ASUS RT-N66U - my review

[HawkInOz]

So, I sent in the issues to networking_support@asus.com because that is supposed to be the email for reporting issues, correct...alright, well, I asked for a receipt so that I know when the email has been addressed. Make what you want from this

How's that now? Asus doesn't give a $h1t? I think so

I did the same thing and got the same response........ then a few hours later I got two like this:

Your message
To: Networking_Support
Subject: RT-N66U: DCHP Address Reservation Limit
Sent: Sun, 5 Feb 2012 09:21:06 -0800

was read on Mon, 6 Feb 2012 16:24:12 -0800

It appears that the messages are going to several people. Those that it doesn't apply to delete it, while others read it. Makes perfect sense to me.

Shortly after reading my message, I received this response:

Hi <snip>,

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We are currently looking into this and will provide you an update as soon as I have more information.

Thanks & Best Regards,

Mason

Can't ask for much more than that.........

 

[G37x]

W/A for NAT loopback

News: For everyone interested in having the NAT loopback fixed now, if you want it just go to LAN-> switch control and disable hw acceleration. Once you do this NAT loopback should work. Now this is just a temporary fix, Asus should find other ways to correct this...

Cheers!
G37x

 

[dejanh]

I did the same thing and got the same response........ then a few hours later I got two like this:



It appears that the messages are going to several people. Those that it doesn't apply to delete it, while others read it. Makes perfect sense to me.

Shortly after reading my message, I received this response:



Can't ask for much more than that.........

Yes, I did actually get a response as well just a few minutes ago from one of their specialists. However, it is extremely poor practice to send receipts to customers who submit tickets or issues stating that you "deleted" the message without reading it. Open it, say read, then delete it, don't just straight delete it. That's how it should be done.

So, this is what I was told when I actually did get a proper response.

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We are working on a fix for the DLNA media server, which will be available very soon. I will provide you with an update as soon as have more information. I will review your feedback with our team as well. Please let us know if you have further questions or concerns. Thank you.

Best Regards,

And just so everyone knows, this is what I told them...

Hi again,

I have an update for you after completing some more extensive testing with the DLNA media server functionality.

1. DLNA media server does not work at all when the connected drive is formatted in NTFS and EXT3 formats. This needs to be fixed.
2. When using FAT32 file format, the DLNA media server works and the server does pick up media files organized on the drive in appropriate folders and serve them in standard DLNA libraries such as Music, Photos, Videos, etc. However, there are multiple problems with this setup that are listed below:

FAT32 does not allow files larger than 4GB, it is unreliable, and does not support drives larger than 32GB (not natively through Windows). Therefore it is critical that NTFS and EXT3 support be implemented correctly.
Only an extremely small number of media files seems to be supported (for example, JPG files are detected, but a very common PNG file format is not). The system does not appear to recognize MKV file format either as media, even though this format is the most commonly used container used for large video files.
Every time any files or folders are added to the drive connected to the router the user must reboot the router before any of the new files and folders are detected. This is an extremely cumbersome and unreliable method of indexing files and should be fixed.

So to conclude what needs to happen is this:

Implement full support for NTFS and EXT3 file systems and make them supported as part of the DLNA media server
Add support for a lot more media types, especially the most common media types such as JPG, PNG, MP3, MP4, WMA, MKV, AVI, WMV, etc.
Improve the indexing functionality so that it does not require a reboot every time files or folders are added to the drive.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks,

 

[Guz]

It was covered here: Backing up to Asus RT-N56U attached hardrive

Basically, the router wouldn't keep the DOS attributes, Read, Archive, System, Hidden, (also referred to as "Meta Data") of files being copied to the attached USB drive. Which would "hork" some copying software after awhile

I'm really curious if Asus corrected it with this new router.

What was the DOS issue?

Asus Consumer products are good but don't seem as good as their components. I would love to see them keep growing in the consumer business though. I've had my RT-N66U for 3 weeks, and aside from DLNA(I even used FAT32), I'm pretty satisfied with the product. No issues, zero downtime, no crashing (Not that my RT-N16 did any of that).

 

[Greg_Elite]

networking_support@asus.com is a valid email address.

I'm still planning on getting it. I believe it's still a better all around router than the RT-N56u and the best on the market. It's a shame and weird though it doesn't beat the RT-N56u's total simultaneous throughput. But 810 mbps is still more than you'd ever need or use.

 

[12darline]

News: For everyone interested in having the NAT loopback fixed now, if you want it just go to LAN-> switch control and disable hw acceleration. Once you do this NAT loopback should work. Now this is just a temporary fix, Asus should find other ways to correct this...

Cheers!
G37x

Sorry, that proposed NAT loopback fix does not work. I am sure that they will eventually get it right.

Thanks...

 

[HawkInOz]

However, it is extremely poor practice to send receipts to customers who submit tickets or issues stating that you "deleted" the message without reading it. Open it, say read, then delete it, don't just straight delete it. That's how it should be done.

Actually, had you not asked for a read receipt, you never would have gotten that "deleted without being read" message. A lot of people, myself included, do not have messages marked as "read" automatically upon highlighting or moving away from a particular message. That prevents me from accidentally marking something as read that I haven't actually read yet (and potentially missing the contents as a result). The message remains "unread" unless specifically marked as read. That being the case, if I were to allow read receipts to be sent (I don't), many of the messages that I had actually read and then deleted would return the same "deleted without being read" message to those senders. It really isn't true or accurate, but it is the correct response to a read receipt request on a message that hasn't technically been marked as read (whether automatically or manually) by the recipient before it is deleted by that recipient.

My point is simply to not put too much stock into what the read receipt states, as you can see that it is open to misinterpretation. Just getting one indicates that your message made it to a recipient - which is what you wanted to know when you sent it and requested the read receipt in the first place.

 

[G37x]

Sorry, that proposed NAT loopback fix does not work. I am sure that they will eventually get it right.

Thanks...

Really? Works for me! Make sure you check yes for disable hw acceleration and hit apply...

 

[darksamus]

Going on strong with Tomato FW. Also got both 2.4 & 5ghz guest wifi working stable!

 

[thiggins]

New Thread Started

I've started a new thread for comments on the Review.
http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=6714

 

[Greg_Elite]

Going on strong with Tomato FW. Also got both 2.4 & 5ghz guest wifi working stable!

I plan on using the Asus firmware. I feel like after paying $200 for a router I should be able to expect it's stock firmware to do everything I want it to do and be the best.

 

[12darline]

Really? Works for me! Make sure you check yes for disable hw acceleration and hit apply...

I apologize. Now that I've followed the instructions, it does work. Thanks for showing me the way. I really appreciate the assistance...

 

[darksamus]

I plan on using the Asus firmware. I feel like after paying $200 for a router I should be able to expect it's stock firmware to do everything I want it to do and be the best.

Sure, we "expect" the company is going to give what their customers want, but the truth is, they don't have to do anything.

 

[sfx2000]

So, I sent in the issues to networking_support@asus.com because that is supposed to be the email for reporting issues, correct...alright, well, I asked for a receipt so that I know when the email has been addressed. Make what you want from this



I'm not impressed by this reply At the very least pretending to read it is much better than deleting it without even opening it. It is a customer complain contact line after all.

Consider that many helpdesk software packages will grab the incoming mail and import into the software - removing it from the "inbox" - depending on the rulesets of the primary email server, it may mark it as read/deleted... if you get a response at some time with a case number, that's likely what happened.

 

[G37x]

I apologize. Now that I've followed the instructions, it does work. Thanks for showing me the way. I really appreciate the assistance...

No problem anytime...

 

[though]

I plan on using the Asus firmware. I feel like after paying $200 for a router I should be able to expect it's stock firmware to do everything I want it to do and be the best.

im sorry you feel that way, but will never happen.

 

[magnus_ca]

I plan on using the Asus firmware. I feel like after paying $200 for a router I should be able to expect it's stock firmware to do everything I want it to do and be the best.

im sorry you feel that way, but will never happen.

Why don't you guys take it to a new thread and actually provide some performance data to back up why you support the firmware you support? It's gotten beyond old. Take your argument elsewhere.

 

[dejanh]

Going on strong with Tomato FW. Also got both 2.4 & 5ghz guest wifi working stable!

Can you share the updated version that includes stable guest wifi? I need a version that supports VPN and guest wifi (basically the same feature set as the default Asus firmware).

 

[hggomes]

http://tomato.groov.pl/K26RT-N/build5x-084V/RT-N10U/

 

[Greg_Elite]

Sure, we "expect" the company is going to give what their customers want, but the truth is, they don't have to do anything.

Dude they already fixed most of the problems and there working on the DLNA and Loopback NAT issues. Right now as it stands the most current firmware is STABLE and gives you the fastest throughput and range.

I don't know where you were in this forum.

EDIT: After viewing Gerners Tomato Youtube video I can see it does support VLANs and bunch of other cool configurations that isn't in the stock firmware. Not that you would need all this and perhaps loose some throughput my points above still stand.