Asus RT-AX58U Review
Dual Band WiFi 6 Router supporting MU-MIMO and OFDMA technology, with AiProtection Pro network security by Trend Micro, compatible with AiMesh WiFi system.
It provides the Wi-Fi 6 update at an extremely affordable price for those wanting to cover midsize homes and offices with a single network adapter, such as the Asus RT-AX58U, which is available for purchase separately.
The Asus RT-AX58U, which is widely available online for approximately £164.99/$179.99/AU$429, fills in the gaps left by high-end routers like the Asus ZenWifi AX mesh systems, which are overkill in many cases. A peak speed of 3000Mbps is achieved by using this dual-band router, which not only supports Wi-Fi 6 but also does so on the 2.4GHz and 5.0GHz bands.
Always keep in mind that you won’t be able to get the full benefits of Wi-speed Fi’s and dependability unless your laptops and mobile devices are likewise equipped with Wi-Fi capabilities. Although Wi-Fi 6 is incompatible with devices that use 802.11ac wi-fi, you won’t have to worry about upgrading older gadgets if you purchase a Wi-Fi router that supports the technology.
Also, keep an eye out for Asus’ model numbers, which may be a little misleading. There’s a very similar model called the RT-AX56U, which is around £40/$50/AU$70 cheaper but only has a speed of 1800Mbps, and it’s also available in black.
That’s still a respectable download speed, and it’s more than plenty for streaming video and online surfing on a limited number of devices. Homes with a large number of computers and mobile devices all connected to Wi-Fi at the same time, on the other hand, will benefit from the higher performance of the RT-AX58U router.
Design
The designers at Asus have done an excellent job of cramming Wi-Fi 6 performance and capabilities into this small and portable router.
The four black antennas that protrude from the rear of the device seem like they’re serious about their work, and the angle of each antenna can be changed to ensure that you have decent all-around coverage with your wi-fi signal, which is important.
Despite this, the router is just 224mm broad, and its low-profile design allows it to be stored conveniently on any suitable shelf.
It’s important to know that the RT-AX58U does not come with a modem, which means you’ll need to connect it to your current broadband modem or router in order to have access to the Internet.
There’s a dedicated Gigabit Ethernet port for connecting to the Internet, as well as four other Ethernet ports for connecting to devices that require a wired connection.
There’s also a USB 3.1 connector for sharing USB storage devices with other computers on your network.
Performance
The process of getting started is quite easy, and Asus manages to satisfy the needs of both total novices and more experienced users. The documentation that comes with the RT-AX58U demonstrates how to connect everything and describes the two configuration choices that are available.
If you’re familiar with networking technologies, you may connect the router directly to a Mac or PC via an Ethernet connection, and then adjust the network settings through a web browser interface if you’re not.
The Asus Router app for iOS and Android smartphones, on the other hand, is likely to be preferred by the vast majority of users. As a bonus, it provides you with the choice of building a single network that incorporates both the 2.4GHz and the 5.0GHz bands or creating two distinct networks with different passwords, which is a great start.
There are several more helpful capabilities included in the software, such as the ability to create a temporary guest network and employ QoS – the quality of service – to prioritize specific types of online services, such as streaming video or gaming, that require exceptional performance.
Asus also has a competitive advantage over some of its router competitors in that it has excellent parental controls, including the ability to establish timetables for Internet access as well as filters for filtering pornographic content and other inappropriate information.
And, of course, the RT-Wi-Fi AX58U’s 6 technology ensures that your home wi-fi network operates at peak performance. When utilized in the same room as our current 802.11ac router, the RT-AX58U was able to extract a little amount of additional speed from our Internet connection, raising Wi-Fi rates from 55Mbps to 59Mbps on our test network.
The true test in our building, however, is in the back office, where our Wi-Fi signal is so inconsistent that we typically rely on a wired Ethernet connection for our office PCs, which is a major drawback. In contrast, the RT-AX58U handled the situation gracefully, maintaining a consistent and dependable speed of 58Mbps even when in that office setting. Download rates from Steam were also great, averaging slightly more than 7MB/s across all of our testing sites in our building.
Specifications
Model Name
- RT-AX58U
Network Standard
- IEEE 802.11a
- IEEE 802.11b
- IEEE 802.11g
- WiFi 4 (802.11n)
- WiFi 5 (802.11ac)
- WiFi 6 (802.11ax)
- IPv4
- IPv6
AX technology
- Yes
Data Rate
- 802.11a : up to 54 Mbps
- 802.11b : up to 11 Mbps
- 802.11g : up to 54 Mbps
- WiFi 4 (802.11n) : up to 300 Mbps
- 802.11ax (2.4GHz) : up to 574 Mbps
- 802.11ax (5GHz) : up to 2402 Mbps
Antenna
- External antenna x 4
Transmit/Receive
- 2.4 GHz 2 x 2
- 5 GHz 2 x 2
Processor
- 1.5 GHz tri-core processor
Memory
- 256 MB Flash
- 512 MB RAM
Boosts speed
- OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access)
- Beamforming: standard-based and universal
- 1024-QAM high data rate
- 20/40/80/160 MHz bandwidth
Operating Frequency
- 2.4G Hz / 5 GHz
Ports
- RJ45 for Gigabits BaseT for WAN x 1, RJ45 for Gigabits BaseT for LAN x 4
- USB 3.1 Gen 1 x 1
Button
- WPS Button, Reset Button, Power Switch
LED Indicator
- Power x 1
- 2.4G x 1
- 5G x 1
- LAN x 4
- WAN x 1
Power Supply
- AC Input : 110V~240V(50~60Hz)
- DC Output : 19 V with max. 1.75 A current
- DC Output : 12 V with max. 2 A current
Package content
- RT-AX58U WiFi router
- RJ-45 cable
- Power adapter
- Quick Start Guide
- Warranty card
Product Weight (g)
- 538 g
AiMesh
- AiMesh : Yes
- Primary AiMesh router : Yes
- AiMesh node : Yes
Router APP
- ASUS Router APP : Yes
Game
- Game Boost/acceleration : No
- WTFast : No
Alexa
- Support Alexa skil : Yes
IFTTT
- Support IFTTT : No
AiProtection
- AiProtection : AiProtection Pro
- Router Security Assessment : Yes
- Malicious site blocking : Yes
- Two-Way IPS : Yes
- Infected Device Prevention and Blocking ; Yes
Parental Control
Parental Control : Yes
Parental Control Customized Internet schedule : Yes
Traffic Control
- Adaptive QoS : Yes
- Bandwidth Monitor : Yes
- Bandwidth limiter : Yes
- Maximum Bandwidth limiter rule : 32
- Traditional QoS : Yes
- Maximum Traditional QoS rule : 32
- Traffic Monitor : Yes
- Real-time traffic monitor : Yes
- Wired Traffic Monitor : Yes
- Wireless Traffic Monitor : Yes
- Traffic Analyzer : Yes
- Traffic analysis period : Daily, Weekly, Monthly
- Website history : Yes
Wireless
- IPv6 : Yes
- MU-MIMO : Yes
- Wi-Fi Encryption : WPS support, WPA/WPA2/WPA3-Personal, WPA/WPA2-Enterprise
- UTF-8 SSID : Yes
- Guest Network : Yes
- Maximum Guest Network rule : 2.4GHz x3, 5GHz x3
- WPS : Yes
- Wi-Fi MAC address filter : Yes
- Maximum MAC filters : 64
- Wireless scheduler : Yes
- Airtime fairness : Yes
- RADIUS Server : Yes
- Universal beamforming : Yes
- Explicit beamforming : Yes
- IGMP snooping : Yes
WAN
- Internet connection Type : PPPoE, PPTP, L2TP, Automatic IP, Static IP
- Dual WAN : Yes
- WAN Aggregation : No
- 3G/4G LTE dongle : Yes
- Android tethering : Yes
- Port forwarding : Yes
- Maximum port forwarding rule : 64
- Port triggering : Yes
- Maximum port triggering rule : 32
- DMZ : Yes
- DDNS : Yes
- NAT Passthrough : PPTP, L2TP, IPSec, RTSP, H.323, SIP Passthrough,PPPoE relay
LAN
- DHCP Server : Yes
- IPTV : Yes
- LAN Link Aggregation : No
- Manually assign IP address : Yes
- Maximum manually assign IP address rule : 64
VPN
- VPN Client L2PT : Yes
- VPN Client OVPN : Yes
- VPN Client PPTP : Yes
- VPN Server IPSec : Yes
- VPN Server OVPN : Yes
- VPN Server PPTP : Yes
USB application
- File System : HFS+, NTFS, vFAT, ext2, ext3, ext4
- 3G/4G LTE dongle : Yes
- HDD hibernation : Yes
- Safely Remove disk : Yes
- AiCloud : Yes
- Download master : Yes
- AiDisk : Yes
- Media Server : Yes
- Time Machine : Yes
- Samba Server : Yes
- FTP Server : Yes
- Shared Folder privileges : Yes
Conclusion
Considering that the Asus RT-AX58U (RT-AX3000) is the first WiFi6 wireless router that I have evaluated, I was eager to see how it would perform, especially given the hoopla around this new WiFi standard.
According to my findings, it is a fantastic router, but only if certain circumstances are satisfied – it does have some stability difficulties while operating in the 160MHz model, to be specific. Given the fact that few of you have devices that support the 160MHz channel bandwidth or the 1024-QAM modulation (even 22 MU-MIMO is a rarity), you shouldn’t expect to see any insanely fast wireless speeds in most cases, but the fact that it’s priced so close to the RT-AC86U suggests that the company may be planning to replace it.
And it most certainly could in the future (especially given Merlin’s support), but for now, it’s just an entry-level WiFi6 router – I should mention that I’ve observed some strange (recurring) behavior with two WiFi6 adapters (the PCE-AC88 and the PCE-AC68), and since I also observed it with the Netgear AX3000, it’s possible that it has something to do with the AX technology not playing nice with PCIe connected WiFi.