ASUS RT-N66U a good upgrade from a Netgear WNDR3700?

[tbessie]

Hi folks...

I've had a Netgear WNDR3700 for about a year (maybe more?) now, and it's served me well. I don't play any games over the network and my home WAN speed is only about 6Mbps, so LAN-to-WAN speed isn't that important. I'm most likely not pushing my WNDR3700's abilities too far right now.

However, I like to keep up to date. Do you folks think an RT-N66U (being the current speed demon) would make much difference in my home network? The WNDR3700's been around long enough to have a pretty stable firmware (after a shakey start), and I'm used to a good GUI and lack of need to reboot it.

My main need for speed at home is inter-computer transfers, especially over WiFi, and streaming video wirelessly - as fast as possible is best. I don't stream 1080p (no 1080p TV in my bedroom, just my laptop, which is 720p).

Anyone who's owned both have any opinions?

- Tim

 

[RogerSC]

Yes, I've owned both of these. The only reason that I stopped using the WNDR3700v1 that I had was that the wireless stopped working on the Netgear. Otherwise I'd still be using it.

The Asus does have longer wireless range, but if your wireless is working okay for you, that's fine, no reason to upgrade there. The Asus has media server functionality, so if you want to use that, that's a reason to upgrade. There is also VPN functionality (that doesn't seem to be completely there yet), and IPv6 functionality (not sure that's completely working yet, either *smile*), but I'm hoping that both of these will be working at some point. I hear that if you use tomato firmware you get this stuff, but I don't think that it gives you the wireless features that the stock firmware does.

So it really is up to you to decide if your current router is doing what you need to do. If so, keep using it, the longer you wait, the better the routers on the market should get (in theory *smile*). If you need the extra features of the Asus, then go for it...and you'll have to put up with the Asus firmware not quite being fully developed to support all those extra features at this point.

 

[tbessie]

The Asus does have longer wireless range, but if your wireless is working okay for you, that's fine, no reason to upgrade there. The Asus has media server functionality, so if you want to use that, that's a reason to upgrade. There is also VPN functionality (that doesn't seem to be completely there yet), and IPv6 functionality (not sure that's completely working yet, either *smile*), but I'm hoping that both of these will be working at some point. I hear that if you use tomato firmware you get this stuff, but I don't think that it gives you the wireless features that the stock firmware does.

Hmm... by "VPN Functionality" you mean VPN-in, from the outside world, correct? (since VPN'ing out requires no special setup on your home router as far as I know - or are there some features I'm unaware of?). The IPv6 could be useful, and I think my ISP supports it well, though I'm not using it internally (and I think I have some devices that couldn't handle it anyway). Media Server functionality could be interesting, although I've set up an HTPC under my TV that serves that purpose, so unless I just didn't happen to want to to turn it on and preferred to stick a movie-on-a-USB-stick into the router, it wouldn't be necessary either.

Still... it's FASTER! ;-) Well, I may still get one, just to see. My only worry is that I've had some Asus motherboards in the past, and they tend to just kind of drop them pretty quickly after release, as far as firmware updates and such, even if they contain some faults, so I'm not extremely trusting of them. But then, what electronics manufacturer CAN you trust these days?

So it really is up to you to decide if your current router is doing what you need to do. If so, keep using it, the longer you wait, the better the routers on the market should get (in theory *smile*). If you need the extra features of the Asus, then go for it...and you'll have to put up with the Asus firmware not quite being fully developed to support all those extra features at this point.

Yes, that's the theory, although I haven't seen anything big come around recently - I guess we're all waiting for the next big jump in WiFi standards. When WiFi data transfers are as fast as I can write over a PCI-e bus to an SSD, then I'll say we've arrived.

- Tim

 

[RogerSC]

Yes, that's what I meant, your hosting a VPN for access from the outside world. Access to someone else's VPN generally only requires some sort of NAT passthrough, which most routers (including the WNDR3700 *smile*) have.

I've generally not been impressed with Asus firmware, either, especially the rt-n56u. That one got picked up by another project and a lot of bugs were fixed in it. Asus didn't seem up to the task.

It seems like Asus is doing better with the rt-n66u with the latest firmware, but still haven't finished the job. So you do take that risk, unless you want to use third-party firmware like tomato. That has other risks, though, of course.

 

[TonyH]

Hi folks...

I've had a Netgear WNDR3700 for about a year (maybe more?) now, and it's served me well. I don't play any games over the network and my home WAN speed is only about 6Mbps, so LAN-to-WAN speed isn't that important. I'm most likely not pushing my WNDR3700's abilities too far right now.

However, I like to keep up to date. Do you folks think an RT-N66U (being the current speed demon) would make much difference in my home network? The WNDR3700's been around long enough to have a pretty stable firmware (after a shakey start), and I'm used to a good GUI and lack of need to reboot it.

My main need for speed at home is inter-computer transfers, especially over WiFi, and streaming video wirelessly - as fast as possible is best. I don't stream 1080p (no 1080p TV in my bedroom, just my laptop, which is 720p).

Anyone who's owned both have any opinions?

- Tim

Hi,
I had WNDR3700V2 on OpenWrt for a long time and moved upto ASUS(first time using ASUS router). WiFi has better range, as a result increased speed.
IMO, it was worth it. Every night wife is streaming real time 1080P stuffs, no
problem.

 

[tbessie]

Well, I ended up ordering an RT-N66U. Plugged it into the wall. Short electronic "BZZZZT!" sound and the transformer blows out. Lovely.

Back to NewEgg for a replacement.

Asus needs better quality control.

- Tim

 

[jerry6]

what took 3 minutes on 3700 takes 1.5 minutes on rtn66 , much faster . transfer rate on 5ghz was 72-76 mbps on 3700 now 98-109 mbps on the rtn66 getting very good results .