performance is a little slower, but that’s to be expected given how congested this networking band is. I measured throughputs of 107.58Mbit/s at close range, which is fast; at 5m speeds dropped to 52.44Mbit/s; at 10m speeds of 31.35Mbit/s are fine for basic uses. As I’ve hinted at, the TR-AX59U’s nearest rival is its older stablemate, the RT-AX82U. The two routers performed similarly at close range but the RT-AX82U managed to keep up higher speeds as I moved further away. That probably has much to do with the bigger antenna array of the RT-AX82U, and its 4×4 MIMO support surely doesn’t hurt either. To open the router, you need to remove the four screws from underneath the pads that cover the feet and then carefully detach the top cover (be aware that doing so could void the warranty). This way, you will be able to see the PCB which is covered by two separate large aluminum heatsinks – remove the screws to get them out of the way and you should get a view of the antenna connectors and a couple of metallic covers that can easily be removed to expose the first set of components. My older router was the RT-AC58U, I used it for about 3 years, had better range than the AX3000. I had to changed it because it had problems connecting WIFIs for video conferencing, chatting and video streaming; the range was good but it was not able to connect to more than 12 devices simultaneously. If there’s one issue with Wi-Fi routers and mesh systems, it’s that they’re often big, ugly and hard to place.

Note: The RT-AX58U is advertised as an AX3000-class router, so, it features a maximum theoretical data transfer rate of 574 Mbps on the 2.4GHz radio band and a maximum theoretical data transfer rate of 2,402 Mbps on the 5GHz radio.You do get the 1024-QAM technology which should ensure an increase of about 25 percent in data rate over the WiFi 5, but you will see a better throughput only in close proximity to the client, when the interference is kept to a minimum and most importantly, the client devices need to be equipped with compatible WiFi adapters. That’s also the case with MU-MIMO, the 160MHz bandwidth support and the BeamForming technology (which has the role of targeting the signal at the connected clients instead of broadcasting it everywhere). The range of controls and features on offer is impressive. Indeed, it’s exactly the same as you’ll find on Asus’ most expensive domestic routers. That means you get extensive traffic monitoring and management tools, a built-in firewall and Asus’ outstanding VPN support, which lets you route nominated devices through up to 16 different VPN gateways, as well as running an inbound VPN server to allow secure access to your own LAN. On the top of the Asus RT-AX58U, towards the front, there are eight LED indicators that show the status of the device (and the network): from the left, there’s the WAN LED followed by four LED, each corresponding to one LAN Ethernet port; the last three LEDs show the status of the 5GHz network, the 2.4GHz network (when the LED flashes, it means that the data is being transmitted) and the Power.

Patched several command injection vulnerabilities. Thanks to Jincheng Wang from X1cT34m Laboratory of Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications

The RT-AX59U introduces a novel upright tower design, with rounded ends and a corrugated exterior effect to add visual interest. It stands on a simple plastic base; if you prefer to attach it to a wall, you can easily unscrew this, and pop off two covers on the side to reveal a pair of mounting points. Two things that I find comfort in the AX3000 router….. 1) AIMESH and 2)AIprotection. I placed those feature as important as the WIFI performance.