Switching to ASUS routers, questions of older routers

[Spazdoc]

I have been reading here without registering for a while, but I has a hard time searching for specifics on the Asus 56U and 66U working together.

I just moved into a 5,500 sq foot concrete and steel home (75 years old), which is currently wired with Cat 5e throughout the house. I am currently using a Linksys 4200 Ver 1 as a router and an older Linksys WRT160N as an AP. I was happy with the Linksys 4200 alone in my previous home, but now I am getting a few dead zones. I am building a home theater and my designer usually installs Pakedge, so he does not have specific recommendations.

The wiring, modem, router, network storage, and main switch will be housed in the basement (steel and concrete above it). The dedicated home theater is in the basement, and does not need much wireless since it will have Cat 5e.

My basics:
Internet: Comcast 50 / 10 Mbps
Modem: Arris tm722g
Switches: Netgear ProSafe Plus Switch GS116E in basement, Netgear ProSafe Plus GS108E in third floor
Printer: HP Photosmart C7280, via Wifi
Netowrk storage: pending (currently a LaCie 2x 1 TB, Raid 1, connected to laptop)

I am using 2 laptops, 3 iPads, 1 iPhone, 1 Galaxy S4, a Kindle via wifi, with intermittent guest needs, and a PC desktop, 2x Roku3, and Sonos wired.

So I was planning on replacing the Linksys units with an ASUS RT N56U as my router in the basement and and ASUS RT N66U on the second floor. My reasoning is that the N56U has the best total LAN throughput of any Linksys and most ASUS, so it will be connected to my networked storage. A few questions:

1. Will the N56U be adequate as a main router and the N66U as a simple access point? My wife uses VPN for work with her laptop, but otherwise I do not need much customization.
2. Does the ASUS work well with HP printers?
3. Will I run into problems using my Linksys routers as access points for any remaining dead spots?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Fraoch]

1. Will the N56U be adequate as a main router and the N66U as a simple access point? My wife uses VPN for work with her laptop, but otherwise I do not need much customization.

That would be perfect actually. The N56U is reportedly a faster router with more processing power - its wireless is good and should be perfectly fine for your basement. The N66U has better wireless and makes a fantastic AP. So you're using each to its strengths.

I can't comment on VPN on the N56U as I don't use VPN and don't have an N56U but it should have a fair amount of power for it.

Or you could go with a wired router in the basement and reuse one of the Linksys devices as an AP for the basement, then use the N66U as an AP on the main level. Wired routers will be useful for far longer because they aren't tied to a particular wireless technology - if you want to go to ac, just swap out the APs and keep the wired router. It also makes changes much easier, you just configure the new AP and keep the router settings the same.

As for network storage, if money were no object I'd go for a proper NAS wired to a switch. If you're using one of the routers as a NAS it will be slow no matter where you connect it, though the N66U would be faster:

N56U:

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wire...nd-gigabit-wireless-n-router-reviewed?start=1

I ran a file copy of our standard ripped-DVD test folder and measured write speed of 7.6 MB/s and 9.5 MB/s with FAT and NTFS-formatted drives, respectively. Reads came in at 13 MB/s for both formats. This performance is typical of embedded router file servers.

N66U:

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wire...n900-gigabit-router-reviewed?showall=&start=2

Results show that the current storage sharing throughput champ is the Cisco Linksys E4200V2 with 20+ MB/s reads and writes with an NTFS formatted drive. The RT-56U and 66U are about the same for FAT32 format, with the 66U able to write about 2X faster (17 MB/s vs. 11 MB/s) than the 56U to an NTFS formatted drive.

You will have a hard time passing that 17 MB/s wirelessly, so the limiting factor would be wireless speeds if this copying was done wirelessly. If it was done over the wired network though, the N56U/N66U's file sharing speeds would be a bottleneck so a NAS would offer greater performance.

2. Does the ASUS work well with HP printers?

As well as any router, I'd expect. It's usually the printer that's the problem, their networking capabilities are very basic and they have lots of bugs and quirks. Routers are much more standards-compliant. As for wireless reach, either the N56U or the N66U would have no problem reaching the printer on the same level, but may have trouble reaching another floor due to the concrete and steel.

3. Will I run into problems using my Linksys routers as access points for any remaining dead spots?

You shouldn't, provided you properly use them as APs - since you were using your WRT160N as an AP before, you would know how to do this.

 

[Spazdoc]

Thank you very much for the rapid response and assistance. I actually made up a graphical representation (although it is watermarked since I did not have much time to evaluate a program for purchase):

http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n62/Spazdoc/37629c2c-192f-466d-af75-bed19d3e4120_zpsa0d7495b.jpg

Or you could go with a wired router in the basement and reuse one of the Linksys devices as an AP for the basement, then use the N66U as an AP on the main level. Wired routers will be useful for far longer because they aren't tied to a particular wireless technology - if you want to go to ac, just swap out the APs and keep the wired router. It also makes changes much easier, you just configure the new AP and keep the router settings the same.

I thought about this options, but the wired-only routers are already $90+, while the ASUS RT-N56U is $100 depending on where you go. I may be reading it wrong, but, according to the SNB router charts,the N56U has a total LAN throughput of 1,268 Mbps, and only one of the wired routers evaluated by SNB beats it (Ubiquiti EdgeMAX EdgeRouter Lite - http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanwan/router-charts/bar/76-total-simul).

As for network storage, if money were no object I'd go for a proper NAS wired to a switch. If you're using one of the routers as a NAS it will be slow no matter where you connect it, though the N66U would be faster:

...You will have a hard time passing that 17 MB/s wirelessly, so the limiting factor would be wireless speeds if this copying was done wirelessly. If it was done over the wired network though, the N56U/N66U's file sharing speeds would be a bottleneck so a NAS would offer greater performance.

I will admit that I may not be understanding the nuances of connecting a NAS (I am learning form what I read online, something I dissuade my patients from doing), but it looks like I will achieve greater speeds to the NAS if I connect via ethernet cable (Cat 5e or Cat 6) versus USB. Is this correct?

I was planning on connecting the NAS to the ASUS RT-N56U, rather than the switch; I could connect it to the switch if all my peripherals are able to access it. Although this is a discussion for a different forum, I am looking at a RAID 5 with either Drobo 5N, QNAP 469L, or Synology DS-412+ for media, data, and backup storage.

You shouldn't, provided you properly use them as APs - since you were using your WRT160N as an AP before, you would know how to do this.

After a basic search, I could not find anything pro/con mixing router and AP brands, but my home theater designer and the installer recommended against mixing and matching brands. Of course, they usually install for customers that want as simple of a set up as possible (and I am at their lower end of clientele).

Thank you very much for your very helpful post.

 

[dweiss]

....... Does the ASUS work well with HP printers?

As well as any router, I'd expect. It's usually the printer that's the problem, their networking capabilities are very basic and they have lots of bugs and quirks. Routers are much more standards-compliant. .....

I would agree with this, however, I would add that I generally prefer to see printers connected on a hard-wired basis, rather than rather than through Wi-Fi. Also, if possible, you should connect the printer directly to the second-floor switch rather than the router.

The hardwired connection will certainly give you better performance and perhaps make management somewhat more reliable. If the printer cannot be connected through your Cat-5 infrastructure, my next choice would be to use a USB connection through the router; I would only use a wireless connection as a last resort.

 

[Fraoch]

Thank you very much for the rapid response and assistance. I actually made up a graphical representation (although it is watermarked since I did not have much time to evaluate a program for purchase):

http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n62/Spazdoc/37629c2c-192f-466d-af75-bed19d3e4120_zpsa0d7495b.jpg

Very nice!

I thought about this options, but the wired-only routers are already $90+, while the ASUS RT-N56U is $100 depending on where you go. I may be reading it wrong, but, according to the SNB router charts,the N56U has a total LAN throughput of 1,268 Mbps, and only one of the wired routers evaluated by SNB beats it (Ubiquiti EdgeMAX EdgeRouter Lite - http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanwan/router-charts/bar/76-total-simul).

True, that's the one I have, based on the review. They have a nice setup wizard now so you should avoid the problems Tim encountered in his review.

Wired routers don't change too much, at least not as quickly as wireless routers. Plus this particular router is extremely flexible and new features can be (and are!) added in software. It should be useful far longer than a wireless router and it has many more features than most consumer-level routers, though it may require some technical expertise to activate some of these features.

Anyway, a wireless router should do fine as well. You just might want to swap it out in a few years when all your devices move to ac.

I will admit that I may not be understanding the nuances of connecting a NAS (I am learning form what I read online, something I dissuade my patients from doing), but it looks like I will achieve greater speeds to the NAS if I connect via ethernet cable (Cat 5e or Cat 6) versus USB. Is this correct?

Absolutely! Take a look at NAS performance here:

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/nas/nas-charts/view

They are just starting to top 100 MB/s = 800 Mb/s. No way can you pass 800 Mb/s over USB 2.0 (it'll be more like 200 Mb/s) and although USB 3.0 should theoretically be able to pass this, it currently cannot. You can pass 800 Mb/s over a good gigabit switch though.

So you'd be severely bottlenecking the performance of the NAS by using USB. There's no point in really using a NAS at all in that case, just plug a USB drive into the router - the performance will be the same. It'll be even less than USB 2.0 allows as you saw - 17 MB/s = 136 Mb/s.

It should be fine to do this when you start out and your storage needs are modest, but if you would like good performance, go with a NAS wired to the switch.

I was planning on connecting the NAS to the ASUS RT-N56U, rather than the switch; I could connect it to the switch if all my peripherals are able to access it.

It shouldn't matter, it should be accessible from either, but proper networking arrangement would have all your connections going to the switch and just two connections going to the N56U - WAN in from the modem and LAN out to the switch. Both should work though - it's just that putting everything on the switch simplifies things slightly. The traffic to and from the NAS will be one device closer.

Although this is a discussion for a different forum, I am looking at a RAID 5 with either Drobo 5N, QNAP 469L, or Synology DS-412+ for media, data, and backup storage.

Definitely discuss this with the NAS experts in the NAS forum. I'm hardly an expert but I do know that RAID 5 would be the way to go. Keep in mind RAID is not a substitute for backups. Keep offsite or cloud-based backups.

After a basic search, I could not find anything pro/con mixing router and AP brands, but my home theater designer and the installer recommended against mixing and matching brands.

It's just packets you're flinging around. Nothing proprietary and each packet must conform to a standard. A router, switch or AP won't care where the packet came from or what manufacturer made the device which made the packet. Providing they comply with networking standards, all devices work together. Otherwise they are fundamentally broken and unfit for use and should be returned.

 

[Fraoch]

I would agree with this, however, I would add that I generally prefer to see printers connected on a hard-wired basis, rather than rather than through Wi-Fi. Also, if possible, you should connect the printer directly to the second-floor switch rather than the router.

The hardwired connection will certainly give you better performance and perhaps make management somewhat more reliable. If the printer cannot be connected through your Cat-5 infrastructure, my next choice would be to use a USB connection through the router; I would only use a wireless connection as a last resort.

Agreed 100%...wireless networking adds yet another failure mode to an already shaky network implementation in most consumer-level printers.

The wired networking doesn't have to be state-of-the-art either. They're equipped with 100 M Fast Ethernet ports but even 10 M networking would work fine here.

 

[Spazdoc]

Agreed 100%...wireless networking adds yet another failure mode to an already shaky network implementation in most consumer-level printers.

The wired networking doesn't have to be state-of-the-art either. They're equipped with 100 M Fast Ethernet ports but even 10 M networking would work fine here.

You remind me of my biggest frustration of running the HP Photosmart wirelessly - if the wireless connection is ever interrupted, even if you turn off the printer, it forgets the network and password, and you have to input it all over again. Hardwire it is - fortunately my wife's 3rd floor office has 3 network connections.

I picked up the N66U from CDW and had it overnighted, and I have been able to set it as AP - very easy to have it done automatically (and it connects to the router via the WAN!). Although I have not tested it fully, it is blazingly fast. It is replacing the old Linksys WRT160. Now, it have more reading to do regarding these pesky firmware updates, as it seems like the more current ones are faulty.

I will keep you updated on how things go with switching over to the N56U.

Thanks for all the great assistance!