ASUS Teases ZenWiFi PRO Router

[Makaveli]

You don't know what a solid router is until you are presented only with a console to configure it and you need a degree to know how to configure it. Now these are really solid. Like 100% most of the time.

lol i'm at home I don't need a cisco router at home would be total overkill and unnecessary. In an enterprise environment sure you would have a point.

 

[Pepamami]

Last time I bought Asus router it was a disaster, overloaded with ton of marketing and "gaming" garbage and barely doing its primary routing function.
This time I better stick with Ubiquity, Mikrotik, HPE, or solutions on OpenWRT, atleast they are more stable.

New Zen router is missing RBG light >.>

 

[zlobby]

For home usage? I am not at work. Spending so much to have ability to say hey google-all lights off?

Bonkers

'Smart' home automation is beyond saving. I quit.

lol i'm at home I don't need a cisco router at home would be total overkill and unnecessary. In an enterprise environment sure you would have a point.

At least go for a Tik, if anything. Their default security is somewhat decent.

My ISP insists I use its router or else no VOIP telephone service. My router caused me about fours hours of pain today. It took three telephone calls to a genius friend and several/many Google searches to solve the problem.

If you are not on fiber, there are easier ways to give your ISP the finger. VoIP and the rest of Tripple/Triper Play services are just some VLANs.

 

[ShiBDiB]

Not sure what all the snarky comments are about, pretty sure Asus's routers were some of the more solid around.

Routers as a whole draw and deserve snarky remarks.

90% of consumers use whatever router comes bundled with the internet package. The remaining 10% I'd argue majority use the same router for years without even thinking about upgrading it. And of those who do upgrade, most of them aren't using anywhere close to the maximum bandwidth the newest stuff provides.

So as a result of all that, routers get all the dumb buzzwords that they can think of to try and sell something that 99% don't need or want.

 

[zlobby]

So as a result of all that, routers get all the dumb buzzwords that they can think of to try and sell something that 99% don't need or want.

And yet they somehow fall short on the most important stuff, i.e. stability and security.

You're aware that client Wi-Fi adapters are a no go to use in a router, right? What you're doing with your RPi and some trinkets aren't going to translate well if you're going to try to build your own router.
What you'd need to get is something like this, but I'm not sure if there are drivers for a DIY build for it.

QWA-AC2600 | Turn your Ubuntu/Linux PC or QNAP NAS into a high-performance and secure wireless access point/base station

The QWA-AC2600 is a 2.4/5 GHz Dual Band Dual Concurrent (DBDC), 4 x 4 Multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO), low-profile PCI Express (PCIe) 2.0 x1 wireless adapter with two Qualcomm QCA9984 NICs that supports up to 2533 Mbps (800 Mbps for IEEE 802.11n (2.4 GHz) and 1733 Mbps for IEEE 802.11ac (5 GHz)). The...

www.qnap.com

A client Wi-Fi adapter, such as the ones from Intel, will crap out after you connect a handful of devices to it, if even that. They weren't designed for routing traffic from multiple devices.

I used to work for a router manufacturer, so I'm well aware of not just driver issues, but also the amount of tuning that can be done to make the drivers work well for specific hardware combinations. The big problem with anything Wi-Fi is that there just aren't any good open drivers and the binary blobs from the hardware vendors tend to have their fair share of bugs, that sometimes never gets fixed. We ran into an issue with a Wi-Fi chip from MTK and it took them three months just to acknowledge there was an issue and another couple of months to fix it. If that's how it is to be a paying customer, it's no wonder that so many retail products work as well as they do. The router hardware vendors really need to step up their game, but alas, it seems like that's not going to happen until they get slapped hard by some court.

MTK are writting their own drivers from the ground up. This alone deserves huge kudos.

We all already know that.

I for one didn't. Which manufacturer he was working for?

 

[Caring1]

Why Zen, does it use an AMD chip?

 

[TheLostSwede]

MTK are writting their own drivers from the ground up. This alone deserves huge kudos.

Who else would write their drivers for them? The same applies for most chip makers.

Why Zen, does it use an AMD chip?

Asus has sold Zen products long before AMD started using the term.

 

[zlobby]

Who else would write their drivers for them? The same applies for most chip makers.

Most routers run on some form of Linux. Manufacturers simply use the already avalable Linux drivers for the chips, and then slap some UI on top.

ROS/SwOS on the other hand has very little vanilla Linux in them. AFAIK they use only some parts of the kernel while everything else is built from scratch.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Most routers run on some form of Linux. Manufacturers simply use the already avalable Linux drivers for the chips, and then slap some UI on top.

ROS/SwOS on the other hand has very little vanilla Linux in them. AFAIK they use only some parts of the kernel while everything else is built from scratch.

Yeah, right...
So who makes the wi-fi drivers? Or the network accelerators drivers? Or all the other drivers that the nice people at OpenWRT don't have?
You clearly live in an alternate reality if you think that Mediatek, RealTek, Qualcomm and Broadcom don't write drivers for the chips they make. Most also provide a custom OS, which isn't OpenWRT.

 

[Valantar]

Are we really at a point where routers need teasers? I wonder what new, never-seen-before, ground-breaking features this will have, like ... uh, slightly faster WiFi? Another gargantuan design like other high end routers, but slightly different? Another buggy and irritating QoS feature? Or is it that this one won't even get a single firmware update?

 

[Makaveli]

'Smart' home automation is beyond saving. I quit.


At least go for a Tik, if anything. Their default security is somewhat decent.


If you are not on fiber, there are easier ways to give your ISP the finger. VoIP and the rest of Tripple/Triper Play services are just some VLANs.

Nah i'm good with what i'm using thanks.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Are we really at a point where routers need teasers? I wonder what new, never-seen-before, ground-breaking features this will have, like ... uh, slightly faster WiFi? Another gargantuan design like other high end routers, but slightly different? Another buggy and irritating QoS feature? Or is it that this one won't even get a single firmware update?

It's all bout the design...

 

[zlobby]

Are we really at a point where routers need teasers? I wonder what new, never-seen-before, ground-breaking features this will have, like ... uh, slightly faster WiFi? Another gargantuan design like other high end routers, but slightly different? Another buggy and irritating QoS feature? Or is it that this one won't even get a single firmware update?

Well, let's not forget that it's all just business. If ASUS or whoever for that matter make some cash on their products, then it was all justified in their account books.
The irony here is that while us being (arguably) smarter here, they will clock a mil or two profit from these. I for one wouldn't mind adding a couple of mil's to my bank account while the rest of you laugh at me how I know nothing.

 

[Jism]

Routers over time suffer from transmit issues; like you can find your network but communication over a bit longer distance becomes an issue.

I have a router that came from my ISP in where i flashed a TP link firmware on top of it (Archer C7). They are extremely robust and the best part is that i can configure it's transmission wattage which normally is limited per country. I can go beyond 4 watts lol to overcome anyone else in my enviroment if i wanted to. I toned it down to roughly 1W out of a max 4W since it does have to pass lots of walls.

However i'd never be convinced of wireless over UTP really. I have a 1GBit glasfibre connection and no matter what i do i can never fully tax it over wireless.

 

[Valantar]

Well, let's not forget that it's all just business. If ASUS or whoever for that matter make some cash on their products, then it was all justified in their account books.
The irony here is that while us being (arguably) smarter here, they will clock a mil or two profit from these. I for one wouldn't mind adding a couple of mil's to my bank account while the rest of you laugh at me how I know nothing.

High end routers are a niche product. More popular in recent years, but a niche product nonetheless - there aren't that many people willing or able to spend $300+ on a router. Router makers are doing a lot of work and investing a lot of money to make them interesting, but... it's an appliance. It isn't exciting, nor should it be. It provides infrastructure, and should do so in an unobtrusive, stable and well-functioning manner. There's no doubt that these high end units are more profitable - they likely don't cost much more than cheaper units in terms of hardware costs after all - but I sincerely doubt this marketing has much of an effect. Who would even notice an ad for a router?

 

[zlobby]

High end routers are a niche product. More popular in recent years, but a niche product nonetheless - there aren't that many people willing or able to spend $300+ on a router. Router makers are doing a lot of work and investing a lot of money to make them interesting, but... it's an appliance. It isn't exciting, nor should it be. It provides infrastructure, and should do so in an unobtrusive, stable and well-functioning manner. There's no doubt that these high end units are more profitable - they likely don't cost much more than cheaper units in terms of hardware costs after all - but I sincerely doubt this marketing has much of an effect. Who would even notice an ad for a router?

I'm not sure if you got my point. For as long as manufacturers are selling, they will spit out products.

As for this ASUS, I doubt its BOM is more than $35. The rest is just profit margin. Build cheap, sell expensive. Check the fist paragraph, second sentence.

 

[kinjx11]

Here comes the 2000$ price tag

 

[Tardian]

An undertaxed router is a happy family. I count about 19 to 40 devices that are sucking down the internet like there is no tomorrow. My kin won't hesitate to watch cat videos at 22mbs on their phones, whilst my LG OLED is buffering. This is about to stop through more fiber in the house diet, and some QoS. Oh and some really excellent advice from a knowledgeable and gracious forum member above.

 

[Valantar]

I'm not sure if you got my point. For as long as manufacturers are selling, they will spit out products.

As for this ASUS, I doubt its BOM is more than $35. The rest is just profit margin. Build cheap, sell expensive. Check the fist paragraph, second sentence.

But my comment that you responded to wasn't about churning out new products, it was about the absurdity of feeling that you could reasonably tease the announcement of a router. It seems you read it as something far broader and less specific than it was. Teasing something relies on the thing in question being somehow unique and sought-after, at least sufficiently to capture people's attention. This, on the other hand, is a router. How many 'router enthusiasts' can there possibly be in the world?

 

[Tardian]

There are six in my house: 'router enthusiasts'. However, Rusty prefers Cat6 and Billy thinks we all spend way too much time on screens and should take her for more walks. The Gecco is too busy eating the air conditioner to care. The neighbours' kids wish our WiFi password was easier to guess.

 

[zlobby]

There are six in my house: 'router enthusiasts'. However, Rusty prefers Cat6 and Billy thinks we all spend way too much time on screens and should take her for more walks. The Gecco is too busy eating the air conditioner to care. The neighbours' kids wish our WiFi password was easier to guess.

LEL

But my comment that you responded to wasn't about churning out new products, it was about the absurdity of feeling that you could reasonably tease the announcement of a router. It seems you read it as something far broader and less specific than it was. Teasing something relies on the thing in question being somehow unique and sought-after, at least sufficiently to capture people's attention. This, on the other hand, is a router. How many 'router enthusiasts' can there possibly be in the world?

Maybe so, maybe so.

But I still insist that if money spent on R&D, marketing (teasers incl.), BOM and logistics < net profit, they will do it time and again. No matter how ridoncolous it looks to the 'router enthusiasts'.

I personally don't consider myself an enthusiast. To me there are gadgets that do what I want and others that don't.

 

[Tardian]

Urban Dictionary: too dank

None

www.urbandictionary.com

Confirmed by a senior TPU forum member. Now that is a compliment!

Agreed on the R&D issue. When gadgets cause my significant offer pain: Happy Wife = Happy Life. Unhappy daughter = Fear!

 

[zlobby]

Urban Dictionary: too dank

None

www.urbandictionary.com

Confirmed by a senior TPU forum member. Now that is a compliment!

Agreed on the R&D issue. When gadgets cause my significant offer pain: Happy Wife = Happy Life. Unhappy daughter = Fear!

Lol, 'senior TPU member' sounds like Prof. Fransworth from Futurama!

And yes, when something breaks for my non tech-savvy family, I'm always the one to blame, even if it's some stealthy Windows update or power outage. If their gadgets aren't working all hell breaks loose.

I really lost it at the Gecco part!

 

[mechtech]

hmmmm

When are we going to get a consumer router with 4 lan ports at 5gig? It would be nice to have ssd's in a NAS and be able to transfer over 100MB/s on a cable..............

What year did 1gig come out in consumer space again?

Talk about stagnation...............

If graphics slot development was like that we'd all still be on AGP......................

Who else would write their drivers for them? The same applies for most chip makers.


Asus has sold Zen products long before AMD started using the term.

probably why they changed the name to Ryzen

 

[zlobby]

hmmmm

When are we going to get a consumer router with 4 lan ports at 5gig? It would be nice to have ssd's in a NAS and be able to transfer over 100MB/s on a cable..............

What year did 1gig come out in consumer space again?

Talk about stagnation...............

If graphics slot development was like that we'd all still be on AGP......................


probably why they changed the name to Ryzen

You can always get a 5 QSFP (10Gig) port CRS305. Many new NAS already have 10Gig port, or a couple of 2.5Gig ones. Then you can use bonding on the 2.5Gig ports.