Asus Dual-Band Wireless-N600 Gigabit Router (RT-N56U)

This router is a great buy. I was skeptical at first as I had read reviews from some self-proclaimed "tech savvy" reviewers who had various issues, but I did not encounter any of these issues, or if I did, I was able to resolve them through the routers configuration interface. I had previously been using a Linksys WRT54 to my wireless home network, but was constantly have problems with dropped connections, range issues, duplicate IPs, etc. I finally got around to replacing it with this Asus router this week. From what I see so far, all previous issues are resolved. My network consists of a Windows XP server (wired connection), two HP Windows 7 laptops (one with an 802.11n adapter, the other with an 802.11g adapter), a Dell Windows XP laptop with 802.11n adapter (work PC), another Windows 7 PC with an 802.11n adapter (digital audio workstation), two iPods, two iPhones, a PS3, a Wii, an iMac and an HP Photosmart wireless all-in-one scanner/copier/printer. All of these devices are connected and working without issue on the RT-N56U. In addition, network performance is much faster and much more stable, with no dropped connections. Wireless range is also much better than before. I now get three bars on devices in my basement, whereas I previously only got one or no bars with the WRT54. I also purchased a Seagate 2TB external hard drive and connected it to the router using its USB interface. Now I can store files on this drive to free up space on my computers and access them from any computer/device on the network. I can even store media files on the drive and stream them to the PS3 using the PS3's media server functionality. it was very easy to setup and to create share folders on the drive and assign permissions right through the router's admin interface. Common issues that I've seen posted around the Internet related to this Asus router are as follows: - Apple Facetime doesn't work with this router: I haven't found this issue to be the case. We're able to use Facetime with all of our Apple computers/devices. Be sure to install the latest firmware for the router as instructed in the manual. - VPN connections don't work with this router: Not true. I use a Cisco VPN to connect to my office. While it didn't work at first, simply enabling the IPSEC Passthrough setting through the router's admin interface resolved the issue and now my VPN connection works better than ever. Again, make sure you have the latest firmware installed. Overall, I'm very pleased with this purchase. Every computer/device in the house is working better and faster now in terms of network connectivity and Internet access. My son is thrilled with the performance he's now seeing with the PS3 connection to the PlayStation Network. Before he always had trouble connecting. Now it connects faster than ever and stays connected when gaming. This router does everything that ASUS claims it can do and does it well. Don't believe the negative reviews you might read from people who think they're tech savvy because they know how to turn a computer on. This device is brilliant if you configure it correctly. And for the most part, it will work for the average person's needs right out of the box with very little if any configuration. I only had to slightly tweak a couple of settings due to my need for VPN connectivity, my setup of the 2TB hard drive, and because I have so many computers and devices in the house. Highly recommended.

I want to focus this review on the file / media serving capabilities of this router. I work in IT and have extensive knowledge of networking, etc. so I don't feel it is fair to comment on setup ease (as it is second nature to me). The interface is nicely laid out and unique from other routers I have used. It seems to me like it would be more intuitive for novice users. From a wireless standpoint I have no problems and am getting strong signals and performance to my wireless devices. Your wireless mileage will very depending on the size of your house, your internet reliability, and how crowded the airwaves are at your location. If you can see many other wireless access points when connecting your device, you will likely have wireless issues with any router (at least on the 2.4Ghz band). A little history, I have a good sized music / photo collection that I like to stream to my home theater system via a PS3. Traditionally I used Windows Media Player via Windows to stream media. Not wanting to have a PC on all the time, I upgraded to a WD MyBook World home NAS network harddrive to accomplish the same task. This device was less than stellar in most aspects, but it (kind of) worked...that is until it died recently (after only a year or so). That is when I embarked on my quest to replace my NAS / router with one of the new breed of routers that supports USB storage and media serving. I went through several routers, all of which supposedly supported DNLA media serving, but all failing to serve all my media files (most devices ran out of memory once they indexed so many files and would either freeze or simply just server up a small fraction of my file). Not only that, their read/write performance on my external, NTFS formatted, portable HD were terrible. Flash forward to today when I received my Asus router. After getting everything setup and upgrading to the latest firmware (1.04m) I crossed my fingers and plugged in the HD. After about 30 minutes or so it had finished indexing the media on the HD. I fired up my PS3 and there was all my media! Not only that, but it serves up the files very quickly! I can browse through 12 megapixel photos instantly. All my music and videos were there and played flawlessly. One nice feature is that you can browse by "folder" when accessing any media type (at least on the PS3). All media servers need to have this method of browsing, but sadly many do not. Performing the same functions on the MyBook were agonizingly slow. It also took my MyBook several hours just to index my collection. To say I am impressed is an understatement! You can also access your connected drive via a standard SMB share (\\router ip address), making it easy to copy and manage your files. Write performance was about 5MB/sec on the NTFS drive, which was about 4x the performance of other routers. This is a great router for file / media sharing and I highly recommend it for that purpose! The only cons I have so far is that the stats pages don't show the signal strength of attached wireless clients (at least as far as I can tell) and it does not support IPv6 (although that is not needed today). I have only had it setup for a few hours, but so far it is the best home router and media serving device I have used. I will update the review if I have any issues / problems in the future. UPDATE 7/7/2011: After having this router for 24 hours, I have run in to some issues... First off, like others have mentioned, with the default settings various VPNs will not work. I use a Cisco IPSec VPN for work. To resolve this, simply go to the DMZ tab and enable the various VPN pass-through options. Also, if you are using a wired connection with a VPN then you will have problems with the hardware NAT function on the device. Simply enable the QOS feature and this will automagically disable the hardware NAT. My VPN works fine once I made these setting changes (firmware 1.0.1.4m) I also use a D-Link DAP 1522 wireless bridge to connect my upstairs PC and VOIP phone to the router. The ASUS doesn't seem to link the bridge. While my phone works fine, my PC has some issues with local networking. I can access the internet fine on the PC (good), but cannot access some local resources such as the router itself or clients connected to the router. What is weird is that if I reboot to bridge, I can access local resources for a few minutes (at most) and then they disappear. ASUS tech support, if you are listening, do you have any ideas? (This bridge has worked flawlessly with the last two routers it was paired with).

I liked this router a true dual band router with extensive features and range. Its more like advanced router and not for non-tech people. Buy this only if you want to setup some type home network with storage, printer, streaming etc. Don't go for this router if you are looking for a wireless router with basic features. The HDD and pendrives connected in the router gets recognized quickly / works well for majority of use cases. Further exploration is in progress

I bought this modem to replace an aged Linksys WRT54G router than would slow down (Mb/sec download) routinely when too many devices were connected to it. This apparently is due to too little RAM in older routers (like 8-16 mbs I think). You wont have a problem with this router (up to 8 devices can connect without slowdown). Good speeds all the time, and using the 2.4Ghz band, distance is comparable to the Linksys router which goes from my basement up two levels in my house on wireless no problem. A nice looking router as well, you can stand on vertical plane or horizontal without the stand if you wish. heat vents out the sides so no issue lying it flat, but cool blue lights are nice. Somewhat more sensitive to pointing in right direction for wireless reception vs Linksys which had antennas, but not to a detrimental level. Installation is quick and easy (15 minutes maybe) with nice GUI based interface which pops up as soon as you connect the router. Dual band 2.4 and 5.0 Ghz, but I haven't used to higher band width as you lose distance but increase potential file transfer speed using the 5.0 and distance more important for me

Die auf dem Router ausgelieferte Firmware war neuer als die auf der Asus Homepage. Sie funktioniert aber leider nicht. Die Sim Karte war bereit, aber das USB Modem konnte sich nicht mit dem Internet verbinden. Da es problematisch sein kann, ein FW down grade durchzuführen, zögerte ich lange und verschwendete einen Tag mit dem Router. Wenn man ihn auf Werkseinstellungen zurücksetzt und mit dem Schnellinstallation Assistent konfiguriert funktioniert alles wunderbar. Nach einiger Zeit bricht dann die Verbindung ab und eine neue Verbindung ist nicht möglich. Wenn man nun den Router zurücksetzt und wieder den Schnellinstallation Assistent funktioniert alles bis die Verbindung wieder abbricht usw. Die Lösung war, dass ich auf die FW 3.0.0.4.378.5291 umgestiegen bin. Nun funktioniert alles perfekt die WLAN Reichweite ist hervorragend. Ein Stern Abzug wegen der unausgereiften FW, das war sehr ärgerlich, aber da jetzt alles funktioniert gibt’s von mir eine klare Kaufempfehlung.

Es fácil de configurar y muy accesible, pero el firmware lo limita bastante. La ampliación de la señal wifi no es muy buena, pero al menos se mantiene estable.

Un router de gama media con buen alcance y que cumple con requisitos de un hogar perfectamente