ASUS RT-N66U - my review

[though]

Actually, whoever posted that it was easy for them to get DLNA media server working has no idea what they are talking about or what constitutes DLNA media server or for that matter even a file server, but let me explain.

DLNA media servers are meant to be able to inter-operate with DLNA media player clients, most of which are not capable of full access to the file system, SMB abstracted or not. In simple terms, devices like your TV have a very light-weight client (player) built in that is DLNA certified and as such it is programmed to access only DLNA media server content organized in a very specific way. Typically, what a DLNA client will look for is media "libraries" such as Music, Videos, Photos, etc. being served to it in a specific way. Now, the RT-N66U does report these "libraries" to DLNA clients, but there is no way to manage the said libraries at all, and they in no way link back to the attached storage. In fact they link back to nothing at all!

Now, a file server is any server capable of "serving" files across a network (yes, the definition in essence is that dumb). All file servers are in principle media servers as well, since they can offer access to media content to those clients capable of accessing the same file server shares. However, most file servers are not DLNA media servers, since they offer no DLNA certified interoperability with DLNA clients. Simply put, while they are capable of serving files they do so using the standard SMB protocols (for instance). This however is not recognized by light-weight DLNA clients and therefore they are unable to actually access any content. The fact that you can access your media files over a network using a network enabled device != DLNA media server...not even by a long shot This also does not imply in any way that the DLNA media server capability is working on the RT-N66U.

So, again, we are back to square one. DLNA media server on the RT-N66U does not seem to work at all, and the SMB file serve is very poorly implemented.

Edit: I will be doing some tests tonight with the files dumped into the root of the drive to see again if that will make any difference, particularly with different file systems.

have you tried tomato

 

[dejanh]

have you tried tomato

No, I have not. I've never actually used it before and I am not even sure where to get the latest version of it for the RT-N66U. Also, being that your message is a bit cryptic, I am not sure if you are implying that I should try it, or that tomato solves these issues, or...?

 

[RogerSC]

Tomato supports DLNA functionality. I'd be interested to hear if DLNA functionality works in tomato with this router as well. There have been people on the forum using tomato, but I'm not sure that they are using the DLNA functions.

 

[darksamus]

Tomato supports DLNA functionality. I'd be interested to hear if DLNA functionality works in tomato with this router as well. There have been people on the forum using tomato, but I'm not sure that they are using the DLNA functions.

It does work. Also the internal microsd shows up as a external hdd.

 

[G37x]

No, I have not. I've never actually used it before and I am not even sure where to get the latest version of it for the RT-N66U. Also, being that your message is a bit cryptic, I am not sure if you are implying that I should try it, or that tomato solves these issues, or...?

Just got an email back from Asus saying that DLNA has issues and will be fixed soon with the next fw. Nothing on NAT loopback yet...

 

[though]

No, I have not. I've never actually used it before and I am not even sure where to get the latest version of it for the RT-N66U. Also, being that your message is a bit cryptic, I am not sure if you are implying that I should try it, or that tomato solves these issues, or...?

here is the latest version. give it a whirl and report back...

http://www.4shared.com/get/YyBYfopr/tomato-K26USB-1280495MIPSR2-To.html

 

[RogerSC]

It does work. Also the internal microsd shows up as a external hdd.

Interesting, thanks very much. Good to hear that tomato's working well with this router. I'm currently using a Linksys E4200 with tomatoUSB and am very happy with it.

 

[R-D]

I just got an Rt-N66U and I am having a hard time with this GUI.

I am looking for port forwarding settings which don't seem to exist, I found under System Log > Port Forwarding what looks like UPnP status, but I can't find any actual settings to configure port forwarding manually.

I know D-Link calls this Virtual Server, but I don't see that anywhere in the GUI either, despite the fact it is shown in the Specs on the Asus website for the RT-N66U:

Management UPnP, DLNA, DNS Proxy, DHCP, NTP Client, DDNS, Port Triger, Virtual Server, DMZ

Can anyone help me find this, I don't expect this should be a difficult thing to do on a higher end router like this.

Thanks.

 

[G37x]

I just got an Rt-N66U and I am having a hard time with this GUI.

I am looking for port forwarding settings which don't seem to exist, I found under System Log > Port Forwarding what looks like UPnP status, but I can't find any actual settings to configure port forwarding manually.

I know D-Link calls this Virtual Server, but I don't see that anywhere in the GUI either, despite the fact it is shown in the Specs on the Asus website for the RT-N66U:


Can anyone help me find this, I don't expect this should be a difficult thing to do on a higher end router like this.

Thanks.

Sure it's under WAN (left column) -> Virtual server/Port forwarding (top tab)..

Please let us know if you require additional assistance.

Cheers,
G37x

 

[R-D]

Sure it's under WAN (left column) -> Virtual server/Port forwarding (top tab)..

Please let us know if you require additional assistance.

Cheers,
G37x

Haha thanks. I keep forgetting to look at all the tabs up there. The interface is different from almost any other one I have used before.

 

[digilog5]

I am also interested in this router, also for its DLNA capability but wanted to ask a couple of questions:

Currently I have a Linksys RT-54G, connected with a Netgear ReadyNas Duo. The NAS is connected with an external USB drive where I keep all my music files. This is very robust and I can stream from the NAS anywhere.

The DLNA streaming service in the NAS gui ,includes of course the activation button, a selection where I chose which folder to track for files, and a button to scan this folder for media. I can point to any existing location on the USB I want. Scanning takes a few minutes and thats it. This works fine. My usb is formated in EXT3 as my NAS is faster with this. I am guessing the Asus router should theoretically be faster too with EXT3 formatted drives.

Does the GUI of the Asus router allow for a similar setup?
Asus has this demo GUI but I wasnt sure how one user, scans the folder of interest to construct the DLNA database.
http://service.asus.com/demoui/RT-N66U/RT-N66U/RT-N66U/192.168.1.1/upnp.html
I thought for UPnP the router with its better cpu would be an upgrade to my nas which has a slow CPU for reading off usb.

Thanks in advance

 

[Spitfire69]

Thanks for taking the time to reply to my post. Hmm, there was a guy here who said it was very easy for him to accomplish this DLNA thing only by reading the manual?? Got very upset because I said in here DLNA is useless. Leaving that aside what is in that manual really? Nothing...
As far as passing QA yes that is the case..There is no real QA these days, the bugs are being passed out to the customers in the hope to be fixed by future fw.

Yes, I'm the one who wrote that...and NO, you didn't say that the DNLA server was useless...you didn't even mention that it was the DNLA server you had trouble with. Regarding the DNLA I have NO clue whatsoever if it works or not. However I said that you should describe your problem in more detail and maybe someone could help you...glad your finally got your thumb out.

 

[12darline]

Yeah, DLNA does not work on this router at all (well, it "detects" but it is unmanageable, literally, as in it cannot be maintained at all in any way), and SMB file serve is also messed up pretty badly. IMHO this is pretty disappointing for a $200 router. I bought this for very specific reasons but right now 50% of those features I needed from it are not working.

I am currently using a 2TB Green NTFS formatted. Going to try ext3 or ext4 and see if that nets any better results, but I personally doubt it. It really makes me scratch my head sometimes how these things get past engineering QA...the only reason that I can see is that there is really no engineering QA at all being done.

Asus just released new firmware (3.1.0.3.90) on their website which is supposed to fix some UBS issues. It is good to see that they are working on things...

 

[njweb]

Converting to MB/s, we get 13.4 MB/s read and 7.9 write for SAMBA.

Cisco Linksys E4200V2 got 22 MB/s read, 20 MB/s write for an NTFS formatted drive.
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wire...al-band-n900-router-reviewed?showall=&start=2

Asus just released their third firmware, already, which may help improve to improve the USB speed results:

Version 3.1.0.3.90
Description ASUS RT-N66U B1 Firmware version 3.1.0.3.90
Add USB performance enhancement into RT-N66U
File Size
18,38 (MBytes) 2012.02.02 update
Download from
Global (DLM) Global P2P

PS: It ends is '90' like the previous firmware (not sure why they did it that way) but it is NEW version.

 

[G37x]

Yes, I'm the one who wrote that...and NO, you didn't say that the DNLA server was useless...you didn't even mention that it was the DNLA server you had trouble with. Regarding the DNLA I have NO clue whatsoever if it works or not. However I said that you should describe your problem in more detail and maybe someone could help you...glad your finally got your thumb out.

OK I said this:
"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..."

Now I apologize for not saying the word DLNA, but what can I refer to really, when I don't see HDD folders on other devices in the same LAN??

I give up..

Wish you all the best!

 

[darksamus]

Has anyone use the new stock firmware, 3.1.0.3.90? I wanted to know if they allow port 443 for web mgmt instead of port 8080.

 

[G37x]

Has anyone use the new stock firmware, 3.1.0.3.90? I wanted to know if they allow port 443 for web mgmt instead of port 8080.

I did upgrade, still port has to be > 1024, so they don't...But why you want that? Just enable your VPN server, set up a VPN client on your phone tablet and you will access the router by using 192.168.1.1...

 

[G37x]

Asus just released their third firmware, already, which may help improve to improve the USB speed results:

Version 3.1.0.3.90
Description ASUS RT-N66U B1 Firmware version 3.1.0.3.90
Add USB performance enhancement into RT-N66U
File Size
18,38 (MBytes) 2012.02.02 update
Download from
Global (DLM) Global P2P

PS: It ends is '90' like the previous firmware (not sure why they did it that way) but it is NEW version.

I did upgrade my router with the last fw 310390 that was supposed to offer USB improvements and the result is it did not really improve anything as far as I go. I now see my HDD on my other LAN devices (TV /BluRay DLNA clients) listed as USB instead of RT-N66U (big change?!?) but still DO NOT see any folders. Disappointed.

 

[darksamus]

I did upgrade my router with the last fw 310390 that was supposed to offer USB improvements and the result is it did not really improve anything as far as I go. I now see my HDD on my other LAN devices (TV /BluRay DLNA clients) listed as USB instead of RT-N66U (big change?!?) but still DO NOT see any folders. Disappointed.

Do you know if the internal port forwarding still broken? How about the TX power rate, go higher than 40mW?

 

[hggomes]

supposed to offer USB improvements and the result is it did not really improve anything as far as I go. Disappointed.

That was predictable