ASUS RT-N66U Dark Knight Dual-Band Wireless-N900 Gigabit Router Reviewed

[RogerSC]

Just updated mine. Surprisingly my backup settings worked this time when restored.

Any idea how this firmware compares to RT-N66U_9.1.0.3_125 ? I assume RT-N66U_9.1.0.3_125 is newer since it's 9.1, or maybe not.

Just a note, you have to be very careful when restoring old settings when you move to the next firmware version. Some old settings may not apply to the new firmware, new settings may be added, old ones removed, and how the setting values are interpreted by the firmware may change. So you may end up with subtle (or not-so-subtle problems). I would recommend moving your settings forward manually.

Of course, you may have no problems as a result of this, but just wanted to point out that there is risk involved.

 

[AnthonyArmato]

Yep, I'm aware. Thanks though. Didn't think to mention that as some may not be.

 

[dejanh]

http://wl500g.info/showthread.php?25929-NEW-ASUS-RT-N66U-ROUTER!&p=250491#post250491

Can you upload this somewhere where I do not have to sign up please? Thanks

MediaFire is a good candidate.

 

[RMerlin]

This version is quite buggy - I wouldn't recommend running it. People have reported random reboots from the router, looks like whatever hack Asus has implemented in it to extend the nvram isn't working properly.

 

[AnthonyArmato]

Really ? I've been using it and haven't had any issues. Absolutely no random reboots.

 

[RMerlin]

The DD-WRT folks have been poking at it, and so far it seems like Asus missed a few things. One of the devs got a kernel panic just by plugging a 1 TB HDD to his router, for example. They are suspecting that Asus didn't truly implement it, but more hacked it in since the CFE is still unchanged. That would mean the CFE routines would be unable to access any nvram setting that would reside in the additional 32K section.

 

[hggomes]

RT-N66U 3.20 Revision:

http://wl500g.info/showthread.php?27333-Asus-RT-N66U&langid=3

 

[AnthonyArmato]

It's pretty...

 

[jerry6]

RT-N66U 3.20 Revision:

http://wl500g.info/showthread.php?27333-Asus-RT-N66U&langid=3

wow 1 gb of ram ? Hope they get the firmware on this version working 100% first . What are the advantages of 1 gb of ram ?

 

[AnthonyArmato]

1GB of DDR2 RAM! Why?

Best of all, the Asus RT-N66U Dark Knight has a generous 1GB of RAM, another likely candidate for best in class. Why does this matter?
Because of how TCP/IP works, or in the case of small routers, doesn’t work. TCP/IP takes up a bit of memory for each open socket,
so the more you have open, the more memory you need. When a connection is released, the memory frees up slowly.

 

[hggomes]

Where you get 1GB info on Rev 3.20 ??!?!? Dream mode on? Could it be? Or are you guessing?

I don't believe they have upgraded 4x more RAM size in 1-2 months after the this model release, that would generate alot of polemics.

If so i wanna change my router...

 

[AnthonyArmato]

That's what the specs are listed as.

 

[Pistolpete]

Hi everybody,

i'm interested in this router, i'd like to know what are the differences between these 3 firmware modded you can use on this asus
dd-wrt
open-wrt
tomato

Thanks in advance

 

[Se7en]

RT-N66U 3.20 Revision

I ordered the RT-N66U online yesterday. Is this a new hardware revision coming out, or is it software (will I have to send it back and wait for a new version)? The last two pages have me confused and my Russian is a bit rusty .

 

[RMerlin]

Check the dates of those posts, guys All those first posts are from March 2011. Only the last few posts are from 2012, and related to the new 3.20 revision, which is only a minor revision over the 3.00 we own.

The first pics are of the original version, the one that had a cooling fan, and never got mass-marketed. That's the version that was also advertised with 1 GB of RAM, and ended up with 256 MB RAM in the final product.

 

[RMerlin]

Hi everybody,

i'm interested in this router, i'd like to know what are the differences between these 3 firmware modded you can use on this asus
dd-wrt
open-wrt
tomato

Thanks in advance

Those are third party firmwares, and their RT-N66U versions are still under very heavy development, so they might not be as reliable or performing as the original Asus firmware yet. Listing the differences in a single forum post would take forever, as if you were asking for the difference between Windows and Ubuntu Linux. I recommend you visit their respective websites to determine if you really need them or not, as they all offer a completely different set of features over the Asus firmware. Personally, I'd recommend waiting at least a few more weeks before using them until they reach a stable enough point. Unless you are an advanced user, who knows how to deal with potential issues.

 

[alternety]

The posts that started this part of the thread are old and shown to have bad info. Reminder to selfost dates matter! Does anyone have any indication, gut feeling, psychic channeling from an Asus developer, etc. that indicates a new hardware revision is coming fairly soon? They seem to be in tight supply. Reason for this assumption - no significant discounting by net outlets that discount or have significant specials. It may also be my imagination, but is the rate of firmware fixes going down; as in there will be new hardware and a new base level firmware set? Perhaps starting with 9. Anecdotely, newly delivered units seem to still have the original firmware release. I could be completely wrong about any of the above. It just feels like it is true.

Thoughts?

 

[RogerSC]

The posts that started this part of the thread are old and shown to have bad info. Reminder to selfost dates matter! Does anyone have any indication, gut feeling, psychic channeling from an Asus developer, etc. that indicates a new hardware revision is coming fairly soon? They seem to be in tight supply. Reason for this assumption - no significant discounting by net outlets that discount or have significant specials. It may also be my imagination, but is the rate of firmware fixes going down; as in there will be new hardware and a new base level firmware set? Perhaps starting with 9. Anecdotely, newly delivered units seem to still have the original firmware release. I could be completely wrong about any of the above. It just feels like it is true.

Thoughts?

Okay, a couple of thoughts from left field *smile*. First off, luckily the current product is not delivered with the original firmware, which had a lot of problems. The .90 firmware is down the road a little from the original. Secondly, I'd be surprised to see a new hardware release, I don't think that the hardware is the problem. There have been a remarkable number of new firmware versions appearing (beta versions), so I gather that Asus is still trying to fix firmware problems. They do need a stable release that fixes the problems that we're seeing, as well as having 64k of nvram, instead of the current 32k (in released firmware). I'm personally still using the .108 firmware, since it works pretty well for me, aside from some cosmetic issues.

So I'm looking forward to Asus putting out some stable firmware with fixes, or as happened with the rt-n56u, a third-party pick up the Asus firmware and fix it *smile*.

 

[somms]

Secondly, I'd be surprised to see a new hardware release, I don't think that the hardware is the problem.

http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=688309&highlight=#688309

You may have to be surprised because seems hardware has changed in latest Rev 3.2...

 

[RogerSC]

http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=688309&highlight=#688309

You may have to be surprised because seems hardware has changed in latest Rev 3.2...

Since the hardware changes don't affect the firmware (as I read it), that wasn't what I was talking about. I was talking about a revision that actually represents enough change that it requires different firmware. Small fixes are not what I was speculating about *smile*.

But that is interesting, thanks for pointing it out.