This review is from: Asus RT-AC66U AC1750 Black Diamond Dual-Band WLAN Router, 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Gigabit LAN/WAN, 2x USB, Print FTP UPnP VPN Server, IPv6, 8x SSID (Accessory)
I received the RT-AC66U router from Amazon yesterday which I ordered the day before for the price of £152. At the time of writing this review it had gone up to £168, so I count myself lucky.
Fortunately setup was non-eventful. I have a fairly complex network consisting of multiple Ethernet switches and wireless repeaters but it seamlessly slotted into place of my trusty Billion BiPAC 7800N which has served me well for a couple of years. All my devices connected to the RT-AC66U without hassle and without me having to mess around with the rest of the network. I ported over my fixed IP assignments and wireless filtered MAC addresses from my old router manually (copy-and-pasting from a text list didn’t work due to differently formatted characters), but while it was a tedious and time-consuming process at least it all worked perfectly first time. I also updated the firmware to the latest version at the time of writing (3.0.0.4.220) and all settings were preserved. Having said this, I am quite experienced with setting up networks and so did not have to consult the manual. As such, I cannot say how well the manual is written or how easy it would be for someone relatively experienced to configure the device.
I have read complaints on various online fora about unreliability and flakiness, especially with the latest firmware, but I have had no such problems so far (touch wood). My wireless speeds have definitely improved (I estimate roughly 10-15Mbps on average on 2.4GHz 802.11n), and even things like remote desktop connections between different machines on my LAN are now pretty much instantaneous, whereas on my old router it would take some seconds for RDP connections to complete. I can now run my wireless network on 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequency bands simultaneously, and the 5GHz signal stretches through my house just fine, though quite frankly I only have 2-3 devices that make use of it. What’s more, it seems to interfere with my Sennheiser RS220 wireless headphones less than my old wireless network did, though I need to test that over a longer period of time to be sure.
One of the “stand-out” features of this router is the 802.11ac capability which (in theory at least) can provide more than a gigabit of bandwidth wirelessly, potentially replacing some of the cabling on an Ethernet network (e.g. to connect the upstairs and downstairs of a house). However, this standard has not been finalised (the RT-AC66U has the “Draft 2.0” version of 802.11ac) so there’s no guarantee that future 802.11ac devices will be compatible. Because of this, I considered getting the RT-N66U instead, which is more or less the same router but without the 802.11ac feature. Although it was around £40 less, I thought “what the hell” and plumped for this one anyway, with the hope that I may be able to use 802.11ac devices in the future. In any case, you can use another RT-AC66U in “Media Bridge” mode which can connect to the main RT-AC66U wirelessly using 802.11ac so you can access devices connected to it with cables (e.g. upstairs/downstairs as said earlier), and I am considering doing that, at least to make use of the 802.11ac feature if for nothing else. All in all however, so far I’m more than happy with the RT-AC66U so don’t regret the decision to get it, but most people are probably better off with the RT-N66U until the 802.11ac standard has been finalised in a year or so. Some tests/reports also claim that the RT-N66U is a bit quicker using 802.11n (perhaps because of more mature firmware), but I can’t verify this except to say that speed-wise the RT-AC66U noticeably improved on my previous router which was itself generally highly rated.
The RT-AC66U has four Ethernet ports and a WAN port, all gigabit which is a big plus; especially the WAN port which means you can make full use of faster internet connections in the future (such as Virgin’s 120Mbps service). My Ethernet speeds are as good as they were with my old router (which also had gigabit ports, though only a 100Mbps WAN port), so no complaints there. The router also has two USB 2.0 ports on the back, which allows you to connect various devices. The router has DLNA compatibility, presumably allowing you to access media from any attached external hard drives from other DLNA compatible devices on your network. Internet access can be switched over to an attached 3G/4G dongle if your main connection goes down. You can also use the router’s built-in print server to access an attached USB printer from anywhere on the network. I haven’t used any of the USB related features however so cannot comment on how well they work – but it’s disappointing they are only 2.0, especially considering many have 3.0 external drives (including me).
When it comes to devices, functionality is generally more of a consideration for me than the bonus of a nice appearance. My old router worked fantastically well although it looked very dull. Having said this…
This review is from: Asus RT-AC66U AC1750 Black Diamond Dual-Band WLAN Router, 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Gigabit LAN/WAN, 2x USB, Print FTP UPnP VPN Server, IPv6, 8x SSID (Accessory)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme(What’s this?)
I was lucky enough to obtain an early sample of the Netgear D6300 802.11ac Dual Band Gigabit WiFi Modem Router , which like this is one of the first to support the new high speed 802.11ac wireless protocol and I was interested to see how the two compare. I was able to test it using one of the first 11ac network adapters on the market, the Netgear A6200 802.11ac Dual Band WiFi USB Adapter which I used on both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz network streams.
This unit looks attractive and has modern stylish good looks but this is offset somewhat when the three huge antennas are attached. The antennas can be removed and replaced to allow for future upgrades.
Setup was quick and easy with no CD needed. Logging into the router home page at 192.168.1.1 brought up an easy to follow Wizard and I was quickly online and surfing. I was also given the option to use the unit as an Access Point or Media Bridge (thus freeing up the WAN socket for use a a fifth LAN port)
In use I found the 5Ghz stream to be blazingly fast and able to take advantage of the 11ac greatly increased speed. The 2.4Ghz stream I found slow compared to other high end routers I have tried even allowing for the fact it cannot be used for 11ac traffic.
The twin USB ports allow for online storage up for attached drives of up 2TB – possibly more – and built in print, FTP, SAMBA, UPnP AV servers, are built in. The storage capabilities interact with Asus’s cloud based AiCloud system to allow for mobile and other access for which Android and iOS apps are available. I found this buggy and hard to use as yet. Future firmware may improve this.
The best thing about this router is the the ac11 protocol implementation which is superior to that of the Netgear giving a fast and more stable 5Ghz stream with a greater propagation range. That said, few devices on the market support 5Ghz and fewer still support ac11. If you plan to upgrade to these protocols then this would be a good and future proof investment. If you plan to use it with your existing equipment only then maybe a cheaper and better performing device can be found to handle the 2.4Ghz network such as the remarkable AVM Fritz! Box Fon 7390 Wireless 4 Port VDSL/ADSL2+ Router DECT VoIP Phone Adaper which I use myself.
The Good Stylish looks Intuitive wizard based CD free configuration Uses latest high speed 11ac wifi protocol (5Ghz only) Two USB ports Up to Five Gigabit LAN Ethernet ports Six Guest Networks Can function as Bridge or Access Point Simultaneous 2.4GHz and 5GHz network streams. Easy to set up Parental Controls feature VPN server AiCloud built in internet storage interface Excellent wifi signal propagation range Good build quality Detachable and upgradable antennas
The Bad 3 large and ugly antennas Few 11ac network devices available Relatively poor 2.4Ghz performance 5Ghz Network devices needed for best performance Some more arcane features are buggy No USB 3.0 support Manual is basic and does cover more arcane features Cannot use USB hub for additional devices Over bright status LEDs
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This review is from: Asus RT-AC66U AC1750 Black Diamond Dual-Band WLAN Router, 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Gigabit LAN/WAN, 2x USB, Print FTP UPnP VPN Server, IPv6, 8x SSID (Accessory)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme(What’s this?)
No doubt about it, the Asus RT-AC66U is a very good looking router. Its sleek black design suits its exotic “Black Diamond” name, this router would look good in any living room.
The first thing that strikes you about the router is its 3 huge antennas that positively exude high performance. The antennas are both adjustable and detachable, in theory allowing for even more powerful antennas to be fitted when they become available. Though, to be honest, these antennas are so powerful it’s unlikely they’ll need replacing any time soon.
In many respects the Asus RT-AC66U is the 802.11ac version of the excellent Asus RT-N66U router. So it has all the features of the RT-N66U, but with added support for the latest superfast 802.11ac wireless standard, giving a theoretical maximum wireless throughput 1.75Gbps.
On first use the router displays a web-based wizard that talks you through the whole setup process, including whether you wish the router to be used as a regular router, an access point, or a media bridge. The setup procedure is quite simple and I was up and running within about 10 minutes.
All router configuration is done via the web interface and all the features are easily accessible, being divided into General and Advanced. Most of the everyday features are found under General, whereas Advanced is for things such as setting up the VPN Server.
The RT-N66U comes with 2 USB ports enabling it to be used as a print server, as well as hosting an external hard disk for media streaming. 3G dongles can also be plugged in, allowing the router to be used as a mobile hotspot, which is handy.
Overall this is a very feature-rich router but its real stand-out feature is its performance which, supporting the new 802.11ac standard, gives it a wireless top speed of an eye watering 1.75Gbps. So to put this through its paces I copied a very large 10Gb MKV movie file over the wireless network from my laptop located as far as possible from the router. I didn’t accurately measure the data throughput achieved but the speed that the 10Gb file was copied was amazingly fast, easily on par with anything achievable with Cat5e. Streaming the same 10Gb MKV movie was also extremely robust with no hint of stutter.
Just for fun I then took the laptop to the bottom of the back garden and tried the same tests. I was amazed to find no noticeable performance drop, even with plenty of brick walls to negotiate the signal was as strong as it was inside the house!
Though it’s unlikely the 802.11ac throughput ever reaches its full rate of 1.75Gbps, it’s obvious this is the new standard for wireless performance. So if you’re looking for a future-proof and feature-rich router with the fastest performance possible, look no further than the excellent Asus RT-AC66U.
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Impressive router,
I received the RT-AC66U router from Amazon yesterday which I ordered the day before for the price of £152. At the time of writing this review it had gone up to £168, so I count myself lucky.
Fortunately setup was non-eventful. I have a fairly complex network consisting of multiple Ethernet switches and wireless repeaters but it seamlessly slotted into place of my trusty Billion BiPAC 7800N which has served me well for a couple of years. All my devices connected to the RT-AC66U without hassle and without me having to mess around with the rest of the network. I ported over my fixed IP assignments and wireless filtered MAC addresses from my old router manually (copy-and-pasting from a text list didn’t work due to differently formatted characters), but while it was a tedious and time-consuming process at least it all worked perfectly first time. I also updated the firmware to the latest version at the time of writing (3.0.0.4.220) and all settings were preserved. Having said this, I am quite experienced with setting up networks and so did not have to consult the manual. As such, I cannot say how well the manual is written or how easy it would be for someone relatively experienced to configure the device.
I have read complaints on various online fora about unreliability and flakiness, especially with the latest firmware, but I have had no such problems so far (touch wood). My wireless speeds have definitely improved (I estimate roughly 10-15Mbps on average on 2.4GHz 802.11n), and even things like remote desktop connections between different machines on my LAN are now pretty much instantaneous, whereas on my old router it would take some seconds for RDP connections to complete. I can now run my wireless network on 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequency bands simultaneously, and the 5GHz signal stretches through my house just fine, though quite frankly I only have 2-3 devices that make use of it. What’s more, it seems to interfere with my Sennheiser RS220 wireless headphones less than my old wireless network did, though I need to test that over a longer period of time to be sure.
One of the “stand-out” features of this router is the 802.11ac capability which (in theory at least) can provide more than a gigabit of bandwidth wirelessly, potentially replacing some of the cabling on an Ethernet network (e.g. to connect the upstairs and downstairs of a house). However, this standard has not been finalised (the RT-AC66U has the “Draft 2.0” version of 802.11ac) so there’s no guarantee that future 802.11ac devices will be compatible. Because of this, I considered getting the RT-N66U instead, which is more or less the same router but without the 802.11ac feature. Although it was around £40 less, I thought “what the hell” and plumped for this one anyway, with the hope that I may be able to use 802.11ac devices in the future. In any case, you can use another RT-AC66U in “Media Bridge” mode which can connect to the main RT-AC66U wirelessly using 802.11ac so you can access devices connected to it with cables (e.g. upstairs/downstairs as said earlier), and I am considering doing that, at least to make use of the 802.11ac feature if for nothing else. All in all however, so far I’m more than happy with the RT-AC66U so don’t regret the decision to get it, but most people are probably better off with the RT-N66U until the 802.11ac standard has been finalised in a year or so. Some tests/reports also claim that the RT-N66U is a bit quicker using 802.11n (perhaps because of more mature firmware), but I can’t verify this except to say that speed-wise the RT-AC66U noticeably improved on my previous router which was itself generally highly rated.
The RT-AC66U has four Ethernet ports and a WAN port, all gigabit which is a big plus; especially the WAN port which means you can make full use of faster internet connections in the future (such as Virgin’s 120Mbps service). My Ethernet speeds are as good as they were with my old router (which also had gigabit ports, though only a 100Mbps WAN port), so no complaints there. The router also has two USB 2.0 ports on the back, which allows you to connect various devices. The router has DLNA compatibility, presumably allowing you to access media from any attached external hard drives from other DLNA compatible devices on your network. Internet access can be switched over to an attached 3G/4G dongle if your main connection goes down. You can also use the router’s built-in print server to access an attached USB printer from anywhere on the network. I haven’t used any of the USB related features however so cannot comment on how well they work – but it’s disappointing they are only 2.0, especially considering many have 3.0 external drives (including me).
When it comes to devices, functionality is generally more of a consideration for me than the bonus of a nice appearance. My old router worked fantastically well although it looked very dull. Having said this…
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|Great for 5Ghz, less so for 2.4Ghz,
I was lucky enough to obtain an early sample of the Netgear D6300 802.11ac Dual Band Gigabit WiFi Modem Router , which like this is one of the first to support the new high speed 802.11ac wireless protocol and I was interested to see how the two compare. I was able to test it using one of the first 11ac network adapters on the market, the Netgear A6200 802.11ac Dual Band WiFi USB Adapter which I used on both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz network streams.
This unit looks attractive and has modern stylish good looks but this is offset somewhat when the three huge antennas are attached. The antennas can be removed and replaced to allow for future upgrades.
Setup was quick and easy with no CD needed. Logging into the router home page at 192.168.1.1 brought up an easy to follow Wizard and I was quickly online and surfing. I was also given the option to use the unit as an Access Point or Media Bridge (thus freeing up the WAN socket for use a a fifth LAN port)
In use I found the 5Ghz stream to be blazingly fast and able to take advantage of the 11ac greatly increased speed. The 2.4Ghz stream I found slow compared to other high end routers I have tried even allowing for the fact it cannot be used for 11ac traffic.
The twin USB ports allow for online storage up for attached drives of up 2TB – possibly more – and built in print, FTP, SAMBA, UPnP AV servers, are built in. The storage capabilities interact with Asus’s cloud based AiCloud system to allow for mobile and other access for which Android and iOS apps are available. I found this buggy and hard to use as yet. Future firmware may improve this.
The best thing about this router is the the ac11 protocol implementation which is superior to that of the Netgear giving a fast and more stable 5Ghz stream with a greater propagation range. That said, few devices on the market support 5Ghz and fewer still support ac11. If you plan to upgrade to these protocols then this would be a good and future proof investment. If you plan to use it with your existing equipment only then maybe a cheaper and better performing device can be found to handle the 2.4Ghz network such as the remarkable AVM Fritz! Box Fon 7390 Wireless 4 Port VDSL/ADSL2+ Router DECT VoIP Phone Adaper which I use myself.
The Good
Stylish looks
Intuitive wizard based CD free configuration
Uses latest high speed 11ac wifi protocol (5Ghz only)
Two USB ports
Up to Five Gigabit LAN Ethernet ports
Six Guest Networks
Can function as Bridge or Access Point
Simultaneous 2.4GHz and 5GHz network streams.
Easy to set up Parental Controls feature
VPN server
AiCloud built in internet storage interface
Excellent wifi signal propagation range
Good build quality
Detachable and upgradable antennas
The Bad
3 large and ugly antennas
Few 11ac network devices available
Relatively poor 2.4Ghz performance
5Ghz Network devices needed for best performance
Some more arcane features are buggy
No USB 3.0 support
Manual is basic and does cover more arcane features
Cannot use USB hub for additional devices
Over bright status LEDs
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|Thanks to 802.11ac support this router takes speed to new levels,
No doubt about it, the Asus RT-AC66U is a very good looking router. Its sleek black design suits its exotic “Black Diamond” name, this router would look good in any living room.
The first thing that strikes you about the router is its 3 huge antennas that positively exude high performance. The antennas are both adjustable and detachable, in theory allowing for even more powerful antennas to be fitted when they become available. Though, to be honest, these antennas are so powerful it’s unlikely they’ll need replacing any time soon.
In many respects the Asus RT-AC66U is the 802.11ac version of the excellent Asus RT-N66U router. So it has all the features of the RT-N66U, but with added support for the latest superfast 802.11ac wireless standard, giving a theoretical maximum wireless throughput 1.75Gbps.
On first use the router displays a web-based wizard that talks you through the whole setup process, including whether you wish the router to be used as a regular router, an access point, or a media bridge. The setup procedure is quite simple and I was up and running within about 10 minutes.
All router configuration is done via the web interface and all the features are easily accessible, being divided into General and Advanced. Most of the everyday features are found under General, whereas Advanced is for things such as setting up the VPN Server.
The RT-N66U comes with 2 USB ports enabling it to be used as a print server, as well as hosting an external hard disk for media streaming. 3G dongles can also be plugged in, allowing the router to be used as a mobile hotspot, which is handy.
Overall this is a very feature-rich router but its real stand-out feature is its performance which, supporting the new 802.11ac standard, gives it a wireless top speed of an eye watering 1.75Gbps. So to put this through its paces I copied a very large 10Gb MKV movie file over the wireless network from my laptop located as far as possible from the router. I didn’t accurately measure the data throughput achieved but the speed that the 10Gb file was copied was amazingly fast, easily on par with anything achievable with Cat5e. Streaming the same 10Gb MKV movie was also extremely robust with no hint of stutter.
Just for fun I then took the laptop to the bottom of the back garden and tried the same tests. I was amazed to find no noticeable performance drop, even with plenty of brick walls to negotiate the signal was as strong as it was inside the house!
Though it’s unlikely the 802.11ac throughput ever reaches its full rate of 1.75Gbps, it’s obvious this is the new standard for wireless performance. So if you’re looking for a future-proof and feature-rich router with the fastest performance possible, look no further than the excellent Asus RT-AC66U.
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