ASUS RT-N66U - my review

[Greg_Elite]

Yea. I wasn't impressed with the range of the E4200v1 minus the bugs. Due tell us your results.

 

[Geraner]

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

Yes I could. Put the router into recovery mode. Logged into the router via web browser and overwrote the nvram. After this i used the ASUS recovery tool to flash the router with ASUS orignal firmware.

 

[Geraner]

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).

Looking really forward for your test results comparing the E4200 with the RT-N66U! I only had the DIR-825 and WNDR4500 which I could compare the RT-N66U with.
I had first planned to buy the E4200. But this router is on the market since half a year or so. So I bought the RT-N66U instead when it was released here in Sweden. - Looking forward for your comparison E4200 vs. RT-N66U.

 

[njweb]

Looking really forward for your test results comparing the E4200 with the RT-N66U! I only had the DIR-825 and WNDR4500 which I could compare the RT-N66U with.
I had first planned to buy the E4200. But this router is on the market since half a year or so. So I bought the RT-N66U instead when it was released here in Sweden. - Looking forward for your comparison E4200 vs. RT-N66U.

To clarify, the tests will be the Amped R10000 against the RT-N66U. The E4200 belongs to my parents now so I won't be testing with that this time around.
However, I do already have the E4200 and R10000 results (from testing I did back in December).
The R10000 beat the E4200 handily, in both signal strength (used my Rosewill adapter's wifi utility) and throughput (LAN Speed Test utility was used for RELATIVE measurements) on 2.4 GHz in all three test locations.
This is what allowed me to make my decision between the two. I thus gave my parents the E4200 and RE1000 range extender (their router placement is more central in their home [I can't do this in my home] and they have less wifi devices than I do).

Therefore you should still be able to get a good feel for how the E4200 would perform relative to the RT-N66U, at least as far as 2.4 GHz is concerned. The R10000 does not have 5 GHz so I did not run any tests on that band.
I plan to post my earlier results in the R10000 thread once I get the Word document from the HDD of the old laptop I used at the time (upgraded to a new laptop since).

I think you made the right choice between the RT-N66U and E4200 overall.
The results next week should help to confirm it as far as Wifi performance on 2.4 GHz is concerned.
My E4200 was rock solid and was a nice router overall, but its 2.4 GHz signal and throughput at long range was not impressive, to say the least. 5 GHz obviously had a shorter effective range and I used it exclusively in 2.4 GHz mode after my experiences on 5 GHz initially.

 

[Greg_Elite]

To clarify, the tests will be the Amped R10000 against the RT-N66U. The E4200 belongs to my parents now so I won't be testing with that this time around.
However, I do already have the E4200 and R10000 results (from testing I did back in December).
The R10000 beat the E4200 handily, in both signal strength (used my Rosewill adapter's wifi utility) and throughput (LAN Speed Test utility was used for RELATIVE measurements) on 2.4 GHz in all three test locations.
This is what allowed me to make my decision between the two. I thus gave my parents the E4200 and RE1000 range extender (their router placement is more central in their home [I can't do this in my home] and they have less wifi devices than I do).

Therefore you should still be able to get a good feel for how the E4200 would perform relative to the RT-N66U, at least as far as 2.4 GHz is concerned. The R10000 does not have 5 GHz so I did not run any tests on that band.
I plan to post my earlier results in the R10000 thread once I get the Word document from the HDD of the old laptop I used at the time (upgraded to a new laptop since).

I think you made the right choice between the RT-N66U and E4200 overall.
The results next week should help to confirm it as far as Wifi performance on 2.4 GHz is concerned.
My E4200 was rock solid and was a nice router overall, but its 2.4 GHz signal and throughput at long range was not impressive, to say the least. 5 GHz obviously had a shorter effective range and I used it exclusively in 2.4 GHz mode after my experiences on 5 GHz initially.

I experianced DNS bugs with the E4200v1. Just like weird bugs of it not working on the last DNS request before I shut my computer down. Then when I booted back up it wouldn't get a DNS back for that same site, while others worked. Defiantly a bug. I got rid of it.

Looking forward to the Amped R1000 vs the RT-N66u as the Amped is a better router anyway (I'm sure it doesn't have stupid little bugs like described above).

 

[delair2]

V2 vs N66U ?

Hello: I have been operating the new e4200 V2 (ver 2.0.36) 100% problem free in my home for about four weeks now. The V2 does run too warm though if you lay it flat as there is no airflow under its tinny little legs and I realize I can't use WRT with this thing--but frankly given the current performance --I don't think I am going to need it ( time will tell).

I am very happy with both the range and performance in my larger/complicated two story floor-plan home. From about 15' away and one floor down from the V2, I am getting a consistent wireless RSSI-34 and 130Mbps transfer rate for 2.4Ghz/and RSSI-66 300 Mbps transfer rate on the 5Ghz on my mid-2010 iMac and for the first time I no longer have any wireless dead zones using the V2 compared to my previous router the Asus RT-N56U. In fact I exchanged the original e4200 v1 for the RT-N56U several months ago because at that time the N56U out performed the e4200 v1 in both range and throughput in my home.

Like many of you--I have too many wired and wireless devices constantly in use in my house so I really need the best wireless router I can get my hands on. Now that I see what the v2 can do--I am really anxious to compare the RT-N66U with the V2 and will do so as soon as I can get my hands on RT-N66U via a retailer that will let me easily return if I need to.

@Geraner--thanks for posting your Asus RT-N66U results and YouTube video--both were very helpful--well done. However, comparing the specs between the RT-N66U and the V2 nothing really jumps out at me that would cause the RT-N66U to out-perform the V2 at least on paper anyway particularly since I don't have any 450Mbps clients to test with. From what I have read both V2 and the N66U require 450Mbps clients to really attain their peak performance capabilities. Do you agree?

 

[Greg_Elite]

The E4200 had less than expected range. I can't imagine the V2 having any better range.

 

[delair2]

Yes I was surprised too particularly given the performance results reported by SmallNetBuilder. However, in my home the V2 has been the best performer both in consistent range & throughout so far and I am using 300 Mbs clients. I am also interested to see what SNB reports on the Asus RT-66U and the new D-Link 857 and will probably try both of these units as well.

 

[sveisvei]

Is it a bad idea to use 1 N66U to repeat another n66u? Whats the best way?

 

[okeygrak]

Serious Firmware Bug Found

I've found a potentially serious flaw with the current firmware version 3.0.0.3.90.

Even with "Enable Web Access from WAN" set to 'Disabled' the router is still advertising the Admin Panel from port 80 through the external IP address. The router should not be advertising this port outside of the local LAN, or to to IP addresses outside of the local subnet. I have tried unsuccessfully to disable this.

I wanted to give everyone a heads up, and to make sure that they have set a secure password set (i.e. not 'admin'), as currently if you are running this router anyone can attempt to break in via the port 80 admin panel.

If you have this router running, please confirm that you are encountering the same flaw by attempting to access your router by using your external IP.

 

[darksamus]

If you can't disable the remote wan mgmt port, can you change the port number to 443, aka SSL?

 

[Greg_Elite]

I've found a potentially serious flaw with the current firmware version 3.0.0.3.90.

Even with "Enable Web Access from WAN" set to 'Disabled' the router is still advertising the Admin Panel from port 80 through the external IP address. The router should not be advertising this port outside of the local LAN, or to to IP addresses outside of the local subnet. I have tried unsuccessfully to disable this.

I wanted to give everyone a heads up, and to make sure that they have set a secure password set (i.e. not 'admin'), as currently if you are running this router anyone can attempt to break in via the port 80 admin panel.

If you have this router running, please confirm that you are encountering the same flaw by attempting to access your router by using your external IP.

Forwarded to Asus.

BTW I really hate the fact though if I get this router, the very first thing I will have to do is update the firmware. Doesn't look good for Asus.

 

[Geraner]

I've found a potentially serious flaw with the current firmware version 3.0.0.3.90.

Even with "Enable Web Access from WAN" set to 'Disabled' the router is still advertising the Admin Panel from port 80 through the external IP address. The router should not be advertising this port outside of the local LAN, or to to IP addresses outside of the local subnet. I have tried unsuccessfully to disable this.

I wanted to give everyone a heads up, and to make sure that they have set a secure password set (i.e. not 'admin'), as currently if you are running this router anyone can attempt to break in via the port 80 admin panel.

If you have this router running, please confirm that you are encountering the same flaw by attempting to access your router by using your external IP.

I can not confirm that bug.
Tried it just on my router. Can not access the router from wan on port 80 or port 8080.
Run a test with GRC ShieldsUP! on the first 1056 ports which showed "Passed TruStealth Analysis".

Your system has achieved a perfect "TruStealth" rating. Not a single packet — solicited or otherwise — was received from your system as a result of our security probing tests. Your system ignored and refused to reply to repeated Pings (ICMP Echo Requests). From the standpoint of the passing probes of any hacker, this machine does not exist on the Internet. Some questionable personal security systems expose their users by attempting to "counter-probe the prober", thus revealing themselves. But your system wisely remained silent in every way. Very nice.

GRC Port Authority Report created on UTC: 2012-01-17 at 16:50:20

Results from scan of ports: 0-1055

0 Ports Open
0 Ports Closed
1056 Ports Stealth
---------------------
1056 Ports Tested

ALL PORTS tested were found to be: STEALTH.

TruStealth: PASSED - ALL tested ports were STEALTH,
- NO unsolicited packets were received,
- NO Ping reply (ICMP Echo) was received.

 

[Aanuka]

As Geraner already pointed out, this dosen't seem like a bug.

Surely you can access the GUI using your external IP, as the router sees the traffic coming from inside and therfor allowing it. But that just only works when you are directly connected to the router.

As Geraner also showed with his test, this seems to be true. If you want to test out for yourself, just use a standard proxy website and have a look.

And for those that might be intrested in another firmware, Tomato Shibby Build loads happily on the RT-N66U and persist reboots and I find it to be very stable, although my problems with slow uploadspeed still persist, althought managed to tweak it to somewhat better then with stock settings.

Cable directly connected
Average: 97/96Mbit/s

RT-N66U Stock firmware
Average: 97/43Mbit/s

RT-N66U Tomato Shibby Build
Average: 97/47Mbit/s

 

[eahm]

...
RT-N66U TomatoUSB firmware
Average: 97/47Mbit/s

"I used this firmware: tomato-K26USB-1.28.RT-N5x-MIPSR2-083V-Mega-VPN"

It's not TomatoUSB, it's Tomato Shibby build.

Great stable speed btw.

 

[Aanuka]

"I used this firmware: tomato-K26USB-1.28.RT-N5x-MIPSR2-083V-Mega-VPN"

It's not TomatoUSB, it's Tomato Shibby build.

Great stable speed btw.

As Eahm clearly stated, I've been using the build made by Shibby, which I thought was a modified TomatoUSB firmware, but apparently not then. My bad.

 

[eahm]

As Eahm clearly stated, I've been using the build made by Shibby, which I thought was a modified TomatoUSB firmware, but apparently not then. My bad.

Kinda. Almost evey mod follows this tree: Tomato -> TomatoUSB -> Mod

Teddy_Bear (TomatoUSB modder) is not developing ATM but it's releasing drivers for other mods and developers. That's why we have to be careful with suggestions because every mod starts to look different from each other and some may not be compatible with the same product.

 

[okeygrak]

As Geraner already pointed out, this dosen't seem like a bug.

Surely you can access the GUI using your external IP, as the router sees the traffic coming from inside and therfor allowing it. But that just only works when you are directly connected to the router.

As Geraner also showed with his test, this seems to be true. If you want to test out for yourself, just use a standard proxy website and have a look.

And for those that might be intrested in another firmware, Tomato Shibby Build loads happily on the RT-N66U and persist reboots and I find it to be very stable, although my problems with slow uploadspeed still persist, althought managed to tweak it to somewhat better then with stock settings.

Cable directly connected
Average: 97/96Mbit/s

RT-N66U Stock firmware
Average: 97/43Mbit/s

RT-N66U Tomato Shibby Build
Average: 97/47Mbit/s

I'm accessing the router from remote IPs, outside of my local LAN and in no way connected to it.

 

[Aanuka]

I'm accessing the router from remote IPs, outside of my local LAN and in no way connected to it.

If that is the case, then it's definitly something for ASUS to have a look over directly.

Have you made sure that the option it is unticked?
Sometimes the settings won't stick correctly.

 

[darksamus]

"I used this firmware: tomato-K26USB-1.28.RT-N5x-MIPSR2-083V-Mega-VPN"

It's not TomatoUSB, it's Tomato Shibby build.

Great stable speed btw.

Does both 2.4GHz and 5GHz work using the firmware you stated? How is the wireless range? Just as good as the stock? Are you able to change the TX power above 40mw?