ASUS RT-N56U - 300Mbps Dual Band Wireless N Router. 802.11n, Hardware NAT, 5 Internal Antennas, Fast Gigabit Ethernet, Wireless HD content streaming, 3 Year Warranty: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

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This item: ASUS RT-N56U - 300Mbps Dual Band Wireless N Router. 802.11n, Hardware NAT, 5 Internal Antennas, Fast Gigabit Ethernet, Wireless HD content streaming, 3 Year Warranty by Asus �79.99
TP-Link TD-8817 ADSL2+ Ethernet/USB Modem Router by TP-Link �14.16

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Product Information

Technical Details

Brand	Asus
Item Weight	454 g
Product Dimensions	31.2 x 23.8 x 8.8 cm
Item model number	RT-N56u

Additional Information

ASIN	B004TPWRSK
Best Sellers Rank	3,391 in Computers & Accessories (See top 100) #41 in Computers & Accessories > Networking Devices > Routers
Shipping Weight	1.1 Kg
Date First Available	4 Jan 2011

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Product Description

ASUS RT-N56U - 802.11n Dual Band Gigabit WLAN Router

The revolutionary new ASUS RT-N56U is currently the latest wireless router in the industry. The model combines intuitive usage and advanced technology in a contemporary and stylish design. In addition to the ultra-slim design and stylish blue LEDs, the RT-N56U has many high-performance features such as dual-band wireless technology, high-end CPU, hardware NAT, five internal antennas, high-speed Gigabit LAN / WAN and 128 MB DDR2 memory. These features combine to provide users with unmatched performance with style.

Dual-band Technology

With dual-band technology, the ASUS RT-N56U content can be specifically transmitted via WLAN, allowing the router to direct resource-intensive files such as high-definition movies on the 5-GHz WLAN band. The 5 GHz band is hardly susceptible to interference, because most household appliances such as microwaves and radio remote controls sit on the 2.4 GHz band. The ASUS RT-N56U offers twice the speed of a high-speed wireless router by 300 Mbit / s on the 2.4 GHz band, while 300 Mbit / s are on the 5 GHz band.

ASUS Ai Radar –Optimized and Reliable Wireless Coverage

This unique and efficient design drastically increases wireless signal coverage and quality without increasing power consumption. AI Radar intelligently adapts beam patterns to local conditions to enable higher-gain directional signal emulation. Ai Radar shapes signals to offer the strongest possible output, transforming what may be a weak omnidirectional signal to a stronger unidirectional one, improving throughput at same time.

Gigabit WAN Internet Support

Equipped with a capable hardware NAT acceleration engine and built-in Gigabit Ethernet, it gives you full Gigabit internet performance, making its WAN to LAN throughput up to 2-5 times that of traditional software-based NAT Gigabit routers. Here, the hardware NAT of the RT-N56U remedies and supports data traffic bottlenecks with its WAN-LAN throughput of up to 900 Mbit / s for pure streaming enjoyment.

Excellent 300 000 simultaneous connections

Support for a massive data pipeline of up to 300,000 data sessions means the RT-N56U has around 20 times the networking capacity of other high session routers, so multiple data transfer jobs don't slow down even during heavy load.

24/7 Non-Stop Data Center

By building HTTP, FTP or Bittorrent downloads using the ASUS Download Master software, the RT-N56U manages these downloads and continues even if the PC is switched off. This creates a 24 / 7 data center with low power consumption that can be accessed via FTP no more obstacles.

Simultaneous printing & scanning for multiple users

With the ASUS RT-N56U router, it is possible to control printers, scanners and multifunction devices at any time, without needing a PC or server to be on 24 hours a day. The provided software makes it possible for the router to work as a full print server and all computers on the network simultaneously can print and scan.

Product Description

ASUS RTN56u Wireless 300Mbps Router 1Gb Ethernet 90IG1G002U002EA0 RTN56U Networks Wireless Routers

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

75 of 77 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Hasn't Let Me Down... Yet 28 Nov 2011

By Jason B.

The first thing you want to do when you get the router is to set up wireless security settings of "WPA2 Personal" and enter your own password into the "WPA-PSK Key" box to avoid potential interlopers from simply accessing the unprotected router and changing settings at will for their own nefarious purposes.

NOTE: you need to change wireless security settings for BOTH the 2.4GHz and 5GHz tabs to secure the router, as they use separate settings.

To access the router's web interface after connecting to it either via ethernet or wireless one needs to type in the address bar of a browser:

192.168.1.1

and enter the default username and password of:

admin
admin

To get this router working with my Virgin Media cable I had to switch the MODEM off and then on again. It wouldn't automatically work by using the "Quick Internet Setup" button in the router's settings without power cycling the MODEM. This is a minor problem, as it only took me around 10-20 seconds to perform the reset, and it may not happen to you. After that, I could browse the web straight away.

Once I had determined that I could connect to the internet perfectly fine, I visited the official ASUS site to upgrade the firmware of the router (which at the time of writing is 1.0.1.8d). As I apparently cannot post links in Amazon reviews, no matter how innocent they may be, you can find the firmware update by typing "ASUS RT-N56U" into Google, clicking the first result and then the "Download" tab. Extract the downloaded archive to a directory of your choice and then enter the router's configuration page and click the "Advanced Setting" button, "Administration", "Firmware Upgrade" tab. Then click the "Browse..." button next to the box labeled "New Firmware File".... Locate the firmware update file on your hard drive, click OK to all the warnings and do not allow your wireless or (preferably) ethernet connection to be interrupted whilst the upgrade is in progress. It will take around 3 minutes, and the progress bar appears to be pretty accurate as to when the operation will be complete (the router is reset in the process), so I wouldn't recommend touching it until it reaches 100%.

NOTE: Custom firmware has been developed for this router recently, and contains a huge number of fixes, enhancements and new features. Take a look at this review's comments for links.

After the router firmware upgrade had successfully completed, I happened to notice that my wireless connection was not running at full bandwidth. It seemed to be stuck at around 130mbps rather than the ~300mbps that Wireless mode N is capable of. I discovered this by right clicking on my wireless network in the Windows System Tray and clicking "Status". I did some reading up and discovered that it was because the router needed to be operating in "Bonded Channel Mode" which, apparently, it is not set to by default. To achieve this, I once again loaded up the router's web interface settings and clicked "Advanced Setting > Wireless" then set the "Channel bandwidth" to "20 / 40MHz" as opposed to the default of "20". I then set the router's "Wireless Mode" to operate in N "only", as well as setting my Wireless adapter in Windows Control Panel > System > Device Manager to WirelessN only mode or "802.11n". This may not be necessary if your adapter operates at 5GHz and you are connected at that wavelength and certainly not recommended if your wireless adapter isn't capable of the WirelessN standard at all, since forcing a Wireless Mode in the router settings that your adapter isn't capable of will leave you unable to connect wirelessly to the router.

My next task was to see if I could open a port for the Torrent network. This was easily achieved by visiting the "Advanced Setting > Port Forwarding" button under the WAN heading in the router's settings and adding a new entry in the list with the "Service Name" of "BitTorrent" (or whatever you would like to name it) "Port Range" of "6881" (without quotes) then selecting the local IP from the drop down box. Enter protocol "Both" and then click the "Add" button and press the "Apply" button below it. I then verified, by performing a port scan and checking the status of my Torrent client, that the port was indeed open and accepting traffic.

I happened to notice upon running a port scan test that port 21 appeared to be permanently "closed" (detectable remotely, but not accepting traffic) as opposed to completely "stealthed" (unreachable remotely). This port is normally reserved for FTP traffic. Whilst the "closed" status is normally secure enough, I would not leave it to chance and so discovered a way to stealth it completely. Go to the "Advanced Setting > Firewall > Lan to WAN Filter" tab and look at the LAN to WAN filter table, which is currently blank. If you want to completely block port 21 off from the outside then you need to add a new blacklist entry for the "Port Range" of "21". Protocol "TCP", Add and Apply.

So, after I had performed all these steps, I was fairly happy with how the Router was performing for me. I have read in a number of places that the Firmware simply isn't advanced enough for other people's needs and they hope for a version of DD-WRT (open source third-party firmware) that supports the ASUS RT-N56U. I tend to agree with them, but so far this router hasn't cut me off from any essential features that I personally require, so that's good enough for me. Read more ›

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42 of 44 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Does not have ADSL modem included 23 April 2012

By Mr. A. J. Fleming

Amazon Verified Purchase

When you search for ADSL modem, ADSL router etc. on Amazon, this device comes up but PLEASE note this router doesn't include a modem - you will need to get a separate bridging modem to go with this. Amazon really need to update the search so idiots like me don't get so easily fooled. The silly thing is I had even read/watched many reviews of this router and it wasn't mentioned once. So remember, if you want this bit of kit add a bridging modem to your order!

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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic router 3 Nov 2011

By LondonBairn

Amazon Verified Purchase

I live in a flat which, thankfully, has very well built walls, which is of course desireable. The only issue is, inevitably, wireless reception.

I wanted a router to replace a DIR615 connected to my VM Superhub, which can not only provide a strong signal throughout, but also be able to handle multiple devices (at last count, I have 15+ devices connected through gigabit/WLAN, from my Panasonic VT30 to ReadyNas to Sonos) with no sweat. I put the Asus in router mode, and put the superhub in Modem mode. It picked up my configuration instantly and I was up and running with basics working within a few minutes.

You have to understand that when you buy a router like this, you have to step in and configure it to get the best out of it. I had issues where my Sonos would not bridge the other zones correctly, which was resolved when I changed the router IP to 192.168.0.1.

So far, the router has been fantastic. 2.4ghz signal remains full throughout the flat, even in areas the DIR-615 was barely 1 bar. All our devices work perfectly (iPads, laptops, SGS2, iPhone 4S) with no dropouts as we had before. I have also noticed an increase in transfer speeds between my ReadyNas and PC, as well as a nominal increase in NTP transfer speeds (perhaps as a result of using better routing in the Asus than Superhub)

I personally don't mind the interface, though some items took a bit of digging around to find. The only issue is the 5ghz signal is weak, though AI Radar I presume has been retweaking the signal, as it is slowly getting stronger. This is not an issue as all devices I want to use 5ghz are within a good range.

All in all, a great looking router, and works great.

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent worth every penny 5 Jun 2012

By ste

Amazon Verified Purchase

I bought this router because the virgin 'superhub' gave me terrible performance on a 100mb connection After looking around at various review sites I decided on the Asus RT N56u and can say wholeheartedly it's one of the best purchases I've ever made!
The connection is flawless in any room in my house; I get at least 75mb EVERYWHERE upstairs or downstairs, or outside.my wireless top speed is 107mb The router is easy to set up simply plug the router into your cable modem and then connect an ethernet cable to a computer either Mac or Windows and follow the setup wizard that automatically is displayed by your web browser. The Router allows for two different frequencies either 2.4 or 5ghz simultaneously
This router suits all your possible needs; if you're a heavy downloader or you watch a lot of HD streams or If your a gamer looking for a router that's going to give you a lag free experience I can say from my experience this is the router for you,
some of the features includes the ability to optimize your network experience for a particular activity; either gaming, ftp, HD streaming and Email + Web. It also displays all the connected devices with a possibility to either block one and even prioritize which device you wish to have a better share of the network.

All in all I can say this is the perfect router

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