ASUS WL-700gE Wireless Router

[PAGETITLE=Introduction] Routers play an essential, yet simple role in our computing lives. As the name suggests, it sits there routing internet traffic to each one of our computers. Router buying used to be an easy process. More often than not, high-quality routers were easy to spot, and quality often depended on its cost. Not always, but there was a reason Linksys routers cost so much back in the day. In recent years though, manufacturers have invented new ways to grab your attention to their product. Wireless performance has pretty much been tackled time and time again, but it was time to offer people a lot more for their $100+, not just traffic routing. ASUS was the first company to release a router that was fully capable of downloading while your main PC is turned off. This caught a lot of attention, for good reason. Although others have followed suit, ASUS still remains the only company to develop routers that support BitTorrent downloading. We have taken a look at their WL-500g and WL-500w SuperSpeed N in the past and have been pleased overall. They each had a few questionable areas, but overall they were both stable products. The WL-700gE we are looking at today really deserves it's "multi-function" status. It offers so much to the consumer, that it won the Innovations 2007 award for Home Networking at this years CES. Needless to say, I was excited to tear the box open and see what it was made of. Closer Look Before we discuss the slew of features that the WL-700gE offers, let's first see what you will receive upon a purchase. Like the other two routers we've taken a look at, this one arrives in a clean looking box that's literally jam packed with product information. Besides the router itself, you will have the antenna, power cord, network cable (for connecting to your DSL/cable box), the manual and CD-Rom which includes the software for getting up and running. The included manual is by far one of the best I've seen included with any product I've evaluated before. The information inside is straight-forward and not confusing in the least and it's also full color so you know exactly what screen you should be looking at. The router itself looks quite similar to the ones we've already taken a look at. Clean white chassis with gray trim. Both the top and bottom have plenty of airholes, although like most routers, it will still get very warm. The front showcases a variety of LEDs and also the power button. You'll notice a "Copy" button as well, which will copy everything off an inserted thumb drive. There are two more USB 2.0 ports on the back in addition to a reset, EZ Setup, LAN/WAN ports, power and of course the antenna. Because of the beastly stature of the WL-700gE (it is not light), a stand is included. It almost looks like a soap holder for your bathroom and I think it would work well in that situation. The base is heavy, so it wouldn't slide all over the place. Here is the full product as you will see it when set up. You can lay it down if you wish, but I think for the sake of good airflow, you'll want to use it like this. ASUS makes it quite easy to clean out the inside of the router. On the back, there are two latches that you push so you can lift the top off. Then with your air blower, you can clean out all the crevices. After removing a small metal guard, the hard drive is revealed. It's a Hitachi Deskstar at 160GB. You can also pick up a 250GB model of the router if you prefer. With that out of the way, let's see what features are packed into the WL-700gE. [PAGEBREAK] [PAGETITLE=Features and Installation] The humble router no longer has to be boring, and ASUS is trying to make sure that consumers know this. Their WL-700gE is feature-packed, so much so that I will not be taking a look at every aspect. It would surely span a ten-page review! I will highlight here all of the important features and experiment with a few of the more interesting ones. Here is a list of notable features that I've thrown together, with the help of the back of the box. WL-700gE Primary Features 802.11g/b Connections. 160GB Pre-Installed Harddrive (250GB Model Available) Download to the installed hard drive while your PC is off. Share files off the hard drive via FTP:// or HTTP:// and locally. Media-Center capable (iTunes server, UPnP) USB 2.0 Sharing... Webcam, Printer, Thumb Drive, Etcetera. Create Website/Message board. Ability to plug in external storage to back up hard drive. Needless to say, this is essentially a NAS and a router merged into one. It can act as a server for whatever you need. You could run your basic website off of it, or message boards. After some configuration, you could point your web domain to your IP address and the router would pick it up. That said, web pages you host on the router would all have to be database driven with text files, if you require a DB at all. The router is not a computer, so installing MySQL and PHP is out of the question. When I saw this router at CES, I was immediately drawn to the admin system. On the previous ASUS routers we've reviewed, the admin has done the job it was set out to do, but it was generally ugly. Even the graphics were dithered... not a pretty site at all. The WL-700gE however, has a much far more intuitive admin system and should be easier to navigate and look at. The Windows installation program was another I had a problem with on previous models, because it was clunky and would only work as it should 70% of the time. One issue I had with the previous model specifically, the WL-500W, was that I -had- to install the Windows program in order to get the wireless internet working properly. This was a problem with me, since I use Linux primarily. I'm happy to report that this was not the case with the WL-700gE at all. I set the security to WPA-PSK/TKIP and it worked immediately. If you are experienced with wireless networks, then you will not need to install the software. All of the configuration you will need is on the router. First, I will show you the basic configuration screens, should you want to install the software to take care of setting up wireless and it's security. During the setup, you will have eight different screens to fly through. Some will be easier than others, especially if you are through a DHCP connection. It will take a bit longer if you have to manually input ISP information and/or passwords. The first screen shows you how to connect everything, and once you are ready to go, you need to push the "EZ Setup" button on the back and then push the button to continue. This is one part of the setup I find somewhat odd, because this process has to be somewhat quick or I have found it won't detect the router. If your router is on the opposite side of the house, you might have to huff it to get back to the PC on time, or get a family member to click it when ready. Once the router is detected, it's time to give your network a name and also a key. You can use the default key they provide (WEP) or input your own. You can also click to enable WPA instead, which is more secure, but not as compatible with certain products. The next slew of steps are ISP related. Since I am behind a DHCP connection, I was able to skip all of these. Here is a screen completely unique to this router. Since there is a hard drive installed, they give you the option to set up a network drive on your desktop. This worked seamlessly, and input a Z: drive on both the desktop and in "My Computer". Once you finish up with that screen, you are good as finished. With installation out of the way, let's check out some of the main features on the router and then give our final thoughts. [PAGEBREAK] [PAGETITLE=Download Master, Music Streaming] I've been using this router for the past two weeks now, so I've become quite familiar with it's reliability and flexibility. First and foremost, one of the most interesting parts of the router is the fact that you can download with your PC off. I will touch on this first. Download Master Download Master is one of the best features of the router, but I was skeptical at first. The previous models I have used haven't proven that reliable, especially with BitTorrent. ASUS told me that BT has been vastly improved in this model though, so I was about to put that to the test. For Windows users, installing the ASUS software will automatically install a software version of the Download Master. However, I believe you should avoid that at all costs and stick to the one built straight into the router admin. The Windows version is very useless. While it would download torrents somewhat reliably, HTTP/FTP downloads were impossible. The admin inside the router proved to be a FAR better experience. In this admin, you will have the choice to input a direct URL to the HTTP, FTP of BitTorrent file. If you have the BitTorrent file already downloaded, you can choose the "Download by BT file on local PC." option and choose it that way. Once done inputing a URL, it's as simple as clicking Download. One thing I found odd, was that occasionally after adding a file, regardless of what it is, you will see an "Invalid URL" error. However, after refreshing the page, you'll notice it's fine. It's odd, but at least it works. This page displays all relevant info about your download(s) including elapsed time and progress. They will remain on this page after completion, so you will know. If you input a URL that's a direct link to a file, the router should have no problem downloading it. However, if you are trying to download a file that runs through a script, it might be a little tricker. I am referring to those "Please wait 10 seconds while we redirect" sites. I tested on a few different ones, and I found this worked about 20% of the time. you will just need to play around with each one and see what works and what doesn't. I am completely pleased with the performance from the Download Master on the router, but not the Windows version. That one should be avoided...

ASUS WL-700gE Wireless Router

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Rob Williams