After a little over 3 years the Asus RT-N16 has died on me spurred on by some power outages at the house. Unfortunately despite ASUS's best efforts to build a killer router they decided to cheap out on certain key capacitors. So I'm left now with only a white brick and a memory of what awesomeness it use to contain. Of course this led to me acquiring the Buffalo 1750. Ever since I heard that Buffalo had partnered with the makers of DD-WRT for it's firmware I knew I one day wanted one.
This router was released last February along with 2 other models, so this is a relatively new model as far as things go in the router arena. It's not bleeding edge but the fact that it has 512 megs of built in RAM for normal operations should help one to understand the tone under which this router was engineered.
When I first received the router it came in a neatly buffalo branded cardboard box. The box contained the router, the power brick and corresponding power plug. (I found it excellent that it used a power brick similar to a laptop instead of a standard wall wort.) It came with a nice flat line LAN cable, as well as quick start guide. The device itself is pretty non-descript (Which I like). The front only details 4 total lights, and the back of the router has 4 LAN ports, 1 WAN, 1 USB 2.0 and 1 USB 3.0 port. There is a power switch and associated power plug as well.
There is also a switch to set the router into AP or bridge mode. (Nice little touch) The characteristics aside, I have to say that the router just feels like it's smartly designed. I would prefer if it had some external antennas, but since i don't use the wireless network on this router to begin with, it really doesn't matter.
What impressed me the most with this router is the DD-WRT firmware implementation. It's flawless. As a long time user of dd-wrt I've become accustomed to slight hiccups associated with the firmware supporting so many different hardware implementations. However it's clear that the dd-wrt's partnership with Buffalo has paid dividends in terms of refinement. It is the dd-wrt we love, with a few niceties added. A wireless and router quick setup card on the basic setup page is one example of this.
There is a certain piece of mind that comes with knowing that in this particular case the firmware and hardware were made specifically for each other. Having had my last Asus RT-N16 die on me, and in a way slowly, (I had to disable the wireless radio as the cap for it would overheat and cause the router to power down and not power back on until it had cooled down. This led to the main power line caps failing and the router going to router heaven.) it was difficult to accept that I had to move on, and couldn't use the config files I had already worked on for so long on the new router, that I essentially had to start from scratch again. The upside being I had to refresh all of that knowledge to get the scripts and everything backup and running.
While I was working on it and getting it all back to where I needed it to be, the device never faltered. Never hiccuped or had any problems. It just worked, and the firmware web interface refreshed faster than on any other hardware I'd used dd-wrt on. It was refreshing.
So if you've been on the fence wondering about Buffalo and DD-WRTs partnership and if it was worth the effort. My answer would be, yes it totally is. The router may be a little more expensive given the radio capabilities, but the functionality that the DD-WRT firmware implements make up for this in spades.
I look forward to a long and happy working relationship with this router.
-Matt-fu
There is also a switch to set the router into AP or bridge mode. (Nice little touch) The characteristics aside, I have to say that the router just feels like it's smartly designed. I would prefer if it had some external antennas, but since i don't use the wireless network on this router to begin with, it really doesn't matter.
What impressed me the most with this router is the DD-WRT firmware implementation. It's flawless. As a long time user of dd-wrt I've become accustomed to slight hiccups associated with the firmware supporting so many different hardware implementations. However it's clear that the dd-wrt's partnership with Buffalo has paid dividends in terms of refinement. It is the dd-wrt we love, with a few niceties added. A wireless and router quick setup card on the basic setup page is one example of this.
There is a certain piece of mind that comes with knowing that in this particular case the firmware and hardware were made specifically for each other. Having had my last Asus RT-N16 die on me, and in a way slowly, (I had to disable the wireless radio as the cap for it would overheat and cause the router to power down and not power back on until it had cooled down. This led to the main power line caps failing and the router going to router heaven.) it was difficult to accept that I had to move on, and couldn't use the config files I had already worked on for so long on the new router, that I essentially had to start from scratch again. The upside being I had to refresh all of that knowledge to get the scripts and everything backup and running.
While I was working on it and getting it all back to where I needed it to be, the device never faltered. Never hiccuped or had any problems. It just worked, and the firmware web interface refreshed faster than on any other hardware I'd used dd-wrt on. It was refreshing.
So if you've been on the fence wondering about Buffalo and DD-WRTs partnership and if it was worth the effort. My answer would be, yes it totally is. The router may be a little more expensive given the radio capabilities, but the functionality that the DD-WRT firmware implements make up for this in spades.
I look forward to a long and happy working relationship with this router.
-Matt-fu
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