Which ASUS router will fit my Tomato needs?

[Schroinx]

Hi,

I have tried to do some research on a new router. My old WRT54 is getting slow. The thing is I have a gbit switch and the WRT 54mbts for routing and wireless functionality in my apartment. On the network is a media sever (MB3) and a mac mini as htpc with wired gigabit and a laptop for work etc. There is also a iPhone 4S and an iPad 3. So far things has been fine, but I just got a new macbook air. It is fast enough to watch 1080P movies on, but when I do over the wireless, I get studder. The picture stops, gets grey and after while moves again. I strongly suspect the WTR to be the culprit, as the movies play fine on the wired htpc. I can see that even in a sustained file copy operation, the WRT get transferspeeds to the macair up one 10 mbit but mostly around 6mbit. The WRT run Tomato firmware.

So I am looking to replace the old WRT, as I also think it uses a lot of energy. It would be nice if I could also eliminate my gbit switch. Looking into this, I looked at getting a Asus as they seems to work with Tomato and are fast. I am on a budget, so I have been looking for some second hand. The question is how fast and hence how expensive a router I need to do the job. Most services are run from the server, so I don't need a lot of fancy stuff. Speed, stability and a guest function perhaps. These are som options:

RT-AC66U AC1750 at 600 DKK
RT-N56U N600 at 300 DKK
RT-N12E N600 at 175 DKK
RT-N10E N150 at 100 DKK

How much speed do I need? And should I look for a new one instead of a used one?

 

[Nullity]

You might look at the RT-AC56U. It comes with a quite powerful 800Mhz dual-core CPU. It is one of the highest rated wireless routers on this site and it is currently selling on Amazon for a damn good price.

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wire...-band-wireless-ac1200-gigabit-router-reviewed

Check out the other router reviews too.

 

[Pierino]

The n56u isn't tomato capable. Tomato only runs on Broadcom. The n12 and n10, I'm not sure. The ac66u, yes.

 

[RogerSC]

I don't think that I'd want the RT-AC56U for tomato, at least not at the moment. According to the tomato threads, tomato for the ARM (which is what BCM4708 in RT-AC56U is) isn't doing really well yet, still Beta (actually, Alpha, since not all the functionality is there yet). The RT-AC66U is a better bet, since that's the older architecture, but there are even problems there in the latest releases.

I'd suggest looking at these threads (add this onto your homework, that includes reading reviews on this site *smile*):

http://www.linksysinfo.org/index.php?threads/tomato-for-arm-routers.69719/

http://www.linksysinfo.org/index.php?threads/tomato-shibbys-releases.33858/

Just so you know what you're getting into at this point.

 

[Schroinx]

Thx for the replies. The wish for running tomato on the ruter was just because I do that now and rather like it. But if the Asus firmware deliver what I need, then I don't need it to run tomato.

Is the AC56U not overkill, when my only requirement is one 1080P stream wireless at maybe 50 mbits max? Can a N600 device deliver that? Downstream only is 300 mbits and a third is 100 mbit. 50 mbit is half of that so that still leaves a large headroom? A new AC56U is 750DKK compared to 300 for a used N56U.

 

[azazel1024]

What is the client device(s) and where are they located in respect to the router.

With my TP-Link WDR3600 same room I can get ~204Mbps on 5GHz and 196Mbps on 2.4GHz (40MHz) and the WDR3600 is an N600 router (a rather good one too). A room away I can get 180Mbps on 2.4GHz and about 160Mbps on 5GHz. A couple of rooms away and I am down to 80Mbps on 5GHz and 120Mbps on 2.4GHz. Across my house I am down to only a few Mbps on 5GHz and about 30Mbps on 2.4GHz (if using 20MHz, figure about 50% of the performance. IE I can get around 100Mbps same room on 2.4GHz and around 15Mbps or so across the house).

I am fairly rural, no competing 2.4GHz networks to contend with so I can run 2.4GHz in 40MHz just fine.

So...if you have a decent 2:2 client, yeah, you can probably nail 50+Mbps with an N600 router (a decent one). Same room? Deffinitely. Several rooms away, it'll depend on the band, local interference, etc (I don't have interfering networks, but I notice if I am using my 2.4GHz cordless phone, if it is near my client, I'll see about a 4-8% drop in transfer speed. If I turn my microwave on I'll see a 10-30% drop in performance depending on where my client is in relation to the router and the microwave).

 

[Schroinx]

The appartment is 60m2 and rectangular and split in two rooms, so one wall and perhaps 6m at the very most.

I am living in a urban area with appartments in 4 story houses and many of them very close. The 2,4 ghz is crowded. The 5ghz is a lot better my wifi scanner tells me.

160 Mbps should suffice.

 

[sfx2000]

Think about getting away from DD-WRT and the crap that it is... yeah, it boots up on a lot of different devices, but that doesn't make it optimal...

For your use case - any current router will generally work - and your WRT54G will likely appreciate it

sfx