Asus RT-N66U Dark Knight Double 450Mbps N Router

I've hold off reviewing the Asus RT-N66U Dark Knight Double 450Mbps N Router until right away due to a few well known bugs in progressing versions of its firmware. The latest, chronicle 3.0.0.3.108, is still, well, a small buggy, but opportunely not severely sufficient to keep the router from being an glorious networking device.

Being the initial N900 router from Asus, the RT-N66U offers stellar opening on the 5GHz rope and a immeasurable number of features. The router moreover has great wireless operation and was really steady in my testing. With two USB ports it has more to offer than other USB-enabled routers, and it was really swift when joined with a storage device.

The RT-N66U isn't perfect, however. Performance on the 2.4GHz rope was slower than we expected, and the router's USB ports insufficient encouragement is to ultimate USB 3.0 standard. Nonetheless, if you're seeking for a top-notch router for your home or even a small office, the RT-N66U is one of the most appropriate on the market, mainly deliberation that its lane cost is descend than that of the Linksys E4200v2 from Cisco .

Design and ease of use
The RT-N66U looks identical to its predecessor, the RT-N56U , with a smooth surrounding that more resembles a valuables box than a networking device. The RT-N66U, however, can't masquerade its loyal inlet due the external-antenna design, with 3 of them adhering up from the back. These antennas are detachable but you do need them in place is to router to work.

Also on the back, you'll find 4 LAN ports and one WAN port. All of these ports are Gigabit Ethernet, meaning you'll moreover be able to obtain a swift connected network if you're not meddlesome in wireless. Near these ports are the Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) button, the reset button, two USB 2.0 ports, the power button, and a minuscule power port. While that might appear to be a lot of things on the router's back, things are well-distributed, so it's reduction cluttered than you would imagine. Still, it would be a lot improved if a few things were changed to the front or the sides of the router, where there are no buttons at all.

On the front, the router has an form of LED lights that uncover the statuses of the ports on the back, the connection to the Internet, the USB ports, and the wireless networks.

The RT-N66U comes with 4 rubber feet to make it stay put on a surface, but it's moreover wall-mountable. It comes with a well-defined bottom -- which, interestingly, we couldn't affix to the router until we pennyless a small square of cosmetic off of it -- for gripping it in a straight position. (That small square is probably there to keep the bottom from descending off, but it's only as well long, creation it roughly unfit to affix the bottom to the router.)

The router comes with a CD that contains setup program that walks you even though every singular step of how to set it up, so it should be really easy for home users. Savvy users can jump over the CD and use the router's Web interface to set it up by indicating a connected computer's browser to 192.168.1.1, that is the router's default IP address. The initial time you go there, the interface will acknowledge you with a Web-based sorceress with stairs identical to those of the desktop setup software.

Either way, you won't have any complaint getting the router up and running. we myself was able to do that in reduction than 10 minutes, inclusive opening the box.

Features
The RT-N66U is an N900 loyal dual-band router, meaning that both of its bands (5GHz and 2.4GHz) can offer up to 450Mbps, currently the fastest speed of the Wireless-N standard. In demand to suffer this aloft speed, your Wi-Fi customer moreover has to encouragement the 450Mbps typical (also well known as the 3x3 standard), that most of them don't. Nonetheless, the router functions with all existing Wi-Fi clients, inclusive those done for pre-N wireless standards.

To ensure the router offers limit compatibility, you'll must be change the settings of its wireless networks to Auto and the encryption methods to encouragement both AES and TKIP methods. To do this you will must be use the Web interface, that moreover allows you to access to all of the router's features.

And the RT-N66U's Web interface is great: well-organized, responsive, and pretty simple. There are 3 leading tools of the interface that you can access from the left segment of the page. The tip segment is the setup sorceress referred to above, the center is for General items, and the bottom is the Advanced Settings.

General offers a Network Map for observation currently connected devices, inclusive those connected to the router around the USB ports. You can click on one of the connected gadgets to correlate with it. For example, you can rapidly inhibit a Wi-Fi customer or set up a network storage underline of an outmost hard drive. In the General area, you can moreover increase or change up to 6 Guest networks, 3 for any band. Other nifty General features include a Parental Control feature, a Traffic Manager, and administration of the router's USB ports.