Why You Can Trust CNET Asus RT-N16 review: Asus RT-N16
Asus RT-N16
Like motherboards, the hardware Asus is known for making, you can use many different third-party router operating systems (aka firmware) on the RT-N16. Equipped with an overclockable 480Mhz CPU and 128MB of RAM, the router performed great in our trials when it was running DD-WRT, one of the most well-known Linux-based open-source router firmware options.
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
When using Asus' stock firmware, the RT-N16 was buggy and didn't pass our wireless signal stress test; however, it had decent throughput performance.
If you don't mind using third-party firmware, the $100 RT-N16 is a great choice as it potentially offers a lot more features than other routers in the same price range. On the other hand, people who simply want to create a reliable wireless network for their home or office without too much tinkering should look for a more stable single-band Wireless-N Gigabit router.
Design and ease of use
The Asus RT-N16 has a traditional square router design with three removable antennae sticking up from the back. The router is about 30 percent larger than that of most similarly configured routers.
The back of the router has five Gigabit Ethernet ports--four for LAN connections and one WAN port to connect to a broadband Internet modem. Next to the WAN port are two USB ports that you can use to connect printers or external hard drives. There are also two tiny reset and WPS buttons; the former is to revert the router's setting to factory default and the latter is to activate its Wi-Fi Protected Setup feature, which allows other WPS-enabled devices to enter the wireless network automatically.
With so many ports and buttons, the back of the router is crowded. The router would have a better design had Asus moved some components, especially the antennae and the frequently used WPS button, to the side of the device.
The front of the router has an array of tiny LED indicators that show the status of the Ethernet ports, the Internet connection, and the wireless network. These LEDs could be larger to make them easier to see; especially since there's so much unused space.
The RT-N16 comes with a clearly illustrated Quick Start Guide that walks you through the simple setup process. Following the guide, we were able to get the router running in just a few minutes. After setup, we were able use the router's Web interface to customize its features. By default the router's IP address is 192.168.1.1 and the log-in name and password is admin.
Features
The Web interface, which you can access by pointing a browser to the router's IP address, has a good look and feel to it, and it seems to be well thought out. For example, each time you apply a setting change it displays a message that shows the percentage of the process from beginning until the end. This is helpful as most routers leave you hanging and you only know the process is done when the interface becomes responsive again.
The Web interface has a nifty network map that show a schematic of all the devices connected to its network and USB ports. It also has a very easy-to-use quality of service feature called EzQoS that lets you quickly select what type of services, be it gaming, media streaming, VoIP, or Internet applications, that you want to prioritize network and Internet traffic for.
While the basic/simplified settings part of the interface works well, the interface's more advanced sections seemed buggy. For example, when we used the interface to switch between the simple storage sharing and sharing with accounts, the interface showed a message that read "Proceeding" and were stuck there and we had to restart the router. We also found that the router would randomly restart when we connected or disconnected a USB device--even when it indicated that the device was "safe to remove."
The router supports external hard drives formatted in either FAT32 or NTFS. However, in our tests the USB ports didn't provide enough power to use portable hard drives that are designed to draw energy from the host computer's USB port, such as the Seagate GoFlex Pro and the Western Digital My Passport. This means you can only use external hard drives that have a separate power adapter with the router.
As we mentioned, once the hard drive is connected to the router you can choose to share its entire existing content as public (simple share), meaning everyone can have full access to it; or you can share it with accounts. With the latter, you can create multiple user accounts and assign access privileges, (read only, read/write, no access), for each account to each of the share folders. We tried this and it worked as intended.
You don't need to install software on any computer on the network to access the router's storage. You can just browse for it using a network browser, such as Windows Explorer, the way you want to access another computer in the network. The RT-N16 also support media streaming and can stream digital content stored on the external hard drive to UPnP-compliant network media streamers.
What we liked the most about the RT-N16 router is its great compatibility with third-party, open-source firmware. Most routers only work with the proprietary firmware provided by their respective vendors. Other routers can work with open-source firmware, but you often have to do a little bit of hacking to set it up.
However, with the RT-N16 all you have to do to use an open-source firmware is to follow the process you would normally use to upgrade Asus' firmware. This might be the way Asus intends to compensate for its buggy homegrown firmware it loaded on the router.
In our anecdotal tests, we tried the router with the popular DD-WRT open-source firmware and were impressed with what the router now had to offer. While there are features we like about its stock firmware, the open-source firmware turns the RT-N16 into a serious router that is capable and handling sophisticated network setups and features normally found in enterprise-level equipment. We also found that the router seemed to perform better and had better signal stability when it was running DD-WRT firmware.
Performance
We tested the Asus RT-N16 with Asus' firmware and found the router's performance about the average among single-band N routers.
In throughput tests, where the router was located 15 feet from the wireless client, it transferred data at 43.8Mbps. At this speed, it can finish transmitting 500MB of data in about 90 seconds. In range tests, where we placed the router 100 feet away from the client, its speed reduced to 36.8Mbps, being the top three in our charts.
In our mixed-mode tests, where the router is set to work with multiple clients including those using older Wi-Fi protocols, the router registered 31.5Mbps, which is among the four slowest speeds we've seen from routers we've reviewed.
The router has RT-N16 decent broadcast range. In our testing facility, its signal could reach up to 270 feet away.
Overall, the router's scores met our expectation. However, the RT-N16 failed our 48-hour stress test, which is where it was set to transfer large data back and forth between multiple wireless clients. The router reset its signal after just a couple of hours.
We noticed that the router performed better using the DD-WRT firmware both in terms of throughput speed and signal stability.
We also tested the RT-N16 as a NAS server and used a high-speed a USB external hard drive with it. We performed the test via its wired Gigabit connection and its throughput speed didn't impress us, despite its impressive hardware specs. In write tests, the router transferred data at 46Mbps and 48.8Mbps in read test. These speeds are about the same as most routers that have a NAS function, but they are many times slower than dedicated NAS servers. This means you can use the router's network storage feature for occasional document sharing, but we don't recommend you use it for heavy file sharing and media streaming needs.
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
 | Mixed Mode | | Range | | Throughput |
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
| Read | | Write |
Service and support Asus backs the RT-N16 with a two-year warranty. At the company's Web site, you'll find downloads, FAQs, the manual, and other support-related materials. If you want to contact the company's tech support, you'll have to do it via e-mail as Asus didn't list a technical support phone number on its site.