Originally Posted by rekkit (Post 57603892)

I wish I could just get the router minus the $59 that the hard drive costs.

Originally Posted by rekkit (Post 57603892)

I wish I could just get the router minus the $59 that the hard drive costs.

Originally Posted by jwadethack (Post 57604606)

Better hope you don't have an issue with the router or they'll replace it with a refurb. I found out by experience and won't buy an Asus product again.

Originally Posted by The Debater (Post 57604972)

Very tempted. Is this worth upgrading from the RT-N16?

Originally Posted by rekkit (Post 57603892)

I wish I could just get the router minus the $59 that the hard drive costs.

Originally Posted by SDRockz (Post 57605822)

what's up with these $200 priced routers, since when have we started feeding this trend to the manufacturers... half the price of a laptop/tablet but with a lot less functionality. In fact, most of us dont even use the stock firmware.


Its time to go back to when we could buy the best (tomato/dd-wrt flashable) routers for $100 or less.
~S

Originally Posted by blazah (Post 57605974)

On the fence right now. Have a RT-N16 at the moment. Thinking of this or the RT-AC66U for $30, but it has no Tomato support.

Originally Posted by SDRockz (Post 57605822)

what's up with these $200 priced routers, since when have we started feeding this trend to the manufacturers... half the price of a laptop/tablet but with a lot less functionality. In fact, most of us dont even use the stock firmware.


Its time to go back to when we could buy the best (tomato/dd-wrt flashable) routers for $100 or less.
~S

Originally Posted by index (Post 57606098)

What's the reasoning behind installing Tomato on the Asus? I thought Asus' new firmware has pretty good stability? :confused:

Originally Posted by fyu (Post 57606144)

no idea. my best router cost me $40, and the rest are like $15 each.

Originally Posted by blazah (Post 57606324)

Tomato features I always use are the QOS and the Access Restrictions. This helps a lot with teenagers in the house.

Originally Posted by chris83190 (Post 57604604)

is there much performance gain from switching over from the verizion fios actiontec router to this asus rt-n66u?

Originally Posted by jwadethack (Post 57604606)

Better hope you don't have an issue with the router or they'll replace it with a refurb. I found out by experience and won't buy an Asus product again.

Originally Posted by index (Post 57605944)

Agreed. I'm in need for a new router, since my Netgear WNR3500 (v1) is consistently disconnecting/restarting and wireless just stops working.
However, I'm having a hard time justifying a puchasing a $150 router. The RT-N66U is a fantastic router, but it's just painful to spend this much on a router when a few generations ago you could get workhorses like the WRT54GL for sub-$100.

Originally Posted by AaronDotNET (Post 57607520)

Anyone else notice that they are bundling a USB 3.0 hard drive with a router that only has USB 2.0?

Originally Posted by Fwantastic (Post 57607176)

I should have waited for this. I bought just the router for around $190. It's awesome

Originally Posted by The Debater (Post 57604972)

Very tempted. Is this worth upgrading from the RT-N16?

Originally Posted by blazah (Post 57606324)

Tomato features I always use are the QOS and the Access Restrictions. This helps a lot with teenagers in the house.

Originally Posted by utcmk (Post 57608448)

This router uses DD-WRT as its firmware and includes QOS, Access Restrictions, and much more without the hassle of needing to reflash the firmware and pray you don't brick your router. I've used DD-WRT for many years on a WRT-54GL then finally took the plunge on the RT-N65 a couple months ago as the bandwidth consumed in my house has increased drastically as the kids have gotten older and the old router just couldn't keep up. The rock solid stability and features available in DD-WRT were one of the main reasons I went with the router I did. Nothing at all against Tomato as it too is an extremely stable and feature packed firmware that is a far cry better than what is normally available on an out of box consumer grade router, but in this case the reflash risk/reward is not warranted IMHO.

Originally Posted by dryu (Post 57608342)

I got this router on Black Friday for $129.99, so here are a few responses based on two months of experience:


I've been a DD-WRT person up until this router, but the Asus firmware has improved to the point where the benefits from 3rd party firmware are not worth the effort. The Asus stock firmware does in fact have QOS and Access Restrictions, in addition to quite a lot of other features like a media/DLNA server, FTP access to attached storage, and a minimal cloud storage system. One worthwhile 3rd party alternative is Asuswrt-Merlin, which is an enhanced version of Asus's firmware maintained by some dude with too much free time.

Originally Posted by utcmk (Post 57608448)

This router uses DD-WRT as its firmware and includes QOS, Access Restrictions, and much more without the hassle of needing to reflash the firmware and pray you don't brick your router. I've used DD-WRT for many years on a WRT-54GL then finally took the plunge on the RT-N65 a couple months ago as the bandwidth consumed in my house has increased drastically as the kids have gotten older and the old router just couldn't keep up. The rock solid stability and features available in DD-WRT were one of the main reasons I went with the router I did. Nothing at all against Tomato as it too is an extremely stable and feature packed firmware that is a far cry better than what is normally available on an out of box consumer grade router, but in this case the reflash risk/reward is not warranted IMHO.

Originally Posted by puddnhead (Post 57608352)

Not bad, but fail to see how this justifies FP.

Unless you really want a 500gb external drive -- and does anyone really? -- I'd rather buy the "replacement" model for this, the AS-RTAC66U, for $178 right now at superbiiz. And that is not actually that good of a price for that, a better router than this.

Originally Posted by chickenmanbbbok (Post 57608708)

What kind of QoS features does this router have? Can I allot bandwidth limits to each device? My E4200V2 (refurb and within the 30 day return period) has QoS, but only allows me to set priority of devices when simultaneously in use. I want to limit bandwidth to certain devices (such as my iPad and iPhone) that do not require such high speeds regardless of whether or not there are other devices actively consuming bandwidth at any given time.

Originally Posted by puddnhead (Post 57608352)

Not bad, but fail to see how this justifies FP.

Unless you really want a 500gb external drive -- and does anyone really? -- I'd rather buy the "replacement" model for this, the AS-RTAC66U, for $178 right now at superbiiz. And that is not actually that good of a price for that, a better router than this.

Originally Posted by k-y (Post 57609456)

If you don't mind refurb, Amazon resellers are selling this for $120 shipped

Originally Posted by utcmk (Post 57609638)

I would stay away from an AC router right now. The specs are still years away from ratification and just like occurred with the people buying some draft-n models, you may end up paying early adopter prices for a device that functions far less than optimal, or not at all, when the spec is finally certified as there is no guarantee of interoperability between devices until this occurs.

Originally Posted by CousinIT (Post 57603972)

I've been utilizing the dual band on a 66U the past few months with Shibby Tomato 1.28

1.28.0000 MIPSR2-104 K26 USB BT-VPN-64K

Absolutely flawless.

Originally Posted by Sepen (Post 57607900)

I did. Had been running Tomato on the N16. Went with Asus firmware for the 66 and I am very pleased. Range is excellent. Have had it around 3 weeks or so and I am glad I made the switch. I also have a USB HDD attached to it using it for a NAS. HD 1080P media plays perfectly.

Originally Posted by utcmk (Post 57609514)

QOS is available on a per device or per application basis but I don't think I've ever seen the ability to hard-cap a devices bandwidth, nor am I sure why you would want or need to limit bandwidth to devices when there is nothing else using the bandwidth :confused:. QOS is for prioritizing, not capping. If you have the bandwidth available, why would you not want to use it?

Originally Posted by CousinIT (Post 57603972)

I've been utilizing the dual band on a 66U the past few months with Shibby Tomato 1.28

1.28.0000 MIPSR2-104 K26 USB BT-VPN-64K

Absolutely flawless.

Originally Posted by k-y (Post 57609456)

If you don't mind refurb, Amazon resellers are selling this for $120 shipped

Originally Posted by grayman4hire (Post 57611846)

Help me understand how/why you would spend $100, yet alone $180 on a router? Yeah it's dual band but so what?

I just can't understand how Asus/Cisco can charge so much for a router with such limited hardware (limited CPU/memory/flash, no usb3.0, etc).

IMHO, its better to get two routers if your looking for better coverage (connected via a wire, wds or Ethernet over powerline). Add a $15-20 PogoPlug running ArchLinuxArm, for NAS, SSH, VPN, Torrent, AirPlay/AirPrint and other things you wish could run on your router but can't because its underpowered.

Sent from Slickdeals App for iPhone & iPod Touch.

Originally Posted by Scott586 (Post 57611800)

I looked on Amazon, don't see it for $120. Got a link?

Originally Posted by deals2dream (Post 57611746)

get apple airport extreme....dont be fuled with asus!!!

Originally Posted by Totocare (Post 57607480)

I really don't want to pay this much so anyone who has recommendations I'd really appreciate it.

The items I use this for is one desk top, wireless printer, a lap top and 2 iphones.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Originally Posted by Larron (Post 57613726)

I typically recommend the Asus RT N16. Amazon has it now for $82 ($72 after rebate). That's a reasonable price, CamelCamelCamel dot com suggests it's rarely lower than $70.
http://www.amazon.com/RT-N16-Wire...00387G6R8/

There's just one downside, while the Asus hardware is excellent, the Asus firmware is not. It is pretty easy to flash the RT N16 with the fantastic open-source TomatoUSB firmware. Tomato is incredibly feature filled and very stable. There are great versions of Tomato for this router.
http://tomatousb.org/

So if you're not adverse to flashing the firmware, the RT N16 (flashed to Tomato) is a great product.

Originally Posted by ingenue007 (Post 57610716)

i bought this for 200 recently. this is the only router i have never bothered to flash ddwrt and used the asus version of ddwrt out of the box.

range is great. i got more by changing the antennas too.

Originally Posted by ingenue007 (Post 57610716)

i bought this for 200 recently. this is the only router i have never bothered to flash ddwrt and used the asus version of ddwrt out of the box.

range is great. i got more by changing the antennas too.

Originally Posted by dazz887 (Post 57612252)

Cause I am able to stream movies from outside my network using AiCloud on my ipad. I am able to wake on lan from outside my network. Able to stream full rip blu ray from the hard drive to xmbc. I was never able to do any of these things with my previous router. The range on this router is amazing. Was not able to get full speed on my Asus zenbook (blaming the wireless card on the notebook) but with this router I am seeing 150Mbps. I purchase this router for $125.00. If I knew what a big diff a router make I wouldve spent 150-200

Originally Posted by dryu (Post 57608342)

I got this router on Black Friday for $129.99, so here are a few responses based on two months of experience:


You can still get normals routers at familiar price points; routers like Asus RT-N66U/AC66U and the Cisco Linksys E4200v2 are really top of line routers with noticable improvements. Starting from the basics, the range and speed of the RT-N66U can be 2-3 times greater than a cheap $50 router. The stability is rock solid; in two months, I have not been dropped from the network a single time, nor have I had to reset the router for any reason. The N66U is "dual band", with separate functionality for 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequencies (5 GHz has less interference from other household devices like microwave, but has sharper attenuation going through walls). More, it can set up multiple SSIDs on each frequency, including guest networks that are isolated from your home network sharepoints. One last point is that the N66U has two USB ports, and with a USB hard drive, you can effectively set up a NAS along with a network printer.

Check out http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/la...charts/bar for a quantitative comparison of routers. You'll see the RT-N66U near the top in many categories.


I've been a DD-WRT person up until this router, but the Asus firmware has improved to the point where the benefits from 3rd party firmware are not worth the effort. The Asus stock firmware does in fact have QOS and Access Restrictions, in addition to quite a lot of other features like a media/DLNA server, FTP access to attached storage, and a minimal cloud storage system. One worthwhile 3rd party alternative is Asuswrt-Merlin, which is an enhanced version of Asus's firmware maintained by some dude with too much free time.


There is actually an AC version of this router, selling for some $30 more. The RT-AC66U has mixed reviews on the firmware so far, and my impression is that the N66U is more popular. And regardless, there aren't too many devices that use AC yet anyways... does anybody have an idea what the timeline will be like for this transition?


To a scientist, statements like this are infuriating. You have essentially conducted an experiment with one trial and no control, and wildly extrapolated to an incorrect conclusion. Quality control isn't perfect, and customer service experiences will vary, but you cannot draw correct conclusions from your own singular experience without an idea of the "broader picture."" In layman's language, the statement "my product was defective" does not translate to "every product Asus manufactures is defective"; "I had a bad customer experience with Asus" does not mean that "everyone has a bad customer experience with Asus and also Asus is way worse than every other company." By running without a control sample, I refer to the earlier post that points out that issuing refurbs for warranty claims is a pretty common industry practice; your lack of knowledge about what other companies do has led to your incorrect belief that Asus alone is a deceptive, unworthy company.

Originally Posted by grayman4hire (Post 57615024)

So basically you bought it for the built in software features - WOL, samba/nas with external access. Fair enough.

I was making the (wrong) assumption that everyone who buys this router would run DDWRT or TomatoUSB which can also do all these things and more so I wasn't accounting for Asus' software/firmware.

For the record, the samba/nas performance using attached USB drive on this router is pretty bad ~5-8MB. Yeah its fast enough for a lot of people, but most "real" NAS perform >20MB. The PogoPlug with SAMBA gets ~17-20MB.

Originally Posted by estoyloco (Post 57618076)

2nd you are not going to find any router with NAS that performs better. It is a router first with add-on features.

Originally Posted by Totocare (Post 57607480)

I really don't want to pay this much so anyone who has recommendations I'd really appreciate it.

I currently have a Linksys Wireless-G 2.4 ghz (54mps) broadband router. I think it's going because I keep having to unplug and re-plug it in several times a week. I need to know what to buy as well as does it matter that we have trouble watching movies thru our blu-ray player. They can't be viewed in hi def (with any company) and we can't make it thru a whole movie w/Amazon without getting an error saying to try back later.

The items I use this for is one desk top, wireless printer, a lap top and 2 iphones.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Originally Posted by grayman4hire (Post 57619560)

Well, I guess that's my complaint. Router hardware hasn't progressed however, price seemed to have. The Asus RT-N16/Linksys E3000, which is 3 years or so old, have pretty much the same hardware as the N66U at half the cost. At $120-160, I would expect my router to be able to act as a decent NAS considering a $15 PogoPlug can or even a $30 Android stick.

Originally Posted by sbx007 (Post 57619822)

I hate pogoplug. would much rather have a router that will enable me to back up every PC in my house to one drive plugged into the routers USB. Most arent fast enough to handle that.

Originally Posted by grayman4hire (Post 57619932)

So would I :). Crazy that we still can't even when we're willing to pay a premium price ($150)

Originally Posted by k-y (Post 57607030)

Yes, the wireless range/power on the Asus is one of the most noticable improvements over competing routers.

Based on the recent $150 price that this router has gone on sale before, you're essentially getting the hard drive for $20.

Originally Posted by liquidiq (Post 57620178)

The FIOS wifi router was the sole reason I purchased this unit. Its wifi range was abysmal. I tried high-gain antennas, mounting the antenna way up in the air, but still 10 ft away in a clear line of sight I lost 1 bar.

The Asus has a fantastic range out of the box, and there are settings to boost the power. I was thinking I'd have to mount it in the middle of my house but even tucked away in my networking closet I get a good signal at my neighbor's next door (houses are pretty close). I don't really use any of the advanced features, but just for the WiFi right now.

Originally Posted by dryu (Post 57608342)

To a scientist, statements like this are infuriating. You have essentially conducted an experiment with one trial and no control, and wildly extrapolated to an incorrect conclusion. Quality control isn't perfect, and customer service experiences will vary, but you cannot draw correct conclusions from your own singular experience without an idea of the "broader picture."" In layman's language, the statement "my product was defective" does not translate to "every product Asus manufactures is defective"; "I had a bad customer experience with Asus" does not mean that "everyone has a bad customer experience with Asus and also Asus is way worse than every other company." By running without a control sample, I refer to the earlier post that points out that issuing refurbs for warranty claims is a pretty common industry practice; your lack of knowledge about what other companies do has led to your incorrect belief that Asus alone is a deceptive, unworthy company.

Originally Posted by CousinIT (Post 57603972)

I've been utilizing the dual band on a 66U the past few months with Shibby Tomato 1.28

1.28.0000 MIPSR2-104 K26 USB BT-VPN-64K

Absolutely flawless.

Originally Posted by NuNuNYC (Post 57606466)

This router was going for $129.99 a few times last year.

I'm waiting for the RT-AC66U to go for $149.99 again.

Originally Posted by jwadethack (Post 57625784)

Can't say I care if your a scientist or not.. I'm a consumer who buys products. I understand that production cannot guarantee 100% quality However when a product is deeded defective you don't screw the customer and send them a refurbed product, you replace it with a new one (if you buy a new car that's a lemon, would it be okay for them to replace it with a used car, certified or not?). I'm just saying that I don't appreciate companies that deal in that manner and I personally won't buy Asus products again.

Originally Posted by jwadethack (Post 57625784)

Can't say I care if your a scientist or not.. I'm a consumer who buys products. I understand that production cannot guarantee 100% quality However when a product is deeded defective you don't screw the customer and send them a refurbed product, you replace it with a new one (if you buy a new car that's a lemon, would it be okay for them to replace it with a used car, certified or not?). I'm just saying that I don't appreciate companies that deal in that manner and I personally won't buy Asus products again.

Originally Posted by ShIzNiTs (Post 57614696)

I got the router on craiglist new, opened box for $100! No hard drive of course. Just have to flash it with tomato and test it first



which antennas do you recommend?