ASUS RT-N66U - my review

[emmittobie]

have you tried to load tomato on it for shirts n giggles?

I was thinking about it since I have loaded alternate firmwares on most of my other routers but I didn't want to mess around with it and have to restore the original firmware before I return it to the store. Assuming that it is really messed up. Not sure how difficult it is to put Tomato on it. Even if it were to work it would annoy me that I would have to install an alternate firmware to have it function properly. Think it best just to return it. Wondering if there is a way to really reset the router and clear the NVRAM and all that stuff to see if the ports can reset. Thanks for the help everyone.

 

[G37x]

I was thinking about it since I have loaded alternate firmwares on most of my other routers but I didn't want to mess around with it and have to restore the original firmware before I return it to the store. Assuming that it is really messed up. Not sure how difficult it is to put Tomato on it. Even if it were to work it would annoy me that I would have to install an alternate firmware to have it function properly. Think it best just to return it. Wondering if there is a way to really reset the router and clear the NVRAM and all that stuff to see if the ports can reset. Thanks for the help everyone.

-Have you used the same cables to connect to both routers?
-Perhaps you have a setting that screws up the auto negotiation of link speed on RT-N66U? The best way to eliminate this is to use default settings. Also I assume you already tried more than just one PC right?

Please let us know.
G37x

 

[emmittobie]

-Have you used the same cables to connect to both routers?
-Perhaps you have a setting that screws up the auto negotiation of link speed on RT-N66U? The best way to eliminate this is to use default settings. Also I assume you already tried more than just one PC right?

Please let us know.
G37x

I used the same cables each time. I loaded the firmware and all I changed was to make the router into an access point. I did not touch any other settings. I have not tried it on any other computer as they do not have gigabit ethernet cards. I really don't think it is anything with my computer though as the other router connects without any problem at full speed.

 

[G37x]

I used the same cables each time. I loaded the firmware and all I changed was to make the router into an access point. I did not touch any other settings. I have not tried it on any other computer as they do not have gigabit ethernet cards. I really don't think it is anything with my computer though as the other router connects without any problem at full speed.

Is there any way you can use just RT-N66U in router mode? No other boxes, and then connect the PC to one of its ports?

 

[emmittobie]

Is there any way you can use just RT-N66U in router mode? No other boxes, and then connect the PC to one of its ports?

Will give it a shot and report back later. Appreciate your suggestions though. Cheers.

 

[emmittobie]

Will give it a shot and report back later. Appreciate your suggestions though. Cheers.

Gave it a try with the router connected directly after a reset to default settings and the such. Still no luck. I think it's just a dud. Will have to return it I guess. Appreciate everyone's advice.

 

[halcyon]

QoS and stability of WiFi connections (Win/OSX)?

Quick couple of questions to N66U owners:

- How well does the QoS work with simultaneous downloads and apps that need high priority access (RT games, Skype video calls,etc)? Is the QoS purely bandwidth limit based, or does it actually prioritize packet routing?

- Are connections, esp. to WLan clients (say Win7/OS X laptops) stable or do they keep reconnecting by themselves?

Would appreciate comments on these, if anybody has experience on the above issues.

 

[patrickgerry]

Gave it a try with the router connected directly after a reset to default settings and the such. Still no luck. I think it's just a dud. Will have to return it I guess. Appreciate everyone's advice.

not sure what type of chip is in the n16 but the n66u is a broadcom chip. Have you tried upgrading your PCs driver to the latest version?

 

[G37x]

Gave it a try with the router connected directly after a reset to default settings and the such. Still no luck. I think it's just a dud. Will have to return it I guess. Appreciate everyone's advice.

Well in that case it does seem like something is wrong with the router. Too bad you don't have another PC...Anyhow, I still think that maybe something bad is stuck in sw somewhere, and that the hw might be good but I could be wrong. You did say you initialize all on this router, that is nvram default settings etc right? If that's the case not much left, you need to return it.

Cheers,
G37x

 

[emmittobie]

not sure what type of chip is in the n16 but the n66u is a broadcom chip. Have you tried upgrading your PCs driver to the latest version?

I did upgrade my ethernet card to the latest driver. Still no luck. I believe the RT-N16 also uses a Broadcom chip and it functions properly and connects at Gigabit speed when I plug my computer into it.

 

[Guz]

Gave it a try with the router connected directly after a reset to default settings and the such. Still no luck. I think it's just a dud. Will have to return it I guess. Appreciate everyone's advice.

One last thing to try, hard set your NIC in your computer at 1000, full duplex (go to the advance settings of your NIC properties).

I've run across certain brands of server NICs that won't auto negotiate to 1000/full with certain switches/routers. Only after hard setting the NIC I was able to get gigabit transfer rates.

 

[emmittobie]

One last thing to try, hard set your NIC in your computer at 1000, full duplex (go to the advance settings of your NIC properties).

I've run across certain brands of server NICs that won't auto negotiate to 1000/full with certain switches/routers. Only after hard setting the NIC I was able to get gigabit transfer rates.

Thanks for the suggestion. Didn't work though. I actually gave it one last attempt to get this going. I updated the firmware through the browser and set defaults when I got the router. This last time I put the router in recovery mode and used the Asus Firmware Restoration utility to upload the latest stable firmware. Thought it might work but no change. I don't really think it is the NIC because my other router connects at gigabit speed so I really think it is the NT-66u in this case. This is probably be the first time I've encountered a hardware defect but I guess there is a first time for everything. Thanks again for the help guys. Really appreciate all the suggestions.

 

[gattaca]

I read thru all 82 pages this AM - trying to decide how to best do a setup as I have an older DIR-655 main with a WNDR3700 (WAP). I need to be able to add more fixed DHCP addresses than the 655 can handle. I see there's way to > 23 on the 66U using telnet, so I'm hoping I can do the same thing with the 56U?

From the testing and charting and reading, if I were buying 2 units today to replace my over-stressed DIR-655 and WNDR3700, I seems like the best solution is:

1) Use the 56U as a main router downstairs based on its superior WAN/LAN stats and perhaps keep on the wireless but being in basement has limited wireless range. The 655 never did well wirelessly there so I just disabled its wireles.
2) Use the 66U as a WAP (upstairs) replacing the WNDR3700

3) I need my Corporate VPN access to work and it seems like that may be an issue w/ the 56U from scanning those threads. You get either IPSEC or HW NAT but not both without loading non-ASUS FW. I have not seen this mentioned yet on 66U?

A dual wireless setup is attractive as we have too many wireless devices (printers, i*, ...). I also have a teenage gamer in the house that complains unless he's hardwired that the wireless sucks.. (and I agree).

Is there any reason to go with 2 x 66U (other than the long wait) or should I just go for the 56U now for the main router and wait out the 66U availability?

Thoughts from guys who have both 56U and 66U?

Thanks.

 

[G37x]

I read thru all 82 pages this AM - trying to decide how to best do a setup as I have an older DIR-655 main with a WNDR3700 (WAP). I need to be able to add more fixed DHCP addresses than the 655 can handle. I see there's way to > 23 on the 66U using telnet, so I'm hoping I can do the same thing with the 56U?

From the testing and charting and reading, if I were buying 2 units today to replace my over-stressed DIR-655 and WNDR3700, I seems like the best solution is:

1) Use the 56U as a main router downstairs based on its superior WAN/LAN stats and perhaps keep on the wireless but being in basement has limited wireless range. The 655 never did well wirelessly there so I just disabled its wireles.
2) Use the 66U as a WAP (upstairs) replacing the WNDR3700

A dual wireless setup is attractive as we have too many wireless devices (printers, i*, ...). I also have a teenage gamer in the house that complains unless he's hardwired that the wireless sucks.. (and I agree).

Is there any reason to go with 2 x 66U (other than the long wait) or should I just go for the 56U now for the main router and wait out the 66U availability?

Thoughts from guys who have both 56U and 66U?

Thanks.

Funny you mentioned this, I now have the 66U and my old DIR-655...For now the old router is not in use anymore because 66U beast covers all very good (talking about 8k sf house)...At some point I might give it a try to install it in the basement though....I also have many wifi clients google tv, ipods, ipad LED tv etc laptops and never had the need for a second router.

 

[ArCan]

Hi!
Now I'm using http://www.4shared.com/file/yx1QdlnG/tomato-K26USB-12804953MIPSR2-T.html
for my RT-N66U with very good results.
Seems to me that the level of the output power of transmiter a little bit higher that with Sibby's firmware
with default 0 (zero) in Advanced Wirless window.
The speed of wan and lans are high. No disconnections during 24 hours
with full Internet trafic (~10 torrents colse to 25Mbit/s) and HD (around 30Mbps for 1080) video
via WiFi (5GHz/40MHz) from NAS to mediaplayer through RT-N66U.
QoS works fine - no interupting any streems or connections.


P.S. For the best speed via WiFi do enable for Frame Burst in advanced wireless. It works for me.

 

[though]

P.S. For the best speed via WiFi do enable for Frame Burst in advanced wireless. It works for me.

Frame Burst

Frame burst allows packet bursting which will increase overall network speed though this is only recommended for approx 1-3 wireless clients, Anymore clients and there can be a negative result and throughput will be affected.

 

[G37x]

I read thru all 82 pages this AM - trying to decide how to best do a setup as I have an older DIR-655 main with a WNDR3700 (WAP). I need to be able to add more fixed DHCP addresses than the 655 can handle. I see there's way to > 23 on the 66U using telnet, so I'm hoping I can do the same thing with the 56U?

From the testing and charting and reading, if I were buying 2 units today to replace my over-stressed DIR-655 and WNDR3700, I seems like the best solution is:

1) Use the 56U as a main router downstairs based on its superior WAN/LAN stats and perhaps keep on the wireless but being in basement has limited wireless range. The 655 never did well wirelessly there so I just disabled its wireles.
2) Use the 66U as a WAP (upstairs) replacing the WNDR3700

3) I need my Corporate VPN access to work and it seems like that may be an issue w/ the 56U from scanning those threads. You get either IPSEC or HW NAT but not both without loading non-ASUS FW. I have not seen this mentioned yet on 66U?

A dual wireless setup is attractive as we have too many wireless devices (printers, i*, ...). I also have a teenage gamer in the house that complains unless he's hardwired that the wireless sucks.. (and I agree).

Is there any reason to go with 2 x 66U (other than the long wait) or should I just go for the 56U now for the main router and wait out the 66U availability?

Thoughts from guys who have both 56U and 66U?

Thanks.

Before I got my 66U I had a 56U for 2 months. Before I purchased it I read on Internet that VZ Network extender didn't work with 56U. It was just a matter of upgrading the asus fw and then it did work. Also for 2 months I was able to access my corporate via VPN w/o issues. Not sure what specifics you have, but thought it might be worth mentioning.

 

[ArCan]

And one more personal opinion.
I really don't understand
WHY ASUS MADE HOLES ONLY ON ONE SIDE
OF THE BOX OF RT-N66U ON BOTTOM SIDE ?!
At the first they put fan inside!
After they put radiator instead...
radiator inside box!

ASUS you should make holes on top and on sides of the box
instead glamour surface. IMHO

 

[patrickgerry]

random disconnects with latest fw

I think I figured out what causes the disconnects. I already reported to asus but am still waiting for a response.

Previously with the old firmware (.90) I could not connect from my android phone via 3G or WIFI to my QNAP NAS. I attributed this to the nat loopback issue.

FW (.96) fixed this problem i.e., I can access my QNAP NAS from anywhere eithe r via 3G or WIFI. I then installed a USB device and activated DLNA and ftp into the USB device. This worked well until I retried to access my QNAP NAS via my phone. When I am about to select a directory from QNAP, I noticed that my phone would wait and another PC which is hardwired to the router would loose connection. It would seem after inspecting other devices that all devices were disconnected. When I exit from the app, all devices can connect again. I was able to duplicate this scenario twice.

I experimented and determined that by removing the USB device I do not get this problem i.e., I can connect multiple times to the QNAP NAS.

To those who were experiencing disconnects, do you have a USB device attached?

 

[darksamus]

And one more personal opinion.
I really don't understand
WHY ASUS MADE HOLES ONLY ON ONE SIDE
OF THE BOX OF RT-N66U ON BOTTOM SIDE ?!
At the first they put fan inside!
After they put radiator instead...
radiator inside box!

ASUS you should make holes on top and on sides of the box
instead glamour surface. IMHO

It does not get hot, just warm. It has a huge heatsink on top of the board. The prototype had a fan. I rather have no fan, one less thing to fail.