ASUS 4G-AC86U Cat. 12 600Mbps Dual-Band AC2600 LTE Modem Router, Support guest work with captive portal, Lifetime Free Aiprotection Pro internet Security, MU-MIMO

I had been mulling over this item for a year but finally made a move.It is only a few days since I started to use this router, but I am quite hopeful that this is the right solution and it has stood firm without any initial hiccup.The very feature I was after is the one where you can switch between several mobile network types. Not only being of the very few products available in this category, but also being so expensive, I would not have forked out for this one.In the area where I live, you cannot expect much from the copper fixed-line internet due to the poor quality of cable used as well as the cap at the local exchange. To solve the slow uplink/downlink speed, my initial idea was to add a Netgear 4G LTE modem to my existing ASUS RT-AC68U. I was happy for some while but the Netgear is unable to select the mobile network type manually, and it began to have the habit of being stuck in 3G, not 3.5G, even if the 4G reception is fine. This effectively kept me away from the faster network available all the time.ASUS 4G-68U turned up when trying to find a better solution.The configuration is straightforward and easy just like its brother RT-AC68U. Only mobile broadband is enabled for internet access, but it can be colocated with fixed broadband in the WAN set-up. Apart from being a 4G LTE modem, there is a couple of things different from its brother. This model has only one USB port which acts unusually configurable as USB2 or USB3. The ASUS router menu does not have USB application for 3G/4G tethering either that RT-AC68U has.Some people seem to find this model very slow to start up, but I do not. If you think about the fact that this is a 2-in-1 consumer-segment offering, it is rather natural to take a longer initialisation time, adding the time a smartphone takes to reboot. The start-up speed is something I was concerned about when researching 4G LTE modem/routers. Fortunately, however, it is an acceptable level that does not bother me at all.Although this is very pricey, I cannot do without a decent Internet access. Although it is only a few days of use, it does not take this sort of products so many days before you can evaluate its performance. In this regard, I am pleased with the stable and decent Internet speed that the modem/router provides. I can highly recommend this model.

Ok first off I will say when this did work it worked great. I needed it because I can only get mobile broadband where I live but that is not strong enough to be able to use SteamVR on my PC so I needed something where I could connect an actual cable so the signal would be stronger and smoother.The first thing I noticed was just how finnicky it is to getb the damn sim in in the first palce, they really haven't thought the sim location through at all. Now the main issue could be related tyo the last because after it had been working for a while I had to take the sim out and put it back in but that was when the real issue became apparent. Firstly I had to use something to push the sim sort of upwards as I was inserting it because it has a terrible habit of pushing the micro sim out of the sim adapter due to the terribly poor placement of the socket but even when I was making sure it was going in and even though the router could detect the sim I could no longer get a signal.The sim itself works just fine in my old device\dongle but I never managed to get a signal on that or the second sim I tried in this router. So I never got a signmal from it other than that one time and it's a poor do when I am having to replace a great and trusted brand like this with a random none branded router direct from china.Like I say I might just have been unlucky and got myself a dud but due to the horrible placement of the sim tray I would not be surprised if this wasn't an issue on many of these routers.

Works well. It connected to 4G and hasn’t dropped a connection yet! I did try another brand 4G modem/router first and it was terrible (same network but kept dropping connections often!).The 4G data speed is good, and maybe even better than a broadband connection (in my area at least. Of course this will vary with location).WiFi signal strength within the house is good, and comparable with all the previous broadband routers I’ve used.

It is good, as usual one can expect from Asus. It is stable. More importantly, it is safe. No other brands of routers I would trust.However, maybe it is not good enough. Speed is slower (in comparison to other router, or my old Asus router). VPN is not the most stable, i.e., drop every few days or a week. And it will not reconnect automatically. Problem of firmware??? Wait for a more stable firmware to be released.

I've used a few ASUS DSL routers in the past and found them to be pretty good especially feature-wise. This 4G router has been my worst experience with an ASUS product. When I opened the box the SIM card tray and tool was in a plastic packet. However the Quick Start Guide said the tray should already be inserted in the unit and you should pop it out to insert your card. I don't know if I got a unit which had already been opened or if this was a mistake with the Guide or packaging issue at the factory.I'm also not sure if it had a software or hardware issue but the router would not connect to the internet. It kept showing a 'could not read SIM card' error. A few seconds later it would read the SIM card, pick up the APN details before showing the error message again. After hours of trying to solve this I finally managed to get it so show an LTE signal, but it quickly failed again before I could even test if the internet was working. The SIM card works perfectly in other devices so it seemed to be an ASUS hardware/software issue. I also tried another SIM, same problem.While the ASUS router software has good features the UI is terribly outdated visually compared to the likes of Huawei and TP-Link. It looks like they didn't have designers work on the software and has been this way for years. Thankfully returning it was quick and easy with Amazon.

very good and easy to set up! much better than old one!!no lag!