| ASUS RT-N56U Wireless-N Gigabit Router |  |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Network | |
| Written by Steven Iglesias-Hearst | |
| Sunday, 17 April 2011 | |
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Testing & ResultsTesting Methodology
To test the ASUS RT-N56U Router we are using the Passmark Performance v7.0 Advanced Network Test. This test measures throughput between two clients connected to the router to be tested. In order for this test to work one PC must be set up as 'Client' and the other must be set up as the 'Server', each test is ran five times with the highest and lowest result omitted and the remaining three results are averaged to give a final result. At Benchmark Reviews we like to be comprehensive so you will find results here for many different configurations such as LAN to LAN (100Mb/s), LAN to LAN (1000MB/s), WAN to LAN (Wireless G 54Mb/s) and finally WAN to LAN (Wireless N 150Mb/s). To eliminate any variables Test System 1 was always set to 'Server' and results were monitored and recorded on the 'Client' systems. The ASUS RT-N56U shipped out with firmware v1.0.0.9 (factory default) and was upgraded to v1.0.1.3 prior to these tests. Test System 1
Test System 2
Test System 3
ResultsThe first test was conducted at a distance of 1 meter, which I would consider to be 'Wired' range. These tests were conducted using the method detailed above.
Not all results are at their max theoretical limit but this may or may not due to the router itself, it is quite possible that the network adapters themselves are not capable of maxing out their theoretical limit. We see a very good result for 100Mb/s LAN, in this case the network adapters are making full use of the available bandwidth. When we look at the Gigabit LAN result we start to see that throughput is not meeting its maximum potential, in an ideal scenario we would like to have matching Gigabit Ethernet controllers on each side of the test router but we must make do with what we have, still 579 Mb/s is nothing to be disappointed with though seeing as home internet connections are nowhere near as fast as this yet. Wireless G speeds and wireless N speeds are also somewhat lower than maximum potential, without further network adapters to test with though we must assume that this is the maximum throughput that the ASUS RT-N56U can deliver. Equally important as speed is range when looking at wireless internet, sure you get faster speed with wires but you also lose portability. The next two tests look at wireless G and N150 speed and range. Points 1~3 are downstairs rooms, points 4 and 5 are outside and points 6~9 are upstairs rooms. This gives a good idea of what sort of coverage we can expect in a fairly sized three bedroom house.
The wireless G test is very promising indeed, the ASUS RT-N56U was able to deliver a consistent speed at all but one test point. Test point 5 is the furthest away from the router and is outside so the lower score is somewhat expected.
When we tested Wireless N 150Mb/s speeds the results were sporadic to say the least. Wireless N 150 throughput was not as consistent as the Wireless G throughput. As we see it here, the further away you get from the router, the less throughput you get. It is quite interesting to see that the outside test location (Point 5) gets the same wireless speed for Wireless G and Wireless N 150.
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Comments
Are you telling us that you dont have a laptop or other device that has 300mbps 802.11n with 2.4Ghz and/or 5Ghz ???
being a former reviewer myself i am appauled that you people have access to some of the best equipment available today and you dont even use the proper testing hardware or methodology.
Its getting harder and harder to read you peoples reviews. They are kore of a joke than anything.
And i cant believe you have dont anything but pi$$ off Asus with this review.
Why dont you remove this review before you hurt your own tarnished reputation and Asus'
Your comments suggest the latter, so please take the time to read the entire article before you run your mouth.
Also both of you please learn to spell and use correct punctuation and grammar before you make your next response.
As you doubtless know, the maximum theoretical throughput of a wireless router is something only reached in an RFI-shielded testing room with a pair of routers sitting rather close to each other. As Steven's tests show, the throughput tested with the Belkin USB router didn't come close to saturating even the 150Mb/s connection (there's that pesky "real world" interfering again!), so I don't understand why you think a faster connection would have made any difference. But then I'm not an expert on RFI propagation. Maybe you can explain it to me.
The new ASUS RT-N56U promised much better throughput. I tested it and discovered, as the reviewer noted, that the throughput never reached 150 Mbps. Worse, as the load increased (I have multiple computers doing various tasks such as streaming HD media files, music, and printing) the speed dropped to less than 80 Mbps for simple Internet connectivity.
This is basically a small computer that runs itself in Linux, with a modern Ralink chipset and 128 MB DDR Memory. As long as you update the firmware, go through all the settings and set this up properly, it will be a stable and stellar performer for anyone. Personally, I use random 63 character wpa2 password and reject my neighbor's mac address since he is a hack. If you have a real network printer with an Ethernet cable connecting it, simply copy the printer's mac address and lock it down to something standared like 192.168.1.200 and you will not have any issues at all! Simple and stable and secure!
Personally, the ASUS router is nice to look at, clean it with a synthetic cloth, as you would use to wax a high end car and it will be a pleasure to look at every day. Simple to clean also!
Now the best part in my opinion is that ASUS writes the firmware and they are a computer manufacturer with good code writers. Incidentally, had so many problems with firmware for a netgear wndr-3700 that I am selling that unit, which performed slower all around and had poor 5GHz signal strength in contrast to the ASUS RT-N56U! While I praise Netgear's Pro Safe professional series of equipment and recommend it for my client's, their consumer line seems much less refined.
ASUS RT-N56U is a WINNER for myself.
Umm... no, you don't assume that this is the maximum throughput based on just one Wireless G and one Wireless N adapter. If you are going to publish test results you should at least use multiple adapters from different vendors and a faster N adapter (300Mb/s) to see the routers true potential. This is an unfair review for ASUS.
Watch this space.
A statement such as "without further network adapters to test with these results were the maximum throughput that we could achieve" would be more appropriate.
Thank you for replying promptly though.