ASUS RT-N66U Dark Knight Dual-Band Wireless-N900 Gigabit Router Reviewed

[thiggins]

ASUS RT-N66U Dark Knight Dual-Band Wireless-N900 Gigabit Router Reviewed - Part 1

[njweb]

Originally Posted by thiggins

ASUS RT-N66U Dark Knight Dual-Band Wireless-N900 Gigabit Router Reviewed - Part 1

Nice write-up so far Tim!
The E4200 v2 indeed has the best USB read and write performance, as expected given what cNet observed.

I am glad the RT-N66U did very well in the WAN to LAN and LAN to WAN testing, albeit not chart-topping (that title still belongs to its predecessor the RT-N56U) and that it has more than enough total simultaneous throughput ("more than anyone could ever use" as you put it) and maxed out the simultaneous connections test.

Looking forward to the wireless performance tests in Part 2.
I think that, at least on the 2.4 GHz band *, wifi performance is where, based on my comparison tests and those of Geraner and others on amazon etc., it will hopefully excel overall relative to other N900 competitors.
I know you don't test / post signal strength which is what impressed me so much but hopefully the throughput figures in your tests will be near the top.



* I have not tested 5 GHz throughput yet although the signal strength on my Blu-Ray player's built-in dual band wifi adapter was impressive even in the far corner of the house (better than my E4200 v1).

[kamaran]

Originally Posted by thiggins

ASUS RT-N66U Dark Knight Dual-Band Wireless-N900 Gigabit Router Reviewed - Part 1

Thank you Sir, when we can expect part 2 please?

[thiggins]

Originally Posted by kamaran

Thank you Sir, when we can expect part 2 please?

By the end of the week.

[thiggins]

Originally Posted by njweb

I know you don't test / post signal strength which is what impressed me so much but hopefully the throughput figures in your tests will be near the top.

The reason I don't measure signal strength or look at link rates is that they are very indirect indicators of performance. The bottom line is the throughput you get, which is what I measure.

[kamaran]

Originally Posted by thiggins

By the end of the week.

Have you completed the testing, can you give us any insights so far?

[thiggins]

Two stream tests are posted in the charts. Use this link to compare against Cisco E4200V2 and NETGEAR WNDR4500.

[RogerSC]

Interesting...I do wonder if the Netgear 4500, in their latest firmware, have gotten better on the 2.4GHz. results, but the rt-n66u looks great relative to the 3-stream router competition. Two-stream is most relevant for me anyways, don't have 3-stream adapters at the moment. Although that's subject to change *smile*.

I know that you did a re-test of the Netgear some time ago, but with the components that router has, it's hard for me to understand why they can't get better 2.4GHz. performance out of it.

Thanks for the early posting of wireless results.

[delair2]

Originally Posted by thiggins

Two stream tests are posted in the charts. Use this link to compare against Cisco E4200V2 and NETGEAR WNDR4500.

This is indeed interesting. A three way shoot-out between E4200V2, NETGEAR WNDR4500 and the N66U (as soon as its testing is complete).

Talk about a cliffhanger !

[sfx2000]

Originally Posted by delair2

This is indeed interesting. A three way shoot-out between E4200V2, NETGEAR WNDR4500 and the N66U (as soon as its testing is complete).

Talk about a cliffhanger !

Add the Airport Extreme 2011 to make it really interesting - routing and wireless performance only, would be interesting to see how different 3-stream implementations compare...