ASUS RT-N66U - my review

[G37x]

If anybody is experiencing any bugs with regarding port forwarding send all bug reports to XX so they can investigate it.

I just sent out an email, although it seems like they don't care much for their customers as no one called me back as promised @ asus.

Edit: Contact info removed at Asus's request.
Edit2: In a followup message, Asus authorized networking_Support@asus.com for public use with "bug reporting and issues."

 

[KeithKman]

I just sent out an email, although it seems like they don't care much for their customers as no one called me back as promised @ asus.

Keep in mind most Chinese based companies have been off for three weeks for Chinese New Years. They start returning to work next week.

 

[luke789]

Hi, all

Can anyone confirm whether the N66's USB 2.0 ports will accept a 2TB hard drive?

Is it possible to attach two 2TB drives to get 4TB of networked storage?

Thx!

 

[darksamus]

Some pics of speedtest off Sprint Galaxy S2 on 5ghz, two floors up running Shibby's tomato.

ps. my internet speed is fios 25/25.

 

[G37x]

Hi, all

Can anyone confirm whether the N66's USB 2.0 ports will accept a 2TB hard drive?

Is it possible to attach two 2TB drives to get 4TB of networked storage?

Thx!

I attached my wd 1T and although I see it on other devices as RT-N66U, there are no folders to browse. Thus this feature is useless, unless I'm missing something here...

 

[Spitfire69]

I attached my wd 1T and although I see it on other devices as RT-N66U, there are no folders to browse. Thus this feature is useless, unless I'm missing something here...

Yes, and the manual is useless to unless you read it. RTFM before you start to throw out words like useless and broken.

Actually you shouldn't even have to read it...I had no problems whatsover to set up my Samsung 640 Gb drive to the USB port and it works perfectly. Don't remember exactly how I did it but I think I used AIDisk or whatever it is called...for dummies.

 

[G37x]

Yes, and the manual is useless to unless you read it. RTFM before you start to throw out words like useless and broken.

Actually you shouldn't even have to read it...I had no problems whatsover to set up my Samsung 640 Gb drive to the USB port and it works perfectly. Don't remember exactly how I did it but I think I used AIDisk or whatever it is called...for dummies.

Thanks Einstein. I used all that and none worked...

 

[Spitfire69]

Thanks Einstein. I used all that and none worked...

If you REALLY had done that you should know that it works, at least you should know that ASUS intension is that it should work.

Suggest you start a new thread stating your problem then. Include brand, size, FS etc then hopefully someone can help you because you really shouldn't need to be an Einstein to mount a HDD on the router.

 

[Greg_Elite]

If you REALLY had done that you should know that it works, at least you should know that ASUS intension is that it should work.

Suggest you start a new thread stating your problem then. Include brand, size, FS etc then hopefully someone can help you because you really shouldn't need to be an Einstein to mount a HDD on the router.

Make sure it's FAT32 to insure Linux compatibility.

 

[kk22]

1. Has Asus made available a bridge mode (non-WDS) on the RT-N66U?

2. Is Cisco VPN now compatible with N66U without needing to disable hardware NAT?

Anyone able to confirm these? I really want to know before I make a purchase decision. Thanks!

 

[dinko]

2. Is Cisco VPN now compatible with N66U without needing to disable hardware NAT?

I use Cisco VPN for my company's network and it works fine on the stock firmware without changing any of the options.

Romain

 

[darksamus]

Working on getting guest ssid working on this router with tomato....will report back later.

 

[RogerSC]

I use Cisco VPN for my company's network and it works fine on the stock firmware without changing any of the options.

Romain

You didn't have to change any options on the old rt-n56u firmware, either, it just automatically disabled the hardware NAT if IPsec passthrough was enabled...So this doesn't seem to me to answer the question.

Although I hadn't yet heard if the rt-n66u has hardware NAT, that would be another piece of good news *smile*.

 

[dinko]

You didn't have to change any options on the old rt-n56u firmware, either, it just automatically disabled the hardware NAT if IPsec passthrough was enabled...So this doesn't seem to me to answer the question.

Although I hadn't yet heard if the rt-n66u has hardware NAT, that would be another piece of good news *smile*.

I didn't have the RT-N56U but yes, you are correct. I didn't explicitly do anything for the hardware NAT and have no idea if there is one. I did enable IPSec passthrough (it was the default) and it just worked.

 

[RogerSC]

Since it was brought up, I've done a little searching, and according to:

http://blackpad-us.blogspot.com/2011/01/asus-republic-of-gamers-rog-riview.html

(also quoted in the DD-WRT forum) this router has hardware NAT, like the rt-n56u. So I'd also like to know if one can see if it's enabled somewhere in the admin GUI, and if it stays enabled when IPsec passthrough is on.

 

[dinko]

(also quoted in the DD-WRT forum) this router has hardware NAT, like the rt-n56u. So I'd also like to know if one can see if it's enabled somewhere in the admin GUI, and if it stays enabled when IPsec passthrough is on.

I didn't see it in the stock GUI but I will check again tonight in the GUI and also by telnet.

Romain

 

[dinko]

VPN and NAT

Hello,

I looked at the router logs and dmesg upon rebooting and did not see any mention of hardware NAT. I also disabled port forwarding and all VPN passthrough and so no mention of hardware NAT in that configuration either.

Also, and I don't know if this is a bug, if I disable all VPN passthrough, the Cisco VPN used by my company still worked so I am not quite sure what to make of it.

Finally, it seems that all NAT functions are done by 'Netfilter' (there are a whole bunch of modules for that).

Hope this helps and let me know if you want me to check anything else.

Thanks,

Romain

 

[sirozha]

Hello,

I looked at the router logs and dmesg upon rebooting and did not see any mention of hardware NAT. I also disabled port forwarding and all VPN passthrough and so no mention of hardware NAT in that configuration either.

Also, and I don't know if this is a bug, if I disable all VPN passthrough, the Cisco VPN used by my company still worked so I am not quite sure what to make of it.

Finally, it seems that all NAT functions are done by 'Netfilter' (there are a whole bunch of modules for that).

Hope this helps and let me know if you want me to check anything else.

Thanks,

Romain

If your company has enabled NAT-T (NAT traversal) on the Cisco VPN headend (concentrator, router, or firewall), the Cisco VPN client software automatically traverses the firewall using the NAT-T feature (UDP port 4500 or sometimes TCP port 4500 depending on the headend at the company), by encapsulating VPN packets in UDP (or TCP) port 4500 and enabling your router to create a pinhole in the firewall for the return VPN traffic as well as port-forwarding rule based on the PAT'ed UDP (or TCP) port number, just like it does for any other traffic to the Internet originating behind it. VPN Passthrough is a completely different feature that enables the router (RT-N66U) to open a pinhole in the firewall for the return VPN traffic and to create a dynamic forwarding rule (not port forwarding, but protocol forwarding) based on the presence of the ESP protocol (protocol 50) header in the return VPN traffic. ESP is a protocol, not a TCP or UDP port. Your turning off VPN Passthrough had no impact on your VPN connectivity because of your company's utilizing NAT-T.

If your company did not have NAT-T enabled on the VPN headend(s), then your router would only allow one VPN client to connect through each public IP address with VPN Passthrough enabled; thus, if you had two people trying to establish a VPN connection via a RT-N66U (or any other router) with one public IP address, only the first VPN connection would be established. This is due to the fact that in protocol forwarding, there can only be one protocol forwarding table entry made for each type of protocol that has no transport-layer port capability (the actual transport-layer protocol is encrypted at this point and is not visible to the router). If your company did not use NAT-T, turning off the VPN Passthrough feature would prevent you from establishing even one VPN tunnel from behind the RT-N66U because the protocol-based forwarding feature would be disabled.

 

[dinko]

Thanks for the explanation. It was very informative . Based on your explanation, they do use NAT-T (I have connected multiple machines already).

Thanks again,
Romain

 

[darksamus]

Since the 5ghz band has a shorter distance than the 2.4ghz, would it be better to increase the TX power of the 5ghz higher than 2.4ghz? I currently have both bands at 42mw and the 5ghz range is not all that great.