ASUS RT-N66U - my review

[sveisvei]

I got 2 N66U here at home now, but I must say - the GUI is not pleasant, it has alot of Javascript errors, and is in my mind not a good webapp - but most likely much better than the norm.

Hope they fix obvious errors, else its useless for me at least(cant setup bridge mode because of syntax errors in the javascripts)

 

[NightOwl326]

I got 2 N66U here at home now

Will you kindly put them through their paces, and give us further information in regards to range and performance?

 

[ladysman]

I placed an order on newegg immediately after ladysman posted the link. It said it was in stock at the time and I have received order confirmation and tracking. I was unsure until I received tracking, but it says I'll have it Wednesday of next week.
I just wanted everyone to know that they actually had them, and to thank Ladysman for the link.

No problem. I'm waiting to see how it performs before I order it. I'm sure i'll end up with it though.

 

[ladysman]

I am wondering if DD-WRT or Tomato will be available for the RT-N66U any time soon. I need to get a managed Gigabit Ethernet switch for my house (actually, I need two switches - one POE and the other one non-POE). If I can turn the switch integrated into RT-N66U into a managed switch by utilizing ddwrt or tomato (I need 802.1Q and 802.3ad capabilities), I would not need to purchase an additional non-POE managed switch and save $225.

In theory tomato has been supported since August. See this thread.

It's noted to try one of these builds.


Hope this helps.

 

[Geraner]

I got 2 N66U here at home now, but I must say - the GUI is not pleasant, it has alot of Javascript errors, and is in my mind not a good webapp - but most likely much better than the norm.

Hope they fix obvious errors, else its useless for me at least(cant setup bridge mode because of syntax errors in the javascripts)

Agree with you. When switching the GUI language to English, there are some javascript errors which makes it nearly impossible to set up the router.
I'm using Swedish (Svensk) and German (Deutsch) to set up the router.
Have already reported the buggy English GUI to ASUS Support, but haven't got any response from them yet.

 

[Geraner]

I just made a video about the Admin GUI of the RT-N66U and how to set it up.
You also will see there the bug with the Javascript when using the English language for administration.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JB2CSK9SEA

 

[Smithkid]

I got 2 N66U here at home now, but I must say - the GUI is not pleasant, it has alot of Javascript errors, and is in my mind not a good webapp - but most likely much better than the norm.

Hope they fix obvious errors, else its useless for me at least(cant setup bridge mode because of syntax errors in the javascripts)

Where did you get them?

 

[kk22]

Sucks to hear the English GUI has a bunch of Javascript errors. Maybe that's why the router is still not released yet over here in North America. Hope Asus fixes the problem shortly!

Any comments on the USB storage performance yet? I know Guz asked about this earlier but Geraner hasn't tried it out yet.

 

[Geraner]

Any comments on the USB storage performance yet? I know Guz asked about this earlier but Geraner hasn't tried it out yet.

Will try it this evening and post the result here.

 

[sandreas]

Hey,

• Go to Administration, System, then enable telnet.
• Connect with telnet <ip>

Now you can "fix" some JavaScript-Errors in js-files (/www), but the fixes will not survive reboot
Or you can adjust tx-power with iwconfig or ip
Or you can <put some elementary linux commands in here>...

HF

 

[Spitfire69]

USB speed

The USB speed for me copying a big file (8GB) between an external USB 2.0 HD (NTFS, 5400 rpm) connected to a desktop PC and a Samsung G2 (NTFS, 5400 rpm) mounted on the USB port in the RT-N66U was around 14 MBytes/s.

Overall I think the RT-N66U is a great router, really love the possibility to have it downloading stuff without having the desktop on. The downloading interface is way better than on the 56U even though it still rather rough. Tried it with torrents, nzbs and urls, it even automatically starts a download of a selected torrent in the DL manager and the speeds are decent.

No restarts yet (had it a week), noticed the javascript errors when using english as setup language but changed it to swedish and I´m now running it as an AP.

It does also support USB modems, tried it with a LTE (4G) stick and it accepted the stick immediately as an generic_3g stick and set it up accordingly however it didn't set it up to maximum speed just 3G speed so I hope a future upgrade will make it possible to use the full 4G speed.

 

[Geraner]

Made now a test of the USB as well.
Connected a USB hard drive to my computer first and copying a large 1 GB file was showing me a transfer speed of about 24 MB/s.

Connecting the same disk to the router was no problem. The RT-N66U detected it. Transfering the 1 GB file took 2,12 minutes. This means transfer speed of 7,75 MB/s. About the same that was showing in Windows during transfer.

Was checking my internet speed at the same time, and still got 88 MBit/s download and 65 MBit/s upload.

Checking the processor usage via Telnet at the same time I saw that it was going up to 50 - 55%.

 

[Geraner]

Don't know how ASUS support is working. But I still don't have received an answer on my case I sent to ASUS support via vip.asus.com on the 2nd of January. Now we have the 10th of January. - That's really disappointing!

 

[NightOwl326]

Don't know how ASUS support is working. But I still don't have received an answer on my case I sent to ASUS support via vip.asus.com on the 2nd of January. Now we have the 10th of January. - That's really disappointing!

I agree, since the information you provided helps them more than you!

 

[Geraner]

I just called the swedish ASUS support and talked to a woman there. Asking her whether my case was plased on the right site. She said yes, they should receive an answer from them.

Here the mail I sent via VIP.ASUS.COM.

Hi,
I bought this new RT-N66U and configured it for my needs.
Runing with firmware 3.0.0.3.72

I found some bugs in the GUI for the router configuration.

1) English GUI has some bugs.
Changing langueage from German or Swedish to English. Then the computers I entered under "Manually Assigned IP around the DHCP List" are not shown. Switching back go German or Swedish, the settings are shown correctly.

2) Traffic Manager -> QoS -> User define QOS rules
I want to give two of my computers at home different priorization.
Adding under "User Specify Rule List" just the IP-adress, or MAC adress of the computer I want to priorize. Leaving "service name", "destination port" and "transered" empty. Selecting Port TCP/UDP. Priority = high. Pressing + sign.
The settings will be saved.
Adding an addional computer, different IP-adress, with Priority "highest" and pressing + sign. Settings are displayed bellow.
When pressing "Apply Settings", the last entered IP address Priority "highest". But the fist entered IP-adress has priority "Low".
As soon as I'm entering more computers for priorization the previous entered computer gets priorzation "low".

Suggestion:
In this meny, it would be good if the user can just click on "edit" to change settings of already entered priorizations, instead of just having the option to delete the whole rule and create a new one.

Please follow this up.
I will report more bugs if I find some.

Best regards

I explained the problem with the QoS to the lady at the swedish support once again. She had to talk to another technican at their department and came back to me with the information that this behavoir is normal. :-O

Doesn't feels good to get no answer from ASUS support via vip.asus.com and then getting this answer from the local support via phone.

 

[Recoil]

Is it possible to hook up several USB HDD's through a USB-hub, or is it limited to one drive per USB connector on the router?

 

[KeithKman]

Asus announced the router on their Twitter today.

Announcing the @ASUS RT-N66U Router. The most powerful ever - handling up to 300,000 connections at once: http://t.co/aCvsbOdV #ASUSCES

 

[guapo187]

I ordered this router from newegg last friday 1/6 and it came in today (a day early). It's kind of impressive since i'm in GA. Anyways, getting the router setup was a bit of a pain. To say that the GUI has errors is an understatement...I finally got it up and running but I have no idea which tweak and reboot session actually took.

 

[NightOwl326]

I ordered this router from newegg last friday 1/6 and it came in today (a day early). It's kind of impressive since i'm in GA. Anyways, getting the router setup was a bit of a pain. To say that the GUI has errors is an understatement...I finally got it up and running but I have no idea which tweak and reboot session actually took.

A review of range and performance along the way would be nice.

 

[Greg_Elite]

I ordered this router from newegg last friday 1/6 and it came in today (a day early). It's kind of impressive since i'm in GA. Anyways, getting the router setup was a bit of a pain. To say that the GUI has errors is an understatement...I finally got it up and running but I have no idea which tweak and reboot session actually took.

Did u update the firmware immediately?
Sad. But this has what it comes down to sometimes.