Asus RT-AC66U router: More than just a home wireless network

Dubai: Asus is a relatively lesser known brand name in the consumer technology industry but their products are generally of an excellent build and quality.

Its newest wireless router, the RT-AC66U is no exception. The router is Asus’ offering in the 802.11ac segment, which is an improvement over the existing wireless technology we have on our devices (802.11n) in terms of both range and speed.

The router has a distinct black diamond pattern on the front with Blue LED lights to indicate activity. On the back are four gigabit Ethernet ports, 2 USB ports and a single WAN port. The router also has three antennas that are detachable and replaceable. This is a huge advantage when you want to replace the antennas with something more powerful to increase the range.

The two USB ports will let you connect not just hard drives, but also printers and 3G/4G dongles for Internet connectivity. Of course the hard drive support has all the standard features you would expect — DLNA Media Streaming, FTP server and shared drive access.

The router operates on two wireless bands — 2.4GHz and 5GHz. The former band can be crowded because a lot of devices such as cordless phones also use it. This makes the 5GHz useful; especially for data intensive executions such as video streaming. The 5GHz also offers a higher speed of data transfer — 1300Mbps, while the 2.4GHz offers 450Mbps. You can set up separate wireless networks with different passwords for each of these bands.

There’s also a Guest mode on the router that lets you set up a third network, with which you can give Internet access to visitors on your network, but not to the linked devices.

Personal cloud storage

The router comes with a rich feature set that includes VPN setup, Parental Controls, Quality of Services (QOS), Firewall, URL filtering and more. This is all controlled and managed via a very functional configuration interface.

The Asus router has a feature called AiCloud, which essentially turns your router and a connected hard drive into your own personal cloud storage.

This allows you to access your data and files from anywhere on the Internet. In fact, there’s also mobile applications (Android and iOS) that let you access data on the move.

The Asus RT-AC66U is an advanced home router that could even meet the needs of small businesses. If there is a concern, it’s that it gets a little hot and should be kept in a well-ventilated space.

The Asus RT-AC66U retails for Dh825, which is a little pricey. But, if you’re looking for a solid router with advanced features then there aren’t many that can match this one.

The writer is a digital marketing professional and an early adopter of all things digital.