Asus isn’t a huge player in the router market, but the company has come up with a few noteworthy models in the past few years. We’d happily count the RT-N13U as one of them if it delivered reasonable throughput or decent range.
This was the only router we tested that was capable of sharing a USB printer, and while Asus claims it can support multifunction devices, it guarantees compatibility only with the ones the company has tested. We plugged in an Epson Stylus NX515 and could print documents, but we couldn’t get the scanner function to work. (You’ll find a list of supported printers here). The RT-N13U was also the only router we tested that was capable of hosting a USB hard drive, but the router permits only FTP access to that storage.
Several of the routers we examined had firmware that enabled them to be configured as wireless access points, but the RT-N13U was the only one that could also be converted into a wireless repeater. In this mode, the router operates like a wireless bridge, but one that can serve wireless clients. Repeaters send and receive at half speed, however; only a masochist would use the slug-slow RT-N13U in repeater mode.
Great graphical UI; capable of hosting a USB hard drive.
Poor throughput; poor range; USB storage is only accessible via FTP.
| Asus RT-N13U | Trendnet TEW-639GR | |
|---|---|---|
| Kitchen, 20 feet (Mb/s) | 38.9 | 106.0 |
| Enclosed Patio, 38 feet (Mb/s) | 20.0 | 57.1 |
| Bedroom, 60 feet (Mb/s) | 8.1 | 51.3 |
| Media Room, 35 feet (Mb/s) | 4.5 | 11.1 |
| Outdoors 1, 90 feet (Mb/s) | N/C | 4.8 |
| Outdoors 2, 85 feet (Mb/s) | N/C | 9.0 |
TCP throughput measured using IPerf. N/C indicates no connection at that location. Best scores are bolded.
Links:
[1] http://www.maximumpc.com/user/mrmick
[2] http://event.asus.com/2009/networks/printersupport/
[3] http://www.maximumpc.com/files/u90693/1-router_asus-full.jpg
[4] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/reining_router_rabble
[5] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/reviews/belkin_n_wireless_f5d82364
[6] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/reviews/dlink_dir615_rev_b2
[7] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/reviews/linksys_wrt120n
[8] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/reviews/netgear_wnr2000
[9] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/reviews/trendnet_tew652brp
[10] http://www.maximumpc.com/files/verdict-images/router_asus_verdict.jpg
[11] http://asus.com
[12] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/reining_router_rabblesix_80211n_routers_reviewed
[13] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/reviews/asus_rtn13u
[14] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/asus
[15] http://www.maximumpc.com/articles/reviews/hardware
[16] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/hardware
[17] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/networking
[18] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/reviews
[19] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/routers
[20] http://www.maximumpc.com/articles/magazine/2010/february_2010
[21] http://www.maximumpc.com/articles/magazine/2010
[22] http://www.maximumpc.com/articles/reviews
[23] http://www.maximumpc.com/articles/reviews/hardware/networking
[24] http://www.maximumpc.com/articles/magazine
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