ASUS RT-N66U - my review

[RogerSC]

The reason that the 5GHz. range is as long as the 2.4GHz. range is just physics. As the signal frequency goes up, it's susceptability to being attenuated by walls, floors, and other objects, etc., and just plain attenuation over distance increases.

As far as increasing the power on 5GHz., keep in mind that you have to double the power to increase the signal by 3db., so I wouldn't plan on that helping a lot, although you could play with the transmit power (be careful about exceeding the maximum or overheating, though) and see what happens. Just be aware that 5GHz. signals have less range than 2.4GHz. signals inherently. That's also one of the reasons why the 5GHz. band has less WiFi interference, your neighbor's 5GHz. router signals aren't likely to make it to your house *smile*.

 

[KeithKman]

My 66U has been up for 6 days 22 hours with ZERO problems. Picking up a DOCSIS 3 modem later today.

 

[hrana]

My 66U has been up for 6 days 22 hours with ZERO problems. Picking up a DOCSIS 3 modem later today.

Good info. I picked up 2 RT-N66U routers from Fry's locally. I need one more but it looks like this first run of routers with the flawed firmware is disappearing fast. I hope Asus starts shipping them again soon.

Anyway, my experience so far...

I am running a mix of Linksys WRT54GL and Linksys E3000 as APs (and single router) with various versions of Tomato and TomatoUSB. The RT-N66U was fairly simple to upgrade (after the language change workaround) from the .72 firmware to .90. I then went ahead flashed it with...

tomato-K26USB-1.28.0494.3MIPSR2-Toastman-VLAN-RT-N-Ext.trx

As a router it works great. I did find all my wireless devices disconnected from the RT-N66U at the same time this morning which interrupted a Facetime call. I never saw this behavior with either the WRT54GL and E3000 as APs. I haven't seen the issue crop up again. I'm at 16.5 hours of uptime on both RT-N66Us.

For what it is worth, I see the RT-N66U as the true successor to the WRT54GL but it comes with a fairly steep price. Is it worth the $110 premium over the E3000s that I picked up for $70? Probably not. Why? While I do have 450mbps capable laptops, most of my wireless devices are either 300mbps 802.11n or regular old 54mbps 802.11g. I prefer wired gigabit ethernet connections whenever possible (even on a laptop) and have my whole house wired in-wall to accommodate this desire. With that said I bought 2, I have one more on the way, and I'm happy but this router is overkill (and probably the best thing on the market at the moment).

 

[KeithKman]

Got my new Cisco DPC3010 DOCSIS 3.0 modem up and running. I did a speed test before I switched out the modems. With my old Ambit modem I was getting 12 Mbps down. With the new Cisco I am getting 32.50 Mbps down.

I am very happy!

 

[KeithKman]

Here is Asus new ad for the 66U:
http://promos.asus.com/US/rt-n66u

 

[KeithKman]

I was watching Asus video on the RT-N66U:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYCnyOb5O4c

If you skip ahead to 16:02 you see he shows off the bigger WL-ANT191 antenna. http://usa.asus.com/Networks/Accessories/WLANT191/

I wonder how much this helps? Anyone try them yet?

 

[ArCan]

I was watching Asus video on the RT-N66U:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYCnyOb5O4c

If you skip ahead to 16:02 you see he shows off the bigger WL-ANT191 antenna. http://usa.asus.com/Networks/Accessories/WLANT191/

I wonder how much this helps? Anyone try them yet?

Hi!
If I understand right the WL-ANT191 antenna only for 2.4GHz.
It's mean on 5GHz band the results will not good.
And may be more important it will not mаtch at all for 5GHzand.
SWR will very high on 5GHz band it's dangerous for all transmitters...
I think.

For 2.4GHz it will work better may be even MUCH better.
If you use only 2.4GHz it's good idea to try.

 

[njweb]

I was watching Asus video on the RT-N66U:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYCnyOb5O4c

If you skip ahead to 16:02 you see he shows off the bigger WL-ANT191 antenna. http://usa.asus.com/Networks/Accessories/WLANT191/

I wonder how much this helps? Anyone try them yet?

The problem, and this is why I asked earlier in the thread whether the INCLUDED antennae are single or dual band, is that the optional WL-ANT191 is 2.4 GHz only so you will lose 5 GHz capability.

In my case the RT-N66U is already providing such a strong signal from one corner of the house to the other anyway.
I don't really want it to reach even further into my neighborhood.


EDIT - I had typed the above message text hours ago but just hit 'Save' a few minutes ago.
After posting I saw ArCan already said the same thing about the optional antenna you linked to being 2.4 GHz only.

 

[richarddh]

Wish I would have found this forum when I bought my first n66u. I could not log into the router once I ran through the setup wizard. After numerous failed attempts I returned it and got a replacement. First thing I did was update the firmware then I setup the router. Running the router on DOCSIS 3.0 gateway. Great range and the speeds are awesome.

 

[richarddh]

The problem, and this is why I asked earlier in the thread whether the INCLUDED antennae are single or dual band, is that the optional WL-ANT191 is 2.4 GHz only so you will lose 5 GHz capability.

In my case the RT-N66U is already providing such a strong signal from one corner of the house to the other anyway.
I don't really want it to reach even further into my neighborhood.


EDIT - I had typed the above message text hours ago but just hit 'Save' a few minutes ago.
After posting I saw ArCan already said the same thing about the optional antenna you linked to being 2.4 GHz only.

•3 x Detachable antenna for 2.4GHz/5GHz with peak gain 3dBi/ 5dBi

 

[12darline]

DDNS and Port forwarding

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?

Actually DDNS -(DYNDNS) and port forwarding is sort of working on the RT-N66U (*90 firmware), but you can't view from inside your network. I am forwarding 4 IP Camera ports via DDNS and can see them if I view from a different network. Hope they fix it soon, as it would make things much easier. My Linksys E4200 v1 had no problems like this. Hope this helps...

 

[njweb]

•3 x Detachable antenna for 2.4GHz/5GHz with peak gain 3dBi/ 5dBi

Thanks someone had answered earlier.

I was going to clarify my post but got sidetracked:
I meant I had already wondered about RT-N66U antenna upgrade possibilities (before I ran my tests) and had asked earlier in the thread. Someone had replied confirming they are dual band.

Thanks anyway though!

 

[G37x]

Did anyone manage to use the parental control? Regardless what I do, I cannot block my google TV to access Internet between certain hours....

 

[small_law]

Thanks someone had answered earlier.

I was going to clarify my post but got sidetracked:
I meant I had already wondered about RT-N66U antenna upgrade possibilities (before I ran my tests) and had asked earlier in the thread. Someone had replied confirming they are dual band.

Thanks anyway though!

Just to see what would happen in terms of range, I ordered an Asus wl-ant-157 and attached it as the middle antenna on the rt-n66u. Range did improve somewhat, but not dramatically. The antenna is rated at 5 dBi and 7 dBi for 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, which isn't significantly higher than the stock antennas, so any improvement would've been marginal. I didn't poke around all that much when I was looking for antennas and this one was the first I stumbled upon that was for both 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz frequencies explicitly.

I'm not even sure if it's a good idea to mix and match antennas like this. It does work and increase range a bit. I'm new to messing around with routers, so any thoughts on antennas would be appreciated.

 

[njweb]

Just to see what would happen in terms of range, I ordered an Asus wl-ant-157 and attached it as the middle antenna on the rt-n66u. Range did improve somewhat, but not dramatically. The antenna is rated at 5 dBi and 7 dBi for 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, which isn't significantly higher than the stock antennas, so any improvement would've been marginal. I didn't poke around all that much when I was looking for antennas and this one was the first I stumbled upon that was for both 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz frequencies explicitly.

I'm not even sure if it's a good idea to mix and match antennas like this. It does work and increase range a bit. I'm new to messing around with routers, so any thoughts on antennas would be appreciated.

Interesting. Thanks for sharing your experiences with it!
I think you would need three of them hooked up to the RT-N66U to get a better idea of how it would work.
That is not a guarantee that it would help more to have all three (it might still not make much of a difference since the gain, which you also stated, is relatively marginal compared to the stock antennae) but you would get a better feel for how well (or not so well) it would work.

 

[darksamus]

Has anyone try these dual band antenna?

http://www.l-com.com/item.aspx?id=21679

 

[njweb]

Has anyone try these dual band antenna?

http://www.l-com.com/item.aspx?id=21679

The gain on the ones you linked to (3 dBi / 5 dBi) is the same as the stock antennae on the RT-N66U so they would not provide any additional benefit.

 

[delair2]

Professional Review

Anyone see any professional technical reviews posted on the N66U yet? Other than waiting for CNET and SNB are there other trusted sites that have posted any technical results yet?

 

[hggomes]

What about that ASUS? 20mb/s read / write? Since when?? Not even close...

@delair2 => http://vr-zone.com/articles/asus-rt-...iew/14666.html

USB Storage Throughput
Read Write
SAMBA 107.2 Mbps 63.2 Mbps
FTP 100 Mbps 76.8 Mbps


Read more: http://vr-zone.com/articles/asus-rt-n66u-dual-band-gigabit-router-review/14666.html#ixzz1kzvkK97C

 

[thiggins]

Converting to MB/s, we get 13.4 MB/s read and 7.9 write for SAMBA.

Cisco Linksys E4200V2 got 22 MB/s read, 20 MB/s write for an NTFS formatted drive.
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wire...al-band-n900-router-reviewed?showall=&start=2