ASUS RT-N66U Dual-Band Wireless-N900 Gigabit Router review

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The Asus RT-N66U is a dual band Wi-Fi router with four Gigabit Ethernet ports and two USB ports that let you share attached USB drives and printers across your network. It provides 2.4GHz- and 5GHz-band Wi-Fi concurrently, allowing each user to choose the best connection for them.

We had no problems setting up the RT-N66U and were quickly able to surf the web and connect to our other computers. You can even choose different methods of connecting to the internet, such as with a 3G modem, should your main connection fail. The RT-N66U’s web interface is as dark as the unit itself, but it’s pretty well organised, although it will take some time before you’re familiar with the locations of all the options.

To test its Wi-Fi performance, we connected to it using the 2.4GHz band and our laptop’s built-in Wi-Fi adaptor. We achieved data transfer speeds of 42Mbit/s at one metre, 42.6Mbit/s at 10 metres and 20.7Mbit/s at 25 metres. These are similar scores to those achieved by the TP-Link WDR4300 Dual Band Wireless Router and are decent speeds. When we used the 2.4GHz band with the Asus USB-N53 Wi-Fi adaptor (£24, www.cclonline.com) we achieved scores of 69.9Mbit/s at one metre, 68.1Mbit/s at 10 metres and 22.4Mbit/s at 25 metres.

When we used the less-congested 5GHz band with our laptop’s built-in Wi-Fi adaptor we achieved data transfer speeds of 93.2Mbit/s at one metre, 83.9Mbit/s at 10 metres and 10.3Mbit/s at 25 metres. The 25-metre speed is disappointing, especially in comparison to the TL-WDR4300’s 35.5Mbit/s speed under the same conditions, but the former speeds are still quick.

When we used the 5GHz band and the Asus USB-N53 we achieved data transfer rates of 118.4Mbit/s at one metre, 114.8Mbit/s at 10 metres and 41.9Mbit/s at 25 metres. These are great speeds, especially the 25-metre speed, especially if you want to stream high-definition media form your NAS or another PC.

You can print to a USB printer using the included EZ Printer utility or networking it in Windows using the LPR protocol. The web interface includes a link to instructions that guide you through setting up the latter connection. We had no problems using either method to print to our Brother HL-5450DN laser printer.

The RT-N66U also has a Built-in media server from which you can stream videos and music from attqached USB devices.

The Asus RT-N66U is a great router, but its Wi-Fi performance without the optional Asus USB-N53 Wi-Fi adaptor is similar to that of the TP-Link WDR4300 Dual Band Wireless Router. Similarly, we had no trouble connecting to a USB printer with either router. If you prefer a fresher, more modern web interface and physically less conspicuous router, go for the Asus RT-N66U.

Basic Specifications
Part Code	RT-N66U
Review Date	18 Nov 2012
Rating
Modem type	none
802.11b support
802.11g support
Draft 802.11n support
Draft 802.11n 5GHz support
MIMO
Stated speed	450Mbit/s

Security
WPA	PSK (TKIP, AES), ENTERPRISE, RADIUS
WPA2
Firewall
MAC address filtering
DMZ

Physical
Size	36x207x149
Antennas	3
Internal/external antennas	external
Upgradeable antenna
Number of WAN ports	1
Ethernet ports	4
Ethernet connection speed	10/100/1000Mbit/s
Other ports	2x USB
Wall mountable
Power consumption on	8W

Other Features
Dynamic DNS
Universal Plug and Play support
DHCP server
MAC spoofing
Port forwarding
WDS Support
USB device support
QoS

Buying Information
Price	£97
Warranty	three year RTB
Supplier	http://www.amazon.co.uk
Details	uk.asus.com

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User Reviews

Independent customer reviews from Reevoo.com

Asus RT-N66U scored:9.3 out of 10 - 32 reviews

2 of 32 reviews:

10 out of 10

 

Adnan

Good Points+

Nice finish, almost like a carbon fibre design.
Fantastic WiFi coverage
Great for large file transfers and HD video streaming
Great with larger number of devices connected
USB port for downloading straight to a portable HDD or stick
Built in torrent client to download torrents whilst PC is off
Fantastic web admin interface
Amazing reliability no dropped connections etc

Bad Points−

A little pricey
Not the best design (to stand vertically)

All scores from this user:

 

Confirmed purchase:21 Dec 2012

9 out of 10

 

Simon

Good Points+

Good consistent performance. Excellent interface.

Having been an Apple fanboy since 2007 was weary of buying anything else than the latest AirPort Extreme Base Station.

Read reviews (SmallNetBuilder.com & MacRumors forums) which suggested this router gave superior range and top bandwidth. Priced even higher than the Apple offering but justified by both superior feature set and performance.

The interface accessed through the browser makes the vast array of features easily accessible.

Bad Points−

My wife thinks the antennae make it look sinister!

If Apple designed it, the ports would be on the opposite side to the antennae and be accessible from below when the device is mounted on the wall.

All scores from this user:

 

Confirmed purchase:30 Apr 2012

If you still interested to buy, please click the link below to get one.