preface

Why do I need a router? Why do we need circuit free games? Why do you need a wireless router with strong performance?

As a modern person, you need network first, because there are mobile phones, tablets, televisions, computers, various intelligent hardware and other devices that need WiFi connection. For wireless routers, in addition to strong performance, what is more important is stability. That is, wireless signals cover every corner of the family. Wired and wireless network connections are stable and work in a stable state. There should be no problems such as download dropping, network disconnection, zero speed, and buffering and reloading in games and videos, especially for users with 100MB bandwidth.

It happened that I used 100MB bandwidth, but I only had a minimum living allowance (100 gold coins/day) when I used Routing Treasure. In the past two months, I played a mobile game with a high delay. I replaced it with a larger Tenda router with a thicker antenna, which is still buffering like a TV from time to time. There are basically two signals in the bedroom, balcony and toilet. The signal strength in the game is the yellow sign of warning.

The most worrying thing is the online game of team fighting. You can't pit your teammates!! Due to two dropped calls, the number of noble people who scored 100 out of 100 dropped to more than 60...... Brush the machine and buy a new router (a cat's rush to buy a router)!!

Before the arrival of the new router, the ASUS RT-AC5300 came first. What kind of strength does this 3600 high-performance router have? It must be copied carefully. Compared to calling it an octopus on the Internet, I prefer the title of Kurakan (please refer to the 604 words of the Pirates cartoon). The aggressive appearance design is more consistent with the title of Kurakan. Of course, the internal performance also needs to be consistent, but the appearance is absolutely unattractive.

As a high priced router, the AC5300 is very powerful in hardware configuration. The Broadcom BMC4709+contains dual core Cortex-A9 (1.4GHz). In addition to 128MB Flash, 512MB DDR3 RAM, and eight external dual band high-performance antennas, its rich interface types and multiple data transmission speeds further enhance its practicability.

Most importantly, this is also an intelligent router with APP.

This article reviews the in-depth experience only from the perspective of playing and using without dismantling or brushing the machine.

What you might want to know

one       The appearance design is aggressive and fashionable, the hardware configuration is high, the volume is large and heavy, and the heat dissipation performance is excellent

two       The detachable antenna design allows more freedom in antenna assembly, which can meet the modification requirements of DIYer

three       The router has multiple and comprehensive functions. It is equipped with a USB3.0 and a USB2.0 interface. It has its own security protection and supports the erection of small home servers, making it more practical

four       The local 4K video (MKV/MP4) in the self built small home server can be played normally and smoothly

five       2.4GHz and 5GHz * 2 design, wide wireless signal coverage, stable signal strength and download performance

six       One WAN port and four LAN ports can meet the requirements of general home printers, smart TVs NAS、 Demand for simultaneous use of computers

seven       It has a router specific APP, which can be managed through mobile phones. It has mainstream smart router functions and supports camera monitoring

eight       The download performance and speed are stable, and the visitor mode is supported

nine       The Chinese version of the APP and webpage settings page is not complete, and AiCamera cannot log in normally

ten    The filtering of adult settings in parental control should be strengthened, and the user-defined setting function should be added at the same time

eleven    The antenna is not fixed enough, and it is easy to fall down after standing up; It's a bit troublesome to install eight antennas

twelve    There is no option to turn off or turn on the indicator light on the web side and APP side, and there is no time setting to turn on or turn off the indicator light regularly, only the hardware switch button

thirteen    The available plug-ins are limited, and the display of APP plug-ins is different from that of web pages; At the same time, there is no speed when downloading the Master Downloader offline

Product unpacking

When I just received it, I thought it was the remote control car I had been waiting for, because the package was very heavy. Of course, the main weight is still on the router. The list of items mainly includes one RC5300, one power adapter, eight external antennas, one RJ45 network cable, and a bag of instructions and warranty cards (including CDs).

Let's talk about these accessories first, especially the antenna with the largest number.

The workmanship of the network cable is good. The plug is made of some metal materials, which is more durable in use. The length is about 1 meter.

The power adapter is of fine workmanship. Both sides of the square big head are made of anti-skid frosted material. The power cord is 1.8m long. However, the power cord and the adapter are of integrated design, and the plug cannot be shrunk. It is a little inconvenient to store.

In contrast, the detachable and stowable antenna plug is more practical, and it is really large.

The antenna with standard SMA interface can be used with other types of routers for trial.

Then look at the router. The classic black with red lines has the design flavor of ASUS ROG series. In addition to the irregular three-dimensional design of the space fortress style, the overall look is no longer monotonous, but with a sense of vitality ready to move. I thought the square maze design on the front was also part of the heat dissipation, but after careful confirmation, it was not.

The bottom and side are the main heat dissipation parts, and there are anti-skid right angle triangle foot pads around the corners. At the same time, two copper plated antenna interfaces can be seen on each side.

Through the heat dissipation hole at the bottom, we can see some internal circuit boards and wiring conditions. Even in summer, these cooling holes should enable the router to work normally.

The large close-up view of the interface part shows the sharp edges and corners of the side and the side cooling holes.

The three sides of AC5300 are respectively designed with network interface, keys and indicator lights.

The network interface has one WAN port and four LAN ports. In addition to the power button, power socket, and RESET port, there is also a USB3.0 interface on this side. Routers are compatible with most mobile storage devices with a capacity of less than 4TB. It is quite necessary to connect external hard disks, mobile hard disks, and USB 3.0 U disks as small domestic servers.

There is also a USB2.0 jack on the side of the button. There are three buttons in total, one is to turn on and off the LED light, one is the WPS button to access the WiFi network, and the other is the physical button of the WiFi switch. You don't need to enter the setting page to turn off WiFi manually.

The last one is the LED, including power LED, 2.4GHz and 5GHz LED, WAN LED, LAN LED and WPS LED.

The WAN indicator has two colors. One is a red light without IP or physical connection,

The other is the white light with physical connection to the WAN. Other indicators are only white.

The 8 antennas are slightly more troublesome to assemble. After installation, they look very dignified. However, some antennas are not very stable in the upright position and often tilt.

Or this style is more fashionable, standing up performance beast Kurakan. Of course, the name is better than that of the octopus Bigger More.

The following is an in-depth experience of the AC5300.

Product experience

Next, we will experience the function setting, signal measurement and stability. The devices used together are Thinkpad T520, Microwhale WTV43, ASUS Zenfone ZOOM, WD 1TB mobile hard disk (USB3.0), Kingston 8G U disk (USB3.0), Lenovo 8G U disk (USB2.0) and several 3.5-inch hard disks used with hard disk boxes.

Introduction of the guidance screen is clear, simple and smooth

Start with networking settings.

I have used the ASUS WL-520gC router before, and I like the boot setting page of the ASUS router very much. Also, this setting guide page is well inherited and improved on the AC5300, making it easier for users to operate and have a good experience. The graphic interface of AC5300 is simple and intuitive.

The AC5300 has an automatic detection function that can directly detect the ISP connection type. Through actual tests, it can be accurately detected when connecting other routers to automatically obtain IP addresses and PPPoE.

It is worth mentioning that AC5300 can generate one 2.4GHz and two 5.0GHz network SSIDs at the same time. The router can be restarted quickly. It takes a long time to restart the router after modifying the settings, unlike the router.

The introduction of OTA upgrade mode undoubtedly makes the upgrade more secure and convenient, and one click upgrade becomes a reality.

Comprehensive and practical with safety protection function

As can be seen from the network map, the features of AC5300 include intelligent network guard, network monitor, USB related applications and AiCloud2.0.

Game boost has long existed in ASUS routers. LAN Boost can be used directly, but WTFast GPN for online games needs to register an account and log in. It supports 14 day trial. By the way, the Chinese version in simplified Chinese is not comprehensive, and it is not easy to set up a mixture of Chinese and English, although I am also a man who has passed CET 6.

The games supported by GPN are all from international manufacturers, such as Dota2, Big Pineapple, Tank World, LOL, WOW and CS. The number of games is relatively limited, and the server can be selected from multiple countries. For players who are dissatisfied with domestic servers but cross server, it is a function worth experiencing.

As for whether it is useful, here is a picture to illustrate. After being enabled, the download speed has increased from about 70 KBps to more than 900 KBps, and the improvement effect is still obvious. (Data is for reference only, and this game is actually measured on its own network)

Traffic analysis is to check the traffic usage of different devices and find out which device is used when the bandwidth is high. From the actual download use, the AC5300 can accurately list the connected devices, and is relatively accurate in traffic statistics.

As a featured feature, AiProtection intelligent network guard provides network protection and parent computers.

The network protection adopts the trend protection software. You can directly manually open all interceptions, which adds another layer of protection when surfing the Internet.

However, for parental control, some adult content can be filtered out. However, some gender websites that have not been filtered can still be displayed normally, such as Feihua Health. com, and the filtering of keywords needs to be strengthened.

Powerful USB expansion function offline download to be improved

The function settings under this page are many and miscellaneous, but in real life, service centers and download masters are commonly used. Briefly describe these integrated functions: AiDisk， It is set that the content of external storage devices can be read remotely through the network, and can only be read. Generally, company related files may be used more frequently; The service center can be used to build iTunes and DLNA media servers and small servers in the home to facilitate the reading of smart TVs, different computers, mobile devices such as mobile phones and tablets; 3G/4G functions are rarely used by ordinary users, unless you are in Taiwan's type of package with full traffic, but in China, I feel that they are basically useless except for testing: The time machine is a backup function used with the Mac. I have nothing to do with Windows users. In addition, the backup time is very long. It is enough to install a system directly or use a mobile hard disk.

After sharing is enabled, other network devices can easily read the shared content resources.

Here, several mobile hard disks, USB flash drives and several 3.5 old hard disks using hard disk cartridges are tried, and the AC5300 can normally recognize them. The 4K and 1080P video resources in the hard disk can be read normally by other devices, and the 1080P film participating in the test can be played normally, but the requirements of the 4K film source for the device are somewhat challenging, such as the Microwhale TV can play normally and smoothly, while Zenfone ZOOM and T520 are stuck in playing, and the sound and picture are not coherent.

Focus on the offline download tools that are closely related to me as a download maniac, Download master， The interface is a bit crude. I was excited to install the plug-in, and chose the connection of seed, electric donkey and magnetic force for download experience.

But after waiting for a long time, there was no speed, but after changing to Thunderbolt, the speed soared immediately and the download was normal. I don't know if the 2014 plug-in is too old. I hope the official can solve this problem as soon as possible, but there are loyal users waiting to use this function.

Full coverage of wireless signal and stable download speed

Since you can't download offline, just start downloading. First, the cable download, because I always believe that the cable is stable, and usually the download will be placed in the living room. Do not shut down during the day, hang up at night (after 10 o'clock) for testing. The film source is mainly popular video resources and game resources (Ranger Network, Wanderer's Star), with a volume of about 35G. Thunderbolt multithreading and multitasking (20) downloads are used to ensure maximum speed. As long as the download task can be completed normally, the test can be considered as passed. Through four consecutive nights of testing, the added resources can be downloaded normally, and the stability of the download can be considered up to the standard.

The download status of hanging up at night is set to automatically shut down after downloading, and the downloaded files are checked and confirmed at the same time.

During this period, I downloaded about 40G Blu ray movie Super Warship: Irregular Naval Battle for testing, and the download was also completed normally.

For the wireless part, let's first look at the improvement of the signal. The three pictures are the bathroom, balcony and bedroom. Compared with the Tenda in use, the signal is indeed enhanced, but will the radiation also be greater?

Compared with the mobile game delay in the bedroom, the router used in the front has a delay of 100-120ms, and the signal is about two yellow bars; After connecting to the AC5300 2.4GHz, the signal is full and green within 61ms. At 5GHz, the delay is lower. We have completely said goodbye to the problem of tailing and pitting teammates, and continue to maintain our noble level.

Then try the wireless download speed. From the download of different resources, the actual download speed is slightly different in 2.4GHz, 5GHz-1 and 5GHz-2. The stable speed values among the three increase in turn. Take the latest download map as an example for comparison.

For the WiFi connection speed of the TV, take the Microwhale WTV43 as an example. There are differences in the speed between 2.4GHz and 5GHz, but they are somewhat small in numerical measurement. However, there is no buffer when watching online 4K video.

Because wired measurement can reach 21Mb/s. However, as long as you watch online live broadcast and video, you can no longer see the buffer. After all, the number is only a reference.

Exclusive APP makes management more intelligent

Finally, let's talk about the exclusive APP related to this router, ASUS Router。 The interface is very simple, and the Chinese version is also incomplete. Plug ins can be installed to facilitate the management and setting of routers.

It can be seen from the above that the so-called intelligent router functions on the market are available here, and there are more functions, especially the plug-in part. However, some plug-ins do not exist on the web side but only on the APP side, such as AiPlayer AiCamera、XiiaLive。 The camera should be of the drive free type, which can be directly recognized by the router.

Taking the AiCloud plug-in as an example, you can directly read external storage devices connected to the router with sharing enabled, such as sda4 in the following figure. But even if the router administrator logs in, the content is only read.

Experience summary, stable performance, excellent functions, comprehensive and practical functions, to be improved

From the above experience, the AC5300 is relatively stable in performance and excellent in performance. Some commonly used functions have also been integrated, which can be regarded as an intelligent router. Of course, some functions and settings still need to be improved.

We have to admit that ASUS has invested heavily in the research and development of high-end equipment, which can also be seen from the ROG series products. The high price and high performance of RT-AC5300 make ordinary people have to be classified as high-end routers. For a wireless router, the first thing is stable signal and performance, which can ensure the normal and stable transmission of network data; Secondly, the practicability of functions, such as bandwidth management, security protection and self built small home servers, are particularly important with the increasing number of intelligent devices and the increasingly complex network environment, especially in the performance of 4K video media transmission and playback; As for the function of APP, with the popularization of intelligence, it is also gradually popularized. In fact, it is mainly the basic functions of remote control and management. The AC5300 has met the above conditions in terms of function and configuration, providing a good use experience. For users who are not poor in money, have a big house at home, or need to improve the network environment urgently, like to toss around small home servers, or those who download crazy devils, you can pay attention to the performance beast in this router, which may be more appetizing to you.

Images and texts are 100% original