I can see the new line of routers from ASUS becoming the most desired technology of 2019. Canadians aren’t known to get overly excited about routers and home networking. So long as things keep chugging along, there’s nothing to see here. But that’s going to change this year. Smart home technology, the smartphones we all carry, tablets, PCs and streaming music services all take an increasing toll on Wi-Fi bandwidth. Gaming demands are intense and set to become far more intense with new game streaming services. Add the real bandwidth destroyer—streaming video—and those old ac routers can begin slowing to a crawl. Get ahead of the curve and enter this contest for a chance at home networking nirvana. We are giving away two ASUS Wi-Fi 6 (also known as 802.11ax) routers: the newest and fastest router tech available.

Why? Because you are going to need it!

Slow home networks are a buffering nightmare

Even with 802.11ac routers, many people are finding their home Wi-Fi networks are inexplicably slowing. The dreading spinning buffer wheel is making a unwelcome return.

Streaming video is currently the biggest consumer of home Wi-Fi bandwidth. It’s been steadily rising as services like Netflix began offering 4K content. Just look at the progression of minimum internet connection speeds as Netflix has bumped its streaming resolution. The recommended speed for SD video is 3.0 Mbps, rising to 5.0 Mbps for HD and then 25 Mbps for Ultra HD. Just imagine what’s going to happen when 8K video starts streaming …. If your Wi-Fi router is causing buffering now, the situation is definitely not going to improve unless you replace it.

Think of all the devices in the average home that might be streaming video, sometimes simultaneously. Smartphones, tablets, computers, TVs, set-top boxes, consoles—the list keeps growing. Many people are adding connected video cameras to their homes for security. Then there’s voice chat for video games and streaming music services. All that streaming adds up.

ASUS Wi-Fi 6 router contest

Wi-Fi 6 routers like the pair we’re giving away from ASUS leverage Wi-Fi 6 technology for faster overall speed (or available bandwidth) than 802.11ac routers. But their biggest advantage over previous generation routers will become even more evident over the next few years: support for more connected devices.

These are U.S. numbers, but I think it’s safe to say they are representative of Canada as well. When 802.11ac Wi-Fi first arrived on the scene a typical home had five Wi-Fi connected devices. In 2018, that rose to nine connected devices. With the explosion in popularity of smart home devices, the total is predicated to hit 50 within the next few years.

The problem is that 802.11ac routers can only juggle so many simultaneously connected devices before the network starts to bog down under the demand. The new generation of Wi-Fi 6 routers employ various new technologies to communicate with more connected devices simultaneously. That means your home Wi-Fi network will be faster and more responsive, even as the number of connected devices continues to grow. If you want to learn more about the tech behind Wi-Fi 6 (and why it’s still sometimes referred to as 802.11ax), be sure to read our explainer on the topic.

New Gaming technology will need great Wi-Fi

While video gets the nod for gobbling up the most Wi-Fi bandwidth in typical homes and smart devices are a big part of the growing congestion issue, in some ways gaming can be even more demanding. Not only do online games use significant bandwidth, but speed is critical. Any lag between your gaming PC or game console and the game server can mean the difference between victory and a frustrating defeat. The key to reducing latency is your Wi-Fi router, which manages the traffic between whatever you’re gaming on and the internet-based game server—along with every other Wi-Fi connected device in your home.

ASUS Wi-Fi 6 router contestVideo games also have bursts of extremely high bandwidth demand. Patches and game downloads can be hundreds of GB in size. With a router that’s struggling, those downloads can seem to take forever.

The future of gaming is increasingly online, whether that’s multi-player console and PC games, digital downloads, or what may become the most demanding of all: streaming gaming services.

Yes, streaming. We’ve had a taste of this already with services like Sony’s PlayStation Now, but streaming gaming is going to hit the mainstream in 2019 with Google’s new Stadia platform (covered here by Plug-in’s Jon Scarr). Managing 4K, 60fps action that’s hosted on Google’s web servers and played on local devices means a huge amount of data—both uploads and downloads—is going to be hitting your Wi-Fi router, and at a frenetic pace. This is exactly the scenario that Wi-Fi 6 is going to address.

To make the most of current, coming in 2019, and future gaming technology, you’re going to need the latest generation of routers, with Wi-Fi 6 support.

New routers from ASUS ensures your home is future friendly

Now that the benefits of Wi-Fi 6 are clear, it’s time to get to specifics. Best Buy is giving away two amazing Wi-Fi 6 routers from ASUS, both of which have been positively reviewed by Plug-in contributors.

ASUS Wi-Fi 6 router contestFirst up is the ASUS RT-AX88U Dual-Band Gigabit router. This Wi-Fi 6 router offers up to 6000Mbps of bandwidth, making it over twice the speed of most current 802.11ac routers. Besides speed, it employs the latest implementations of MU-MIMO and OFDMA technology, giving it four times the network capacity and efficiency—in other words, you can connect far more devices and still enjoy faster, lower latency Wi-Fi. Gamers will appreciate the fact this router also includes adaptive QoS and built-in wtfast support, to optimize online gaming. You can read Steven Hill’s review of the router here.

Next is the mighty ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AX11000 Tri-Band gaming router. If you live and breathe video games, this is the Wi-Fi 6 router you want. One of its 5GHz bands is dedicated to gaming traffic, and if you prefer to go wired there’s a wicked fast 2.5Gbps Ethernet port (in addition to Gigabit Ethernet ports). A powerful 1.8GHz quad-core CPU does the heavy lifting, and gaming traffic is automatically accelerated from the device to the game server for a superior experience. This ASUS router also offers all the big Wi-Fi 6 wins, including blistering speed (combined throughput of up to 11000Mbps) and support for four times the simultaneous connected devices. With its array of eight external antennas, the ROG Rapture can also blast that high performance Wi-Fi across even large homes. To learn more about the ROG Rapture GT-AX11000, be sure to read Chris Loblaw’s review.

Both of these new routers also support ASUS AiMesh, an optional feature that can turn them into a whole-home mesh Wi-Fi network when used with a compatible ASUS router.

So how about it? If your Wi-Fi network isn’t already underperforming, odds are you’ll be cursing it before too long. Enter the contest and you could win one of these two ASUS Wi-Fi 6 routers and start enjoying the ultimate in cutting-edge Wi-Fi performance.

HOW TO ENTER

Entering is easy but you can only enter once. In a comment below this post tell us which bandwidth hogging technology in your home will benefit the most from one of the new ASUS routers. Perhaps it’s video streaming Netflix; or it might be you want to be ready when Google Stadia is available later this year!

WHAT YOU CAN WIN

At the end of this contest we will randomly select two eligible entries to receive a new ASUS router. One person will win the ASUS RT-AX88U Dual-Band Gigabit router and the other winner will get the ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AX11000 Tri-Band gaming router. They are both amazing prizes that will make your home network ready for 2019 and beyond.

This contest runs from March 22nd until April 8th.

You can only enter once, but you can tell your family and friends about this contest. Do you think they could benefit from faster Wi-Fi in their homes? Remember, that means you will also have a better Wi-Fi experience when you visit them …. If so, let them know so they too can enter.

Win an ASUS Wi-Fi 6 Router Contest Rules and Regulations

Good Luck!

We frequently have many contests running at Best Buy so check out the “contests in progress” page for more great contests to enter.
Brad Moon
Brad Moon
Editor Computing solutions
I’m a long-time electronics and gadget geek who’s been fortunate enough to enjoy a career that lets me indulge this interest. I have been writing about technology for several decades for a wide range of outlets including Wired, Gizmodo, Lifehacker, MSN, About.com, Kiplinger, and GeekDad. I’m in my 10th year as a senior contributor for Forbes with a focus on reviewing music-related tech, Apple gear, battery power stations and other consumer electronics. My day job is with the Malware Research Center at AI-native cybersecurity pioneer CrowdStrike.
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724 COMMENTS

  3. We are heavy Netflix users besides having a gamer teenager in the house so we could benefit from either upgrade.

  4. Streaming Netflix eats badly into bandwidth, with several of us using different devices at the same time.

  5. Netflix definitely, especially when the kid is playing online soccer with his friends at the same time!!

  6. Definitely my TV that’s connected to Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and my shield to play games. This will definitely help!

  8. Do you think this could save me??? 4 gamers in the house with a sluggish signal incoming……….it might just solve the problem! thks

  10. These routers would be great for gaming and Netflix. Would decrease the lag and make it easier.

  12. I use GeForce Now game streaming in my home with an average of about 46 wifi devices concurrently connected. It sounds like this would help me A LOT 🙂

  18. My brother and I are both gamers. We would both benefit by gaming and having no lag. We also have a full house where everyone is glued to their technology.

  21. A true quality router will certainly improve my tv streaming. Can’t wait to get my hands on one of these twol Thanks!

  24. I’d like to see the Netflix versus PS4 wars in the household come to an armistice. Hopefully one of these units would help.

  26. We would benefit greatly with either of these routers. Between my gaming and my wifes netflix, our bandwidth gets eaten up with our ISP modem/router combo

  31. I am in desperate need of fast internet, my family are all big gamers (also known as internet hogs) and I am trying to start streaming. This internet would allow me to be able to boot the quality of my stream and the speed in which I can upload videos and download new games.

  33. Umm…those that know me know I am a gamer! and so are my kids…so ALL the BANDWIDTH belongs to the GAMES!!

  35. My habit of watching reruns of the bachelor online will benefit the most from one of the new ASUS routers!!

  37. I would love to upgrade my router so that I can take advantage of 4K video streams. I can already imagine all the extra pixels and extra clarity on my TV 🙂

  38. I need to put a TV in my basement, but I don’t have a cable outlet there. This router should definitely be able to reach that space, and will allow me stream both regular TV , as well as pretty much anything else.

  42. The biggest hog of bandwidth right now is watching HD and UHD streamed and downloaded movies. It’s often difficult to stream a movie due to buffering.

  43. Netflix and gaming are two big bandwidth hogs in our home. One of these new routers would be great! Thanks!

  48. I’ve been thinking for a while about getting into streaming video games to twitch. That would be the biggest drain on my router.

  49. I’m gonna have to go ahead and say that all the updates for ALL my games on Xbox and PS4 take up an enormous chunk of my bandwidth. Makes it impossible to work so I have to turn my updates off during the day and back on when I go to bed.

  50. ROG Rapture GT-AX11000, I’ve had my eye on it for a while, mostly because as a gamer I need strong signals and it clearly is on of the best routers around. I would suffer from less lag and latency while gaming, while my wife streams Netflix

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