Asus RT-N66U help

roachyuk

roachyuk

roachyuk

Associate
Joined
6 Apr 2009
Posts
2,158
Location
Liverpool
Ive bought one of these routers to replace my old wndr3700

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=NW-049-AS&groupid=46&catid=1596

I have come up on a problem with it....if i transfer a large file say 200mb upwards it starts off at 100mbs ...then reduces down to around 11mbs after about 5 secs.

I put my old router back in and that was fine a constant 100mbs on the gigabit network.....put the asus back in and same again poor transfer rates.

So ive put a gigabit switch in and plugged every thing into that and had one cable coming from the router and bingo that is greet 100mbs ....so my question is has anyone got any experience with these routers and any pointers on how to rectify this problem...also when a router says up to 8 devices or upto 10 devices or more than 10 devices do you have to stick to them guide lines or can you have say 12 devices on a up to 10 devices thanks
 
Have you installed the latest firmware (Asus just released a new one a few days ago)?

It's also worth looking at Merlin's firmware, which is an extension/bugfix version of the Asus firmware. Right now Merlin is waiting for the sourcecode for the new firmware to build an up-to-date Merlin release, so that might be another week or two.

Make sure you are using Cat5e/6 cables, as the RT-N66U has a reputation for being somewhat sensitive about cables.

Number of devices is a bit irrelevant unless they are all going to be running at full tilt at the same time. If you overload the router with workload, it will just get slower as it tries to do more than it can handle.
 
all my cables are cat5e as i said it works great until i put the asus router in...i have now tried another netgear and a dlink one they all work great its just the asus.

Merlin firmware....can i put original back on if it doesnt sort the problem out .

Really wanna keep this as the wireless is awesome.....but for £110 its a little bit much to use just as a sort of access point.
 
roachyuk said:
Merlin firmware....can i put original back on if it doesnt sort the problem out .
Click to expand...

Yes, it's just installed the same as you would install a normal Asus firmware update - just load it into the correct place in the admin pages and wait for it to flash itself. Just flash again with the Asus firmware if you want to go back.

roachyuk said:
Really wanna keep this as the wireless is awesome.....but for £110 its a little bit much to use just as a sort of access point.
Click to expand...

It's a great router, but it's not normal to see that kind of slowdown. It sounds like some kind of incompatibility with your clients as it works fine with an intermediate device.

I'd suggest installing the latest firmware from Asus, and see if that works, if not try Merlin's and see what happens.
 
i have already updated to the latest firmware so that was not the problem or it might be the problem as i updated before i used it....just doesnt add up to me if other routers are fine and this is having problems ill try the merlin firmware first see if that cures it thanks....we do i get it from or do i ask my friend lol google.
 
Do you have QoS enabled? IIRC theres a problem with it where it throttles local traffic as well as internet.

I had to put the Merlin FW on mine to get the best performance and stability out of it.
 
Ok ive flashed firmware still the same ....i tried QoS was still the same...not sure why its like that tried everything i can think off...maybe the router doesnt like my cables lol....oh well at least the switch makes the network run at full speed .

so whats another good router guys that will accept around 15 devices as i might just get a better switch to run the wired connections from that .
 
BTW I was saying that QoS being on causes a problem with local traffic with some settings if it was off to begin with then that wouldn't have been the issue.

I've never had any issues with transfer rates with mine, other than when I had QoS enabled, so not sure whats going on there.
 
ok so just had a thought lol i really wanna keep this router as i said its awesome...so people who have a home network use switches anyway dont really use the router for file transfer....so if i put the ps3...xbox in it and use a switch for the network thats a ok way to go am i correct.
 
In theory if all the network devices are connected to a switch and then the switch uplinks to the router then they should be able to transfer between themselves at whatever speeds they are connected to the switch regardless of the router.
 
roachyuk said:
ok so just had a thought lol i really wanna keep this router as i said its awesome...so people who have a home network use switches anyway dont really use the router for file transfer....so if i put the ps3...xbox in it and use a switch for the network thats a ok way to go am i correct.
Click to expand...

Yeah that should work. The traffic from the clients on the switch will stay on that side of the switch unless it has to go out over the internet, or to any clients plugged into the RT-N66U.
 
The RT-N66U has a switch built in - you shouldn't really need to buy another one. Maybe you have a faulty unit and you should RMA it?

I'd suggest you unplug all the clients, and test with the minimum and see what your speeds are. Add the clients back one by one and see if there is something causing the problem. Check with different cables if you can, you might have a faulty or crushed cable somewhere.
 
I think ill return it tomorrow and change it as i bought it local and they are open tomorrow
hopefully that will sort it or....i might buy some cables monday and test them first...but if the cables are faulty i persume it would not work with the gigabit switch i tested ? unless as you said the asus is funny on what cables it likes.
 
roachyuk said:
I think ill return it tomorrow and change it as i bought it local and they are open tomorrow
hopefully that will sort it or....i might buy some cables monday and test them first...but if the cables are faulty i persume it would not work with the gigabit switch i tested ? unless as you said the asus is funny on what cables it likes.
Click to expand...

The N66U is fussy about giving gigabit speeds without proper cat 5e or 6 cables.
 
Think ill put it down to that....its great wireless so i can live with the slow speeds on the switch side of the router and use that for the consoles.... and then use a separate gigabit switch on the wired pc side...you dont think doing that is overkill for the rt66n.
 
roachyuk said:
Think ill put it down to that....its great wireless so i can live with the slow speeds on the switch side of the router and use that for the consoles.... and then use a separate gigabit switch on the wired pc side...you dont think doing that is overkill for the rt66n.
Click to expand...

I do, because it should work - you shouldn't need switches unless you're subnetting or wanting more ports at full speed.
 
Hi,

I bought this router last week. I have cat5 wired through the whole house. The cables are not cat5e/6. Just tried transferring and got a constant 90mb/s ish.

I have my modem plugged into the router and the router plugs into a giga switch and from there the switch feeds all the lan sockets around the house. As soon as i setup the router i downloaded and installed the latest Asus fw.

Didn't really touch any of the other settings. QoS is disabled.

Hope this helps. I think you might have a faulty router maybe. Could it possibly be anything to do with firewall settings?

It is a great router and it would be a shame for the OP to have to use something else.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom