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

[NightOwl326]

That is true. Weather condition(temp. pressure, humidity, etc.) for one. Measuring signal strength is one of many factors. Even with simple inSSIDer,
one can notice signal level going up and down all the time on the graphic plots. My way of looking at radio performance is stable and steady is what counts. Numbers only does not tell a lot in real life.

I agree 100%. The nature of microwaves make it very hard to make actual comparisons, and the measured numbers can change from minute to minute.
I have noticed on wireless forums that there are power junkies that think mW of output is where it is at, and lose sleep if they don't see 5 bars in every room of their house. Far be it for me to say add a wireless access point at the weakest area of your home and all your dreams will come true.

Look at the review on this site, as the throughput of this router is great even at the weakest location. Anything else in regards to the RF signal of this radio, is just obsessing over nothing.

 

[NightOwl326]

Enviroment fairly clean, I live in a 3,000 sq foot home, neighbors routers are weak. Computer doing the testing was 1 floor below the Router in same spot for all tests.

Charlie

What happened to your love for your WNDR4000?

Remember "WNDR4000 Excellent"?

Spoke to soon?

That is why user reviews and testing mean about nothing! One day selling the world on it (WNDR4000), next day off to something else...

 

[12darline]

F/W .102 is now posted and online for downloads.

Thanks...

 

[hggomes]

F/W .102 is now posted and online for downloads.

Thanks...

But not source code.

 

[dejanh]

Download Master is completely broken in the new .102 firmware (it does not load at all any more). Also, the new DLNA media server addition to scan a specific directory is nice, but there is no way now to reset it to scan the whole drive.

Why is it that whenever we make one step forward we take two steps back?

 

[G37x]

Download Master is completely broken in the new .102 firmware (it does not load at all any more). Also, the new DLNA media server addition to scan a specific directory is nice, but there is no way now to reset it to scan the whole drive.

Why is it that whenever we make one step forward we take two steps back?

Where is that option please, to scan a specific dir? Also what is this used for:

Media server directory: /tmp/mnt

Thanks!

 

[dsquared2]

I just got notification from Amazon.com that my RT-N66U is prepping for shipment (I ordered on 2/1/2012).

I have about 7 people in the house, so what's the most stable firmware to load on it?

I don't do anything too advanced at all, the printer is a Wifi one but there (hopefully) will be a harddrive plugged into it.

 

[NightOwl326]

so what's the most stable firmware to load on it?

Read back a few pages. Has been discussed.

 

[jerry6]

I'm torture testing 102 , have three transfers going 150gb each , watching netflix , streaming blue ray to the tv and 4 surfing the web , so far 102 has been up and running 2 days not one problem , though 90 was stable as well , think transfer rate is up with 102 was getting 7.3-8.4 MBPS with 90 now getting 8.8-9.5 with 102 , sorry no 103 , at least not for me

 

[RogerSC]

103? Is there a 103?

 

[tonytoronto]

103? Is there a 103?

soon 102. been stable for me too, only bug so far i've seen has to do with network status page getting all the clients detected/listed, not a big deal for me.

 

[Dizzy714]

Anybody happen to know why I'm getting maybe 2ms of more latency ping than all of my previous Netgear routers? I've always had Netgear routers, 3700 to the 3800 to the 4500 and all of 'em I've always had all security features off with an open NAT etc etc, speedtest.net always gave me usually 8ms of ping, sometimes 7, sometimes 9 and some not so often times 10-11. With the Asus I'm getting 10-11 every single time, can't dip it below them numbers. Any idea why?

Any specific features you guys think I should enable/disable for the router? First time Asus router user an I literally don't need any 'special' feature enabled. Just whatever is going to give me the lowest latency with it. I'm on the latest FW and I've got 5Ghz disabled as I don't have any 5Ghz wireless devices. Just using the router for 2 PC's, 2 Xbox 360's (on simoultaneously, wired), 2-3 iPhone's and a wireless connected PS3. Throw me some decent settings guys! Would be appreciated.

 

[dsquared2]

Read back a few pages. Has been discussed.

I understand that. It's not that clear with so many people contradicting each other, you could have easily just said the number.

 

[magnus_ca]

I understand that. It's not that clear with so many people contradicting each other, you could have easily just said the number.

use .102.....

 

[Daybreak]

Anybody happen to know why I'm getting maybe 2ms of more latency ping than all of my previous Netgear routers? I've always had Netgear routers, 3700 to the 3800 to the 4500 and all of 'em I've always had all security features off with an open NAT etc etc, speedtest.net always gave me usually 8ms of ping, sometimes 7, sometimes 9 and some not so often times 10-11. With the Asus I'm getting 10-11 every single time, can't dip it below them numbers. Any idea why?

Any specific features you guys think I should enable/disable for the router? First time Asus router user an I literally don't need any 'special' feature enabled. Just whatever is going to give me the lowest latency with it. I'm on the latest FW and I've got 5Ghz disabled as I don't have any 5Ghz wireless devices. Just using the router for 2 PC's, 2 Xbox 360's (on simoultaneously, wired), 2-3 iPhone's and a wireless connected PS3. Throw me some decent settings guys! Would be appreciated.

Howdy,
You must have gotten jipped.... I would yell like crazy to your service provider. How dare they raise your ping time. You said its now 11ms. Damn, I would be pissed.

Are you for real? You should buy a oc3 pipe to your house.

All TIC

I have messed around with the power and tried out a full 500Mw of power for the last 8 hours. The outside air range is wild. Although I am not seeing it as being a multiple boosted rate. Slightly warm to the touch, but not hot.

Back to 80Mw

 

[though]

I understand that. It's not that clear with so many people contradicting each other, you could have easily just said the number.

opinions are like assho!es, everyone has one. try both stock and tomato and see which works better for you. i will use tomato and only tomato personally...

 

[njweb]

I just upgraded to 102.

1. I see the DEFAULT TX power in xxxxx102 is 80mW (both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz), as opposed to 40mW in 96.
It looks like that is how they addressed the lower power observed in 96 (as noted in their release notes - "RF power decrease issue reported in 3.0.0.3.96").

Edit - Going back through some old posts from several days ago, Jerry6 also mentioned this a few days ago and is asking the same thing I did: Is 80mW in fw xxxx102 the same as 40mW in fw xxxx90.
I did not see anyone really mentioning it (perhaps one post suggested this a few days ago) afterward.

Given this, I suspect that firmware xxxx90, which was performing better than 96, may have in actuality been using a higher TX power than was being reported in the UI (I forgot which firmware version fixed the issue of the higher settings not being saved but I guess there may be a link).

Interesting...


2. Good news is that my 2.4 GHz wifi signal (tested in the room right next to the router so far) is now back to where it was with xxxxx90 (I went back and forth several times between 80mW and 40mW in order to confirm it was repeatable, hence the ranges below):

With firmware 102, TX power set to 80mW (default) signal = between -33 and -29 dBm!!!
With firmware 102, TX power set to 40mW signal = between -39 dBm and -35 dBm

With firmware 96 (TX power set to 40mW*) signal = about -39 dBm (sometimes into the -40's even)
* With xxxx96, changing TX power to 80mW did almost nothing to improve the signal, so something was definitely wrong with the TX power in that firmware (which we knew based on the release notes for 102).

 

[TonyH]

WELL WHERE'S THE LIST OF ADVANTAGES OF IT!!?!!

haha just kidding.

Hi,
As a retired person from RF telecomm field I am always fiddling with OpenWrt, dd-wrt, Tomato, compiling, breaking, patching things. Generally people use 3rd party f/w for certain feature or charateristics. In my memory I have not seen 3rd party any f/w beating the stock f/w in speed. Building f/w is always compromise. If you take some, you have to give up some thing else. Like any thing else there is no such thing as 100% perfection. I guess that is why we keep playing with it. My main goal is keeping the family happy with what they are doing. My own toy router seldom goes on line except once in a while when every one is asleep in the house. My other hobby is life time HAM, Low brass player.

 

[NightOwl326]

With firmware 102 signal = between -33 and -29 dBm!!!
With firmware 96 signal = between -39 dBm and -35 dBm

Case closed / .102 set as Asus set it at 80mW / DONE

finally no more mW talk....

 

[tonytoronto]

Case closed, finally no more mW talk....

Yous guys sure those mW numbers posted are right? seem little odd.....

Tomorrow going to take plunge and try tomato, shibby version .85, need something to do during the day
.102 been great, but i REALLY like to have WOL thru the router, that way i could get the WHS to sleep and wake it up at any time. wish me good luck.