ASUS WL-520GU Wireless Router

10 Review to this product

• 

  A. Ricks
  November 2nd, 2010 on 10:23 am

  Rating

  I don’t know much about the OEM firmware because I immediately flashed DD-WRT onto it. DD-WRT is well documented, easy to use and trivial to install on this router from a windows computer. I use this in my room as a wireless repeater/bridge which allows me to log on to the wireless network without configuring a wireless card (which can be a pain with linux) as well as increase the range of my network. This router also has a usb port so the memory can be expanded for use as Network Attached Storage (NAS), as a lite weight web server or as a print server. The only cons are I have to reboot the thing approximately every three months and the onboard memory is a bit lacking for something at this price.
• 

  A. Myles
  November 3rd, 2010 on 12:48 am

  Rating

  I am very happy with this router. Ia m using the stock firmware(against suggestions) because I just wanted to see if it works.
  
  I am not doing any gaming so take it for what it is worth. Gamers should build their own routers anyway . (ha)
  
  I DO stream video to a Roku box while surfing on several devices
  
  We have a samsung personal laser printer connected to the USB Port. Everything works flawlessly.
  
  They put in an EZQos screen…..Dont’ know how useful it will be, so I haven’t touched it yet. Maybe I will if I start running into performance issues.
• 

  C. Elliott
  November 3rd, 2010 on 2:52 am

  Rating

  I do not believe this is a first time router. If you have never setup a router before I would probably go with a Linksys or Netgear. Or if you are confident you do not need support from Asus to set it up out of box, then I would get it.

  It is VERY easy to setup with the browser setup, but Asus *support* is lackluster. Their website is slow or unresponsive at times or may not even come up (blank page). The customer service reps are very nice and professional, but I found a few to not know the products I call in for and feel they are reading off a script.

  That being said, I love this router. I run dd-wrt on it as well and it rock solid. The default firmware seems good and probably works for the general public perfectly fine. DD-wrt allows me to run a print, web, and nas server off a usb hub connected to the usb port. Seems well designed / ventilated because it runs no where near burning hot like a Netgear router I have. The range works great and I see no problems in my two story townhome with any connectivity issues. Matter of fact I see 5 out of 5 bars while I’m one story above the router on the second floor on my laptop.
• 

  J. Chan
  November 5th, 2010 on 10:42 am

  Rating

  Pros:
  
  DD-WRT and Tomato compatible. If you do not know what they are, google it and spend some time reading up on it.
  
  USB port, great for sharing printers and HDDs on your home wireless network
  
  By far the easiest router to install Tomato on (from wikibooks):
  
  1. If the device has OEM firmware version 3.x or later, then you need to revert it to a pre-3.x version, first.
  
  2. Downloading and unpack the “ND” version of Tomato firmware, rename the file to “WL520gu_2.0.0.9_EN.trx”.
  
  3. Use the OEM menus to update the firmware with the renamed Tomato file.

  Cons:
  
  OEM Firmware is terrible
  
  Need to use CUPS drivers for Mac and/or Unix/Linux people
  
  Router runs slow every once in awhile

  OEM router is terrible. UI looks like crap and and it runs like crap. USB printing was spoty and the router internet connection would drop every 5 mins with the Asus FW. Most people who bought this router bought it for its DD-WRT capabilities and the USB port. If you do not plan to flash it, go find another router that is more stable. Once flashed, however, this router is just amazing. It does what ever you want with DDWRT, Tomato or any other open firmware. You can share the USB port over your network. I usually share a laser printer on it, and I am able to print whereever I want in my house. USB HDD’s work too if you want to have a networked drive. The only real downside is that if you do use it as a print server with Macs, make sure the drivers are CUPS drivers. Build quality is ok for the router, its not heavy and doesnt feel substantial. Antenna is removable. There are slots on the bottom for wall mounting. Bottom line, this is a great router for the price to convert in a super router if youre willing to spend 5 mins reflashing the firmware.
• 

  D. Adams
  November 5th, 2010 on 1:27 pm

  Rating

  My grandparents wanted to keep a laptop in their kitchen and their old desktop/printer elsewhere. For a while we tried using their old desktop as a print server, but for some reason it was never ready to print when they’d try, thus backing up the print jobs and causing all sorts of issues. I finally broke down and purchased this router in hopes to alleviate the problems.

  The very first thing I did when I received the router was reload the firmware with Tomato (teddybear mod). This must be done using TFTP, but it’s a very simple process. Once flashed, I plugged the printer in and enabled USB. Now, I don’t know how the print server normally works with the original firmware, but through Tomato, the raw data is sent (essentially you can install a printer by USB then change the port from USB to TCP). After a few tweaks I had it printing perfectly.

  I’ve not done any real tests on performance seeing as my grandparents simply needed it for surfing the web, but I’m sure it’s just as good as any other broadcom based router. Range seemed fine too, probably a bit better than your typical “G” router.

  For the price($35 after MIR), it’s almost worth purchasing just for the print server. Many stand-alone print servers go for $50+. You could easily configure this to be a wireless print server using alternative firmware and have it connected to your network for the soul purpose of printing. I don’t have much experience with other print servers, but using firmware such as Tomato should allow it to work with essentially any printer available.
• 

  Anonymous
  November 7th, 2010 on 1:49 am

  Rating

  First of all, I did not even try the stock firmware, so this review is practically of a different product than the majority of other reviews here. The first thing I did was install DD-WRT.

  Pros:
  
  - It is a router.
  
  - It is very inexpensive
  
  - It has 802.11g wireless
  
  - It has 1 USB port to drive a printer or external HD
  
  - It has excellent DD-WRT compatibility.
  
  - Relatively simple DD-WRT install and recovery in the event that it somehow gets bricked.

  Cons:
  
  - Internal timekeeping is inaccurate when using DD-WRT, though there is at least one way to semi-fix that, if accurate scheduling / logging is required.
  
  - Gigabit LAN speed and/or 802.11n requires additional hardware (or a more expensive router).

  Comments:
  
  The DD-WRT install was very easy. No tFTP is required (if running Windows), no soldering, no custom cables. The process was essentially painless, involving mostly performing a few hard resets and waiting for it to reboot after each of the two required flashes. In the event that I somehow brick it (put it into a non-booting state), restoration is supposed to be very easy. From what I have read, de-bricking requires no special hardware, which seems to be a rare feature among routers.

  Even so, I still wouldn’t recommend trying to install 3rd party firmware like DD-WRT unless you are sure of your ability to restore the router in the event that it gets “bricked.”
• 

  LO
  November 7th, 2010 on 4:03 pm

  Rating

  I’ve had this router for about six months now. I installed a 3rd-party firmware on it (search for “Tomato ND” or “DD-Wrt”, it was surprisingly easy) and it’s been running nonstop, without reboot ever since. Connections are stable (with about 5-6 clients over WPA), range is sufficient (for my small apartment anyway), transfer speeds are good; in short, everything works great. I couldn’t be happier — especially since I got this on sale.
• 

  Trevor Muhlestein
  November 8th, 2010 on 4:15 am

  Rating

  Just as so many people have said this before, make sure you grab the DD-WRT firmware or the tomato firmware with the teddy bear mod and you should be just fine. its an amazing product. I havn’t had it go down once in the last month I have had it. It pairs nicely with my Linksys m100 cable modem for Comcast. I am pushing close to 20 Mbps constant. I was very concerned about how much power this USB port had on it and if I needed a powered USB splitter or not. Well I took the risk and I have a 4 port Belkin Mini Hub (F5U407) connected to it so I can connect my printer and my usb HDD to it and it works great! Tomato allows me to run a FTP and opendns all with my dyndns account always being updated without a computer which is very nice. I used duct tape and taped the hub to the top of the device and it looks good. I am getting a super fast connetion to the internet through my wireless although I havn’t ran it through any tests its plenty fast for online gaming. Also I run a media center from my PC to laptop that connects via HDMI to my plasma and it works fantastic, not one hiccup during movies or music so far.
  
  The deivce doesn’t seem to get hot at all. just a slight warm. all in all it looks good, works as it should, and just blows past my expectations.
  
  The only thing that would have been nice is 802.11n support but right now I am ok with it.
• 

  B. M Sullivan
  November 8th, 2010 on 4:50 pm

  Rating

  I want to preface this review with a warning, if you don’t intend to use Tomato or DDWRT firmware on this device then DO NOT purchase it! That being said, I popped this out of the box and installed Tomato ND almost immediately. The general consensus on the stock firmware is that it is abysmal and not worth touching!

  So far I have three of these running, one at home and two at the office. All of them have been running flawlessly for months. I think my longest runtime is 80 days, but only due to power outages! The office ones are also running WDS, with the main one running a modified Tomato ND version with OpenVPN, which also works flawlessly.

  I was slightly concerned about ventilation on these boxes, as they are just plastic with two minor vents yet I haven’t had any issues. One of the office WDS links is running in an unventilated computer cabinet and hasn’t had so much as a hiccup. One thing to note on WDS though is that I was unable to get them to run unless I used WPA/AES, TKIP would not work at all. This isn’t a big deal, but is counterintuitive during setup.

  Whether you choose to run Tomato ND or DDWRT is entirely up to you, but I don’t think you will be disappointed with either one! Initial setup can be daunting for the technically challenged, but there are walk through guides out there. Definitely worth every penny, especially if you can get one with a rebate!
• 

  W. Liu
  November 8th, 2010 on 6:20 pm

  Rating

  If you do not install 3rd-party firmware, such as DD-WRT or Tomato on this router, then I’m not sure you would want this router at this price ($40+). The only upside is that they have some form of QoS. The router’s USB 2.0 port with the ASUS stock firmware can only share printers over the network.

  If you do decide to install 3rd-party firmware, such as the often-recommended Tomato (“teddybear mod”), then this router turns into quite a great router. Aside from the usual benefits of 3rd-party firmware like advanced QoS management, or using your router as a wireless repeater, or setting up a VPN, the WL-520GU has a USB 2.0 port that can allow you to share a range of USB devices over the network, INCLUDING EXTERNAL HARD DRIVES!! Tomato’s teddybear mod (and DD-WRT) supports NTFS, ext2/3, and FAT 16/32… sorry Mac, no HFS+, you gotta use FAT 16/32 or figure out how to mount the other extensions.

  If you use Windows XP or Mac OSX you should have no problem flashing it quite easily with ASUS firemware restore utility found on the CD that should come with the package; you will need the ASUS mini flashing version (.bin) from the DD-WRT website.

  If you use Windows Vista or 7, however, you will encounter difficulty. You will find that during the router firm reset period, you won’t be able to upload to the router for some reason using the ASUS firmware program on the CD. You’ll have to poke around the site to use the TFTP method, and may have to dl a simple TFTP client from the DD-WRT website.