ASUS RT-N66U Dual-Band Wireless-N900 Gigabit Router- Any Recomendations ?

[mulder]

Hi...it's time to replace my Lynksys wireless G router and Ive been looking around, all the 80-90 dollar options seem to have many flaws according to 2 days of reviews Ive been reading..lol yawn....

 

I seem to have settled on this and thought I would ask about it before pulling the trigger, to see if any one here is a owner or has an opinion on it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833320091

 

I appreciate any responses..Thanks!

[Squuiid]

Am not an owner, but why not go for an AC router instead? Wireless N is on the way out...

This is the best review site for Wireless and other networking IMO. Check it out:

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/

 

 

Here are a couple of reviews:

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-reviews/31841-asus-rt-ac66u-80211ac-dual-band-wireless-ac1750-gigabit-router-reviewed

 

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-reviews/31799-netgear-r6300-wifi-router-80211ac-dual-band-gigabit-full-review

 

Personally, I'd go with the Netgear. Asus firmware for their networking gear is buggy.

[mulder]

Thanks for the info...I have to admit I havent kept up with networking gear for a few yrs.   Seems I am way behind:) I would rather not spend more than 150.00 or so. I'll check out your links.

[Roger H. Veteran]

I'd go with AC also but that RT66 router is pretty good too, It's the N top dog but if you are buying now, I'd just go AC (save up) if you can :)

[mulder]

OK then how about this for ac but cheaper ? ( like me , lol )  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833122555

[JJ_]

Wow, that's a huge leap going from G to AC :D Just remember that your equipment will need to support N or AC to benefit. I would go for an external antenna design instead of that Netgear which looks hideous. The ASUS you linked in your original post is something I've had on my wishlist for a very long time and it's a great upgrade but I would personally splash an extra 30 bucks and get its older brother instead:

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833320115

[richardsim7]

I don't know about the 66 but my 56U is fantastic, especially with this custom firmware: https://code.google.com/p/rt-n56u/

[xendrome]

Am not an owner, but why not go for an AC router instead? Wireless N is on the way out...

 

 

I wouldn't go so far to say that, plus, N is compatible with AC routers as well... but yes I own the RT-N66U and it is an excellent router..

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

I own the ASUS RT-N66U and it is a superb router. I would strongly recommend getting it instead of the RT-AC66U. The extra speed isn't necessary and it costs $40 more on Newegg. Also, you'd need a wireless adapter that supports 802.11ac in order to take full advantage of it.

[Silpheed2K]

Don't forget that if you use G and N or any backwards compatility mode that it will slow your network to the slowest one. So if you truly want N or AC speeds use the N only or AC only modes.

With that said, AC routers are hella expensive. You can get a packed dual band N router for half the price and then get some nice dual band wireless cards for your computer for pretty much the same price as one AC router essentially.

If you're looking for price vs features I'd recommend checking out the TP-Link line of routers.

[TPreston]

Cisco Aironet FTW Enterprise grade features like automatic channel searching and switching.

 

Aironet > Any consumer junk.

 

eBay is your friend.

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

 

SmallNetBuilder does extensive testing of residential gateway broadband routers, and their ranking pages might be of some use in selecting a model.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

[Roger H. Veteran]

I'd go AC if upgrading today (provided you can afford a decent one). My Linksys E4200 router seems to be dying so I've been looking around lately for options. That AC66U seems to be the top dog but the Netgear R6xx0 series is pretty sweet too from my 1 week testing and reviews I've read.

 

If you wanna go on the cheap for now, The Netgear N750 (WNDR4300) is a pretty good bet too, been using it now for a week as well and it's pretty solid. It's "only" N speeds but up to 450Mbps on 5Ghz (I avoided trying to pay extra for the one that claim that on 2.4Ghz because it's all but impossible in the real world). I get 25MB/s speeds over LAN which is plenty - AC should bump that up to 40-60MB/s however.

[HawkMan]

Don't forget that if you use G and N or any backwards compatility mode that it will slow your network to the slowest one. So if you truly want N or AC speeds use the N only or AC only modes.

With that said, AC routers are hella expensive. You can get a packed dual band N router for half the price and then get some nice dual band wireless cards for your computer for pretty much the same price as one AC router essentially.

If you're looking for price vs features I'd recommend checking out the TP-Link line of routers.

Actually I believe modern N routers like the rt-n66 is capable of isolating G equipment so the whole network is not slowed down to G. Besides, it has two actual wireless networks anyway, so you can dedicate the 2.4 one to crap.

[Silpheed2K]

Actually I believe modern N routers like the rt-n66 is capable of isolating G equipment so the whole network is not slowed down to G. Besides, it has two actual wireless networks anyway, so you can dedicate the 2.4 one to crap.

I disagree. I even searched on the internet to find it somewhere for you.

 

Fix #3: Don't Connect Draft 11n and 11b/g clients to the same router

The 2.4 GHz radio on an 802.11n single or dual-band router can also work with 802.11g and even 11b devices. But these much slower devices force the router to slow down to talk to them, which means a big throughput hit. Fortunately, the "legacy" mechanisms are pretty efficient and reduce throughput only when the slower devices are actively transmitting or receiving.

[HawkMan]

You need somewhat more updated information that what you find about "draft N".

 

forgot to crop the picture, but I'm dying from a cold here so :p

[Silpheed2K]

You were wrong just give up already and that info applies to all routers.

So many wannabe experts on the Internet.

[HawkMan]

You were wrong just give up already and that info applies to all routers.

So many wannabe experts on the Internet.

 

Uh ? what How was I wrong ?

 

the N66U has a function that isolates B/G units on the N network as I said, so that the N network is NOT slowed down to G speed when G units connect. your definition of "wrong" is very weird.