[DEAD: Price Raised and No More Free Shipping] Asus RT-N16 Wireless N Gigabit Router + (2) 10ft cat5e cables $82 shipped free or $77AC at Mwave
 

Deal is dead... Price raised and no more free shipping!

ASUS RT-N16 IEEE 802.11b/g, IEEE 802.11n Draft 300Mbps Gigabit Wireless Router with USB Storage, Printer And Media Server DD-WRT support + 2 X MWAVE Premium cat5e 10ft 350mhz stranded network cable

$81.99 with free shipping (or $76.99 after $5 off review coupon):

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/SKUSea...ia=SA99002

You must be an mwave club member to receive the discount (registration is free).
If you do not already have one, after you register for the free mwave club membership you can review a product and receive a $5 off coupon within a day or two of your review.

Asus RT-N16 Gigabit Wireless Router w/ USB Storage & Printer & Media Server + Pair of 10ft Cat5e Ethernet Cables $82
 

Mwave has Asus RT-N16 Gigabit Wireless Router w/ USB Storage & Printer & Media Server + 2pk of Cate5 Cables for $82 free shipping after joining mclub. Next lowest price on google products is $90 shipped. Thanks CrazyGamer

Note, Compatible w/ DD-WRT & Tomato

This post can and should be edited by users like you :)
 

Review @ Smallnet Builder [smallnetbuilder.com]

Specs:

Stock Power Supply = 12V - 1,25A max (**)
Ethernet Ports = WAN x 1 RJ-45 for 10/100/1000 Base T, LAN x 4 RJ-45 for 10/100/1000 Base T
Antennas = 3 x external detachable antennas
USB ports = USB2.0 x 2
WiFi Operating Frequency = 2.4GHz ~ 2.5GHz
802.11n Draft = up to 300Mbps
802.11g = 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48, 54Mbps
802.11b = 1, 2, 5.5, 11Mbps
Unit RAM = 128 MB (2x 64MB - Samsung K4N511163QZ-HC25 or 2x 64MB - Samsung K4T51163QG-HCE6)
Unit Flash = 32 MB (MACRONIX MX29GL256EHTI2I-90Q)
Unit CPU = Broadcom4718A, 533 MHz (Factory clocked to 480MHz)
Unit Switch Chip = Broadcom BCM53115SKFBG

Supports DD-WRT [dd-wrt.com] or Tomato [sourceforge.net] Firmwares!

DD-WRT Guide [dd-wrt.com]

TomatoUSB Install Guide [tomatousb.org]



Also OLEG, which has everything!!! even a webcam server. and i read somewhere scan.

http://code.google.com/p/wl500g/

Just got one thanks to the recent Newegg deal. This is a buck cheaper than even that if you have one of the review coupons and the bonus cables surely sweeten the deal if you're in need for a couple. :cool:

I'm running the Teddy Bear USB blend of Tomato and haven't had any issues yet... not even with heat or the stock PSU as I had read there had been several problems with. The USB is sllloooowwww but handy for hooking up an external drive and the range is almost as good as my old Rosewill RNX-N4 (which I have yet to find a router/AP with a better range than it).

Bottom line: this is a good deal on a great router if you need a powerhouse that has almost everything (just no 5GHz band).

I have a question: Is this one better than a old pc one ebay for the same price? I am planning using a router OS to build one.

I need another router and was about to go with another WRT54GL flashed with DD-WRT, but the price has apparently gone up since I purchased my current one.

With the better specs, cat5e cables, and open source firmware compatibility, this was too good to pass up. With DD-WRT, I only hope this router is rock solid like my trusty WRT54GL.

Thanks, OP. :)

Anyone have an idea how to make usb multifunction printer work with Tomato firmware ? I can only use the printing function but couldn't make the scan function work with windows 7.

Scanning isn't supported out the box.

But it is possible [linksysinfo.org] if you aren't afraid of doing a bit of installing/tweaking in a Linux environment.

More up-to-date information on Sane Scanner-Server [wl500g.info].

For a large majority of users wanting third-party firmware features and stability, Tomato is a better choice these days.

I was a long time user of DD-WRT since the days after the Sveasoft debacle and still occasionally run builds on test devices, but for most things out there I find Tomato is more user friendly - especially for the less than technically savvy crowd - and a bit more efficient/stable.

There are a few rare features that one can only find in non-Tomato firmwares but if you're interested in those features chances are you've already stopped reading this post. :wink5:

This is a great router if you put Tomato USB firmware on it (http://tomatousb.org). This is the Teddy Bear USB build mentioned above.

Be sure to select the Kernel 2.6 for MIPSR2 when downloading. (Linky [sourceforge.net])

I tried to search for a clue myself last night, didn't get anything. Thank you very much for your clue. I'll give it a try. Let see how far I could go...

Is there any reviews for that?

for what?

just a fair warning, if you plan on installing a lot of Optware on Tomato [xtremecoders.org], you might want to replace the power supply with 12V 2-4A instead of the 12V 1A

the power supply on mine died after a week and took the router along with it(got it RMA'd). I only loaded up Tomato and print support, nothing else enabled(no optware or usb hdds), and it still died

other than that, for the week or so that I had the router, I loved it. It was stable, never slow or laggy, and USB transfer(tested on a SDHC Class 4 on a USB SDHC reader) was 3-7MB/s, which is average for file-sharing-routers

I actually just bought this router on the recent newegg deal. Not sure how good of a router this is even with the med firmware(I am running DD-WRT). Take a look at this review of the hardware, they crucified it:

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wi...l=&start=4

Real world speeds are very slow - I am not sure if the mod firmware improves these numbers. Just thought people should know before they buy, as I am having buyers remores, even though its a good deasl.

The default Asus firmware for this thing is not that great. This is really more of an enthusiast router given its hardware platform and specs. I wouldn't recommend buying it unless you're planning on replacing its firmware with Tomato (my preference) or DD-WRT.

Why does the power supply die? Is that because the router is being pushed further than the designers intended with the custom firmware?

For those with alot of wifi interference in their residence. Here is a simple mod you can do to boost your signal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOBfxbpxosA

bad components inside....... http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/view...b5029353c1

awesome, now i can finally use the N built into my lappy.

Looks like the deal is dead now (no more free shipping).

Also just want to say "Thank You" to all who repped!

Weird, their homepage says $2.99 flat rate shipping, but at checkout its $9.94 to michigan...ah well

a) cheap lousy power supplies that dont supply the rated power, or just dies because of lousy parts
b) the router might try to pull more power than needed. I believe that the ARM cpu is underclocked from 522mhz to 400mhz to reduce heat and save power

Update: Free shipping is back.

Excuse my ignorance, but arent routers way cheaper than that?

Great Router
 

I bought this router about a month ago, and I love it. The default ASUS firmware/utilities would have been good if they had worked like they were supposed to. I like the nice network map in the default firmware, but download master utility was horrible. I flashed first dd-wrt, then tomato. With tomato my speeds (especially torrents) significantly improved, I believe this is due to the efficiency mentioned above (more simultaneous connections). I then loaded some of the optware packages from xtremecoders (which are in fairness dd-wrt packages). I use transmission and the samba server included with optware, and the media server included with tomato and I am fairly pleased, it seems like minidlna (the media server) has to be restarted every few days, but other than that I haven't had any problems. When I get time I'll probably experiment with using a different media server that does transcoding to get better compatibility with my xbox.

slow download speeds with tomato... packet loss issue
 

So I purchased this router and installed tomatousb. When I run speedtest, the first time came out around 11mb/s however now it runs around 1-2 mb/s. However, when I run speedtest on my android with wifi, it consistently measures 11mb/s. I assume it's due to packet loss. What are ways I can tweak the tomatousb settings to minimize packet loss?

Also, when I tried to 'overclock' the processor it hangs up and the wifi signal does not work. It will eventually work when I adjust back down to factory settings (480 MHz). Anyone understand why?

Lastly, I've enabled QoS and notice a significant drop in d/l speeds. I don't have too many things taking up my bandwidth. Any thoughts on the issue?

if you want a cheap piece of crap that works for 1-2 devices, no print/usb hdd support, no gigabit, then yeah

this one's little brother (RT-N12) is only $30... go get it... of course you'll miss the stuff above along with the powerful processor, 128mb ram, 32mb rom, but its cheap

i currently have this one loaded with 10 people on the network AND a repeater bridge about 100 feet and 5 walls away... still get my internet 15-25 mbps on speedtest.net, with some signal loss from the repeated bridge as it is far away. This router doesn't break a sweat with such a load

Picked this up on the newegg deal last week and so far it's a decent router. I played with the ASUS firmware for a bit and yeah it was lacking. Speed to my lappy however was only 72mbps, but the connection to the Xbox360 was full bars all the way across and streaming movies worked great. My canon printer and Elements drive were accessible and all worked. So hopped over to TomatoUSB and YAY! lappy speed was 150mpbs, however Xbox360 bars were 1 or 2, horrible connection, printer didn't work, and elements took a bit but got that to work. I didn't have time to get everything else running so i went back to ASUS FW and used the newest version and that one actually seemed to work better. x.x.x.7 while the router came with x.x.x.4 or something.

When you cut and pasted toastman's settings (I'm assuming you did that), did you change the bandwidth in the QoS settings page? You need to up the inbound and outbound bandwidth.

Did you scan for surrounding wifi networks to see how much interference you are getting from other routers? One thing you can do is up the antenna power to 56mW or more (up to 85mW, I wouldn't go higher because I heard it can degrade your signals). Another thing you can do is also build a reflector for the antennas to boost signals. (look at my previous post)

You must have never read a bad small network builder review. Far from crucifying it, that review looks pretty positive to me as reviews on that site go. The last line of the review compares it positively to the D-Link DIR-655 which is pretty much the all-time favorite router on that site - "In the end, the RT-N16 is worth a look if you're looking for an alternative to D-Link's DIR-655, which used to be our go-to single-band N router. But until D-Link gets its firmware troubles sorted out, you might want to see what ASUS has to offer".

Any router can have a bad power supply. I've had an RT-N16 for like 10 months now and have regularly read message boards related to this router. I can't remember reading of anyone with a bad power supply before and mine certainly is fine. The link above mentions various vendors & routers including the Asus WL500W and WL500gP power supplies but does not mention the RT-N16. While it could be applicable, I've seen no evidence of it yet. There have been recent posts on the dd-wrt site raising the POSSIBILITY of the power supplies being under-rated but there is as much or more evidence to the contrary so the jury is out on that.

The CPU on mine is clocked at the factory default of 480MHz vs the max for this CPU of 533. It can be set to this higher frequency and I successfully tested this on mine. However mine is plenty fast enough at the default setting and I've read multiple reports of instability at the higher speed so I decided to not fix what isn't broke and leave it at the default setting.

No apology necessary! We're all ignorant of everything at some point of our lives.

There are routers "way cheaper.than that" Is cheaper always the better option? Just like a Yugo isn't a Ferrari, not all routers are created equal for the needs of the purchaser.

The ability to load third party firmware on quality hardware is what sets this router apart from "way cheaper" options. With a third party firmware this router approaches near entry level enterprise class operational performance for that would cost several hundred dollars in the business world.

With more and more devices in the home needed network/internet connectivity, a $20 Slickdeals router may not provide all the needs a home network might require. How long have you been using "way cheaper than" this consumer-level routers?

Here are scenarios that may affect you:

• Do you utilize VoIP service? What happens when you make a call while three devices are accessing the internet? Does your service provider handle any QoS?
• Do you want/need to stream HD content over the network to other devices? Does your router that is "way cheaper than that" handle those needs?
• How often do they need to be manually rebooted? Never? Once every few months? A few times a week? Daily? Multiple times per day?
• How often do issues that aren't related to your service provider affect your internet service?
• How many total devices access your network/internet service? Can they all operate simultaneously without issues? Do you adjust your usage to accommodate any limitations you might notice?
• Do you utilize wireless connectivity? How many SSID's/WLAN's are there? Do you need different "zones"? Different encryption levels? Different protocols (802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n)? Is your solution to choose the lowest common denomination or add additional hardware?
• On the same note as the above does your wireless signal strength adequate? Do you have dead spots?
• Do you have a printer/AIO device? How many clients can connect to it simultaneously? Do you have to have another machine on to "share" that device?
• Do you have any USB/NAS-like storage? How many clients can share that data simultaneously? Do you have to have another machine on to "share" that device?
• Do you have ethernet only devices - computers, game consoles, etc - that are not near the centralized networking router and do not have cable run to such places? If so, what is/was your solution? Did you purchase purchase additional wireless client adapters for each device?

You may not want any of those features or the stable performance a router like this is going to provide. That's perfectly fine of course. To return to the earlier example, just like every car isn't suited for the needs of all people, routers aren't either. Your needs may not include any of what's been mentioned.

Or perhaps you have those needs but just haven't been exposed to a router than offers a solution.

This router specifically and many third party routers address or can address a lot of those scenarios above a lot more simply and efficiently than what you might be employing.

About the only features this router doesn't offer is 5GHz band and Jumbo Frames support.

If it had those two features, this deal would be incendiary. As is, it's a hot deal.

Well, looks good to me. I bit.

Looking forward to playing with Tomato finally. Is that the consensus firmware (teddybear) for general/home network use?

Anyway, thanks OP.

yep, because USB printer support is plug-and-play on tomato (a little harder to find instructions on how to make computers connect to the router for printing. you have to add a network printer at 192.168.1.1:9100, and click on the right driver. takes some time for it to get done compared to setting up a USB printer)

It's what I'm using on mine. I did load DD-WRT which I also have a long history with. But my recent history is more with Tomato. I also look forward to trying the Tomato "RAF" [is-a-geek.com] v1.28.8550 (for RT-N16 or MIPSR2 routers-kernel 2.6) release that is literally only days old. But doing so means a complete NVRAM reset and reconfiguration which I'm not quite up to at the moment. I've used the RAF builds on my older Linksys routers and found it full featured and stable so am looking forward to trying it out on my RT-N16. I believe Victek and Teddy Bear have both had RT-N16s since around December of last year as have I. Victek, Teddy Bear and Jon Zarate have seemingly all worked cooperatively together and even with some DD-WRT folks as I understand it. It's great to see such cooperation and the products of it.

I usually just link to these instructions [wl500g.info] for Windows based client printing.

Even it's for another firmware project and is for Windows 2000 it isn't any different for XP, Vista, or 7.

Maybe a little off-topic, but I need help setting up 801.11N on this router with Tomato firmware. For some reason, it won't go over 65 or so mbps in the router, so I know it does work at that speed, but nothing above that. I'd appreciate what sort of settings people use to achieve 150mbps under tomato

a) your devices need to be wireless N
b) interference from neighbors wifi - use the auto feature to see which channel is best for you
c) interference between router and your devices - too far way, signal degrades
d) if you have a tri-antenna wifi-N device, you can get up to 300 mbps :D
e) going over 65mbps doesn't matter if you dont transfer files between computers. your internet connection is most likely < 50mbps, do speed tests online to see if you get your internet speeds. if so, then why bother to do anything? :D

What's your channel width set to under Basic -> Network? You'll need to set it to 40MHz to get the higher speeds. And although it's implicit make sure your client is 802.11N and supports 40MHz (wide) 2.4GHz use. Perhaps play with the channels to see if that helps, starting with 6 which should be the default then maybe swing over to 1 then 11 to see if it makes any difference.. Also have a note that under Advanced -> Wireless to enable WMM and set "CTS Protection Mode" to "Auto" although I no longer remember the details of why. But I'm sure it's something I gleaned from the "Tomato ND USB Mod with kernel 2.6" thread on the Tomato Firmware forum at Linksysinfo.org so suggest you search or ask over there. I also enabled "Bluetooth Coexistence" on mine since I have a number of bluetooth devices in use near the router, not sure what difference it really makes but figure it can't hurt, right? :-D

Debating on getting one of these. I currently have a n12 running on dd-wrt. Just wish the wireless signal of the n12 was stronger (even after turning up the signal power in dd-wrt).
Anyone know how the wireless signal of the n16 compares to the n12 as far as distance and quality?

bluetooth coexistance might increase lag times by a minor amount. it makes the router listen for 2.4ghz signals before transmitting.

Thanks for all the tips. Width is 40Mhz, channel was 4, trying to find more or less free band. Tried 6 and whatnot, still the router shows that it limits output to 65mbps. WMM was enabled, and I turned one CTS protection mode, bluetooth was on. So all in all, I've tried everything and no matter what, router is limited to 65mbps over wireless, dunno why. Maybe it's broken, I've never tried with Asus firmware, prolly should try that and see if it works.

Did you confirm that your client is 802.11N and supports 40MHz (wide) 2.4GHz mode? I remember reading some that some Intel clients either do not or require a setting change to enable it.

OK, figured it out. You are right, my iphone 4, although supports 801.11n, doesn't go above 65mbps (apparently). When it disconnects, the speed rating on the router goes up to 300mbps :D I just thought it was the maximum when it was just automatically adjusting to fit the needs of the devices connected to it.

Can this be used as cable modem too ?

Don't think so, it only accepts ethernet or wireless signal as an input.

Right. I didn't think iphones supported 40MHz wide mode but I'm not 100% sure.

FYI, loaded up Tomato RAF on my RT-N16 and it is running fine. There is a minor bug on the usage graphs but runs fine anyway, and I'm sure that will be fixed shortly. Whether you run teddy bears TomatoUSB [tomatousb.org] or Victek's Tomato RAF [is-a-geek.com]Victek's Tomato RAF really depends on the features you need. Refer to the releases site links or there is an overview comparing release features here [wikipedia.org]. I'm not sure it's up to date but should be mostly correct.

When I connected to RT-N16 by CAT-5, the download speed up to 10M, but when I connected by wifi, it's below 2M, why? anyone can help?

First thing is you probably need some more detail such as, but not limited to, :lol:, what firmware are you using, are you measuring WAN<>LAN traffic or other, is this measured in MB/s or Mb/s, what wireless client is being used, what are your client and router settings?

Also you're probably better off moving your question to an appropriate support forum for whatever firmware you're using, such the Linksysinfo Tomato forum [linksysinfo.org] or the TomatoUSB site [tomatousb.org] for Tomato, Asus' site [asus.com] for the stock Asus firmware, or the DD-WRT Broadcom forum [dd-wrt.com] for DD-WRT.

My best guess would be the relatively lower wireless throughput could be due to the wireless client hardware and/or configuration of the client and/or router wireless. Probably need more specifics and the type of dialog found in support forums to get a better answer.

Good luck.