Asus Dual-Band Wireless-N600 Gigabit Router (RT-N56U)

Gotta love Amazon for allowing long, detailed reviews..lol Ok my story:I have used RCN and Comcast back n forth for my ISP's since the early - mid 2000's. I switch between them alot because when I have to disconnect cable service and get it again, either one has more channels for cheaper or one has faster internet speeds for cheaper. So I decide which do I want the most and go from there.I used a Linksys BEFSX41 router some years ago. Worked fine. No problems using it with RCN or Comcast. Enter the Linksys WRT54GL a few years later. Strange thing with this router..it doesnt work good with Comcast, but works fine with RCN. I found this out trying to use newsgroups. With the 54GL, it doesnt hit my set or max ISP download speed at all, makes my newsgroup app stutter while downloading like it cant keep up. But, the 54GL works fine when using newsgroups with RCN. Concerning p2p, Comcast got into the p2p throttling business early, RCN didnt. Even to this day RCN might be listed as doing it on the net but not as bad as Comcast. Strange...is that the throttling at play with newsgroups? Inquiring minds wanna know...because I dont know.I moved recently and can only get Comcast in my area. (was using RCN the past 1 year before I moved) My cellphone service isnt so good now too. Gotta check into a new cellphone provider too, but thats another story.I got an Android phone in 2010. I used wifi a lil at home before I moved, but now that my cell service is weaker I use it alot with my phone now. So I need to use the wifi part of the router alot more. I could barely use wifi with my phone in the bathroom or bedroom and my PS3 wouldnt connect at all in the bedroom. I live in a 1 bedroom apt basement level with a hot water heater in between the living room and the bathroom n bedroom. The router is in the living room. And with the 54GL, I have to disconnect the router at times for specific downloading reasons. I got tired of having to do that and the weak wifi signal so I decided to start researching wireless routers.Came across a very nice site that does detailed reviews of routers called smallnetbuilder .com . Turns out the WRT54 line of Linksys isnt rated so good according to that site. But, in my case the ISP's made a difference somewhat too. I came across the Asus N56U and it was rated at the top or in the top 3 in all categories in the Performance Leader Board/Router charts. It was the cheapest router in the top 3. I was gonna get a D Link that had good stats in the top 10-20 and it was about $40 cheaper or a Netgear that was the same price as the Asus or a lil cheaper but stats werent as good as the Asus. For some reason I settled on the Asus, must have been the stats in the charts and the review. I never used a router by Asus so I was skeptical. All I ever used was D Link and Linksys and I knew about Netgear. Asus is brand new to me in the router world.What I like about this router: Well...the same speed I get on my Android phone in the living room I get it or real close in the bathroom and bedroom. Before I thought it was the hot water heater make the connection drop. Turns out I had a weak router. I dont get the stuttering with newsgroups and I can hit my max or set speeds in the newsgroup app even with Comcast as my ISP. I use newsgroups alot now, went away from torrents thanks to Comcast. So I dont know how it works with torrents or other p2p setups. I might test it and edit my review later. I like the router UI settings. Easy to understand and lots of settings. I like that this router is small too. The blue lights will blend well with ppl that do light mods to their PC's, lol.I dont know whats the difference between RCN and Comcast that made my 54GL work good with RCN and not so good with Comcast, but this Asus works very well with Comcast. So I would recommend this router if you have Comcast as your ISP.I have a few small issues with the ASUS tho. I have carpet and it does fall over forward easy ONLY if I hit it from behind and knock it forward or it rocks from hitting it from the front. The port forwarding part of the router UI isnt edit friendly. It helps alot to set up static IP's (yea I know most router tutorials advise static IP's anyway) with all devices you want to use port forwarding for with this router. With Linksys and probably some others, you can edit the IP part of the port forwarding section easy. I never worried about static IP's for that reason. With this router, if the IP of whatever is connected changes you will have to erase all the port forwarding you setup and start from scratch. Although, even with no port forwarding, the router connects good and the devices have good speeds with very minimal setup. The port forwarding part will probably be important to a handful of ppl or specific ppl anyway. Even with no port forwarding, this router connects very easy to wireless devices, well the wireless devices I have anyway. (Android phone, Blu Ray player, Internet TV, PS3* *just for software updates and downloading demos, videos, etc. I havent really tried the router for playing online on the PS3 and no port forwarding except with Little Big Planet 2.)So far this is the best router I have ever used. Others either tripped out after software updates or one didnt work with a certain ISP. If this doesnt ever need a software update you dont have to worry about anything. If it does, like with all products that have software updates, it could make it better or worse.EDIT on 3-27-2011: Just tested it with torrents. Not really setting up the torrent client, router and/or the PC correctly for best performance, this router gave my torrent app a green under incoming connections in my torrent app. Those that know, if its yellow it means port forwarding isnt setup right or another network issue is at play. A green in incoming connection without even setting up port forwarding??? Amazing. And I am hitting my set upload speeds in my torrent app. Could never do that with Comcast and my old router.This router is definitely a winner!!

Past history: I had owned a Linksys WRT160NL for about two years which I primarily purchased for the ability to share a 1TB USB harddrive. It worked but was not fast by any means. It didn't have gigabit Ethernet ports, it wasn't dual-band, and it wasn't powered by lots of RAM or fast processor. Needless to say, transfer speeds weren't amazing when reading, but especially when writing, files to my hard drive. In terms of network performance it was decent. Long story short, it started to drop connection, I couldn't have my two Xbox 360 consoles on Xbox Live at the same time and get an Open NAT on both, and Linksys hasn't hadn't provided a firmware update in over a year. It was time to find a new router. I thought about getting the Linksys 4200 but the high price and buggy stability (according to reviewers) persuaded me to skip it. I then found this strange little router from ASUS called the Black Diamond.This thing is amazing. The size is smaller then my old WRT160NL yet outperforms it in nearly every category.1) Installation: Simple enough. I just wish it was wall mountable, but I guess the heat it produces persuaded Asus to skip that feature.2) UI: I grew up on Linksys' browser based UI so I thought this would be very similar. I was very, very wrong. This web UI for this thing is completely different than the Linksis ones in every way. Keep in mind that this isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I had to relearn everything. The UI is fairly interactive in the sense that side menus and help boxes will appear as you click around. On the home-screen the entire network is displayed in a very clear branching pattern which helps visualize what is really going on. When upgrading firmware there is a very clear Progress % indicator so you don't have to guess when the router is ready. Also, there are a ton of professional-level options which can be changed. They all are set to default values so there is very little reason to ever mess with those.3) 2 USB Ports: OH MAH GAWD! Night and day difference. My file transfer speeds are so much more responsive and speedy. Initial setup was very simple and accessing the hard drive (1TB HDD formatted in NTFS) is near instant and I never have any issues. Also, there is a ton of options and controls for setting up user permission when reading or writing files. Oh yeah, there is FTP server support. I can access my files from the internet while out of my apartment for FREE. Downside though, I have not managed to get wireless USB printing to work. I have a HP Officejet J4550 and the router simply can not recognize it. My printer isn't explicitly stated in the "Supported Printer" list so I should have expected this, still sucks though. There isn't much documentation on how to really setup wireless printing so good luck to any of you who attempt to do it.4) Xbox 360: Open NATs out of the box with zero setup. No port-forwarding for me. Just connect your consoles and you are good to go.5) Internet speed: This is nothing short of incredible. On my WRT160NL I was getting 2.0mbps down and 0.8 up (apartment internet) but now I get, drum roll, 5.0mbps down and 1.8mbps up. I did nothing but switch devices and now my internet is 150% faster than before. Obviously your mileage may vary for your internet, but I am VERY excited regardless.6) Gigabit Ethernet ports: Like I said earlier, file transfer speeds are incredible. Need to copy large file from hard drive? No problem. Need to stream 1080p video to Xbox 360? No hiccups or stutters.7) Form: I like, a lot. The front is very shiny with the diamond pattern and plenty of very modern angles. There are numerous LEDs on the front to keep you informed on what is going on. However, it can get warm when transferring/streaming large files or upgrading firmware.Summary:Pros:* Fast file transfer speeds on LAN and wireless* No NAT issues with Xbox 360* More than doubled my internet speed (Amazing!)* Shared network drive features are plentifulCons:* Not wall mountable* Gets a little warm at times.* Couldn't get wireless USB printing working* Lack of detailed documentation included in the box. You might have to go on ASUS's website and download PDFs for additional instructions if you need them.Other:* As of May 31, 2011 the firmware 1.0.1.5 is bugged. ASUS realized this and removed it from the website due to its instability. 1.0.1.4 is presently the recommended firmware. If you see other reviewers claiming this router drops connection or resets often and they are using 1.0.1.5 then you know what is wrong.* Personally, I felt the price was fair. There are a number of other comparable routers that cost a decent amount more and considering the great performance boost I already got from it I don't feel as if I paid too much.Conclusion: This is the best router I have ever owned and I will now recommend it to anyone who wants a new router in the future. The features are plentiful and do them well.