ASUS RT-N66U - my review

[G37x]

Yeah, I was going to run some tests on this. I've seen some routers blackhole all traffic by modifying the network route at intervals and others adjust dhcp timeouts, etc. Not sure how the RT-N66U does it but I something that's similar to what you're saying that's now on my list of things to check out...

I ran additional tests and parental control does work. What did I miss? In the parental control window after you add a setting for your TV lets say, you need to have the box checked right next to the setting, otherwise it wont work. It seems a normal thing to do but it's easy to miss.

 

[G37x]

Just to clarify your scenario, it's:

iphone4->3G Network/someone else's wi-fi->Your WAN Address->RT-N66U->your internal network and then you're launching vpn from your iphone4 to your RT-N66U and then accessing internal machines, right?

And at that point, you can access the router via 192.168.1.1 or whatever. But then when you try and access another computer on your internal network (that talks wirelessly to the router), you're getting an error?

Instead of a wirelessly-connected computer, can you access a wired computer on your network from outside your network over vpn?

what specific service on the computer are you trying to access remotely? (you could always just try a port forward vs. a full vpn session - I always thing it's better to punch a single hole than to allow a full vpn with potential for internal machines to be used as jump hosts if your security is ever breached)

Just in case, I'll make one note to remember that if your setup is really iphone4->your wi-fi->RT-N66U->your internal network (in other words, you're trying to do this while at home when your iphone is prioritizing your wi-fi network over 3G cellular for data traffic), no vpn is required as long as you've permitted your iphone on your wi-fi network --- just ensure that you have the Wireless->Professional 'Set AP Isolated' to 'No' so that wireless clients on your network can talk to each other.

Sorry I think you misunderstood my request. So I have an iphone4 and got 2 applications, one that controls my audio receiver (AVR) and one that controls my TV. Now in order to be able to use any of these apps, I need to have my Iphone connected to my home LAN via Wifi, so that the phone, AVR and TV can see each other. So far I hope is clear. My goal here is to be able to control my AVR and TV from outside my home LAN also somehow, via 3G network. When I saw the VPN server feature on this router I thought that is going to do it, I still believe it can, it's just that I miss a few details. Now, I set up a VPN client on my iphone4 and enabled the VPN server on my router. I can connect to my router IP 192.168.1.1 via VPN connection, so all works good. I was hoping that by establishing this VPN tunnel, I could also conenct to any of my devices inside my home LAN, i.e. TV or AVR, so that I could use the applications to control these devices from 3G network. Unfortunately these apps don't work while the VPN tunnel is up, they both complain the wifi is off, basically they don't see my TV/AVR via the tunnel. I feel like I'm missing just a few steps to accomplish these, don't know some extra routes etc...

Is it clear now?

 

[Bonez]

That is why I currently do not use the stock firmware. Geraner said that it is 10mbps slower when using Tomato. I have it running for over a week with no slow down. I even setup a iperf test server and plug it into the wan port and had 4 pc connected to the lan ports to test the lan and wan ports. I average about 480MB/3840mb to my server which has 12 hard drives on a RAID5, which has really good read/write speeds.

Until Asus fixes all those issue, I am happy using Tomato.

Sorry I think you misunderstood my request. So I have an iphone4 and got 2 applications, one that controls my audio receiver (AVR) and one that controls my TV. Now in order to be able to use any of these apps, I need to have my Iphone connected to my home LAN via Wifi, so that the phone, AVR and TV can see each other. So far I hope is clear. My goal here is to be able to control my AVR and TV from outside my home LAN also somehow, via 3G network. When I saw the VPN server feature on this router I thought that is going to do it, I still believe it can, it's just that I miss a few details. Now, I set up a VPN client on my iphone4 and enabled the VPN server on my router. I can connect to my router IP 192.168.1.1 via VPN connection, so all works good. I was hoping that by establishing this VPN tunnel, I could also conenct to any of my devices inside my home LAN, i.e. TV or AVR, so that I could use the applications to control these devices from 3G network. Unfortunately these apps don't work while the VPN tunnel is up, they both complain the wifi is off, basically they don't see my TV/AVR via the tunnel. I feel like I'm missing just a few steps to accomplish these, don't know some extra routes etc...

Is it clear now?

Yeah, a bit better. The only thing looking a little odd is that you're connecting to 192.168.1.1 via VPN from your 3G connection. I'm assuming you just meant your WAN address (or dynamic DNS hostname).

When you bring up the VPN, the whole point is to provide a tunnel into your normally non-routable (and non-visible due to your firewall) network. It should be assigning your phone a secondary IP from the range you specify in the VPN Server config which provides a route to your internal network.

A few possibilities come to mind:

• It almost sounds like the apps require wifi to operate. I'm not familiar with Apple's SDK but it might be something the developer has an option to require. If it's these apps that are requiring wifi, only an update from the developer would fix it. I kinda doubt this is the issue, though.
  
• Are you sure you have 3G coverage where you're attempting to control your components from? Maybe your phone is associated with a wifi access point but not authorized to talk over it?
  
• Any chance you're on Sprint? I just saw this thread - http://community.sprint.com/baw/thread/79378 looks like they might be blocking some stuff that would prevent VPN from working most likely...

Still another option if none of this is helping is to just use the virtual server/port forward features instead of the VPN. While it would accomplish the same goal, it would also mean that anyone with those apps could control your components (unless there's some other authentication/authorization in-place). To do this, you would:

1. find the MAC addresses for you TV and AVR and use the LAN->DHCP Server config in the RT-N66U to lock IP addresses to those MAC addys
2. find out what ports your control apps on your iphone use to communicate with your TV and AVR (developers website, etc.)
3. configure the RT-N66U LAN->Virtual Server/Port Forwarding config to send those ports to their respective components IP addresses
4. tell your control app on your iphone to go to your WAN address (or dynamic dns hostname). it'll use it's default port #, your RT-N66U will see the port and route it to the right component

I'll see if I can't grab my wife's iphone and muck with PPTP a bit in the next day or two - I haven't config'd it yet myself.

 

[G37x]

Yeah, a bit better. The only thing looking a little odd is that you're connecting to 192.168.1.1 via VPN from your 3G connection. I'm assuming you just meant your WAN address (or dynamic DNS hostname).

<snip>

Why you said it's odd I connect to 192.168.1.1? Like you said the whole point with VPN is to secure your traffic via a VPN tunnel, that is to have access to your home LAN via a secure connection. Funny being studying a lot for these things for my security cert now I get to apply a bit...The reason I wanted to access my router via 192.168.1.1 was to makes sure the VPN works, moreover it's prob more secure than accessing the router via 8080 admin tab. Plus with that one is only limited to the router access, not LAN. Port fwd would prob work, but I don't know the port numbers for these apps and there is no login/pass in place with these apps, so...you know.
Anyways long story short, I had in my mind that those apps might require WiFi, so when I saw you saying it also, I told myself I should do something about it. What I did was to enable the 3G Unrestricted app, which makes another app think it's on Wifi...Guess what? I launched my apps and all works now! Bang! It's so cool I can now be anywhere in the world and turn on my AVR/TV/security system/etc access my router and all the good things via a secure tunnel. All done. I hope this would be helpful for other people also...

Thank you!
G37x

 

[Bonez]

Why you said it's odd I connect to 192.168.1.1? Like you said the whole point with VPN is to secure your traffic via a VPN tunnel, that is to have access to your home LAN via a secure connection. Funny being studying a lot for these things for my security cert now I get to apply a bit...The reason I wanted to access my router via 192.168.1.1 was to makes sure the VPN works, moreover it's prob more secure than accessing the router via 8080 admin tab.

Just confusion in definition of accessing made clear by your '8080' comment. i thought you were referring to accessing your home network via 192.168.1.1... what you were really talking about was accessing your router admin control panel via 192.168.1.1 (vs opening up an external port) - that makes total sense and is definitely the way to do it. (I do the same thing).

Very glad one of the suggestions worked out!

 

[Creep89]

Finally the RT-N66U is available in Germany, but only in small quantity.

It will be interesting to see which firmware is installed on the device, because I don't know why other countries had to wait so long.

 

[hggomes]

Can you tell where, online store?

 

[KeithKman]

I was reading reviews on Amazon and noticed some people who posted reviews a few days ago said their 66U's came with the .90 firmware already installed.

 

[Creep89]

Can you tell where, online store?

Yes, I bought it online at avitos.com. But it is also available at redcoon.de.

Router will arrive on saturday, but no time to install it. I will have to wait until sunday.

 

[mosoccer]

Newegg changed their product page for the N66U to allow for preorders now and says shipping after 02/16/2012

 

[G37x]

For everyone interested in the fw for RT-N66U: got an email today from my Asus contact, NAT loopback is going to be fixed in the next fw, they hope to also include fixing the DLNA issues.

Cheers!

 

[RogerSC]

Fry's web site also says that they have it in stock, although it's not available at any stores near me for pickup yet.

 

[hrana]

Fry's web site also says that they have it in stock, although it's not available at any stores near me for pickup yet.

I bought my first two from a local Fry's store but they've been out of stock locally. I ordered my third RT-N66U from their website last night. They have the routers in stock. Mine's been shipped from a warehouse in Tennessee today and will arrive here shortly.

 

[dejanh]

For everyone interested in the fw for RT-N66U: got an email today from my Asus contact, NAT loopback is going to be fixed in the next fw, they hope to also include fixing the DLNA issues.

Cheers!

This is great news. Let's hope they come through!

 

[Bonez]

This is great news. Let's hope they come through!

When someone gets one of the new ones - be sure and let us know if the hardware rev is still at B1 ...

 

[Greg_Elite]

When someone gets one of the new ones - be sure and let us know if the hardware rev is still at B1 ...

I don't think there making a new hardware rev.

 

[Creep89]

I got my RT-N66U. It's still Revision B1 and Firmware 3.0.0.3.72! MFG Year 2012!

 

[dejanh]

So, I completed my testing around the DLNA media server functionality and RT-N66U and here are the roughly compiled results. I tested using multiple external drives in varying capacities (320GB to 2TB) with ext3, NTFS, and FAT32 formatted drive. Results are below.

First off, the DLNA server works, sort of, not really well at all but it sorta-kinda works, however only with a FAT32 formatted drive, and only if the router is rebooted every time files and/or folders are added to the drive. This is not functional really, not for regular use. Also, extremely few media types are recognized. I am not sure if DLNA restricts the recognizable media types. Being forced to use FAT32 means that file sizes are restricted to 4GB or less, not suitable for most movies. This setup is therefore useless for streaming hi-def movies.

If the drive is formatted using ext3 or NTFS file system the DLNA functionality does not work at all. The drive can only be used like a very limited file share in that instance.

So, DLNA is here in a majorly crippled state, barely working, and only so when using a terribly inefficient FAT32 formatted drive and after making sure that you reboot the drive following any file or folder changes on the attached drive. It is absolutely critical that DLNA media server be made to support more advanced file systems, like NTFS and ext3.

As far as categorizing media, the server actually works somewhat well in that it automatically recognizes the media content on the drive and groups it into virtual libraries. This does not impose restrictions on how one organizes the content on the drive and it allows correct interoperability with DLNA players as the content will be virtually grouped at run-time.

 

[Guz]

ASUS should really fire the guy that implements the storage capabilities on their routers. This is the second router that doesn't work as advertised for storage.

 

[Greg_Elite]

I'm planning on getting one soon. Sounds like this router can do exactly what I need it to do with flying colors. Although I completely see your point about the DLNA server (even though at the moment I don't use) you should not have to be a beta tester for them after spending $200 on a router. It's also false advertising.

I understand bugs happen. But looks to me like this wasn't ready to ship and they jumped the gun.

Multiple sources say that they're working on a update to fix it.