ASUS TUF Gaming TUF-AX5400: WiFi 6 and Gigabit Gaming Router Review

Main features of this gaming router

This high-performance router is aimed at a gamer audience, we not only have a really spectacular design, but also first-rate hardware. In addition, thanks to the modified Asuswrt firmware with a TUF look, we will be able to enjoy a really spectacular graphical user interface. This new model is one of the routers that belong to this new TUF family of routers aimed at online gamers, soon we will have more lower-end and higher-end models within this range. This new range is characterized by having very powerful gaming routers at a really competitive price.

Wireless features

The main wireless characteristics of this router is that it incorporates simultaneous dual band with WiFi 6 , it is AX5400 class. In the 2.4GHz band we can achieve a speed of up to 574Mbps, thanks to its two non-removable external antennas in MU-MIMO 2T2R configuration, at 40MHz channel width and the Wi-Fi 6 standard, which incorporates compatibility with 1024QAM quadrature amplitude modulation. In the 5GHz band we can achieve a speed of up to 4804Mbps, thanks to its four non-removable external antennas in MU-MIMO 4T4R configuration, 160MHz channel width and the WiFi 6 standard. One of the most important characteristics of routers wireless with WiFi 6 is the possibility of having 160MHz of channel width in 5GHz , this allows us to double the theoretical speed and increase the real speed with the same number of antennas in a client device, for example, in Intel-based WiFi cards AX200 and even the ASUS PCE-AX58BT that we have already tested in this article before.

Other very important wireless characteristics of this router, is the incorporation of explicit Beamforming technology and Implicit Beamforming , both functions allow the router to focus the wireless signal where the clients are connected, we also have bidirectional MU-MIMO technology (download and upload), in order to transfer information to multiple wireless clients simultaneously, furthermore, it could also receive data from multiple connected clients simultaneously. The star functionality of WiFi 6 is OFDMA , a technology that allows dividing the channel into smaller subchannels, increasing the capacity of the wireless network and optimizing data transfer to the maximum when we have dozens of wireless clients connected. This new model also has Agile Multiband WiFi , to optimize WiFi roaming between nodes, we must remember that this router (and the rest of ASUS routers) have ASUS AiMesh technology to form a complete high-performance WiFi Mesh network, Finally, we also have Band-steering technology or also known as Smart Connect, this will allow us to have a single WiFi network (SSID and authentication) so that the router is in charge of placing us in the 2.4GHz band or the 5GHz band depending on different aspects (received coverage, link synchronization speed, number of clients in a frequency band, etc.)

This router also has the typical WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup) button to connect wireless clients without entering the WPA2-Personal password. This router also incorporates full support for the new WPA3-Personal protocol in WiFi , although logically, we will have the possibility to configure the WPA2 / WPA3-Personal protocol to provide compatibility with wireless clients that are not compatible with the new standard. WPA3 is only available in PSK authentication, we do not have the WPA3-Enterprise mode, however, it is rare that in a home environment we have this type of authentication. Another aspect that we must highlight is that if we configure WPA3-Personal only and you have an AiMesh WiFi system, it will stop working, communication between the nodes is totally necessary that it be with WPA2-Personal.

Wired and USB 3.0 Features

This wireless router has a Gigabit Ethernet port for the Internet WAN , the firmware has support for the 802.1Q VLAN Tagging standard, in addition, we also have the possibility of configuring VLANs per port to provide IPTV services, and we can even configure the Movistar Triple VLAN FTTH profile to have all the operator’s services. Thanks to the hardware NAT that this router has, we will be able to achieve a high speed in the LAN-WAN tests, so we will be able to achieve speeds higher than 750Mbps without any problem. The firmware will also allow us to configure a Dual WAN with the 3G / 4G modem connected to the USB 3.0 port, and we can even configure the LAN as Ethernet WAN to have WAN Aggregation, load balancing and even failover of the Internet connection.

This router has a total of 4 Gigabit Ethernet ports for the LAN . The firmware will allow us to configure Jumbo Frames at 9K in these LAN ports, we can also configure a Link Aggregation between LAN 1 and LAN 2 ports to double the real bandwidth, ideal for connecting NAS servers with several network ports. We will also have the possibility to configure the LAN 1 port as Internet WAN, and even configure the LAN 1 port as Gaming Port so that it has the highest possible priority, above the traffic that is in the rest of the wired ports and also clients connected via Wifi.

This router also has a high-performance USB 3.0 port (at 5Gbps), thanks to its powerful triple-core 1.5GHz CPU, we can achieve speeds of more than 50MB / s in reading and writing without problems. One aspect that we must highlight about this router (and the rest of ASUS routers) is that we can squeeze this port to the maximum thanks to the Samba, FTP, FTPES, iTunes, DLNA media server, ASUS AiDisk, Download Master, server of printing and more.

Firmware and more

The firmware of this ASUS TUF Gaming TUF-AX5400 router has undergone a complete redesign at the graphical user interface level, although we have the same configuration options and services as always, the appearance of the firmware is totally different because ASUS has wanted to provide to this router with a “unique” firmware, being from the new TUF Gaming range. This equipment has different colors distributed throughout the firmware, as with the popular ASUS ROG Rapture that we have already tested previously.

This router still has all the services and advanced configuration options as always, such as guest WiFi networks, Amazon Alexa, AiProtection Pro to protect against external attacks, adaptive QoS, Open NAT to open ports easily, traditional QoS, width limiter of band by port, servers VPN of type OpenVPN, IPsec and also Instant Guard. Other configuration options are the possibility to configure in detail the wireless connection with the two frequency bands, the Internet connection, the LAN network, the computer’s firewall and other advanced administration options.

A very remarkable aspect of this router is that we have ASUS Aura RGB, in this way, we can customize in detail the main status LED of the router, both the type of lighting and the color of the lighting. As if this were not enough, we will be able to synchronize Aura RGB with other devices from the manufacturer ASUS such as motherboards and their boxes, so that they look perfectly in your home.

Once we know the main characteristics of this ASUS TUF Gaming TUF-AX5400 router, we go with the technical characteristics:

Technical characteristics of the router ASUS TUF Gaming TUF-AX5400

• Wireless: Compatible with 802.11a / b / g / n / ac / ax standards. In the 2.4GHz band we will achieve a speed of up to 574Mbps thanks to Wi-Fi 6, in the 5GHz band a speed of up to 4804Mbps thanks to Wi-Fi 6 and 160MHz of channel width. We will have a total of up to 5400Mbps of wireless bandwidth, the antennas are external, dual and not removable.
• CPU and switch : Broadcom BCM6750 with three cores at 1.5GHz speed
• RAM : 512MB capacity.
• Flash: 256MB capacity.
• 2.4GHz Wireless Controller: Broadcom BCM6750 with Wi-Fi 6 2T2R at 574Mbps, it is the main CPU itself.
• Wireless 5GHz controller: Broadcom BCM43684KFEB with Wi-Fi 6 4T4R at 4.804Mbps thanks to 160MHz.
  
• Power supply: It needs a current voltage of 12V and an intensity of 2.5A, therefore, it needs a maximum of 30W of power.

Once we know its technical characteristics, we go with the external analysis of the equipment.

External analysis

This new ASUS TUF Gaming TUF-AX5400 gaming router comes in a black colored box, in the central part is where we find the new ASUS router with its six non-removable external antennas. In this box we can see that it incorporates the new WiFi 6 standard, in addition, we can also see that it is compatible with the ASUS AiMesh WiFi system, it has AiProtection security to protect the internal network equipment from the dangers of the Internet, and It also has a 1.5GHz Tri-Core processor, a processor that is common to the GS-AX5400, RT-AX82U and RT-AX58U routers that we have previously reviewed. Finally, in the lower right we will find the TUF Gaming logo, the new family of gaming routers where this new model belongs.

On the back of the box we can see that this router is faster and more stable to play online games, thanks to its dedicated Gaming Port (LAN 1) we can prioritize devices easily and quickly, this will allow us to connect the console or our gaming PC on this port, we will activate the prioritization of the port and automatically all the traffic will have priority over the rest of the traffic of the equipment connected to the router. We also see reference to the ASUS AiMesh WiFi system, we must remember that all ASUS routers support this technology to form a complete mesh WiFi network with high performance and features such as WiFi roaming and band-steering. In the lower left we can see the Open NAT, a technology that ASUS has also incorporated in this router to open the ports of the games easily and quickly. Finally, this router is of the AX5400 class, therefore, we will achieve twice the real speed of a WiFi 5 router with similar characteristics, especially since we have WiFi 6 and 160MHz of channel width, in addition, we also have OFDMA technology that allows us an efficiency up to four times greater.

On the right side of the box we will find the main buttons and ports on the back, in the left side area is where we can find the main technical specifications that we have already explained in the introduction, the most notable are the 6 non-removable antennas external, for the best possible wireless speed and coverage. We must remember that the ASUS Router App is also compatible with this router, so we can install, manage and administer it remotely without problems.

The first thing we will find in the box of the ASUS TUF Gaming TUF-AX5400 router is an Intel brochure, in this brochure we can see that it is necessary to update the drivers to version 20.70.0 or higher to ensure that we can connect to this WiFi 6 router without problems, in case of having a previous version, if we activate the 802.11ax frames we will not be able to connect to the WiFi wireless network, so we must perform the update before installing this router.

The content of the box of this router is the following:

• ASUS TUF Gaming TUF-AX5400 gaming router
• Current transformer with 12V and 2.5A
• Cat5e Ethernet Network Cable
• Router Quick Installation Guide
• Intel Brochure with Driver Update
• Product warranty and safety recommendations when using it.

In the following gallery you can see both the inside of the box and the content:

In the quick installation guide incorporated with this router, we can find the contents of the box itself, the main router status LEDs, the main ports explained, how we should locate our router at home, and also how we can access the configuration wizard of the router. router, either by connecting through WiFi or via cable, in addition, it will also explain everything we must do if we want to configure the router through the ASUS Router App.

In the current transformer of this router it is capable of providing a current voltage of 12V and a current intensity of 2.5A, therefore, it is capable of providing a power of up to 30W to power the router and also the hard disk that we can connect through its USB 3.0 port. Finally, we will find the typical Cat5e Ethernet network cable with four pairs of wires, to achieve speeds of 1Gbps without any problem.

This new ASUS TUF Gaming TUF-AX5400 router has a really spectacular design, at the top we will find the TUF logo that lights up when turned on, in addition, at the bottom we will find the different status LEDs, from left to right we find: status of Internet, status of the four Gigabit Ethernet ports for LAN, status of 2.4GHz and 5GHz WiFi, as well as the router’s power LED.

Something that has caught our attention is the different ventilation grilles of the router within the spectacular design of the router, in this way, the internal components of the router will be kept as cold as possible.

On the left and right side of this router we do not find any button or port, we will only see a non-removable external antenna on each side, and a small ventilation grill so that the air flow allows to cool the internal components of the device.

At the back of this router we are going to find the rest of the non-removable external antennas, in addition, we also have the power connector, the on and off button of the router, the high-performance USB 3.0 port, the four ports Gigabit Ethernet for the LAN (with the Gaming Port being LAN port 1), and we will also see the Gigabit Ethernet port for the Internet WAN in blue. Finally, we can see the router’s WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup) button and also the RESET button to restore this router to factory settings.

At the bottom of the equipment is where we can see the four non-slip pads, we can also see a large ventilation grill to evacuate the hot air from its interior, and we will even have in the central part a sticker with the exact model of the equipment, the characteristics input power, the frequency of 2.4GHz and 5GHz, and we can also see the router.asus.com domain to access the router’s administration locally. Other information we have in this area is the default SSID, the default WPS PIN, the default firmware, the main MAC address of the router, and the serial number. Finally, we will find a QR code to quickly connect with the app and start configuring the wireless router.

So far we have come with our external analysis of the ASUS TUF Gaming TUF-AX5400 router, a very interesting device aimed at a gaming audience, in addition, we are sure that it will be a super seller due to its price.

Internal analisis

This new router incorporates a well-known hardware that we have already seen previously in this article, the hardware is shared by other models such as the ASUS ROG STRIX GS-AX5400, the ASUS RT-AX82U and the ASUS RT-AX58U, depending on the model you buy. You will have a router design or another, although the general performance of the equipment also varies because the Asuswrt firmware has certain differences.

The main processor of this router is the Broadcom BCM6750 , a processor with triple-core 64-bit architecture at 1.5GHz, therefore, we can have an outstanding performance in the USB 3.0 tests and also a very good performance in the VPNs it supports. this team. Of course, this processor integrates the switch and we will have NAT by hardware or also known as NAT acceleration, of course, it has Jumbo Frames, it supports Link Aggregation, and in this model the LAN port 1 allows priority over the rest of the wired ports. The RAM memory of this router has 512MB capacity, and the FLASH memory is 256MB.

The chipset in charge of the 2.4GHz band is the Broadcom BCM6750 compatible with Wi-Fi 6. We have technologies such as Beamforming, OFDMA, MU-MIMO 2T2R and full compatibility with the standard. In the 5GHz band we have the Broadcom BCM43684 compatible with Wi-Fi 6, this chipset is an old acquaintance because it is top of the range, allows MU-MIMO 4T4R configuration and supports OFDMA, in addition, it also has 160MHz of channel width, ZeroWait DFS so as not to have to wait too long for the issue of DFS channels, and it will provide us with a speed of up to 4.804Mbps in this frequency band.

So far we have arrived with our internal analysis, as you have seen, at the hardware level we are at the latest in the upper-middle range. Will we get good wireless performance? We’ll see you in the test lab.

Test laboratory

In these LAN tests we will use JPerf to see how it behaves with multiple threads on the local network. It is very important that a router performs outstandingly in these tests, especially if we have a NAS server on the local network or if we want to exchange files and folders on the local network.

LAN tests

With 100 concurrent TCP threads we get a transfer speed of 113MB / s, an excellent result. We can see how the threads are transferred at the same speed, this is synonymous with stability in the transfer of all data, so we will have no problems squeezing its Gigabit Ethernet interface.

With 250 TCP threads we get a speed of 113MB / s, an excellent performance. We have the same speed are 2.5 times more threads, this router has behaved perfectly, as expected considering its hardware.

With 500 TCP threads we get a speed of 105MB / s, also excellent performance.

With 750 TCP threads we obtain a speed of 112MB / s, as you can see, the speed that this router is capable of providing us in the local network is perfect.

With 1,000 TCP threads we get a speed of 76.2MB / s, somewhat below what I expect considering the hardware of this router, we expected to reach 100MB / s without problems.

In the following table you can see the values that we have obtained with different number of threads:

LAN-LAN conclusions

The LAN-LAN performance of this ASUS TUF Gaming TUF-AX5400 router has been excellent. We will not have any problem transferring files over the LAN, even with 750 concurrent TCP threads we have achieved a speed clearly higher than 110MB / s. However, even though the 1,000 concurrent TCP threads test passed successfully and without problems, we expected to hit speeds over 90-100MB / s. However, the overall performance of this test has been outstanding.

LAN-WAN tests

In this test we will check how this router will behave if we use P2P programs, we will connect multiple concurrent TCP threads from the LAN to the WAN. Previously we explained that this router has hardware nAT, and its firmware implements this feature, so we expect a great performance in these tests.

With 100 threads we obtain a speed of 113MB / s, excellent performance, the maximum speed that we can obtain with the Gigabit Ethernet interface. With this router we will not have problems if we use P2P programs and we have a large Internet bandwidth, it will be able to do everything.

With 250 threads we get a speed of 113MB / s, we still have excellent performance, the maximum of the Gigabit Ethernet interface.

With 500 threads we get a speed of 110MB / s, excellent performance, this router behaves really well and we can get the most out of the wired performance.

With 750 threads we get a speed of 113MB / s, excellent performance, as with the first performance test, so this is great news.

With 1000 threads we get a speed of 110MB / s, an excellent performance. This router is one of the best that we can check if we have ultra-fast Internet speeds.

In the following table you can see the values that we have obtained with different number of threads:

LAN-WAN conclusions

The performance of this router in this LAN-WAN test has been excellent, we have passed all the tests with speeds of 110MB / s or higher, making the most of the Gigabit Ethernet interface that this router has. If you have an Internet connection with speeds of 1Gbps, you will have no problem using P2P programs intensively, because this router will do everything. It is clear that the firmware is very well optimized and provides us with magnificent performance.

LAN-WLAN (Wireless) tests

The time has come to check if the wireless coverage and speed of this ASUS TUF Gaming TUF-AX5400 router meets and lives up to the best, or if it is one notch below. In all the tests we have launched the iperf3 client-server with 20 concurrent TCP threads to check the WiFi speed. The physical stage of the tests is the same as always, as you can see here:

The iperf3 server is located in the local network on a NAS server connected via LAN on a Gigabit Ethernet port, therefore, the maximum speed that we will achieve is up to 1Gbps as a maximum. In this review we will also have the Intel AX200 card in the Lenovo X1 Carbon laptop, as is often the case in our wireless tests. We still do not have WiFi 6 cards with a high-performance USB interface on the market, possibly in the coming months the tests will reach the market.

ASUS TUF Gaming TUF-AX5400: Test on the 2.4GHz band

First we start with the 2.4GHz band, where we can get up to 574Mbps theoretical with this wireless router, as long as you use a WiFi 6 card and two antennas to connect to the router. Here are the results obtained with the iperf3 client-server with 20 concurrent TCP threads, and the Intel AX200 Wi-Fi card that we have tested with this ASUS TUF-AX5400 router.

Here are the results obtained with the iperf3 client-server with 20 concurrent TCP threads:

As can be seen in the performance tests, this router is capable of providing excellent performance in this frequency band, as long as we are close to the router, otherwise the speed decreases, but it is very stable in different rooms. The overall performance of this frequency band is outstanding, in addition, we must highlight the stability of the connections. The maximum speed achieved with this router is 284Mbps real.

ASUS TUF Gaming TUF-AX5400: Test on the 5GHz band

Now we are going to check the wireless performance that we achieve in the 5GHz band with low channels , using 160MHz of channel width and the Intel AX200 card. The maximum sync speed in the same room is 2.4Gbps in 5GHz and achieving real 808Mbps of speed.

Next, we have carried out the tests in the same scenario as always, taking a tour of different rooms:

As can be seen from the table, this router provides excellent coverage and speed in all scenarios. We have been impressed by the great speed achieved both in the kitchen and in the main room, exceeding at all times the real 300Mbps of speed via WiFi.

Wireless Conclusions

In the 2.4GHz band this router has performed outstandingly in almost all the locations where we have performed the tests, however, we have not managed to connect in the attic, which is the furthest location, there are other ASUS routers that have been better behaved in this location. Thanks to the firmware that allows us to configure 40MHz of channel width, we will be able to achieve real speeds greater than 250Mbps of speed without problems, yes, in places close to the router.

In the 5GHz band it has performed excellently, providing a speed of up to 808Mbps in the best of cases, in addition, in places with medium distance and with obstacles we have managed to exceed the real 300Mbps without problems, this is ideal in any home domestic so we will not have wireless speed problems. In addition, something that has caught our attention is that we have been able to get a connection in the attic, the furthest place, so it has behaved better than the 2.4GHz band in this location.

USB 3.0 testing

The USB tests are like the ones we have been doing regularly. We will check the speed of reading and writing in NTFS format since we will copy files of more than 4GB (high definition videos). We will carry out the measurements with the Samba server that the router incorporates and also via FTP and FTPES. One of the novelties of the latest versions of the firmware in ASUS routers is the incorporation of FTPES are the best possible security.

All the tests we have always done with an M.2 NVMe Kingston KC2000 SSD, and an ASUS ROG Strix Arion USB 3.2 Gen 2 enclosure, however, this router has problems recognizing this storage unit, it is something that ASUS already knows and they will fix it soon. We have used a Kingston USB 3.0 pendrive, specifically this one:

According to the official specifications, it allows us up to 200MB / s of reading and up to 60MB / s of writing, so it is possible that we have a bottleneck in writing.

Samba on USB 3.2 Gen 1 port

• NTFS-> Read: 90MB / s; Write: 55 MB / s.

FTP on USB 3.2 Gen 1 port

• NTFS-> Read: 112MB / s; Write: 58 MB / s.

FTPES on USB 3.2 Gen 1 port

• NTFS-> Read: 13.7MB / s; Write: 13.7 MB / s.

DLNA on USB 3.2 Gen 1 port

The operation of the DLNA media server has been just perfect, something we already knew because the read speed is very high. Detection, playback such as fast forward has worked excellently. Below, you can see a comparative table:

USB conclusions

This ASUS TUF-AX5400 router has performed outstandingly in the different performance tests, achieving about 112MB / s of reading and about 55MB / s of writing are outstanding values for this type of routers with a 1.5GHz Tri-Core processor However, we must bear in mind that we may have a bottleneck in the pendrive used, due to the incompatibility with the USB 3.2 Gen 2 case that we usually use in all performance tests.

Setup Wizard

The configuration wizard of this ASUS TUF-AX5400 router has exactly the same configuration options as always, but the graphical user interface has changed compared to the rest of ASUS routers, the same thing happens with the firmware. ASUS has wanted to provide this equipment with a unique firmware in design, although internally it is the same firmware as always with very few internal changes.

In the first menu of the configuration wizard we can create a new network, and also click on advanced configuration so that it will guide us menu after menu with the configuration of the Internet connection, the WiFi and also change the default administration password.

The first thing we must choose is the router configuration mode, we click on «Choose operation mode» and then we will choose «Wireless router (Default)», then it will ask us if our Internet connection requires username and password (for PPPoE) or not requires it (for DHCP), we indicate what corresponds and click. Now it will ask us if our IP address is automatic or fixed (for the Internet WAN), in addition, we can also configure VLANs by clicking on “Special ISP requirement”, including the possibility of loading the Movistar triple VLAN FTTH profile.

Once we have completed these steps, we can continue with the configuration of the WiFi connection.

The configuration wizard allows us to configure both the SSID and the access password, in addition, we will have the possibility of separating the 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequency bands to assign them different WiFi network names. If you want to have band-steering and that the router is placed in the band of 2.4GHz or 5GHz dynamically, then you will have to put a unique SSID. If you want to disable this “Smart Connect” functionality, then you must click on “Separate 2.4GHz and 5GHz” and define different WiFi network names, the password can be the same.

This router is WiFi 6, but ASUS allows us to activate or not the 802.11ax frames, in the event that you have an old wireless client that does not support WiFi 6 because we do not have the updated drivers, you will not be able to connect if you activate these 802.11ax frames, for this reason ASUS gives us the option to activate or deactivate them. One configuration that we must do manually is to activate the 160MHz channel width, for this we must go to « Advanced configuration / Wireless «.

Once we have configured the WiFi network, we will have to enter the username “admin” and the new password that we want. Finally, we can see the summary of the WiFi configuration that will be applied in a few moments.

After waiting about 60 seconds, we will have our router operational with all the configurations that we have indicated in this configuration wizard. Once we have seen all the options available in the configuration wizard, we are going to see what the firmware of this router looks like in detail.

Firmware

The Asuswrt firmware in this gaming-oriented WiFi router has completely changed its appearance compared to the original Asuswrt, each and every menu is designed in a different way visually, but we have exactly the same configuration options as always . The manufacturer ASUS has wanted to give it a gaming touch very different from other routers, since it belongs to the new TUF Gaming family of routers specifically oriented to online games. In addition, it has a configurable Aura RGB from the main menu, so we can modify the type of lighting and the color of the different status LEDs.

As you can see, the change made by ASUS in the firmware has been profound, changing each and every one of the firmware menus with the new design, however, we insist that the configuration options are exactly the same as always.

General – Network Map

In the main menu of «Network Map» of this router we can see all the information about the Internet connection, we can also see the basic configuration of the WiFi wireless network with the SSID and security, in addition, we can modify certain basic parameters from here . Of course, we will be able to see the status of the router’s CPU and RAM, as well as the Ethernet ports that we are using, the router’s MAC address and the LAN configuration.

An interesting novelty in this router is Aura RGB, something that we have already seen in other routers from the manufacturer ASUS. These menus will allow us to configure the type of lighting of the main LED of the router (Static, breathing, wave and rainbow) as well as the color of this LED that we have. Something that we like a lot is that this aspect is as configurable as in the motherboards, in addition, being compatible with Aura RGB we can easily and quickly synchronize our router with the LEDs of the ASUS motherboards and other components.

Finally, in the clients section we can see a list of all online clients, all clients connected via cable and also via WiFi, in addition, we have a specific AiMesh menu that will allow us to search for other ASUS routers around us and form a WiFi Mesh network easily and quickly, we will simply have to click on search, it will automatically scan all the WiFi networks around it, it will detect the ASUS routers and we can add them by clicking on them.

General – AiMesh

This gaming router incorporates the latest ASUS AiMesh 2.0 technology, the manufacturer’s advanced management system for WiFi AiMesh networks. This visualization is much more advanced than the previous one, and we have been seeing it for several months in all the old equipment and, of course, it is also incorporated in the new routers and WiFi Mesh systems. In this section we can choose which uplink nodes to choose for the different nodes, we can see the synchronization speed, state of the links, choose different routes until reaching the root router and much more information, among which is the possibility of forcing all nodes to which the interconnection is carried out via cable compulsorily.

One of the options that we liked the most is the “Optimization” button, this allows us to reconnect the nodes and optimize the Mesh network to provide the best possible coverage and speed to all parts of our house. Finally, other actions that we can carry out are deactivating one or more frequency bands, deactivating the status LEDs, reconnecting a node, restarting it and removing it from the mesh network.

General – Guest Network and AiProtection

The guest WiFi network options are as always, we can create a total of 3 WiFi networks separate from the main network, although we have the possibility of enabling routing between them so that there is communication. Another possibility is to configure these guest WiFi networks with Amazon Alexa almost automatically.

Regarding AiProtection, we have at our disposal network protection, blocking malicious sites, bidirectional IPS, detection and blocking of infected devices, and advanced parental control based on time and content, in this case we will also have the same configuration options as always.

General – Game Boost and Open NAT

This router has a specific menu for the global optimization of the router for extreme gaming, this is basically a direct access to the different specific menus. For example, in the Game Boost section we can activate the game accelerator with the LAN1 gaming port that we have, we also have the possibility of accelerating the games of smartphones that have the ASUS Router app enabled.

Open NAT is a utility that allows us to open ports on the router easily and quickly, if we do a manual port opening it will be the same as using the WAN / Virtual Server menu, however, here we will have a large list of popular games that It will make it easier for us to open the ports to a certain IP, be it a gaming console or PC. Open NAT is ideal for opening ports when we don’t know which ports a particular game uses.

General – QoS and Traffic Analyzer

This gaming router has all the QoS technologies that we have always had in ASUS routers, for example, we have adaptive QoS to prioritize games or other applications easily and quickly, we will also have the traditional QoS where we must indicate the width real bandwidth of our connection, and, finally, the bandwidth limiter per connected wired or wireless client. In addition, we have a web history monitor, a built-in speed test to measure speed.

We also have the typical traffic analyzer that will indicate how many GB or TB of data we have exchanged depending on the chosen application, in addition, in traffic monitoring we can see the Internet, wired and wireless traffic in real time, in order to see what it is what is happening in the local network.

Thanks to these menus we can modify the behavior of the router at the network level and also see everything that happens.

General – USB and AiCloud 2.0 application

This router has a high-performance USB 3.0 port, we have all the ASUS technologies to make the most of it, such as ASUS AiDisk, the SMB, FTP and FTPES server, multimedia server, print server, the possibility of connecting a 3G modem / 4G and even the Download Master and the time machine for Apple. All the configuration options and services are exactly the same as always.

Of course, we also have all the usual options regarding AiCloud 2.0 to remotely access the internal USB port of the router, and allow video streaming, remote access to devices on the local network and more.

ASUS routers are really advanced at the USB level, we are going to have a large number of configurations and services to get the most out of the equipment’s performance.

Advanced Settings – Wireless

When it comes to advanced WiFi network settings, ASUS is one of the best manufacturers because we have extensive settings to customize the behavior of both frequency bands. We can configure the Smart Connect, and also each frequency band separately with a different SSID and authentication. We can configure the SSID, hide it, authentication including WPA3-Personal, possibility to enable WiFi 6, WiFi Agile Multiband, choose the channel width and WiFi channel and even enable protected management frames among other options.

We also find the functions of WPS, WDS, WiFi MAC filtering, the possibility of configuring an external RADIUS server, the possibility of configuring the wireless network at a professional level with advanced parameters, and we can also register a blocking list so that no do WiFi roaming (the latter only if we have a WiFi Mesh system enabled).

A very important detail is that, if you mount an AiMesh WiFi system, you will not be able to use WPA3-Personal only, you must still live with WPA2-Personal. This is because the interconnection between the different nodes must be done through this security protocol.

Advanced Settings – LAN

In the LAN section is where we will have all the options regarding the local network, we can change the router subnet (by default it is 192.168.50.1), we can also configure the DHCP server in detail and even the Static DHCP to assign a private IP to a specific MAC. Other options are to be able to configure static routes, enable IPTV profiles and even configure Internet WAN VLANs, and also enable 9K Jumbo Frames on the LAN.

We must bear in mind that the LAN1 port can be used as Internet WAN by enabling Dual-WAN, it can also be configured as Gaming Port, and even as Link Aggregation, but logically you cannot do all three things at the same time, these three functions must be configured individually.

Advanced Configuration – WAN

In this WAN menu we can configure our Internet connection in detail, enabling the WAN and NAT, in addition, we can configure the type of NAT to use, and we can even disable UPnP for security. We can also configure PPPoE or in DHCP client mode, of course, we have Dual WAN putting the primary and secondary interface, and we can also configure the port trigger, virtual server, DMZ, DDNS and even the NAT Passthrough.

In this case, as you can see, we have the same configuration options as always, the only thing that changes is the appearance of the graphical user interface of the different menus, but at the level of configuration options everything is exactly the same.

Advanced Settings – Alexa, IPv6, VPN and Firewall

This new router has compatibility with Amazon Alexa, we will be able to send you voice commands to perform certain basic actions on the router.

Regarding the IPv6 protocol, we have multiple advanced configurations including the 6in4 and 6to4 tunnels among other standards, of course, we also have the possibility of configuring the addressing natively or with a static IP address.

Regarding VPNs, we have a PPTP VPN server that is not recommended to use, and also OpenVPN and IPsec to connect to the local network remotely and securely, in addition, in this router we also have the VPN Instant Guard, a VPN service based on IPsec that allows us to easily configure the tunnel through our smartphone with the ASUS Router app, this is ideal for connecting from our mobiles.

In the firewall section, we will find the same options as always, we can activate or deactivate the firewall, enable the mitigation of a DoS attack carried out from the Internet and many other options, such as blocking certain URLs, blocking keywords and even blocking traffic from the LAN to the WAN at a certain time or always.

Advanced Settings – Administration

In this administration section we can change the operating mode of the router, in this case, we can configure it as follows:

• Router mode
• Access point mode
• WiFi repeater mode
• Media bridge mode
• AiMesh node

Other options that we have available in these menus are the possibility of activating the login captcha, enabling hibernation of the hard drives, configuring the hourly time, configuring the behavior of the WPS button, enabling the Telnet or SSH server, configuring the server web with HTTPS and other remote access settings.

Of course, in these menus we can also perform the firmware update, either manually or automatically, in addition, we will have the possibility of restoring, saving the configuration and even restoring this router to factory settings.

Other actions are to report a bug to ASUS and see the privacy clause, we only have to do this when we use advanced services such as AiProtection that are in charge of scanning network traffic.

Advanced Settings – System Registry and Network Tools

ASUS is one of the manufacturers that has the best system log, this router offers us all the internal logs of the equipment to be able to diagnose any type of failure or error in the system or in the network. We will also be able to see in detail the wireless configuration that is currently being used, and advanced details of all the wireless clients that are connected in both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. We also have the list of DHCP assignments, the IPv6 information record and even the routing table that we currently have on the router. Finally, we can see the port forwarding table and also all the current connections of the equipment that are open.

In network tools we can use different network applications, such as the typical ping, traceroute, nslookup, and also netstat. Of course, this router also incorporates the “Wake-up by LAN” functionality, that is, the WoL, and we will have a specific “Smart connection rule” menu to modify the behavior of the band-steering depending on our needs.

As you have seen, we have the same Asuswrt firmware as always, but with a completely renewed design at the GUI level and inspired by the TUF Gaming range from ASUS. This router belongs to the upper-middle range of routers, but in online games it will work really well for you because it has quite powerful hardware and a really complete firmware.

So far we have come with the analysis of the firmware, and also with the review of the ASUS TUF Gaming TUF-AX5400. Now we are going to see a list of strong points, weak points and the final conclusions.

Strengths

• Excellent LAN-LAN performance in all measurements, managing to pass all tests correctly with great performance.
• Excellent LAN-WAN performance in all measurements, it has passed all tests successfully and with great performance.
• Outstanding 2.4GHz Wi-Fi performance, we’ve hit 285Mbps. The coverage in this band is very good, but we have not reached the attic with sufficient coverage to perform the tests.
• Wi-Fi performance in the excellent 5GHz band, we have reached up to 101MB / s with the Intel AX200 card. The coverage in this band is outstanding, we have reached the attic without any problem and achieving more than 8Mbps real.
• Outstanding USB 3.0 performance, we have achieved 112MB / s read and 58MB / s FTP write. The speed with FTPES is also very good considering the processor.
• Complete configuration wizard, with the same configuration options as always.
• The Asuswrt firmware modified to give it a gaming look remains the same as ever. We will have all the advanced configuration features as usual, only the graphical user interface changes.
• Application for mobile devices ASUS Router to manage it locally and remotely. It incorporates VPN Instant Guard to connect remotely to the local network, and it also allows optimizing online games.
• WPS button.
• Router on / off button.
• Price: outstanding. This team is worth around € 180.

Weak points

• Incompatibility with our ASUS ROG Strix Arion case, we had to use a pendrive.

Last conclusions

The TUF Gaming family is a new family of neutral high-mid-range routers with a really competitive price. This new TUF Gaming TUF-AX5400 model has a medium-high-end hardware with WiFi 6 for less than 180 euros, ideal for any gamer user who does not want to spend a lot of money on a router that will provide very good performance. The star feature of this router is the dual-band WiFi 6 AX5400 with 160MHz channel width, thanks to this, we have achieved a real speed of 808Mbps, a really high speed.

This new router has had excellent LAN-LAN performance , although in the test of 1000 concurrent TCP threads we have not achieved more than 76MB / s of speed, however, it is a great value which means that we will not have problems when transferring multiple files and folders on the local network. Regarding LAN-WAN performance , it has also performed excellently in performance tests, making it possible for us to have Internet connections of up to 1Gbps speed, because we will be able to squeeze the connection to the fullest.

The WiFi wireless coverage and performance on this router has been outstanding globally. In the 2.4GHz band the maximum speed has been 280Mbps, and in the 5GHz band we have achieved a real speed of 800Mbps, therefore, the maximum speed is really good. We would like to highlight a very important aspect that we have detected, the 5GHz band has performed excellently, providing more than 300Mbps real in the kitchen and main room, with multiple obstacles such as walls and a floor in between respectively, in this case, We were also able to get to the attic and get the speed test done. The 2.4GHz band has performed very well, but we have not managed to get to the penthouse and get up to speed.

The USB 3.0 performance on this router has been very good, getting about 112MB / s read and 58MB / s write in FTP, in addition, the FTPEs protocol with encryption has also performed really well. Something that we must highlight is the incompatibility with our USB 3.2 Gen 2 case, making us have to use a pendrive, so we could have a bottleneck in the pendrive itself.

This ASUS TUF-AX5400 router has the same Asuswrt firmware as always, but tuned at the graphical user interface level. We have a completely renewed firmware on a visual level, but we still have all the configuration and customization options as always, in this case, nothing has changed. Of course, this router being geared towards gaming has adaptive QoS, traditional QoS, bandwidth limiter and the Gaming Port, as well as many other additional options such as Open NAT or the possibility of accelerating mobile games.

Finally, the current price of this router is about 145 euros , an outstanding price considering its technical characteristics and the real performance that we have achieved.

If we take into account the characteristics, the excellent performance achieved by this router, and its price, the evaluation of this article is 9.5 / 10:

We hope you liked the analysis, if you have any questions you can put a comment and we will respond delightedly.