ASUS RT-AC66U Dual-Band Wireless-AC1750 Gigabit Router IEEE 802.11ac, IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n, IEEE 802.3/3u/3ab

Pros: Wirless internet was very fast, for the 3 days or so that it worked.

Cons: Died after 3 or 4 days of use.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Dunlin1,

Please contact either Newegg or ASUS support so that we can fix this for you. Check your power adapter as well as the router. Both should have blue LEDs light up when powered correctly. If your power adapter is faulty, it wouldn't light up when you plug it in.

Feel free to email me at cl-jeremy@asus.com if you have any questions, comments, or concerns.

Regards,
Jeremy
ASUS Customer Loyalty

Pros: - Clean and easy user interface for novices and experts
- External antennas provide superior wireless range and ability to upgrade them is a big plus.
- "Futureproofing" against the emerging wireless AC standard
- AiCloud is a great feature.

Cons: - Simple settings take a long time to apply
- Lack of USB 3.0 ports is disappointing

Other Thoughts: I purchased this router as an upgrade to my Cisco E4200 V1 router and while I wouldn't say it was a huge upgrade, it was sufficient enough to justify the price. The features of this router is essentially what drives it home for me, if you're looking to do more with your data as opposed to raw wireless strength, then this router is your best bet, as you'll possess nearly every router feature under the sun.

The AICloud alone is the router's strongest point for me, being able to access shares off your computers and connected USB hard drives anywhere is huge for me. You'll never feel far away from your movies, music and documents as you can access them quickly and easily using either an Android/iPhone app or your own customizable web link on a computer.

I made a discovery that in order to use the AICloud feature properly, you cannot have any computers going through the DMZ. I was unable to connect to my cloud share until I took my desktop computer off the DMZ. Not a huge deal, I just need to be less lazy and open ports as I need them. :)

I haven't experienced any heat issues with the router, but I do have QoS and Guest services off, which I imagine will contribute to heat the more demand you're putting on the router. But for my needs, it has been great!

Pros: Its fancy

Replaced a E1000 that couldn't get a signal to my phone in my bedroom. This router will give me my maximum bandwidth on my phone in my bedroom. Nice.

Cons: There are quite a few people who experience dropped connections on a 10-15 minute basis with many of these new high end routers. Poster Phuzion at DD-WRT forum had this to say:

No there is not any build that fixes it so don't waste your time. The firewall scripts works fine. The problem is really with half-bridge modems that assign the router a public IP but send DHCP from their private LAN IP which is outside of the WAN subnet. The firewall prevents the lease from being renewed since the replies are coming from a different subnet than the WAN IP is in. After the lease expires, the WAN IP is lost, and the firewall no longer cares where the new DHCP lease comes from.

http://svn.dd-wrt.com/ticket/973

I lucked out and found a tech support agent at Windstream who knew her stuff and she walked me through manually bridging the modem, even though it was supposed to bridge itself if a router was downstream, and the issue is solved.

Other Thoughts: Its just awful to drop this sort of money and then have issues but its not the router, its the modem.

Pros: Great choice for now and later. Comcast internet installer commented on I made a great choice on this and Moto 6141 Surfboard modem. Easy setup and very stable connection whether wired or wireless. I like the look and design of this unit. Very strong wireless connection. Elevated stand is nice too. Both 2.4 and 5.0 GHz at the same time. Settings to adjust transmit power for wireless from 0-200 mw for both bands.

Cons: Runs very warm-hot. Lights seem dim but maybe that is in contrast to the Moto modem with very bright lighting.

Other Thoughts: 5G Wi-Fi; if only I could use it. Apparently, not even my new MSI laptop supports wireless 5 GHz connections. But note that on the 2.4 Ghz, I got the same speedtest.net results as the wired-in test while in my bedroom upstairs. If you are looking for a wireless router, and if you can afford it, this is the one to get.

Pros: I have a tri level house and i get a full signal in every room and also the front and back yard. I can stream a 1080p movie from Vudu on my moms samsung smart tv in her bedroom and i took my iphone and ipad into the farthest corner of my backyard and streamed a Netflix show with all devices running. No loss of signal for the 2.4gh and just a slight drop on the 5gh outside.

Cons: None

Other Thoughts: I bought this at Best Buy because i wanted it now. And i haven't noticed it running hot like some people complain about.

Pros: Aside from the normal "premium" router features, the features below really stood out for my purposes.
- DLNA Media Server for your Smart TVs (no need to have a media pc, so you save money on buying a media PC plus no clutter.
- Guest wifi network which is separated from your internal network (allows you to secure your internal network from your guest, i.e. cousin, friend, etc.. visiting you, without having to worry about what sharing privileges you have)
- Easy to to understand Web GUI
- Love having options. So many features, should have anything your require now and in the near future.
- Speed. Streaming HD 1080p videos is a breeze; never times out.

Cons: Only one CON minus one egg.
- When downloading torrents (via Vuze) on to USB DNLA Server's HD, the router times out and loses connectivity to USB HD. So I have to restart the router to get router to recognize the USB again. I think it's a bug issue, which probably needs firmware/software upgrade. Please fix Asus.

Other Thoughts: I wanted to buy the best router out there, so I wouldn't have any issues with streaming, which it does. Keep in mind the router sits 10 ft from the Smart TV. The only issue (for my purpose) is to fix the connection issue with downloading torrent files on to USB HD.

Pros: Fast! So far reliable. I had to let go of my bneloved dgl 4500 routers due them all crapping out at roughly the same time. Weird, but what can I say ... I chose this as a replacement due to it's specs and reviews. I can't complain yet.

Cons: ...

Pros: User interface is nice. Easy to setup and navigate. Works fine for wired Ethernet.

Cons: The WiFi connection is very erratic. Bandwidth will sometimes drop to 1/100 of the normal rate. This occurs with Macs and Android devices. Resetting the router restores proper service, for awhile.

I can be sitting 3 feet away and measure poor signal strength with my WiFI Analyzer app. Then at other times it will be very strong. The unpredictable nature of this router is driving me nuts.

Other Thoughts: I am running the latest firmware, according to the router version checking page.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Phil,

Please provide me a description of your network and the problem(s) you are experiencing so that I may try to help you. Have you changed any of your Wireless Settings from default values? Do you notice the slower speeds occur with any kind of pattern? (Time of day, specific program, etc.)
You can contact me at cl-jeremy@asus.com with anything that you can share so that I can better determine how you assist you.

Regards,
Jeremy
ASUS Customer Loyalty

Pros: Fast
Excellent Range
Firmware options

Cons: Price
2.4GHz throughput a little weak

Other Thoughts: I only have one device that is AC certified and this router increased the throughput on this device from 88Mbps to 102Mbps. The overall coverage in my has improved greatly. In places I was getting 1 to 2 bars I am now getting full WiFi signal. I have seen some reviews and have noticed that the 2.4GHz can have a little slower throughput, but I'm hoping that is a firmware issue that can be resolved in later updates. I will continue to monitor that. Also, the price is a little high, but that is to be expected with newer technology. Overall, I am very happy with this router.

Pros: Let's get this out of the way immediately. This is the fastest, most reliable router I have ever used and I test quite a few.
Easy to install.
Looks great.
2 x USB ports.
3 detachable external antennas
3x3 stream on N (2.45ghz) so potentially 450mbps and 1300mbps on AC (5ghz)
User Friendly interface.

Cons: Heavy
get's a little hot
needs to have latest 345 firmware installed to get best stability and 2.45ghz performance.
Little expensive, but in line with other 802.11ac routers.

Other Thoughts: In the last month I have tested and used at least 9 different routers including N900 N750 and AC from Netgear, Trendnet, TP-Link, D-Link and of course Asus. I can categorically state right now that the ASUS was hands down the fastest router, the most reliable router and the router that had the best range.

Testing a router is not always easy but I have a laptop that is set in a specific location. The routers that I test are also placed in a very specific location. I test LAN performance by using the same two gigabit wired computers on my network with Totusoft's Lan Test program. I then test Wifi performance by transferring the same files with Lan Test from one wired computer on my network to the laptop and then back again from the laptop to the desktop computer.
The laptop has an onboard 2x2 stream N chipset that will provide a maximum of 300mbps. In order to test AC and retest N I use a matching Asus USB adapter that is good for 300mbps on N (2.45ghz) and 867mbps on AC (5ghz).
My test methods remain consistent throughout testing. I use auto settings on all routers and enable WPA2 AES for best performance. The laptop and router are separated by 50ft with 3 walls in between.
Testing between wired computers Lan Test reported 812mbps write and 584mbps read.
Using the laptop's internal 2x2 N adapter and Lan Test I measured 59mbps write and 58mbps read.
When I fired up the Asus USB adapter Lan Test reported 139mbps write and 101mbps read!!!! Awesome, compare these figures to the laptops internal Intel chipset.
It got even better when I connected to the router via AC. Lan Test reported 168mbps and 214mbps (read and write). Fast enough to stream hidef video without stuttering. This was at 50ft by the way, 5ghz does not have the range of 2.45ghz, so at 50ft color me impressed.
It's not important for me to note here the results of the other routers that were tested in the same way, I can tell you that not one came close to providing the performance of the Asus. External antennas is exceedingly important to me in a router. Asus got this router perfect in my opinion. Please make sure that the latest 345 firmware is used. The interface was a joy to use, it is clean of clutter and reasonably fast to save settings. I recommend this router even for those of you out there that are still using wireless N.... Terrific router....