ASUSRT-BE96U BE19000 802.11BE Tri-Band Performance WiFi 7 Extendable Router with 6GHz support, Dual 10G Port, 320Mhz, lifetime internet security , MLO, Multi-RU puncturing , AiMesh Support

Last update 7-12Running as advertised, without the issues I had with the first unit. Fast and great range. I will be implementing the new ASUS BQ16 pro mesh in my house this week and will write a full review.Update 6-30It's been a wild ride. Just after posting the review on the 98U, it died. I tried reloading the backup, factory reset and nothing. This is where thing really took a turn. I had to "chat" with Amazon to return the router and they finally issued the shipping label. Seems that it's only buy or return when it came to this unit. I went and purchased another. Here is where the glitch in the Amazon matrix's comes in (it has happened more than once to me). Always follows the same pattern, deliver day was moved up by Amazon. On the delivery day it showed out for delivery and never showed up. New delivery day is now two days out. On the delivery day it shows out for delivery and again never shows up. I get a note from Amazon saying wait a day and then I can return it. I waited the day and go to return it and talk to support. All I really wanted to do is get a replacement. I finally talk the support type to replace it and he does, it arrives two days later. The new one has been up for a week and is work as advertised. Still love the unit.I have tested the speed on both my Mac Mini and my Linux Mint devices and it is averaging 20%+ fast for comparable workloads on my prior 6E routers.Update 6-15I've had the 98u for 24 hours, solid, quiet and works as advertised with predictable results:- I continue to run test on the speed. However, so far it looks to be at least 10 -15% faster than the 96u, YMMV.- Normal daily operations, Non-Cached web browsing, Slack, Signal, Email seems feels faster especially web surfing.- As measured using openspeedtest (HTML5 and HTTP) is faster than my prior ET-12 and the 96U. Again YMMVI removed a node from my mesh ET-12 (7 node) system in the house and added the 96U. Working well and my son is happy to finally have a cool looking router and he says it's faster (and tested it, I guess I'm rubbing off on him?). Yes this is a mix of Wifi 6 and 7 and I have plans to replacing the ET-12s with the BQ16 Pro if ASUS ever gets their heads out of their corporate keisters.Update 6-14OK broke down and purchased the BE98U for my office mostly because my son saw the 96U and wanted it for his setup. I plan on running the 96U in a mesh setup when the ZenWiFi BQ16 Pro gets here (I'll address this when I review the BQ16s). Anyway, configured the 98U; start to finish 5 minutes. So far:- Feels faster - I'll get stats on this today- Nice LEDs (I don't care but I'm sure there are gamers that will)- Better web UI with a nice status page- Advanced configurations UI mirror the format on other Asus hardware. Big plus here!I'll get some time with it and update this review. Overall I'm please with it.Update: 4/23/2024Finally an update. Mostly fixes including security with some functional additions. As I mentioned before, updates are measured in months.Update: 4/3/2024:The BD96U has been rock solid no drops. Still no software update since December, not uncommon (unfortunately) for ASUS.Updated 2/16/2024:So far Wifi 7 has been a strange ride. First I've been in networking for over 30 years and have contributed to and watched it grow up. I have a separate (from my house) office on it's own network. Here I implement what will eventually go into my house. My first attempt with Wifi 7 was the disastrous TP-Link BE95. In a nutshell, nice hardware but everything else was a train wreak. Software, UI, Security, subscription model and privacy were awful. Now normally I buy and use the eventual hardware I would be using in the main house for my office first, but this time I pulled a crazy Ivan, I bought the BE96U. I wanted the BE98 but it's not available (right now) anywhere unless you want to pay $1300 on Ebay (at the time of this review). I plan on implementing the ASUS ZenWiFi BQ16 Pro when it becomes available for my house. Oh and just for reference, I have owned and used Orbi, Linksys, TP-Link and now Asus.The BE96U is replacing a single Asus ET-12. The ET-12 worked very well but it's time to move on. Here are my impressions of the BE96U so far:Pros:- Implementation was easy 9and for someone that breaks EVERYTHING that says a lot)- Web client and Web interface was something I was used to and the options are fantastic (as a network guy)- Web UI is straight forward and to the point and does a very good job of implementing mid-level functionalimplementation- Great advanced features, features the other providers hide. These advanced features gives the user the opportunity to exploit the full potential of the unit. Hear me TP-Link, Orbi and others?- Mobile client is very good- 2 10G ports- Wireless coverage inside my office and all the way into my main house is very good- No subscriptions for basic features the other vendors make you pay for. IMO this is pure GREED- It's FASTCons:- The unit is big (I knew this going in). Beast mode.- As with the ET-12 and ET-8 software releases are measured in many months. This is good and bad. However, IMO newer hardware and software should error on the side of more frequent updates. Release early, release often.- 1G ports? Your competitors moved to 2.5G, so should you. What is ASUS thinking?- Where is USB C?I move very large data sets, video etc. daily around as part of my job and it's fast. As I measure, faster than the ET-12. I have the extra 10G port going into a 10G switch.I applaud ASUS for not yielding to the subscription model their competitors have gone all in on. ORBI, TP-Link and the others should be ashamed of themselves for charging for basic features and poor software.The BE96U is working as advertised, no network drops since I've had it and I don't have to think about it, the ultimate goal of any network. It just works.I will be updating this review as I get network time under my belt.

Update 13 July 2023: Another recent cabling upgrade by our ISP in our neighborhood. ASUS ROG GT-AXE11000 wins again‼️Should be (Plan)/Actual Speeds Achieved🛜 Download: 500 MBPS / 601.64 MBPS🛜 Upload: 10 MBPS / 53.17 MBPS🟧 This ☝️ is the highest speed I tested afterwards — 601.64 MBPS download‼️🟩 Last upgrade was 1.25 years ago from 150 MBPS up to 250 MBPS (3/16/2022), & we were pulling close to 300 MBPS, on average, consistently.🚫 No price change for us for these upgrades.——Update: 03/16/2022: My ISP just bumped my Data Plan up by ⅓ from 150 MBPS to 250 MBPS for FREE (Same $ for plan). First good thing they’ve done in a LONG time. Originally, I reported speeds improved achieving 180 MBPS consistently, & now hitting 288-299 MBPS since they upgraded lines (still <1 week in) in my neighborhood. Proud to report (so far) NO ISSUES with the GT-AXE11000 Router failing as many saw when pushing speeds near or over 1 - 1.2 GBPS or over 100 wifi clients on a residential router. I still LOVE this thing. Still 1 month shy of 6-months where some owners reported CPU in their router checked out (multiple ASUS models) & lost significant speed performance. If that happens, I will update this “update.” I do NOT regret buying this at $550 even though WIFI6E is still effectively “DOA” (limited devices still at the end of Q1 2022). WIFI 7 may come out 1st at this rate (Target was/is 2025?).————Original Review for Amazon for ASUS Router AXE11000Note: Be sure to verify any reviews you read HERE apply to the router YOU want. Many reviews here are for various ASUS routers: AXE11000, AX11000, AX6000, etc. This review is for their AXE11000, which came out to market in Feb 2021.Purchase Date: 09/13/2021, online & configured 09/21/2021; long-term performance to be determined.I recently upgraded from a D-Link DIR-890L/R bought in 2015. It is ridiculous that support ends in 4 years & obsolete by the 5th (I digress). This top of the line router was $350 in 2015, now flagship routers cost like this ASUS $550 or more. Expensive? Yes! Worth it? YES!!The thing I most despised about it (old one), & 95% of all routers on the market for home networks, is they are most or all auto-configured with little manual customization available, or none at all. You WON’T have that issue with the ASUS GT-AXE11000!! I saw many reviews “ding it” for supporting 6E but the market is extremely limited in 6E Tech even now. I’ve been wanting this ASUS Router since I saw the preview announcements back in 2020. Here is why I love it & you will as well.1. Supports 6E despite market is still not ready with 6E NIC’s or other devices. Give it time. This was the 1st router that supported 6e—of course it wasn’t ready when launched back in Feb 2021 – duh?! An ASUS firmware fix will make all well with 6e soon. Hopefully the market will offer more 6e devices in the next 6 months (semiconductor shortage makes that not likely)!! That is NOT ASUS’ fault (6e market or silicon chip shortage).2. Every setting practically is manually configurable if you wish or you can get most settings automatically configured if not a Tech person. I am, so I LOVE it.3. AI Protection Pro — You get Lifetime AI Protection against spyware, adware, & ransomware updates from the Internet that get pulled by your devices via YOUR router & modem. Again, MOST routers on the market have no protection built in, much less free, with lifetime updates! My wife’s work computer has seen multiple malicious programs attempt access that this feature stopped from infecting either her computer or spreading onto router or our other home network devices. We sent the reports to her employer’s IT Team to investigate.4. WiFi Radar — Instead of paying an additional $500 or more for a Network (SSID) Analyzer Program or Subscription for Wireless Channel Stats, & Site Survey, this feature set is included for FREE! You don’t need other programs to see what channel your neighbors chose for 2.4G, 5G or 6G & the interference you may get competing on those busy channels from neighboring devices. You also can create reports by scanning as often as you like. This alone makes the $550 Router a real bargain. IT Network people tell users to choose, for example: Channel 1, 6, or 11 for their center channel using 2.5 GHz. The problem is everyone knows this as they have heard this same counsel for over a decade!! Your neighbors know this too. Guess which are the busiest channels in 2021 (at least in my hood)?5. Traffic Analyzer — tells you which Top 5 devices (& programs or service—like streaming on device) are MOST responsible for data downloads & graphs it. For example, when my son is home from college during the summer, we easily exceed 100 GB of data per day downloaded between him & us working, gaming, or streaming from home. My ISP charges & throttles if you go over your allocation based on monthly use. This feature makes it easy to KNOW 100% which devices are the culprit & specific activities or program most responsible on it. My son is a gamer like I am, but we regularly hit 30-35 GB/day when he isn’t home. We had to assume it was his PC Gaming that was the issue (he was downloading too much or in a dead zone even with a WiFi booster). We didn’t definitively know, but NOW WE DO!! I love this too.If you want a manually configurable router with tons of settings (95% of what is out there doesn’t support it to this degree for home users), & all the benefits above included, then get this already. The streaming & gaming quality & speeds we do in my home (I tested) are improved over my last router. Consistently reaches 10-50 MBPS more for download speed than an AC3200 router. If this is what you are looking for as well, then this is for you!My ISP frequently has downtime issues in my neighborhood so download speeds varied from 60-180 MBPS using my old router over this past year. Now, 180 MBPS consistently unless ISP goes down. Those of you who have better internet packages should see a proportional dramatic improvement as I did for mine. Have had no issues since installing & configuring it. Have I said I LOVE my ASUS ROG GT-AXE11000? (We have 35 client devices — 16-20 of those are active daily too, ranging from PC’s, MacBook, iPhones, iPad, AppleTV’s, gaming consoles (plural), and so on with no connectivity issues). My old router required daily reboot or suffered degraded performance when video conferencing. The new router I reboot 2x a week per auto schedule. Again, flawless so far.