What's new

Asus RT-N56U Reviewed

  • SNBForums Code of Conduct

    SNBForums is a community for everyone, no matter what their level of experience.

    Please be tolerant and patient of others, especially newcomers. We are all here to share and learn!

    The rules are simple: Be patient, be nice, be helpful or be gone!

occamsrazor

Regular Contributor
Some specs (from what I can gather) on Asus RT-N56U (Ralink, dual-band, 128mb/8mb) and RT-N76U (Broadcom, dual-band, 128mb/32mb):

http://infodepot.wikia.com/wiki/Asus_RT-N56U
http://infodepot.wikia.com/wiki/Asus_RT-N76U
http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=ik8J7ZTvg1uktpab
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikiped...i/Asus_routers
http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=508349
http://wl500g.info/showthread.php?t=25043

RT-N76U may make a nice router for 3rd Party firmwares, similar to RT-N16 but with simultaneous dual-band wifi.

No idea what the availability of these is yet, however.... (EDIT: RT-N56U seems to be just becoming available, can't see any sign of the RT-N76U yet...)
 
Last edited:
asus rt-n56u

i have been checking this site for review on this every day.this router has been listed on newegg for 2 weeks and still no reviews there as well.
 
Testing has been done and added to Router and Wireless Charts. Review coming.
 
Looks good, but doesn't seem better then Cisco E4200 in 2.4Ghz and 5 Ghz is marginally better, unless I am reading things incorrectly. Are you planning to do review of the new Buffalo dual band router as well?
 
Last edited:
Energy consumption maybe?

I am amazed that noone cares about energy consumption on these devices. Its on 24/7 and I care for how many watts it draws in idle and in operation.
Any serious hardware reviewer should include it 2011.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the review am loving mine in terms of its range and speed! Would prefer a more comprehensive menu though, and initial setup was a bit strange.
 
Thanks for the review, Tim.

I have the WNDR3700, but it doesn't work with two of my wireless IP cameras with encryption, which all my other routers (DIR-655,andWZR-HP-G300NH). I got the RT-N56U and it worked fine. Over here, I have just moved to fibre broadband, and using two units of RT-N56U, I created a wireless bridge on the 5.0GHz band. The speeds were much faster than either Homeplugs or simply connecting as a wireless client (via Intel 5100AGN) on the 5.0GHz on my laptop. I read that the RT-N56U is 2T3R on the 5.0GHz band, so I'm not sure if the speed is due to this.
 
I am amazed that noone cares about energy consumption on these devices. Its on 24/7 and I care for how many watts it draws in idle and in operation.
Any serious hardware reviewer should include it 2011.
All consumer wireless routers draw 5 - 7W. Not worth the bother to measure.
Besides, non-serious reviews are the only kind we do at SmallNetBuilder.
 
Picked one up at Fry's for $120 (after rebate). Just did my basic tests and I am pleased with results, range on 2.4 Ghz seems about the same as E4200, but definitely better on 5 Ghz. Also, it doesn't have the issue I had with E4200 where it would not reconnect my 2 IP cameras if the signals is lost and I was thinking it was an issue with the IP camers. The UI is a bit confusing at first and DHCP reservation setting is not as easy as on E4200, but I can get over that. So, it's time for E4200 to go...
 
Picked one up at Fry's for $120 (after rebate). Just did my basic tests and I am pleased with results, range on 2.4 Ghz seems about the same as E4200, but definitely better on 5 Ghz. Also, it doesn't have the issue I had with E4200 where it would not reconnect my 2 IP cameras if the signals is lost and I was thinking it was an issue with the IP camers. The UI is a bit confusing at first and DHCP reservation setting is not as easy as on E4200, but I can get over that. So, it's time for E4200 to go...

I'll give you a dollar for that E4200 :) Seriously though if your looking to get rid of it send me a PM.
 
I wouldn't even sell E4200 to my worst enemy... well, it's not that bad, but it is overpriced for marginal performance in 5Ghz band. I was excited with E4200 initially because it was an improvement over WNDR3700 in the range department, but after using for a month it showed its other weaknesses. I am now more cautious to call Asus a winner here only after a couple of days of usage, but while being cheaper it offers more features and appears to have rock solid 5 Ghz signal. More importantly HD streaming been more reliable with Asus where with E4200 I had artifacts in my OTA recorded videos (with HDHomerun) that I stream wirelessly to MacMini HTPC. WNDR3700 did not have that issue either.

Btw thank you for your offer, but I hope you don't mind that I've taken advantage of Cisco 90 day return policy. :)


Here is some info on my experience with all 3:

RT-N56U - 3 days so far; Web UI while has visual appeal is a bit awkward to use, took me a long time to find where the port forwarding is (it's called virtual server), also trying to reserve IP address wasn't straight forward task; Signal strength/throughput outperforms E4200 & WNDR3700; Reasonable price; Has bridging functionality; Traffic monitor; Frequent firmware updates

E4200 - Month usage. Clean and easy to use interface; No bridging functionality; 5Ghz band had short range and has been unreliable with HD streaming; Too expensive for lacking performance; 2 of my IP cameras would loose signal occasionally and they would not reconnect back unless I restart the cameras (I couldn't figure out if it was the cameras or the router, but long term test with Asus will help me to figure that out)

WNDR3700 - Had been using it for 1.5 years because there was nothing else that was worth considering at that time; Buggy firmware and DHCP never worked properly; Short range, especially in 5Ghz band, but HD streaming has been reliable for my setup


NAS Download test from my primary location (40 feet with 4 walls):
RT-N56U
2.4 Ghz - < 4 MB/Sec
5 Ghz - < 1 MB/sec

E4200
2.4 Ghz - < 2 MB/Sec
5 Ghz - Cannot be reached most of the time, 300 Kb/sec

WNDR3700
2.4 Ghz - < 1 MB/Sec
5 Ghz - Cannot be reached
 
Last edited:
Would you fellas be kind enough to recommend a bridge to use with this Asus to my living room, which will take full advantage (i.e. max speed) to/from the Asus? Then I can connect the bridge to my already-owned 8 port giga switch, which I can also use to connect my PC, Xbox, etc. to. I'm hoping it's something less costly than buying another of these, but so be it if that's the answer. I want the BEST this time, and I'm not settling for less. Thank you guys so much! Hoping to order today so maybe I'm lucky and I can be playing with this stuff this weekend!

PS Oh and I'm going to be setting this up with FIOS, and I'm tempted to just dump the FIOS router (since I don't use them for TV/phone) and just directly connect the Asus. Thoughts?
 
If you like the ASUS so much, you might as well get another and use the WDS bridging.
 
I finally gave up on the wireless bridge for streaming HD content. It worked very well for normal Xbox gaming but for things such as Netflix (quasi HD) streaming I was very unhappy with it. I was ready to run a cable from my router to the living room when I purchased Uverse and found out that the ethernet port on the stb was active. What a wonderful thing. I had tried three different wireless bridges on both the 2.4ghz and 5ghz bands, I could not stand all the re-buffering. My wrt610n is still going strong and serves its purpose. Never did try the dd-wrt firmware for it as the wiki still lists it as having wireless issues.

Please let us know how the bridge works on that Asus unit if you decide to do this.

Would be nice to see a review of the Vizio router that is touted as a "HD" router. It seems like the users that do comment on it are pretty happy.
 
I tried WDS bridging between the RT-N56U and the WZR-HP-G300NH running on DD-WRT. It works, but there are occasion signal drop. Not sure if this is because of WZR-HP-G300NH or the 2.4GHz band congestion.

With a 2nd RT-N56U, my wireless bridging on 5.0GHz works very well.
 
Some specs (from what I can gather) on Asus RT-N56U (Ralink, dual-band, 128mb/8mb) and RT-N76U (Broadcom, dual-band, 128mb/32mb):

http://infodepot.wikia.com/wiki/Asus_RT-N56U
http://infodepot.wikia.com/wiki/Asus_RT-N76U
http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=ik8J7ZTvg1uktpab
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikiped...i/Asus_routers
http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=508349
http://wl500g.info/showthread.php?t=25043

RT-N76U may make a nice router for 3rd Party firmwares, similar to RT-N16 but with simultaneous dual-band wifi.

No idea what the availability of these is yet, however.... (EDIT: RT-N56U seems to be just becoming available, can't see any sign of the RT-N76U yet...)

Anyone know if the RT-N76U is available yet & if there's any reviews & progress on the 3rd party fw front?
Original review request (this thread) was 3mths ago, it should be out by now or very soon I'd imagine.
 
Last edited:
All consumer wireless routers draw 5 - 7W. Not worth the bother to measure.
Besides, non-serious reviews are the only kind we do at SmallNetBuilder.

Can be, I have no clue how much a modern "faster" router draws.
I assume you base your assumption on older types? Anyway, this figure is very interesting 2011, time changes, I want speed to lowest possible energy consumption, and yes, watts count!

Best Regards
 
Too bad the TL-WR1043ND Stock ROM didn't get reviewed but at least I know does the job for me. But hat ASUS RTN56U looks good as wired router management.
 

Similar threads

Latest threads

Sign Up For SNBForums Daily Digest

Get an update of what's new every day delivered to your mailbox. Sign up here!
Top