# New Router/Adapter Issues



## Noiziv (Aug 11, 2014)

Yesterday my family upgraded our router to one of the best routers on the market today--the Linksys WRT1900AC. In addition to this, my brother and I both purchased two Linksys AC1200 Dual-Band Wireless USB Adapters to go along with the new router. My dad is connected to the router directly in the basement while my brother and I have our rooms upstairs on the top level.

Today is the first full day of us using our new equipment, and we're already beginning to experience some issues. My brother and I are the only two connected to the 5.0GHz connection of the router, and everything else (such as phones, laptops, etc.) are connected to the 2.4GHz connection. While my dad was at work and my brother and I were both at home, in the middle of my game I started to lag severely, my ping spiking from 40 to 300+. I found out that my brother decided to download a game on Steam and it was the source of my lag. He wasn't lagging whatsoever, and was actually downloading his game at 8.2mb/s and having no issues. I was downloading something earlier in the morning and he experienced no issues either; it seems to be solely on my side and I'm not quite sure why. Also, after the download stopped, for some reason the connection went out completely for both of us for roughly 30 seconds.

Is there any idea as to what is causing these issues? Is it on my end, the router's end, or my brother's end? And is it related to the router itself or more-so the adapter? Any help is greatly appreciated.


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## remixedcat (Aug 11, 2014)

I would use QoS and throttle steam down and see if it helps. 

Try a different USB port if it's only on your end as well. 

Also I would go into the adapter properties in device manager>advanced>then keep it in 5Ghz only mode so it won't get any 2.4Ghz interferrence on the 2nd radio of the adapter. I often have better performance this way.


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## Noiziv (Aug 11, 2014)

remixedcat said:


> I would use QoS and throttle steam down and see if it helps.
> 
> Try a different USB port if it's only on your end as well.
> 
> Also I would go into the adapter properties in device manager>advanced>then keep it in 5Ghz only mode so it won't get any 2.4Ghz interferrence on the 2nd radio of the adapter. I often have better performance this way.



Thanks for the reply! I went out and purchased the Netgear A6200 adapter to test, and so far have better download speeds than before using Steam. I'm going to do some more tests later with my brother downloading things and I'll post back with my results.

If I'm still encountering some issues, I'll definitely take a look at your suggestions and see if they work for me. Thank you!


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## remixedcat (Aug 11, 2014)

A6200 you mean... I have one of those and it's pretty good. Not the best for 2.4Ghz but decent for 5Ghz.


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## Noiziv (Aug 11, 2014)

remixedcat said:


> A6200 you mean... I have one of those and it's pretty good. Not the best for 2.4Ghz but decent for 5Ghz.



Yeah that one! The Linksys one just seemed to be slower than this Netgear one. I'm connected using the 5.0GHz connection. 

When it comes to the two connections, should they both be setup? For instance, if you search for a wifi connection on any computer in the house, we have "Connection" and "Connection5GHz". Is that how it should be? We've never used a dual-band router before so this is kind of foreign to us. We have three desktops (my dad, brother, and I) on the 5.0GHz while our laptops, phones, and consoles are connected to the 2.4GHz connection.


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## remixedcat (Aug 11, 2014)

Yes, use two different names so it's easier to tell. I do.


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## Noiziv (Aug 12, 2014)

remixedcat said:


> Yes, use two different names so it's easier to tell. I do.



Okay good, that's what we've been doing. Thanks! I'll reply back to this thread soon with my results


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## remixedcat (Aug 12, 2014)

You're welcome! Hope it works out better!


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## Noiziv (Aug 12, 2014)

remixedcat said:


> You're welcome! Hope it works out better!



I don't see a setting in my adapter settings about disabling 2.4GHz. Any idea?


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## remixedcat (Aug 12, 2014)

Should be a settings called "802.11 mode" or 'frequency... a pulldown menu


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## Noiziv (Aug 12, 2014)

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That is what I see in the properties.


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## remixedcat (Aug 12, 2014)

band preference or compabillity mode is what I would try

here's how it is on my amped aca1:


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## Noiziv (Aug 12, 2014)

remixedcat said:


> band preference or compabillity mode is what I would try
> 
> here's how it is on my amped aca1:
> 
> View attachment 58344



I attempted everything and it still seems to have the same issue, regardless of the adapter. Both perform the same... and it's only on my end.


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## eidairaman1 (Aug 12, 2014)

Noiziv said:


> I attempted everything and it still seems to have the same issue, regardless of the adapter. Both perform the same... and it's only on my end.



Trade in the router. Do you have any other devices that use a wireless signal


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## remixedcat (Aug 12, 2014)

so you've changed the bands as well??? 

mabye scan for malware or do the sfc /scannow  and see if windows is causing it


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## Noiziv (Aug 12, 2014)

eidairaman1 said:


> Trade in the router. Do you have any other devices that use a wireless signal



I don't think it has to do with the router, because both my dad and brother have zero issues if I were to download something. Their ping stays the same, while mine rises if they download. They are both connected via the 5.0GHz connection as well.



remixedcat said:


> so you've changed the bands as well???
> 
> mabye scan for malware or do the sfc /scannow  and see if windows is causing it



Yes, I tried changing the adapter settings to no avail. I don't know what it is that could cause this, and I'm really out of ideas to this point. I'll try a scan.


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## remixedcat (Aug 12, 2014)

Also try this: make another seperate SSID that's isolated like a guest network or something... connect to that and see if it's affecting you. have him try that and you get back on the main network

Hinte: when configuring that make sure that wireless client isolation is set to "yes" and make sure the SSID is set to "internet only" and disallow LAN access.


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## Noiziv (Aug 12, 2014)

remixedcat said:


> Also try this: make another seperate SSID that's isolated like a guest network or something... connect to that and see if it's affecting you. have him try that and you get back on the main network
> 
> Hinte: when configuring that make sure that wireless client isolation is set to "yes" and make sure the SSID is set to "internet only" and disallow LAN access.



I haven't tried this, but I'm skeptical as to if that'll make a difference. It must be something do to with the router settings, as both my brother and I have the exact same adapter (returned the Netgear one as there was zero improvement) and I have issues while he doesn't. Considering we are in separate rooms, we get different signals. I actually have a higher/faster connection than he does because his room has been known to be a sort of "dead zone." However, I continue to lag during downloads while he is fine. The old router and adapters we had never caused this, and I'm struggling to figure out why now.


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## remixedcat (Aug 12, 2014)

I want to see if there's anything on your pc that's causing it like malware, etc.... that's why I want to isolate you from the rest of the network (while still keep you connected) and see if there's anything between your computer and his causing the issues.

Also there's another thing you can try: start>run>services.msc>look for the windows media network sharing service>right click>properties>startup type pulldown>disabled>ok to close (and make sure the service is stopped too)  This service is known to cause issues with both high CPU usage as well as network issues/congestion since it constantly shoots out broadcast packets.

and see if this helps.


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## Noiziv (Aug 12, 2014)

remixedcat said:


> I want to see if there's anything on your pc that's causing it like malware, etc.... that's why I want to isolate you from the rest of the network (while still keep you connected) and see if there's anything between your computer and his causing the issues.
> 
> Also there's another thing you can try: start>run>services.msc>look for the windows media network sharing service>right click>properties>startup type pulldown>disabled>ok to close (and make sure the service is stopped too)  This service is known to cause issues with both high CPU usage as well as network issues/congestion since it constantly shoots out broadcast packets.
> 
> and see if this helps.



We decided to try a new router (ASUS AC2400) and am experiencing the same kind of issues. My brother is downloading at 14mbps while my ping in game rises to 500+. I tried disabling that Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service and it didn't change the outcome.

I'm not sure what to do now...I don't know what's causing this.


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## Noiziv (Aug 12, 2014)

I seem to have fixed it. With the new router, it came with an Adaptive QoS feature that completely fixed the issues. My brother was downloading at 10.7mbps while I had only 40 ping in game!

I'm hoping it stays this way and continues to work smoothly. I'll report back soon to ensure it does.


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## Athlon2K15 (Aug 12, 2014)

how far away from the router are you. 5GHz is only good for 20ft at max.


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## Noiziv (Aug 13, 2014)

AthlonX2 said:


> how far away from the router are you. 5GHz is only good for 20ft at max.



As stated in my original post, the router is in the basement while our rooms are upstairs on the second floor of the house. And the router we have is good for up to 5,000 sq. ft., so I think we're good with that.



remixedcat said:


> I want to see if there's anything on your pc that's causing it like malware, etc.... that's why I want to isolate you from the rest of the network (while still keep you connected) and see if there's anything between your computer and his causing the issues.
> 
> Also there's another thing you can try: start>run>services.msc>look for the windows media network sharing service>right click>properties>startup type pulldown>disabled>ok to close (and make sure the service is stopped too)  This service is known to cause issues with both high CPU usage as well as network issues/congestion since it constantly shoots out broadcast packets.
> 
> and see if this helps.



I seem to be encountering another issue. While my brother was out for the day yesterday, I noticed that random lag spikes would start occurring at any point in time. I was playing a game when suddenly my ping started to rise up to 150, then back down, then back up to even 400+. While this was happening, my brother's computer nor my dad's computer was in use, therefore I had access to the all of the bandwidth. In an attempt to fix this new issue, I decided to try turning the QoS settings off, and to my surprise completely fixed that problem. I have yet to encounter any lag spikes since turning this setting off.

While this is a fix to the lag spikes, this now makes me prone to the original problem. The QoS settings stopped the lag while my brother downloads, but it caused problems by keeping it on. Did I configure it wrong? Here's a picture:






While using speedtest.net, my download and upload speed is 100mbps/23mbps respectively. Have I configured this wrong? Is there a different thing I must do to eliminate those lag spikes?


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## eidairaman1 (Aug 13, 2014)

No wonder. You need to centralize that router in the home or on second story to give a unbrella effect for wifi. Also floors separating basement from home or even second story can cause problems-way theyre built. You dont want the router by anything metallic. A good solution is the Netgear Ethernet over powerline plug link which also sends a wifi signal out. Otherwise its time to make patch cables and drill holes or install ethernet jacks...


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## Noiziv (Aug 13, 2014)

eidairaman1 said:


> No wonder. You need to centralize that router in the home or on second story to give a unbrella effect. Also floors separating basement from home or even second story can cause problems. Plus you dont want the router by anything metallic. A good solution is the Netgear Ethernet over powerline plug link which also sends a wifi signal out.



The router has been in the same spot for over 10 years in this house, and we've never had a problem until recently upgrading. Also, this is only on my end and not my brother's, whose room is down the hall from mine (roughly 15 feet or so). There's no reason to move the router to a new location, regardless if it's 2.4GHz or 5.0GHz. I'm getting faster speeds than I've ever had, so there's clearly nothing wrong with my signal.


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## eidairaman1 (Aug 13, 2014)

Seems you dont listen to reasoning. Ive fixed many customers wifi problems just by relocating their residental gateway (modem/wifi router combo) whether it was by a metallic item, in a closet, in an entertainment stand, or even on the floor... Last thing was either the inside wiring or the cabling going from the node to the home...

Best of luck trying to find the problem joik.


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## Noiziv (Aug 13, 2014)

eidairaman1 said:


> Seems you dont listen to reasoning. Ive fixed many customers wifi problems just by relocating their residental gateway (modem/wifi router combo) whether it was by a metallic item, in a closet, in an entertainment stand, or even on the floor... Last thing was either the inside wiring or the cabling going from the node to the home...
> 
> Best of luck trying to find the problem joik.



I seem to have eliminated both problems by adjusting the QoS settings to 90/23. No lag so far.


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## Athlon2K15 (Aug 13, 2014)

Ill tell you right now the router you have which I assume is the RT-87U will continue to have issues while Asus gets it buttoned up and stable. It is that very reason I havent touched the one I have and it remains in the box.


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## remixedcat (Aug 13, 2014)

This kinda crap is what makes me never want to give a consumer grade router company another dime. It's enterprise grade from here on out for me!!!


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## Aquinus (Aug 13, 2014)

remixedcat said:


> This kinda crap is what makes me never want to give a consumer grade router company another dime. It's enterprise grade from here on out for me!!!



Yes, but I like running my own gateway. 


```
$ uname -a
Linux Sophia 3.2.0-4-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 3.2.57-3+deb7u2 x86_64 GNU/Linux
$ cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep "name"
model name      : AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 960T Processor
model name      : AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 960T Processor
model name      : AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 960T Processor
model name      : AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 960T Processor
$ free -m
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:          3962        499       3463          0        116        219
-/+ buffers/cache:        164       3798
Swap:         3839          0       3839
$ sudo ifconfig
br0       Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:15:17:e4:02:82
          inet addr:10.10.10.254  Bcast:10.10.10.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::215:17ff:fee4:282/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:3974902 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:4716085 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:1252298448 (1.1 GiB)  TX bytes:4637981831 (4.3 GiB)

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr xx:xx:xx:0b:e2:9f
          inet addr:xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx  Bcast:255.255.255.255  Mask:255.255.252.0
          inet6 addr: xxxx:xxx:xxxx:xx:9923:1bbf:bdd0:a3c6/64 Scope:Global
          inet6 addr: fe80::4261:86ff:fe0b:e29f/64 Scope:Link
          inet6 addr: xxxx:xxx:xxxx:xx:42e:7344:6ff1:a2f6/64 Scope:Global
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:8385049 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:4026395 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:4920614892 (4.5 GiB)  TX bytes:1310501244 (1.2 GiB)
          Interrupt:46 Base address:0x6000

eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr xx:xx:xx:0b:e2:9e
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
          Interrupt:47 Base address:0xa000

eth2      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr xx:xx:xx:e4:02:82
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:22717 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:3265876 (3.1 MiB)
          Interrupt:19 Memory:fe8e0000-fe900000

eth3      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr xx:xx:xx:e4:02:83
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:3991998 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:4716086 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:1338897757 (1.2 GiB)  TX bytes:4662465164 (4.3 GiB)
          Interrupt:16 Memory:fe880000-fe8a0000

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:709 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:709 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:46731 (45.6 KiB)  TX bytes:46731 (45.6 KiB)
$ lspci | grep "Ethernet"
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82571EB Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 06)
02:00.1 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82571EB Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 06)
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 03)
04:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 03)
```

All I need to do is get two half decent wi-fi adapters for broadcasting an SSID for 2.4 and 5Ghz off of it and I can completely ditch my old Linksys E4200 all together.


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## remixedcat (Aug 13, 2014)

Yeah well stuff like Pfsense/Untange is good too because you get to control the hardware


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## Aquinus (Aug 13, 2014)

remixedcat said:


> Yeah well stuff like Pfsense/Untange is good too because you get to control the hardware


How does Pfsense or Untange give you more control over the hardware? If you know how to use Linux, you should be able to do all the same things but without a GUI. I write my iptables rules by hand thank you very much.


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## Noiziv (Aug 13, 2014)

AthlonX2 said:


> Ill tell you right now the router you have which I assume is the RT-87U will continue to have issues while Asus gets it buttoned up and stable. It is that very reason I havent touched the one I have and it remains in the box.



The version I have is a Best Buy exclusive I believe.



remixedcat said:


> This kinda crap is what makes me never want to give a consumer grade router company another dime. It's enterprise grade from here on out for me!!!



Yep, it's beginning to lag with/without QoS settings. At least the other new one only lagged during downloads. Not sure where to go from here...


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## remixedcat (Aug 13, 2014)

and everything is fine on both computers??


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## remixedcat (Aug 13, 2014)

Aquinus said:


> How does Pfsense or Untange give you more control over the hardware? If you know how to use Linux, you should be able to do all the same things but without a GUI. I write my iptables rules by hand thank you very much.



as in picking the components....


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## Aquinus (Aug 14, 2014)

remixedcat said:


> as in picking the components....


I still don't understand how that is any different than using a server running Linux. Pfsense is Linux with a GUI to make it easy for people who don't know how to fully administer a Linux gateway server from the command line.


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## Noiziv (Aug 14, 2014)

remixedcat said:


> and everything is fine on both computers??



My brother is getting the same random lag I'm getting now. This router claimed to have one of the farthest ranges of any router available, and it is also the most expensive one in store ($280). Not sure why it would perform this way, when the Linksys WRT1900 worked fine besides downloads.


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## Athlon2K15 (Aug 14, 2014)

Noiziv said:


> The version I have is a Best Buy exclusive I believe.



I highly doubt yours is any different from the one I have, and if yours is best buy exclusive, maybe mine is an Asus exclusive as thats who sent me mine


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## Noiziv (Aug 14, 2014)

AthlonX2 said:


> I highly doubt yours is any different from the one I have, and if yours is best buy exclusive, maybe mine is an Asus exclusive as thats who sent me mine



As far as I've read on Google, there's no difference between the RT-AC87R and RT-AC87U, other than one is only sold by Best Buy. I have no idea why, but that's all I've seen.


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## Noiziv (Aug 14, 2014)

Just upgraded to new firmware released three days ago. I'll report back when I have an accurate test result.


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## remixedcat (Aug 14, 2014)

The R is a unique SKU to make sure that nobody can do price matching since it's a "different model"...  asus and bestbuy were in it with eachother then decided that.


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## Noiziv (Aug 14, 2014)

remixedcat said:


> The R is a unique SKU to make sure that nobody can do price matching since it's a "different model"...  asus and bestbuy were in it with eachother then decided that.



Yeah that's kind of what I figured. My brother's girlfriend works for Best Buy though so we got it for $157 when it's for sale for $280.


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## Noiziv (Aug 14, 2014)

So far so good since updating the firmware. Have yet to lag at all, and my speeds seem to have increased. Both my dad and I had our laptops double in speed out of nowhere.


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## 95Viper (Aug 14, 2014)

Noiziv said:


> As far as I've read on Google, there's no difference between the RT-AC87R and RT-AC87U, other than one is only sold by Best Buy. I have no idea why, but that's all I've seen.


You are correct...

Quote from the ASUS PCDIY web site's article "August 2014 The Best 802.11AC Router – RT-AC87U & RT-AC87R":


> The AC87U and the AC87R routers are identical when it comes to their hardware and design, the difference in their naming comes in where they can be purchased ( the 87R being a BestBuy specific sku ) and the 87U being available at all other retailers and etailers.
> 
> ASUS PCDIY © 2013 ASUS Computer International


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