RT-N66U and an Apple home network

[Peterwd]

I have questions about purchasing the RT-N66U router to use with my mac home network (imac, macbook, macbook pro, ipad,appletv) .

I am a newbie so please forgive me if my questions are foolish, I searched this site but didn't find answers. The asus site is totally windows oriented and the tech I chatted with didn't know anything about macs.

1. Asus support says that a HD attached to the RT-N66U cannot be formatted as HFS+, so is it correct to assume that I cannot use the router to network a usb drive for time machine backups? ( The drive is a 2 tb WD My Book Studio LX )

2. Can I use that same wd usb drive attached to this router as an itunes server?

3. I have a cannon MP530 usb printer. Can I network that through this router and use my mac programs and aps to control the printer and scanner functions? ( it is not in asus's list and they say windows only)

4. Can I use this router to stream airtunes or airplay to my 1st gen apple express or my apple tv?

I am interested in this router because my old D-link DI-624 is no longer meeting our household's needs nor has enough range to stream itunes etc. Besides the speed and range of this router I wanted the 2 usb ports to use for HD and printer Networking. If the RT- N66U isn't a good fit any suggestions for alternative or should I just go out and get an apple extreme?

 

[SoCalReviews]

From my knowledge and experience non-Apple routers seem to be hit or miss providing complete Apple device and feature functionality. It's not that they don't work. It's just that there is never a guarantee that they will offer full functionality with all of their features. But that is true for all wireless devices...even the non-Apple ones...PCs, notebooks, smart TVs, etc..

The only Apple device I own right now is a mid-2011 Mac Mini which is hardwired on the network. I haven't tried using the N66U's USB ports for network accessed HDs or Printers. I use a small hard drive via the Mac Mini USB 2.0 port for Time Machine backup. I am also considering purchasing an Apple TV device for streaming content wired and/or wirelessly. I have a Slingbox Solo and have Android phones and tablets. My friends and family who have visited had no problems using their iPhones, Macbooks, and iPod devices connected on the wireless 2.4Ghz channel band to my RT-N66U.

If you want the best out of the box functionality and support for all your Apple devices then the Airport Extreme is the easiest way to go. If you don't mind experimenting with settings and extended features to see if all the functions of your apple devices are supported then the top rated high performance non-Apple routers are a good option that many find success using. While the Airport Extreme is known to be a very good wireless router it's going to be hard to beat the N66U for wireless range and performance. It's simply one of the best consumer wireless router's available. There is also another option of combining a devices such as the RT-N66U with an Airport Extreme...and using the Airport as the router and the N66U as a wireless AP or bridge...but you can lose some of the functionality of each of the routers by doing that.

If I used all Apple products and want complete functionality I would probably consider just getting the Airport Extreme. If you are the adventurous type...you want the best potential performance and range and don't mind experimenting to get all the various Apple device networking features working the way you want then try the N66U.