New Asus RT-AC66U router (5G 802.11ac)

[Omega]

ASUS Reveals the Next Generation 802.11ac RT-AC66U Dual-Band Router





Offers users new 5th generation Wi-Fi (5G WiFi) with speeds up to 1.75Gbps
alongside ASUS PCE-AC66 and USB-AC53 802.11ac-capable client models

The ASUS RT-AC66U router integrates dual-band Gigabit wireless with fifth generation 802.11ac Wi-Fi technology, also known as 5G WiFi,
which enables speeds up to three times faster than existing 802.11n. As one of the first routers to achieve this, it tops Gigabit wireless
requirements with a combined 2.4GHz/5GHz bandwidth of 1.75Gbps. This massive data rate makes it an excellent high speed router for
demanding online applications, coupled with exclusive ASUS AiRadar signal amplification and shaping technology. Easy ASUSWRT setup,
multiple SSIDs, and IPv6 support further enhance networking, while strong USB-based capabilities turn the RT-AC66U into a 3G, FTP,
DLNA, and printer server for genuine multi-role functionality.

ASUS RT-AC66U Dual Band Router

Going beyond Gigabit Wi-Fi to triple wireless-N speeds

The RT-AC66U goes even further than the successful high speed RT-N66U dual-band router. Working in both 2.4GHz and 5GHz, it is one of
the world’s first dual-band wireless routers to support the advanced 802.11ac wireless protocol, enabling 5GHz operation at up to 1.3Gbps.
These new capabilities are made possible by the inclusion of Broadcom’s powerful 5G WiFi chips. As the 2.4GHz band can work at 450Mbps
on its own, the concurrent combined bandwidth of the RT-AC66U is 1.75Gbps. It uses sophisticated ASUS AiRadar technology to strengthen
signals to devices, amplifying transmission in directions to better overcome environmental obstructions and improve data rates. The inclusion
of 5G WiFi makes the RT-AC66U one of the most future-proof routers on the market, ready for the next generation of high speed networks.

Extensive feature list enhances networking experiences

The RT-AC66U maintains the tradition of networking excellence established by previous ASUS high speed routers. It allows for easy and fast
setup in just three steps with the ASUSWRT dashboard, and upholds strict QoS standards for the most reliable networking and download
multitasking available. With QoS, the RT-AC66U has better bandwidth optimization, and offers Download Master capabilities, which mean fast
background downloading even post-shutdown. Up to eight SSIDs are supported, so users can easily setup distinct networks with different
access privileges and levels of security without having to compromise passwords. The RT-AC66U supports the new IPv6 standard for better
packet transmission and addressing.

USB applications extend router versatility

With its twin USB ports, the RT-AC66U becomes a true multi-role device. Attaching a 3G dongle allows it to share 3G connections among
several users on different devices, while full DLNA compatibility affords smooth connectivity with also variety of entertainment platforms,
including game consoles, Blu-ray players, smart TVs, and set-top boxes. The RT-AC66U can also serve dedicated FTP server and printer
server, letting users share resources for greater productivity while reducing costs as there is no need to buy standalone server hardware.

Full 802.11ac product lineup

In addition to the RT-AC66U router, ASUS has also released the PCE-AC66 and USB-AC53 clients, both capable of 802.11ac speeds.
The dual-band PCE-AC66 offers a PCI Express client card for desktops, with 3 x 3 high-powered transmission. It can sustain 1.3Gbps
in 5GHz and up to 450Mbps in the 2.4GHz band. For easy USB upgrades to 802.11ac, the USB-AC53 compact dongle plugs into any
USB port, with 2 x 2 802.11ac. In 5GHz, the attachment can maintain 867Mbps, while in 2.4GHz it works at 300Mbps, achieving a
total throughput of around 1.3Gbps. The PCE-AC66 and USB-AC53 are enabled by Broadcom’s 5G WiFi chips, and demonstrate ASUS
technology leadership in bringing an 802.11ac ecosystem to consumers.

Key features

• ▪ 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz concurrent dual-band transmissions
• ▪ Up to 300,000 sessions to Internet clients
• ▪ Up to 8 multi-user SSIDs and parental controls
• ▪ 2 built in USB 2.0 ports
• ▪ IPv6 support ▪ Flexible Installation with Versatile Design
• ▪ AiRadar omnidirectional radar
• ▪ ASUSWRT dashboard UI
• ▪ VPN Server Enabled

Specifications

Network Standard

IEEE 802.11ac (5GHz): up to 1300Mbps/802.11n (2.4GHz): up to 450Mbps

Ethernet Port

WAN x 1, LAN x 4 RJ-45 for 10/100/1000 Base T

Memory

128 MB flash and 256MB DDR2 RAM

Encryption

Supports 64/128-bit WEP, WPA-PSK, WPA2-PSK, WPA-Enterprise, WPA2 Enterprise,
RADIUS with IEEE 802.1x, WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup)

Dimension

207 x 148 x 35.5 mm

http://www.asus.com/News/rZcy4jXiQPQ5F8YL/ http://event.asus.com/2012/nw/rt-ac66u/

http://www.engadget.com/photos/asus-rt-ac66u-router/

http://www.7gadgets.com/2012/06/01/a...d-router/55563

[hggomes]

Great, thanks for the info

If the only "improvement" of RT-AC66U is the AC radio and 128MB Flash RAM and the rest is the exactly the same as RT-N66U i don't think it's worth changing, i speak for myself... I don't need such speeds ratios and i don't have clients AC radios

Im surprised:

RT-N66U rev 3.00 released, 2 months later RT-N66U new rev 3.20 released, less then a month later RT-AC66U released... I'm not sure if this will end soon

[!gm]

it starts at € 300 ....

http://www.cyberport.de/?DEEP=5615-025&APID=14


let's hope it will drop the RT-N66U price a bit

edit: that should be a typo... the other ac -routers are starting at € 199

[hggomes]

Too expensive in my opinion and i don't think it's a typo, either way 3rd party FW's could take some time to be released.

http://geizhals.at/192400415 => 240ˆ now

To good to be truth? I doubt RT-AC66U CPU changed.

http://wl500g.info/showthread.php?25...512#post251512

[wpte]

Nice one Omaga!

but this:

At a distance of 15 feet, the Asus registered the fastest Wi-Fi speed I've seen, scoring 339Mbps (or about 42MBps, close to the speed of a Gigabit Ethernet wired connection).

What a joke, it's not even half of the gigabit speed
Maybe in the near future we'll have 10gbit wireless and we'll be able to reach 500Mbps

[Omega]

AsusWRT-Merlin - Custom firmware for RT-AC66U

RT-AC66U: First beta release — ASUS_RTAC66U_3003164_RM15Beta.zip (19.6MB)

Asuswrt-merlin provides the following changes over the original firmware:

• WakeOnLan web interface (with user-entered preset targets)
• JFFS persistent partition
• User scripts executed at init, services startup, WAN up, firewall up and shutdown.
• SSHD (through dropbear)
• OUI (MAC address) lookup if you click on a MAC on the Client list (ported from DD-WRT)
• Optionally turn the WPS button into a radio on/off switch
• Saving your traffic history to disk (USB or JFFS)
• Displaying monthly traffic history
• Monitor your router's temperature (under Administration -> Performance Tuning)
• Display active/tracked network connections
• Allows tweaking TCP/UDP connection tracking timeouts
• Various bugfixes: crash issues related to VPN, etc...
• layer7 and cifs kernel modules added
• Optional user-settings for the WAN DHCP client (required by some ISPs)
• Description field added to DHCP reservation entries
• Dual WAN support (both failover and load balancing supported)
• Disk spindown after user-configurable inactivity timeout
• System info summary page
• Wireless client IP and hostname on the Wireless Log page
• Cron jobs

▼ Download: You can download it from the Github repo: https://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin/downloads

Or from my website: http://www.lostrealm.ca/tower/ (Beta release only available on Github at the moment)

The source code including my changes can be found on Github: https://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin.

Hope you folks like it

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=7715

I have just released a first beta version for the RT-AC66U. This version provides all the same
improvements available for the RT-N66U version, such as JFFS, SSH, user-scripts, etc...

You can download it on the Github repository: https://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin/downloads.
The complete source code is also available there. For more info: http://www.lostrealm.ca/asuswrt-merlin/

For the past months I have been providing a custom firmware for the RT-N66U, based on Asus's code
(see this thread for more details). I will post development news on my Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/RMerlinDev

http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?id=2012081213335…p;SLanguage=en-us

[Omega]

ASUS RT-AC66U 802.11ac Dual-Band Wireless-AC1750 Gigabit Router Reviewed

Routing Performance

Test Description  	RT-AC66U
WAN - LAN 	        836 Mbps
LAN - WAN 	        839 Mbps
Total Simultaneous 	819 Mbps
Maximum Connections 	30,069
Firmware Version 	3.0.0.4.164

Storage Performance

 	 	ASUS  Buffalo  NETGEAR  ASUS
 	     RT-AC66U WZRD1800  R6300  RT-N66U
FAT32 Write 	9.0 	7.3 	8.6 	10
FAT32 Read 	9.9 	11.8 	10.2 	12
NTFS Write 	13.5 	8.4 	11.3 	17
NTFS Read 	9.4 	8.7 	10.3 	11

All three use the same Broadcom BCM4706 CPU. At 256 MB, the AC66U has double the memory of the other two routers,
but the same amount of flash. The same Broadcom BCM4331/BCM4360 radio SoCs are used in all three products.
But the ASUS is the only one of the three to use dual-band external antennas vs. six internal single-band. This means the
external circuitry connecting the radio SoCs to the antennas is different. It looks like the Skyworks 5 GHz amplifiers made it
into ASUS' design. The BCM4360 5 GHz radio is toward the top of the photo; the BCM4331 2.4 GHz radio is toward the bottom.



Removing the bottom plate revealed 128 MB of Samsung flash (K9F1G08U0D) and 2 MB of Macronix serial flash (25L1606E).
There are no thermal pads connecting the plate to the board, so thermal connection must be made from board inner layers
through the six metal standoffs that connect the plate to the board.



http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wirel...outer-reviewed

[hggomes]

This explains the price:

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wirel...211ac-products

http://www.broadcom.com/products/Wir...4707-4708-4709


Communications Processor with Network Acceleration Hardware

The Broadcom BCM4707/4708/4709 processor is a communications device targeted for applications in switching control and management, and residential router/gateway. The BCM4707/4708/4709 family includes the BCM4707, BCM4708, and BCM4709.

At the center of the device is a high-performance 1 GHz ARM® Cortex™-A9 dual-core with a 32 KB four-way set associative instruction cache, a 32 KB four-way set associative data cache, and a 128-entry translation lookaside buffer (TLB). Enhanced CPU memory subsystem architecture provides increased system performance. The device uses state-of-the-art 40 nm technology.

Features
Advanced ARM Cortex-A9 Dual-Core
-32 KB I-cache and 32 KB D-cache per core
-Snoop Control Unit (SCU) with ACP interface for I/O coherency
-256 KB L2 Cache (shared)
-SMP and AMP capable
-Single-processor core operation configurable
Advanced Gigabit Ethernet
-8-ports with full-line rate
-Five 10/100/1000 PHY ports
Support for lot6 power standard
Hardware Flow Accelerator
RGMII/MII-lite interface

[wpte]

pfff.... arm really?
Why not a 1GHz mips?

tbh... I'm not going to buy any draft devices anymore tbh... this 802.11n is more than enough for me atm.
Also, the network of the rt-n66u is just awesome

[Omega]

RT-AC66U 802.11ac Dual-Band Wireless-AC1750 Gigabit Router

• 5th generation 802.11ac chipset gives you concurrent dual-band 2.4GHz/5GHz for up to super-fast 1.75Gbps
• Gigabit Ethernet ports for the fastest, most reliable internet performance
• AiRadar optimizes wireless coverage with detachable high-powered antennas
• Enjoy the ASUSWRT dashboard UI for 3 steps easy setup, signal monitoring, and network application control
• Download Master for wireless data storage and access to your router-connected USB storage devices
• File sharing, printer sharing, and 3G sharing via two multi-functional built-in USB ports

Specifications

Network Standard

IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.11n, IEEE 802.11ac, IEEE 802.3u, IPv4, IPv6

Data Rate

• 802.11a : 6,9,12,18,24,36,48,54Mbps
• 802.11b : 1, 2, 5.5, 11Mbps
• 802.11g : 6,9,12,18,24,36,48,54Mbps
• 802.11n : up to 450Mbps
• 802.11ac: up to 1300Mbps

Antenna

Detachable antenna x 3

Operating Frequency

2.4G~2.4835GHz /5.1~5.8GHz

Encryption

64-bit WEP, 128-bit WEP, WPA2-PSK, WPA-PSK, WPA-Enterprise, WPA2-Enterprise

Firewall & Access Control

Firewall:

SPI intrusion detection,DoS protection

Access control:

Parental control, Network service filter, URL filter, Port filter

Management

UPnP, DLNA, DNS Proxy, NTP Client, DDNS, Port Triger, Virtual Server, DMZ

VPN Support

IPSec Pass-Throuth
PPTP Pass-Through
L2TP Pass-Through

WAN Connection Type

Internet connection type :
Automatic IP, Static IP, PPPoE (MPPE supported), PPTP, L2TP
Dual Link support
Multicast Proxy support

Utilities

．Download master

• - support BT, NZB, HTTP, ED2K
• - support encryption, DHT, PEX and magnet link
• - upload and download bandwidth control
• - download scheduling

．Media server:

• Image: JPEG
• Audio: mp3, wma, wav, pcm, mp4, lpcm, ogg
• Video: asf, avi, divx, mpeg, mpg, ts, vob, wmv, mkv, mov

．QoS:

• WMM
• User definable rules for IP/MAC/Port.
• Upload and Download bandwidth management.
• ACK/SYN/FIN/RST/ICMP with Highest priority

．Guest Network

2.4GHz guest network x 3, 5GHz guest network x 3

．Printer Server:

multifunctional printer support(Windows nly), LPR protocol support

．File server:

Samba and FTP server with account management

．PPTP VPN server
．Network map
．Traffic monitor

Ports

1 x RJ45 for 10/100/1000 BaseT for WAN, 4 x RJ45 for 10/100/1000 BaseT for LAN,
Support Ethernet and 802.3 with max. bit rate 10/100/1000 Mbps
USB 2.0 x 2

Button

WPS Button, Reset Button, Power Button

LED Indicator

• PWR x 1
• LAN x 4
• WAN x 1
• AIR x 2
• USB x 1

Power Supply

AC Input : 110V~240V(50~60Hz)
DC Output : 19 V with max. 1.58 A current

Dimensions 207 x 148.8 x 35.5 mm (WxDxH)
Weight 450 g

Package Content
RT-AC66U Dual Band 3x3 802.11AC Gigibit Router

• Router stand
• RJ-45 cable
• Support CD (User manual and utility software)*
• Power adapter
• Quick start guide
• Warranty card

http://www.asus.com/Networks/Wireles...specifications

Asus RT-AC66U FCC MSQ-RTAC66U CPU BCM4708 1GHz ? Switch BCM53125 1Gb ?
Wi-Fi BCM4360 802.11ac/n 1300 Mbps (5GHz) + 450 Mbps (2.4GHz) 3T3R DualBand
RAM 256 MB (DDR_32bit) Flash 128 MB USB 2 x 2.0

http://www.hub.ru/wiki/Devices_ASUS_WL_Routers#RTN

Asus PCE-AC66 BCM4360 PCI Express 3 x 3 802.11ac 1.3Gbps (5GHz) + 450Mbps (2.4GHz)

Asus USB-AC53 BCM43526 USB port 2 x 2 802.11ac 867Mbps (5GHz) + 300Mbps (2.4GHz)

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=7172

• BCM4360 supports PCIe interface and implements 3-stream 802.11ac specifications, and reaches speeds up to 1.3 Gbps.
• BCM4352 supports PCIe interface; implement 2-stream 802.11ac specification to reach up to 867 Mbps.
• BCM43526 supports USB interface; implement 2-stream 802.11ac specification to reach up to 867 Mbps.
• BCM43516 supports USB and reaches speeds of up to 433 Mbps with its single stream 802.11ac implementation.

http://www.broadcom.com/press/release.php?id=s637241

[Omega]

BCM4360 (802.11ac/a/n) + BCM4331 (802.11b/g/n)

http://wikidevi.com/wiki/ASUS_RT-AC66U * http://www.techinfodepot.info/index.php/Asus_RT-AC66U

FCC Doc Asus RT-AC66U

[hggomes]

Great finding CPU? Same as RT-N66U at 600MHZ? Or new ARM CPU 1GHZ?

[theMIROn]

Great finding CPU? Same as RT-N66U at 600MHZ? Or new ARM CPU 1GHZ?

According picture it's BCM SoC
Not the same as in RT-N66U, because there were one BCM4706 CPU and two BCM4331 radio chips on PCB.
No SD cardreader also

[Omega]

According picture it's BCM SoC
Not the same as in RT-N66U, because there were one BCM4706 CPU and two BCM4331 radio chips on PCB.
No SD cardreader also

Asus RT-N66U_B1 BCM4706 BCM4331x2

[hggomes]

My question was:

Will be RT-AC66U use CPU BCM4706 (MIPS 600MHZ like RT-N66U) or BCM4707/4708/4709 (ARM 1GHZ)? I know its a BCM SoC, but which one? Is there a confirmation?