ASUS RT-N66U - my review

[tonytoronto]

unstable as heck

Guys I have done the upgrading to 3.0.0.3.96 and here are the results:

-NAT loopback bug FIXED
-40mW TX power FIXED, now you can go up to 500mW for both 2G or 5G
-DLNA appears to work

So far I'm happy guys...

Cheers,
G37x

Update WARNING!
Not sure what happened here as I write this message twice now due to no Internet connection...I get now freq Internet disconnects here is what i did:
-updated my fw
-changed disable hw back to no
-changed DLNA server name to RT-N66U from USB
-connected 1T hdd
-changed power settings to 200mW from 40mW

I now get a bunch of disconnects so I wanted to put the power settings back to 40mW but guess what ? They weer @ 40mW like I never changed them.
aSUS fixed 3 bugs and introduced major new ones...
I downgraded mine back to 3.1.0.3.90

Stability = ZERO at this point...I do not recommend upgrading the router at this point!!!

YUP, same with me, had to go back to previous firmware.Something really causing havoc on the router with latest firmware.
One odd thing i found, do any of lost settings and router full resets if power removed from it?
Also, anyone know how to do factory reset/Full reset on this router?

 

[G37x]

I was able to get NAT Loopback working with the new firmwire, but if I go to (Lan), (Switch Control), and uncheck the (Disable HW Accelerator), it will stop working. Any thoughts.

Thanks....

You mean you have Disable HW Accelerator set to No and now it does not work? Have you put the new fw on? Watch for stability in the next hour or so...I don't know what made my router so unstable: the power setting, the dlna or what, boy boy was bad, very bad...

 

[njweb]

Update WARNING!
Not sure what happened here as I write this message twice now due to no Internet connection...I get now freq Internet disconnects here is what i did:
-updated my fw
-changed disable hw back to no
-changed DLNA server name to RT-N66U from USB
-connected 1T hdd
-changed power settings to 200mW from 40mW

I now get a bunch of disconnects so I wanted to put the power settings back to 40mW but guess what ? They were @ 40mW like I never changed them.
aSUS fixed 3 bugs and introduced major new ones...During all the issues I have had for the past 1h I got these:

-router lost my cfg
-router came on with wizard like a brand new router

Due to all the above I downgraded mine back to 3.1.0.3.90

Stability = ZERO at this point...I do not recommend upgrading the router at this point!!!

That is no good!

Just out of curiosity, did you try it with a different HDD or no HDD attached to rule out the HDD (not that you should have to remove a HD but just to try to pinpoint the cause)?

Also did you restart everything (PC, router, cable modem) after upgrading to 'clean' everything out and start fresh?
(Either way, it obviously should not have lost its settings as a result of the upgrade).

I am curious who else has tried the new firmware so far.

 

[G37x]

YUP, same with me, had to go back to previous firmware.Something really causing havoc on the router with latest firmware.
One odd thing i found, do any of lost settings and router full resets if power removed from it?
Also, anyone know how to do factory reset/Full reset on this router?

Please report the issues with the new fw to aSUS so they know they $$$ up again. Maybe with a bit of luck soon I will start spelling it Asus..

 

[darksamus]

I recall Geraner stating his was about 10 Mbps slower when using Tomato so he switched back to stock.
I usually prefer stock router firmware (one of my brothers is a huge DD-WRT fan though) for a few reasons.
I do know with the Linksys E4200 e.g., the stock firmware supports CTF whereas DD-WRT can / does not.
Anyway, that is just my personal preference.

Geraner has a 100mbp internet circuit.
I was able to run a speed test by having 4 pcs plug into the lan ports and a server with RAID5 plug on the wan port and ran iperf and was able to generate traffic over 800mbps.

 

[G37x]

That is no good!

Just out of curiosity, did you try it with a different HDD or no HDD attached to rule out the HDD (not that you should have to remove a HD but just to try to pinpoint the cause)?

Also did you restart everything (PC, router, cable modem) after upgrading to 'clean' everything out and start fresh?
(Either way, it obviously should not have lost its settings as a result of the upgrade).

I am curious who else has tried the new firmware so far.

Yes, you have good questions. However I did try w/o any hdd, and did reboot all w/o luck..It would stay up for 5 sec then down w/o access to the router or Internet. I was a bit afraid that being down more than up I would not be able to upload the old fw...But once I got the time window open, it did all..Another example of releasing a fw w/o testing it. I get the feeling whoever write their sw is not all that experienced.

 

[12darline]

You mean you have Disable HW Accelerator set to No and now it does not work? Have you put the new fw on? Watch for stability in the next hour or so...I don't know what made my router so unstable: the power setting, the dlna or what, boy boy was bad, very bad...

Yes the new firmware is installed. I had to set the Disable HW Accelerator to yes inorder for it to work with NAT Loopback. It will not work any other way.

Thanks...

 

[tonytoronto]

As anyone updated from 3.1.0.3.90 to the new .96 with good success, meaning stable router? And from 3.0.3.90, results?

Just tried again going to .96 from 3.1.0.90 and sames results, unstable device.

 

[Spitfire69]

Update WARNING!
Bla bla bla...aSUS fixed 3 bugs and introduced major new ones...Bla bla bla

What proof do you have? Honestly don't be so fooking quick to rule out something because YOU have troubles getting it to work.

That said I have no clue if there are major bugs or not...however I had upgraded mine.

 

[G37x]

Yes the new firmware is installed. I had to set the Disable HW Accelerator to yes inorder for it to work with NAT Loopback. It will not work any other way.

Thanks...

Hmm, now I cant remember if I did put it back after upgrading it, but it was working (NAT L)..Either way is useless, as the router is junk with the latest fw. I couldn't care less for NAT L.

 

[delair2]

I recall Geraner stating his was about 10 Mbps slower when using Tomato so he switched back to stock.
I usually prefer stock router firmware (one of my brothers is a huge DD-WRT fan though) for a few reasons.
I do know with the Linksys E4200 e.g., the stock firmware supports CTF whereas DD-WRT can / does not.
Anyway, that is just my personal preference.

Would be interesting to see some controlled performance tests e.g., stock vs replacement firmware--maybe we can convince Mr. Easy to take a look on one of his slow days

 

[BailA]

Hi,sorry for my bad english.
It's possible to set low priority in QoS to a PC when i use another PC that require more bandwidth?I want the bandwidth return when i finish to use high bandwitch in other PC.
Sorry for my bad english

 

[tonytoronto]

What proof do you have? Honestly don't be so fooking quick to rule out something because YOU have troubles getting it to work.

That said I have no clue if there are major bugs or not...however I had upgraded mine.

Relax buddy, he is absolutely right on this one, at least for some, something goes really wrong with this update. i didn't change any settings after updating it, so couldn't be changes i made. Just became unstable on its own, both wired and wireless.

 

[darksamus]

Hi,sorry for my bad english.
It's possible to set low priority in QoS to a PC when i use another PC that require more bandwidth?I want the bandwidth return when i finish to use high bandwitch in other PC.
Sorry for my bad english

QOS will only limit the traffic base on the type of traffic, ftp,web,etc.. not based per device. Tomato has a "Bandwdth Limiter" which does almost what you want but it would not know if the low traffic host is done sending traffic before the high traffic pc needs to send.

 

[Spitfire69]

Relax buddy, he is absolutely right on this one, at least for some, something goes really wrong with this update. i didn't change any settings after updating it, so couldn't be changes i made. Just became unstable on its own, both wired and wireless.

Bah...you don't know that either. Of course there could be problems with this release but honestly I haven't seen any real proof yet...only "it doesn't work, it's junk...I haven't changed anything...bla bla"...maybe you have to change something...for example I had to change my DNS settings.

BTW. Did you restore to factory settings? Have you checked the logs?

 

[BailA]

QOS will only limit the traffic base on the type of traffic, ftp,web,etc.. not based per device. Tomato has a "Bandwdth Limiter" which does almost what you want but it would not know if the low traffic host is done sending traffic before the high traffic pc needs to send.

Thank's for the fast reply!
If i want increase the priority for watch the video in Youtube which port should I increase the priority?

 

[tonytoronto]

Bah...you don't know that either. Of course there could be problems with this release but honestly I haven't seen any real proof yet...only "it doesn't work, it's junk...I haven't changed anything...bla bla"...maybe you have to change something...for example I had to change my DNS settings.

BTW. Did you restore to factory settings? Have you checked the logs?

Can't check logs, GUI page will not load when i try to get to them.
If i need to change something in order for it to work, i would expect BIG read letter next to the firmware link, or at the very least something on the release notes. And yes, did a factory reset before load it the second time, same result-- unstable, unusable.

Or, can u PLEASE tell us how to make it work?

 

[G37x]

What proof do you have? Honestly don't be so fooking quick to rule out something because YOU have troubles getting it to work.

That said I have no clue if there are major bugs or not...however I had upgraded mine.

you forgot to take your medicine man...until you do that how about you DO the upgrade and let us know how that worked out for ya... This forum is for civilized people..

 

[Spitfire69]

you forgot to take your medicine man...until you do that how about you DO the upgrade and let us know how that worked out for ya... This forum is for civilized people..

Bah, civilized people can read (just hate lazy kids). Already told you I did update...have no clue yet if it's stable, have big bugs or not.

 

[mrcom]

NO Problems with new fimware

Update WARNING!
Not sure what happened here as I write this message twice now due to no Internet connection...I get now freq Internet disconnects here is what i did:
-updated my fw
-changed disable hw back to no
-changed DLNA server name to RT-N66U from USB
-connected 1T hdd
-changed power settings to 200mW from 40mW

I now get a bunch of disconnects so I wanted to put the power settings back to 40mW but guess what ? They were @ 40mW like I never changed them.
aSUS fixed 3 bugs and introduced major new ones...During all the issues I have had for the past 1h I got these:

-router lost my cfg
-router came on with wizard like a brand new router

Due to all the above I downgraded mine back to 3.1.0.3.90

Stability = ZERO at this point...I do not recommend upgrading the router at this point!!!

Ok i have done some light testing with the new firmware and there is NO Major problems so far

1: The 500/100mw setting i tried to change the setting to 200 and 500 mw no go on saving i guess because i live in sweden and the router has located me to europe where you only are allowed to use 100mw so i set it to 100mw and then it was no problem!!!!! saved and it stuck. when i tried to change my locale i couldnt if i changed the timezone to usa it said that be aware that the time setting does not match your locale i checked everywere in the gui and i could not find any place to set my location!!!!!

2: the loopback workes!!

3: tried usddisk no problems other than you cant set user rights but if you set it to so anybody can access there is no problem.

4: dlna i never used that so i havent tried it out i can se the router in wmp thats all i know

5. Stability : Perfect so far!!!!

6 : Losing settings : the router does not lose settings !!!!!

7. The upgrade worked perfekt with all settings remaining and no wizard showing up that tells me something has gone wrong with your flashing mayby a corrupted firmware file ??

8. thats everything ive tested so far but i dont know why some people are having problems but the 100/500mw problem mayby solved with why it doesnt work if you live in europe.