Best Wi-Fi Router
Asus RT-N66u
- 2012-08-01
- Wes Fenlon
- Networking
When it comes to routers, I like the Asus RT-N66u.
(Last Updated August 4th 2012: Updated to include direct comparison to Apple routers, due to reader demand. Spoiler: These are no match for the Asus in performance, although Airplay streaming off an Express and Time Machine backups on the Time Capsule are nice for Mac owners.)
All routers are not equal. Getting a great router means the difference between a crashy home network with terrible range and a rock-solid Wi-Fi connection with a range of 200+ feet. For example, The ASUS RT-N66u, in a CNET benchmark, was able to maintain transfer speeds of 98 megabits per second at a range of 100 feet, while its nearest competitor, the Cisco Linksys E4200v2, fell to a mere 35Mbps at the same distance. And the Cisco is actually a decent one; Cheaper routers in the $50 dollar range can have around 1/2 to 1/3 the speed and range of a high end router, looking at the various tests that hardcore reviewers have conducted. This matters for network traffic between computers more than it does Internet access, which is slower than the max throughput of most routers. But at the outer fringes of your range, it is going to matter.
In addition to range, here are the most important things to look for in a modern Wi-Fi router: stability, speed, and user interface. Stability ensures the router can handle heavy use from multiple devices–say, one person surfing the web, another streaming an HD movie from Netflix and yet another playing a video game online.
All modern routers support 802.11n Wi-Fi, but only some routers support the fastest specification of that standard, commonly labeled N900. That speed is useful for transferring big files, like HD movies or backups, across your wireless network. A smart user interface ensures that tweaking security settings and other options is as easy as possible.
The ASUS RT-N66u, aka the "Dark Knight," is a dual-band N900 gigabit router. Here's what all that tech mumbo-jumbo means: the N66u operates on two different bands, 2.4GHz and 5GHz. 2.4GHz we've been using for a long time with 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, which means the spectrum is pretty crowded. 5GHz is faster and less crowded, but doesn't have the range of 2.4GHz. Each band can simultaneously support up to 450 megabits of data per second, for a total of 900 (though that's only theoretical, because no router maxes out that capability). Finally, "gigabit" means the Dark Knight has a pretty standard set of gigabit-speed Ethernet ports on its backside, which make wired transfers very fast.
Now, at $170, the ASUS RT-N66u is not a cheap router. That's because it's really powerful, and most competing routers come in right around the same price. I'll spell out why the ASUS RT-N66u is an improvement over its predecessor and a smarter buy than other routers around the same cost, but we're keeping the RT-N56u as a solid mid-range recommendation at its lower price of about $110. More on that at the bottom of the post.
In terms of hardware, a few things distinguish the Dark Knight from the older RT-N56u. The router now uses detachable external antennas that can be upgraded down the line. ASUS has also doubled the router's onboard RAM from 128MB to 256MB and its Flash storage from 8MB to 32MB. Those upgrades help the router remain stable under lots of active connections. Dong Ngo of CNET, one of our favorite router reviewers, reported flawless performance during a 48-hour stress test.
Another benefit of extra flash storage: unlike its predecessor, the RT-N66u supports custom firmware like DD-WRT and Tomato. DD-WRT and Tomato offer advanced functionality, like the ability to tweak a router's power output and increase antenna signal strength, and make some routers more stable than they are with stock firmware. They also provide tons of tools for monitoring network usage and customizing how your router behaves.
If you're a power user and want to flash custom firmware, this is a great router to get. Thankfully, the stock ASUS firmware is reliable out of the box: Ngo writes "the RT-N66U's Web interface is great: well-organized, responsive, and reasonably simple."
Most importantly, though, the RT-N66u is fast, and its Wi-Fi signal stretches up to 300 feet. In the review/benchmark website SmallNetBuilder's Wi-Fi tests, the Dark Knight is consistently a fast performer. It boasts the highest speed on the 5GHz downlink throughput chart at 66Mbps, and is a mere 1.2Mbps slower than the leader on the 2.4GHz downlink chart. CNET found that the Dark Knight excelled in the 5GHz band, achieving speeds of up to 180Mbps and dramatically outperforming other routers at a range of 100 feet.
Our previous pick, the ASUS RT-N56u, was really popular, but the RT-N66u bests it in just about every way. It was the most-viewed write-up on SmallNetBuilder until the N66u came along. Now the N66u owns that top spot and Dong Ngo recommends it over the N56u. He says, "the Asus RT-N66U is my favorite router. This is a great upgrade to the already excellent RT-N56U" in a list of the top 5 wireless routers on the market.
On Amazon, the router has an overwhelming 96 five star reviews (out of 153) as of this writing. Most of the negative reviews are the result of buggy firmware that shipped with the router. ASUS has since fixed that issue.
The router market is crowded with competitors, like Cisco's E4200 v2, that cost between $150 and $200. Even though the E4200 v2 beats the ASUS RT-N66u in some speed tests, the Dark Knight wins easily on range. In a 5GHz test, the ASUS was able to maintain 50Mbps downlink to a location that was much tougher for the Cisco to reach–it scored only 17Mbps. The Cisco also has a new firmware with a user interface that requires you to connect to your settings through the cloud, not directly through your home network. This is annoying because if your internet is down, you can't control the router's setting. The $170 D-Link DIR 857 offers USB 3.0 ports, which the ASUS doesn't have, but Dong Ngo found that the Dark Knight was able to write data to an external drive twice as fast, at 132Mbps, despite its USB 2.0. It also scored significantly lower than the RT-N66u in most of SmallNetBuilder's wireless tests.
How do the Apple routers compare to the Asus? Apple's Airport Extreme hasn't been updated in a year and isn't really competitive according to benchmarks, priced like this "Best" Asus router pick, but performing like the $100 Asus which is our "Good" router pick. The Apple Airport Express at $100 is a portable router which has Airplay music streaming from Apple Devices. But as its a portable device optimized for size, the Asus has 50% more range and and 30% more speed than the Airport, according to Cnet benchmarks. The Airport Express also failed a reliability test at Cnet.
The Apple Time Capsule is expensive at about $300, but it has a built in drive for backups on a Mac. The backups work with the Time Machine software built into every modern Mac that gives an owner a unique experience of having home network backups that work in near real-time when you're at home on your network. It has some of the benefit and ease of online storage with those of local backups so if your drive dies you can restore it quickly and easily. I use one, but I could also do without. I use Crashplan, an online backup service, to backup my data even when I'm travelling away from my home network, plus a local drive that I plug in every week or so to get a full clone of my drive. I'd consider a Time Capsule for its easy, sure. Just know you can back up for a lot less.
Of course, these Apple routers are easy to configure using iPhone apps, but how often are you configuring a router? Not every day. Or every month, even.
Two new routers, the Netgear R6300 ($200) and Buffalo Airstation AC1300 ($180), offer one thing the Dark Knight doesn't have: support for a new wireless standard, 802.11ac. But right now, the standard just isn't worth buying into. It will take time for new devices to support and take advantage of 802.11ac's speed. By the time you need 802.11ac, there will be better (and cheaper) routers on the market, and in the meantime you'll get slower speeds on the 2.4Ghz band than with the ASUS.
My advice: if you're upgrading from an old router, the $170 ASUS RT-N66u will deliver rock solid performance for years.
LAST YEAR'S MODEL
Since it costs less than $110, I'd recommend the ASUS RT-N56u if $170 is simply out of your price range. This was our favorite router from last year, too. You'll be giving up support for 450Mbps Wi-Fi, which does make a difference for big network transfers. In CNET's review, The N66u scored 155Mbps at a range of 100 feet over 5GHz wireless, while the N56u managed only 76Mbps. The newer Dark Knight also adds upgradeable antennas and the option to run DD-WRT or Tomato, features power users, especially, will appreciate.
If you grabbed our previous pick, the RT-N56u, sometime in the past year–or have a new router you're currently happy with–now's not the time to upgrade. Yes, the Dark Knight is faster in some situations, open to custom firmware, and better over longer distances, but the 56u still delivers fast speeds for 802.11g/n devices, has a great UI and better range than the competition.
Best Sources
- ASUS RT-N66u on Amazon.
- ASUS RT-N66u on ASUS.
- Dong Ngo, CNET, ASUS RT-N66u Dark Knight Double 450Mbps N Router Review, March 22 2012, "Despite the fact that the RT-N66U doesn't support USB 3.0, its network storage performance was also very impressive, with 132Mbps for writing and 88Mbps for reading over a Gigabit Ethernet connection. These speeds are fast enough for light media streaming and data sharing. The only router that was faster than the RT-N66U in this category is the Linksys E4200v2 from Cisco, which has fewer features than what the RT-N66U has to offer."
- Dong Ngo, CNET, Top 5 wireless routers: Home networking evolved, July 6 2012
- Tim Higgins, Small Net Builder, ASUS RT-N66U Dark Knight Dual-Band Wireless-N900 Gigabit Router Reviewed, February 6 2012, "The Dark Knight clearly outperformed both the NETGEAR WNDR4500 and Cisco Linksys E4200V2 in most of our two and three-stream tests. And it's the only router in recent memory able to reach to our worst-case/lowest-signal test location on the 5 GHz band, albeit with barely-usable throughput. Still, this is an accomplishment in itself."
- Tim Higgins, Small Net Builder, ASUS RT-N56U Black Diamond Dual-Band Gigabit Wireless-N Router Reviewed, March 4, 2011, "If you're comfortable with routers that don't have the name Cisco, NETGEAR or D-Link on them and are looking for a less expensive two-radio dual-band router that can also share a USB printer and drive at the same time, you might want to give the RT-N56U a shot."
- Small Net Builder forum, accessed July 20 2012.
- Craig Hamm, Amazon.com customer review, January 17 2012, "As far as wireless range goes, this blows away both the Cisco E4200v1 and the Netgear WNDR3800, both of which I tested in the same placement as this one. I get full signal in all corners of my house, which isn't too big, but both the Netgear and Cisco routers got medium signal in the corners of my house. I have 5 wireless devices and 6 wired devices, and speed thus far has not been a problem. I stream video without drops and file transfers are quick. No complaints."
You can't go wrong with the '56u either if you know you'll be fine with the stock firmware.
I love this router I have had it for about 3 months now. It is stable and there is a great custom firmware out there based on the stock firmware with some DDWRT enhancements. Stable, always picks up my wireless no problem with great speed. Built in VPN and FTP are very nice and work as expected. 2 USB drives let you create a nice NAS device as well. With the latest update now IPv6 is working with Comcast. I returned my Linksys 4200 to Costco as it had multiple issues keeping connections and wasn't nearly as customization. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
How does this compare to something like an Airport Extreme?
I'm surprised the Apple Airport Extreme isn't listed. I have been through several Dlink, Netgear and Linksys routers and all of them would have problems right off the bat with keeping a port open for my server and after a year or two would have to be rebooted regularly to sync with my cable modem. After reading Anandtechs article on the latest Airport Extreme (and stating he had given up on the standard Router brands), I decided to try the Apple router. It took about 2 weeks to tweak (like most Apple products anything beyond the basic commands are hard to find) I had it dialed in just right. I have now had it up for a year and a half without having to power cycle it or set up the ports for my server a second time.
I bought the 56u on your recommendation, and honestly would suggest you stop recommending it, or at least do so with a caveat. It's a great router in every way… except that it has real problems with DNS servers. So periodically, it won't be able to find the right DNS servers, and then your devices (not all, but some, or maybe all, or maybe just one) won't be able to connect to the Internet. Seems like a firmware problem, which would be fixable except that you can't install DD-WRT or Tomato.
From what I can tell on the Web, the problem isn't just me, and no one's been able to find a good solution yet. I like the router in every other way, but this is a big issue, and potential buyers should definitely be aware of it.
Thanks for this comment, alex,
got a url to a description of the problem? email it to me at notes @thewirecutter.com and Ill check into it.
That hasn't been updated in a year, so it's not really that competitive
Alex, DNS issues ==are you setting manually or using your ISPs? I recommend trying to use google's when your dns fails, to see if it's a local or remote issue. some ISPs have flakey DNS servers. Google's are 8.8.8.8
Even better, run namebench and get suggestions for the best performing DNS servers for your specific ISP:
code.google.com/p/namebench/
Brian — sadly, I've been using Google's. They worked for a little while, maybe a week or two, and then the problem started right back up. Tried to go back to automatic setting recently, that was no help.
What do you recommend for a wireless repeater? My wife's parents have a large lake house and want access on their dock. General recommendation to stick with same make (i.e.,
Asus wireless repeater)?
As an aside, if you'd like to be taken seriously a little more editing would go a long way. Typos like "backsups" are obviously just sloppy, and "Not every day or every month, even." is the textual equivalent of the proverbial fingernails on chalkboard. Did you read your own piece?
I loved the N66U. I got a great WiFi signal all over my house. Sadly I got a defective one and had to return it. I'll be getting a replacement in the future though. I will say it does have a lot of features that most people won't use though.
I ended up with an Airport Extreme in part because my old wireless router died suddenly and I needed a replacement THAT DAY (none of the local stores even carry Asus routers, boo. I live near an Apple store, though) and partly because when I did some googling, reports about whether printer and HD sharing would work in OSX were mixed.
Do you know if the sharing features are functional in OSX? Most of what I've read is about the RT-n56u, but there are a lot of reports of printer and drive sharing being completely nonfunctional under OSX with that model.
Fortunately for me the Airport Extreme is probably more router than I need, and definitely a step up from the crappy refurbished netgear I'd been using previously.
The airport extreme just works, I can't remember the last time I had to do anything to it. The crap you recommend is super fast, super range, super cheap, and a constant time waster, so I can only assume you have a lot of time on your hands to fiddle with mis-behaving routers..
Please advise an idiot: do I also need a cable modem with this? I am about to purchase Comcast internet. Thank you.
Yes. You don't want to be stuck renting one for $8 a month or whatever. It's like a one time $60 purchase and you're set for life.
Any thoughts on the newer RT-AC66U? It's about the same price, and listed as the "newer" version of the RT-N66U on Amazon. I don't care about 802.11ac performance today, but it seems like it could be worth paying the few extra dollars in hopes of future-proofing.
FYI: This is on sale at Newegg for $149 (reg: $159)
can anyone confirm if this router has over heating problems?
You can also get the premium Asus RT-N66U with a Tomato firmware installed for us/
https://www.flashrouters.com/asus-rtn66u-n900-tomato-router.php