ASUS RT-N66U - my review

[KeithKman]

I ordered this router from newegg last friday 1/6 and it came in today (a day early). It's kind of impressive since i'm in GA. Anyways, getting the router setup was a bit of a pain. To say that the GUI has errors is an understatement...I finally got it up and running but I have no idea which tweak and reboot session actually took.

Interesting you got the router when NewEgg's site says its out of stock until the 13th.

 

[KeithKman]

Did u update the firmware immediately?
Sad. But this has what it comes down to sometimes.

Is there a firmware update for the RT-N66U already? Link?

 

[Erusman]

Ordered mine Sat 1-7-12 Getting it tomorrow Fedex 2nd day 1-11-12
http://www.excaliberpc.com/611517/asus-rt-n66u-dual-band-n900.html
33 in stock atm.

 

[njweb]

Interesting you got the router when NewEgg's site says its out of stock until the 13th.

He ordered it last Friday afternoon (US time) when it first came in stock at newegg.
The first batch quickly sold out, so now newegg is waiting for the second batch to arrive (Jan 13).

 

[Geraner]

Some speed test on my internet connection.
I have a 100/100 Mbit/s connection at home.

Speedtest has been done with the Swedish service www.bredbandskollen.se which is a service from the Swedish infra structure department to give customers a tool to check their real internet speed compared to what the ISP is promising.

When connecting my desktop computer directly to the internet, I'm getting the following speed:
Downlink: 94,93 Mbit/s
Uplink: 78,52 Mbit/s

Connecting the ASUS RT-N66U to the internet, my desktop PC to the LAN port in the router.
QoS in the router is deactivated per default.
Downlink: 94,65 Mbit/s
Uplink: 51,69 Mbit/s

ASUS RT-N66U with QoS activated (settings are 1000000 kb/s uplink & downlink)
Downlink: 93,32 Mbit/s
Uplink: 75,61 Mbit/s

For comparison I connected my previous router to the internet and made the same tests.
D-Link DIR-825 Firmware: OpenWRT 10.03.1
Downlink: 94,72 Mbit/s
Uplink: 80,34 Mbit/s

So you see clearly that the upload speed is limited in the ASUS RT-N66U.
Activating QoS in the router gave a better result than without QoS activated. But still the uplink speed is not the same as on my old DIR-825 or when having the computer directly connected to the internet.

LAN speed via cable tested with "LAN Speed Test":

Writing to the other computer: 438,93 Mbps
Reading file from the other computer: 283 Mbps

BTW: still I don't have an answer from ASUS about the Bugs I reported.

 

[acaciolo1]

train wreck

so...my rt-n66u just arrived. I hooked it up, and it has been a train wreck. script errors all over...can't even get into the Web Gui. I tried their exe install program and it is even worse.

Also not very comforting that on the little bit of the GUI that it did display, it had spelling errors.

I called Asus and spoke to their tech Seth, who didn't even know this product existed yet....and then he spoke to management and this is what they are advising EVERYONE:

"return the product to where your bought it." Yup..that is what they told me. no firmware fix...nothing they can do. I was the first call they got on it....and when I called back a few hours later, they apparently are getting bombarded with the same calls. so...bottom line....their exact words "this wasn't ready to ship." Get your money back.

amazing.

 

[KeithKman]

That's really disappointing. Sounds like a classic case of awesome hardware running terrible software.

 

[acaciolo1]

literally, the GUI won't even load for me. tried it with all browsers...2 different machines. Guess I will do what asus is suggesting to everyone that calls.

still blows my mind that a company releases something and then tells everyone to just return it.

anybody have any suggestions for a good router with at least 4 gigabit ports on it? wireless performance isn't as important as wired (but I still want good wireless.)

 

[Geraner]

It's a shame that you can't get into the GUI and from there at least can change the GUI language to Swedish or German because in those languages the GUI is working. And for the settings in the router you don't really need a complete understanding of the other language.

 

[Arty50]

Some speed test on my internet connection.
I have a 100/100 Mbit/s connection at home.

Speedtest has been done with the Swedish service www.bredbandskollen.se which is a service from the Swedish infra structure department to give customers a tool to check their real internet speed compared to what the ISP is promising.

When connecting my desktop computer directly to the internet, I'm getting the following speed:
Downlink: 94,93 Mbit/s
Uplink: 78,52 Mbit/s

Connecting the ASUS RT-N66U to the internet, my desktop PC to the LAN port in the router.
QoS in the router is deactivated per default.
Downlink: 94,65 Mbit/s
Uplink: 51,69 Mbit/s

ASUS RT-N66U with QoS activated (settings are 1000000 kb/s uplink & downlink)
Downlink: 93,32 Mbit/s
Uplink: 75,61 Mbit/s

For comparison I connected my previous router to the internet and made the same tests.
D-Link DIR-825 Firmware: OpenWRT 10.03.1
Downlink: 94,72 Mbit/s
Uplink: 80,34 Mbit/s

So you see clearly that the upload speed is limited in the ASUS RT-N66U.
Activating QoS in the router gave a better result than without QoS activated. But still the uplink speed is not the same as on my old DIR-825 or when having the computer directly connected to the internet.

LAN speed via cable tested with "LAN Speed Test":

Writing to the other computer: 438,93 Mbps
Reading file from the other computer: 283 Mbps

BTW: still I don't have an answer from ASUS about the Bugs I reported.

Were those speedtests one-offs or an average of several tests for each configuration?

 

[NightOwl326]

So what are you early purchasers going to do? Keep it or ship it back as advised by ASUS?

 

[tombodett]

got mine in today

So what are you early purchasers going to do? Keep it or ship it back as advised by ASUS?

I'll be keeping mine. The GUI is horrible in English mode. Mine would not configure itself to be a router so it would not grab an IP address from the cable modem. After familiarizing yourself with the menus though, you can change the language and make your changes. It seems like you have to go through part of the initial setup wizard to get it into router mode though.

It is surprising that anyone would let these ship out, but I'm glad they did. I don't mind fighting with it and I'm sure they'll be releasing firmware upgrades.

 

[NightOwl326]

How does the range compare to other routers you have used since it has only 40 mw output?

 

[small_law]

Hi, new to forums, but I wanted to confirm what people have been saying about the rt-n66u. Just got mine from new egg and yes, the firmware is absolutely borked, at least for me. I can get it to connect to the internet, but I cannot get it to enable security, configure QoS, or a host of other actions. I'm a noob at most of this stuff, but mainly the firmware's GUI does not want to save changes when you hit the "apply" button. I've done several resets and powered all my stuff on and off multiple times. No luck.

I'm giving ASUS a call tomorrow. Back to my e3000 for now.

 

[KeithKman]

Hi, new to forums, but I wanted to confirm what people have been saying about the rt-n66u. Just got mine from new egg and yes, the firmware is absolutely borked, at least for me. I can get it to connect to the internet, but I cannot get it to enable security, configure QoS, or a host of other actions. I'm a noob at most of this stuff, but mainly the firmware's GUI does not want to save changes when you hit the "apply" button. I've done several resets and powered all my stuff on and off multiple times. No luck.

I'm giving ASUS a call tomorrow. Back to my e3000 for now.

This is a known issue when running the GUI in English. Switch to a different language and it should work fine.

I wonder when a Tomato or DD-WRT build will be released for the RT-N66U? I hope soon.

 

[Geraner]

Were those speedtests one-offs or an average of several tests for each configuration?

I was only doing about 2 tests each time and wrote down the fastest result.

 

[sirozha]

I got my RT-N66U last night and tried to configured it this morning. I cannot get past the first two pages of the Setup Wizard, regardless if I choose the AP mode or follow the router setup mode. Neither can I bypass the Setup Wizard. If you click on the Home button in the Setup Wizard, you are required to configure the wireless settings, and when you apply them, you get out of the Setup Wizard into a completely broken GUI screen where you cannot click on anything. I have tried Safari, Firefox, and Chrome - all for Mac.

I have tried to reset RT-N66U to factory defaults several times, but I get stuck on the Setup Wizard every time. The only other thing I can try to do is to change the language, but I cannot do this from the Setup Wizard.

Can anyone post the URL for changing the language on the RT-N66U and/or advise how to change the language right after one powers the router up and before the Setup Wizard is run? Otherwise, this is a very pretty brick at this point.

I have also tried to configure RT-N66U from a Windows XP VM running on my Mac. I tried both IE and Google Chrome, and I get stuck on the same exact pages of the Setup Wizard. The only page I am able to get after applying the wireless settings is just as broken when accessed from a Windows browser as it is from a Mac browser - there's absolutely nothing that works on that page.

 

[tombodett]

Can anyone post the URL for changing the language on the RT-N66U and/or advise how to change the language right after one powers the router up and before the Setup Wizard is run? Otherwise, this is a very pretty brick at this point.

Try
http://192.168.1.1/Advanced_WAN_Content.asp
You are correct. If you can get to any of the menus past the wizard it will let you change the language. Then you need to go to administration I think and there will be 2 radio buttons to select between router and access point mode. On mine, neither were selected since I had not completed the wizard. After you choose router mode from there, it will get you back to like a 3 step wizard and get it working.

 

[Geraner]

I called Asus and spoke to their tech Seth, who didn't even know this product existed yet....and then he spoke to management and this is what they are advising EVERYONE:

"return the product to where your bought it." Yup..that is what they told me. no firmware fix...nothing they can do. I was the first call they got on it....and when I called back a few hours later, they apparently are getting bombarded with the same calls. so...bottom line....their exact words "this wasn't ready to ship." Get your money back.

I don't want to be the product manager for the RT-N66U. Somehow I'm feeling sorry for him/her if they shipped out this product while the English GUI still has so many bugs.

Depending on where you buy your RT-N66U the GUI will be set to the language used in this country. And to configure the RT-N66U you have to go through the 3 steps wizzard. There is now way to jump over this. Even when you don't have the router connected to the internet yet, it will not accept to configure it as a router. You have in this case to configure the router as an Access Point in the Wizzard.
And because you are looked to this Wizzard when starting up your router for the first time or after each factory reset, it is also difficult for you guys who get the English GUI pre-set, to select another language where the GUI actually is working.

 

[KeithKman]

I don't understand how a company as big as Asus releases a new product that its consumers have been waiting months for has this many bugs. Honestly this makes them look really bad. And for them to tell customers to return the product is even worse.

How hard and how long would it honestly take a team of Asus firmware developers to release an update to fix their current firmware that seems to not work in English mode? I'm guessing they could do it in a few days.

Asus is dropping the ball big time.