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ASUS DSL-AC55U ADSL/VDSL AC1200 Router Review

There isn’t all that much to be said for ADSL and VDSL modems these days that’ll surprise anyone, so I’ll keep this brief.

The DSL-AC55U from ASUS is a rock-solid router for folks that connect to the internet via ADSL or VDSL, as it’s easy to configure, its dual-band 2.4GHz/5GHz WiFi radios are fast and it covers a wide area. It also has four Gigabit Ethernet ports for plugging in network cables and a USB port for USB drives and printers.

It literally took me 8 minutes to unpack the router, plug it into power and my phone line, access its admin page via my main PC to plug in my ADSL credentials and set up a WiFi network with a name and password. The most difficult part of that whole process – the network configuration – was easy and quick to do, thanks to a very pleasant interface page and a clever wizard that walked me through the process.

The start of a really easy setup process.

Once up, my line tested at its maximum speed on Speedtest.net, and getting the various phones and tablets onto the new WiFi network was a simple matter of finding the network name and typing in the network key. The only device I had a problem with initially was my Xbox One, which didn’t want to join the network despite me entering the correct key, but after a firmware update it connected just fine.

I’m convinced that ASUS has made managing this router so easy, even someone who’s never tackled this process can be up and running in less than ten minutes.

Router up, it was time to explore the dashboard and look at some of the deeper features than just “dual-band WiFi”, “max throughput of 1200mbps” and ADSL/VDSL connectivity.

Here’s what I found:

AiCloud: A service that lets you access files stored on any USB storage device you have connected to the AC55U via a cellphone or tablet. It’s Android and iOS only (sorry BlackBerry and Windows Phone users). Simply connect your USB device to the router’s USB 2.0 port, fire up the app and you’ll be able to browse that drive’s contents.

It works when you’re connected to the home network, and if you sign up for ASUS’s Dynamic DNS service, you can even access that drive’s contents when you’re away from home. On testing it, I found that a 1080p movie played just fine when I was on the network at home, but it stuttered a lot when I was connected from work via the internet, as I only have a 4mbps line at home, and its 384k upload speed just isn’t fast enough to stream a 1080p movie smoothly.

Multi-antennae design: ASUS makes use of a tech it calls AI Radar, which is really just another way of saying “beamforming”, along with four antennae to make sure network signal remains strong if your device moves around. It works pretty well, too – in my testing my phone never dropped its WiFi connection and I always had at least four (of five) bars of network strength showing.

It has an E-WAN port: If you’re currently on ADSL/VDSL but are considering a move to fibre, the modem supports fibre connections thanks to the presence of an E-WAN port. All you need to do once your fibre has been installed is connect the CPE to the AC55U’s E-WAN port, and you’re good to go.

Various built-in apps: The AC55u comes with several apps for things like unattended downloads, a printer server, a media server and the ability to share files over the internet. They could be useful to the right sort of user, but honestly for someone like me they are nice-to-haves more than have-to-haves as third party software does a better job of all of these things.

The AC55U’s built-in apps.

So yes, this is another feature-rich router from ASUS. My only real qualm with it is its price – R2999 is a lot of money to pay for a router in my opinion, and while this one is competent and easy to use and fast, you can pay less for other models, get slightly less and still get yourself good WiFi coverage and so-so (but usable) speed. I own a very competent ASUS DSL-N14U that will do the basics (ADSL, N-class WiFi) just fine, and you can pick one up for quite a bit less than a grand.

Get this if:

  • You want fast WiFi speed for things like HD/4K movie streaming for multiple users at the same time
  • You copy a lot of files back and forth between WiFi-connected clients
  • You need to cover a fairly large area with WiFi signal

This router’s AC-class radio can handle all of those tasks with ease, and the fact that the router also offers an E-WAN port for a possible fibre connection should also provide a good degree of future-proofing. The fact that it has a user-friendly interface and is easy to set up and administer is a large plus in its favour.

Don’t get this if:

  • You just want a basic ADSL/VDSL router with WiFi
  • The area you need to cover with WiFi isn’t huge (like a medium-sized home or a flat)
  • You have an aversion to spending R3k on a router
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