Which router.

[PeckhamBog]

Did some reading on SmallNetBuilder.com yesterday.

Originally I was planning to pick up a 2011 Airport Extreme from the UK refurb store.

Is the Asus RT-N56U or new RT-N66U streets better in performance and useability, or in reality will I not notice these things, and as a low knowledge user, get along better staying in the Apple ecosystem?

Currently I have a BT Home Hub 3.0 taking a BT unlimited Infinity feed at 56 down and 22 up with a 2007 AE acting as a switch (as the Home Hub only has one Gigabit port).

Do many people here have experience with the Asus products to recommend them above an Apple AE?

 

[0dev]

BT Home Hub 3's are a bad choice because they leave ports 161 and 4567 open in their firewalls so BT can monitor and remotely access the routers, but this also potentially allows remote access to systems on your network by those with more malicious intentions. Your router is your first line of defense.

When it comes to third party routers, there's not much difference. Obviously more expensive models will have better range and so on but generally speaking any modern router will do you fine.

 

[paulrbeers]

While I haven't used the Asus routers you have listed, I have used several ASUS routers in the past (most of the ones I use I've upgraded the firmware to DDWRT). The ones I have used have been stable, with decent range, etc. Absolutely nothing wrong with them. With that said, anymore I use AEBS's and AEX's. They work great for extending wireless networks and airplay. It's all to easy from the Airport apps on our macs/iphones/ipads instead of having to log into a web page that isn't made to fit on a smart phone screen. I buy mostly refurbished units (currently have 3 2011 AEBS's for each level of my house, 2 are refurbs and 1 brand new and 2 AEX's for airplay). Frankly I've over "built" my wireless network. I probably could have gotten away with 2 AEBS's to cover the 3 floors, but I guess I tend to live on the "if two is good, three is better right?" adage.

 

[r0k]

I use an AEBS and I had an AE for a while but it sort of died. I also own a 1st gen Time Capsule and I'm thinking of using the TC to extend the wireless network provided by my AEBS.

I like having an "all Apple" setup but I miss the simple browser based setup pages the third party routers offer. Also many 3rd party routers offer more flexibility than the Apple products. For instance, if I want to do mac address filtering on an AEBS, I have to spend time writing down or copying and pasting lists of mac addresses from one screen to another. I remember one of my many 3rd party routers offered a feature to "snapshot" whatever is connected now and require explicit mac address to be typed in for any new device that wants to join. Definitely preferable to managing long lists of hexadecimal jibberish.

 

[FrankHahn]

I have two AEBS's and one AirPort Express at home and one TC in the office.

 

[PeckhamBog]

And the winner is . . .

I bought an ASUS RT66U.

Set up nice, firmware update simple.

Range improved.

Price comparable to an AEBS.

It has extra features the AEBS doesn't carry BUT I can't see me using them in the near future.

Looks? Similitude of a monster spider, frightens my wife.

Conclusion. If you want more, get the ASUS. If you want simplicity and sufficiency the AEBS is a good choice.

 

[tibere86]

I bought an ASUS RT66U.

Set up nice, firmware update simple.

Range improved.

Price comparable to an AEBS.

It has extra features the AEBS doesn't carry BUT I can't see me using them in the near future.

Looks? Similitude of a monster spider, frightens my wife.

Conclusion. If you want more, get the ASUS. If you want simplicity and sufficiency the AEBS is a good choice.

Sorry for bringing up an old thread, but have you had any success AirPlaying with your Asus router N66? I have an RT-N56U, and I can not for the life of me get AirPlay to work. Which ports do you have forwarded? Which IP address do you have the ports forwarding to...your iDevice or the router's?

 

[Dweez]

I use a Netgear WNDR4000 as the main and a Time Capsule as a secondary.

 

[PeckhamBog]

Sorry, I don't air play, so can't give any advice currently.