Dan wrote:
I am looking for a new cable router for my Virgin media super hub 3 in
modem mode.
I have a Asus rtn66u, but Asus are no longer doing any firmware
updates.
So, I have looked at: ASUS RT-AC86U vs ASUS RT-AC3200.

I am leaning towards ASUS RT-AC86U. Since it is newer (so it will get
more firmware updates in the future), has a far more powerful CPU and
greater quantity of RAM vs ASUS RT-AC3200 which came out in 2014.

When is the newer version of wireless protocol coming out?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wifi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11

Versions:

There are many different versions of Wi-Fi:

802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g,
802.11n (Wi-Fi 4),
802.11h, 802.11i, 802.11-2007,
802.11n, 802.11-2012,
802.11ac (Wi-Fi 5), AC5300 (imaginary 7Gbs...)
802.11ad, 60GHz, 7Gbs single room span
802.11af, TV channel robber (white space)
802.11-2016,
802.11ah, 900MHz ldr for iot
802.11ai,
802.11aj, 11ad at 45GHz
802.11aq,
802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6), 4x11ac, 1024-QAM, ~yr2019, 11Gbs
802.11ay. 11ad at 60GHz, 20Gbs

In other words, it's at the end of its rope, and
gasping for air in other frequency bands :-/

11AX would be a refinement of 11AC and would
have "similar failings" on being able to deliver.
If it detected greenfield activity, the performance
should drop like a rock. Which would be normal in
all but extremely rural situations. If you live
on a farm, you could have 11Gbit/sec between
the farm house and the barn, using a $1000 Wifi router :-)
What farmer doesn't want that ? The box will be
a "pincushion" of antennas.

The existing 11AD would be reach-limited, between
your farm house and barn. At around 25 feet, the
data rate has started to drop significantly
below the 7Gbs number. The 11AX on the other hand,
still has range left in it (because it's at
a lower microwave frequency). When it starts to
snow, precip affects all the microwave ones.

I think they could "beat the ****" out of the
low frequency bands, but the cellphone people
have all the money, and any attempts to horn in
there will be dining on table scraps. Much longer
distances would be possible with say, a TV
frequency in UHF or VHF.

The 60GHz band is great for remoting a TV set
without using an HDMI cable. Much less practical
for Windows file sharing between attic and
basement (60Ghz devices fall back to other
bands and methods when at a distance).

Still, it's fun to dream. 11AX is the next stop.

Paul