Been playing with this wireless modem for a couple weeks now, and it is looking good.

As you would expect, it does the AP/Extender/router etc as needed. The real nice bit is the network map. From here I can see all clients and assign priority in a simple click interface. I am used to doing this in iptables, so very nice to point and click direct on the modem instead of having to have a gateway server; or far more expensive device.

Very impressive for a consumer device, though I am concerned about how ‘warm’ it is.

I had to tweak the SNR for good stability ( Stability Adjustment -3dB ) or I was getting DSL disconnect every ~8-~19 hours.

I am not used to having such options in consumer devices anyway. Very nice. My ISP supports modem down-rating for SNR so your mileage might vary.

One down, I guess, is that it had to be tweaked. Looks to be aimed at the ‘enthusiast’ or ‘IT guy at home’ market. You have to understand the logs and adjust according to your connection. Somewhat above the average home user ability?

My main concern is how hot it is. Not uncommon with this type of device, sadly.

It is very stable and has much more control than I am used to for  a consumer priced device.

Very nice bit of kit. Same price as numb nuts devices but with ‘nerd’ perks. For the geeks amongst us I recommend this one.

Reliability setting at default 

SNR down 30.4 : SNR up 27.8 , DSL down every ~15 hours.

Reliability Setting at -3dB

SNR down 26.2 : SNR up 27.8 and has been up for over a week.

Given that SNR is acceptable at 6, then I can still play with it a lot more if it does decide to be unreliable.

Obviously I am looking for a reliable device. I go away for weeks at a time and need the device to continue working reliably. Once adjusted, the Asus appears to be doing exactly that.

For the non geeks, then I suggest you buy the most reasonably priced thing for your needs and put up with rebooting it now and then when it stops doing it’s job.

The Asus DSL-N12U wireless costs about the same as other home user wireless modems. It is not for the average home user though.

BaDbod

No registration required. No email address needed, No user details. No software setup.

[Update: 16/6/23: moved,fixed and working….  again 🙂 )

Home-IP

From your home computer simply open the web page, enter any Username/Password/Computer-Name of your liking, and GO>>.

From your roaming device (laptop etc) visit the site, enter the same details and viola! You can see your home IP address, from anywhere in the world.

While there are several ‘dynamic DNS’ services around, and remote control software, very few are free, ALL require registration requiring you to  hand over your email address and other personal details. Then there’s the client software setup etc.

If all you want is to know your home IP address, from anywhere, easily and simply; this is as easy and simple as it gets.

Home-IP

Many are currently having a problem with Realtek HD audio not working after resuming from sleep in Windows 8. The current fix of re-booting is a pain but I found a reliable way to get it working without a reboot

There is an argument between Microsux and Realtek at the moment over who is to blame so I don’t see a fix coming very soon.  From this link

“Bug report submitted to Realtek, and they have replied stating that the problem is with Windows 8, since the driver works fine on previous versions of Windows.”

1) Right click the speaker icon in systray (desktop mode) and select ‘Playback Devices’

2) Right click the ‘Sound’ window and make sure ‘Show Disabled Devices’ is ticked.

3) Right click the ‘Speakers’ entry in the list of devices, should have ‘Realtek High Definition  Audio’ and also show green tick as default playback device.

4) Select ‘Disable’

5) Right click it again and then enable.

6) If sound is still not working unplug your speakers from the audio out socket of your computer and then plug back in again.

7) You should have sound. Your done.

You will probably need to restart the media player or restart the browser, whatever your using, before audio will work for those programs.

[update] To solve this completely change your desktop power settings to prevent the system going to sleep at all. [/update]

BaDboD