission media even more efficiently, carrying out a simultaneous exchange of traffic with multiple clients within a single radio.
Among the strength areas of ASUS RT-AC5300 wireless router are the following:
high traffic transmission speeds in both wirel
high access speeds to the data which are stored on an external USB-
high efficiency client and VPN
powerful CPU.
Unfortunately, we cannot help but mention some of its drawbacks:
port bundling capabilit
the web-interface is not c
relatively high price.
At the time of this writing, the average price in Moscow online shops was 24773 roubles.
As of this writing, the best price for ASUS RT-AC5300 in German-speaking Europe countries, according to website , was 415 euro.
After the testing was fully completed and the review was published, we have received ASUS PCE-AC88 wireless NIC. Features of this model are higher transmission speeds and MU-MIMO technology support. Fortunately, the router was still in our laboratory therefore we requested from representatives of the vendor permission to carry out additional tests. Unfortunately, it is impossible to hold on testing of MU-MIMO technology using the single card therefore we have decided to test the performance of ASUS RT-AC5300 router wireless module with PCE-AC88. Testing was held for both wireless ranges. Results of measurements are presented on the diagrams below.
From the provided diagrams it is visible that ASUS PCE-AC88 wireless NIC allows to utilize the possibilities of the router better (in comparison with the previous model & PCE-AC68).
Also we decided to carry out one more test, but this time wired, - to measure RT-AC5300 L2TP throughput. Connections to the Internet via L2TP are no less popular in comparison with PPTP on the territory of ex-Soviet bloc countries. Results of performance measurements of L2TP without encryption are presented on the diagram below.
This concludes our additional testing of ASUS RT-AC5300 wireless router, it is time to finally return the equipment to the vendor.
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