A few questions about RT-N66U setup and use

[RudeJoe]

I've had this router for a few months now. I'm not big into technology except as necessary to use it. I am however always interested the latest and trying to get everything I can out of this thing. With documentation being so bad with this router I have a few questions...

Printer support - I remember seeing a very limited list of supported printers and my printer was not on it. Has Asus increased the list of printers they support? I can't find the list now. How do I find the list or test to see if my printer will work? I have an HP 5100 series.

Firmware - My router is firmware ...108. I'm trying to update it to the latest by clicking on the firmware version. The computer shows a pop up progress window which says it will take about 3mins., it takes much longer. After its done I don't see any evidence that the firmware is updated. It still indicates firmware ...108. How do I properly install new firmware?

NAS storage - what does it take to install and configure to use sometype of NAS? Do I need an actual NAS? Or can a external harddrive suffice?

Parental Controls - The controls including parental controls aren't as robust and intuitive as I thought they would be.
1. How can I easily identify the clients on the router? Its kind of difficult to decipher from just the MAC address.
2. When trying to select a particular client to apply parental controls I get an error message about not using "." and "!" but the client does not use these symbols in the name. Any idea what's up with this?

How do I change channels? I've seen a few discussions taking about the benefits of changing to a lessor used channel. I can't figure out how to do this from the router's web page.

I'm sure I'll have more but these questions should be a start. Thanks in advance.

 

[RogerSC]

I've had this router for a few months now. I'm not big into technology except as necessary to use it. I am however always interested the latest and trying to get everything I can out of this thing. With documentation being so bad with this router I have a few questions...

Printer support - I remember seeing a very limited list of supported printers and my printer was not on it. Has Asus increased the list of printers they support? I can't find the list now. How do I find the list or test to see if my printer will work? I have an HP 5100 series.

Firmware - My router is firmware ...108. I'm trying to update it to the latest by clicking on the firmware version. The computer shows a pop up progress window which says it will take about 3mins., it takes much longer. After its done I don't see any evidence that the firmware is updated. It still indicates firmware ...108. How do I properly install new firmware?

NAS storage - what does it take to install and configure to use sometype of NAS? Do I need an actual NAS? Or can a external harddrive suffice?

Parental Controls - The controls including parental controls aren't as robust and intuitive as I thought they would be.
1. How can I easily identify the clients on the router? Its kind of difficult to decipher from just the MAC address.
2. When trying to select a particular client to apply parental controls I get an error message about not using "." and "!" but the client does not use these symbols in the name. Any idea what's up with this?

How do I change channels? I've seen a few discussions taking about the benefits of changing to a lessor used channel. I can't figure out how to do this from the router's web page.

I'm sure I'll have more but these questions should be a start. Thanks in advance.

As I recall, the "autoupdate" that would download and automatically install firmware from the Asus web site that you tried to use was broken in firmware version .108. You'll need to actually download the firmware file that you want to upgrade to onto a computer that's hard-wired to the router (don't use wireless to do a firmware upgrade). Then go to the "Administration" -> "Firmware Upgrade" tab, and use the "New firmware file" "Choose" button to browse to where you downloaded the firmware. This will be a file ending in ".trx". If it doesn't end in ".trx" chances are that it's a zip archive, and you'll have to unzip it and extract the ".trx" file.

Once you have the firmware filename chosen and showing in the interface (where it initially says "No file chosen"), press the "Upload" button, and that will start the firmware upgrade. When that's finished, I recommend erasing the nvram by enabling telnet, and telnet'ing into the router (IP address 192.168.1.1, login name "admin", password "admin"), and issuing these commands:

mtd-erase -d nvram
reboot

When the reboot is done, I would power-cycle the router, then re-enter your configuration, and then you're done.

 

[KevTech]

Go here to download the latest firmware:

http://support.asus.com/Download.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=RT-N66U+(VER.B1)&p=11&s=2

 

[RMerlin]

NAS: Depends on your actual needs. A USB disk plugged to the router is fine if you have limited needs (i.e. for storing backups or music). However if you do a lot of file transfer, then the performance will be somewhat lacking - in that case you'd be better off with a real NAS rather than a router bottlenecked by the USB 2.0 port.

Printer support will always be iffy, because it depends for starter on how well Linux can support a given printer. I suspect Asus's list is just a list of actual models they have tested and confirmed to be working, I'm fairly sure the actual list of compatible printers is far longer than this. You will have to rely on user feedback unfortunately to determine if it will work or not.