ASUS TUF Gaming AX3000 V2 Dual Band WLAN Combinable Router (Tethering as 4G and 5G Router Replacement, WiFi 6, up to 3000 Mbps, Mobile Game Mode, 2.5Gbps Port, AiMesh, AiProtection Pro)

I would only consider buying an Asus router and I have had a few in the past, the RT-AC68U, the RT-AC86U, the RT-AX82U and the RT-AX86U. Now I have the GT-BE98. Not everything was perfect along the way, the RT-AC86U lost its Gb WAN and would only run at 100, so that hastened one of the upgrades along the way. I did try a Zen WiFi mesh system, but that was so unstable, it had to be returned. Asus routers are highly configurable and operate an outstanding mesh system, called AiMesh, which makes whole home WiFi a breeze.No review would be complete without talking about the price. This router has just about everything and you pay for that. No one is forced to buy such an expensive router, so anyone buying it is a volunteer to the price-tag, so I am not going criticise the price.After using the GT-BE98 for a couple of weeks, I would call it impressive. Physically, it is big, very big and no amount of styling is going to detract from it looking the wrong side of ugly. Yes, it does look like an upside-down cybernetic giant spider! With the size comes the power consumption. Not really a criticism, because if you are going to spend a very large amount of money on router like this, you are probably not going to be put off by the fact that it uses over 20 watts of electricity just to be idle and goes above that when under a load.Features are just vast, you get WiFi 7, which hopefully adds a bit of future-proofing, you get a 10Gb LAN port, a 10Gb WAN port, 4 x 2.5Gb LAN ports and just one 1Gb LAN port. The LAN ports are fast, very fast, to a point that I noticed a difference when web browsing on my PC coming from the RT-AX86U to the RT-BE98. The array of features in the firmware is nothing short of staggering.WiFi does not seem to have much more reach over my AX router, but it is faster and access to files on my NAS appears much faster. It should be noted that I have not tried WiFi 7 clients yet, so that will (hopefully) impress even more. When at a distance from the router and the WiFi signal is weak, it does carry more data and speedtests do show solid performance, so the signal does not travel much further, but is useful for further.I have the router setup on a wired 2.5Gb LAN connection for an AiMesh system with my RT-AX86U as a node. My previous AiMesh system was with the RT-AX86U as the router and the RT-AX82U as the node and that was perfect and stable for many years, but was starting to fall over, with buffering and other glitches appearing, where there were no hints of problem for years. It was ready for a re-set and if I was doing that, it would be with a new router.As you might expect with a recently released router, there will be issues to iron out in the firmware. Before adding any settings, there was the obligatory firmware update and I manually added the settings that had worked so well in my previous AiMesh setup.In my original review (based on Jan 2024 firmware), I listed three bugs which caused me some concern, all now appear to have been resolved in the April 2024 firmware update, so this review has been updated to remove details of the no longer relevant bugs and the rating has been raised to 5 stars.

Asus RT-BE88U Woah what a Router, its full of features & settings to cater for everyone's needs. I got the router a few days ago, and its been Fantastic so far. The Design is the same as the Asus RT-AC88U, but has a golden style to it. It seems abit more warmer that the AC88U but thats due to all the processing for the faster network speed such as 2.5Gb or 10Gb LAN ports. The Wifi 7 speed has been amazing on my phone & Wifi Laptop. Its super fast on both 2.5Ghz & 5Ghz bands. Wi-Fi 7 Technology Utilizes the latest Wi-Fi 7 standard, supporting 160MHz channel bandwidths, Multi-Link Operation (MLO), and 4K-QAM for enhanced wireless performance. Its easy to create a separate Guest network or Internet Of Things network, So you can now have a wireless network for older Devices that run on 2.4Ghz and have a separate network for your Newer devices that use things like WPA3, MLO. The Router has loads of options for configurations. make sure you backup the settings before you go playing with them, So you can easily revert back. It’s a bonus you can download the Asus app and control the router from your mobile phone. The router features a nice design with removable antennas & options for wall or ceiling mounting. It offers value for money for all that it does. I'm glad I bought it and would highly recommend it.

Sadly, I have been unable to get this to work reliably. Some devices would only stay connected for a few minutes and then never reconnect without switching off and back on, others would constantly reconnect randomly after about an hour or so. It is a shame because when it works, it is very fast. Any IoT device it was luck whether it would work or not when using.

The router is great, there are plenty of reviews around on that.This review is about buying it as an Amazon Warehouse - As Good As New product. If it was as good as new then it would have had a factory reset performed so it worked out of the box. IT DIDN'T. Fortunately I work in IT and knew this was likely the problem, could find the instructions on how to do this. The ASUS manual for the router doesn't tell you how to do this btw.For anybody not technically inclined (or anybody at all) this is properly shonky customer service. A complex piece of electronics sold 'as new' should arrive in an 'as new' state, not with some half-arsed previous customers configuration still in place. If you had read the manual and were expecting a certain setup routine this was never going to arrive and you'd be stuck. I am wondering if this router has been round the block a couple of times, once to the original seller who cocked up the install, back to Amazon where it wasn't reset and when sent out was returned as faulty as a result and now it is with me. Happy with the product, will think twice before buying Amazon Warehouse again and probably won't bother.