ASUS RT-N12 Wireless-N Router, Access Point, and Repeater Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)The short review is: excellent router, extremely easy to set up, great range, good stability, nice white color, absolutely no complaints.
Here's the longer review:
I took a total risk on this router...there were no reviews on Amazon, I'd never heard of ASUS, and wasn't convinced that ordering it was a good idea. However, the price was right, and I had just spent frustrating hours trying to configure a Netgear route. My previous router, a D-link, had a "known issue" that the manufacturer solved by discontinuing the model's support. So, I thought, let me try this unknown brand and see what happens. If worse comes to worse I'd just return it to Amazon.
WOW was I pleased! Literally, 10 minutes after I had opened it, I had it configured as an access point, had logged into the router from my wireless laptop, and had set up a password to encrypt the network. I've set up maybe 5-7 routers in my life and always dread it... this was by far the easiest experience I've ever had. In the picture on the site, this router looks like it's an ugly grey color. It is a shiny smooth white - think Apple ipod aesthetic - with nice white antennas. Very aesthetically pleasing.
Though the advertising for this router states "diskless setup" it come with an optional setup disk. I did not use it as I wanted to test the advertising's claim...and am pleased to say it's an example of truth in advertising!
I'm also getting very good signal strength, speed and stability...I will DEFINITELY update this review if I run into issues, but overall I'm giving this thing 5 stars (and I almost never give 5 stars because I think everything has room for improvement) because it was so inexpensive and easy to set up, and performs exactly as advertised.
I am using this router as an "access point" which means it is connected via ethernet cable to another router and serves to extend the range of my wireless network. There's a switch on the back that allows you to select access point mode, standard router mode, or bridge/repeater mode.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
Update 5/10/2010- still working great... I put some white electricians' tape over the blue LEDs in front as they were too bright, but other than that, no issues at all. I forget it's there - it just works all the time without needing to be unplugged every so often like my other routers.... my wireless devices are always connected to it and don't lose signal. Still a 5-star review.

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ASUS Black Diamond Dual Band Processor, Hardware NAT, 5 Internal Antennas, Fast Gigabit Ethernet and 128MB DDR2 Wireless Router (RT-N56U) Review

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(More customer reviews)I recently purchased two other routers before purchasing this one to replace an older 2.4ghz router. The first router I purchased was the newly released Cisco Linksys E4200. I ended up returning it because I barely had a signal downstairs and slow output. My previous router usually had around 70%-80% signal downstairs however the E4200 would quickly lose signal the farther I moved away from the router. I purchased as a replacement the highly rated Netgear WNDR3700. This router had much better signal however it would not work with my external hard drive. Per review of online comments and Netgear's own website, the 3700 has issues being compatible with numerous external hard drives. Netgear has posted on their website about a dozen compatible hard drives that work with the 3700. I had the choice to either keep the 3700 and fork out another $50-$100 on a new external hard drive that would work or purchase another router with similar features. I ran across the Asus at my local electronic store. I never heard of this model before since it is a new release. Before I decided to purchase it, I went home and read the limited reviews I could find on it. Both expert and consumer reviews were positive. I ended up purchasing the Asus. I was completely blown away by the features and performance of this router. I have over 90% signal downstairs. My laptop is maintaining 230-270mbps connection when I am downstairs (about 30 feet away from router which is upstairs) which was impossible with both the E4200 and 3700. The user interface provides significant amount more custom options than both the Netgear and Cisco. My external HDD (Seagate) was instantly recognized by the router. I also found the wired connection runs smoother and faster than the 3700. The 3700 had a delay at times loading pages. Overall this is in my opinion the best performing router that I have ever owned. Currently the WNDR3700 is considered the best but it has been out for a while now. The Cisco E4200 claims to be the best however I disagree with this due to real hands-on experience with it. There is a good amount of owner complaints already being posted about the E4200 which is similar to issues that I also encountered. The only bad thing I found with this unit is that it does not allow wall mount option. For the price, performance and features, this is an excellent value and steal.

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Impossibly thin with a glossy black patterned finish, the ASUS dual band gigabit wireless-N RT-N56U router truly cuts the edge of innovation with powerful features that deliver the latest in networking capabilities. Equipped with exceptional hardware Network Address Translation (NAT), this one-of-a-kind router delivers up to 1000Mbps throughput that's up to five times faster than conventional gigabit routers.1The RT-N56U is like having two routers in one. Dual band transmissions enable both 2.4GHz and 5GHz spectrums simultaneously to give you faster, more secure connections. And with up to 300,000 sessions-20 times the amount of convetional routers-you have sufficient headroom for additional clients and devices without buying an additional router.

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ASUS WL-520GU Wireless Router Review

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(More customer reviews)This router router can do a lot more if you replace the original firmware with DD-WRT, Tomato or OpenWRT:
VPN, OpenVPN, NAS, BitTorrent, radio output power control, Wireless Print server, etc. It is possible to use a USB hub to connect several devices including printers.
Possibilities are endless.

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ASUS WL-520gU - EZ Wireless Router with All-in-One Printer Server: All-in-One Printer Server: Wirelessly and simultaneously share printing and scanning functions for multiple users; Auto-detection and New EZ UI (Easy User Interface): delivers the easiest and fastest way to setup your router; EZ QoS - Powerful and easily-operated BOD (Bandwidth On Demand) streamlines your Gaming/Audio/Video experience.

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ASUS WL-330N3G 6-in-1 Wireless-N Mobile Router Review

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(More customer reviews)You have to initially set it up with an ethernet cable, connecting to 192.168.1.1. You should not need to install any of the included software, but you will want to disable your wireless interface. If the software is easier for you, use it. Once in, you just setup the SSID, security and wireless password. It reboots, you unplug the ethernet and from that point onward you can do everything else over a Wifi connection. Those wireless settings you entered will persist through mode changes and through power loss. This means you can take this device with you and use it without a laptop or an ethernet connection. You can connect to it with a mobile phone or tablet over Wifi, change modes, set advanced settings, and even select a site and connect to it. The iPhone and iPad can both configure the router without problems using Safari. When coming back up after being turned off in hotspot mode, you can connect to it over wifi even if it cannot find the last site it was connected to. I read that you had to work around that problem on the WL-330GE, but you don't have to on this unit. You just connect and select another hotspot. Like the WL-330GE it can connect to sites with WPA, WPA2, etc, and unlike the GE it can connect to 802.11n only sites.
It does have to reboot with any mode change or almost any setting change. Afterwards you can connect again over Wifi. When you change to Hotspot mode you connect to it's web interface at 192.168.220.1 and in router mode at 192.168.1.1 (by default). You need to remember these two addresses and use the right one for the right mode or just try them both until you get in. I took points off of ease of use for these reasons. Granted other routers require a reboot for settings changes too.
It's range was better than expected. It reached about 50 feet, through walls, with only one bar lost. It's not as good as a full-size unit, however. It functions fine on a standard 500mA usb port, with no loss in range over the the distance I tested at (compared to using a 2A port). It gets a little warm to the touch, but nothing to worry about. The usb connector is a typical micro b.
While I have tested out router and hotspot modes, I have not tested them out with paid sites and captive portal pages yet. That will be for another time.
It came with a soft black pouch, a short usb cable (with a y to get more power), an a/c power supply, an ethernet cable and a software disc.

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ASUS WL-500g Premium - Wireless router - 4-port switch - 802.11b/g - desktop Review

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(More customer reviews)It's quite simple actually.
The minute you get this router, just install Tomato firmware or DD-WRT and start using.
Don't even bother with the stock ASUS firmware.
This device is beautiful with those firmwares since it has more RAM than the linksys WRT54GL.

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ASUS RT-N16 Wireless-N Gigabit Router Review

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(More customer reviews)I have been looking for a router with decent range, speed, support for USB based external NTFS drives and last but not the least, good QoS support for VoIP phones. Another important thing that perhaps everyone wants but forgets to mention is reliability. I expect it to keep on working once it has been setup.
I have had this router for just couple of days so far and cannot comment on reliability yet, but other requirements have been met quite well. The specs were something to die for - 480MHz (capable of 533MHz) processor, 128MB RAM, 32MB ROM and runs Linux with support for bittorrent and FTP right in the firmware. Even the firmware source code is GPLed and anyone with a bit of knowledge in this area can improve it. In fact, DD-WRT (an open source Linux based firmware) is already available and works quite well with this router.
With DD-WRT installed on this router, it becomes quite a powerful computer that can serve as a web server as well as a NAS once you connect an external hard drive to the USB port. QoS and Port Forwarding have been implemented quite well in DD-WRT and is the main reason why I had to install DD-WRT within few hours of receiving the router.
[...]
I would have given the router a 4.5 rating if I could as the firmware it came with had a few bugs. I could never get port forwarding to work and also QoS setup in the original firmware is limited.
Here are some pros -
1. Gigabit ethernet, excellent processor and so the performance. Asus claims 300,000 concurrent sessions, which should be enough to handle even commercial hotspots with hundred users.
2. It has 2 USB ports that support various devices. One could connect a USB printer and a cheap external hard drive at the same time. The printer would work as a network printer (available to all computers in the network) and the USB hard drive will be available as Network Attached Storage to everyone without paying hundreds for one such device.
3. DD-WRT availability. They are constantly improving and adding features. QoS (Quality of Service) is one such feature that is needed in any household that has a VoIP phone and lot of online activity in the background like uploading videos to youtube, p2p, online gaming etc. With proper QoS setup phone service or online gaming shouldn't be affected even with other large scale online activity.
4. The original firmware is image based and looks quite nice. I found it very intuitive.
Cons -
1. Should have been dual band (separate bands for G and N traffic), the chipset supports it. I am running in mixed mode as several of my devices (iPhone, Fuze, Wii) support only G mode and in mixed G/N mode, N components operate predominantly at G speed.
2. The original firmware is buggy and I couldn't get port forwarding to work reliably after several tries. QoS, the main reason behind me upgrading from a D-Link, is not implemented as well as I expected. DD-WRT fixes both issues but first-time owners may not be savvy enough to reload a 3rd-party firmware on their brand new router.
All in all, it's an excellent purchase for the capability and price, especially when you consider Cisco charges more (sometimes twice) for routers with slower processors and much less RAM and flash memory.
Update: Updated the links since Amazon yanked them. Also would like to add that the reliability is quite good so far with DD-WRT. Has been running for 3 days straight and no issues/slowdown etc.

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ASUS RT-N16 - Multi-Functional Gigabit Wireless N Router with storage,printer and media server Powerful CPU provides a high-performance throughput - Support up to 300,000 sessions for extensive P2P clients.- Most widespread application with USB2.0 port : All-in-1 printer server and FTP files sharing - Ultra-fast and Convenient Downloads with the Revolutionary Download Master

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ASUS WL-330gE - Portable Wireless Access Point with 4 Functions: Access Point, Ethernet Adapter, Gateway, and Universal Repeater - 802.11b/g Review

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(More customer reviews)I bought two of these, one to use as a wireless adapter and one as a repeater. My primary wireless router is a Dlink DIR-622 running the original 1.11 firmware.
Initial setup is fairly easy. The manual is TERRIBLE but you really don't need it for basic setup. Out of the box, or after a hard reset, the device is in "Gateway Mode" with it's DHCP server active and ready to hand out addresses in the 192.168.1 subnet. Connect it to a PC's ethernet port, open your browser to http://192.168.1.220 and you get the configuration screen. From there, it is easy to choose one of the other (3) modes and make a connection to your wireless network.
If you want to make additional configuration changes to other parameters, it gets harder. Once you switch from Gateway mode to one of the other (3), the device no longer acts as a DHCP server for the ethernet port; rather, it effectively becomes a device with a static IP of 192.168.1.220. To make additional configuration changes, you must open your PC's TCP/IP settings and change from DHCP (i.e., "obtain an IP address automatically") to a static address (i.e., "use the following IP address") in the 192.168.1 range. Only then can you again open your browser and use http://192.168.1.220 to access the device.
I setup the first unit in "Adapter mode", configured it for wpa2 and then connected it to my Dish Network 622 dvr. Everything connected and worked perfectly.
I have a large house with my wireless router at the North end, so signal quality at the South end of the house is poor. I configured the second wl-330ge for "Repeater mode" and placed it near the center of my house. Devices in the South end now get excellent signal quality from the centrally located wl-330ge repeater. Devices that used to get 6mbps now hit 35mbps.
Both my units came with firmware 2.0.1.8, but I noticed a newer 2.0.1.9 firmware on the ASUS web site with 11-23-2009 release date. As it mentioned a fix related to Repeater mode, I decided to download it and update both units. I then hard reset and reconfigured them. The one in Adapter mode still worked just fine. The one in Repeater mode ceased to function; devices would connect to it momentarily then lose the connection. After several hard resets and reconfiguration cycles, I gave up and flashed it back to 2.0.1.8, and it immediately started working again. If you are using Repeater mode, I recommend avoiding the 2.0.1.9 firmware.


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ASUS RT-N13U Wireless-N Router, Access Point, and Repeater Review

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(More customer reviews)For those looking for a cheap wireless N router + Print & FTP Server, this is an excellent buy!
I bought this router specifically with hope that it 'might' be able to do more than what it claims on the box, and it does, to some extent. Read on and you'll find answers to your questions that any other reviews on the web aren't able to tell you.
1. Can a USB hub be used to connect multiple peripherals to the router?
A. Yes, but with certain limitations. I have successfully connected a printer and a hard drive to the router via a usb hub, and both work flawlessly! Here's what you do: plug in the usb hub to the router, then connect the hdd to the usb hub, set up your ftp server on the hdd, then connect the printer to the usb hub, and set up your printer. You will only see the printer show up in the router's main page, but the ftp serve works fine. However, hooking up 2 printers will not work because the print command is directed ip-to-ip (your pc to the router) and pass on to the usb port. When you have a usb hub with multiple printers connected the print command will be pass on to every port on the hub. Sometimes printing will come out from the right printer that you want it to, but sometimes the command will get send to the other printer which may cause your printer to malfunction. I have two printers: a HP inkjet and a Samsung laser. It happened to me when I want to print from the Samsung but the command got sent to the HP, and HP will keep feeding paper and print out an error message on the corner until I force power-down the printer; same for the Samsung when a HP print command was sent to the Samsung it just kept printing errors until the machine overhead and power-off itself.
2. When connected to a HDD, it can only be set up as a FTP server, not a network drive.
What the differences you ask? On a network drive you can stream files directly from it, while an FTP you can only upload/download files but no running directly on the server. But simutenous access from multiple users are possible. That's an advantage over the so called "netowrk shared usb" where only a single user are allowed to use the peripheral at a time.
3. This router has a hardware repeater mode switch, which I consider a big plus. It's the transparent repeater mode, meaning it will receive and broadcast the same SSID of the network you're repeating; as oppose to 'stealth' repeater mode where you can set your own SSID and security for broadcast. Note that the network printer won't work in the repeater mode 'cause the print command will be pass on to the someone else's router (one that you're repeating). The Asus router still maintain its own ip and subset which the network printer belongs to, but it's hidden in the repeater mode. You can manually configure your pc to connect to it and you'll be able to print, but you lose internet. Not sure about FTP serve in repeater mode. Haven't try yet. The router has good range. I can receive Safeway's wifi which is like 300m from my place.
4. The router itself looks good IMO. I like the hidden antenna design.
What else? Msg me if you still have a question regarding the router.

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ASUS RT-N13U Wireless-N Router, Access Point, and Repeater

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