10.11.2012

Ok - I have bought this due to the good reviews, this is my first broadband connection, and whilst I can follow simple instructions, I do not have a clue what all this equipment is about! I bought this along with the TP-Link 8817 modem.Now the instructions for the Asus show connecting the modem to the router and the router to the computer with a cable, plus plugging them both in to the mains. Erm! Why do I need a cable to the computer? It's wi fi isn't it? AND SURELY I need a cable into the actual phone socket to get the broadband to the modem and router (no mention of this in Asus manual). So - assuming this is an oversight and I need a cable from the phone socket,does this go to the router or to the modem?I am guessing - cable from phone socket goes to modem, cable goes from modem to router - no cable needed from router to computer (or maybe this latter bit is needed for set up?)Also - both pieces of equipment come with discs and set up equipment. So - do I set up the modem first with it's instal etc, and then the router? Or just set up the router with its disc instal etc?Finally - do I have a built-in modem in my computer (or modem software) and do I need to delete it?! Until now I have been using a mobile broadband dongle plus BT Openzone wi fi via voucher.Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am still not even sure which is the ethernet cable or how many different cables I need! I have - one cable which fits a phone socket at one end and a (? J1 something connector at the other that fits into a computer). Also, as I am not using a telephone on the line, just using it for broadband, do I still need to fit the ADSL filter or can I just plug straight into phone socket - and will this make things better or worse?When I have this up and running, I will update on how good the wi fi is and if it reaches from one end of our stone built house (previously two houses) to the other - as previous owner could never manage that.PS If the wi fi range is that good, will it fry me with radiation?!UPDATED 1 December 2012Thank you SO much. I did manage to get it all working but it took 3 days and a lot of gnashing of teeth, plus some wasted cables I had bought. It all set up easily and I picked up a good signal - except - no connection to the internet. Tried everything, did everything from scratch a few times. Phoned the service provider, who weren't much help. But one thing I had failed to do was enter the service provider's login for me when setting up. So did this - still no internet connection. Service provider said modem was faulty. (Modem wouldn't even connect by itself). I was about to box everything up and send it back, but came across an internet page to troubleshoot. Tried changing the cables. Yes you are right, it does still need an ADSL filter. Plus swapped the 'good' gold-ended cables I had bought, for the cheapo ones supplied. Still nothing. Then suddenly it all just started working.For any other novices out there, here are some tips:1) Ignore all instructions that come with modem router, and follow the instructions for the Asus router.2) The instructions for the Asus router fail to explain that you also need the modem connected to the phone wall socket when setting up (obvious I know but it should be in the instructions).3) You need a login, or password or something from your service provider, to enter into the Asus set up page. The first box on the set up is automatically ticked, but you need to tick the second box for PP something or other and then enter your username and password that you set up with the internet service provider (not the username and password you set for the router).3) Use the ADSL filter even if you have a separate line for the internet with no phone.4) Use the cables provided.Any problems, have a look at these two links:[...]Don't try releasing and re-setting the IP address. The Asus router set up will do it for you if there is any conflict of IP address. If it doesn't all work first time, switch everything off, unplug everything for 10 minutes, press the re-set button on both modem and router before and after switching off and then on again, then connect everything up and start again, and let the Asus set-up change the IP address.Actually the only reason I got this expensive router was for the reported excellent range. It is no better than the basic router that the previous tenant had - wish I had bought a simple modem router - but hopefully this one will last a long time as Asus stuff does tend to be reliable.Thank you very much to Matt Hawkins for his extremely kind and helpful response.

6.9.2018

I bought this router 2 and a half years ago, when I had a 20mb/s connection. It's done reasonable job, although far from perfect I've tolerated it's faults.I now have a 100mb/s connection.A lot of the time it manages, but it's started throwing a wobbler every few days, so it's time to retire it.When it was bought one of the intentions was to use it as a media server, using a couple of external drives connected to the USB ports. This idea was rapidly abandoned, as despite ASUSes claims it was not up to the job. A Raspberry Pi 3 could handle it, this router couldn't.So after a few months a suitable NAS was found and purchased.I also experienced the rejected password issue mentioned by another reviewer,for months at a time the web interface was inaccessible, and then it would decide to work again, all while the router was functioning fine, apart from being unable to log in to it.Roll on a couple of years of largely uninterrupted service, rarely even needing a reboot.Then a few months ago I noticed the 2.4GHz wifi was largely non functional, it would connect, but no net access, then get kicked, exactly the same as it had failed authentication. I don't use 2.4GHz much anyway so gave it no further thought.Then what looked like a DDoS attack occurred, but with no evidence in any logs I could find, so I turned on the DDoS firewall additions and got internet access back, CPU usage about 50% but I could live with it.The next morning CPU back to 3-10% so I thought attackers given up, all fine.A few days later same thing, but lasting hours, DDoS protecting was still on, CPU showing as 98+%, on the rare occasions the interface worked, next morning, all fine.Time to research - this isn't a rare issue with ASUS routers, no one seems to know what the cause is.So - I definitely need more processor grunt, but it's likely this router is faulty anyway.I do some looking, this ones lasted 2 and a half years, and most of the time it's just sat there and done it's job, so I start with ASUS routers, then I find out the current version, and the next one up, and the next one up from that, all have the same issue. There's another one that looks good but is end of life according to ASUS, and isn't at end of life prices.And then we start hitting silly money for features I don't have a use for with my 3-6 wireless devices, in a small flat,So I switch brands.I've gone for a synology ac2600, primarily because of the interface, and it's an okay and, above all, stable router.A bit, a lot, more than I wanted to pay, and has several expensive features I am unlikely to ever use, but it seems to have the least wrong with it out of all of the ones I have looked at, the interface looks shiny, and as I'm not a teenager the fact it comes in a fairly bland shell is...good.But the N66U, it worked more or less okay, and was fairly reliable, for a couple of years, which is what I need for a router, hence the 4 stars.

17.4.2014

Firstly, on my primary reason for buying this router - which is wireless range, don't expect magic! I live in a house with foot and a half solid brick walls through out. The signal will pass through one wall comfortably, but not two. I've now bought a second to run in access point mode, which has solved that problem (more on this below).My second grumble is that the firmware update process is fragile it seems, and recovery options equally fragile. The first unit I received failed on it's first stock firmware upgrade. The unit entered recovery mode, but loading firmware downloaded from the Asus support site resulted in the router rebooting and staying in in recovery mode.I was still able to access the core router web interface which allowed subsequent firmware upload reattempts, but each failed. I also tried the recovery utility provided by Asus, which also failed to restore the firmware. So I had one bricked router, which has gone back to the retailer without too much trouble. I would not be comfortable attempting the loading of non stock firmware like Tomato, with a less than solid firmware upload and recovery process.Thirdly, a feature I was not expecting but was very pleased to see was the ability to connect a printer via USB, and share this around the network. This has worked, but the connection is repeatedly lost, and is tricky to restore sometimes. This makes it unusable. Other users report similar problems, while others in online posts I have read say the feature works well. I will persevere with this, and up my rating to 4 stars if I can get it to work (there would have been 5 stars if it were not for the firmware issues).My final and most minor grumble is that the English on the firmware UI is not great. This is likely due to foreign design and manufacture, and might not affect functionality, but it does reduce confidence in the firmware quality.On the good points, the design is great, build quality of the unit is great, and it has all the features I need. I'm running a second unit connected by ethernet cable in Access Point mode and have now achieved a strong (but still not full strength) wireless signal throughout the house and garden. Some people point out that using WDS or a repeater mode will half the achievable speed of the connection from the secondary Access Point, however I get my full broadband speed and latency performance on connections to both access points. I'm not sure if this is because the Access Point is in 'Hybrid' mode and is using the wired connection over the wireless WDS, or because the 'halving' of speed is a halving of the routers 450mbps top speed (which will be faster than my broadband speed for some time to come I imagine).Additional nice features are the ability to save configuration settings (because you may spend some time getting these as you want them)

25.1.2015

I will admit that I did not run this with the Asus software except for about 10 minutes first time I switched it on. I basically bought this to replace my EE router and give me enhanced security and functionality. Moreover, I bought this specific model because of it's compatibility with dd-wrt (open source router firmware). Hence, the first thing I did when I unboxed this was to switch it on, wipe it, and install alternative firmware. As a result, I cannot comment on it's plain vanilla "standard" operation as I'm using totally different software to run it. For those who are interested, flashing the dd-wrt firmware was pretty straightforward although you do need to exercise due care and caution

4.9.2012

I've just signed up for BT Infinity after 5 years of being with 'Be', my favourite ISP by far, however, no fibre planned for at least a year. So before I get connected and rather than using the standard BT Home Hub 3 which apparently is a decent bit of kit, I thought I'd upgrade my trusty Netgear DG834GT (tweaked to perfection) to a decent Router. I decided I would stay with what I knew and after reading some great reviews I went for the Netgear N900 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router. It was simple to set up and easy to get online but I wasn't impressed with the size, build quality or the range of the wireless so I looked around again. I almost went for the RT-N56U but thought 'what the hell',

4.1.2013

I purchased this router to extend access to my NAS up to the bedrooms and reduce the impact upon my existing Billion Bipac 7800n router, which I use for Internet access. Firstly, I was a bit disappointed that the range of the router was only marginally more than my Billion, but impressed by how stable the connection was. It seems the router does indeed intelligently strengthen connections and keep them open.The great advantage for me is having both 2.4G and 5G radio bands available. Furthermore, because I am using the router as a Wireless Access Point over LAN, this enables me to stream from my NAS-based media server (QNAP TS-412) without having much impact upon my existing wireless network.

10.3.2013

HiAs the title says, I moved from a Netgear WNDR4500 to this router. There was nothing wrong with the Netgear, and my only reason for moving was to get the VPN server functionality offered by the Asus. I owned the Netgear for about a year before I changed.The VPN server (PTPP with MPPE encryption only) works very well. I access it from a couple of Android devices as well as from work all reliably, and at decent speeds without issues.The router is let down in a number of area's compared to the WNDR4500:- When I add firewall rules on the Asus, it takes eon's to apply the changes (seemingly rebooting the router). On the netgear, this was instant- Editing firewall rules is not possible,

17.3.2013

Never thought I’d spend over £100 on a router, especially since I got a D-Link DIR-615 Rev D4 router free with the installation of my Virgin 50 Mb broadband internet connection.When I had issues connecting to my Wi-Fi network, I started doing some research on a replacement router. First I tried using a mini router Wi-Fi repeater (TP Link TL-WR702N 150Mbps Wireless N Nano Router) to boost my Wi-Fi signal on the D-Link. But it was of minimal help.So further research signs all pointed to this Asus RT-N66U. But with that price tag was it really worth it?YES, YES, a thousand times, YES!I was paying for a fast internet connection but with the D-Link I was only able to use those speeds on my hard-wired laptop.

8.9.2013

First off I'll come clean didn't buy this from Amazon as needed it in a hurry and a local store had it for the same price.I'm using this router with BT infinity.. Openreach modem connects to the WAN port of this router.... Important to note it needs a modem !!!Set up if simple to get it on the internet.. for BT infinity it connects via PPPoE.. (username is [email protected]) and password (can be anything) 2 space bar presses)..My unit connected the internet and told me to secure the router with a password... Then it updated the firmware (took about 3 mins)..Setting up wireless is also easy.. the router is really cleaver in that is can have a number of SSID's (wireless network names)

27.2.2013

A great product which was to replace my aging G+ Belkin Router. The price was cheaper here, than RRP or anywhere else, by a large margin (about £60 less).I did heavy research into new routers, including the draft AC standard; of this the Asus RT-AC66U came out top for the new standard, but was slower than the current N standard.In terms of the current N standard, this router, the Asus RT-N66U, was the best overall. Although future proofing is a good thing, I have no equipment that can use the higher draft AC standard, and it is more expensive, so I choose the RT-N66U as a great value high end router for home purposes.The device is super simple to set up and use,

24.1.2016

I purchased this to replace my Virgin Media 'Super-hub' 2ac - I was having major problems with the super-hub, the signal strength was OK, but the issue was with the amount of dropped connections - on average 20-30 times a day for multiple devices. Now I am no novice when it comes to networking and IT, so tried all the usual tricks with the 'super hub' (Channel Changes, Disabling security, compatibility.....the list goes on!) but with no effect.So onto the ASUS RT-N66U. I was expecting a massive increase in strength and speed - and it is better than the super hub (but not by a huge amount). Now to be fair the virgin media cable into the house isn't in the best of locations, and I can't move it elsewhere,

31.1.2013

I got one of these because I had a Virgin Media (not so) Super Hub. I also had another router servicing the lounge area of the house and a repeater from that in the kitchen to reach the back of the house and my bedroom above. It's a large house and this was the only way to get wireless service all around the house. So I switched the super hub into modem mode, disconnected the other router and repeater then connected the Asus.It was simple to set up. The user interface is intuitive and delivers plenty of power and options to suit most users. The first thing I noticed was a much improved internet speed. I think this is down to the super hub only having to be a modem. I then checked range.

27.6.2012

I got this router to replace my Linksys E4200 V2. That particular router was fine but I couldn't get a wifi signal on my iPhone in the main bedroom upstairs. It would randomly disconnect. I had a similar problem with an Apple Airport Extreme. The only router that I actually could get signal in that room was from a Netgear WNDR3700. The signal was however low and sometimes web pages would fail to load.After reading a few reviews I decided to splash out on this Asus flagship router.I have had it running for two weeks now. It came with the latest firmware already installed so must be a new batch. Performance wise I have had zero issues. Where other routers were struggling with signal,

9.4.2013

I bought this to replace my Virgin Superhub. I had planned to replace it in time anyway but after much head bashing and web trawling it seems there it a fault with the Superhub when it comes to port forwarding (even if you set it up properly, the superhub won't actually forward the ports so if it's happening to you then it's probably not your fault!)Anyway.. I bought the Asus RT-966U after reading plenty of reviews and comparisons and I am delighted with it. Setup couldn't be much easier. The list of features is very extensive and it all seems to work very well. Port-forwarding was a breeze and works a charm. I haven't tried anything of the USB features such as FTP and printer connection.

27.2.2014

This is the best bit of computer kit I have ever bought. We have BT infinity piped to our house with an Open Reach modem. In very short succession we went through three BT Home Hub 3s which either blew up or just wouldn't hold wireless connections with our various devices (Macbook pro, Dell laptop, android phones, iPad 3) and I was getting fed up with the BT kit.I bought the RT-N66U based on the reviews. In three years it has been 100% stable, reliable and fast. No issues or complaints at all. I am reasonably savvy and confident with computer equipment so was fully prepared to have to get in to the settings and configure the unit. No need to fiddle at all, the set up was easy using the wizard.

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