Asus RT-N56U first cut

[Raid]

After my Dlink DIR615 started to die, I decided to upgrade my router to the Asus RT-N56U (1.0.1.4o). Now I’m not a wizard here so if I have anything wrong, please feel free to challenge any of my statements.

As far as getting it running is concerned it was quick and easy, but that’s not the full story:

Wireless

My previous Dlink was just capable of covering the house but the signal was very low in some places. The Asus has much better coverage and is much more reliable than the Dlink.

Firmware updates

There is no automatic firmware update notification with this product, this means that you will need to login to the Asus site regularly to look for changes. OK I can do a product based RSS but this is a bit of a pain. I like it when the device send you an email to say that there is a new version of software available.

Client Status Window

There is a Client Status Window that lets you see what’s connected… sometimes.
Devices shown in this window may or may not exit.
Device names may or may not appear.

DHCP Lease

I would normally setup up my router to bind the IP address to the MAC address and not time out. Then I would apply MAC address filtering to restrict access.
While this is possible using this router, it is very time consuming. You should be able to select the MAC address from those available and not have to key it in.

Device Names

You should be able to give a device a name if it doesn’t have one, currently it’s not possible.

logs

There is no automatic ability to offload the logs either by email or to a syslog server.

USB Storage

This worked well, connected an old 300G One-touch and it worked straight away.

USB Printer

When I plug in a printer, it is recognized on the Network Map page of the router. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to get any PC to connect to any printer I have tried.

 

[oldthor]

Not Impressed at all with the Asus

My experience with this router has been interesting. I found the setting in the routing's firmware confusing and very amateurish. Setting up this routing has been the most frustrating experience I've ever had with a router. Settings while visual don't exactly tell you what is happening. THE QOS settings give you no real indication as to what bandwidth has been set and for what, looks pretty but no real control. And far as the build quality I give it about a 3 out of 10, real cheap. The pretty plastic front cover is thin and wasn't properly attached to the front. One hard wired cat5 port was dead right out of the box which really says alot about Asus quality control. I really can't believe this is an Asus product after using their motherboards for so many years! The router at the very least needs a complete firmware rewrite in my opinion and far better support than Asus is providing this product . My advise to anyone looking for a new dual band router, read ALL the reviews and user comments here and on other sites before you even consider this router. Better yet buy something else

 

[Raid]

Update

I sent what I posted here to Asus Tech Support and I received a reply. They provided me with the manual printer installation guide. So I did a manual installation of my printer on both my Win7 64 and XP machines. The installation was very simple and as a result both machines are now working.

One down, a few more to go.