High-performance dual-band WLAN router from ASUS, WLAN 802.11ac with max. 2,600 Mbps, 4x4 MIMO, WLAN coverage of up to 160 m² indoor, compatible with DSL and cable modems With its BlueCave AC2600 dual-band wireless router ASUS breaks not only with the conventional design of common routers, but packed in the exquisite Housing also a lot of modern technology.
High-performance dual-band WLAN router from ASUS, WLAN 802.11ac with max. 2,600 Mbps, 4x4 MIMO, WLAN coverage of up to 160 m² indoor, compatible with DSL and cable modems With its BlueCave AC2600 dual-band wireless router ASUS breaks not only with the conventional design of common routers, but packed in the exquisite Housing also a lot of modern technology.
High-performance dual-band WLAN router from ASUS, WLAN 802.11ac with max. 2,600 Mbps, 4x4 MIMO, WLAN coverage of up to 160 m² indoor, compatible with DSL and cable modems With its BlueCave AC2600 dual-band wireless router ASUS breaks not only with the conventional design of common routers, but packed in the exquisite Housing also a lot of modern technology.
High-performance dual-band WLAN router from ASUS, WLAN 802.11ac with max. 2,600 Mbps, 4x4 MIMO, WLAN coverage of up to 160 m² indoor, compatible with DSL and cable modems With its BlueCave AC2600 dual-band wireless router ASUS breaks not only with the conventional design of common routers, but packed in the exquisite Housing also a lot of modern technology.
Last updated at 03/21/2026 16:40:34
Asus Blue Cave Wireless Ac2600 Dual Band Gigabit Wi-fi Router Aimesh
Delivery $74.43
Affiliate Disclosure: We may receive a small commission for purchases made through this link at no extra cost to you. This helps support our site. Thank you!
ASUS AC2600 WiFi Router Blue Cave - Dual Band Gigabit Wireless Router, Featuring Intel WiFi Technology, Works with Alexa, AiMesh Compatible, Included
Delivery between 26–30 Mar $15.52
ASUS Blue Cave AC2600 Dual Band WiFi Router for Smart Home, complete network security with AiProtection, works with Amazon Alexa
Delivery $20
originally posted on bestbuy.com
Artwork or appliance, the new ASUS Blue-Cave WiFi high speed router no longer needs to be hidden from view.Besides being straight forward and easy to set up, the ASUS AC router comes with built in and free update-able AI security protection (provided by TREND.)Take a moment and check out the web software setup tools also available for free with ths router. Parental controls help protect the family (children) from unsafe websites as well as monitoring who (what device) is online and setting time limits to those who do. Allow children access only during certain times of the day as an example.The unit has a RJ45 connector for hooking up to your modem and additional high speed ports. WPS for easy linking of new devices.Recessed reset button for returning unit to ... MoreArtwork or appliance, the new ASUS Blue-Cave WiFi high speed router no longer needs to be hidden from view.Besides being straight forward and easy to set up, the ASUS AC router comes with built in and free update-able AI security protection (provided by TREND.)Take a moment and check out the web software setup tools also available for free with ths router. Parental controls help protect the family (children) from unsafe websites as well as monitoring who (what device) is online and setting time limits to those who do. Allow children access only during certain times of the day as an example.The unit has a RJ45 connector for hooking up to your modem and additional high speed ports. WPS for easy linking of new devices.Recessed reset button for returning unit to original factory settings. I set up and then factory reset to see how simple the function worked. No problems.Wireless router mode - for most usersAccess point mode - for extending your existing router and SSID if neededMedia bridge mode - Connect two (2) routers with the capability of sharing the network resourcesUse the router as an additional access point on an existing networkConnect the router to a modem/router from your Internet Service Provider (ISP)Disable the router functionalities to work with third party devicesI can now justify upgrading to a 32-up 16 down 1.6GB MODEM and my IPS's 175-mips high speed service.
originally posted on bestbuy.com
The Asus Blue Cave is probably the coolest and most unique looking router I have ever seen. A blue glowing LED lamp lights the center hole of the Cave when it has internet connectivity. It's a roughly 8 inch by 8 inch by 4 inch deep "cube" of sorts, with the usual LAN ports and switches on the back. It's powered by a simple AC adapter which also plugs in the back. There's a power button, a reset button and a WPS button on the back also. The Cave takes up less space than the usual modern wireless router.This is an AC2600 router, which means it supports the 5Ghz band and up to 2600Mbps of data across it, measured by the sum of all the devices' usage that is accessing it. My PC was showing throughput of 443Mbps when I checked it, which is pretty good.For those that ... MoreThe Asus Blue Cave is probably the coolest and most unique looking router I have ever seen. A blue glowing LED lamp lights the center hole of the Cave when it has internet connectivity. It's a roughly 8 inch by 8 inch by 4 inch deep "cube" of sorts, with the usual LAN ports and switches on the back. It's powered by a simple AC adapter which also plugs in the back. There's a power button, a reset button and a WPS button on the back also. The Cave takes up less space than the usual modern wireless router.This is an AC2600 router, which means it supports the 5Ghz band and up to 2600Mbps of data across it, measured by the sum of all the devices' usage that is accessing it. My PC was showing throughput of 443Mbps when I checked it, which is pretty good.For those that don't like messing with the DHCP functions of their internet equipment, the Blue Cave is ready for you. My DSL modem/router is already doing the job of assigning the IP addresses for my network and you can get into trouble with more than one device doing it--but the Cave was preset to assign a series of IP addresses far above in numerical order, so no worries of IP conflicts. The setup was simple, just a few instructions and connections and it was set to go.The user interface through the browser is really nice and has lots of features for managing internet access by user or device. But as nice and comprehensive as that is, the Android app for controlling and tweaking the Blue Cave is great. Far better and more fun to use than the stripped down apps of the competitors. You can sit there, phone in hand, and shut down your kids devices one by one when it's bed time. Or stem that bandwidth drain coming from someone watching a movie. The possibilities are endless for being the Bandwidth and Access King of your house. This would be a great tool for a small hotel or bed-n-breakfast. I walked outside with my phone connected and still had 80% signal 50 yards from the router. It had 100% everywhere inside my single-story house.Five stars for Asus on this one. I have set up other routers like this that were much more expensive and they can't touch the looks, features and fun of the Blue Cave.
originally posted on bestbuy.com
I will start this by saying I've owned Asus routers in the past. The fortunate thing about Asus routers is that you dont really feel the need to monkey around with the software because many of the more advanced features that you'd want are already there such as VPN server and client, without having to install something like DDWRT. The Blue Cave is no different.To start: Packaging was interesting. It comes in an cube-shaped box in which the router really only takes up about half of the space. Strangely, in order to keep the cube space there's actually a whole lot of dead space inside the box. I would have almost preferred a slimmer box than having a bunch of extra flaps to open only to find nothing in them (I was hunting for the power cable and opened one of the ... MoreI will start this by saying I've owned Asus routers in the past. The fortunate thing about Asus routers is that you dont really feel the need to monkey around with the software because many of the more advanced features that you'd want are already there such as VPN server and client, without having to install something like DDWRT. The Blue Cave is no different.To start: Packaging was interesting. It comes in an cube-shaped box in which the router really only takes up about half of the space. Strangely, in order to keep the cube space there's actually a whole lot of dead space inside the box. I would have almost preferred a slimmer box than having a bunch of extra flaps to open only to find nothing in them (I was hunting for the power cable and opened one of the dead spaces first by mistake).The router itself is really quite slim and looks very stylish. The 'cave' has an LED in the middle that lights it up and whose brightness can be controlled. It's a very nice departure from the black monolithic spiders that most of the advanced routers look like these days.Setup:It has a decent wizard to guide you through initial setup, however it also has a more advanced mode if you know what you are doing. If you've been in an Asus router before it will all be familiar, however for those that havent it has all of the expected settings: port forwarding, various WAN and LAN settings, DDNS, firewall settings for both IPv4 and IPv6, a number of wireless settings, including some more advanced ones. Now for the things that are uncommon: It has Alexa integration so you can ask it to enable or disable the guest network, disable the internet or upgrade the firmware. It has a VPN server and client configuration if you wish it. It has Asus's AICloud to allow you to setup your own private cloud with a USB hard drive or remotely access your network. In the USB settings it supports a number of things such as 4G USB dongles, media and print services.As far as protection, it can integrate with Trend Micro to offer network level security for malicious sites and parental controls.Performance:Performance for me so far has been great. I can say that the range is slightly less than that of my previous (non-Asus) router, but the stability of the connection is phenominal. Asus has said they will be enabling the AIMess functionality on these routers soon, so you can build your own mess of Asus devices in the near future.Overall, I can easily recommend this router, especially for someone that wants advanced settings without the spidery look of most advanced home routers. The plethora of configuration options paired with a unique look and a decent price really lends itself to something that many people I think would not have originally considered.
| General | |
| Device Type | Wireless router - 4-port switch (integrated) |
| Enclosure Type | Desktop |
| Connectivity Technology | Wireless, wired |
| Data Link Protocol | Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.11n, IEEE 802.11ac |
Asus Blue Cave Wireless Ac2600 Dual Band Gigabit Wi-fi Router Aimesh
Delivery $74.43
Affiliate Disclosure: We may receive a small commission for purchases made through this link at no extra cost to you. This helps support our site. Thank you!
ASUS AC2600 WiFi Router Blue Cave - Dual Band Gigabit Wireless Router, Featuring Intel WiFi Technology, Works with Alexa, AiMesh Compatible, Included
Delivery between 26–30 Mar $15.52
ASUS Blue Cave AC2600 Dual Band WiFi Router for Smart Home, complete network security with AiProtection, works with Amazon Alexa
Delivery $20
Artwork or appliance, the new ASUS Blue-Cave WiFi high speed router no longer needs to be hidden from view.Besides being straight forward and easy to set up, the ASUS AC router comes with built in and free update-able AI security protection (provided by TREND.)Take a moment and check out the web software setup tools also available for free with ths router. Parental controls help protect the family (children) from unsafe websites as well as monitoring who (what device) is online and setting time limits to those who do. Allow children access only during certain times of the day as an example.The unit has a RJ45 connector for hooking up to your modem and additional high speed ports. WPS for easy linking of new devices.Recessed reset button for returning unit to ... MoreArtwork or appliance, the new ASUS Blue-Cave WiFi high speed router no longer needs to be hidden from view.Besides being straight forward and easy to set up, the ASUS AC router comes with built in and free update-able AI security protection (provided by TREND.)Take a moment and check out the web software setup tools also available for free with ths router. Parental controls help protect the family (children) from unsafe websites as well as monitoring who (what device) is online and setting time limits to those who do. Allow children access only during certain times of the day as an example.The unit has a RJ45 connector for hooking up to your modem and additional high speed ports. WPS for easy linking of new devices.Recessed reset button for returning unit to original factory settings. I set up and then factory reset to see how simple the function worked. No problems.Wireless router mode - for most usersAccess point mode - for extending your existing router and SSID if neededMedia bridge mode - Connect two (2) routers with the capability of sharing the network resourcesUse the router as an additional access point on an existing networkConnect the router to a modem/router from your Internet Service Provider (ISP)Disable the router functionalities to work with third party devicesI can now justify upgrading to a 32-up 16 down 1.6GB MODEM and my IPS's 175-mips high speed service.
The Asus Blue Cave is probably the coolest and most unique looking router I have ever seen. A blue glowing LED lamp lights the center hole of the Cave when it has internet connectivity. It's a roughly 8 inch by 8 inch by 4 inch deep "cube" of sorts, with the usual LAN ports and switches on the back. It's powered by a simple AC adapter which also plugs in the back. There's a power button, a reset button and a WPS button on the back also. The Cave takes up less space than the usual modern wireless router.This is an AC2600 router, which means it supports the 5Ghz band and up to 2600Mbps of data across it, measured by the sum of all the devices' usage that is accessing it. My PC was showing throughput of 443Mbps when I checked it, which is pretty good.For those that ... MoreThe Asus Blue Cave is probably the coolest and most unique looking router I have ever seen. A blue glowing LED lamp lights the center hole of the Cave when it has internet connectivity. It's a roughly 8 inch by 8 inch by 4 inch deep "cube" of sorts, with the usual LAN ports and switches on the back. It's powered by a simple AC adapter which also plugs in the back. There's a power button, a reset button and a WPS button on the back also. The Cave takes up less space than the usual modern wireless router.This is an AC2600 router, which means it supports the 5Ghz band and up to 2600Mbps of data across it, measured by the sum of all the devices' usage that is accessing it. My PC was showing throughput of 443Mbps when I checked it, which is pretty good.For those that don't like messing with the DHCP functions of their internet equipment, the Blue Cave is ready for you. My DSL modem/router is already doing the job of assigning the IP addresses for my network and you can get into trouble with more than one device doing it--but the Cave was preset to assign a series of IP addresses far above in numerical order, so no worries of IP conflicts. The setup was simple, just a few instructions and connections and it was set to go.The user interface through the browser is really nice and has lots of features for managing internet access by user or device. But as nice and comprehensive as that is, the Android app for controlling and tweaking the Blue Cave is great. Far better and more fun to use than the stripped down apps of the competitors. You can sit there, phone in hand, and shut down your kids devices one by one when it's bed time. Or stem that bandwidth drain coming from someone watching a movie. The possibilities are endless for being the Bandwidth and Access King of your house. This would be a great tool for a small hotel or bed-n-breakfast. I walked outside with my phone connected and still had 80% signal 50 yards from the router. It had 100% everywhere inside my single-story house.Five stars for Asus on this one. I have set up other routers like this that were much more expensive and they can't touch the looks, features and fun of the Blue Cave.
I will start this by saying I've owned Asus routers in the past. The fortunate thing about Asus routers is that you dont really feel the need to monkey around with the software because many of the more advanced features that you'd want are already there such as VPN server and client, without having to install something like DDWRT. The Blue Cave is no different.To start: Packaging was interesting. It comes in an cube-shaped box in which the router really only takes up about half of the space. Strangely, in order to keep the cube space there's actually a whole lot of dead space inside the box. I would have almost preferred a slimmer box than having a bunch of extra flaps to open only to find nothing in them (I was hunting for the power cable and opened one of the ... MoreI will start this by saying I've owned Asus routers in the past. The fortunate thing about Asus routers is that you dont really feel the need to monkey around with the software because many of the more advanced features that you'd want are already there such as VPN server and client, without having to install something like DDWRT. The Blue Cave is no different.To start: Packaging was interesting. It comes in an cube-shaped box in which the router really only takes up about half of the space. Strangely, in order to keep the cube space there's actually a whole lot of dead space inside the box. I would have almost preferred a slimmer box than having a bunch of extra flaps to open only to find nothing in them (I was hunting for the power cable and opened one of the dead spaces first by mistake).The router itself is really quite slim and looks very stylish. The 'cave' has an LED in the middle that lights it up and whose brightness can be controlled. It's a very nice departure from the black monolithic spiders that most of the advanced routers look like these days.Setup:It has a decent wizard to guide you through initial setup, however it also has a more advanced mode if you know what you are doing. If you've been in an Asus router before it will all be familiar, however for those that havent it has all of the expected settings: port forwarding, various WAN and LAN settings, DDNS, firewall settings for both IPv4 and IPv6, a number of wireless settings, including some more advanced ones. Now for the things that are uncommon: It has Alexa integration so you can ask it to enable or disable the guest network, disable the internet or upgrade the firmware. It has a VPN server and client configuration if you wish it. It has Asus's AICloud to allow you to setup your own private cloud with a USB hard drive or remotely access your network. In the USB settings it supports a number of things such as 4G USB dongles, media and print services.As far as protection, it can integrate with Trend Micro to offer network level security for malicious sites and parental controls.Performance:Performance for me so far has been great. I can say that the range is slightly less than that of my previous (non-Asus) router, but the stability of the connection is phenominal. Asus has said they will be enabling the AIMess functionality on these routers soon, so you can build your own mess of Asus devices in the near future.Overall, I can easily recommend this router, especially for someone that wants advanced settings without the spidery look of most advanced home routers. The plethora of configuration options paired with a unique look and a decent price really lends itself to something that many people I think would not have originally considered.
ASUS had my attention with the looks and packaging of the Blue Cave, it is cool and aesthetically pleasing. Was jazzed before I even got the box open.But more importantly to me was the aspect of having a Hardened Router at the head of my network parade. This is my first ASUS router and I am impressed with the depth of the Front-Line Protection they have built into this box. Teaming up with TrendMicro was an exceptionally smart move on ASUS’s part, TrendMicro being a solid leader in Consumer and Enterprise Network protection.Having access to TrendMicro’s Black or White Lists is a Big Thumbs-up with the Blue Cave. Have not had access to Black Lists on a consumer router previously, last time I used Black lists was back in my Enterprise IT years. They are very ... MoreASUS had my attention with the looks and packaging of the Blue Cave, it is cool and aesthetically pleasing. Was jazzed before I even got the box open.But more importantly to me was the aspect of having a Hardened Router at the head of my network parade. This is my first ASUS router and I am impressed with the depth of the Front-Line Protection they have built into this box. Teaming up with TrendMicro was an exceptionally smart move on ASUS’s part, TrendMicro being a solid leader in Consumer and Enterprise Network protection.Having access to TrendMicro’s Black or White Lists is a Big Thumbs-up with the Blue Cave. Have not had access to Black Lists on a consumer router previously, last time I used Black lists was back in my Enterprise IT years. They are very helpful in avoiding pitfalls on the Internet, TrendMicro maintains a current Black List of Web-Sites found to be malicious and blocks access. In today’s environment this is particularly notable. Kudos.The Blue Cave is quite easy to get up and running, but I suggest if you pick one of these gems up to take some time and dig into the router’s settings, they are extensive for a consumer router.The options and settings are wide-ranging, a few that caught my eye are a highly customizable Traffic Manager (QoS) and a excellent Traffic Analyzer which tracks client and app usage graphically (love it). The Firewall is highly tunable and where you will find the Black List option.Wireless is unexpectedly stronger than I expected with the built-in antennas. Three rooms away from the Blue Cave my Signal Quality is running between 585 Mbps and up to 720 Mbps which surprisingly is the same rate that I am pulling off a larger router with Eight Large External Antennas from the same room! The Blue Cave is also pushing more Max Data Rate than my larger 802.11ac router at 346.7 vs 288.9 on the 2.4 GHz band and matching it on the 5 GHz band at 1733.3. Lot of juice in a small box.After running the Blue Cave for a couple weeks, it has blocked quite a few Web-Sites that two of my software systems did not catch. That is a warm and fuzzy feeling, in-depth protection for the network and my family.My network has enough routers, bridges and switches to light up a small city and the Blue Cave has earned a place at the head of my system with its brilliant set of technologies and capabilities.Managed large enterprise networks formerly and I am excited to find many of the technologies we employed in our networks, firewalls and routers in the Blue Cave. The cost for the Blue Cave makes it a remarkably good choice for anyone wanting to secure their home network. On top of that it is a good-looking piece of equipment with strong Wi-Fi and networking features.Big Thumbs Up.
It seemed like a great deal until it wasn't.Best Buy did a great job at the fulfillment and delivery of this order. No complains there whatsoever.I really thought this would be an affordable solution to my current tech needs. I was planning to make the Blue Cave the main router in an AI Mesh configuration with an existing ASUS router which supports it. To that end I consider myself tech savvy.I wanted to use the same SSIDs I use currently for convenience of not having to reconnect my devices againHowever, I hit snags right from get go when I tried using the existing firmware it shipped with. It had no wireless connectivity even though it was working on wired connections, and I could see the wireless configuration I had setup on it. No WiFi at all. After ... MoreIt seemed like a great deal until it wasn't.Best Buy did a great job at the fulfillment and delivery of this order. No complains there whatsoever.I really thought this would be an affordable solution to my current tech needs. I was planning to make the Blue Cave the main router in an AI Mesh configuration with an existing ASUS router which supports it. To that end I consider myself tech savvy.I wanted to use the same SSIDs I use currently for convenience of not having to reconnect my devices againHowever, I hit snags right from get go when I tried using the existing firmware it shipped with. It had no wireless connectivity even though it was working on wired connections, and I could see the wireless configuration I had setup on it. No WiFi at all. After tinkering with the settings, I finally decided to update the firmware to see if that would help. This should be an easy step but for some reason the firmware it shipped with does not even allow checking for updates as it kept complaining about not being able to check for updates. I had by now wasted 1 hour trying to figure a way out.Then I tried a manual firmware upgrade from their support site. The official firmware for this device on Asus has not been updated since 2021 and starts with 3.0 while the one on my router was 3.1Nonetheless I did manage to replace the shipped firmware with the one on the site. By now I've wasted 2 hours behind this fruitless operationThat worked only momentarily as I realized that the wireless setting seemed to be off for 2.4GHz. The Smart band select option on the screen brought up the SSID to show up on my wireless devices but weirdly the devices on 2.4GHz did not connect and also the connected clients list was unable to refresh the list of devices on 2.4GHz. It only allows me to connent to 5GHz band. No matter what I try including disabling the smart band selection option makes any difference. I simply cannot use the 2.4GHz on this router on the official firmware.I wasted 4 hours trying to simply make this router function like it's supposed to in a dual band mode. God knows what miracles I would need to perform to get it to work in a mesh.So it looks like I have no choice but to return this router and find another one.
I will start off by saying I am an IT professional and have been in the field for 8+ years.I bought this router to replace my Netgear Nighthawk 1900 after years of use and it died.I was excited to get a router that had faster capabilities also very stylish. Upon unboxing and initial setup I was seeing very fast speeds that I didnt see with my previous router. Almost 100mbps jump in wifi download speeds. Fast forward to the next day while working from home and I lost connection so I look at the router and it had a red light meaning it lost connection to the internet. It resolved itself and connection was back. This continued to happen numerous times throughout the day and night. When this would happen it would also disconnect other things hardwired to the modem ... MoreI will start off by saying I am an IT professional and have been in the field for 8+ years.I bought this router to replace my Netgear Nighthawk 1900 after years of use and it died.I was excited to get a router that had faster capabilities also very stylish. Upon unboxing and initial setup I was seeing very fast speeds that I didnt see with my previous router. Almost 100mbps jump in wifi download speeds. Fast forward to the next day while working from home and I lost connection so I look at the router and it had a red light meaning it lost connection to the internet. It resolved itself and connection was back. This continued to happen numerous times throughout the day and night. When this would happen it would also disconnect other things hardwired to the modem from the internet which is really odd. I opened a ticket with ASUS support, had to do a reset on the router and set it up specific to their settings which are no where listed in the installation guide. The issue continued to happened. I disconnected the router, and enabled the wifi on the Motorola surfboard modem even though its slow and the past two days have not seen a single drop in connection. I plugged in the ASUS once again and within an hour the connection dropped.I followed up with ASUS support and they provided me a long info sheet to fill out with everything from the model and firmware of my modem, model and firmware of the router, operating system and driver info from devices connecting to the router, log files from the router, network topology layout of my setup, and ISP info. This is a simple home router that should basically be plug and play for the average user and I imagine a lot of people wouldnt even know how to provide that info.Router will be returned in the next few days with hopefully something that works.
Here's a solution for all you folks out there who have never been very happy with the antenna-studded, blinking-light aesthetic of most wi-fi routers: The Asus Blue Cave.If someone didn't tell you, it's unlikely you would have any idea that this strangely named white box with an illuminated hole in the middle is actually a state-of-the-art router. There are no antennas in sight (4 are hidden inside) and no blinking lights. Just a steady soothing blue glow (you can adjust the brightness) from the "cave" in the middle. Some might even mistake this thing for a piece of art., asuming their artistic preferences run to such high tech designs.Despite its unorthodox name and appearance, the Blue Cave IS a very capable router, bringing most of the latest tech to the ... MoreHere's a solution for all you folks out there who have never been very happy with the antenna-studded, blinking-light aesthetic of most wi-fi routers: The Asus Blue Cave.If someone didn't tell you, it's unlikely you would have any idea that this strangely named white box with an illuminated hole in the middle is actually a state-of-the-art router. There are no antennas in sight (4 are hidden inside) and no blinking lights. Just a steady soothing blue glow (you can adjust the brightness) from the "cave" in the middle. Some might even mistake this thing for a piece of art., asuming their artistic preferences run to such high tech designs.Despite its unorthodox name and appearance, the Blue Cave IS a very capable router, bringing most of the latest tech to the connected home. It comes with most of high-end specs you need, including full dual-band wireless AC support, built-in Trend Micro security, a guest channel, streaming mode prioritization, parental controls, Alexa support and more.Another nice bonus is a very comprehensive Web-based admin control, something rare in this era when many tech manufacturers prefer to do everything with smart phone apps. I hate that. For some people, this web interface feature alone may be worth the price because its much easier to navigate and adjust on the larger screen of a PC. But if you HAVE to have a smartphone app, Asus offers one of those too.The first thing you should do when you set up the Blue Cave, which is super simple, is to check out all the options available to you. It's pretty long list, and some settings are probably beyond the understanding of the average consumer. But you still need to go through everything to make sure all your wi-fi devices are connecting correctly (A map of all connected devices is provided) and that all the options you want turned on are on.That's important because many, including the built in Trend Micro AirProtect security system, are turned off by default. Ditto for the options that allows you to monitor network traffic and prioritize your wi-fi system for things like the media streaming, games or web surfing.On paper, the Blue Cave is not the fastest wi-fi router out there but I found it pretty impressive in real world usage. Connections were strong and fast throughout my 1500-square-foot home, which is bristling with wi-fi devices . There are 18 in all, from laptops, to smart lights and switches, to phones to mutiple Alexa devices, streaming video boxes and TVs. All of them connected and ran without a hitch. I even streamed a 4K movie to my TV with any delays or buffering.The Blue Cave comes with 1 year subscriptions to Trend Micro's mobile and PC anti virus software too, but I would skip that. I have never been a fan of that software because it always slows things down, in my experience. And if it's built into the router, why do a need another software layer on the PC? Windows Defender or some other free anti virus and malware software is a better option if you want extra protection on your PC or phone. And you don't have to worry about your subscription running out or paying an annual fee.On big plus on the Blue Cave is there is no annual subscription to keep the Trend Micro protection current in the hardware( ie, on the router itself) The same cannot be said for some competitors. Some routers with hardware protection cease to function if you don't buy keep paying an annual subscription fee. Forget that. Advantage Asus.When you consider the Blue Cave is also quite a bit less expensive than most of those competitors, and is much much easier to install, it's hard to find an argument not to buy one of these things -- if you in the market to upgrade your home wi-fi system.The only real downside I could find is that this is not a mesh system, and therefore perhaps is not the best choice for very large or multi story homes, which need the added reach extra mesh nodes provide.For everyone else, it's worth a look.
I bought this one to replace my older Netgear Nighthawk AC1900 that was a workhorse of a router. At any given moment, it would usually have about 20-25 devices hooked up (wifi or ethernet). Whether it be smart hubs or smart TV's, it was a trooper. I kept seeing good review for this router and decided to try it out since I liked the minimalist approach to the design..Setup wise it was very straight forward...(name the SSID, password, etc.) after it did its firmware update though, it decided to go downhill.The GUI for the unit is nice looking, but not as easy to navigate since I was used to the Netgear GUI. Keep in mind, I do know a few things about routers since I work with them on a daily basis. I guess they want their users to do everything through a smartphone ... MoreI bought this one to replace my older Netgear Nighthawk AC1900 that was a workhorse of a router. At any given moment, it would usually have about 20-25 devices hooked up (wifi or ethernet). Whether it be smart hubs or smart TV's, it was a trooper. I kept seeing good review for this router and decided to try it out since I liked the minimalist approach to the design..Setup wise it was very straight forward...(name the SSID, password, etc.) after it did its firmware update though, it decided to go downhill.The GUI for the unit is nice looking, but not as easy to navigate since I was used to the Netgear GUI. Keep in mind, I do know a few things about routers since I work with them on a daily basis. I guess they want their users to do everything through a smartphone or tablet. The Internet connection was spotty at times and its only a 1400 sqft house. When I would run a speed test, it would get a burst of speed and slowly slow down. Anytime you would do a change to the router, it would take a few minutes for it to process the change, so that was a bit irritating. This router was supposed to be designed like a plug and play ready to go type router, but it seemed like this unit was a dud.It would have issues detecting my network switches that I have around the home or just plain drop them. My arlo Cameras kept disconnecting stating that the hub isn't connected to the internet. Same issue for my Wink 2 hub.I did find out the actual processor wasn't as powerful as the 4 year old Netgear AC1900s version. It only is a 800mhz processor.I honestly can't recommend this router at all, since I had a bit of a hard time using the GUI and overall, bad experience with wired/wireless connections. I didn't bother contacting the tech support line since they would have me do basic turn off and turn on and reset the router routine to see if that would fix it. Just would waste time. I will just be returning the router and getting another Nighthawk AC1900.
The Asus Blue Cave AC2600 Dual-Band Wi-Fi Router has the appearance of a super cool, and modern, device. It may not look like your average router, but its performance does this brand justice.Asus is a name I’ve come to trust for electronics, specifically computers. Their brand of quality, well-made devices, boasting the latest technology, is why I not only have purchased their products myself, but have recommended them to others.I’ve used many different types and brands of routers. This Asus Blue Cave did all that was required to wirelessly connect my phone, tablets, computers, video game console, smart TV, security system, and misc other devices to my home network, quick and easily.Setting up my new router took hardly any time at all, and was a simple, ... MoreThe Asus Blue Cave AC2600 Dual-Band Wi-Fi Router has the appearance of a super cool, and modern, device. It may not look like your average router, but its performance does this brand justice.Asus is a name I’ve come to trust for electronics, specifically computers. Their brand of quality, well-made devices, boasting the latest technology, is why I not only have purchased their products myself, but have recommended them to others.I’ve used many different types and brands of routers. This Asus Blue Cave did all that was required to wirelessly connect my phone, tablets, computers, video game console, smart TV, security system, and misc other devices to my home network, quick and easily.Setting up my new router took hardly any time at all, and was a simple, standard procedure. I chose to get things set up via my PC, but there is an Asus Router App which you can use for the setup process, too. With the app, you can also customize Parental Controls, allowing you to monitor internet usage, schedule time limits and block content.Once everything was up and running, I found that streaming video content, playing my video games, surfing the web, downloading programs, etc. was smooth and lag free, even with all the devices I have connected to my home’s WiFi accessing the network at the same time. I was quite satisfied with how well this Asus router performed, comparably to previous routers I’ve owned.An added bonus worth mentioning is that this router also comes with a free 1-year subscription of TrendMicro antivirus protection, for up to 4 devices.If you’re in the market, I highly recommend this elegantly stylish, futuristic looking Asus Blue Cave WiFi Router. It’s definitely a conversation piece, in addition to being a high performance home networking device.
As a single, stand-alone router, the Blue Cave works fine (nothing special, but it did it's job), but once it is made part of an AiMesh network, everything falls apart. I purchased this Blue Cave on sale to pair with an existing Blue Cave and boy was I sorry.When set up as the primary router in an AiMesh setup, it had to be rebooted several times per week; Wi-Fi connectivity would start to deteriorate after as little as one day of up time and would completely die after two to three days. I tried scheduled reboots in the middle of the night but as often as not, I'd wake up the next morning with no Wi_Fi after the soft reboot. It appeared that the DHCP service would gradually lose connected wireless devices (of the 15 -20 devices connected, eventually only the wired ... MoreAs a single, stand-alone router, the Blue Cave works fine (nothing special, but it did it's job), but once it is made part of an AiMesh network, everything falls apart. I purchased this Blue Cave on sale to pair with an existing Blue Cave and boy was I sorry.When set up as the primary router in an AiMesh setup, it had to be rebooted several times per week; Wi-Fi connectivity would start to deteriorate after as little as one day of up time and would completely die after two to three days. I tried scheduled reboots in the middle of the night but as often as not, I'd wake up the next morning with no Wi_Fi after the soft reboot. It appeared that the DHCP service would gradually lose connected wireless devices (of the 15 -20 devices connected, eventually only the wired connections would be recognized). Firmware updates (which are few and far between) often made matters worse, and Asus support, though responsive to my emails, were of no help at all.After re-configuring my network using an Asus RT-AC68U (fantastic router, BTW) as my primary, and two Blue Caves as AiMesh nodes, my Wi-Fi stability issues disappeared. However, I soon discovered that the Blue Cave nodes were no longer connecting to my devices with 802.11ac; both my Windows and Apple computers were connecting 802.11n.My advice, if you want to get a less expensive router, STAY AWAY from the Blue Cave. Get the RT-AC68U. Asus is much better at updating that firmware to address security threats, and it is a much better performer (plus it works flawlessly as the primary in an AiMesh environment). The Blue Cave is the only Asus clunker in my experience and am glad that I purchased mine on sale.
| General | |
| Device Type | Wireless router - 4-port switch (integrated) |
| Enclosure Type | Desktop |
| Connectivity Technology | Wireless, wired |
| Data Link Protocol | Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.11n, IEEE 802.11ac |
