ASUS WL-500G Premium Review
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ASUS is known for making motherboards, but that's not all it makes. Today we got our hands on an ASUS wireless router, the WL-500G Premium. Will it stand up to the company's reputation for quality, or should ASUS have stuck to making motherboards? Keep reading to find out.
ASUS is world famous for their great motherboards. Few companies can create motherboards that are as fast, stable and dependable as those from ASUS. I for one have had great experiences with them. I still have an overclocked Athlon XP computer that has been running rock stable for close to five years now.
What many people might not know is that ASUS makes other products besides motherboards. Today we will take a look at one of their wireless routers. There are many great companies that make wireless routers that are more well known then ASUS; how well does ASUS's router compare? Could it hold its ground against the major competitors like Linksys and Netgear, or is it a dud?
This is the ASUS WL-500G Premium. It runs on the aging 802.11 G network. The
next-generation "N" is coming around the corner so the G network is looking like its life is running out; still, it offers great bang for the buck.
My initial thoughts were that this looked like a Netgear router. It's pure white nearly all the way around. The size is about the same as any other router. They are all pretty much one size fits all. Looks are great, but it's what the router does and how fast it does it that really matters.
This router sports a removable antenna which not all routers support. If you aren't satisfied by the range of your router, you could pick up a stronger antenna and boost its range. If your router has a built-in antenna, you don't have many options. This router has connectors for only one antenna, whereas some of the better known brand name ones support two antennas. We will see if this has any effect on the range.
It has the standard WAN with 4 LAN ports for hooking up hardwired network devices. There is nothing really special here; this is standard on most routers nowadays.
What makes this router different from most of the rest on the market are these two USB ports. These USB ports allow you to connect printers, web cameras and external drives to the router and access them on any computer on the network. I have my external hard drive hooked up to it as well as my printer.
Why did I choose to use this router instead of getting a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device and a wireless print server? Well I already had the external hard drive and this router is cheaper than buying all the stuff listed when it can be controlled and hooked up to a central place.
Next: Installation >>
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