ASUS RT-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.

I purchased this router to future proof my network at home, and to replace the RT-AC87U because it finally just couldn’t take it anymore (lasted a decade of rock solid performance, which is excellent when you really think about it). Everything with the RT-BE96U went smoothly in the beginning, for the most part. Firmware updated immediately after connecting, great. But what I didn’t know is that it really would have been better to start all over after the firmware upgrade because it definitely made things a little different for the initial setup and much smarter. I learned the hard way anyway because a factory reset was eventually required to restore the connection from the ISP. So then starting the process with the latest firmware gave me a slightly different initial setup, which was ultimately better than the initial one. However, any and all little interruptions from the ISP would result in this router entering an infinite autowan loop. Factory reset fixed it every single time, but why on earth should I have to factory reset a router like this on a regular basis? Something was clearly very wrong with this router and its ability to automatically establish a network connection through DHCP. Worked initially, then never again. The reset button didn’t even work to factory reset the device, even though the power LED flashed telling me I had pressed the reset button for a long enough time. Thats how I really knew this router was actually defective. It had to be reset multiple times and powered off just to get back to default settings, even my decade old router would reset after the very first time that I pressed the reset button for a long enough time! The BE96U should have just instantly gone back to factory reset process after pressing the recessed reset button for long enough to make the power LED flash, indicating a successful initiation to factory default, but no. It would just really do just about nothing honestly. If a Thunderstorm was in the area, any minor interruption and boom, infinite autowan loop, all in the log file, so no mistake about it. Asus customer service line actually had a dedicated recording on their phone lines, and it sounded a lot like what I was dealing with because their recommendation was a factory reset. Three days in a row in one week, that was enough. Thank goodness I just barely was within the return window. This is a terrible product, especially when considering the price paid and the difficulties experienced, very sorry to say, but happy to report in the hopes that it helps others to make an informed decision. They have the RT-BE88U and it has received nothing but overwhelmingly positive reviews and already over 4k of them. Available June 2024, so you know what to do. I think this one was just created before the IEEE BE standard was really fully established and fleshed out, 2023, and they just don’t have all the bugs figured out yet. The RT-BE88U (RT-BE7200) was released in June 2024, and look at how popular it is compared to this one. I should I have known better, shame on me, but thankfully the defective product could be returned just in the nick of time. Don’t make the mistake I did and think that a really expensive piece of equipment won’t give you problems. This one did and I’m coming off a decade of solid performance with my previous ASUS router. That’s not exactly by chance either, surge protector and proper grounding is very important. Hopefully I’ll have nothing but positive things to say about the RT-BE88U. Can’t wait to find out!