Review on 📶 High-Performance Asus Dual Band Wireless-N 600 SOHO Router with Fast Ethernet, 8 Guest SSID & Parental Access Time Control (RT-N53) by Mike Hernandez

Coming from a few old Buffalo hotspots that I've had for a few years. They were generally good routers, but required regular reboots, and several generations of Motorola Android phones have always had connectivity issues. So I wanted to upgrade to an "n" router and see if the new technology works better with my phone. Answer: Yes, it works. They were easy to set up and, unlike my Buffalo devices, very easy to set up two devices in tandem - one connected to a cable modem and the other in hotspot mode on the other side of the house, hardwired downlink. I set up two devices with different channels, same SSID, encryption and passphrase and my devices connect correctly to the device with the strongest signal depending on where in the house you are. All DHCP is serviced by the device connected to the cable modem, and the other device acts as a switch. Pros: Very stable, easy to set up, can have guest networks with multiple SSIDs, faster than my old devices, works much better with my Android phones. Cons: Impossible to remove secondary SSIDs without rebooting the device - get it right the first time. Also, in hotspot mode, there were problems configuring the device with wired devices when configured as a switch - the Windows 7 PC had to be physically disconnected and reconnected after a reboot before Windows 7 could see the network. One time problem. Also slow loading and changing settings. Satisfied, and these blocks never seem to need to be reflashed - everything keeps connecting. UPDATE: 06/04/2012 - Problems with firmware .130 and "Access Point Mode" After updating both devices to firmware 3.0.0.4.130, I could no longer connect my mobile phone to an additional hotspot that was in "Access Point Mode". " was configured. The connection kept dropping and trying to reconnect, connections with the head unit in "wireless router mode" remained stable. I downgraded the secondary router version to 3.0.0.4.52 and now everything is back to normal and working. I assume ASUS didn't thoroughly test the new firmware in hotspot mode, which is probably not a common configuration, and hence downgraded it to one star.