- Frequency: 2.4 ~ 5 GHz; Data Rate: 802.11n - up to 300Mbps data rate; Wired Performance: WAN to LAN: up to 900Mbps; LAN to LAN: 1Gbps
- Giga Fiber Internet Support: The increasingly popular Gigabit FTTH allows the download of a full HD movie in about just 5 minutes
- One Router for Printing, Scanning and Surfing: Effortless Multitasking for Multiple Users
- Interface: 1x WAN port, 4x LAN ports for 10/100/1000 BaseT, Port: 2x USB 2.0 ports
- WAN to LAN throughput over 900Mbps; Standard: IEEE 802.11b; IEEE 802.11g; IEEE 802.11n
So, I picked up the ASUS RT-N56U router after reading all the reviews and tests on smallnetbuilder dot com. I have to say that this router is ridiculously fast (at least twice as fast as the WNDR3700) and has better reception throughout my entire house. In a location that I used to max out at about 7MB/s with the WNDR3700. I can now sustain 31MB/s in the same location. I have pretty much5 bars of wireless reception where I used to have 2 or 3 bars.
The ASUS RT-N56U is pretty easy to set up and I like the physical appearance too. Throw in the fact that it is smokin' fast and has great coverage and I think I got a heck of a deal for $127.
Highly recommended.
by the way, I just noticed that another reviewer was having problems with iPhones not connecting. Our iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad, and Android phones are logging on fine, no issues.
*** UPDATE 3/28/11 So far, the RT-N56U is performing perfectly and all DD-WRT bridges are connecting at highest rate. I am running firmware 1.0.1.2
I tried to update to the beta 7.0.1.21 as well as the 1.0.1.3 firmware and all of a sudden some laptops had very laggy connections. Instead of instantaneous webpage loads, it would take literally 5 seconds to load??? So, I reverted back to 1.0.1.2 and all devices are running wide open again.
+++ UPDATE 4/30/11 Still running perfectly since new with no reboots. Simply awesome.
Buy ASUS Black Diamond Dual-Band Wireless-N 600 Router (RT-N56U) Now
I have been in the market for an 802.11n router, and after having done some extensive research (as of April 1, 2011), I decided to go with Asus RT-N56U.I can attest to the Asus RT-N56U being an excellent consumer-grade router even though it obviously falls short when it comes to more advanced enterprise-level features (where Cisco shines), which 99.9% of all users will never need or even know about. One of the excellent features of the Asus RT-N56U router (not often mentioned) is the fact that you can switch it to the AP (Access Point) mode. When Asus RT-N56U is switched to the AP mode, its WAN port becomes a switch port just like the other 4 LAN ports. You can utilize the WAN port to connect Asus RT-N56U to an external router, and thus not lose one LAN port for this. Therefore, when switching the Asus RT-N56U router to the AP mode, you retain all four LAN ports for the wired connectivity to other non-Wi-Fi devices at 1 Gbps each.
Asus RT-N56U supports concurrent 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz radios and the combined throughput via the back plane close to 800 Mbps (per the review by smallnetbuilder.com). In my personal test comparing Asus RT-N56U (in the AP mode) with the Cisco 1131 a/g Access Point, Asus provides nearly the same range in the 5 GHz band that the Cisco 1131 provides in the 2.4 GHz band. Asus RT-N56U 2.4GHz-band range extends beyond the Cisco 1131's range in the 2.4 GHz band. The Asus RT-N56U 5GHz-band range extends far beyond the Cisco 1131's 5GHz-band range.
As for the connection download speed, I was able to get almost twice the download speed when connecting wirelessly via the Asus RT-N56U (in the AP mode) vs connecting wirelessly via the Cisco 1131a/g AP. The numbers were as follows: 11.8 Mbps via Cisco 1131 vs 19.6 Mbps via Asus RT-N56U. In both tests, I used the same Internet router (Cisco 871) and the same Time Warner internet connection. I never knew that my Time Warner internet connection supported 20 Mbps until I tried using Asus RT-N56U. Now I know that my Cisco 1131 and not my Internet connection was the bottleneck to the Internet.
Asus RT-N56U can also be used as a NAS by utilizing one or two of its USB ports to connect an external USB drive. I tried USB flash sticks on both ports, and was able to transfer files to and from those USB drives. Additionally, you can create local users on the Asus RT-N56U and provide different levels of access (r/w, r, none) to different shares for different users. This is normally called user-based access, but Asus calls this "user with account" access. Otherwise, you can enable access to the entire drive for everyone if you do not want to deal with user-based access permissions; Asus calls this "user without account" access. I am sure most home users will choose the latter access method to avoid complexities that come with having to provision local users on the Asus RT-N56U router. I confirmed both methods of access to work when a share is mounted in Mac OS X as well as in Apple iOS (iPad2). I have run into a problem accessing a 32GB flash drive that had about 16GB of space taken by various files and directories via the the "user with account" access method from both Mac OS X and iOS, but had no such problem accessing a 1GB flash drive with almost all space taken by various files and directories; neither did I have any problem using the "user with account" access method when I tried a blank 16GB drive after moving a few files to it and then creating a few directories(see below on creating directories in the root of a USB drive). I believe that if I were to reformat the 32GB flash drive and then move all of the current files it has on it back to it, the "user with account" access method would start working properly on it. As for the file system on the USB drive, so far I have only tried FAT32, which works fine, but imposes a limitation on the size of each file to be a maximum of 4GB. If you need to go above this limitation, you will have to go with NTFS, HFS (for Mac), or ext3. I know for a fact that the Asus RT-N56U is compatible with ext3, but I am not sure if it can work with NTFS or HFS. If you have found one of these three file systems to be compatible with the Asus RT-N56U, please add a comment to this review. However, even if they are, the only file system that is compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux is FAT32. So, if you are planning on running the Asus RT-N56U in a mixed environment and are planning to be able to read from and write to your USB drive directly from your computers as well as across the network, your common-denominator file system for the USB drive should be FAT32. If you are only planning on working with your files over the network, any file system that the Asus RT-N56U is compatible with would work for you as long as you can format your USB drive in that file system. As of this writing, the Asus RT-N56U cannot format a USB drive attached to it, so you would have to perform the formatting on one of your computers or use the default file system that your USB flash drive is formatted in, which is most likely FAT32.
It appears that even though you can manually mount USB devices connected to the Asus RT-N56U in Mac OS X (via Cmd+K in Finder), you cannot mount those drives by double-clicking the RT-N56U entry that pops up in Finder under Shared. I used the app called "Files Connect" on my iPad2 in order to enable Finder-like (or Windows-Explorer-like) file browsing capability. I was able to mount the USB drives by tapping on the Asus RT-N56U entry that Files Connect auto-discovers. I am not sure if Windows Network Neighborhood can auto-mount the USB drives connected to Asus RT-N56U because the manual says that you should enter the network path manually. If this is in fact the only way to mount an Asus RT-N56U share in Windows, you can always map a drive to the network path for the Asus RT-N56U in Windows.
Please note that you cannot create or delete any directory in the root directory of a USB drive connected to a USB port on the Asus RT-N56U while accessing the USB drive over the network. This is because the Asus RT-N56U considers the directories in the root of a USB drive to be network shares, and hence, it disallows the addition and removal of a share via the network. You will have to plug the USB drive directly in to a USB port on your computer (Mac, PC, or Linux) in order to create a directory in the root of the USB drive. Once you have done so, you can plug the USB drive back in to the Asus RT-N56U's port and assign the access permissions to this directory/share. You can, however, create and delete sub-directories of an existing share while the USB drive is plugged in to a port of the Asus RT-N56U, and the share is mounted via the network in Windows, Mac, or Linux. All sub-directories of an existing share inherit the access permissions specified on the share via the Asus RT-N56U's web GUI. The fact that you cannot specify a more granular access permissions to the sub-directories of a share is definitely a limitation for the enterprise, but should be no problem for a home or even a small-business user.
When you insert a blank USB flash drive in one of Asus RT-N56U's two USB ports, the Asus RT-N56U automatically creates a share (named "share") in the root of the drive and creates three sub-directories in that share (music, pictures, video). This is done in order to prepare the flash drive for the UPnP server that can be enabled in this router. I have tested the UPnP server, using Xbox 360 as the streaming client, and can confirm that the UPnP server works just fine in the Asus RT-N56U router. If, on the other hand, you insert a non-blank USB flash drive in to a port on Asus RT-N56U, no additional shares are created, and the access to all directories/shares in the root of the USB drive is provided as read/write. You can, however, modify the access permissions on a share-to-share basis and assign different types of access (r/w, r, or none) for different local users specified in the Asus RT-N56U.
Asus RT-N56U can be a print server, but this feature is of no use to me because for this feature to work, a Windows based program supplied by Asus is required. Because I use mostly Macs and Apple iOS devices, I cannot utilize the print-server feature of this router.
Last but not least, Asus RT-N56U can utilize one of its two USB ports to connect to a 3G or 3.5G cellular USB modem and share that connection among the Wi-Fi (and probably wired) LAN clients. I have not tested this feature, so I cannot comment on its usability and stability.
Overall, I don't think you can find a better consumer-grade 802.11n Gigabit Ethernet router as of this writing. Judging by the frequency of firmware releases for the Asus RT-N56U router, the bugs remaining in the firmware will soon be worked out, and hopefully, Asus will add additional features to this router, such as direct IP-based (or even Bonjour-based) print server so that Mac users can utilize the print-server feature of this router. Also, it appears that the "dd-wrt" team is working on porting their firmware on this router, so in the future, you may have a choice of replacing the stock firmware with "dd-wrt".
Read Best Reviews of ASUS Black Diamond Dual-Band Wireless-N 600 Router (RT-N56U) Here
I recently purchased two other routers before purchasing this one to replace an older 2.4ghz router. The first router I purchased was the newly released Cisco Linksys E4200. I ended up returning it because I barely had a signal downstairs and slow output. My previous router usually had around 70%-80% signal downstairs however the E4200 would quickly lose signal the farther I moved away from the router. I purchased as a replacement the highly rated Netgear WNDR3700. This router had much better signal however it would not work with my external hard drive. Per review of online comments and Netgear's own website, the 3700 has issues being compatible with numerous external hard drives. Netgear has posted on their website about a dozen compatible hard drives that work with the 3700. I had the choice to either keep the 3700 and fork out another $50-$100 on a new external hard drive that would work or purchase another router with similar features. I ran across the Asus at my local electronic store. I never heard of this model before since it is a new release. Before I decided to purchase it, I went home and read the limited reviews I could find on it. Both expert and consumer reviews were positive. I ended up purchasing the Asus. I was completely blown away by the features and performance of this router. I have over 90% signal downstairs. My laptop is maintaining 230-270mbps connection when I am downstairs (about 30 feet away from router which is upstairs) which was impossible with both the E4200 and 3700. The user interface provides significant amount more custom options than both the Netgear and Cisco. My external HDD (Seagate) was instantly recognized by the router. I also found the wired connection runs smoother and faster than the 3700. The 3700 had a delay at times loading pages. Overall this is in my opinion the best performing router that I have ever owned. Currently the WNDR3700 is considered the best but it has been out for a while now. The Cisco E4200 claims to be the best however I disagree with this due to real hands-on experience with it. There is a good amount of owner complaints already being posted about the E4200 which is similar to issues that I also encountered. The only bad thing I found with this unit is that it does not allow wall mount option. For the price, performance and features, this is an excellent value and steal.Want ASUS Black Diamond Dual-Band Wireless-N 600 Router (RT-N56U) Discount?
So I set it up relatively quickly, went through the web GUI to review settings (kept all the default settings). and things worked great. Then suddenly about 25 days in to my usage, I began getting this message:You have set the wrong dynamic or static IP address for your RT-N56U
I then reset the device, disconnect it, etc and "detect my WAN" and things work again... for about 10 minutes and then I get the same error message. I have had up time at a max of around 15 min before it cuts out again.
Then I started doing a lot of searches in the forums including ASUS's VIP forums. This is actually a problem many people have encountered and there's not really a known solution. I have set my WAN to Automatic IP -so there's no static IP action at work. There were 0 changes made between great working conditions and this sudden break down.
I've checked my internet connection (Fiber) and I've checked all the cables... it seems to all be pointing back to my router.
Asus has not been helpful w/ support at all and I can't seem to get a response from anyone. This is pretty disappointing.
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I have 2 xbox's in house and a PS3.Two of them wireless and one hardwired.Streaming video's hosting COD black ops 18 player games regularly.I have had the linksys E4200,and the NETGEAR WNDR37AV.The Netgear was ok but had firmware issues always changing and finding more issues afterwards.The linksys E4200 had to reduce the MTU to 1365 and still got laggy while hosting games.The Netgear performed better than the Linksys.
I always find myself at smallnetbuilder.com reading about the new routers and reviews they do and so on.I was impressed on the throughput of the new ASUS RT-N56U AND THE OVERALL REVIEW PERIOD.The price was great also.I have to say it was very easy to configure this router setup and install.So far this router has outperformed the netgear and linksys with ease.No lag at all while hosting games,streams HD video's great superfast speeds.No complaints at all!! And believe me the kids have not complained a single word!!
If you do get this router there is a firmware upgrade to do takes 3 minutes to do,very easy and your good,thats it GAME ON!!
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