Router Shopping - Asus RT-N66U questions?

[Chris313AllNight]

I'm shopping for a router to replace my aged and maxed Linksys WRT54GL. I've heard rave things about the 66U. Before I go and buy one, I have a few questions.

What is the top wired speed on the router? (I have a Comcast 50/10 connection and don't want to have to upgrade the router again for another 3-5 years)

Does the standard firmware on the router have a bandwidth graph to show how much is used in a given month? I'm also looking for a speed meter so I can clock my downloads to make sure I'm getting my full speed on my game consoles. (XBOX 360 made in 2007 and PS3 bought in 2008)

If not, is there a good recommended firmware for the 66U? DD-WRT has what I'm looking for, but I've had some issues with the firmware that has kinda turned me off.

Also, I have a bit of weird set up, with things that don't play nice together in a standard router setting. The only way I've found to get everything to cooperate is to assign IP addresses by hand to everything.

If anyone sets IP addresses manually for their equipment, tell me, do you get the full speed of your connection when doing things that way? (Strange thing. My computer completely sucks the line, but when tried on my XBOX or PS3, they get significantly less, my 54GL gives my computer 32.5, but gives my consoles anywhere from 1.25 to 17 Mbps. A far cry from the 30-50 my line is capable of, eh?)

I hope to have my answers soon. This'll be the first time I've tried anything Asus and what amounts to my second router. I'm a sucker for being able to set and forget about it when I want to.

 

[RMerlin]

I'm shopping for a router to replace my aged and maxed Linksys WRT54GL. I've heard rave things about the 66U. Before I go and buy one, I have a few questions.

What is the top wired speed on the router? (I have a Comcast 50/10 connection and don't want to have to upgrade the router again for another 3-5 years)

Check out thiggins's review here on SmallNetBuilder - he actually benchmarked the maximum WAN speed the router can handle. Note that to achieve that max speed, you have to keep some features like QoS disabled, otherwise you lose HW acceleration, in which case the router speed caps at around 200 Mbits (still faster than your 50 Mbits connection tho).

Does the standard firmware on the router have a bandwidth graph to show how much is used in a given month? I'm also looking for a speed meter so I can clock my downloads to make sure I'm getting my full speed on my game consoles. (XBOX 360 made in 2007 and PS3 bought in 2008)

The original firmware can report data usage in realtime, daily and weekly charts. There is no monthly chart, and since it saves everything in RAM, the database will be wiped if the router is rebooted. That can be resolved by switching to Asuswrt-merlin, which adds both monthly data and allows you to save it to a plugged USB disk so it can survive reboots.

If anyone sets IP addresses manually for their equipment, tell me, do you get the full speed of your connection when doing things that way? (Strange thing. My computer completely sucks the line, but when tried on my XBOX or PS3, they get significantly less, my 54GL gives my computer 32.5, but gives my consoles anywhere from 1.25 to 17 Mbps. A far cry from the 30-50 my line is capable of, eh?)

Using static IPs won't have any impact on speed.

 

[Chris313AllNight]

Check out thiggins's review here on SmallNetBuilder - he actually benchmarked the maximum WAN speed the router can handle. Note that to achieve that max speed, you have to keep some features like QoS disabled, otherwise you lose HW acceleration, in which case the router speed caps at around 200 Mbits (still faster than your 50 Mbits connection tho).



The original firmware can report data usage in realtime, daily and weekly charts. There is no monthly chart, and since it saves everything in RAM, the database will be wiped if the router is rebooted. That can be resolved by switching to Asuswrt-merlin, which adds both monthly data and allows you to save it to a plugged USB disk so it can survive reboots.



Using static IPs won't have any impact on speed.

By the time I get upgraded to 200, I think I'll be needing to replace my router again. So no worries. I don't use QOS to begin with, so not a concern there.

Looks like your firmware is what I'll want to put on. How come it saves it to a USB stick and not router memory itself like DD-WRT does? Can it be saved like a file and put back later? (Don't have anything like a USB flash drive)

Reminds me of why I switched from Tomato to DD-WRT. Every time my router lost power, I'd lose my BW logs with it.

As for speed loss, sounds like it's the version of DD-WRT I'm using then.

I look forward to trying the 66U and your firmware. Will have it in a week or so.

 

[RMerlin]

Looks like your firmware is what I'll want to put on. How come it saves it to a USB stick and not router memory itself like DD-WRT does? Can it be saved like a file and put back later? (Don't have anything like a USB flash drive)

My firmware does allow you to save it in the internal JFFS partition as well, but that is not recommended, as it will prematurely wear out your flash memory. A 5$ USB flash drive would get the job done, and will be cheaper to replace than a 175$ router if you wear it out (flash storage only has a limited numbers of write cycles allowed before it "burns out").

 

[cmillar6]

I've got comcast 50/10 with 17 clients (laptops, game consoles, tablets, IP camera's,printers) all with static IP addresses and my asus router doesn't break a sweat keeping them all happy. If you want to future proof your router for the next 3-5 years you might want to consider the AC66u as it supports the new wireless spec.
The minute you get it flash with Merlins firmware as bandwidth monitoring is second to none. It's as stable as the stock Asus firmware and adds some nice extra features while retaining the full functionality of the original firmware.

 

[Chris313AllNight]

My firmware does allow you to save it in the internal JFFS partition as well, but that is not recommended, as it will prematurely wear out your flash memory. A 5$ USB flash drive would get the job done, and will be cheaper to replace than a 175$ router if you wear it out (flash storage only has a limited numbers of write cycles allowed before it "burns out").

Ok. Would you be so kind as to recommend a good flash stick for this? And where's the instructions to set it up to save to the stick? Is your firmware able to be set to where it automatically backs up to the stick?

 

[Fraoch]

Chris:

I did the exact same thing you did - I went from a WRT54GL running DD-WRT to an ASUS RT-N66U, running Asuswrt-Merlin.

I did this because I just upgraded my Internet connection to 28/1 (bandwidth spikes to 65 down sometimes) and my WRT54GL just couldn't keep up - it has a hardware limitation that won't let it pass LAN - WAN data any faster than 43 Mbps or so.

No such limitation on the RT-N66U. You won't regret it. Speeds are quite fast especially in 5.0 GHz wireless with 40 MHz channels and of course on wired gigabit. Range is exceptional in both bands as well.

I do miss my WRT54GL though, it was very stable, going 1 year+ between reboots (and reboots weren't really necessary, in all cases it was the Internet connection). However technology has really advanced since the WRT54GL and its hardware limitations can't be addressed through firmware.

Oh and in regards to a USB stick, any cheapie will do since the demands on it would be rather light in this application. I see ADATA and small Kingston flash drives on sale here (in Canada, yet!) for less than $5.

 

[Chris313AllNight]

Chris:

I did the exact same thing you did - I went from a WRT54GL running DD-WRT to an ASUS RT-N66U, running Asuswrt-Merlin.

I did this because I just upgraded my Internet connection to 28/1 (bandwidth spikes to 65 down sometimes) and my WRT54GL just couldn't keep up - it has a hardware limitation that won't let it pass LAN - WAN data any faster than 43 MBps or so.

No such limitation on the RT-N66U. You won't regret it. Speeds are quite fast especially in 5.0 GHz wireless with 40 MHz channels and of course on wired gigabit. Range is exceptional in both bands as well.

I do miss my WRT54GL though, it was very stable, going 1 year+ between reboots (and reboots weren't really necessary, in all cases it was the Internet connection). However technology has really advanced since the WRT54GL and its hardware limitations can't be addressed through firmware.

Oh and in regards to a USB stick, any cheapie will do since the demands on it would be rather light in this application. I see ADATA and small Kingston flash drives on sale here (in Canada, yet!) for less than $5.

Yes. According to Shaper Probe: http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~partha/diffprobe/shaperprobe.html I get 42 off my 54GL, but in real testing. 32-33 is all.

And yeah, I can remember going like 300+ days between reboots. And yeah, tech has advanced since then. Linksys WRT54G series was a classic, but it's time to put it to bed when you aren't getting your money's worth speed wise anymore, eh?

I look forward to being wow'd by the 66U. Asus could be the new Linksys as far as I'm concerned.