Asus RT-N66U: A Solidly Build High Performance Router For The Home

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.

The Asus RT-N66U’s duo band allows you to maximize your internet usage by splitting the bandwidth into two with both of them running concurrently. One bandwidth is used for basic internet use, for example,  web surfing, email and file loading while the other band is used for HD content streaming like watching movies, listening to music and playing online games.

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.

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

What are the good points about the Asus RT-N66U?

• 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.

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, 2012

By 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..."

Click Here To Buy the Asus RT-N66U at a fantastic 17% Discount

Asus RT-N66U - The Best Gaming Router Available Today You Can Buy

If you are looking for the most excellent router, not only for gaming but other purposes as well, you should seriously take a look at the recently released Asus RT-N66U as your first favorite. Not only does this router looks like a piece of art or decorative item that can fit nicely in most environments, the Asus RT-N66U is one of the best-performing routers that you can currently find in the market. This router was build upon the customer feedbacks on its award winning predecessor the Asus RT-N56U.

In a SmallNetBuilder's test, the RT-N66U router delivered unbelievable wired routing performance throughput of 802.4 Mbps WAN to LAN. This comes very close to the Gigabit Ethernet's full potential. To cap it, wireless throughput is just as monumental with up to 84 Mbps in 2.4GHz mode and 86 Mbps in 5GHz mode.

Multiple connections allow the Asus RT-N66U to routinely supply over 100 Mbps in throughput, so bottlenecked speeds will never be a problem. Reliability is flawless as many users have reported months and months of sustained usage without a single reset. If you are a gamer, you will find this especially critical when playing games, since lesser routers can cause hiccups or entirely drop your connections entirely.

 Check out this link to buy Asus RT-N66U at one of the best price in the market. If you are interested in the Asus router range, click here.

Asus RT-N66U - An Excellent High Performance Router You Must Check Out

Asus recently released the Asus RT-N66U router to replace its highly successful predecessor, the Asus RT-N56U. Having been in development for some time, the Asus RT-N66U was built upon feedbacks from its customers on its already highly extolled predecessor.

Asus has made extensive enhancements to important areas such as the internal radio antenna, memory, processor, firmware and even the GUI interface to make the Asus RT-N66U one of the highest performance router in its class; even surpassing its predecessor the RT-N56U.

Knowing that their customers would not take anything less of its new flagship router, Asus has put in a lot of effort into this new product and the customers who have bought the Asus RT-N66U are now singing praises about their new router.

The Wow Factor - The Asus RT-N88U design
Even though most people have already seen a picture of the Asus RT-N66U on the box, they are often amazed,pleasantly surprised when they open the box and actually see the router itself. Following in the footsteps of the Asus RT-N56U, the sleek design of the RT-N66U almost makes it look like a work of art and it will fit nicely in your home.

As the Asus RT-N66U is designed for the connected home and SOHO environment, Asus allows you to place the router horizontally, vertically and you can even hang it. The stand that comes with it not only allows you to position it vertically but also allows you to adjust it so that it gets the maximum signal strength.

Performance
To get the highest performance, the N66U comes with two bands - 2.4 and 5 Ghz at 450 Mbps per band. These two bands give you all the performance you need. The 2.4 Ghz band can be used for basic internet applications like web surfing, emails and file downloading while the 5 Ghz band is used for movies, music and online gaming. The RT-N66U comes with three antennas and it supports all the current WiFi standards in the market.

The 600 Mhz processor gives the RT-N66U the speed and this gives it a high performance of up to 900 Mbps. It also has 256 Mb of memory to support this high performance.

USB Ports
The RT-N66U comes with two USB ports that are internally powered. The result of this is that you don't have to "waste" another USB port or use an external power source if your USB device needs to be powered. On top of that, Asus has also made enhancements to the USB ports so that the RT-N66U's USB ports are even faster than that of the N56U. The USB can also be used to provide wireless connectivity to your printer. If your printer has multi-function features like scanning, copying etc you will also have access to those features when connected.

Security And Privacy
If you are in a SOHO environment, small business or have a lot of friends coming over and using your network, you can assign up to 8 SSIDs for your friends or customers to a secondary network so that they cannot access your files. As such your data is protected. A direct parental control feature is also available in this modem.

Sharing And Access
The Asus RT-N66U is DLNA and UPNP compliant. What this means is that if you are in a connected home or SOHO environment, the router will seamlessly allow you to sync up and share files with other DLNA compliant devices like the PS3, modern generation TV etc without you needing to do much configuration. It also comes with a nifty "AiDisk" technology whereby you can access all your connected HDD, whether they are part of the network or USB based, through your local area network and the internet.

Automatic Downloading Without Turning On The Computer
The Asus RT-N66U also ships with a small utility that you can install in your PC (or it can even be a web-based application that runs on a smart phone or tablet) that allows you to automatically download files without even turning your computer on. This utility works together with the RT-N66U firmware to automatically allow you to perform downloads via Http, ftp, bit torrent or other sources without turning on your PC.

Straight And Simple Setup Processes
Asus spent a lot of effort to redesign the RT-N66U GUI to make it even more user-friendly than that of the N56U. No CD setup is required. Just turn on the unit and connect it to the access point on a wireless device like a tablet or mobile phone and you can run the entire setup without even switching on the PC. All you need to do is just to follow a couple of quick steps and you will be all set up.

You can connect other devices to the RT-N66U via WPS. With WPS, the N66U allows you to quickly setup the connection without much effort. VPN support is also robust in the Asus RT-N66U with its simple and straight forward VPN configurations that both the techie and the non-techie will be comfortable with.

Should You Buy The Asus RT-N66U?
Well that depends on your needs. If your needs are really simple, then it is probably not worth to spend your money on such a high performance router like the Asus RT-N66U. On the other hand, if you are in a connected home or SOHO environment, you will be depending more and more on your network as times go by. Data, multi-media and other files are getting bigger and more over time.

So if you think about it, buying a router is not an everyday affair. Neither is it a monthly affair. As such, spending a little bit more on a high performance router like the Asus RT-N66U now means that you most likely may not need to upgrade for a long time because it already has enough capacity to meet your needs.

On top of that you will also get to enjoy better performance, wider coverage, faster speed and other features covered above. So why wait any longer? Click on the link NOW to get the Asus RT-N66U and start enjoying all the benefits immediately!