ASUS RT-N66U - my review

[Geraner]

Awesome to hear. Amazon hasn't shipped the routers yet. I wonder if when they do ship the routers they will have the new firmware already installed?

Probably the shipped ASUS routers will still have firmware 3.0.0.3.72 so you have to upgrade them by yourself.
The new firmware has kernel date 11th of January 2012.

admin@RT-N66U:/tmp/home/root# uname -a
Linux RT-N66U 2.6.22.19 #1 Wed Jan 11 15:04:03 CST 2012 mips GNU/Linux

Will maybe take until the middle / end of February before we see routers shipped from factory with firmware 3.0.0.3.90 installed from factory.

 

[sirozha]

Shipping is mad expensive though. In this day and age $12 to ship a router is a lot.

Really? Have the shipping company pick up a router at the retailer's warehouse, drive it to the package sorting center, load it onto a bigger truck, drive it to the airport, load it onto an airplane, fly it across the country, unload it from the airplane, drive it to the sorting facility, load it onto a deliver truck, drive all the way to your door and deliver it in just a few days for $12 is a lot of money?

 

[dinko]

Shipping is mad expensive though. In this day and age $12 to ship a router is a lot.

We have been spoiled by 'Free Shipping'...

Anyways, the $15 coupon makes it a wash with whatever Newegg is charging (and not yet shipping...). Mine has not yet shipped though but it says that it was 'Released for Distribution' which I gather means it will ship soon.

Romain

 

[njweb]

$12 for shipping is not bad.
I paid more than that for FedEx Ground service recently for me to ship a SINGLE Blu Ray disc (not even across the country and they wiright almost nothing)!

That being said, I always like getting deals when I can (free shipping, coupon code for discount etc.).

 

[njweb]

Just ordered one (paid extra for 2nd day air).

I figure if it works well enough I will sell my R10000.
If it does not, I should have no problem eBaying it given the lack of availability and the big amazon price increase (newegg may not raises prices though when they hget it back in).

 

[Erusman]

Just received my Asus RT-N66U the other day. Had some problems with the
setup GUI (original firmware). But I just changed the language from English to
German and it worked. For some reason with 3.0.0.3.72 firmware English
GUI is not working. I haven't tried the 3.0.0.3.90.

So far though AWESOME router! The wifi range on it is outstanding and
getting the best 5GHZ speeds. Heck i had my ipad2 out in my yard 50 feet
and streaming HD video. Plus still had three bars!

I notice she does seem to run a little hot though. I installed a Targus
Netbook cooler on the bottom powered from its own USB port now its cool
to the touch.

 

[Greg_Elite]

Can anybody verify the port forwarding working?

BTW I don't care what you guys think about the shipping charges. Go look around online, 6/10 times you can order a router with FREE shipping.

 

[njweb]

Thanks to all who posted their experiences.
I am also impressed with the quick firmware turnaround (they must have been working on the bug fixes before the router was released).

I checked all the US sites and there was no better in stock deal (as of 1/13/2012 when I ordered) than the $178.xx (after $15 coupon) shipped ground. I paid an extra $9 for 2nd day air and it was still less than newegg (out of stock) when you add sales tax.
Amazon was about $235 at the time, as someone else posted. Amazon is down to $212 now, which is still a lot more and they are only taking back orders for 2 - 4 weeks from now.

Mine shipped tonight and will arrive Tuesday.
I am looking forward to putting it through its paces

 

[jasonmizrahi]

Solved All Issues with Latest Firmware 3.0.0.3.90

So I got my RT-N66U yesterday - upgraded from a NetGear WNDR3300. I was always asking myself why I was never able to achieve anything above 20 Mbits even when my Xfinity service provided 50mbits - well, question solved. This unit is a demon beast - I love it.

I run an Asus ROG G74SX-A1 - so the only probably I have now is that my current Atheros WLAN card can't see the 5Ghz signal, although my other computers can.

Nevertheless, from some initial tests, I've determined that the 5Ghz signal does produce a faster Download from the same location (about 7 meters away, with a wall in between) at a rate of about 44 Mbit/dl, but the upload averages about 15mbits (when I can usually push around 20). With the 2.4 Ghz signal, I get about 40-45 mbits (not consistently high though like the 5ghz signal), but with upload, consistently faster 20mbit speeds.

Nevertheless, a much better improvement over my previous router. Furthermore, the signal is indeed stronger inside my condo - whereby I am able to get 5 bars everywhere around me, even in previous areas that yielded no bars.

I did find the Web GUI a mess when setting up, using a Chrome Browser. Ultimately, I had to plug in directly into the unit to set it up, once resetting back to factory settings, and having to constantly change the language to another one in order to apply settings.

Hopefully the new firmware released today solves that.

My last issue however is that I can't seem to access the Web GUI anymore via wifi or wired at 192.168.1.1 - this is the case on all of my computers. Page just continuously loads and loads on a blank white page. If anyone has any thoughts about this - it would be much appreciated. I'm going to wait a bit more before I do a factory reset again - but I was wondering if others experienced the same thing. I threw away that Asus Wireless Utility CD already so I'm not sure if that's something I'm going to need stuff or not. Oh well - any thoughts here on what I can do short of resetting the router and starting all over again?

Solved all of my issues that I had previously with:

ASUS RT-N66U B1 Firmware version 3.0.0.3.90

http://support.asus.com/download.aspx?SLanguage=en&p=11&s=2&m=RT-N66U+(VER.B1)&os=&hashedid=n/a

Thanks Asus - made my experience much more comforting! To celebrate, I decided to also purchase an Intel Wifi Ultimate-N 6300 Half-Mini PCI card, as well as a Tyco Antenna - going to install it in my Asus ROG G74SX-A1 - so now I'll be able to push that 450 mbits with a 3-antenna setup !

For all of those who are sitting on the fence about this router - don't be. You need to pick up one of these ASAP before these go on backorder - if only everyone else out there buying crummy routers knew about this one, my god, then these would always be on backorder. Haha!

 

[aurelijusb]

Can somebody confirm that ASUS RT-N66U is better than Linksys E4200?

 

[njweb]

I did some reading up and they are advertising:
ASUS Ai Radar. Hopefully it is better than the NBG5715 beam forming (with the Zyxel I tried, initial firmware, it was no better than an E4200 v1 on 2.4 GHz).
They also note high amplification power.
http://www.asus.com/Networks/Wireless_Routers/RTN66U/#overview

That brings me back to some earlier questions:
1. Does the new firmware allow transmit power settings higher than the 40mW value now?
I know Geraner said it was not allowing values to stick before, but maybe (hopefully) that was just one of the firmware bugs with the initial firmware.
Given that the FCC tests show it having much much higher power available (thanks rhombus), I am hoping the 40mW (even if uncalibrated) is not the max. Even the E4200 default is 100mW and my Amped has much better signal strength and throughput that the E4200 (in controlled testing using LAN Speed Test to get RELATIVE numbers - I know it is not the most accurate for actual absolute values, but it is fine for relative measurements).

2. Are the RT-N66U external antennae DUAL band? Or are the 5 GHz antennae internal?
I thought I read somewhere that the antennae are dual band (but I might be thinking of the Zyxel NBG5715 or some other model).

Anyway, I am eagerly looking forward to getting mine on Tuesday. Newegg removed the ETA date, so I am glad I did not hesitate to get one from a vendor I had not used before (checked them on resellerratings.com before ordering), also given amazon raised their price by a lot and they are saying 2 - 4 weeks.

 

[Geraner]

It's still telling me "This value could not exceed 40" when I try to enter 100 as mW value. Even with the latest firmware.

 

[njweb]

It's still telling me "This value could not exceed 40" when I try to enter 100 as mW value. Even with the latest firmware.

Thanks Geraner! This is strange since it is very low.
Rhombus noted it might be uncalibrated. He also looked up the FCC tests that show it is capable of extremely high power output.
Given this, it would be a shame if the firmware is (severely) limiting the output.
I guess I will know more when I get and test mine next week.
The value in the settings just seems strangely low which is why I brought it up to get a consensus.

 

[Greg_Elite]

Can anybody verify it is faster than the RT-N56u? From my experience with the E4200 is was just as good range as their cheaper routers and had DNS bugs.

 

[Greg_Elite]

Just incase anybody is interested. They just released a DD-WRT build for this router. I don't know how much in a rush I'd be to try and use it. But here you go.
ftp://dd-wrt.com/others/eko/BrainSl.../dd-wrt.v24-18024_NEWD-2_K2.6_big_RT-N66U.trx

 

[aurelijusb]

Waiting for testing results with DD-WRT

 

[Geraner]

Thanks Geraner! This is strange since it is very low.
Rhombus noted it might be uncalibrated. He also looked up the FCC tests that show it is capable of extremely high power output.
Given this, it would be a shame if the firmware is (severely) limiting the output.
I guess I will know more when I get and test mine next week.
The value in the settings just seems strangely low which is why I brought it up to get a consensus.

What's the problem with setting this value only to 40?
I don't think there is any need to increase is value more. (at least not for me)
As also others have reported here, the wireless power of this router is better than with other routers. Read on the fist page of this topic, where I wrote next to the wireless speed also the RSSI (signal strength) measured with inSSIDer. This is showing that the RT-N66U has a better wireless signal strength which also has been seen by others here who bought this router.

And the already good signal strength together with ASUS Ai Radar makes this router just amazing.

Optimized and Reliable Wireless Coverage via Ai Radar

ASUS Ai Radar intelligently strengthens connections to wireless devices. With high-powered amplification and beam package, it provides optimized signals in any direction with better coverage to improve data throughput.

http://www.asus.com/Networks/Wireless_Routers/RTN66U/#overview

 

[Geraner]

Waiting for testing results with DD-WRT

Tested the latest DD-WRT build for this router. It's possible to install but the router never gets any IP-address from WAN. DD-WRT developers have to fix this first.

 

[Greg_Elite]

Tested the latest DD-WRT build for this router. It's possible to install but the router never gets any IP-address from WAN. DD-WRT developers have to fix this first.

I guess you can just flash it back?
I'd really appreciate if someone can confirm this is the best consumer router out.

 

[njweb]

What's the problem with setting this value only to 40?
I don't think there is any need to increase is value more. (at least not for me)
As also others have reported here, the wireless power of this router is better than with other routers. Read on the fist page of this topic, where I wrote next to the wireless speed also the RSSI (signal strength) measured with inSSIDer. This is showing that the RT-N66U has a better wireless signal strength which also has been seen by others here who bought this router.

And the already good signal strength together with ASUS Ai Radar makes this router just amazing.

http://www.asus.com/Networks/Wireless_Routers/RTN66U/#overview

Right. That is precisely why I was asking (because of your good results on page 1).
In other words, given the performance observed, the setting value displayed is probably not the true transmit power (or at a minimum an 'uncalibrated' value as rhombus put it) because that is low by today's standards for a high end router (the E4200 default transmit power is, at least, 100mW for example) and other high power routers may be set quite a bit higher than 100mW.
The other possible explanation that comes to mind would be the AI technology perhaps not needing as high of a power setting as routers that do not use beam forming.

To summarize, I suspect (and hence my earlier post) that based on your performance, it is probably not really 40mW. I was hoping the utility value would be more accurate. If it works great I won't care too much what the value in the web config says (although an accurate representation of the REAL transmit power would have been ideal of course).

I'll know more when I run side by side tests against my current router (my parents have my E4200 now) when I receive my RT-N66U next week.

The good experiences posted here are part of what prompted me to pull the trigger on buying the RT-N66U despite having a router that has very high signal strength and throughput throughout my home (the Amped router I have now works amazingly well in terms of wireless performance, but it is lacking certain features that the RT-N66U has that I would not mind having).