ASUS RT-N66U - my review

[sirozha]

It has vlan tagging and trunking. I don't think it has LACP.

Is VLAN tagging / trunking done in GUI or is this a CLI-only configuration? LACP is really not that crucial, but VLAN tagging would allow me to plug my servers directly into the RT-N66U's Gigabit ports and thus avoid having to buy a Cisco Enterprise (or Small Business Pro) Gigabit switch for this purpose, thus saving me hundreds and hundreds of dollars.

Also, I have another question. Does this firmware have the AP (Access Point) mode like the stock firmware does?

I love the AP-mode feature in Asus stock firmware (both in RT-N56U and RT-N66U) because along with automatically disabling all Layer 3 features (firewall, DHCP, routing, etc.), the AP mode also turns the WAN port into a LAN port. Thus, you are getting an extra switch port. When you connect RT-N66U (in the AP mode) to an external routing device, you do not lose a switch port. Any other brand Wi-Fi router can be used as an AP even without this AP-mode feature (by manually disabling DHCP and plugging an external router into one of its LAN ports), but you would be losing one LAN port. When you only have four LAN ports, it's a loss of 25% of the wired LAN ports.

 

[darksamus]

Is VLAN tagging / trunking done in GUI or is this a CLI-only configuration? LACP is really not that crucial, but VLAN tagging would allow me to plug my servers directly into the RT-N66U's Gigabit ports and thus avoid having to buy a Cisco Enterprise (or Small Business Pro) Gigabit switch for this purpose, thus saving me hundreds and hundreds of dollars.

Also, I have another question. Does this firmware have the AP (Access Point) mode like the stock firmware does?

I love the AP-mode feature in Asus stock firmware (both in RT-N56U and RT-N66U) because along with automatically disabling all Layer 3 features (firewall, DHCP, routing, etc.), the AP mode also turns the WAN port into a LAN port. Thus, you are getting an extra switch port. When you connect RT-N66U (in the AP mode) to an external routing device, you do not lose a switch port. Any other brand Wi-Fi router can be used as an AP even without this AP-mode feature (by manually disabling DHCP and plugging an external router into one of its LAN ports), but you would be losing one LAN port. When you only have four LAN ports, it's a loss of 25% of the wired LAN ports.

Attached is a copy of the wan port option set lan. Also, router set options to different modes. The Vlans are configured using GUI, it has support for spanning tree protocol. You can run RIP protocol, but no OSPF or BGP.

 

[KeithKman]

Got my RT-N66U today from Amazon. Has firmware .72 so I upgraded. When I was running .72 everything seemed to be working, which I thought was weird.

Few questions:

1) I don't see where to enter Norton DNS server IP address. Can someone point me int he right direction?

2) To turn 5GHz off completely, is this how? Wireless Settings -> Professional tab -> Frequency = 5GHz -> Enable Radio = "OFF"

 

[KeithKman]

Also, seems if I have "Hide SSID" set to "YES" it still is broadcasting. Anyone else experience this?

EDIT: Fixed this issue. Had to apply the settings twice.

 

[RogerSC]

Nice video by a contributor here about setting this router up. It might be helpful for you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JB2CSK9SEA

 

[KeithKman]

Nice video by a contributor here about setting this router up. It might be helpful for you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JB2CSK9SEA

Awesome. Got it, thanks!

 

[Geraner]

Cool. In the main menu of tomato, does your 5Ghz setting show a rate of 13.5mbps and not 450mbps? If I reboot the router it will say 450mbps, it will go drop to 13.5mbps if there is a 5ghz host on it. But if you look a the hosts where it shows the RSSI and TX/RX, mine shows up as 150mbps which what my 5ghz host is suppose to be. I wonder if the main page is just a cosmetic issue and not really affecting the speed.

Well the 2,4 GHz went down to 20 MHz in the GUI. Even if I set 40 MHz.
The speed in the admin page is shown 65 Mbps.

On the 5 GHz it uses 40 MHz as I also set in the router.
Speed rate on the admin page is about 243 - 300 Mbps.
My Wireless Network Card is also showing 300 Mbps.

Checking with inSSIDer then it is telling me:
2,4 GHz = 216 (N)
5 GHz = 450 (N)

Wireless speed 15 meters away from the router tested with www.bredbandskollen.se is:
- Downlink = 62 Mbit/s
- Uplink = 58 Mbit/s
Tests I did before at the same location with ASUS origin firmware where about 10 Mbit/s faster. Refering to usage of 5 GHz frequence only.

Haven't seen any slow downs after 8 hours uptime with TomatoUSB firmware.
Online Gaming of BF3 with usage of Teamspeak was no problem. At the same time my wife is streaming videos via VPN connection. - Same stability as with origin ASUS firmware so far.

 

[KeithKman]

All setup. Seems to be running fine. One thing I don't like. With the router laying flat the blue lights can't be seen unless you're standing right over the router.

 

[darksamus]

I have restore the firmware from shibby's tomato to latest Asus firmware. To my suprise, my wireless 150mbps laptop shows a speed test of 30mbps down and 18mbps up. On tomato it was 20mbps down and 12mbps up.

I really don't like the interface, but it made the network speed a lot better. Since there is no support for web admin on port 443. It does support 8443 which is also https. Assigning static ip to host only shows the mac address and ip, I wish it shows the hostnames. I will leave as it is for now.

PS. Port forwarding and DDNS does work!

 

[though]

I have restore the firmware from shibby's tomato to latest Asus firmware. To my suprise, my wireless 150mbps laptop shows a speed test of 30mbps down and 18mbps up. On tomato it was 20mbps down and 12mbps up.

I really don't like the interface, but it made the network speed a lot better. Since there is no support for web admin on port 443. It does support 8443 which is also https. Assigning static ip to host only shows the mac address and ip, I wish it shows the hostnames. I will leave as it is for now.

i wish you would give toastman's a whirl

did you do the same test multiple times from the same location?

 

[Greg_Elite]

i wish you would give toastman's a whirl

did you do the same test multiple times from the same location?

Told you the Asus firmware is the best. If your spending $200 on a router you should expect it's software to be the best.

 

[KeithKman]

My SSID is "Kman".


Question:

My computers connected via LAN show up as connected to "Network 2" and my wireless devices connected show connected to "Kman 2". Why is there a "2"? It's bugging me.

 

[darksamus]

My SSID is "Kman".


Question:

My computers connected via LAN show up as connected to "Network 2" and my wireless devices connected show connected to "Kman 2". Why is there a "2"? It's bugging me.

Because windows sees there is an IP change, in this case a different network or subnetmask that was different from the old one.

 

[KeithKman]

Because windows sees there is an IP change, in this case a different network or subnetmask that was different from the old one.

Ok, that makes sense. Is there a way to get rid of the "2"?

 

[jdabbs]

Let's keep it civil, guys.

Offtopic? Take it to PM.
If you can't make a point without name calling, don't bother.

 

[darksamus]

I could not stand how to stock version looks. I have uploaded v1.28.0494 MIPSR2-Toastman-VLAN-RT-N K26 USB VPN build and so far, just as good as the stock. I will report tomorrow to see if it is stable.

 

[njweb]

FYI:

Someone on Amazon reported that DDNS and port forwarding is not working on the new firmware, 3.0.0.3.90.

That reviewer updated his review from 1 star to 4 stars today saying he got wifi working. Not sure if DDNS is still not working for him though.
Is anyone here using DDNS?

 

[Greg_Elite]

I could not stand how to stock version looks. I have uploaded v1.28.0494 MIPSR2-Toastman-VLAN-RT-N K26 USB VPN build and so far, just as good as the stock. I will report tomorrow to see if it is stable.

Really? I like it. Looks fancy. I was playing around with it here.
http://service.asus.com/demoui/RT-N66U/RT-N66U/RT-N66U/192.168.1.1/index.html

 

[though]

I could not stand how to stock version looks. I have uploaded v1.28.0494 MIPSR2-Toastman-VLAN-RT-N K26 USB VPN build and so far, just as good as the stock. I will report tomorrow to see if it is stable.

let us know please.. that is the version i plan on loading when i get my 2 RT-N66U's.

 

[darksamus]

That reviewer updated his review from 1 star to 4 stars today saying he got wifi working. Not sure if DDNS is still not working for him though.
Is anyone here using DDNS?

Ddns does work on stock firmware.