[SEAWARRIOR]

i'm looking into the best way to setup my playbook to connect w/ my pc,,, it's hardwired so i have to go to a local hotspot to do basic wifi things like AppWorld, etc.,,, i really don't want to put out the $20/mo for a 9850 hotspot so it's either a VPN, (http://forums.crackberry.com/blackbe...ection-780987/), which i'm not sure will work, or break down & just get a router,,, i know there's apps to connect, but i'd rather go thru a router if i have to make that choice,,, what i'm looking for specifically is: security, speed & ease of use/setup, reliability,,, thanks...

[howarmat]

ASUS RT-N56U Wireless Router Dual Band N600 Multimedia Ultra Slim Gigabit 802.11a/b/g/n support USB Storage, Print and Media Server (top performance review at smallnetbuilder.com) - Newegg.com

http://www.amazon.com/Diamond-Dual-B...bUvbUpU8114149


http://www.techradar.com/us/reviews/...-924686/review


been using this for a couple years now. One of the best you can get. even after a couple years on the market

[SEAWARRIOR]

this looks like exactly what i've been looking for,,, lotta bang for the buck,too,,, from the sound of it, i can access anything from pretty much anywhere,,, how's the range??? can i set up a VPN w/ this???

[SEAWARRIOR]

reviews are shakey & no VPN...
UPDATE: looks like they may have updated firmware to support VPN...

[SEAWARRIOR]

looks like it's got a big brother now,,,

Asus RT-AC66U Dual Band 3x3 802.11AC Gigabit Router Review & Rating | PCMag.com

[howarmat]

im not sure on the VPN but you can load firmware to allow it i would think. Range is fine, i get a signal throughout my house. that would be 80 feet from one side to the other maybe

[SEAWARRIOR]

looks like it's got a big brothers now,,, about $80 more tho...

Asus RT-AC66U Dual Band 3x3 802.11AC Gigabit Router Review & Rating | PCMag.com

http://reviews.cnet.com/routers/asus...-35406080.html

[SEAWARRIOR]

a good friend recommended Airport extreme, (cringing @ thought of buying red fruit product), from the looks of it, it's also a powerhouse but i'd rather not get locked into whatever untold slaveware is involved,,, ain't cheap either...

[howarmat]

the apple router is fantastic also i have heard. Many people buy them.

The 66U isnt worth the $80 more IMO. its good but i dont think enough seperation between the 56u to the 66u for $80

[SEAWARRIOR]

yeah,,, i'm hearing that, too,,, how'd you change your screen name like that??? is that a new thing or just for geniueseseses (geni??? )???

[howarmat]

its new. Mods get a green color, admins red

[SEAWARRIOR]

can i get blue when i hit 1k??? ,,, read somwhere they used to give out goodies for that mark,,, probably happens too often now to do it...

[skoenig]

Ha funny you mention the AC66, had huge problems with the early firmware on that bad boy.

Dropped 'down' to the Asus RT-N66 - $163 Amazon I cannot recommend that enough and that's coming from the venerable Netgear 3700 v1. Here's the reasons why I chose it:

• Great Smallnetbuilder review and follow up
• It's still top of their charts in speed a year later
• It's been around a year so many many of the typical firmware issues are ironed out
• It's not cutting edge (because there aren't many 11ac adapters in play anyway)
• Good reviews from people that sound like they know what they're doing
• Active 3rd party firmware including Merlins which is based on enhanced Asus firmware
• Tons of ram in case you go off reservation with DD-WRT or Tomato..

Having got it I'm a solid 4/5 bar throughout the house on 5Ghz and solid 5 on 2.4Ghz out to across the street - the 3700 had problems maintaining a 5Ghz N connection in places.

Anyway get it. Put Merlin's firmware on it. You'll be golden until they sort out the 11ac penetration and interoperability problems.

I have a few 3x3 clients (Mac Mini 2012 and some media streamers...) they connect at anywhere from 300-360 Mbs with one only 'managing' 168...

You'll end up keeping it for several years because to date I've had to reset it once (thats in a several months) apart from firmware updates, which is how it should be. You'll forget it's there.

~Steph

[leafnstion44]

reviews are shakey & no VPN...
UPDATE: looks like they may have updated firmware to support VPN...

I just bought a router last night. It's a d-link amplifi N+ 300 dlna cert. Media streaming. Model No is dir-645 price is $75 lots of good features great signal I have attached a picture of the box hope this helps you.



Posted via CB10 from my Z10

[3hb78ftg]

I just bought a router last night. It's a d-link amplifi N+ 300 dlna cert. Media streaming. Model No is dir-645 price is $75 lots of good features great signal I have attached a picture of the box hope this helps you.



Posted via CB10 from my Z10

I was considering buying this router the other day. Please provide feedback on this especially on the signal coverage. I have a really big house and don't want to use repeaters.

[SEAWARRIOR]

Ha funny you mention the AC66, had huge problems with the early firmware on that bad boy.

~Steph

i ended up getting the "AC66",,, saw the reviews mentioning instability but the latest firmup fixed some of it,,, i know there aren't many, if any, devices running AC but one of the things that sold me was ram, which is double,(256mb ram), anything else out there,,, & there's a ton of features & a great command console,,,there were also complaints about customer service but the guy i dealt w/ during setup,( i like to tweak out all my gadgets ) was on the ball & knew his stuff,,, he even sent me a youtube vid on VPN setup, which i'm pretty much clueless about,,, out of the box this thing is a BEAST!!! my pc was hardwired 'til now & based on my latest speed test, my PlayBook is now a MONSTER that is a great 1-2 punch w/ my pc, & is faster than some pc's out there,,, see the results here--->>> http://forums.crackberry.com/blackbe...3/#post8163642 ,,, i'm gonna give ol' Merlin a try once i get my VPN up,,, that's lookin' pretty sweet,,, as far as range goes, i live in a 2nd story apt & in the farthest corner away from the router, ( maybe 30-35 ft thru 1 wall), there wasn't even the slightest drop in bars,,, i went outside last night & down the road about 50 yrds & thru brick & walls i only dropped 1 bar on the playbook & 3 on my 9850,,, this morning in my garage downstairs, down 2 floors inside my car, the pb was @ full & phone dropped 1 bar,,, it'll be interesting to see how this thing holds up over time as they firmup & iron it out,,, the AC66 ain't cheap,(gotta love federal & state tax refunds, ), but so far it's worth the cash...

[skoenig]

Great you're going to have fun! I used to love poking around in routers and replacing the stock firmware....

One thing the RT-N66 has that I haven't played with yet - AC66 has one too - is a hidden micro-sd card slot inside.

was-n-nu: Internal MicroSD slot working on Asus RT-N66U running stock firmware

Might try that our with a 64 GB card.. if you don't want to go full linux I've read elsewhere it auto-mounts if it's fat32 formatted.



~Steph

[southlander]

This does it all. Any kind of VPN end point you want (I use IPSEC). Wireless N, G, etc.

It is NOT easy to set up -- has an object oriented config interface. Complex but powerful.

Amazon.com: ZyXEL ZyWALL USG20W 802.11n Wireless Internet Security Firewall with 4 Gigabit LAN/DMZ Ports, 2 IPSec VPN, SSL VPN , and 3G WAN Support: Electronics

[leafnstion44]

I was considering buying this router the other day. Please provide feedback on this especially on the signal coverage. I have a really big house and don't want to use repeaters.

I will keep you posted

Posted via CB10 from my Z10

[SEAWARRIOR]

Great you're going to have fun! I used to love poking around in routers and replacing the stock firmware....

One thing the RT-N66 has that I haven't played with yet - AC66 has one too - is a hidden micro-sd card slot inside.

was-n-nu: Internal MicroSD slot working on Asus RT-N66U running stock firmware

Might try that our with a 64 GB card.. if you don't want to go full linux I've read elsewhere it auto-mounts if it's fat32 formatted.

~Steph

pretty cool having an sd slot,,, not sure it would be useful for me tho as i have an 8gig mem stick & another 4 gigger in a 3.0 card reader that i can plug into the usb slot,,, don't think i want to void my 2 day old warranty yet either,,, ,,, the only thing i didn't like from the get go was that the AC66 has 2.0 usb's,,, a beast like that should be up to date,,, i'm definately gonna give Merlin a shot tho,,, i can always reload stock firmware if it's flakey,,, what does Merlin address as far as fixes/upgrades??? also a range update::: i did a range test this afternoon & i got a line of sight signal w/ my 9850 from 581 ft away in my car!!! the router is positioned near a window & only had to go thru that 1 wall,,, i lost it as i went around a curve in the road that took me behind a building,,, i got a good reading using GPSpeed, a great app,,, the range on playbook should be even better...

[SEAWARRIOR]

This does it all. Any kind of VPN end point you want (I use IPSEC). Wireless N, G, etc.

It is NOT easy to set up -- has an object oriented config interface. Complex but powerful.

Amazon.com: ZyXEL ZyWALL USG20W 802.11n Wireless Internet Security Firewall with 4 Gigabit LAN/DMZ Ports, 2 IPSec VPN, SSL VPN , and 3G WAN Support: Electronics

looks slower, (300mb), & the way i read it you need to license the firewall (1 yr),,, do you have to pay to renew??? also the asus can run 300k sessions vs 6k,,, i stopped there...

[SEAWARRIOR]

Great you're going to have fun! I used to love poking around in routers and replacing the stock firmware....

One thing the RT-N66 has that I haven't played with yet - AC66 has one too - is a hidden micro-sd card slot inside.

was-n-nu: Internal MicroSD slot working on Asus RT-N66U running stock firmware

Might try that our with a 64 GB card.. if you don't want to go full linux I've read elsewhere it auto-mounts if it's fat32 formatted.



~Steph

if you have any good tweaks, let me know,,, sounds like you're very familiar w/ these,,, should i enable jumbo frames,,, the way i read it is larger chunks of data are sent this way,,, i have it enabled now & speed isn't affected,,, i'm in there naow poking around & i'm holding of on changing anything that isn't obvious...

[SEAWARRIOR]

looking into vpn now,,, any tips???

[inked18]

I'm rocking the RT-N66U haven't had many problems with it the range is great I get good reception everywhere in the house and about half way down my drive way. The only issue I have is that it does not like to play well with my WD HDTV live media player while streaming blu-ray. But that is probably more to do with the media player that things the biggest pain in my ***!!! Me thinks it's time to dump some money into a full on HTPC

[SEAWARRIOR]

I'm rocking the RT-N66U haven't had many problems with it the range is great I get good reception everywhere in the house and about half way down my drive way. The only issue I have is that it does not like to play well with my WD HDTV live media player while streaming blu-ray. But that is probably more to do with the media player that things the biggest pain in my ***!!! Me thinks it's time to dump some money into a full on HTPC

yeah,,, in my very limited experience, so far, these things are pretty impressive & i'm not easily impressed,,,