ASUS RT-N12 N300 Wi-Fi Router 2T2R MIMO Technology

Pros: As far as I can tell, this is only a slight change to the RT-N12 B1 which is a very good thing. It has the same specs and can handle serious traffic without freezing. I run my entire PC repair shop off one and I’ve never had to reboot it. We’ve had multiple netflix streams, torrents, and basically anything else running through this without a problem. The range is exceptional and it’s only been beat by a router that costs 5x as much. Setup was simple and the router is smart enough to alter its IP address to avoid conflicts with the modem. Cons: The on-off button is sort of easy to hit accidentally. Overall Review: The major changes over the B1 edition are: – The physical switch for router/AP/repeater mode being removed and changed to a software configuration setting. – an on/off power push button on the back – a completely different black case – slightly higher quality antennae

Pros: Incredible coverage, easy to set-up but has very complex options too for the nerdy type. I live in an apt building and I share my Wifi with 4 others. One person is about 64ft from me and through 9 walls (18 sheets of 1/2″ drywall) can max out my internet speed (16Mbps DL). We have 11 devices running out of 5 apts with zero problems (1-PS4, 1-printer, 1-Smart TV, 3-cells, 1 table, 4 PCs). The Guest network (3) is great for sharing, allowing you to restrict access to your intranet. Multiple scheduling/filters to restrict kids use. I use MAC filtering to limit which devices can connect. Has some built in monitoring tools, wish it could monitor usage by MAC or Guest Network. Cons: Poor documentation, QOS seems simple to set up but gives me warning messages which are not documented anywhere, and appears to NOT work as planned. Other complex settings are not explained very well if at all, for this I took back one star. Overall Review: I’ve always liked Linksys/Cisco so I bought a new one at $120, the guest network DID NOT even have encryption! Took it back and bought this Asus at a fraction of the cost. I wish Asus made cable modems too, I’d buy one. I don’t usually do reviews but I was so impressed with this Asus that I felt obligated. This is the best router I have seen since the old days of Linksys WRT54GL. Previous router was a top of the line NetGear turned out to be junk. It’s such a relief to find a GREAT router again.

Pros: I now have decent wifi coverage in both ends of my house it works and have a decent looking UI open source firmware you can telnet into the router (* SSH is not installed) only $9.99 after rebate looks slick there is a WOL GUI Cons: Signal strength is a little low (my main WZR300HP router 2 rooms away gives me a stronger signal than i get in the same room as this one) Only has 28MB of ram, it really should have a little more AP mode is a very minimal load and it sits at 86% ram used (24MB) ** this appears this include cache (almost 9.5MB) id like to see about 35 to 40MB ram on this the latest beta firmware is only using the 2.6.22.19 kernel which is a bit dated (4.7 is current as of writing this, would have expected to see about 3.2) blue LEDs (surprising they are not blinding like most blue LEDs) When i set the wifi channel to 1 or 11 it tells me to use 2 or 10 cause of “local regulations” and it claims this limits wireless coverage the only 3 channels that are optimal for wireless N are 1, 6, and 11 as they don’t overlap and since 6 is the default channel on every router out there (auto normally means 6) this forces you to use 1 or 11 unless you live on a farm for best coverage/performance i believe this is a bug and the message is untrue to my understanding wireless n 300 uses 2 channels at onces, you are allowed in the US to use 1 through 11 therefore you can use 1 and 3, or 11 and 9, 6 and 5 , or 6 and 7, in the US you are not allowed to use channels 12 through 14 i know nobody care but ill just rant about this: On the box it labels the DC input as a AC input (only someone who knows the difference will catch this and realize how bad it would be if someone took it seriously) the diagram on box uses a IE logo for the Internet, just use a cloud icon it is more accurate, a low grade browser is not the Internet There comes a point when over simplification becomes teaching people incorrect terms, please don’t encourage this Overall Review: I’m using this in AP mode (no wires connect to the wlan side of the router, think about it like a network switch with wifi) one you upgrade to the beta firmware the login is admin/admin no real need for a wireless N AP to need a gigabit lan as the max you can push through it will be about 80Mbps (300Mbps includes overhead) The power adapter is 12v@0.5A the back end appears to have some ipv6 support (i see ip6tables and ipv6_monitor commands), have not seen anything about it in the front end though nor is there any sign of it in ifconfig From what i can see it looks like they only plan to add a ip4 to 6 tunnel if it it not part of the NON AP configuration in the UI It has a power button on the back (why would i want to turn it off? it is just a part that can fail IMO) Internals: CPU: BCM53572 rev 1 pkg 8 at 300 MHz Broadcom BCM4347 802.11 Wireless Controller 5.110.27.20012 Broadcom BCM47XX 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet Controller 5.110.27.20012 (I thought this was a 10/100 lan router) i would test this to see if it is gigabit or not but i have a Cat5 cable on it (this cable can’t do gigabit)

Pros: Very easy to set up Very versatile for the low price Cons: Disappointng signal strength No signal strength adjustment (turns out only available on HP version, not D1 which I got) No documentation in box – had to find manual on Internet Admin tool says to use enclosed CD for an emergency firmaware retoration if update fails, but no CD in box either Overall Review: Bought this to use as an access point, since my main router is at the oposite end of my house from my TV and I was only getting one bar when streaming to the TV. Managed to get this router within about 30′ of the TV with wire to the main router. Was a breeze to set up and connect but still only got 1 bar at the TV (I am still having to go through a couple of walls, but not as many as before). After spending a couple of hours playing around with tilting the unit, various positions of the antennas, and testing different channels, was able to get a consistent two bars with three popping in and out. Not as much of an improvement as I was hoping for, but good enough. The “high gain” antennas are definately over-hyped.