Asus Blue Cave AC2600 Dual-Band Wireless Router for Smart Homes, Featuring Intel Wifi Technology and Aiprotection Network Security Powered by Trend Micro (Renewed)

You'll find yourself explaining to people what this is if you keep the light illuminated on this Blue Cave router as it attracts attention. It is important to note you can dim the internal lights or even turn them off completely if you desire. Even though this router has no visible antennas I find that the range is similar to my other Asus AC3100 routers. I have three Asus Routers setup in a AI Mesh Network. All three of the routers (2 AC3100 and 1 Blue Cave) I purchased were renewed and I haven't experienced any issues. They arrive in a plain cardboard box with bubble wrap. The power supply and antennas are of course included however you won't get a CD or literature (not needed). This router is very easy to setup and I believe these are better devices than a lot of the mesh systems that are popular right now. There is an Asus App you can use to administer the routers from your phone or you can utilize a web browser. This particular model provides a very strong Wi-Fi signal. Initially I had only one of these routers covering my 3300 sq ft house. I purchased additional routers to create redundancy and provide greater download speeds in remote parts of my home. I considered purchasing one of the newer Wi-Fi 6 routers however I don't have any devices that are capable of connecting at the faster speeds at this time. I have been very pleased with the performance of the system overall. I will say that at times it doesn't make sense that a device will connect to a particular router however I can imagine there is signal interference that I may not be aware of. Asus has a great Admin interface and includes free Trend Micro network protection with this router. I've noticed other brands include security software with their router that includes a one year subscription and you're stuck paying after the introductory period expires. The Trend Micro software that is included with the Blue Cave router has slightly less features than the one that's included with the AC 3100. I wouldn't consider that however to be a huge negative as I have found that turning on those extra security features slows the upload/download speeds significantly (10%).

For the price it is a pretty good router. I installed it about a month ago and have no issues with it. The ASUS software interface is pretty straight forward to me. I set up a home and guest network right off the bat. I wish the parental controls for content filtering could be tuned a little more finely, I wanted to filter out porn; but to do that it forces you to filter out other stuff as well. Anyway this unit works as it is supposed to, and if/when I upgrade the router I have the option of using the ASUS Blue Cave as a node. I think this router will work fine for most people and most household applications. My household has 4 people using internet at once due to COVID and combinations of telework and virtual classroom and we haven't had any issues. I think you can set up 4 different guest networks with time restrictions and content filtering, which I suppose is handy if you are renting out rooms or something. Overall I would recommend this refurbished router to someone looking for a bargain.

I used the Cave as a Wi-Fi extender and it has worked well. No degradation in speed or latency

I purchased two Blue Caves.I had been using DLink for longer than a decade - I will always be fond of DLink (I did some OpenWRT with them and kept extending the life of the product). Switched over to TP-Link because of cheaper price, and it served me well.With the introduction of a VR headset, 4K Streaming, Steam Link and so many other devices in my house requiring high speed LAN I typically ran Cat 6 cables for my Gigabit setup, but with these Asus Blue Caves all that is noow something of the past.I still run cable for gaming but all my other devices now work on 5GHz and I placed one of these Blue Caves in my room, one in the kitchen, and now I can stream 4K outside my deck when I couldn't do before that.Read the instructions, upgrade as many Blue Caves as you need, connect them using their AI Mesh and make sure you hook em up with wire while setup. Place Blue Cave wherever you need one and enjoy.

I'm updating this review while I'm displaced as a result of Hurricane Ida. I received an email with an opportunity to receive an extended warranty if you wrote a review. I did that, mines was compelling, empathic... I've purchased many products from ASUS. But oh no.. I was told because it was refurbished that it was marked ineligible and the email stated... "At this time, only reviews for new products (non-refurbished and non-renewed)"I took the time to write something. But it wasn't considered worthy. Think about that folks.. A customer takes the time to write a review. regardless. THE REVIEWS AT THE TIME WERE MIXED BUT I BOUGHT IT. I gave a GLOWING review. Yet its deemed unworthy. If someone takes the time to write a review regardless you reward them. No review is ineligible. Its OPTICS.. Every interaction is critical to the customer experience. So what you did essentially could lose a customer.Here lies the wonderful review of a former customer not deemed worthy....I really had my reservations with buying this router. But the price was right so I took a shot. Seriously, my plan was to take my other gaming ASUS router and create a mesh system but I haven't even done it yet. This one is doing a fantastic job. I will set up the mesh system at some point. There haven't been any issues in terms of losing a connection. I did wish it had more features when logging into the portal but that's about it. The design is different from most routers I think that is what I like about it. It doesn't look so "routey" lol! if you know what I mean. I understand that's not a word but that's all I got for now. I'm on the computer alot teaching, streaming, etc. and it does the job.