[Maylyn's Review] ASUS RT-N66U Dark Knight

[maylyn]

The arrival of the king of routers in Singapore is in my hands ^^

The ASUS RT-N66U Dark Knight

People have been talking about it since the last CES 2011

Is it a worthy successor to the ASUS wildly popular ASUS RT-56U with Broadcom BCM4706, Broadcom BCM4331 - a single-chip 802.11n dual-band 3x3 wireless solution enables Wi-Fi products to support 450 Mbps data rates and achieves over 600Mbps (TCP/IP) throughput in simultaneous AP/router configurations, 256MB RAM and other enhancements?

Availability is coming really soon and let the official distro announce the SRP

Stay tuned for a local review in the coming days

ASUS RT-N66U Dark Knight

Retiring my ASUS RT-N56U to make way for ASUS RT-N66U Dark Knight

Time to AP up another to sabo my neighbor 2.4GHz wireless. All channel 6

 

[maylyn]

Update

03/03/2011

Finally got some free time to start exploring the ASUS RT-N66U Dark Knight

Overview of ASUS RT-N66N Dark Knight

Flexible Installation with Versatile Design

Physical Box and Contents

 

[maylyn]

Rear View

Do note the ASUS RT-N66U Dark Knight comes with a power on/off switch as compare to the ASUS RT-N56U

Back View

Layout

My previous ASUS RT-N56U setup

New ASUS RT-N66U setup

 

[maylyn]

Setting up and configuration

Setting the ASUS RT-N66U Dark Knight is easier than ever, just type 192.168.1.1 in your browser with login name : admin password: admin and the setup wizard will begin and guide you through the various steps. Just need to select and input simple configuration details and you are done

Setup Wizard

You are prompted to change your router password at the beginning. Nice ^^

Selection of your WAN connection type

Do note that you are able to connect your Singtel ONT directly to your ASUS RT-N66U Dark Knight as well with a click on the special requirements from ISP, selecting these presets profile as shown. All these are make easy without having to configure various VLAN presets for MIO TV and voice.

M1 preset profiles are in the making for ASUS RT-N66U as well since it's have been released for ASUS RT-N56U on the latest firmware

Host Name / MAC Address (not required for most users) just click next

DNS Server settings ~ Auto or manual input if you know your ISP DNS

Wireless Settings ~ SSID, Network key for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz. You can change the default security settings higher or lower later when the setup wizard has finishes

Done

 

[maylyn]

Main ASUS RT-N66U Dark Knight Main Overview

The retail ASUS RT-N66U Dark Knight comes with the firmware 3.0.0.3.90 and the latest firmware currently is 3.0.0.102 dated 24/02/2012, so updating the firmware before putting it through my stress test

Changelog

Updating in Progress

Download Link ~ ASUS - Networks- ASUS RT-N66U

Upgraded and showing the latest firmware^^

Stay tuned for more observations and performance findings coming soon

 

[maylyn]

Minor Update 1

Utorrent Test

First up, resuming my Utorrent runs on my Utorrent laptop (in my living room) ~> Utorrent NAS (in my bedroom) connected @ 5GHz for illustration, different people BT mileage varies depends on a lot of factors

I'm not here to talk nor discuss about it

4 downloading/29 seeding

2.4MB/s down 36kB/s up

Next ~> 2.8MB/s down 8.7kB/s up

Some might wonder why is my upload is so low (i'm not a miser lol), main reason being my Utorrent is running in disk overheads due to i'm on wireless. To achieve this kind of downloads via wireless is already impressive, usually i'm on wired

Is the router able to manage @ these download speeds? From what i have observed, its a soundly YES ^^, i'm still able to surf, YouTube with ease, little impact is felt

04/03/2011

Minor Update 2

Some might wonder that if i'm using multiple Utorrent downloads to inflate my aggregative download speed, needless to say, i'm able to achieve similar or maxing my SingTel Fiber international speed of 3MB/s using a single torrent download

Do note ~ it's done via 5GHz wireless connection

2.9MB/s ^^

3MB/s achieved

The ASUS RT-N66U Dark Knight isn't sweating much and i got bottlenecked by my international download speed, i need something better lol

 

[maylyn]

05/03/2012

New position for even better wireless coverage

16/03/2011

~ Some updates ~

When getting smoky trying to under and over bake my potato chip using the Z77/X79 retail pan, i'm pretty surprised that my Utorrent network is like a mini seedbox at this moment peer to peer download? UTP? hehe, or maybe i'm downloading from my own seedbox

Check out the time, what throttling is there to talk about? Raw speed rules

If you are wondering if i'm on wired, check it out again

 

[maylyn]

Official Announcement:
Avoiding Brute Force Attacks Via The WPS Protocol

Singapore (March 29, 2012), For ASUS wireless and networking products,
security is always the first priority.

In response to US CERT report on the vulnerability of the WPS protocol,
ASUS is now working with the Wi-Fi Alliance to develop a firmware update
capable of deterring and protecting from such attacks. We will keep
registered users informed as to the availability of this firmware update,
and will post it on our support site, as well.

To enhance security, most ASUS routers automatically disable WPS 2 minutes
after setup. Users can also manually disable WPS-PIN (the WPS push button
will still work) through router setup to avoid possible concerns. Follow
these steps to do so:

Launch your browser and enter 192.168.1.1 in the address bar. Then use
admin for both username and password to log-in to the router user
interface.
Go to the Advanced Setup menu, and select Wireless Settings.
Under WPS settings, select OFF for Enable WPS. **
Click Apply to save settings.

** The Enable WPS button is available currently on RT-N66U only. More
models adopting Asus new firmware, Asus WRT, will also incorporate this
function.

Back to trying to under under bake my potato chip again, so many Z77 motherboards to validate ; ;

Back with more updates soon

 

[liangtam]

You got the review set from ASUS SG?

 

[Dr_ARCHer]

You got the review set from ASUS SG?

Don't think so. There is only 1 review set and the photos show 2. The box also shows a 3 year warranty.

 

[Mach3.2]

Anyone roughly know the SRP?

 

[Dr_ARCHer]

I think it is S$279.

 

[Mach3.2]

I think it is S$279.

That's a big price tag for me:3

 

[Qubicfactor]

That's a big price tag for me:3

Well, it was what the N56U debuted at, before the price fell to slightly over 200

 

[Mach3.2]

Well, it was what the N56U debuted at, before the price fell to slightly over 200

Haha, i understand, but the big price tag is bordering me.

Dun need it now, next time IPv6 come out then consider

 

[liangtam]

Don't think so. There is only 1 review set and the photos show 2. The box also shows a 3 year warranty.

The '3 yr wrty' thingy can be pre-sticker-ed on?

That's a big price tag for me:3

both asus RT-Nx6U are overpriced in the first place mah

 

[Mach3.2]

both asus RT-Nx6U are overpriced in the first place mah

Have to agree its good but its more of selling the ASUS brand:3

 

[kero89]

Actually for Singnet Fibre users like me who didn't get the 2wire 5012NV free in the package, spending a little more for a N56U was way much smarter and wise decision compared to dumping $5.35/mth for that 2wire.

But this N66U, it's a tough choice.

 

[Qubicfactor]

Actually for Singnet Fibre users like me who didn't get the 2wire 5012NV free in the package, spending a little more for a N56U was way much smarter and wise decision compared to dumping $5.35/mth for that 2wire.

But this N66U, it's a tough choice.

There are few compelling reasons to get the N66U if you already have an N56U. As mentioned, the N56U isnt being replaced by the N66U, and is far from being outdated. My QNAP now offers OpenVPN support, and now I have even less reason to consider the N66U, bar IPV6 support which isnt really necessary for now. Even that may be added via firmware updates in the future.

 

[joel_winston]

Wondering what kind of connector for the antenna?