Asus RT-N66U Router: The Excellent IPv6 Solidly Build High Performance Home Router
by Eric Steinhoffer
If you have been looking for a wireless router to replace your existing router for whatever reasons, you should seriously consider the Asus RT-N66U router if you are expecting to get high performance out of your router. This router is officially designated as ASUS RT-N66U Dual-Band Wireless-N900 Gigabit Router by its manufacturer, Asus.
The Asus RT-N66U as it is more popularly known is a simultaneous dual-band three-stream "N-900" router with one Gigabit WAN port. The "N-900" indicates that the Asus RT-N66U can support 450 Mbps link rates when both radios are set to 20/40 or 40 mHz channel bandwidth.
If you have been looking for a wireless router to replace your existing router for whatever reasons, you should seriously consider the Asus RT-N66U router if you are expecting to get high performance out of your router. This router is officially designated as ASUS RT-N66U Dual-Band Wireless-N900 Gigabit Router by its manufacturer, Asus.
The Asus RT-N66U as it is more popularly known is a simultaneous dual-band three-stream "N-900" router with one Gigabit WAN port. The "N-900" indicates that the Asus RT-N66U can support 450 Mbps link rates when both radios are set to 20/40 or 40 mHz channel bandwidth.
If you are into on-line games, then you are looking at the right router as the Asus RT-N66U router ranks amongst the top, if not the top in today’s gaming router world. With the help of its new ASUS Ai Radar, the router intelligently strengthens connections to wireless devices to provide optimized signals in all directions and with better coverage as well to improve data throughput.
The Asus RT-N66U
has a 600MHz CPU and a whole whopping 256Mb of RAM for the NAT table. In fact,
currently there are no other routers in the market that has the specifications
of the Asus RT-N66U.
It also comes with 3 normal internal and 3 external antennas. If you need a
longer range, you can easily replace the external antennas with bigger ones.
It also comes with four switched Gigabit LAN ports and two USB 2.0 ports. These 2 USB ports support both hard drive and printer sharing. The Asus RT-N66U is also designed to operate up to 300,000 Internet client data sessions and is IPv6 support.
For wireless security, the router has WPA and WPA2. When you first power up the router it will start with WPA as the default. However once you have done the initial setup, you can change it to the more secure WPA2. With this model, you also have up to 8 multi-user SSIDs with parental controls. This feature is particularly useful if you are running a small business and you need let your customer access the internet via your router. You can simply assign them specific SSIDs and your files will be protected from unauthorized access.
It also comes with four switched Gigabit LAN ports and two USB 2.0 ports. These 2 USB ports support both hard drive and printer sharing. The Asus RT-N66U is also designed to operate up to 300,000 Internet client data sessions and is IPv6 support.
For wireless security, the router has WPA and WPA2. When you first power up the router it will start with WPA as the default. However once you have done the initial setup, you can change it to the more secure WPA2. With this model, you also have up to 8 multi-user SSIDs with parental controls. This feature is particularly useful if you are running a small business and you need let your customer access the internet via your router. You can simply assign them specific SSIDs and your files will be protected from unauthorized access.
Taking the feedback from its existing customer that sometimes it can be daunting for the non-technical user to set-up a router, Asus took the effort to make it easy for the not so technically inclined to set up the RT-N66U with its ASUSWRT dashboard user interface.
As with all products, there will always be some negative points. Here are some of the negative points about the Asus RT-N66U:
- WPA is enabled by default. Make sure to turn it off to protect yourself from the WPA exploit
- The initial firmware (3.0.0.3.72) is broken. You CANNOT connect to the Internet with this factory shipped firmware. However this problem appears to have been fixed by Asus as after their recall of the initial shipment with the broken firmware, there no longer appears to have further reported cases of broken firmware
- The USB ports are version 2.0 while the USB 3.0 standards are becoming more popular now
- Excellent WiFi (signal strength and throughput) performance compared to its competitors
- Fast 600MHz CPU and 256 Mb RAM allows you to easily manage multiple connections and heavy loads
- Very stable. Reports from forums generally found that customers are very happy with its stability with hardly anyone complaining for the router being down
- Provides native IPv6 Support
- Dual band concurrent WiFi
- Under ideal conditions, you can get up to a maximum of 450 Mbps on both bands; ideal for bandwidth demanding tasks such as 3D HD video streaming, multiplayer gaming on one band and normal internet related tasks on the other band
- Flexibility for additional sharing and streaming via the 2 USB ports
- You can get a longer range by easily upgrading the external antennas
- Comes with Gigabit WAN and LAN ports
- Unlike some other routers which are very light and flimsy, the Asus RT-N66U is heavy due to the fact that it is solidly built
- Can work as a standalone VPN server
The Aus RT-N66U is
a great router for a small business or a home with a really high speed Internet
connection. It is also very good if you play on-line games and need an
uninterrupted connection. If you are also looking for an excellent modem to
provide this connection from the service provider to the Asus RT-N66U, be sure
to check out the Motorola SB6121
cable modem as well.
Overall I strongly recommend the Asus RT-N66U router; it does what a router is designed to do and it does it so reliably and easily. If you are looking for an excellent IPv6 compliant solidly build high performance router with the latest features then don’t waste your time on more reviews, go for the Asus RT-N66U.
Click on this link to buy Asus RT-N66U at one of the best price in the market with free shipping as well.
Overall I strongly recommend the Asus RT-N66U router; it does what a router is designed to do and it does it so reliably and easily. If you are looking for an excellent IPv6 compliant solidly build high performance router with the latest features then don’t waste your time on more reviews, go for the Asus RT-N66U.
Click on this link to buy Asus RT-N66U at one of the best price in the market with free shipping as well.
Asus RT-N66U’s Customers’ Experience
5.0 out of 5 stars Best router on the market!, January 30, 2012
By KeithKman
(Southern California)
"...I upgraded to the RT-N66U from an old Linksys WRT54G running Tomato firmware connected to an old Ambit U10C018 cable modem. My new setup is the RT-N66U connected via a DOCSIS 3.0 Cisco DPC3010 cable modem. With the Ambit modem connected to the RT-N66U I was getting 12Mbps download on Speedtest.net. With the Cisco modem connected to the RT-N66U I am getting 33Mbps download.
The setup is straight forward. I used the web GUI. As people have stated, the initial firmware that comes with this router is broken if using the English language GUI. I did not have any problems navigating to the "Administration" tab on the left side, selecting "Firmware Upgrade" tab on the top, selecting "Check" next to "Firmware Version", and updating the firmware to 3.0.0.3.90. Updating the firmware took 3 minutes. Once updated, everything seems to be working EXCEPT port forwarding from inside the network. You can view from outside the network, just not within. Hopefully this is fixed in another firmware update.
The overall performance of the router is simply amazing. The WiFi range is better than any other router I have tested. I was able to get 2/3 bars on my iPhone 4S WiFi meter from a street away. I only have one desktop, Asus all-in-one PC, and it is connected via LAN. My other devices connected via LAN are my Xbox and Roku XS player.Everything else is connected via WAN (WiFi): four iPhone 4S, Lenovo T510 laptop, Toshiba laptop, MacBook Pro, iPod Touch, and HP Officejet 4500 printer. The router handles all of my devices with ease. If I am playing Modern Warfare 3 on my Xbox and a family member is streaming Netflix on the Roku player, the router has zero issues. Only thing I notice is if there is a lot of activity on the network the RT-N66U gets luke warm.
Up time is over a week with zero issues. I would highly recommend this router to anyone, newbie to an expert IT professional..."5.0 out of 5 stars RT-N66U from Amazon had Zero Problems, January 28, 2012By M.Montes (Texas)"...I just got 2 delivered from Amazon on 01/23/12. One for my house and one for my business. Installed Using Windows 7 64bit and Chrome and had absolutely no problems. No broken or messed up menus. Everything was smooth and easy. I made it through the initial setup wizard, tested it for a few minutes then immediately updated to the latest firmware.Several others on smallnetbuilder have reported the same thing... that Amazon's batch seems to be fine. Also if you think your router is DOA, this one actually has a power button. You have to press it after plugging it in to turn it on. I had never seen that on a router before.Performance of the router is excellent. I have had it up for 6 days straight with no reboots or dropped connections. It has great range and signal strength. This is by far the best router I have ever owned. Build quality is excellent as well, it feels very well made. It may have had its problems initially but with the bugs worked out now... you have to give it strong consideration as a top router in its class..."
5.0 out of 5 stars Better than competition., May 11, 2012
By JoelSmith "EveryMan" (Birmingham, AL)
"...I went through a few of the competitor's products before settling on this one. After several months of constant usage I've had no problems (not even a reboot). All of the premium home routers seem to do well when you're standing next to them but this one succeeds where others fail: excellent signal at longer dlstances...like when I'm in the garage hiding from the wife.Those three antennas poking out of the top of the unit are not a gimmick-the competitors would do well to abandon the internal antenna design..."
5.0 out of 5 stars Wow!, March 24, 2012
By N.ayer
"...This product is too good. I was with E3000 Linksys but the room upstairs did not have good signal. A month ago I bought e4200v2 Linksys and it was terrible. Easy to connect but seems like it was performing poorly than e3000. Returned it.
Waited for Asus as it was not in stock probably due to the bugs that need fixing. Once it become available in amzn, I bought it. Installed it yesterday.
Wow what a difference. Setup was a breeze. Every room in my house has top-speed. In fact I woke up happy thinking about this :)..."
5.0 out of 5 stars The BEST Router I have ever owned, March 31, 2012
By Dtrane
(Saltillo, Mexico)
"...I have had this Asus RT-N66U router for a week now. It is hands down the best router for the home environment for power users. My wireless performance is equal to the wired performance. I did the initial setup from my IPad.
From initial hookup to surfing on the Internet was less than 5 minutes for a basic setup. I then connected 3 TV's, 3 laptops, and 2 IPads in less than 30 min for all. No loss of performance at all. I can't say enough about this thing. It is a great looking device. Well worth the price I paid..."
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